Mr. Roche settled in Boston in 1866 and was engaged in business there for some years; but his peculiar gifts and tastes drew him to journalism and letters; and in 1883 he became one of the staff of the _Pilot_, under his brilliant friend John Boyle O’Reilly; and after his death he succeeded to the post of editor-in-chief of the paper which he filled with vigor and brilliancy, in full keeping with the traditions of such predecessors as Thomas D’Arcy Magee, O’Reilly and others. The _Pilot_ was the avowed champion not only of the Irish people and of their religion, but it stood ready to do battle with persecution, injustice, intolerance and wrong, no matter against what race or creed they were directed; and no individual paper in the world did better or more effective work for the men and cause of the Irish race; and under the management of James Jeffrey Roche, zeal and fidelity to all good causes were always fortified by sanity and justice and tempered by humor, good temper and a fine inhospitality to passion and demagoguery. While devoting most of his time and talents to his editorial work and duty, he still found opportunities to turn to the field of letters of a more enduring character. A writer of virile and picturesque prose, James Jeffrey Roche will always be best known as a poet whose verse is marked by beauty, sweetness, lyrical quality and a _belle esprit_ all his own, and ranging in scope from the light, brilliant and witty _vers de société_ to such serious and compelling poems as his “Babylon.” His “Songs and Satires” is a volume that sparkles with wit and rapier-like touches. His “Ballads of Blue Water” is a book for American men and patriots, unique and stirring; the ballads will live while Americans look back with pride to the deeds of an heroic past; and no American singer has written any better ballads of action than “The Armstrong Privateer,” “The Constitution,” “The Alamo” and other stirring songs. His “Life of John Boyle O’Reilly” was the tribute of a devoted friend and admirer to a man and comrade he loved and labored with, and is a biography whose literary excellence is amazing when we consider the pressure under which it was written. His other prose work varied from the brilliant accuracy and gravity of “The Story of the Filibusters” (republished by the Harpers as “The Byways of War”) to those airy medleys of fun and philosophy “Her Majesty the King” and “The Sorrows of Sap’ed,” which have made the world laugh and think. A close personal friend and admirer of President Theodore Roosevelt, he was appointed by him American Consul at Genoa, Italy, in 1904, when his health being precarious, a change of work and climate became necessary; and in 1907 the President transferred him to the capital of Switzerland, Berne, where he lived until the final call came to him.