 The ease and pleasure with which he got through his work caused M. Cotte, the French advocate, to exclaim, ‘Il s'amuse à juger.’ The most memorable case which came before Sir John in his judicial capacity was the action for libel brought in 1819 by the attorney-general against Richard Carlile for the republication of Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason" and Elihu Palmer's "Principles of Nature".Bayley jointly owned three sugar plantations in British Guiana and Dominica, and when the British government emancipated the slaves in the 1830s, he and his partners were compensated to the tune of over £20,000 each for over 400 slaves in their possession.He died, aged 78, at the Vine House near Sevenoaks, on 10 October 1841.