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THE LIFE '.
7243-2.

OF
†:
L O R D B A C 0 N.
BY JOHN, LORD CAMPBELL,
LL.D., F.R.S.E.
º
[ExTRACTED FROM “THE LIVES OF THE LORD CHANCELLORs.”]
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1853.
p
LoNDON : PrinTED BY william oilowes A.No sons, stam Ford grrrrºr.
c o N T E N T s.
•=º-
*
CHAPTER PAGE
I. LIFE OF LORD BACON FROM HIs BIRTH. TILL IIE BECAME
A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS - - - - 1
II. Continuation OF LIFE OF LORD BACON TILL THE FALL .
OF THE EARL OF ESSEX - - - - - - - - - 20
III. ContLNUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD BACON TO THE
END OF THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH - - - - - - 50
IV. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF JORD BACON FROM THE
ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TILL HIS APPOINTMENT AS
LORD KEEPER - - - - - - - - - - - - 73
W. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD BACON FROM IIIs
APPOINTMENT AS CHANCELLORT:LL IIIS FALL - . 124
VI. ConCLUSION OF THE LIFE OF LORD BACON - - - - 187
LIFE OF LORD BACON.
CHAPTER I.
LIFE OF LORD BACON FROM HIS BIRTH. TILL HE BECAME A
MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
IT will easily be believed that I enter with fear and
trembling on the arduous undertaking of attempting
to narrate the history, and to delineate the cha-
racter, of º
“The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.”
I must say, that I consider a life of Lord Bacon still
a desideratum in English literature. He has often
been eulogised and vituperated; there have been
admirable expositions of his philosophy and criti-
cisms on his writings; we have very lively sketches
of some of his more striking actions; and we are
dazzled by brilliant contrasts between his good and
bad qualities, and between the vicissitudes of pros-
perous and adverse fortune which he experienced.
But no writer has yet presented him to us familiarly
and naturally, from boyhood to old age—shown us
how his character was formed and developed—or
explained his motives and feelings at the different
stages of his eventful career.
B
2 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
We desire to become acquainted with him as if
we had lived with him, and had actually seen him
taught his alphabet by his mother—patted on the
head by Queen Elizabeth—mocking the worshippers
of Aristotle at Cambridge — catching the first
glimpses of his great discoveries, yet uncertain
whether the light was from heaven—associating
with the learned and the gay at the Court of France
—devoting himself to Bracton and the Year Books
in Gray's Inn—throwing aside the musty folios of
the law to write a moral essay, to make an experi-
ment in natural philosophy, or to detect the fallacies
which had hitherto obstructed the progress of useful
truth—contented for a time with taking “all know-
ledge for his province”—roused from these specula-
tions by the stings of vulgar ambition—plying all
the arts of flattery to gain official advancement by
royal and courtly favour—entering the House of
Commons, and displaying powers of Oratory of
which he had been unconscious—seduced by the
love of popular applause, for a brief space becoming
a patriot—making amends by defending all the
worst excesses of prerogative – publishing to the
world lucubrations on morals which show the nicest
perception of what is honourable and beautiful, as
well as prudent, in the conduct of life—yet the son
of a Lord Keeper, the nephew of the prime minister,
a Queen's counsel, with the first practice at the bar,
arrested for debt, and languishing in a spunging-
house—tired with vain solicitations to his own
kindred for promotion, joining the party of their
Chap. I. SUMMARY OF HIS CAREER. 3
opponent, and, after experiencing the most generous
kindness from the young and chivalrous Essex,
assisting to bring him to the scaffold, and to blacken
his memory—seeking, by a mercenary marriage, to
repair his broken fortunes—on the accession of a
new Sovereign offering up the most servile adulation
to a Pedant whom he utterly despised—infinitely
gratified by being permitted to kneel down, with
300 others, to receive the honour of knighthood—
truckling to a worthless favourite with slavish sub-
serviency that he might be appointed a law-officer
of the Crown—then giving the most admirable
advice for the compilation and emendation of the
laws of England—next helping to inflict torture on
a poor parson whom he wished to hang as a traitor
for writing an unpublished and unpreached sermon
—attracting the notice of all Europe by his philoso-
phical works, which established a new era in the
mode of investigating the phenomena both of matter
and mind—basely intriguing in the mean while for
further promotion, and writing secret letters to his
Sovereign to disparage his rivals—riding proudly
between the Lord High Treasurer and Lord Privy
Seal, preceded by his mace-bearer and purse-bearer,
and followed by a long line of nobles and Judges, to
be installed in the office of Lord High Chancellor—
by-and-bye settling with his servants the account
of the bribes they had received for him—a little
embarrassed by being obliged out of decency, the
case being so clear, to decide against the party
whose money he had pocketed, but stifling the
B 2
4 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
misgivings of conscience by the splendour and
flattery which he now commanded—struck to the
earth by the discovery of his corruption, taking to
his bed, and refusing sustenance—confessing the
truth of the charges brought against him, and
abjectly imploring mercy—nobly rallying from his
disgrace, and engaging in new literary undertakings,
which have added to the splendour of his name—
still under the influence of his ancient vanity refus-
ing to “be stripped of his feathers”—inspired,
nevertheless, with all his youthful zeal for science,
conducting his last experiment of “stuffing a fowl
with snow to preserve it,” which succeeded “ex-
cellently well,” but brought him to his grave, and,
as the closing act of a life so checkered, making his
will, whereby, conscious of the shame he had in-
curred among his contemporaries, but impressed
with a swelling conviction of what he had achieved
for mankind, he bequeathed his “name and memory
to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and
the next ages.”
I am very far from presuming to think that I am
about to supply the deficiencies of his former bio-
graphers. My plan and my space are limited; and
though it is not possible in writing the life of Bacon
to forget that he was a philosopher and a fine writer,
I must chiefly consider him as a lawyer and a
statesman. But I am not without some advantages
for the task—from my familiarity with the scenes
through which he passed as an advocate, as a law
officer of the Crown, as a Judge, as a member of
... Chap. I. - HIS BIRTH. 5
either House of Parliament, and as a supporter of
legal reform. Others from greater leisure are better
acquainted with his philosophy; but I too have
been a diligent student of all his works, and while.
in his Letters, his Speeches, his Essays, and his
Histories, I have tried to gain a knowledge of human
affairs and of man as he is, from daily and nightly
perusal of his ‘Advancement of Learning,’ his
‘De Augmentis Scientiarum,’ and his “ Novum
Organum,' I have humbly striven to initiate myself
in the methods of observation and induction by
which he has opened to our species a career of
boundless improvement.
Francis Bacon was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas
Bacon, Lord Keeper to Queen Elizabeth, by Ann
Cooke, one of the daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke,
tutor to King Edward VI. He was born at York
House, in the Strand, on the 22nd of January,
1561.* Like several other extraordinay men, he is
supposed to have inherited his genius from his mo-
ther,t and he certainly was indebted to her for the
early culture of his mind, and the love of books for
which during life he was distinguished. Young
* Some modern writers, who generally reckon by the new style,
erroneously place his birth in January, 1560. See Mont. Is. of B.,
1
p f Anthony, the elder brother, not being by any means distinguished,
the case of the Bacon family might be cited to illustrate the retort
upon the late Earl of Buchan, who was eldest brother to Lord Erskine
and the famous Renry Erskine, Dean of Faculty, but very unequal to
them in abilities, and who, observing boastfully, “We inherit all our
genius from our mother,” was answered, “Yes, and (as the mother's
fortune generally is) it seems to have been all settled on the younger
children.”
6 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
Francis was sickly, and unable to join in the rough
sports suited for boys of robust constitution. The
Lord Keeper was too much occupied with his official
duties to be able to do more than kiss him, hear him
occasionally recite a little piece he had learnt by
heart, and give him his blessing. But Lady Bacon,
who was not only a tender mother but a woman of
highly cultivated mind after the manner of her age,
devoted herself assiduously to her youngest child,
who, along with bodily weakness, exhibited from
early infancy the dawnings of extraordinary intellect.
She and her sisters had received a regular classical
education, and had kept up a familiarity with the
poets, historians, and philosophers of antiquity.
She was likewise well acquainted with modern lan-
guages, and with the theology and literature of her
own times. She corresponded in Greek with Bishop
Jewel respecting the then fashionable controversies,
and she translated his Apologia from the Latin so
correctly that neither he nor Archbishop Parker
could suggest a single alteration. She also trans-
lated admirably a volume of Sermons on ‘Fate and
Free Will,’ from the Italian of Bernardo Ochino.
Under her care, assisted by a domestic tutor,
Francis continued till he reached his thirteenth year.
He took most kindly to his book, and made extra-
ordinary proficiency in the studies prescribed to him.
His inquisitiveness and original turn of thinking
were at the same time displayed. While still a mere
child, he stole away from his playmates to a vault in
St. James's Fields, for the purpose of investigating
/
Chap. I. AT CAMBRIDGE. 7.
the cause of a singular echo which he had discovered
there; and, when a little older, he amused himself
with very ingenious speculations on the art of leger-
demain, at present flourishing under the title of
Mesmerism. He enjoyed at the same time the great
advantage, on account of his father's station, and his
being the nephew of the Prime Minister, of being
early introduced into the highest and most intellec-
tual society, in which he displayed most extra-
ordinary gravity of deportment, as well as readiness
of wit. So much was Queen Elizabeth struck with
his manner and his precocity, that she used to amuse
herself in conversation with him, and to call him
her “young Lord Keeper.” On one occasion he
greatly pleased her by his answer to the common
question put to children, how old he was 2—“Ex-
actly two years younger than your Majesty's happy
reign.” ” f
In his thirteenth year he was sent to Trinity
College, Cambridge, and put under the care of
Whitgift, then Master of the College, afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury, and famous for his bigotry
and intolerance as well as his love of learning. Here
Bacon resided three years. We have rather vague
accounts of his studies during this period, and we
judge of his occupations chiefly from the result as
* We owe this and the most authentic anecdotes respecting his
early years to Rawley. “Ille autem tanta gravitate et judicii maturi-
tate, supra aetatem se expedire valebat, ut Regina eum ‘Dominum
Custodem Sigilli minorem ’ appellare solita sit. Interroganti Quot
annos natus esset 2 ingeniose etiam puer adhuc, respondit Se regimini
ejus felici duobus annis juniorem fuisse.” p. 2. Ed. 1819.
8 - IIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
testified in after life, and by his subsequent declara-
tions respecting academical pursuits. It is said that
he ran through the whole circle of the liberal arts as
they were then taught, and planned that great intel-
lectual revolution with which his name is inseparably
connected. But all that is certain is, that at his
departure he carried with him a profound contempt
for the course of study pursued there. Had it been
improved to its present pitch, and the tripos had
been established, in all probability he would still
have selected his own course of study. Academical
honours are exceedingly to be valued as a proof of
industry and ability; but the very first spirits have
not affected them, and men of original genius, such
as Swift, Adam Smith, and Gibbon, could hardly
have submitted to the course of mechanical disci-
pline which is indispensable to be thoroughly drilled
in the knowledge of what others have done, written,
and thought. If he had devoted his residence at the
University to the drudgery necessary to take a high
degree, and had actually been Senior Wrangler or
Senior Medallist, or both, and a Fellow of Trinity
to boot, he might afterwards have become Lord High
Chancellor, but he never would have written his
‘Essays,’ or the ‘Novum Organum.’ He must be
considered as expressing his opinion of the Cam-
bridge residents of his day, when he speaks of “men
of sharp and strong wits and small variety of read-
ing, their wits being shut up in the cells of a few
authors, chiefly Aristotle, their dictator, as their
persons were shut up in the cells of monasteries and
*
Chap. I. RESIDENCE IN FRANCE. 9
colleges, and who, knowing little history either of
nature or time, did spin cobwebs of learning admir-
able for the fineness of thread and work, but of no
substance or profit.” He paid due homage to the
gigantic intellect of the “Dictator;” but he ridi-
culed the unfruitfulness of his method, which he
described as strong for disputations and contentions,
but barren for the production of works for the benefit
and use of man, the just object for acquiring know-
ledge, and the only value of knowledge when ac-
quired. He left Cambridge without taking a degree,
and with the fixed conviction that the system of
academical education in England (which has re-
mained substantially the same since his time) was
radically vicious.
We now come to a passage of his life which has
hitherto received too little attention in tracing the
formation of his mind and character. Allusion is
made by his biographers to his residence in France,
but generally in such terms as might be used in de-
scribing a trip to Paris by a modern student of law
during the long vacation, with the advantage of an
introduction to the English minister there from our
Secretary of State for foreign affairs. In reality,
* Advancement of Learning.
+ Says Rawley his chaplain and biographer, “Whilst he was com-
morant at the University about sixteen years of age (as his Lordship
hath been pleased to impart unto myself), he first fell into dislike of
the philosophy of Aristotle. Not for the worthlessness of the author,
to whom he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruit-
fulness of the way—being a philosophy (as his Lordship used to say)
only strong for disputations, but barren of the production of works
for the life of man. In which mind he continued to his dying day.”
10 IIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
Bacon spent three whole years in France—the most
valuable of his life—and his subsequent literary
eminence may be traced to his long sojourn in a
foreign country during the age of preparatory studies
—almost as much as that of Hume or Gibbon. He
first resided at Paris under the care of his father's
friend, Sir Amyas Paulet, the English minister at
the French Court, where “he sought that which is
most of all profitable in travel,-acquaintance with
the secretaries and employed men of ambassadors,
and so in travelling in one country he sucked the
experience of many.” “ It is said that the stripling
So far won the confidence of the wary diplomatist,
that he was employed on a secret mission to the
Queen, which having performed with great appro-
bation, he returned back into France ; but the
nature of this negotiation is not hinted at, and the
probability is, that, going on a short visit to his
family, he was merely employed to carry despatches,
for the purpose of facilitating his journey through
the provinces, which were then rather in a dis-
turbed state.f
After passing a few weeks more in the gay Society
of Paris, under the auspices of Sir Amyas Paulet,
Bacon made a tour through the Southern and western
* Essay of Travel. º
+ On his return, Sir Amyas thus writes to the Lord Keeper: “I
rejoice much to see that your son, my companion, hath by the grace
of God passed the brunt and peril of his journey; whereof I am the
more glad because in the beginning of these last troubles it pleased
your Lordship to refer his continuance with me to my consideration.
I thank God these dangers are past, and your son is safe, sound, and in
good health, and worthy of your fatherly favour. Sept. 1577.”
Chap. I. RETURNS TO ENGLAND. 11
parts of France,” and then fixed himself for steady
application at Poitiers. His original plan had been
to visit Italy, but, on inquiry, all accounts agreed
that, from the rigours of the Inquisition, an English
Protestant would not then have been safe in that
country. He now wrote his “ Notes on the State of
Europe,” which display very minute accuracy of
statement, without attempting any profundity of ob-
servation. Probably with a view of being engaged
in diplomacy, he studied with great interest the art
of writing in cipher, and he invented a method so
ingenious, that many years after he thought it
deserving of a place in the ‘De Augmentis.’ While
thinking that he should spend his life in such specu-
lations and pursuits, he heard of the sudden death
of his father, and he was reserved for a very different
destiny.
He instantly returned to England, and had the
mortification to find”that he was left with a patri-
mony so slender, that it was wholly insufficient for
his support without a profession or an office. “He
had to think how to live, instead of living only to
think.” Sir Nicholas had amply provided for his
other children, and had appropriated a sum of money
to buy an estate for Francis, but had been suddenly
carried off without accomplishing his purpose, and
Francis had only a rateable proportion with his four
* His Essay of Travel shows him to have been most familiar with
touring, and there the foreign traveller will find excellent advice, even
to furnishing himself with a copy of ‘Murray's Handbook.’ “Let him
carry with him also some card or book describing the country where
he travelleth, which will be a good key to his inquiry.”
12 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
brothers of the fund which was to have been applied
to his exclusive benefit.
He made a strenuous effort to avoid the necessity
of taking to the study of the law,-the only re-
Source which remained to him if he could not pro-
cure some political appointment. He sued to
Burghley directly, and indirectly through Lady
Burghley, his aunt, in a strain almost servile, that
Some employment should be given to him. Con-
sidering his personal merit and qualifications, and,
still more, considering his favour with the Queen
and his connexion with her chief minister, it seems
wonderful that he should have failed,—if we did not
remember that the Lord Treasurer then wished to
introduce into public life his favourite son, Robert
Cecil, a very promising youth, but inferior in
talents and accomplishments to his cousin, Francis
Bacon, and that, “in the time of the Cecils, father
and son, able men were, by design and of purpose,
suppressed.” The Cecils not only refused to in-
terest themselves for their kinsman, but now, and
for many years after, that he might receive no
effectual assistance from others, they spread reports
that he was a vain speculator, and totally unfit for
real business.
He was thus driven most reluctantly to embrace
the law as a means of livelihood, and in 1580, in
his 20th year, he began to keep terms in Gray's
Inn, of which Society his father had been long a
* Bacon’s letter to Buckingham.
*
Chap, I. STUDIES IN GRAY'S INN. I3
member.” He lived in chambers, No. 1, Gray's
Inn Square, which remain nearly in the same state
as when he occupied them, and are still visited by
those who worship his memory. There can be no
doubt that he now diligently and doggedly sat
down to the study of his profession, and that he
v made very great progress in it, although he la-
Tboured under the effect of the envious disposition of
mankind, who are inclined to believe that a man
of general accomplishments cannot possibly be a
lawyer; and e converso, if a man has shown himself
beyond all controversy to be deeply imbued with
law, that he is a mere lawyer without any other
accomplishment. A competent judge who peruses
Francis Bacon's legal treatises, and studies his
forensic speeches, must be convinced that these
were not the mere result of laboriously getting up
a title of law pro re natá, but that his mind was
thoroughly familiar with the principles of jurispru-
dence, and that he had made himself complete
master of the common law of England,-while there
might be serjeants and apprentices who had never
strayed from Chancery Lane to “the Solar Walk or
Milky Way,” better versed in the technicalities of
pleading and the practice of the Courts.f. He must
* The records of Gray’s Inn represent him as having been entered
on the 21st of November, 1576, which must have been upon leaving
the University.
# “The Temple late two brother serjeants saw
Who deem’d each other oracles of law;
Each had a gravity would make you split,
And shook his head at MURRAY as a wit.”
Even when I entered the profession this disposition continued; but
14 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
sedulously have attended the “readings” and
“mootings” of his Inn, and abstracted many days
and nights from his literary and philosophical pur-
suits to the perusal of Littleton and Plowden.
His industry is the more commendable, as he had
other powerful temptations to withstand. From his
lively wit, from his having been in the best Society
at home, and from his travels abroad, he was a most
delightful companion, and his society was univer-
Sally coveted; yet he courteously resisted these
allurements, and, without losing popularity, re-
mained master of his time. On high-days and
holidays he assisted with great glee in all the
festivities of the Inn; and at the request of the
Benchers he laid out walks in the garden, and
planted trees, some of which, on a spot which got
the name of “Lord Bacon's mount,” very recently
remained. He likewise found it impossible entirely
to abstract his mind from the philosophical spe-
culations which so early occupied it, and he
published a little sketch of his system under the
somewhat pompous title of ‘The Greatest Birth of
Time.” But this, like Hume's ‘System of Human
Nature,’ seems to have fallen still-born from the
press ; no copy of it is preserved, and we should
hardly know of its existence but from the notice of
it in a letter which after his fall from power he
wrote to Father Fulgentio: “Equidem memini me
the world now places the friend of Pope high above such narrow-
minded judges as Kenyon, who sneered at “the equitable doctrines
of Lord Mansfield.”
Chap. I. CALLED TO THE BAR. 15
quadraginta adhuc annis juvenile opusculum circa
has res confecisse, quod magnâ prorsus fiducià
et magnifico titulo TEMPORIS PARTUM MAXIMUM
inscripsi.” -
In 1586 he was called to the outer bar, but I
apprehend, according to the rules then prevailing,
was not entitled to practise till he had got another
step, which was “coming within bars.” To
this he was not entitled by his standing, but he
might have obtained it by the recommendation of
his uncle, the Lord Treasurer. To an application
for his interference, the old Lord, now peevish from
age and gout, seems to have returned a very churlish
answer, taking the opportunity to read Francis a
sharp lecture on his “arrogancy and overweening.”
These bad qualities the young man earnestly dis-
claimed, but he submissively promised to profit by
such good advice, “and so, wishing unto his Lord-
ship all honour, and to himself continuance of his
Lordship's good opinion, with mind and means to
deserve it, he humbly took his leave.”f **
In a short time, however, he was admitted an
inner barrister, and immediately after he was elected
a Bencher of the Society. So great a favourite was
he with his house that in two years more he was
* See Or. Jur. 159.
+ Letter of F. Bacon to Burghley, May 6, 1586. Some writers
not unnaturally suppose that this was an application for a silk gown,
and that Bacon, having got into great practice in stuff, now wished to
be “called within the bar,” in the modern sense of the phrase,_
whereas, in reality, his ambition then was only to become “an inner
barrister’ before his time, that he might be entitled to begin practice
in Court.—See Macaulay’s Essays, ii. 300.
16 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
made Lent Reader, an office of much dignity, which
gave him an opportunity of publicly exhibiting his
learning, acuteness, and eloquence. He now ac-
quired such reputation in his profession that the
Queen, for the benefit of his assistance in her state
prosecutions and revenue cases, appointed him her
“Counsel extraordinary.” This was the first ap-
pointment of the sort, the counsel for the Crown
hitherto having been only the royal Serjeants, who
had the highest rank, and the Attorney and Solicitor
General, with the Attorney of the Duchy of Lan-
caster, and the Attorney of the Court of Augmenta-
tions. The body of Serjeants came next in point of
precedence,” and then inner and outer barristers
or apprentices according to their “ancienty’’ or
standing. Bacon was exceedingly delighted with
this glimpse of Court favour, but he derived little
solid advantage from it; for he was allowed no
salary, and he had only a few stray briefs, with
small fees, on occasions when it was thought that
he might be of service to the Crown. The Queen
frequently admitted him to her presence, and con-
versed with him not only about matters of law, but
points of general learning and affairs of state, find-
ing much satisfaction from the information and
illustrations he communicated to her. Nevertheless,
he could not remove from her mind the impression
* They long contended for precedence over the Attorney and Soli-
citor General, except in Crown cases, and this was sometimes adjudged
to them (3 Bulstrode, 32); but now they do not sit within the bar in
term time—an honour accorded to all King's Counsel, and to the
Attorney and Solicitor General of the Queen-consort.
i
Chap. I. SOLICITS GOVERNMENT EMPLOY. 17
made upon her by the representation of his cousin,
Sir Robert Cecil, that he was “a speculative man,
indulging himself in philosophical reveries, and
calculated more to perplex than to promote public
business.”
Bacon's higher aspirations prevented him from
taking cordially to the profession of the law, and he
still longed for leisure to be devoted to literature
and science. With this view he continued to solicit
for some place which would enable him to retire
from the bar. A few extracts from his letters will
best show the state of his feelings at this period of
his life. “I wax now somewhat ancient; one-and-Y
thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. Z
My health, I thank God, I find confirmed, and I do
not fear that action shall impair it; because I
account my ordinary course of study and meditation
to be more painful than most parts of action are. . .
Again, the meanness of my estate doth somewhat
move me: for though I cannot accuse myself that I
am either prodigal or slothful, yet my health is not
to spend nor my course to get. Lastly, Iconfess that
I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate
civil ends, for I have taken all knowledge to be
my province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of
rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations,
confutations, and verbosities; the other with blind
experiments and auricular traditions and impostures,
hath committed so many spoils, I hope I should
bring in industrious observations, grounded conclu-
sions, and profitable inventions and discoveries.
C
18 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. I.
. . . . If your Lordship will not carry me on, I will
not do as Anaxagoras did, who reduced himself
with contemplation unto voluntary poverty : but
this I will do, I will sell the inheritance that I
have, and purchase some lease of quick revenue, or
some office of gain that shall be executed by deputy,
and so give over all care of service, and become some
sorry book-maker, or a true pioneer in that mine of
truth which lies so deep.” “This last request I
find it more necessary for me to make, because,
though I am glad of her Majesty's favour that I may
with more ease practise the law, which percase I
may use now and then for my countenance, yet, to
speak plainly, though perhaps vainly, I do not think
that the ordinary practice of the law, not serving
the Queen in place, will be admitted for a good
account of the poor talent that God hath given me,
so as I make reckoning I shall reap no great benefit
to myself in that course.”f Such sentiments must
have appeared very foolish to the crusty Lord Trea-
surer, who thought all qualities and occupations
were vain and idle which did not lead directly to
power and riches, and pronounced 100l. too extra-
vagant a gratuity to be given to the author of the
FAERY QUEEN, which he derisively termed “an old
song.” To stop the mouth of his importunate
nephew, the Lord Treasurer procured for him the
reversion of the registrarship of the Star Chamber,
worth about 1600l. a-year; but the place not falling
into possession till after the lapse of twenty years,
* Bacon to Burghley, 1591. # Ibid. 1594,
Chap. I. NOT IN GREAT PRACTICE. 19
the impatient Francis said, “it was like another
man's fair ground battening upon his house, which
might mend his prospect, but did not fill his barns.”
Although he accomplished infinitely higher ob-
jects, he never appears to have had much practice
at the bar. The profession of the law in England
seems at all times to have required the undivided
affections of those who would have the greatest
success in it, and has not, as in France and in Scot-
land, easily admitted a rivalry with more liberal
pursuits. Bacon, when engaged in a cause célèbre,
the Queen and the Court coming to hear the argu-
ments, or taking a lively interest in the result, no
doubt exerted himself to the utmost, and excited
applause by his display of learning and eloquence:
but on ordinary occasions, when he found himself
in an empty Court, and before an irritable or drowsy
Judge, he must have been unable to conceal his
disgust,-and eager to get home that he might finish
an essay or expose some fallacy by which past ages
had been misled,—if he stood up for his client as
long as he felt there was a fair chance of succeeding
for him, we may well believe that he showed little
energy in a hopeless defence, and that he was care-
less about softening defeat by any display of zeal or
sympathy. Accordingly, that he was no favourite
with the attorneys is clear from his own statements
of his progress, from the abundant leisure which he
still enjoyed, and from the poverty in which (without
any extravagance) he continued to be involved.*
* See his Letters. Works, vol. v.
C 2
20 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
*
CHAPTER II.
CONTINUATION OF LIFE OF LORD BACON TILL THE FALL OF
THE EARL OF ESSEX,
WE have now presented to us a sudden turn of his
fortune, which rather retarded his promotion, but
which, from the unsuspected faculty he exhibited,
and the applause he received, gave a new stimulus
to his ambition. There was infused into him at this
juncture a taste for public life which ever after com-
bated, without overcoming, his passion for philo-
sophy.
After a government carried on for several years
by prerogative alone, a parliament met on the 19th
of February, 1593, and Francis Bacon took his seat
as representative for the county of Middlesex. In a
discussion which arose a few days after upon the
topics dwelt upon by the Lord Keeper, in explaining
the causes of summoning the parliament (which we
may consider “the debate on the address”), he made
a speech on “Law Reform.” We have but scanty
remains of his oratory in the House of Commons, but
enough to account for the admiration he excited, and
, the influence he acquired. On this occasion he ob-
served, “The cause of assembling all parliaments
hath been hitherto for laws or monies; the one being
Chap. II. SPEECH ON LAW REFORM. 21
the sinews of peace, the other of war: to one I am
not privy, but the other I should know. I did take
great contentment in her Majesty's speech, delivered
by the Lord Keeper, how that it was a thing not to
be done suddenly, nor scarce a year would suffice to
purge the statute book, the volumes of law being so
many in number that neither common people can
half practise them, nor lawyers sufficiently under-
stand them. The Romans appointed ten men who
were to collect or recall all former laws, and to set
forth those twelve tables so much of all men com-
mended. The Athenians likewise appointed six for
that purpose. And Louis IX., King of France, did
the like in reforming his laws.”—We must try to
conceive to ourselves the instances he gave of absurd
penal laws remaining unrepealed, and the advantages
he pointed out from digesting and codifying.
We know that he was ever after the most favoured
speaker in that assembly; and, for this reason, when
he was made Attorney-General, and, according to all
precedent, he was disqualified to act as a representa-
tive of the people, being summoned as an assistant
to the Lords,--it was unanimously resolved that he
should retain his seat in the Lower House. “There
happened in my time,” says Ben Jonson, “one
noble speaker who was full of gravity in his speaking.
His language, where he could spare or pass by a jest,
was nobly censorious. No man ever spoke more
neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less
emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No
member of his speech but consisted of his own graces.
\
22 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
His hearers could not cough or look aside from him
without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and
had his Judges angry and pleased at his devotion.
No man had their affections more in his power.
The fear of every man who heard him was lest he
should make an end.””
So intoxicated was Bacon with the success of his
first effort, that in the debate on the 7th of March,
on the subsidy, he delivered a flaming oration against
the Court, running great risk of being sent to the
Tower, and punished by the Star Chamber for his
presumption. “To the subsidy demanded he pro-
pounded three questions, which he desired might be
answered: the first, impossibility or difficulty; the
second, danger and discontentment; and, thirdly, a
better manner of supply. For impossibility, the
poor men's rent is such as they are not able to yield
it. The gentlemen must sell their plate, and farmers
their brass pots, ere this will be paid; and as for us,
we are here to search the wounds of the realm, and
not to skin them over. We shall breed discontent-
ment in paying these subsidies, and endanger her
Majesty's safety, which must consist more in the
love of the people than in their wealth. This being
granted, other princes hereafter will look for the like,
# It has been supposed, from the use of the word “Judges,” that
Ben Jonson had never heard Bacon speak in parliament; but I appre-
hend that he refers to those who heard and formed a judgment of
Bacon’s eloquence without wearing black coifs and scarlet robes.
“A perfect JUDGE will read each piece of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ.”—Pope.
—See Macaulay's Essays, vol. ii. 302.
Chap. II. SPEECH ON THE SUBSIDY. 23
so that we shall put an evil precedent on ourselves
and our posterity.” "
The courtiers were thrown into a state of horror
and amazement. The Queen, in the present temper
of the House, and with news of the approach of a
, Spanish armament, deemed it prudent to take no
public notice of this outrage; but she was deeply
incensed, and desired it to be intimated to the de-
linquent, by the Lord Treasurer and the Lord
Keeper, that he must never more look to her for
favour or promotion. An eloquent eulogist says,
“he heard them with the calmness of a philoso-
pher;” + but his answers show that he was struck
with repentance and remorse, and that, in the hope
of obtaining pardon, he plainly intimated that he
should never repeat the offence. In all time coming,
he never sought popularity more than might well
stand with his interest at Court.
* D’Ewes's Journal, 1593.
f Montagu, who in his valuable edition of Bacon uniformly idolises
his hero. #
† In his letter to Burghley he tries to explain away what he had
said, as if only actuated by good wishes for the Queen's service; and
thus concludes: “I most humbly pray your Lordship first to continue
me in your own good opinion, and them to perform the part of an
honourable and good friend towards your poor servant and ally, in
drawing her Majesty to accept of the sincerity and simplicity of my
zeal, and to hold me in her Majesty’s favour, which is to me dearer
than my life.”
He must be supposed to have been sobbing when he thus addresses
the flinty-hearted Puckering:—“Yet notwithstanding (to speak vainly
as in grief) it may be her Majesty has discouraged as good a heart as
ever looked towards her service, and as void of self-love. And so, in
more grief than I can well express, and much more than I can well
dissemble, I leave your Lordship, being as ever your Lordship's
entirely devoted, &c.”
24 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
&
The following year his compunction for his oppo-
sition to the subsidy was aggravated by the opportu-
nity which occurred of obtaining professional honours.
Egerton, the Attorney-General, was made Master of
the Rolls. Some of Bacon's friends were sanguine
enough to think that per Saltum he ought to have
been appointed to succeed him;” but Sir Edward
Coke, who had served as Solicitor-General for, two
years, was promoted almost as a matter of course,_
and the great struggle arose respecting the office of
* The following dialogue is said to have passed between the Earl
of Essex and Sir Robert Cecil, as they were about this time travelling
together in the same coach:—Cecil. “My Lord, the Queen has deter-
mined to appoint an Attorney General without more delay. I pray,
my Lord, let me know whom you will favour?”—Essea. “I wonder
at your question. You cannot but know that resolutely, against all
the world, I stand for your cousin, Francis Bacon.”—Cecil. “I wonder
your Lordship should spend your strength on so unlikely a matter.
Can you name one precedent of so raw a youth promoted to so great a
place?”—Essex. “I have made no search for precedents of young
men who have filled the office of Attorney General; but I could name
to you, Sir Robert, a man younger than Francis, less learned, and
equally inexperienced, who is suing and striving with all his might for
an office of far greater weight.”—Cecil. “I hope my abilities, such as
they are, may be equal to the place of Secretary, and my father's long
services may deserve such a mark of gratitude from the Queen. But
although her Majesty can hardly stomach one so inexperienced being
made her Attorney, if he would be contented with the Solicitor’s
place, it might be of easier digestion to her.”—Essea. “Digest me no
digestions. The attorneyship for Francis is that I must have, and in
that I will spend all my power, might, authority, and amity, and
with tooth and nail procure the same for him against whomsoever.”
See Nare's Life of Burghley, vol. iii. p. 436. But although there
may be some foundation for this conversation, it cannot be accurately
reported; as the office of Attorney General at this time was not vacant
for a single day—Egerton having been appointed Master of the Rolls,
and Coke appointed to succeed him as Attorney General, on the 10th
of April, 1594 (Dugd. Chr. See Pat. 36 Eliz.)—and there is an
extreme improbability in supposing that any of the Cecils would speak
so openly against Francis Bacon, whom they were pretending to sup-
port, although they secretly sought to depress him.
Chap. II. CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE. 25
Solicitor. To this Bacon had the strongest claim,
from the respect entertained for his father's memory,
—from his relationship to the Prime Minister, from
his high accomplishments, from his eminence at
the bar, from his success in parliament, and from
the services he had rendered as Queen's Counsel ex-
traordinary. He had two obstacles to surmount—
his unlucky speech, and the jealousy of the Cecils.
In more recent times his chance of promotion would
have been increased by an occasional display of inde-
pendence, showing how formidable he might be in
regular opposition; but in Elizabeth's reign the
system of retaining a wavering adherent or gaining
over a formidable antagonist by appointment to
office had not commenced, and constant subserviency
to the Court was considered indispensable in all
aspirants to Court favour. Burghley, and his hopeful
son Robert, now coming forward as Secretary of
State, pretended to support their kinsman, but in
reality were afraid that, with favourable opportuni-
ties, he would disconcert their deep-laid scheme of
making the premiership hereditary in the house of
Cecil.
Francis himself considered this the crisis of his
fate, and resorted to means of gaining his object
which would be spurned at by a modern candidate
for the office, who does not acknowledge that he
expects it, or interfere in any way regarding the
appointment, till he receives a letter from the Lord
Chancellor or the First Lord of the Treasury asking
him to accept it.
*-- • - -
26 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
;
His application to his uncle was excusable, although
the manner of it was rather abject. “I have ever
had your Lordship in singular admiration; whose
happy ability her Majesty hath so long used to her
great honour and yours. Besides, that amendment
of state or countenance which I have received hath
been from your Lordship. And, therefore, if your
Lordship shall stand a good friend to your poor ally,
you shall but tuer: opus which you have begun.
And your Lordship shall bestow your benefit upon
one that hath more sense of obligation than of self-
love. Your Lordship's in all humbleness to be com-
manded.”
The answer, under the disguise of bluntness, was
artful and treacherous. “Nephew,--I have no
leisure to write much ; but, for answer, I have at-
tempted to place you; but her Majesty hath re-
quired the Lord Keeper to give to her the names of
divers lawyers to be preferred, wherewith he made
me acquainted, and I did name you as a meet man,
whom his Lordship allowed in way of friendship for
your father's sake; but he made scruple to equal
you with certain whom he named—as Brograve and
Branthwayt, whom he specially commendeth. But
I will continue the remembrance of you to her
Majesty, and implore my Lord of Essex's help.
Your loving uncle, W. BURGHLEY.”
Francis again, to no purpose, addressed him,
saying, “If her Majesty thinketh that she shall make
an adventure in using one that is rather a man of
study than of practice and experience, Surely I may
Chap. II. HIS LETTERS TO PUCKERING. 27
remember to have heard that my father was made
Solicitor of the Augmentations, a Court of much
business, when he had never practised, and was but
twenty-seven years old.”
There can be no doubt that, on such an appoint-
ment, the Queen would have been guided by the
sincere advice of him who had induced her to make
Sir Nicholas Lord Keeper at the commencement of
her reign; Puckering, on whom he threw the blame,
had likewise been promoted by him, and was under
his control; “Essex's help,” he was aware, “was
rather a hindrance.”
The anxious aspirant wrote repeatedly to Lord
Keeper Puckering, remonstrating with him, and
trying to soften him. “If your Lordship consider
my nature, my course, my friends, my opinion with
her Majesty if this eclipse of her favour were past,”
I hope you will think I am no unlikely piece of
wood to shape you a true servant of.” + “I under-
stand of some business like enough to detain the
Queen to-morrow, which maketh me earnestly to
pray your good Lordship, as one that I have found to
take my fortune to heart, to take some time to re-
member her Majesty of a solicitor. If it please
your Lordship but to call to mind from whom I am
descended, and by whom, next to God, her Majesty,
and your own virtue, your Lordship is ascended, I
know you will have a compunction of mind to do me
any wrong; and therefore, good my Lord, where
* The subsidy speech. f April 5, 1594.
# Aug. 19, 1594.
28 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
your Lordship favoureth others before me, do not
lay the separation of your love and favour upon
myself.”
In the reign of Elizabeth there was always a sort
of “Opposition,” which did not seek to form a party
against Burghley in parliament or in the country,
which did not differ from him in religion,-had not
any adverse system of policy to pursue, either at
home or abroad, but which engrossed the greatest
share of the Queen's personal favour, and struggled
for an equal share of the royal patronage.
The reigning favourite now was the youthful Earl
of Essex, whose bad qualities were redeemed by
chivalrous bravery, romantic generosity, and singular
warmth in his friendships. Mistrusting the kindness
and good faith of his natural allies, Francis Bacon
cultivated him with great assiduity; and the soldier,
disposed to admiration of all that is great and beau-
tiful, was fascinated by the genius and accomplish-
ments of the orator and philosopher. A close inti-
macy was formed between them, which, on the
patron's side, amounted to pure and fervent friend-
ship, but which ended most mournfully and discre-
ditably for the party patronised.
The letters written by Essex about this time de-
monstrate the intense zeal with which he tried to
use his influence with the Queen for the promotion
of his friend; and are curious, as showing the terms
on which he lived with his royal mistress, who, as
tender as ever in her affections, had become more
chary of her reputation, and did not continue to raise
Chap. II. ESSEX’s LETTERS TO BACON. 29
such suspicions in her Court as in the times of Lei-
cester and Hatton:
“I found the Queen so wayward, as I thought it not fit
time to deal with her in any sort, especially since her choler
grew towards myself, which I have well satisfied this day,
and will take the first opportunity I can to move your suit.”
—“I have now spoken with the Queen, and I see no stay
from obtaining a full resolution of what we desire.”—“I
went yesterday to the Queen, through the galleries, in the
morning, afternoon, and at night. I had long speech to her
of you, wherein I urged both the point of your extraordinary
sufficiency, proved to me, not only by your last argument,
but by the opinions of all men I spake withal, and the point
of mine own satisfaction, which I protested should be ex-
ceeding great if, for all her unkindness and discomforts past,
she should do this one thing for my sake. She did acknow-
ledge you had a good wit and an excellent gift of speech, and
much other good learning. But in the law, she rather
thought you could make show to the uttermost of your know-
ledge, than that you were deep. I added, her Majesty had
made me suffer and give way in many things else, which all
I should bear, not only with patience, but with great con-
tentment, if she would but grant my humble Suit in this
one ; and for the pretence of the approbation given you upon
partiality, that all the world, lawyers, Judges, and all, could
not be partial to you; for somewhat you were crossed for
their own interest, and some for their friends; but yet all
did yield to your merit.”—“I have received your letter, and
since I have had opportunity to deal freely with the Queen.
I have dealt confidently with her, as a matter wherein I did
more labour to overcome her delays than I did fear her
denial. I told her how much you were thrown down with
the correction she had already given you, that she might in
that point hold herself already satisfied. And because I
found that Tanfield had been most propounded to her, I did
most disable him. I find the Queen very reserved, staying
30 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
herself upon giving any kind of hope, yet not passionate
against you till I grew passionate for you. I urged her, that,
though she could not signify her mind to others, I might
have a secret promise, wherein Ishould receive great comfort,
as in the contrary great unkindness. She said she was
neither persuaded nor would hear of it till Easter, when she
might advise with her counsel, who were now all absent ;
and, therefore, in passion, bid me go to bed if I would talk
of nothing else. Wherefore, in passion, I went away, saying,
While I was with her T could not but solicit for the cause
and the man I so much affected; and, therefore, I would
retire myself till I might be more graciously heard; and so
we parted. To-morrow I will go hence of purpose ; and on
Thursday I will write an expostulating letter to her. That
night, or upon Friday morning, I will be here again, and
follow on the same course.”
Bacon, feeling “the misery 'tis in suing long to
bide,” took a bold step, and wrote a letter to the
Queen herself, which is most highly creditable to her
character, at least as estimated by him, for, from
his language to the Lord Treasurer and the Lord
Keeper, we need not doubt that he would have ad-
dressed her in the most fulsome and slave-like strain,
if he had not thought that he was likely to succeed
better by pretending independence, and avowing a
consciousness of his own worth :
“Madam, Remembering that your Majesty has been
gracious to me, both in countenancing me and conferring
upon me the reversion of a good place, and perceiving that
your Majesty had taken some displeasure towards me, both
these were arguments to move me to offer unto your Majesty
my service, to the end to have means to deserve your favour,
and to repair my error. Upon this ground I affected myself
to no great matter, but Only a place of my profession, such
Chap. II. WRITES TO THE QUEEN. 31
as I do see divers younger in proceeding to myself and men
of no great note do without blame aspire unto. But if any
of my friends do press this matter, I do assure your Majesty
my spirit is not with them.* It sufficeth me that I have let
your Majesty know that I am ready to do that for the service
which I never would do for mine own gain. And if your
Majesty like others better, I shall, with the Lacedemonian,
be glad that there is such choice of abler men than myself.
Your Majesty's favour indeed, and access to your royal
person, I did ever, encouraged by your own speeches, seek
and desire, and I would be very glad to be reintegrate in
that. But I will not wrong mine own good mind so much
as to stand upon that now, when your Majesty may conteive
I do it but to make my profit of it. But my mind turneth
upon other wheels than those of profit. The conclusion shall
be, that I wish your Majesty served answerable to yourself.
Principis est virtus maxima mosse Suos. Thus Imost humbly
Grave pardon of my boldness and plainness. God preserve
your Majesty l’”
According to the fashion of the times, he accom-
panied this letter with the present of a jewel.f His
* This pretended indifference in our friend Francis is not a little
amusing—considering that he had been compassing heaven and earth
—not altogether abstaining from the black art—to effect his object.
† This was an extraordinary gratuity. Bacon had long been in
the habit, like other courtiers, of presenting a yearly present to Eliza-
beth at new year's tide. Several of his letters accompanying them
are preserved. I will give a specimen:
“Most Excellent Sovereign Mistress,
“The only new-year's gift which I can give your Majesty is that
which God hath given to me, a mind in all humbleness to wait upon
your commandments and business; wherein I would to God that I
were hooded, that I saw less, or that I could perform more: for now
I am like a hawk that bates when I see occasion of service, but cannot
fly because I am tied to another's fist. But meanwhile I continue my
presumption of making to your Majesty my poor oblation of a garment
—as unworthy the wearing as his service that sends it, but the
approach to your excellent person may give worth to both, which is
all the happiness I aspire unto.” This garment was “one pettycoat
32 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
hopes were excited by a note he received a few days
after from his friend Foulke Greville, who was at
Court when the offering arrived, and talked to her
Majesty on the subject. “It pleased her withal to
tell of the jewel you offered her by Mr. Vice-Cham-
berlain which she had refused, yet with exceeding
praise. But either I deceive myself, or she was
resolved to take it; and the conclusion was very kind
and gracious. One hundred pounds to fifty you shall
be her Solicitor.”
Still the Queen could not forget the “subsidy
speech,” or was secretly influenced by Burghley, or
was resolved to show that Essex was not her master,
—and no appointment took place till the month of
November, 1595. Bacon's patience had become
entirely exhausted. He thus writes to Foulke
Greville:–
“What though the Master of the Rolls, and my Lord of
Essex, and yourself, and others, think my case without
doubt, yet in the mean time I have a hard condition to
stand, so that, whatever service I do to her Majesty, it shall
be thought but to be servitium viscatum, lime twigs and
fetches to place myself; and so I shall have envy, not
thanks. This is a course to quench all good spirits, and to
corrupt every man's nature, which will, I fear, much hurt
her Majesty's service in the end. I have been like a piece of
stuff bespoken in the shop ; and if her Majesty will not take
me, it may be the selling by parcels will be more gainful.
of white sattin embroidered all over like feathers and billets, with three
broad borders fair embroidered with snakes and fruitage, emblems of
Wisdom and Beauty.” In each year an exact inventory of new-year's
gifts was taken and signed by the Queen, and attested by the proper
officers. The donors vary in rank from the Lord Keeper Egerton to
Charles Smith, dustman, who presents “two bottes of cambric.”
Chap. II. HE IS DISAPPOINTED. 33
For to be, as I told you, like a child following a bird, which,
when he is nearest, flieth away and lighteth a little before,
and then the child after it again, and so in infinitum,_I am
weary of it, as also of wearying my good friends.”
He was at last thrown into a state of mind still
more painful than suspense, by the overwhelming
intelligence that a patent had passed the Great Seal,
appointing Mr. Serjeant Fleming Solicitor General
to her Majesty.” He was at first wholly overpowered
by the blow, and then he resolved for ever to retire
from public life, and travel in foreign countries, a
step which he thus defended: “Upon her Majesty's
rejecting me with such circumstances, though my
heart might be good, yet mine eyes would be sore,
that I should take no pleasure to look upon my
friends; for that I was not an impudent man that
could face out a disgrace, and I hoped her Majesty
would not be offended that, not able to endure the
sun, I fled into the shade.”f
He next softened his purpose to exile for the rest
of his days in the University of Cambridge, where
the degree of A.M. had been recently conferred upon
him. Writing to Essex, after stating that his health
was almost overthrown by what he had suffered, he
says, “When I revolved the good memory of my
* Nov. 6, 1595. Pat. 37 Eliz.
+ Letter to Sir Robert Cecil.
i Grace, July 27, 1594. “Placet vobis ut Mr. Franciscus Bacon
armiger honorabilis et nobilis viri domini Nicholai Bacon militis, &c.
filius post studium decem annorum, partim in hac academia nostra,
partim in transmarinis regionibus in dialecticis, philosophicis, Graecis,
Latimisque literis ac caeteris humanioribus disciplinis sufficiat ei ut
cooptetur in ordinem magistrorum in artibus,” &c.,
HD)
34 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
w;
father, the near degree of alliance I stand in to my
Lord Treasurer, your Lordship's so signalled and
declared favour, the honourable testimony of so many
councillors, the commendations unlaboured and in
sort offered by my Lords the Judges and the Master
of the Rolls;–that I was voiced with great expecta-
tion, and, though I say it myself, with the wishes of
most men to the higher place;" that I am a man
that the Queen hath already done for, and that
Princes, especially her Majesty, love to make an end
where they begin,_and then add hereunto the ob-
scureness and many exceptions to my competitors,—
I cannot but conclude with myself that no man ever
read a more exquisite disgrace; and therefore truly,
my Lord, I was determined, if her Majesty reject
me, this to do. My nature can take no evil ply;
but I will, by God's assistance, with this disgrace of
my fortune, and yet with that comfort of the good
opinion of so many honourable and worthy persons,
retire myself with a couple of men to Cambridge,
and there spend my life in my studies and contem-
plations without looking back.”
He indulged in a short retreat to Essex's villa,
Twickenham Park, “where he once again enjoyed
the blessings of contemplation in that sweet solitari-
mess which collecteth the mind as shutting the eyes .
does the sight.” While there he writes to the Lord
Keeper, “I thought it right to step aside for nine
days, which is the durance of a wonder, and not for
any dislike of the world; for I think her Majesty
* The Attorney Generalship—a little outbreak against Coke,
Chap. II. THE QUEEN RECONCILED. 35.
hath done me as great a favour in making an end of
this matter as if she had enlarged me from some re-
straint. I will take it upon that which her Majesty
hath often said, that she doth reserve me and not
reject me.” To Burghley he says, “My hope is
that, whereas your Lordship told me her Majesty was
somewhat gravelled upon the offence she took at my
speech in parliament, your Lordship's favourable and
good word that I spake to the best will be as good a
tide to remove her from that shelf.”—He soon re-
turned to business and ambition, and himself wrote
a letter to the Queen, apoligising “for his late arrest
from her service, expressing his contentment to earn
such vall as it pleased her Majesty to give him ; and
acknowledging a providence of God towards him
that found it expedient for him tolerare jugum in
juventute.”
His submission gave great satisfaction to the Queen,
and an attempt was made to bring about a vacancy
in the office of Solicitor General for him; but Flem-
ing could not be conveniently got rid of—and there
was no other move among the law officers of the
crown during the remainder of this reign.
Immediately upon his disappointment, Essex
sought most munificently to console him. “After
the Queen,” he writes, “had denied me the Solici-
tor's place, for which his Lordship had been a long
and earnest suitor on my behalf, it pleased him to
come to me from Richmond to Twickenham Park,
and brake with me, and said, Mr. Bacon, the Queen.
hath denied me the place for you, and hath placed
w D 2 -
36 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
another ; I know you are the least part of your own
matter ; but you fare ill because you have chosen me
for your mean and dependence ; you have spent your
time and thoughts in my matters: I die (these were
his very words) if I do not somewhat towards your
fortune; you shall not deny to accept a piece of land
which I will bestow upon you.” Francis, having
made a decent show of resistance, yielded, and was
enfeoffed of land at Twickenham, which he after-
wards sold at an underprice for 1800l. He could
not cancel all the past obligations of affectionate
friendship, but he might at any rate have reconveyed
this estate before he appeared as counsel against his
benefactor, and before he entered on the task of
writing ‘A Declaration of the Practices and Trea-
sons attempted and committed by Robert Earl of
Essex.’
To prove that he was not deficient in legal acquire-
ments, as his detractors had represented, he wrote a
treatise ‘Upon the Elements and Use of the Com-
mon Law,' giving a specimen of the application of his
favourite mode of reasoning to jurisprudence by the
enunciation of general truths or “maxims,” esta-
blished by an extensive collection of particulars. In
his preface he inculcated the doctrine which he often
repeated, and which he acted upon notwithstanding
his preference of other pursuits, that there is a debt
of obligation on every member of a profession to
assist in improving the science in which he has suc-
cessfully practised. He dedicated this work to the
Queen, “as a sheaf and cluster of fruit of the favour-
Chap. II. HIS MAXIMS AND ESSAYS. 37
able season enjoyed by the nation from the influence
of her happy government, by which the people were
taught that part of the study of a good prince was to
adorn and honour times of peace by the improvement
of the laws ſ”*
To indemnify himself for this effort, in the early
part of the year 1597 he gave to the world his
* Essays,’ which we may fairly ascribe to his resi-
dence in France when Montaigne's Essays were first
published and were read with rapture by all classes
in that country, although it was not till long after
that, by means of a bad translation, they became
popular in England. If not equal in lightness and
grace to his original, he greatly exceeded him in
depth of observation and aphoristic sententiousness:
he did not succeed so much as a delineator of man-
ners, but he laid open the springs of human action,
and he clothed his thoughts in diction which, for
the first time, showed the richness and melody of
English prose. The Essays were not only very
favourably received in England, but, being immedi-
ately translated into Latin and most of the Conti-
nental languages, they spread the fame of Bacon, as
an elegant writer, all over Europe. But this lustre
* It was only then handed about in MS., but it has passed through
several editions as a separate treatise, and, containing much recondite
and accurate learning, it is still cited as authority under the title of
‘Lord Bacon’s Maxims of the Law.”
# In the first edition there were only ten, but he afterwards
expanded some of these and added considerably to their number. In
his dedication to his brother he says, he published it to check the
circulation of spurious copies, “like some owners of orchards, who
gather the fruit before it is ripe to prevent stealing;” but this was
38 LIFE OF LORD BACON, Chap. II.
of reputation did not seduce him from his greater
purposes. “As for my Essays, and some other
particulars of that nature,” said he, “I count them
but as the recreations of my other studies, and in
that manner purpose to continue them ; though I
am not ignorant that these kind of writings would,
with less pains and assiduity, perhaps yield more
lustre and reputation to my name than the others I
have in hand.”
He was again returned to the parliament which
met in October, 1597, and early in the session in-
troduced two Bills against “Enclosures and the
depopulation of towns.” The practice of “clearing
estates’’ was then going on in some parts of Eng-
land, and we can easily forgive some bad political
economy brought forward in attempts to prevent
or mitigate the suffering which this system causes
when recklessly pursued without regard to the
maxim that “property has its duties as well as its
rights.” In his specch introducing his Bills he
said, “I should be sorry to see within this kingdom
that piece of Ovid's verse prove true, Jam Seges ubi
Troja fuit, in England nought but green fields, a
shepherd, and a dog. Nemo putat illud vider turpe
quod Sibi sit quaestuosum, and therefore there is
almost no conscience made in destroying the Savour
only a pretence of authorship, and there can be no doubt that, by
infinite pains, he had brought his compositions to his own standard of
excellence before he committed them to the press. The 2nd edition
was published in 1598, the 3rd in 1612, when he was Solicitor General,
and the 4th in 1626, after his fall, and the year before his death.
* Letter to the Bishop of Winchester.
Chap. II. SPEECH FOR THE SUBSIDY, 39
of life; panis sapor vitae.” The Bills were referred
to a committee, but did not pass."
He was successful, however, in that which pro-
bably interested him a good deal more, in for ever
effacing the impression of his unlucky patriotic
speech. The Chancellor of the Exchequer having
moved for a supply, and been seconded by Mr.
Secretary Cecil, Mr. Francis Bacon rose, not to say
anything of “gentlemen selling their silver plate
and yeomen their brass pots,” but “to make it
appear by demonstration, what opinion so ever be
pretended by others,t that, in point of payments to
the Crown, never subjects were partakers of greater
freedom and ease. Whether you look abroad into
other countries, or look back to former times in this
our own country, we shall find an exceeding differ-
ence in matter of taxes. We are not upon excessive
and exorbitant donations, nor upon sumptuous and
unnecessary triumphs, buildings, or like magnifi-
cence, but upon the preservation, protection, and
honour of the realm. I dare not scan her Majesty's
actions, which it becometh me rather to admire in
silence. Sure I am that the treasure which cometh
from you to her Majesty is but a vapour which
riseth from the earth, and, gathering into a cloud,
stayeth not there long, but, on the same earth, falleth
again.”f Accordingly a bill for a larger supply than
was asked last parliament passed without opposition.
# 1 Parl. Hist. 890.
f Thus he already has learned to sneer at the liberal party.
# 1 Parl. Hist. 905.
40 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
Bacon was now in high favour at Court, as well
as still popular in the House by his eloquence,” and
in the country by his writings; but he was despe-
rately poor, for authorship, as yet, brought no profit,
and his general practice at the bar was very incon-
siderable. In spite of his economical habits, he had
contracted some debts which were troublesome to
him; and it was uncertain whether there might be
an opening for him in the office of Solicitor General
during the life of the Queen, who was now labouring
under the infirmities of age. He therefore made a
bold attempt to restore his position by matrimony.
He was ever cold-blooded and calculating, not even
affecting anything romantic or tender. “You may
observe,” says he, “that amongst all the great and
worthy persons whereof the memory remaineth,
either ancient or recent, there is not one that hath
been transported to the mad degree of love, which
shows that great spirits and great business do keep
out this weak passion. There was never proud man
thought so absurdly well of himself as the lover doth
of the person loved; and therefore it is well said
that it is impossible to love and to be wise.”f He
did not, on this occasion, at all depart from his
notions of what was becoming in “a great and
worthy person;” for instead of offering incense to
Venus, he was only considering of a scheme to make
his pot boil. A daughter of Sir Thomas Cecil, the
* “Comitiis parliamentariis inferioris concessus, dum in ea domo
sedit, pergratus semper fuit; in qua saepe peroravit non sine magno
applausu.”—Rawley.
f Essay on Love.
Chap. II. COURTS THE LADY HATTON. 4]
eldest son of Lord Burghley, had married Sir Wil-
liam Hatton, the nephew and heir of Lord Chan-
cellor Hatton, and was soon after left a widow with
a very large fortune at her own disposal. She was
likewise noted for her wit, spirit, and turn for
fashionable amusements. What was worse, she was
said to be of a capricious and violent temper. Upon
the whole, Bacon thought that the advantages of the
connexion predominated, and after a proper course
of attention, in which he met with little encourage-
ment, he proposed to her. It was a curious circum-
stance that she was at the same time addressed by
his successful rival for the offices of Attorney and
Solicitor General, Sir Edward Coke, who was then
a widower with a large family and an immense
fortune. If she had not read Francis Bacon’s
Essay on Love, and so suspected him to be of a cold
constitution, one would have thought that she could
not have hesitated for a moment between her accom-
plished cousin, a bachelor between thirty and forty,
—although then a briefless barrister, yet destined to
high office,—and the crabbed Attorney General, with
all his practice and large estates, who was well stricken
in years, and to whom there were “seven objections
—his six children and himself.” Bacon met with a
flat refusal, and she evidently favoured his rival.
He thought, however, that he might succeed through
the recommendation of Essex, who was then em-
barking on his famous expedition to Cadiz, and
whom he thus addressed:—“My suit to your Lord-
ship is for your several letters to be left with me
42 , LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II,
dormant to the gentlewoman and either of her
parents. Wherein I do not doubt but, as the beams
of your ſavour have often dissolved the coldness of
my fortune, so in this argument your Lordship will
do the like with your pen.”
Essex's letter to the cruel young widow would
have been a great curiosity, but it is lost. To Sir
Thomas Cecil he writes, “My dear and worthy
friend Mr. Francis Bacon is a suitor to my Lady
Hatton, your daughter. What his virtues and ex-
cellent parts are, you are not ignorant. What ad-
vantages you may give, both to yourself and to your
house, by having a son-in-law so qualified, and so
likely to rise in his profession, you may easily judge.
Therefore, to warrant my moving of you to incline
favourably to his suit, I will only add this, that, if
she were my sister or daughter, I protest I would as
confidently resolve to farther it as I now persuade
you.” He wrote a similar letter to Lady Cecil, who
was one of the co-heirs of Neville Lord Latimer,
assuring her that she would happily bestow her
daughter on Francis Bacon, “and if,” says he,
“my faith be anything, I protest, if I had one as
near to me as she is to you, I had rather match her
with him than with men of far greater titles.” Ne-
vertheless, the wayward Lady Hatton thought fit to
run off with the future Chief Justice, and to enter
into a clandestine and irregular marriage with him,
for which they were both prosecuted in the Ecclesi-
astical Court. Bacon, in the result, had great rea-
son to rejoice at this escape; for the lady, from the
Chap. II. ARRESTED FOR DEBT. 43
honeymoon onwards, led Coke a most wretched life
—refusing even to take his name, separating from
him, doing everything to vex and annoy him, and
teaching his child to rebel against him.
However, the first effect of this discomfiture of
Bacon, which, as we may suppose, was much talked
of at Court and in the City, was to bring down upon
him a relentless creditor; and, instead of entertain-
ing Elizabeth as he had expected at Harefield, part
of Lady Hatton's possessions which had belonged to
Sir Christopher, he soon found himself confined in
a spunging-house. He had borrowed the sum of
300l. from a usurer in Lombard Street of the name of
Sympson, for which he had given a bond. An action
having been brought against him on the bond,-as
he had no defence, he gave a cognovit, with a stay
of execution. The time of forbearance expired, and
he was still unprepared to pay. He denounces “the
Lombard”* as very hard-hearted,—seemingly with-
out much reason; for when there was a writ out
against him in the city, and he came to dine with
Sheriff More, orders were given to the officer not to
disturb the festivity of the day by arresting him.
But a few days after, information being given that
he had been seen to enter the Tower, he was
“trained ’’ as he returned through the city, and the
“b— bailiff” sacrilegiously placed his hand on
the shoulder of the future Lord Chancellor, and
author of the Novum Organum. They wished to
* This seems then to have been used as a term of reproach, as Jew
now is with us.
44 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
carry him immediately to gaol: but his friend
Sheriff More “recommended him to an handsome
house in Coleman Street.” The “Lombard,” who
lived close by, was sent for divers times, but would
not so much as vouchsafe to come and speak with
the poor prisoner, or take any order in the affair,
but would leave him to his fate: “although,” says
Bacon, “a man I never provoked with a cross word
—no, nor with many delays.”
In this extremity he wrote a letter to Lord Keeper
Egerton, suggesting that, as he had gone to the Tower
on “a service of the Queen of no mean importance,”
he was privileged from arrest even in execution,
“eundo manendo et redeundo,” but, without insist-
ing on his privilege, requesting the Lord Keeper to
send for Sympson, and to bring him to some reason.*
He wrote a similar letter from his place of captivity
to Mr. Secretary Cecil, in which he says, “To
belay me while he knew I came from the Tower
about her Majesty's special service was, to my under-
standing, very bold.”f A satisfactory arrangement
was made for the payment of the debt, and in a few
days he was set at liberty.
To this disgrazia Coke ungenerously alluded in
the famous altercation he afterwards had with Bacon
at the bar of the Court of Exchequer. Mr. Attorney
seems to have taken great offence because, without
his sanction, and without his having a brief and
a fee, the Queen's Counsel had presumed to make
* Letters to the Lord Keeper and Sir R. Cecil, Oct. 1598. Works,
vol. vi. 42. f Ibid. *
Chap. II. ALTERCATION WITH COKE. 45
a motion about re-seizing the lands of a relapsed
recusant in which the Crown was concerned. Bacon
in his own defence having used as gentle and reason-
able terms as might be, Mr. Attorney kindled and
said, “Mr. Bacon, if you have any tooth against me,
pluck it out, for it will do you more hurt than all
the teeth in your head will do you good.”
Bacon (coldly).-‘‘Mr. Attorney, I respect you;
I fear you not; and the less you speak of your own
greatness, the more I will think of it.”
Mr. Attorney—“I think scorn to stand upon
terms of greatness towards you, who are less than
little,_less than the least (adding other such strange
light terms, with that insolence which cannot be ex-
pressed).”
Bacon (stirred, yet self-possessed).-‘‘Mr. Attor-
ney, do not depress me so far; for I have been your
better, and may be again when it please the Queen.”
“With this,” says Bacon, “he spake neither I
nor himself could tell what, as if he had been born
Attorney-General, and in the end bade me not
meddle with the Queen's business but with mine
own, and that I was unsworn.” "
Bacon.—“Sworn or not sworn is all one to an
honest man; I have ever set my service first, and
myself second; and I wish to God you would do the
like.” ſº
Mr. Attorney.—“It were good to clap a capias
wtlegatum upon your back.”
* I.e. not sworn as Attorney or Solicitor General; yet he must
have taken the oaths to serve her Majesty as Queen's Counsel.
46 LIFE OF LORD BACON
Chap. II.
--- —a 1–1.
Bacon-" I thank God you cannot, but you are
at fault and hunt upon an old scent.” "
An account of this scene was immediately sent by
Bacon to Secretary Cecil, “as one careful of his
advancement and jealous of his wrongs,” and it must
be taken with some grains of allowance,—though he
says, “he dared trust rumour in it, unless it were
malicious or extreme partial,” but on both sides it
greatly exceeded the licence of forensic logomachy
in our times, and with us much less must have led
to a hostile meeting on Wimbledon Common or at
Calais. But the law of the duello, which was studied
so sedulously in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.
by all other classes of gentlemen, seems to have been
entirely neglected by those who addicted themselves
to the common law of this realm.
Coke, conscious of his own inferiority in all liberal
acquirements, continued to take every opportunity
to “disgrace and disable' Bacon's law, and his ex-
perience, and his discretion as an advocate. Yet
this year the Essayist and leader of the House of
Commons gave proofs of professional learning and
skill, which ought for ever to have saved him from
such taunts. He wrote “The History of the Aliena-
tion Office,’ a treatise worthy of Hale,_showing a
most copious and accurate acquaintance with exist-
ing law, and with our legal antiquities.
He likewise published his celebrated argument in
the Exchequer Chamber in Chudleigh's Case, or
‘the Case of Perpetuities.’t This was a very im-
* Bacon’s Works, vol. vi. 46. + 1 Rep. 120. a.
Chap. II. ARGUMENT IN CHUDLEIGH’s CASE. 47
portant crisis in the history of the Law of Real
JProperty in England. An attempt, which in the
following century succeeded in Scotland, was making
to introduce, by the artifices of conveyancing, a sys-
tem of unlimited substitutions, or strict entails, which
should effectually bar every species of alienation.
The great question in this particular case was,
“whether, there being a remainder limited by way
of use upon a contingency, the destruction of the
contingent estate by feoffment before the contingent
remainder came in esse destroyed the contingent
remainder?”—it being denied that, where the con-
tingent remainder was limited by way of use, there
was any necessity that it should vest, as at common
law, at or before the determination of the preceding
estate. Bacon's argument against this subtle device
to create a perpetuity,+one of the most masterly
ever heard in Westminster Hall,— he afterwards
shaped into a “Reading on the Statute of Uses,’
which he delivered when Double Reader of Gray's
Inn, a tract which we now possess, and which shows
the legal acuteness of a Fearne or a Sugden. He did
not himself undervalue his exertions in placing the
law on the satisfactory footing on which it has re-
mained in England ever since,—striking the happy
medium between mere life interests and perpetuities,
—and providing at once for the stability of families,
necessary in a mixed monarchy, and freedom of com-
merce in land, necessary for wealth under every form
of government whatever. “I have chosen,” says he,
“to read upon the Statute of Uses, a law whereupon
48 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. II.
the inheritances of this realm are tossed at this day
like a ship upon the sea, in such sort, that it is hard
to say which bark will sink and which will get to
the haven; that is to say, what assurances will stand
good, and what will not. Neither is this any lack or
default in the pilots, the grave and learned Judges,
but the tides and currents of received error, and
unwarranted and abusive experience, have been so
strong as they were not able keep a right course
according to the law. Herein, though I could not
be ignorant either of the difficulty of the matter
which he that taketh in hand shall soon find, or
much less of my own unableness which I have con-
tinual sense and feeling of, yet because I had more
means of absolution than the younger sort, and more
leisure than the greater sort, I did think it not im-
possible to work some profitable effect; the rather
where an inferior wit is bent and constant upon one
subject, he shall many times, with patience and
meditation, dissolve and undo many of the knots
which a greater wit, distracted with many matters,
would rather cut in two than unknit; and, at the
least, if my invention or judgment be too barren or
too weak, yet by the benefit of other arts I did hope
to dispose and digest the authorities and opinions
which are in cases of uses in such order and method
as they should take light one from another, though
they took no light from me.”
This I think may be considered the most aus-
picious period of Bacon's career. By increased
practice at the bar he had overcome his pecuniary
Chap. II. HIS PROSPEROUS conDITION. 49
difficulties. He was sure of professional advance-
ment upon the next vacancy. He had been slighted
by Lady Hatton, but the Queen showed much more
personal favour to him than to his rival, Coke, the
Attorney General, and consulted him about the pro-
gress and conduct of all her law and revenue causes.
She not only gave him frequent audiences at her
palace, but visited him and dined with him in a
quiet way in his lodge at Twickenham.” His lite-
rary eminence was very great both in England and
on the Continent, not only from what he had
already published, but from the great works he was
known to have in hand, an outline of which he was
at all times willing to communicate to such as were
capable of appreciating his plans and discoveries.
Above all, his reputation was as yet untarnished.
His sudden wheel from the liberal to the conserva-
tive side—an occurrence which, even in our days,
society easily pardons from its frequency—was then
considered merely as the judicious correction of a
youthful indiscretion. All was now bright hope
with him for the future—without self-reproach when
he reflected on the past.
* Bacon has himself given us a very amusing specimen of the royal
talk on such occasions. It seems her Majesty was mightily incensed
against a book lately published, which she denounced as “a seditious
prelude to put into the people's head boldness and faction,” and, hav-
ing an opinion that there was treason in it, asked him “if he could
not find any places in it that might be drawn within case of treason?”
—Bacon. “For treason, Madam, I surely find none; but for felony
very many.”— Elizabeth (very eagerly). “Whereinfº — Bacon.
“Madam, the author hath committed vely apparent theft, for he hath
taken most of the sentences of Cornelius Tacitus, and translated them
into English, and put them into his text.”—Apology. Works, vol.
vi. 221.
E
50 LIFE OF I.ORD BACON. Chap. III.
#
CHAPTER III.
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD BACON TO THE END
OF THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.
TRANSACTIONS now come upon us, which, though
they did not seriously mar Bacon's fortunes, have
affixed a greater stain upon his memory than even
that judicial-corruption by which he was at once
precipitated from the height of power and greatness.
We have seen how Essex behaved to him with
princely munificence, and with more than fraternal
affection. Their intimacy continued without abate-
ment till the ill-fated young nobleman had incurred
the displeasure of his Sovereign. He steadily sup-
ported the interest of his friend at Court by his
personal exertions: and when he was to be absent in
his expedition to the coast of Spain, he most earnestly
recommended him to the Queen, and all over whom
he could expect to exercise any influence. Bacon
repaid this kindness by the salutary advice he gave
him, and above all by cautioning him against going
as Lord-Deputy to Ireland—a service unfit for his
abilities, and which, from the errors he was in danger
of committing in it, and the advantage to be taken
of his absence by his enemies, was likely to lead to
his ruin.
Chap. III. ESSEx’s RETURN FROM IRELAND. 51.
In spite of Essex's unfortunate campaign and un-
successful negotiations in Ireland, Bacon stuck by
him as a defender, believing that he retained his
place in the Queen's heart, and that he would yet
have the disposal of the patronage of the Crown.
On his sudden return without leave from his com-
mand, and his hurrying down to Nonsuch, where
the Court lay, Bacon followed him, and had the
mortification to find, that, after a gleam of returning
favour, the Earl had been ordered into confinement.
But, to guard against exaggeration of the misconduct
about to be exposed, I most eagerly admit that now,
and down to the hour when the unhappy youth ex-
piated his offences on the scaffold, Bacon showed
him as much countenance as was entirely consistent
with his own safety, convenience, and hope of ad-
Vancement.
In a short interview which he had with him at
Nonsuch, he said, “My Lord, Nubecula est, cito
transibit; it is but a mist;” and he wisely advised
him “to seek access to the Queen importune, oppor-
tune, seriously, sportingly, every way.””
While Essex was a prisoner in the custody of
Lord Keeper Egerton, at York House, as Bacon had
frequent interviews with the Queen, which, he says,
were only “about causes of her revenue and law
business,” the rumour ran that he was incensing her
against his young patron; and even Robert Cecil
mentioned it to him, saying one day in his house at
the Savoy, “Cousin, I hear it, but I believe it not,
* Apology. Works, vol. vi. 219.
*
E 2
52 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III.
that you should do some ill office to my Lord of
Essex: for my part I am merely passive, and not
active, in this action; and I follow the Queen, and
that heavily, and I lead her not. The same course
I would wish you to take.” Francis justified him-
self, and we believe truly, from the imputation.
According to his own account he did everything in
his power to induce her to restore him to favour,
resorting for this purpose to rhyme as well as to
reason. About the middle of Michaelmas term, 1600,
as she intimated her intention to dine with him at
Twickenham, “though he professed not to be a poet,
he prepared a sonnet, directly tending and alluding
to draw on her Majesty's reconcilement to my Lord,”
—which he presented to her at her departure. He
likewise, as he says, strongly dissuaded her from
prosecuting Essex, on account of his great popu-
larity; and he adds, “Never was I so ambitious of
anything in my lifetime as I was to have carried
some token or favour from her Majesty to my Lord,
using all the art I had both to procure her Majesty
to send, and myself to be the messenger.” Elizabeth
mentioning to him one day at Whitehall the nomi-
nation of Lord Mountjoy for Deputy in Ireland,
Bacon said to her, “Surely, Madam, if you mean
not to employ my Lord of Essex thither again, your
Majesty cannot make a better choice.” “Essex l’”
said she ; “whensoever I send Essex back again into
Ireland, I will marry you; – claim it of me.”
Whereunto, out of zeal for the imprisoned Earl, he
said, “Well, Madam, I will release that contract, if
, Chap. III. INTERCEDES FOR ESSEX. 53
3.
his going be for the good of your state.” She was
So far offended, that in Christmas, Lent, and Easter
term following, when he came to her on law business,
her face and manner were not so clear and open to
him as usual, and she was entirely silent respecting
Essex. After that she declared that she was resolved
to proceed against him—by information ore tenus in
the Star Chamber, although it should be ad castiga-
tionem, et non ad destructionem. Then, to divert
her entirely from this purpose, Bacon said, “Madam,
if you will have me speak to you in this argument, I
must speak to you as Friar Bacon's head spake, that
said first Time is, and then Time was, and Time
will never be ; it is now far too late—the matter is
cold, and hath taken too much wind.”
We have the account of these dialogues only from
himself after her death, and it is to be regarded with
great suspicion, as there is reason to think that she
gave a somewhat different version of them in her
lifetime; for, introducing his narrative and alluding
to the stories circulated against him, he says, “I
will not think that they grew any way from her
Majesty's own speeches, whose memory I will ever
honour; if they did, she is with God, and miserum
est loºdi de quibus non possis queri.”
He takes to himself the entire merit of having the
Star Chamber prosecution converted into the extra-
judicial inquiry before the Lord Keeper and other
Commissioners at York House,” by saying to her,
“Why, Madam, if you will needs have a proceeding,
* Apology, vol. vi. 200, 221.
54 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III.
you were best have it in some such sort as Ovid
spoke of his mistress, est aliquid luce patente
minus.”
It is quite certain, however, that he had never
ventured to visit his friend during his long captivity,
or to give him any public support; and the people
(to the honour of England be it spoken), ever shocked
by private treachery and ingratitude, were indignant
at his conduct, and gave credit to “a sinister speech
raised of him how he was a suitor to be used against
my Lord of Essex at that time.” To clear himself
from this imputation, he has left us the substance of
a letter which he wrote to her when he heard “that
her Majesty was not yet resolved whether she would
have him forborne in the business or no,” and which,
I must say, rather betrays an apprehension that he
might lose the advantage and éclat of holding a brief
in a case of such public expectation: “That if she
would be pleased to spare me in my Lord of Essex's
cause out of the consideration she took of my obliga-
tion towards him, I should reckon it for one of her
greatest favours; but, otherwise, desiring her Majesty
to think that I know the degrees of duties; and that
no particular obligation whatsoever to any subject
could supplant or weaken that entireness of duty that
I did owe and bear to her service.” The vindication
was completely satisfactory to himselſ, according to
his own standard of honour and delicacy, for he says
triumphantly, “This was the goodly suit I made,
being a respect no man that had his wits could have
omitted.”
Chap. III. PROSECUTION OF ESSEX. 55
But in casting the parts to be taken by the
different counsel, he was not satisfied with the minor
one assigned to him, which was to show that Essex
had given some countenance to the libellous publica-
tion stolen from Cornelius Tacitus; and he objected
to the allotment, “ that it was an old matter and
had no manner of coherence with the rest of the
charge;” but he was answered in a manner showing
that others knew better what became him than him-
self, “because it was considered how I stood to my
Lord of Essex, therefore that part was thought fittest
for me which did him the least hurt, for that, whereas
all the rest was matter of charge and accusation, this
only was but matter of caveat and admonition.”
Though, “nolens volens, he could not avoid the part
laid upon him by the Queen's pleasure,” when the
day came he made the most of it, and, admitting
that “he did handle it not tenderly,” he assures us
that this seeming harshness “must be ascribed to
the superior duty he owed to the Queen's fame and
honour in a public proceeding, and partly to the in-
tention he had to uphold himself in credit and
strength with the Queen, the better to be able to do
my Lord good offices afterwards !”
At the Queen's request he wrote out for her a
report of this trial, which he read to her in two
several afternoons; and when he came to Essex's
defence, he says, she was much moved, and, praising
the manner in which it was given, observed, “she
perceived old love could not easily be forgotten.”
Upon which, he tells us, he ventured to reply, “that
he hoped she meant that of herself.”
56 IIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III.
He really had a desire, if not to satisfy his con-
science,—for the sake of his reputation, to assist in
restoring Essex to favour. With this view he com-
posed several letters for him to be addressed to the
Queen, and a letter, supposed to be written by his
brother to Essex,−with the answer from Essex to
his brother, which were privately shown to the
Queen with a view of mollifying her.
On one occasion, mentioning to her a doctor who
had for a time cured his brother of the gout, but that
the patient had afterwards found himself worse, she
said, “I will tell you, Bacon, the error of it; the
manner of these empirics is to continue one kind of
medicine, which at the first is proper, being to draw
out the ill humour, but after, they have not the dis-
cretion to change the medicine.” “Good Lord,
Madam,” said he, “how wisely and aptly can you
speak and discern of physic ministered to the body,
and consider not that there is the like occasion of
physic ministered to the mind.” And then he went
on to apply the doctrine to the case of Essex, from
whom the humour had been sufficiently drawn, and
who stood in need of having strength and comfort
ministered to him.
Essex was now liberated from custody, but soon
began to set the Court at defiance, and Bacon became
very unhappy at the double game he had been
playing; for there was little prospect of the favourite
being restored to power; and in the mean time
Elizabeth testified great displeasure with his old
“Mentor,” under whose advice she believed he was
º
Chap. III. SPEECH RESPECTING ESSEX. 57
acting. For three months she would not converse
with her “counsel extraordinary,” even on law
matters, and “she turned away from him with ex-
press and purpose-like discountenance wheresoever
she saw him.” At last, after new-year's-tide, he
boldly demanded an audience, with the evident in-
tention of intimating to her that he was ready to
renounce all connexion with Essex for ever. He
tells us that he thus addressed her:—“Madam, I
see you withdraw your favour from me, and now I
have lost many friends for your sake. I shall lose
you too: you have put me like one of those that the
Frenchmen call enfans perdus, that serve on foot
before horsemen; so have you put me into matters
of envy, without place or without strength; and I
know at chess a pawn before the king is ever much
played upon. A great many love me not because
they think I have been against my Lord of Essex,
and you love me not because you know I have been
for him; yet will I never repent me that I have
dealt in simplicity of heart towards you both, with-
out respect of cautions to myself, and, therefore,
vivus vidensque pereo. If I do break my neck, I
shall do it in a manner as Mr. Dorrington did it,
which walked on the battlements of the church many
days, and took a view and survey where he should
fall. And so, Madam, I am not so simple but that I
take a prospect of my overthrow; only I thought I
would tell you so much, that you may know that it
was faith, and not folly, that brought me into it, and
so I will pray for you.” He says, that by this speech,
58 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III.
wttered with some passion, her Majesty was exceed-
ingly moved, and said to him, Gratia mea sufficit,
with other sensible and tender words; but as touch-
ing my Lord of Essex, ne verbum quidem. “Where-
upon,” says he, “I departed, resting then determined
to meddle no more in the matter, as that, I saw,
would overthrow me, and not be able to do him any
good.”*
To this selfish resolve may be ascribed the fatal
catastrophe which soon followed. Essex, irritated by
the Queen's refusal to renew his patent for the
monopoly of sweet wines, was beginning to engage
in very criminal and very foolish projects; but if
Bacon, whom he was yet inclined to love and honour,
had continued to keep up an intercourse with him,
had visited him in Essex House, had seen the despe-
rate companions with whom he was there associating,
and had warned him of the danger to which he was
exposing himself and the state, it is utterly impos-
sible that the mad attempt to raise an insurrection in
the city, and forcibly to get possession of the Queen's
person, should ever have been hazarded. But the
rash enthusiast, suddenly deserted by him on whose
sagacity and experience he had relied ever since he
had entered into public life, listened to the advice
of men destitute alike of prudence and of virtue;
and, after committing the clearest acts of treason
and rebellion, was obliged to surrender himself to
justice.
It might have been expected that now, at any
* Apology. Works, vol. vi. 231.
Chap. III. COUNSEL AGAINST ESSEX. 59
rate, struck with remorse and overcome by tender-
ness, Bacon would have hastened to the noble pri-
soner's cell in the Tower to comfort and console him,
—to assist him in preparing an almost hopeless de-
fence,—to devise schemes with him for assuaging the
anger of the Queen,_to teach him how he might
best avail himself for his deliverance of that ring
which Bacon knew had been intrusted to him, with
a promise that it should bend her to mercy whenever
returned to her, which she was anxiously looking
to see till the very moment of his execution, and
the thought of which embittered her own end. At
all events, he might have helped his fated friend to
meet death, and have accompanied him to the scaffold,
Tranquillised by an assurance that he was to be
employed, along with the Queen's Serjeant and the
Attorney and Solicitor General, as counsel for the
Crown, on the trial of Essex before the Lord High
Steward, Bacon spent the ten days which elapsed
between the commitment to the Tower and the ar-
raignment, shut up in his chambers in Gray's Inn,
studying the law of treason, looking out for parallel

cases of an aggravated nature in the history of other ;
countries,—and considering how he might paint the
|
unpardonable guilt of the accused in even blacker :
colours than could be employed by the ferocious
Coke, famous for insulting his victims. ***~"
The 19th of February arrived. Bacon took his
place early at the bar of the Court constructed for
the Peers in Westminster Hall,—his mind filled with
the precedents and the tropes he had accumulated.
60 LIFE OF LORD BACON, Chap. III.
Even he must have felt a temporary pang when the
object of general sympathy, as yet little turned of
thirty years of age, whose courage was so exalted,
whose generosity was so unbounded, whose achieve-
ments were so brilliant, who had ever testified to
him a friendship not exceeded by any mentioned in
history or fiction, —was conducted into the Hall by
Sir Walter Raleigh and the officers of the Tower,
preceded by the axe, its edge still turned from him
till the certain verdict of Guilty should be pro-
nounced. Dut if Bacon felt a little awkwardness
when he first met the eye of his friend, he soon re-
covered his composure, and he conducted himself
throughout the day with coolness, zeal, and dexterity.
Yelverton, the Queen's Serjeant, and Coke, the
Attorney General, first addressed the Peers, and ad-
duced the evidence. Essex then, unassisted with
counsel, made his defence, chiefly dwelling upon the
provocation he had to right himself by force from
the machinations of his enemies, who had plotted his
destruction. The reply was intrusted to Bacon,
although it ought to have been undertaken by Flem-
ing, the Solicitor General. We have only a short
sketch of it, from which we learn, that, taunting
Essex with having denied nothing material, he par-
ticularly addressed himself to the apology he had
relied upon, comparing him to Cain, the first mur-
derer, who took up “an excuse by impudency,” and
to Pisistratus, who, doting on the affections of the citi-
zens, and wishing to usurp Supreme power, wounded
his own body that it might be thought he had been
Chap. III. TRIAL OF ESSEX. 61
in danger. He thus concluded, “And now, my
Lord, all you have said or can say in answer to these
matters are but shadows, and therefore methinks it
were your best course to confess, and not to justify.”
It so happened that the topics on which Essex had
relied in his defence were chiefly taken from a letter
which Bacon had penned for him to Queen Elizabeth.
The simple-minded Earl, unprepared for such du-
plicity, and unable to distinguish between his private
friend and the Queen's counsel, now exclaimed,
“May it please your Lordship, I must produce Mr.
Bacon for a witness.” He then went on to explain
the contents of the letter, whereby, “it will appear
what conceit he held of me, and now otherwise he
here coloureth and pleadeth the contrary.”
Bacon, a little abashed, thus retorted:—“My
Lord, I spent more hours to make you a good sub-
ject than upon any man in the world besides; but,
since you have stirred upon this point, my Lord, I
dare warrant you this letter will not blush; for I
did but perform the part of an honest man, and ever
laboured to have done you good, if it might have
been, and to no other end; for what I intended for
your good was wished from the heart, without touch
of any man's honour.”
Essex made a feeling appeal to the Peers sitting
on his trial against “these Orators, who, out of a form
and custom of speaking, would throw so much crimi-
nal odium upon him, while answering at the peril
of his life a particular charge brought against him.”
* Harl, MS. No. 6854. 1 St. Tr. 1350.
62 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap, III.
“And,” he said, in a manner that made a deep im-
pression on all who heard him, “I protest before the
ever-living God, as he may have mercy on me, that
my conscience is clear from any disloyal thought or
harm to her Majesty. My desire ever hath been
to be free from bloodshed. If in all my thoughts and
purposes I did not ever desire the good estate of my
Sovereign and country as of my own soul, I beseech
the Lord to set some mark upon me in this place for
a just vengeance of my untruths to all the world.
And God, which knoweth the secrets of all hearts,
knoweth that I never sought the crown of England,
nor ever wished to be a higher degree than a subject.
I only sought to secure my access to the Queen, that
I might speedily have unfolded my griefs unto her
Majesty against my private enemies, but not to have
shed one drop of their blood. For my religion it is
sound, and as I live I mean to die in it.”
This appeal might, from sympathy, have produced
a verdict of not guilty, or might have softened the
resentment of Elizabeth; but, to deprive him of all
chance of acquittal or of mercy, Bacon, after again
pointing out how slenderly he had answered the ob-
jections against him, most artfully and inhumanly
compared him to the Duke de Guise, the leader of
the league in France, who kept in tutelage the last
prince of the House of Valois, and who on “the day
of the Barricadoes” at Paris, intending to take for-
cible possession of his Sovereign's person, with the
purpose of dethroning him, had such confidence in
the love of the citizens, that he appeared to lead the
Chap. III. CONDUCT AFTER ESSEx's CONDEMNATION. 63
intended insurrection in his doublet and hose, at-
tended with only eight men,_and who, when he
was obliged to yield, the King taking arms against
him, pretended that he had merely contemplated
a private quarrel.
Essex having been condemned, Elizabeth wavered
to the last moment about carrying the sentence into
execution. One while relenting, she sent her com-
mands, by Sir Edward Carey, that he should not be
executed;—then, remembering his perverse obsti-
nacy, that he scorned to ask her pardon or to send
her the ring, the appointed pledge of love and re-
conciliation,-she from time to time recalled the
reprieve. It is highly probable that, under these
circumstances, Bacon might have saved the life of
his friend, either by advising him or interceding for
him. He went not to the Tower, and although,
“between the arraignment and my Lord's suffering,
he was once with the Queen, yet he durst not deal
directly for my Lord, as things stood.” He tells us,
indeed, that “he did commend her Majesty's mercy, , ,
terming it to her as an excellent balm that did con-
tinually distil from her sovereign hands, and made
an excellent odour in the senses of her people.” But
while he thus flattered her, he did not venture to
hint that her reputation for mercy would be endan-
gered by suffering the law to take its course against
Essex, who, though. technically guilty of treason,
instead of “imagining and compassing her death,”
felt for her the sincerest loyalty and reverence, and
64 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III.
would cheerfully have died in her defence. Why
did he not throw himself on his knees before her,
and pray for a pardon?—Because, while it was pos-
sible that he might have melted her, it was possible
that he might have offended her, and that, a vacancy
in the office of Solicitor-General occurring, he might
be again passed over.
Worse remains behind. The execution being
deeply deplored and censured by the people, and
Elizabeth, when she afterwards appeared in public,
being received with the coldest silence instead of the
enthusiastic plaudits to which she had been accus-
tomed for forty years, she wished a pamphlet to be
written to prove that Essex was properly put to
death, and she selected Francis Bacon to write it.
He, without hesitation, undertook the task, pleased
“that her Majesty had taken a liking of his pen,”
and, with his usual industry and ability, soon pro-
duced ‘A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons
of Robert, late Earl of Essex.’
No honourable man would purchase Bacon’s sub-
sequent elevation at the price of being the author of
this publication. A mere report of the trial for trea-
son would have been excusable ; but, to calumniate
the memory of his friend, he goes back to a period
when they were living together on terms of the
closest intimacy, when Essex was entirely under
his influence;—and he accuses him of crimes of
which he knew that the deceased was entirely inno-
cent. Having begun by saying that the favourite
z
|
Chap. III. BASENESS TO ESSEX's MEMORY. 65
aspired to the greatness of the Praefectus Praetorio
under the emperors of Rome, he charges him with
having formed a treasonable design when he first
went Deputy to Ireland. “For being a man by
nature of an high imagination, and a great promiser
to himself as well as to others, he was confident that
if he were once the first person in a kingdom, and a
sea between the Queen's seat and his, and Wales the
nearest land from Ireland, and that he had got the
flower of the English forces into his hands, which he
thought so to intermix with his own followers as the
whole body should move by his spirit, and if he
might also have absolutely into his own hands potes-
tatem vitae et meets et arbitrium belli et paeis over
the rebels, he should be able to make that place of
lieutenancy of Ireland as a rise or step to ascend to
his desired greatness in England.” Next, all his
proceedings in Ireland are converted into overt acts
of this treasonable design. But none knew better
than Bacon that, though Essex's Irish policy had
been unwise and unfortunate, he had most earnestly
done his best to serve his country, and that when he
returned he had been both publicly and privately
absolved of all disloyalty,+the only charge main-
tained against him being, that he had acted in some
instances contrary to his instructions. In the report
of the trial, several material passages of the deposi-
tions favourable to the accused are omitted; and in
the originals preserved in the State Paper Offices,
and verified by the handwriting of Sir Edward
Coke, there may be seen opposite these passages, in
$ F
66 IIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III.
the handwriting of Bacon, the abbreviated direction
—“om.”
Bacon vainly attempts to mitigate his own infamy
by saying, “Never Secretary had more particular
and express directions in every point how to guide
my hand in it;’—adding that, after the first draught,
it was materially altered by certain councillors to
whom it was propounded by her Majesty's appoint-
ment, he himself giving only words and form of
style. After the specimen I have exhibited, what
shall we say of his asseveration?—“their Lordships
and myself both were as religious and curious of truth
as desirous of satisfaction.”
The base ingratitude and the slavish meanness
manifested by Bacon on this occasion called forth the
general indignation of his contemporaries. He after-
wards tried to soften this by his ‘Apology, addresse
to Mountjoy Earl of Devonshire,’—a tract fro
which I have taken most of the facts on which m
censure is founded, and which seals his condemnation;
with posterity; as it not only admits these facts, bu
shows that he had before his eyes no just standard o
honour, and that in the race of ambition he had i.
all sense of the distinction between right and wrong:
A zealous advocate, however, has sprung up,

* This melancholy discovery was made by my fiend Mr. Jardine.
See his Criminal Trials, vol. i. 332.
t He begins by giving a false account of the origin of his connexion
with Essex: “I loved my country more than was answerable to my
fortune, and I held my Lord to be the fittest instrument to do good
to the state, and therefore I applied myself to him,” &c. He knew
well that the precocious boy was wholly unfit to be a minister of
state, and he applied himself to him because he hoped for advancement
from the new favourite,
Chap. III. DEFENCE BY MR. MONTAG.U. 67
who, considering Bacon to be the purest as well as the
“wisest and brightest of mankind,” pronounces his
conduct through the whole course of these transac-
tions to be deserving of high admiration.” It will
be necessary to do little more than notice the heads
of the defence or panegyric. 1. “Bacon did well
in preferring the Queen to Essex, as she had been so
kind to him ; and, instead of pampering him with
good things, made him for his advantage bear the
yoke in his youth.” This seems to proceed on the
Tanting and absurd maxim in the ‘Apology,’ that
“every honest man that hath his heart well planted
will forsake his friend rather than forsake his King.”
Friendship cannot justify treason or any violation of
the law; but are the sacred ties of friendship to be
snapped asunder by the caprice of any crowned head?
Elizabeth had conferred no personal obligations on
Bacon; she had refused him the professional ad-
vancement to which he was fairly entitled; and her
only object was to make the most of him at the least
cost. 2. “Bacon was bound to appear as counsel
against Essex, according to professional etiquette.”
Suppose that his dearly beloved brother, Anthony,
who was in the service of Essex, had taken part with
him in the insurrection on the 8th of February, and
had been prosecuted for high treason, must Francis
have appeared as counsel against him, and racked
his ingenuity that his brother might be hanged, em-
bowelled, beheaded, and quartered? Etiquette can-
not be opposed to the feelings of nature, or the
* Montagu's Life of Bacon.
F 2
68 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III.
dictates of morality. A dispensation might easily
have been obtained, if there had been a willingness
to renounce the advantage and éclat of the appear-
ance. 3. “Essex had abused his friendship, and
had assumed the dissembling attitude of humility
and penitence, that he might more securely aim a
blow at the very life of his royal benefactress.”
This is an utter misrepresentation of the object of
Essex's insurrection; at any rate, he had not engaged
in it till Bacon had selfishly thrown him off; and
Essex’s public crime could not cancel the claims of
private friendship, which he had never violated.
But, 4. “Bacon was bound not to run the risk of
marring his advancement, as he meant to use power,
when attained, for the benefit of mankind.” Will
the end justify the means? and was he not more
likely to improve the world by devoting himself to
the completion of the Instauratio Magna, than by
struggling to obtain the Great Seal, which he might
lose by taking a bribe 2
For some time after Essex's execution, Bacon was
looked upon with great aversion; and, from the na-
tural tendency of mankind to exaggerate, he was even
suspected of having actively prompted that measure.
But it is marvellous to witness what men of
brilliant talents, and of enterprise and energy, may
accomplish, in making the public forget their errors
and misconduct by means of drawing the public
attention to themselves in new situations and cir-
cumstanceS. g
Parliament meeting a few months after the execu-
Chap. III. BILL INTRODUCED BY HIM. 69
tion of Essex, that event which had so deeply in-
terested the nation was, for a time, almost forgotten
in the excitement occasioned by the Queen's ſainting
fit on the throne, the shutting out of the Commons
from the House of Lords when the royal speech was
delivered, and the efforts made to put down the
frightful grievance of monopolies. Bacon being
again returned as a member of the House of Com-
mons, we may believe that he was at first not only
shunned by the friends of Essex, but looked upon
very coldly by men of all parties and opinions. He
was determined to regain his ascendancy. In the
exercise of the privilege which then belonged to the
representatives of the people, and still belongs to
Peers, of laying bills on the table without previously
asking leave to bring them in, he immediately intro-
duced a bill “for the better suppressing abuses in
weights and measures,” saying, “This, Mr. Speaker,
is no bill of state nor of novelty, like a stately gallery
for pleasure, but neither to live in nor sleep in ; but
this bill is a bill of repose, of quiet, of profit, of true
and just dealings. The fault of using false weights
and measures is grown so intolerable and common,
that if you would build churches you shall not need
for battlements and halls, other than false weights
of lead and brass. I liken this bill to that sentence
of the poet who Sct this as a paradox in the fore-
front of his book: First water, then gold, preferring
necessity before pleasure. And I am of the same
opinion, that things necessary in use are better than
things which are glorious in estimation.” He said
70 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III.
he would speak to every particular clause “at the
passing of the bill.” But he was not able to carry
it, and the subject remained for legislation in the
reign of William IV.
A supply being proposed greater than was ever pre-
viously granted (four subsidies and eight fifteenths),
Bacon warmly supported it, and ridiculed a motion
for exempting “three-pound men,” saying, “dulcis
tractus pari jugo;” therefore, the poor as well as
the rich should pay.
This drew upon him a sarcasm from Sir Walter
Raleigh, then at variance with the Court, who (with-
out quoting Hansard) referred to Bacon's famous
patriotic speech, and said “that he was afraid our
enemies, the Spaniards, would hear of our selling
our pots and pans to pay subsidies. Dulcis tractus
pari jugo, says an honourable person. Call you this
par jugum, when a poor man pays as much as a
rich, and peradventure his estate is no better than
he is set at, when our estates, that be 30l. or 40l. in
the Queen's books, are not the hundredth part of
our wealth? Therefore, it is not dulcis nor par.”
The supply, nevertheless, was carried by a large
majority.
But the great question of the session was MONO-
POLY,-on which Bacon took a most discreditable
part. The grievance of grants of the exclusive
right to deal in commodities had become altogether
insupportable, and had caused the deepest ferment
throughout the kingdom. It is difficult to conceive
how society could subsist at a time when almost
Chap. III. SPEECH ON MONOPOLIES. 71
all matters of household consumption or commercial
adventure (with the exception of bread, which was
expected soon to be included) were assigned over to
monopolists, who were so exorbitant in their demands
that they sometimes raised prices tenfold; and who,
to Secure themselves against encroachments, were
armed with high and arbitrary powers to search
everywhere for contraband, and to oppress the people
at pleasure. A declaratory bill having been brought
in by Mr. Lawrence Hide to put down the grievance,
and to restore common-law freedom of trade, it was
thus opposed by—
Mr. Francis Bacon. “The bill is very injurious and
ridiculous; injurious, in that it taketh, or rather sweepeth,
away her Majesty’s prerogative ; and ridiculous, in that there
is a proviso that the statute shall not extend to grants made
to corporations; that is a gull to sweeten the bill withal; it
is only to make fools fain. All men of the law know that a
bill which is only expository, to expound the common-law,
doth enact nothing; neither is any promise of good therein.”
Mr. Secretary Cecil quoted Bracton: “Preroga-
tivum nostrum memo audeat disputare;” adding,
“and for my own part, I like not these courses
should be taken: and you, Mr. Speaker, should per-
form the charge her Majesty gave unto you in the
beginning of this parliament, not to receive bills of
this nature; for her Majesty's ears be open to all
grievances, and her hand stretched out to every
man's petition.””
Bacon made an evasive attempt to support the
abuse of monopolies by pretending that the proper
course was humbly to petition the Queen, that she
* 1 Parl. Hist, 934.
72 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. III,
would abstain from granting them, instead of legis-
lating against them; but the House showed such a
determined spirit, that the Queen was compelled to
yield; and she wisely put an end to the discussion
by sending a message, through the Speaker, that
the monopolies complained of should be cancelled.
Secretary Cecil now observed, “there is no patent
whereof the execution, as I take it, hath not been
injurious. Would that there never had been any
granted. Ihope there shall never be more.” Where-
upon there were loud cheers, according to the fashion
of the time: “all the House said AMEN.”* There
is nothing more interesting in our constitutional his-
tory, than to trace the growing power and influence
of the House of Commons, from the increasing wealth
and intelligence of the middling orders during the
reign of Elizabeth, notwithstanding the arbitrary
orders which she issued to them, and her habit,
hardly considered illegal, of sending members to gaol
when they offended her. The abolishers of mono-
polies were the fathers of those patriots who, in the
next generation, passed “the Petition of Right,”
and assembled in the Long Parliament.—Bacon him-
self lived to see both Houses unanimous in putting
down judicial corruption.
In this reign he did not again take part in any
affairs of importance. Like the Cecils, he was turn-
ing his eyes to the north, where the rising light he
was desirous to worship was to appear.
* 1 Parl. Hist, 934.
Chap. IV. ACCESSION OF JAMES I. 73
CHAPTER IV.
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD BACON FROM THE
ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TILL HIS APPOINTMENT AS LORD
KEEPER.
BACON had not contrived to open any direct com-
munication with James during Elizabeth's life;—
but no sooner had she breathed her last at Richmond,
than he took active steps to recommend himself to
the new monarch. He first wrote letters to Fowlys,
a confidential person at the Scottish court, to be
shown to James, in which (among other flatteries)
he says, “We all thirst after the King's coming,
accounting all this but as the dawning of the day
before the rising of the sun, till we have his pre-
sence.” He wrote similar letters to Sir Thomas
Chaloner, an Englishman, who had gone down to
salute James, and was made governor to Prince
Henry, to Dr. Morrison, a physician at Edinburgh,
in the confidence of James, and to Lord Kinlosse,
his prime favourite, who, strangely enough, for want
of a place for which he was fitter, was made Master
of the Rolls. In a few days after he addressed a
letter directed to James himself. Having heard of
* Works, vol. v. 272,
74 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
his pedantic taste, he thus tries to suit it: “It may
please your most excellent Majesty,+It is observed
by some upon a place in the Canticles, Ego sum flos
campi et lilium convallium, that a dispari, it is not
said, Ego sum flos horti et lilium montium, because
the majesty of that person is not enclosed for a few,
nor appropriated to the great.” He then goes on to
say, that he would not have made oblation of himself,
had it not been for the liberty which he enjoyed
with his late dear sovereign Mistress, “a princess
happy in all things, but most happy in such a suc-
cessor.” Having extolled the services of old Sir
Nicholas and of his brother Anthony, and modestly
alluding to his own, he thus shows the measure he
had taken of the discernment and taste of King
James. “And therefore, most high and mighty
King, my most dear and dread Sovereign Lord,
since now the corner-stone is laid of the mightiest
monarchy in Europe, and that God above who hath
ever a hand in bridling the floods and motions both
of the seas and of people's hearts, hath by the mira- .
culous and universal consent, the more strange
because it proceedeth from such diversity of causes
in your coming in, given a sign and token of great
* This seems to have afforded a happy hint for the famous Dedica-
tion (“with a double aspect”) of a law-book to Lord Eldon by a
gentleman, who, after obtaining permission to dedicate to him, and
before the book was published, seeing his intended patron suddenly
turned out of office,—after some compliments to departing greatness,
says, “but your felicity is that you contemplate in your successor a
person whose judgment will enable him to appreciate your merits, and
whose talents have procured him a name among the eminent lawyers
of his country.”—Raithby's Edition of Vernon.
t
Chap. IV. RENEWAL OF HIS PATENT. 75.
happiness in the continuance of your reign, +I think
there is no subject of your Majesty's which loveth
this island, and is not hollow and unworthy, whose
heart is not set on fire not only to bring you peace-
offerings to make you propitious, but to sacrifice
himself a burnt-offering or holocaust to your Majesty's
Service.”*
Nevertheless, by some accident, Bacon's name
was omitted in the first warrant sent from Holyrood,
for continuing different persons connected with the
law in their offices; but on the 21st of April, when
James had reached Worksopp in his progress to the
south, he addressed another warrant to the Lord
Keeper, whereby, after reciting that he had been
informed that Francis Bacon, Esq., was one of the
learned counsel to the late Queen by special com-
mandment, he says, “Therefore we do require you
to signify our pleasure to him and others to whom it
shall appertain to be thereof certified, that our
meaning is he shall continue to be of our learned
counsel in such manner as before he was to the
Queen.”
As James approached, Bacon sent him the draught
of a proclamation which he recommended to be
issued,—“giving assurance that no man's virtue
should be left idle, unemployed, or unrewarded;”
but it was not adopted, as greater expectations of
advancement had been already excited than could
possibly be gratified.
Immediately on the King's arrival at Whitehall,
* Works, vol. v. 275.
76 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
Bacon was presented to him, and had a promise of
private access. He thus confidentially describes
James to the Earl of Northumberland, who had not
yet been at Court:—“His speech is swift and cur-
sory, and in the full dialect of his country; in
speech of business, short; in speech of discourse,
large. He affecteth popularity by gracing such as
he hath heard to be popular, and not by any fashions
of his own. He is thought somewhat general in his
favours, and his virtue of access is rather because he
is much abroad and in press than that he giveth
easy audience. He hasteneth to a mixture of both
kingdoms faster than policy will well bear. I told
your Lordship, once before, that methought his
Majesty rather asked counsel of the time past than
of the time to come; * but it is yet early to ground
any settled opinion.” - -
He pretended that he had formed a resolution to
devote himself for the rest of his days to philosophy,
saying, “My ambition now I shall only put upon
my pen, whereby I shall be able to maintain
memory and merit of the times succeeding.”f But
in reality a ludicrous anxiety had entered the mind
of the great Bacon—that he might be dubbed a
knight, and in creditable fashion. Under the
Tudors, knighthood was a distinction reserved to
grace the highest offices, and to reward the most
eminent services, James, from his accession, lavished
* Bacon immediately discovered this defect in the Stuart character,
which proved fatal to the dynasty. -
f Letter to Cecil, July 3, 1603.
Chap. IV. IKNIGHTED. 77
it on almost all who solicited it, and turned it into a
source of profit, by compelling all who had land of
the yearly value of forty pounds to submit to it on
payment of high fees, or to compound for it accord-
ing to their ability. Bacon, perhaps, would have
been better pleased with the rare distinction of
escaping it, but for the special reasons he assigns in
the following letter to Cecil, soliciting that it might
be conferred upon him : — “It may please your good
Lordship—for this divulged and almost prostituted
title of knighthood, I could, without charge, by
your honour's mean, be content to have it, both
because of this late disgrace,” and because I have
three new knights in my mess in Gray's Inn com-
mons, and because I have found out an Alderman's
daughter, a handsome maiden, to my liking. So as
if your honour will find the time, I will come to the
Court from Gorhambury upon any warning.”
A promise being obtained, he now writes to Cecil,
praying that he should be knighted privately by
himself—“For my knighthood I wish the manner
might be such as might grace me, since the matter
will not—I mean that I might be merely gregarious
in a troop. The coronation is at hand.” In this
desire for a solitary ceremony he was disappointed,
and on the 23rd of July, the day of the coronation,
he was obliged to kneel down with a mob of above
300, and to receive a stroke of a sword from James,
* I do not know what this refers to. I do not find that he com-
plained of the re-appointment of Coke and Fleming as Attorney and
Solicitor General. -
78 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
who was almost frightened to handle it, or look at
it even when so used. However, he rose Sir
Francis; he was as good as the other members of
his mess at Gray's Inn, and the handsome and rich
Miss Barnham speedily became Lady Bacon. I am
afraid that this was a match of mere convenience,
and not very auspicious.
At the commencement of the new reign Bacon
'experienced some embarrassment from the part he
had taken against Essex,−there being a strong
manifestation of affection towards the memory of
that nobleman, and in favour of the party who had
supported him. The Earl of Southampton, famous
as the enlightened patron and generous friend of
Shakspeare, had been tried for treason, and, being
convicted, had been kept close prisoner in the
Tower till the death of Elizabeth. His pardon was
now expected, and crowds went to visit him while
he still remained in confinement. Among these
Bacon did not venture to show himself, but he wrote
a letter to the Earl, betraying a deep consciousness
of having done what was wrong. “Yet,” says he
(clearly reflecting on his honoured mistress), “it is
as true as a thing that God knoweth, that this
change hath wrought in me no other change towards
your Lordship than this, that I may safely be that
to you now which I was truly before.”
This meanness excited nothing but disgust, and
there was such a strong expression of resentment
against him, that, instead of waiting quietly till the
* Works, v. 281.
Chap. IV. TRIAL OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 79
public should be occupied with other subjects, he
very imprudently published ‘The Apology of Sir
Francis Bacon in certain Imputations concerning
the late Earl of Essex,” an apology which has in-
jured him more with posterity than all the attacks
upon him by his enemies.
His first appearance in public, in the new reign,
was as one of the counsel for the Crown on the trial
of Sir Walter. Raleigh, arising out of the conspiracy
to put Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne; but he
was not permitted by Coke, the Attorney General,
to address the jury, or even to examine any of the
witnesses; and, in his present depressed state, he
was rather pleased to escape from public observation.
If he had any malignity, it must have been abun-
dantly gratified by witnessing the manner in which
his browbeating rival exposed himself on this oc-
casion.*
* Coke, stopping Raleigh in his defence, denounced him as ańatheist,
and saying he had an English face but a Spanish heart. Cecil, one of
the Commissioners, said, “Be not so impatient, Mr. Attorney; give
him leave to speak.”
Coke. “If I may not be patiently heard, you will encourage traitors
and discourage us. I am the King's sworn servant, and I must speak.
If he be guilty, he is a traitor; if not, deliver him.”
Note. Mr. Attorney sat down in a chafe, and would speak no more
until the Commissioners urged and entreated him. After much ado
he went on, and made a long repetition of all the evidence for the
direction of the jury; and at the repeating of some things Sir Walter
Raleigh interrupted him, and said he did him wrong.
Coke. “Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever
lived.”
Raleigh. “You speak indiscreetly, barbarously, and uncivilly.”
Coke. “I want words sufficient to express your viperous treasons.”
Raleigh. “I think you want words, indeed, for you have spoken
one thing half a dozen times.”
Coke,
80 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
When James's first parliament met, in the spring
of the following year, Bacon again raised his crest,
and made the world forget, if not forgive, his past
misconduct. Being returned to the House of Com-
mon's both for St. Alban's and Ipswich, he chose to
serve for the latter borough, which certainly had a
most active and able representative. During this
session he spoke in every debate, he sat upon
twenty-nine committees, and he contrived to make
himself popular, by standing up for a redress of
grievances, and a special favourite of the King, by
supporting James's pet plan of a union with Scot-
land. He was appointed one of the Commissioners
for negotiating this great measure, and did all he
could to soften the prejudices of the English nation
against it. -
Soon after the prorogation, as a mark of royal
approbation, he was re-appointed King's Counsel,
with a salary of forty pounds a year,” and a pension
of sixty pounds a year was granted to him for special
services rendered to the Crown by his deceased bro-
ther Anthony and himself. By the death of this
Coke. “Thou art an odious fellow: thy name is hateful to all the
realm of England for thy pride.”
Raleigh. “It will go near to prove a measuring cast between you
and me, Mr. Attorney.”
Coke. “Well, I will now make it appear to the world that there
never lived a viler viper upon the face of the earth than thou.”—
2 St. Tr. 26. * -
* This salary of 40l. a-year, with an allowance of stationery, was
continued to all King's Counsel down to the reign of William IV.,
when it was very properly withdrawn, King's counselship becoming a
grade in the profession of the law instead of an office. But the
moderate salary of the Attorney General was swept away at the same.
time, although he was still compelled to pay the land-tax upon it,
Chap. IV. PROJECTED HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 81
brother he had recently come into possession of
Gorhambury and other landed property, but he
was still occasionally obliged to borrow money by
pawning his valuables.*
In the autumn of this year Bacon paid a visit to
his friend Sir Henry Saville, Provost of Eton, and
on his return addressed an interesting letter to him
upon the subject of education, enclosing a tract
entitled ‘Helps to the Intellectual Powers,’ which
strongly inculcated improved methods of study.
. Soon after he wrote a letter to Lord Chancellor
Ellesmere, with proposals to write a History of
England; and he prepared a work, inscribed to the
King, ‘Of the greatness of the Kingdom of Great
Britain,’ with the courtly motto, “Fortunatos
mimium sua si bona norint.”f 3.
To the composition of such fugitive pieces he
must have resorted as a recreation while he was
elaborating his noble treatise on the “Advancement
of Learning,’ which appeared in 1605, and exceeded
the high expectations which had been formed of it.
His fame as a philosopher and a fine writer was now
for ever established.
Yet on the meeting of parliament, in November,
he plunged into business with unabated ardour.
When the excitement of the Gunpowder Plot had
subsided, he again brought forward a project for
* In the Egerton Papers there is a receipt, under date August 21,
1604, from a money-lender, for “a jewell of Susanna sett with dia-
monds and rubys,” on which he had advanced Sir Francis Bacon, Knt.,
50l.—p. 395.
+ Works, v. 293,
G
82 LIFE OF LORD BACON: Chap. IV.
improving the law by abolishing “Wardship” and
the other grievances of “Tenure in chivalry;” he
made speeches as well as wrote pamphlets in support
of the Union; and he was as active as ever both in
debate and in committees.
But he became much soured by the reflection.
that he derived little reward beyond praise for all
his exertions. He was so much occupied with
politics while parliament was sitting, and with
literature during the recess, that his private practice
at the bar was extremely slender, and now in his
47th year he could hardly bear the ill luck by which
his official advancement had been so long delayed.
Coke, the Attorney-General, envying the fame
which Bacon had acquired in the House of Com-
mons, and by his writings, which he pretended to
despise, still did everything in his power to de-
press him, and they had an interchange of sarcasms
from time to time, although they had not again
forgot the rules of propriety so far as in their famous
altercation in the time of Elizabeth. But Coke's.
insolence increasing, and the recurrence of such a
scene seeming not improbable, Bacon wrote him the
following letter of expostulation:
“Mr. Attorney,
“I thought best once for all to let you know in plainness
what I find of you, and what you shall find of me. You
take to yourself a liberty to disgrace and disable my law, my
experience, my discretion. What it pleaseth you, I pray,
think of me: I am one that knows both mine own wants
and other men's, and it may be perchance that mine mend
when others stand at a stay. And Surely I may not endure
Chap. IV. LETTER TO COKE. 83
in public place to be wronged without repelling the same to
my best advantage to right myself. You are great, and
therefore have the more enviers, which would be glad to have
you paid at another’s cost. Since the time I missed the
Solicitor's place, the rather I think by your means, I cannot
expect that you and I shall ever serve as Attorney and Soli-
citor together ; but either to serve with another upon your
remove, or to step into some other course; so as I am more free
than ever I was from any occasion of unworthy conforming
myself to you, more than general good manners or your par-
ticular good usage shall provoke; and if you had not been
short-sighted in your own fortune, as I think, you might
have had more use of me. But that tide is passed. I write
not this to show my friends what a brave letter I have written
to Mr. Attorney; I have none of those humours; but that
I have written is to a good end, that is, to the more decent
carriage of my Master's service, and to our particular better
understanding one of another. This letter, if it shall be
answered by you in deed and not in word, I suppose it will
not be worse for us both ; else it is but a few lines lost,
which for a much smaller matter I would have adventured.
So this being to yourself I for my part rest.” "
Soon after this letter was written, the bar was
relieved from the tyrant who had ruled over it so
long with a rod of iron, by the promotion of Sir
Edward Coke to the office of Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas on the death of Lord Chief Justice
Gawdey. In contemplation of this move, Bacon had
written a letter to his cousin, now Earl of Salis-
bury and Prime Minister, in which he says,
“It is thought Mr. Attorney shall be Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas: in case the Solicitor rise, I would be glad
now at last to be Solicitor; chiefly because I think it would
* Works, v. 297.
G 2
84. LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
increase my practice, wherein, God blessing me a few years,
I may mend my state, and so after fall to my studies at ease;
whereof one is requisite for my body, and the other serveth
for my mind: wherein if I shall find your Lordship's favour,
I shall be more happy than I have been, which may make
me also more wise. I have Small store of means about the
King, and to sue myself is not fit; and therefore I shall leave
it to God, his Majesty, and your Lordship, for I must still be
next the door. I thank God in these transitory things I am
well resolved.””
Notwithstanding this affected calmness, he im-
mediately addressed another letter to Salisbury
betraying great anxiety :
“I am not ignorant how mean a thing I stand for, in de-
siring to come into the Solicitor's place; for I know well it
is not the thing it hath been, time having wrought altera-
tion both in the profession and in the special place. Yet
because I think it will increase my practice, and that it may
satisfy my friends, and because I have been voiced to it, I
would be glad it were done. Wherein I may say to-your
Lordship in the confidence of your poor kinsman, and of a
man by you advanced, Tu idem fer opem, qui Spem dedisti ;
for I am sure it was not possible for a man living to have re-
ceived from another more significant and comfortable words
of hope, your Lordship being pleased to tell me, during the
course of my last service, that you would raise me, and that
when you had resolved to raise a man you were more careful
of him than himself; and that what you had done for me in
my marriage was a benefit to me, but of no use to your
Lordship, and therefore I might assure myself you would not
leave me there ;-with many like speeches, which I know
my duty too well to take any other hold of, than the hold of
a thankful remembrance. And I acknowledge, and all the
world knoweth, that your Lordship is no dealer of holy
* Works, v. 298,
Chap. IV. LETTER TO LORD ELLESMERE. 85
water, but noble and real; and on my part, I am of a sure
ground that I have committed nothing that may deserve
alteration. And therefore my hope is, your Lordship will
finish a good work, and consider that time groweth precious
with me, that I am now in vergentibus annis. And although
I know that your fortune is not to need an hundred such as
I am, yet I shall be ever ready to give you my first and best
fruits, and to supply as much as in me lieth worthiness by
thankfulness.” +
Bacon was again disappointed. From some in-
trigue not explained to us, of which his old enemy
Sir Edward Coke was the author, Sir Henry Hobart
was put into the office of Attorney-General, and
there was no vacancy in that of Solicitor. He ex-
pressed such deep resentment, that an expedient
was proposed to create a vacancy by making the
Solicitor General King's Serjeant, with a promise of
farther promotion. Bacon sought to quicken this job
by the following letter to the Lord Chancellor :—
“It may please your good Lordship –As I conceived it
to be a resolution, both with his Majesty and among your
Lordships of his Council, that I should be placed Solicitor,
and the Solicitor to be removed to be the King's Serjeant ; so
I must thankfully acknowledge your Lordship's furtherance
and forwardness therein; your Lordship being the man who
first devised the mean ; wherefore my humble request to
your Lordship is, that you would set in with some strength to
finish this your work; which, I assure your Lordship, I desire
the rather, because, being placed, I hope for many favours at
last to be able to do you some little service. For as I am,
your Lordship cannot use me, nor Scarcely indeed know me.
Not that I vainly think I shall be able to do any great
matters, but certainly it will frame me to use a more industrious
* Works, v. 299.
86 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
observance and application to such as I honour so much as
I do your Lordship, and not, I hope, without some good
offices which may now and then deserve your thanks. And
herewithal, good my Lord, I humbly pray your Lordship to
consider that time groweth precious with me, and that a
married man is seven years older in his, thoughts the first
day: and therefore what a discomfortable thing is it for me
to be unsettled still P Certainly, were it not that I think
myself born to do my Sovereign service, and therefore in that
station I will live and die; otherwise for mine own private
comfort, it were better for me that the King should blot me
out of his book; or that I should turn my course to endea-’
vour to serve in some other kind, than for me to stand thus
at a stop; and to have that little reputation, which by my
industry I gather, to be scattered and taken away by con-
tinual disgraces, every new man coming above me. Sure I
am I shall never have fairer promises and words from your
Lordships. For I know what my services are, saving that
your Lordships told me they were good, and I would believe
you in a much greater matter. Were it nothing else, I hope
the modesty of my suit deserveth somewhat ; for I know
well the Solicitor's place is not as your Lordship left it;
time working alteration, somewhat in the profession, much
more in that special place. And were it not to satisfy my
wife's friends, and to get myself out of being a common gaze
and a speech, I protest before God I would never speak a
word for it. But to conclude, as my honourable Lady, your
wife, was some mean to make me change the name of
another; So if it please you to help me to change mine own
name, I can be but more and more bounden to you ; and I
am much deceived if your Lordship find not the King well
inclined, and my Lord of Salisbury forward and affec-
tionate.” #
However, great difficulties were experienced from
Mr. Solicitor's unwillingness to resign, and Bacon,
* Works, v. 300.
Chap. IV. LETTER TO THE KING. 87
in despair, addressed the following letter to King
James:– ---.
“How honestly ready I have been, most gracious Sove-
reign, to do your Majesty humble service to the best of my
power, and, in a manner, beyond my power, as I now stand,
I am not so unfortunate but your Majesty knoweth. For
both in the Commission of Union, labour whereof, for men
of my profession, rested most upon my hand; and this
last parliament, in the bill of the subsidy, both body and
preamble; in the matter of the purveyance; in the eccle-
siastical petitions; in the grievances, and the like; as I was
ever careful, and not without good success, sometimes to put
forward that which was good, sometimes to keep back that
which was not so good; so your Majesty was pleased kindly
to accept of my services, and to say to me, such conflicts
were the wars of peace, and such victories the victories of
peace; and therefore such servants as obtained them were,
by Kings that reign in peace, no less to be esteemed than ser-
vices of commanders in the wars. In all which, nevertheless,
I can challenge to myself no sufficiency, but that I was diligent
and reasonably happy to execute those directions which I re-
ceived either immediately from your royal mouth, or from
my Lord of Salisbury: at which time it pleased your Ma-
jesty also to promise and assure me, that upon the remove of
the then Attorney I should not be forgotten, but brought
into ordinary place. And this was after confirmed to me by
many of my Lords, and towards the end of the last term the
manner also in particular was spoken of : that is, that Mr.
Solicitor should be made your Majesty’s Serjeant, and I
Solicitor; for so it was thought best to sort with both our
gifts and faculties for the good of your service; and of this
resolution both court and country took knowledge. Neither
was this any invention or project of mine own ; but moved
from my Lords, and I think first from my Lord Chancellor;
whereupon resting, your Majesty well knoweth I never
opened my mouth for the greater place; though I am sure I
88 IIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
*
had two circumstances that Mr. Attorney, that now is, could
not allege : the one, nine years’ service of the Crown; the
other, the being cousin-germain to the Lord of Salisbury,
whom your Majesty esteemeth and trusteth so much. But
for the less place, I conceived it was meant me. But after
that Mr. Attorney Hobart was placed, I heard mo more of my
preferment ; but it seemed to be at a stop, to my great dis-
grace and discouragement. For, gracious Sovereign, if still,
when the waters are stirred, another shall be put in before
me, your Majesty had need work a miracle, or else I shall be
still a lame man to do your Majesty service. And, therefore,
my most humble suit to your Majesty is, that this, which
seemed to me intended, may speedily be performed; and, I
hope, my former Service shall be but as beginnings to better,
when I am better strengthened : for, sure I am, no man’s
heart is fuller. I say not but many may have greater hearts;
but, I say, not fuller of love and duty towards your Majesty
and your children, as I hope time will manifest against envy
and detraction, if any be. To conclude, I must humbly
crave pardon for my boldness, and rest, &c.”% -
All parties were joyfully relieved from this em-
barrassment by the opportune death of Popham,
Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and in conse-
quence of the legal promotions which then took
place, on the 25th day of June, in the fifth year
of the reign of King James, and in the year of
grace 1607, Francis Bacon at last became Soli-
citor General to the Crown It was an infelicity
in his lot that, notwithstanding his capacity and his
services, he never was promoted to any office with-
out humiliating solicitations to ministers, favourites,
and Sovereigns.
* Works, v. 302.
Chap. IV. MADE SOLICITOR GENERAL. 89
The new Solicitor, who had made a most ela-
borate speech in favour of the Union with Scotland,
pressing into his service the stories of Alexander
and Parmenio, of Abraham and Lot, and of Solom
and Croesus, and boldly combating the argument,
that, if the measure were adopted, England would
be overrun with Scots, now strongly pressed that,
as a preliminary step, Parliament would at any
rate naturalize their northern fellow-subjects; but
finding that this could not be carried by bill, he
resorted to the expedient of obtaining a judicial
decision, that all the Postnati were naturalized by
operation of law. He argued the case very learnedly
in the Exchequer Chamber; and, what was pro-
bably more efficacious, he laboured the Judges out
of Court to bring them to the King's wishes.”
Hobart, the Attorney General, was a shy and timid
man, and the chief direction of the law business of
the Crown was left to Bacon.
But the only prosecution of much consequence
during the six years he was Solicitor General was
that of Lord Sanquhar for the murder of the fencing
master, who had accidentally put out one of the
northern peer's eyes in playing at rapier and dagger.
This he conducted with a becoming mixture of
firmness and mildness. After clearly stating the law
and the facts, he thus addressed the prisoner:—“I
will conclude towards you, my Lord, that though
your offence hath been great, yet your confession
hath been free; and this shows that, though you
* 2 St, Tr. 559, Case of Postnati. Works, vol. iv. 319.
90 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
{}
could not resist the tempter, yet you bear a
Christian and generous mind, answerable to the
noble family of which you are descended.”* The
conviction and execution of this Scotch nobleman
have been justly considered as reflecting great credit
on the administration of justice in the reign of
James.
Bacon's practice at the bar, as he expected, did
increase considerably by the prestige of office. The
most important civil case in which he was concerned
was that of Sutton's Hospital, in which the validity
of the noble foundation of the Charter House was
established against his strenuous and able efforts.f
A new court being created, called the “Court of
the Verge of the Palace,” he was appointed Judge
of it, and he opened it with a charge to the jury,
recommending a strict execution of the law against
duelling.
Mr. Solicitor in the mean time steadily went on
with his philosophical labours, of which he occa-
sionally gave a taste to the world in anticipation of
what was still to be expected. He now published
the ‘Cogitata et Visa, perhaps his most wonderful
effort of subtle reasoning, and the “De Sapientiá
Veterum,’ decidedly his most successful display of
imagination and wit. Of these he sent copies to
his friend Mr. Matthew, saying, “My great workſ
goeth forward, and, after my manner, I alter ever
when I add.” He likewise published a new and
greatly enlarged edition of his Essays.
* 2 St. Tr. 743. + 10 Co. 1. 1 Novum Organum.
Chap. IV. SOLICITS THE KING FOR PROMOTION. 9I
But, after all, what was nearest his heart was his
official advancement. He was impatient to be At-
torney General, for the superior profit and dignity
of that situation;–and to secure it to himself on
the next vacancy, he wrote the following letter to
the King:—
“It may please your Majesty,
“Your great and princely favours towards me, in ad-
vancing me to place; and, that which is to me of no less
comfort, your Majesty’s benign and gracious acceptation,
from time to time, of my poor services, much above the
merit and value of them ; hath almost brought me to an
opinion that I may sooner, perchance, be wanting to myself
in not asking, than find your Majesty wanting to me in any
my reasonable and modest desires. And, therefore, per-
ceiving how, at this time, preferments of law fly about mine
ears, to some above me, and to some below me, I did con-
ceive your Majesty may think it rather a kind of dulness, or
want of faith, than modesty, if I should not come with my
pitcher to Jacob's well, as others do. Wherein I shall pro-
pound to your Majesty that which tendeth not so much to
the raising of my fortune, as to the settling of my mind;
being sometimes assailed with this cogitation, that by reason
of my slowness to see and apprehend sudden occasions,
keeping in one plain course of painful Service, I may, in fine
dierum, be in danger to be neglected and forgotten; and if
that should be, then were it much better for me now, while
I stand in your Majesty’s good opinion, though unworthy,
and have some little reputation in the world, to give over
the course I am in, and to make proof to do you some honour
by my pen, either by writing some faithful narrative of your
happy, though not untraduced times; or by recompiling
your laws, which, I perceive, your Majesty laboureth with,
and hath in your head, as Jupiter had Pallas, or some other
the like work, for without some endeavour to do you honour
92 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
I would not live; than to spend my wits and time in this
laborious place wherein I now serve; if it shall be deprived
of those outward ornaments which it was wont to have, in
respect of an assured succession to some place of more dignity
and rest, which seemeth now to be an hope altogether casual,
if not wholly intercepted. Wherefore, not to hold your
Majesty long, my humble suit to your Majesty is that, than
the which I cannot well go lower; which is, that I may
obtain your royal promise to succeed, if I live, into the
Attorney’s place, whensoever it shall be void; it being but
the natural and immediate step and rise which the place I
now hold hath ever, in sort, made claim to, and almost never
failed of. In this suit Imake no friends but to your Majesty,
rely upon no other motive but your grace, nor any other
assurance but your word; whereof I had good experience,
when I came to the Solicitor's place, that it was like to the
two great lights, which in their motions are never retrograde.
So with my best prayers for your Majesty's happiness, I
rest.” +
e’
James admitted him to an audience, and pro-
mised, on the word of a King, that his request
should be granted. Some time after, Hobart fell
dangerously ill, upon which Bacon wrote to remind
his Majesty of his promise.
“It may please your most excellent Majesty,
“I do understand by some of my good friends, to my
great comfort, that your Majesty hath in mind your Majesty's
royal promise, which to me is anchora Spei, touching the
Attorney’s place. I hope Mr. Attorney shall do well. I
thank God I wish no man's death, nor much mine own life,
more than to do your Majesty service. For I account my
life the accident, and my duty the substance. For this I
will be bold to say, if it please God that I ever serve your
* Works, v. 322.
Chap. IV.- LETTERS TO THE KING, 93
Majesty in the Attorney’s place, I have known an Attorney
Coke, and an Attorney Hobart, both worthy men, and far
above myself; but if I should not find a middle way between
their two dispositions and carriages, I should not satisfy
myself. But these things are far or near, as it shall please
God. Meanwhile, I most humbly pray your Majesty to
accept my sacrifice of thanksgiving for your gracious favour.
God preserve your Majesty. I ever remain, .” +
If he was sincere in his hope that “Mr. Attorney
should do well,” he was gratified by Sir Henry's
entire recovery.
Nevertheless, on the death of Fleming, the object
was, with a little intriguing, accomplished. Bacon
immediately wrote the following letter to the King:—
“It may please your most excellent Majesty,
“Having understood of the death of the Lord Chief Justice,
I do ground in all humbleness as an assured hope, that your
Majesty will not think of any other but your poor servants,
your Attorney and your Solicitor, one of them for that place.
Else we shall be like Noah's dove, not knowing where to
rest our feet. For the places of rest after the extreme painful
places wherein we serve have used to be either the Lord
Chancellor's place, or the Mastership of the Rolls, or the
places of Chief Justices; whereof for the first I could be
almost loth to live to see this worthy Chancellor fail. f. The
Mastership of the Rolls is blocked with a reversion. f My
Lord Coke is likely to outlive us both. So as, if this turn
fail, I for my part know not whither to look. I have served
your Majesty above a prenticehood full seven years and more
as your Solicitor, which is, I think, one of the painfullest
places in your kingdom, especially as my employments have
been ; and God hath brought mine own years to fifty-two,
* Works, v. 323. f Ellesmere,
| Lord Kinlosse to be succeeded by Sir Julius Caesar.
94 LIFE OF TORD BACON. Chap, IV.
which I think is older than ever any Solicitor continued
unpreferred. My Suit is principally that you would remove
Mr. Attorney to the place. If he refuse, then I hope your
Majesty will seek no farther than myself, that I may at last,
out of your Majesty’s grace and favour, step forwards to a
place either of more comfort or more ease. Besides, how
necessary it is for your Majesty to strengthen your service
amongst the Judges by a Chief Justice which is sure to your
prerogative, your Majesty knoweth. Therefore I cease
farther to trouble your Majesty, humbly craving pardon,
and relying wholly on your goodness and remembrance, and
resting in all true humbleness, &c.””
The King was ready to appoint either the Attorney
or Solicitor; but Hobart was unwilling to resign
his present office, thrice as profitable as that
offered him and held by as good a tenure, and
Bacon himself, notwithstanding what he said about
the worthy Chancellor Ellesmere, was eager for the
Great Seal. He therefore resorted to a most masterly
stroke of policy,+to remove Coke to the King's
Bench, and to make a vacancy in the office of
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, which, from its
superior profit as well as quiet, Hobart was very
willing to accept. With this view he drew up and
submitted to the King—
“Reasons why it should be exceedingly much for his
Majesty's service to remove the Lord Coke from the place
he now holdeth to be Chief Justice of England, and the
Attorney to succeed him, and the Solicitor the Attorney.
“First, It will strengthen the King's causes greatly
amongst the Judges, for both my Lord Coke will think
* himself near a Privy Councillor's place, and thereupon turn
* Works, vi. 70.
Chap IV. BECOMES ATTORNEY GENERAL. 95
obsequious, and the Attorney General, a new man and a
grave person in a Judge's place, will come in well to the
other, and hold him hard to it, not without emulation
between them who shall please the King best.
“Secondly, The Attorney General sorteth not so well with
his present place, being a man timid and scrupulous, both in
parliament and other business, and one, in a word, that was
made fit for the late Lord Treasurer’s seat, which was to do
little with much formality and protestation; whereas the
new Solicitor, going more roundly to work, and being of a
quicker and more earnest temper, and more effectual in that
he dealeth in, is like to recover that strength to the King's
prerogative which it hath had in times past, and which is
due unto it. And for that purpose there must be brought
to be Solicitor some man of courage and speech, and a
grounded lawyer; which done, his Majesty will speedily
find a marvellous change in his business. For it is not to
purpose for the Judges to stand well disposed, except the
King's counsel, which is the active and moving part, put the
Judges well to it; for in a weapon, what is a back without
an edge P
“Thirdly, The King shall continue and add reputation to
the Attorney’s and Solicitor's place by this orderly advance-
ment of them ; which two places are the champion's places
for his rights and prerogative, and, being stripped of their
expectations and Successions to great place, will wax vile,
and then his Majesty’s prerogative goeth down the wind.
Besides this remove of my Lord Coke to a place of less profit,
though it be with his will, yet will be thought abroad a
kind of discipline to him for opposing himself in the
King's causes, the example whereof will contain others in
more awe.” #
This plan was immediately adopted: Hobart, the
Attorney General, became Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas, and Bacon Attorney General.
* Works, vi. 71.
96 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
Soon after, the new Chief Justice of the King's
Bench, meeting the new Attorney General, said to
him, “Mr. Attorney, this is all your doing: it is
you that has made this stir.” Mr. Attorney answered,
“Ah, my Lord, your Lordship all this while hath
grown in breadth; you must needs now grow in
height, or else you would be a monster.” The
rivalry between them, as we shall see, went on with
fresh animosity.
Bacon might now be considered the principal
political adviser of the Crown. Salisbury was dead;
Carr, from a raw Scotch lad to whom James taught
the rudiments of the Latin tongue, had become Earl
of Somerset, Lord Chamberlain, the King's prime
favourite, the dispenser of patronage, and a person
universally courted and flattered; but so contemptible
was his understanding, and such was his incapacity
for business, that in affairs of state James was obliged
to resort to other councillors. Bacon, though not
by any means disdaining to avail himself of the pro-
tection of a favourite, (as he had shown in the time .
of Essex, and as he speedily again showed on the rise
of Williers,) had never much connexion with Somerset,
—perhaps from not being able to make himself appre-
ciated by such a simpleton, or perhaps from foreseeing
that the royal fancy for him must be fleeting. The
Attorney General was in direct communication with
the King, and for a considerable time had great
influence in his councils. His first advice was con-
stitutional and wise,_to discontinue the irregular
$ Lord Bacon's Apophthegms, or Jest Book. Works, vol. ii. 421.
Chap. IV. QUESTION OF HIS RE-ELECTION. * 97
expedients which had been resorted to for some
years for raising money, and to ask for a supply
from a new parliament. But he overrated the in-
fluence he should have in the House of Commons,
and he was not sufficiently aware of the growing
national discontent.
Being re-elected since his last appointment, he
was about to take his seat, when a Mr. Duncombe
raised the question—“Whether the Attorney General
might be elected, in respect there was no precedent
that such an officer of the Crown could be chosen
member of that House?”* Bacon's friends answered,
that Sir Henry Hobart had been allowed to sit while
Attorney General; but so much do opinions on such
subjects vary from age to age, that the House then
agreed that this case did not apply, as he was a
member of the House when he was made Attorney
General, and therefore could not be unseated.
Sir Roger Owen argued that no Attorney General
was over chosen, nor anciently any Privy Councillor,
nor any that took livery of the King. He relied on
the authority of Sir Thomas More, who, after he had
been Speaker and Chancellor, said, “that the eye
of a King's courtier can endure no colours but one,
the King's livery hindering their sight.” He com-
pared those holding office at the King's pleasure to
“a cloud gilded by the rays of the sun, and to brass
coin which the King's stamp makes current.” Sir
John Saville moved “that those Privy Councillors
* 1 Parl. Hist. 1159. wº-
H
98 LIFE OF LORD BACON. - Chap. IV.
who had got seats might stay for that time, but
Mr. Attorney should not serve in that House.”
After a committee to search for precedents, it was
resolved that “Mr. Attorney General Bacon remain
in the House for this parliament, but never any
Attorney General to serve in the Lower House in
future.” The right of the Attorney General to sit
as a member of the House of Commons has not
since been seriously questioned. As he is sum-
moned according to immemorial usage to advise the
House of Lords, and Ought to return his writ and to
take his place on the woolsack, it is easy to conceive
that conflicting duties might be cast upon him; but
his attendance on the Lords is dispensed with, except
in Peerage cases, and it has been found much more
convenient that he should be allowed to act as law
adviser to the House of Commons, which might
otherwise be inops concilić.
Mr. Attorney made his first and only speech in
this parliament on the supply. He began by ob-
serving, “that since they had been pleased to retain
him there, he owed them the best offices he could,
and if they had dismissed him, his wishes would have
been still with them.” He then most elaborately
pointed out the King's wants and the necessity for
supplying them, ridiculing the notion that had gone
abroad that a confederacy had been formed to control
the free will of the House, and again bringing out his
favourite and unlucky quotation,-‘‘Dulcis tractus
parijugo.”
But a majority were much more inclined to in-
Chap. IV. IBENEWOLENCES. 99
quire into monopolies and other grievances,—and
parliament was abruptly dissolved.
After the parliamentary effort he had made to
obtain a supply, Bacon seems to have thought that
all expedients by which the Exchequer might be
filled were justifiable.
The most productive of these was the demanding
of “Benevolences.” Letters were written to the
sheriffs of counties and the magistrates of corpora-
tions, calling on the King's loving subjects to con-
tribute to his necessities. The contributions were
supposed to be voluntary, but were in reality com-
pulsory, for all who refused were denounced and
treated as disloyal. Oliver St. John having written
a letter to the Mayor of Marlborough, representing
that this “Benevolence” was contrary to law, and
that the magistrates ought not to assist in collecting
it, the Attorney General prosecuted him in the Star
Chamber for a libel. In his speech he strenuously
defended this mode of raising money; and, for the
reason that “it is fit to burn incense where ill
odours have been cast,” he delivered an elaborate
panegyric on the government of King James, whom
he described as a constant protector of the liberties,
laws, and customs of the kingdom, maintaining reli-
gion not only with sceptre and sword, but by his
pen. The defendant was sentenced to pay a fine of
5000l., to be imprisoned during the King's pleasure,
and to make a written submission. Bacon’s indis-
criminate admirers contend that he is exempt from
all blame in this proceeding, because the Judges
H 2
100 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
declared that the levying of “Benevolences” was
not contrary to any statute, and Lord Chancellor
Ellesmere solemnly expressed a wish that passing
sentence on Mr. St. John might be “his last act of
judicial duty;” but there could not be a doubt that
raising “Benevolences” was in substance levying
an aid without authority of parliament, and that the
person was morally responsible for the misconduct
of the Judges who put them in a position where
they must either pervert the law or forfeit their
offices.”
The blame here imputable to Bacon, however,
was light indeed compared with what he incurred
in a case which soon followed. Fine and imprison-
ment having no effect in quelling the rising mur-
murs of the people, it was resolved to make a more
dreadful example, and Peacham, a clergyman of
Somersetshire, between sixty and seventy years of
age, was selected for the victim. On breaking into
his study, a sermon was there ſound which he had
never preached, not intended to preach, nor shown
to any human being, but which contained some pas-
sages encouraging the people to resist tyranny. He
was immediately arrested, and a resolution was taken
to prosecute him for high treason. But Mr. Attorney,
who is alone responsible for this atrocious proceed-
ing, anticipated considerable difficulties both in law
and fact before the poor old parson could be sub-
jected to a cruel and ignominious death. He there-
fore first began by tampering with the Judges of
* 2 St. Tr. 899.
Chap. IV. ATROCIOUS CONDUCT TO PEACHAM. 101
the King's Bench, to fix them by an extra-judicial
opinion. His plan was to assail them separately, and
therefore he skilfully called in his subordinates,
assigning Justice Dodderidge to the Solicitor General,
Justice Crook to Serjeant Montague, and Justice
Houghton to Serjeant Crew, and directing these
emissaries that “they should not in any case make
any doubt to the Judges,—as if they mistrusted they
would not deliver any opinion apart, but should
speak resolutely to them.” The Chief Justice he
reserved for his own management, “not being
wholly without hope,” says he, “that my Lord
Coke himself, when I have in some dark manner
put him in doubt that he shall be left alone, will
not continue singular.” The puisnes were pliant.
The Chief at first affirmed, that “such auricular
taking of opinions was not according to the custom
of this realm;” but at last yielded to Bacon's re-
monstrance, that “though Judges might make a suit
to be spared for their opinion till they had spoken
with their brethren, if the King upon his own
princely judgment, for reason of estate, should think
fit to have it otherwise, there was no declining—
nay, that it touched on a violation of their oath,
which was, to counsel the King whether it were
jointly or separately.”
Still, without some further evidence, a mere ser-
mon found in a study seemed rather a slender overt
act to be submitted to a jury of compassing the king's
death. To supply the deficiency, it was resolved to
* Letters to King. Works, vol. v. 338, 343.
102 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
subject Peacham to the rack. Interrogatories were
prepared to draw a confession from him of his object
and of his accomplices in writing the sermon, and
“upon these interrogatories he was examined before
torture, between torture, and after torture.” These
are the words of Bacon; and I relate with horror
that he was himself present at scenes equalling every-
thing that we have read or can imagine of the Inqui-
sition at Venice. The tone in which he describes
some of them to the King, though he tries to talk
bravely, shows that he was ashamed of the work in
which he was engaged, and that he inwardly con-
demned what some of his admirers now defend:
“It may please your Excellent Majesty.
“It grieveth me exceedingly that your Majesty should be
so much troubled with this matter of Peacham, whose raging
devil seemeth to be turned into a dumb devil. But although
we are driven to make our way through questions, which I
wish were otherwise, yet I hope well the end will be good.
But then every man must put his helping hand ; * for else I
must say to your Majesty in this and the like cases, as St.
IPaul said to the centurion, when some of the mariners had
an eye to the cock-boat, Ea:cept these stay ºn the ship, ye
cannot be safe. I find in my Lords great and worthy care of
the business: and for my part, I hold my opinion, and am
strengthened in it by some records that I have found. God
preserve your Majesty l’’
§
It is quite clear that several present had expressed
an opinion against going further, and that Bacon
himself had not much confidence in his “Records.”
* Does this mean to stretch the rack, like Lord Chancellor
Wriothesley?
Chap. IV. WITNESSES THE TORTURE OF PEACHAM. 103
He still persisted, however, for the King had become
very earnest about it, and thus he writes to his
Majesty (after describing Peacham's refusal to answer
certain points),-" I hold it fit that myself and my
fellows go to the Tower, and so I purpose to examine
him upon these points and some others. I think
also, it were not amiss to make a false fire,” as if all
things were ready for his going down to his trial,
and that he were upon the very point of being car-
.ried down, to see what will work with him.”f To
the Tower he went accordingly, but neither old nor
new invented torture could succeed: “I send,” says
he, “ your Majesty a copy of our last examination
of Peacham, whereby your Majesty may perceive
that this miscreant wretch goeth back from all. He
never deceived me, for when others had hopes of
discovery, and thought time well spent that way, I
told you Majesty pereuntibus mille figura, and that
he did but now turn himself into divers shapes to
save or delay his punishment.”f
The old man, with dislocated joints but unbroken
spirit, was brought to trial at the summer assizes at
Taunton, before the Chief Baron and Sir Henry
* A new species of torture not to be found in his “Records.”
+ Works, v. 354.
# The single torture warrant for Peacham now extant is one dated
18th, and executed 19th January, which only authorises the
“Manacles,” called by King James the “gentler torture.” Hence it
has been inferred that Peacham never was “racked.” But it is quite
clear that he had been tortured on several other occasions, for which
there are no warrants forthcoming; and there can be no reasonable
doubt that he had been made to undergo the severest suffering which
the human frame can support.—See Jardine's Reading on Torture; a
treatise full of curious learning.
104 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
Montague. Bacon showed some remnant of virtue
by being too much ashamed to attend in person. He
sent in his stead Crew the King's Serjeant, and Yel-
verton the Solicitor General, who conducted them-
selves to his entire satisfaction,-for without law or
fact they obtained a conviction. The case, however,
was so infamous, that even the Judges who presided
at the trial expressed a doubt whether the offence
amounted to high treason, and there was such a
feeling of indignation excited throughout the coun-
try, that the Government did not venture to carry
the sentence into execution. Peacham was allowed
to languish in Taunton gaol, till in the following
year death relieved him from his sufferings.
It is to confound the sacred distinctions of right
and wrong to attempt to defend the conduct of Bacon
in this affair, or to palliate its enormity. He knew
that Peacham's offence did not amount to high
treason. He knew as well as the Judges, who so
decided a few years after, on the assassination of
the Duke of Buckingham by Felton, that the law
of England did not sanction torture to extort con-
fession. If the law had been with him, he would
have disgraced his character and his profession by
the low subterfuges to which he resorted for the pur-
poses of trepanning the Judges, and by directing
himself the stretching of the rack, and administering
his questions amidst the agonising shrieks of the
fainting victim. But Lord Chancellor Ellesmere,
from age and infirmity, could not much longer hold
the Seals, and Bacon was resolved to be his successor.
Chap. IV. CULTIVATES WILLIERS. 105
To strengthen his interest he now assiduously
cultivated George Williers, the new favourite, who,
he had the sagacity to discover from the commence-
ment of his career as cupbearer to the King, was
sure to gain and to preserve a great ascendancy at
Court. Notwithstanding his own mature age and
high station, he received the unideaed page into his
intimacy, and condescended even to manage his pri-
vate affairs. There are stronger contrasts of light
and shade in the character of Bacon than probably
of any other man who ever lived. Though at this
time seeming devoted exclusively to his own aggran-
disement, yet, as Williers was rising in favour, -had
high honours and offices conferred upon him, and
was evidently destined to supreme power in the
state, the selfish and Sordid candidate for his pa-
tronage took infinite pains in instructing him how
to govern for the glory and happiness of the country.
His ‘Advice to Sir George Williers” is a most
noble composition, and may now be perused with
great advantage by every English statesman. It is
even written with freedom and manliness.-" You
are a new-risen star, and the eyes of all men are
upon you; let not your own negligence make you
fall like a meteor.” He divides his subject into
eight heads:—1. Religion and the Church. 2. Jus-
tice and the laws. 3. The Council and the great
officers of the kingdom. 4. Foreign negotiations
and embassies. 5. War, the navy, and ports.
6. Trade at home. 7. Colonies. 8. The King's
* Works, vol. iii. 429.
106 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
court. I am naturally most struck by his observa-
tions respecting justice and the laws, which show
that he himself sinned against knowledge.—“Let
no arbitrary power be intruded; the people of this
kingdom love the laws thereof, and nothing will
oblige them more than a confidence of the free
enjoying of them. What the nobles upon an occa-
Sion once said in parliament, Nolumus leges Angliſe
mutare, is imprinted in the hearts of all the people.
T}ut because the life of the laws lies in the due exe-
cution and administration of them, let your eye be
in the first place upon the choice of good Judges.
These properties had they need to be furnished with,
—to be learned in their profession, patient in hear-
ing, prudent in governing, powerful in their elocu-
tion to persuade and satisfy both the parties and
hearers, just in their judgment, — and, to sum up all,
they must have these three attributes, they must
be men of courage, fearing God and hating covetous-
neSS ;—an ignorant man cannot, a coward dares not,
be a good Judge.” “By no means be you persuaded
to interpose yourself, either by word or letter, in any
cause depending in any court of justice. If any sue
to be made a Judge, for my own part I should sus-
pect him; but if either directly or indirectly he
should bargain for a place of judicature, let him be
rejected with shame – Vendere jure potest, emerat
ille prius.”—We shallere long see how these maxims
were observed between the preceptor and pupil.
Lord Ellesmere about this time had a severe ill-
ness, from which he was not expected to recover, and
Chap. IV. ILLNESS OF LORD ELLESMERE. 107
Bacon, thrown into a state of deep anxiety, visited
him almost daily, and sent bulletins of his condition
to the King.” The old man lingering longer than
was expected, Bacon pretty plainly intimates to the
King that he ought to be superseded:—
“My Lord Chancellor’s sickness falleth out duro tempore.
I have always known him a wise man and of just elevation
for monarchy, but your Majesty’s service must not be mortal.
And if you love him, as your Majesty hath now of late pur-
chased many hearts by depressing the wicked, so God doth
minister unto you a counterpart to do the like by raising the
honest,” f
A few days after, in another letter to James, he
speaks out more distinctly:—
“Your worthy Chancellor I fear goeth his last day. God
hath hitherto used to weed out such servants as grew not fit
for your Majesty; but now he hath gathered to himself one
of the choicer plants, a true Sage or Salvia out of your
garden; but your Majesty’s service must not be mortal.
“Upon this heavy accident, I pray your Majesty in all
humbleness and sincerity to give me leave to use a few
words. I must never forget, when I moved your Majesty for
the Attorney’s place, that it was your own sole act, and not
my Lord of Somerset's, who, when he knew your Majesty
* Specimens:–“Because I knew your Majesty would be glad to
hear how it is with my Lord Chancellor, and that it pleased him, out
of his ancient and great love for me, which many times in sickness
appeareth most, to admit me to a great deal of speech with him this
afternoon, which during these three days he hath scarcely done to any,
I thought it would be pleasing to your Majesty to be certified how I
found him.” Jan. 29, 1616. “I spoke to him on Sunday, at what
time I found him in bed, but his spirits strong.” Jan. 31, 1616. “My
Lord Chancellor sent for me to speak with me this morning. I per-
ceive he hath now that signum sanitatis as to feel better his former
weakness.” Feb. 7, 1616. {
* Feb. 9, 1616. -
108 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
had resolved it, thrust himself into the business to gain
thanks; and therefore I have no reason to pray to saints.
“I shall now again make oblation to your Majesty, first
of my heart, then of my service, —thirdly, of my place of
Attorney, which I think is honestly worth 6000l. per annum, #
* Almost the whole of this income must have arisen from fees.
The following were the salaries of the law officers of the Crown at
this time:—
£. s. d.
Attorney General e tº tº ... 81 6 8
Solicitor General e wº Q • 70 0 0
King's Serjeant . e Q © . 41 6 10
King's Advocate tº te * . 20 0 0
The salaries of the Judges show that they must have depended a
good deal on fees:–
s: E. Coke, Ld. C. J. of England • 224 19 9
Circuits . e o gº . 33 6 8
258 6 5.
assºsºmºmºsº
tº Judges of K. B. and C. P. . 188 6 8
Besides circuits . e o . 33 6 8
- 221 13 4
C. J. of C. P. tº © © e • 194 19 9
Chief Baron ſº gº ſº We . 188 6. 0
Puisne Barons . tº © º . 133 6 8
Judge on Norfolk circuit Jº . 12 6 81
The usual amount of honoraries to counsel in this reign I have not
been able to ascertain. From an entry in the parish books of St.
Margaret's, Westminster, it appears that in the reign of Edward IV.
they paid “Roger Fylpott, learned in the law, for his counsel, 3s. 8d.,
with 4d. for his dinner.” -
In the reign of Henry VII. Serjeant Yaxley was at the head of the
bar, and used to go special on different circuits. From the following
very curious retainer it appears that he was to attend the assizes at
York, Nottingham, and Derby, and plead as many causes as he should
be required by his client Sir Robert Plompton at each place,—for all
which he was to receive only 40 marks, besides his charges in the
assize towns. -
“This bill indented at London the 18th day of July, the 16th yeare
* From Abstract of Revenue, Temp. Jac. I.
Chap. IV. BEGS FOR THE CHANCELLORSHIP. 109
—and, fourthly, of my place in the Star Chamber, which is
worth 1600l. per annum, and, with the favour and counte-
nance of a Chancellor, much more.”
He then urges his father's merits, and reminds
the King that the Chancellor's place was ever con-
ferred on some law officer, and never op a Judge,
instancing Audley, from King's Serjeant; his own
father, from Attorney of the Wards; Bromley, from
Solicitor General; Puckering, from Queen's Ser-
jeant; Egerton, from Master of the Rolls, having
of the reigne of King Henry the 7th, witnesseth that John Yaxley,
Sergent at the Law, shall be at the next Assizes to be holden at York,
Nottin. and Derb. if they be holden and kept, and their to be of
council with Sir Robert Plompton, knight, such assises and actions
as the said Sir Robert shall require the said John Yaxley, for the
which premisses, as well for his costs and his labour, John Pulan,
Gentlman, bindeth him by thease presents to content and pay to the
said John Yaxley 40 marks' sterling at the feast of the Nativetie of
our Lady next coming, or within eight days next following, with
5li paid aforehand, parcell of painment of the said 40 marcks. Pro-
vided alway that if the said John Yaxley have knowledg and warning
only to cum to Nott. and Derby, then the said John Yaxley is agread
by these presents to take onely xvii besides the said 5li aforesaid.
Provided alwaies that if the said John Yaxley have knowledg and
warning to take no labor in this matter, then he to reteine and hold
the said 5li resaived for his good will and labor. In witnesse herof
the said John Yaxley, seriant, to the part of this indenture remaining
with the said John Pulan have put his seale the day and yeare above-
written. Provided also that the said Sir Robert Plumpton shall beare
the charges of the said John Yaxley, as well at York as Nottingham
and Derby, and also to content and pay the said money to the sayd
John Yaxley comed to the said Assizes att Nott. Derb. and York.
“JOHN YAXLEY.”
—Plumpton Correspondence by Camden Society, 152, See also pp.
53, 93, 150.
Formerly the usual fee for a barrister in Westminster Hall was an
angel. Whence the saying, “a barrister is like Balaam’s ass, only
speaking when he sees the angel.”
* 26li. 13s. 4d,
110 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
lately been Attorney General. Now he comes to
disparage his rivals:--
“If you like my Lord Coke, this will follow, first, your
Majesty shall put an overruling nature into an overruling
place, which may breed an extreme ;-next, you shall blunt
his industries in matter of your finances, which seemeth to
aim at another place ;-and, lastly, popular men are no Sure
mounters for your Majesty’s saddle. If you take my Lord
Hobart, you shall have a Judge at the upper end of your
Council Board and another at the lower end, whereby your
Majesty will find your prerogative pent; for though there
should be emulation between them, yet, as legists, they will
agree in magnifying that wherein they are best : he is no
statesman, but an economist wholly for himself, so as your
Majesty, more than an outward form, will find little help in
him for the business. If you will take my Lord of Canter-
bury, I will say no more but the Chancellor’s place requires
a whole man; and to have both jurisdictions, spiritual and
temporal in that height, is fit but for a King.—For myself,
I can only present your Majesty with gloria in obsequio.
Yet I dare promise, that if I sit in that place, your business
shall not make such short turns upon you as it doth ; but
when a direction is once given, it shall be pursued and per-
formed, and your Majesty shall only be troubled with the
true care of a King, which is to think what you would have
done in chief, and not how, for the passages.—I do presume
also, in respect of my father's memory, and that I have
been always gracious in the Lower House, I have some
interest in the gentlemen of England, and shall be able to do
some effect in rectifying that body of parliament men, which
is cardo rerum. For let me tell your Majesty, that that
part of the Chancellor's place which is to judge in Equity
between party and party, that same regnum judiciale, which
since my father's time is but too much enlarged, concerneth
your Majesty least, more than the acquitting of your con-
science for justice : but it is the other parts of a moderator.
Chap. IV. LORD ELLESMERE RECOVERS. 111
amongst your Council, of an overseer of your Judges, of a
planter of fit justices and governors in the country, that
importeth your affairs and these times most.—To conclude,
if I were the man I would be, I should hope that, as your
Majesty hath of late won hearts by depressing, you should
in this lose no hearts by advancing; for I see your people
can better skill of concretum than abstractum, and that the
waves of their affections flow rather after persons than
things; so that acts of this nature, if this were one, do
more good than twenty bills of grace. If God call my Lord,
the warrants and commissions which are requisite for the
taking of the Seal, and for the working with it, and for the
reviving of warrants under his hand which die with him,
and the like, shall be in readiness. And in this, time
presseth more because it is the end of a term, and almost
the beginning of the circuits; so that the Seal cannot stand
still ; but this may be done as heretofore by commission, till
your Majesty hath resolved of an officer. God ever preserve
your Majesty | * *
Is not this something very much like “suing to
be made a Judge, and bargaining for a place of
judicature?” MEANEST OF MANKIND !!! A touch
of vanity even is to be found in this composition,--
a quality he hardly ever betrays elsewhere, although
he had an inward consciousness of his extraordinary
powers. Boasting of his great influence in the
Lower House, little did he think that, when parlia-
ment should next meet, both Houses would unani-
mously agree in prosecuting and punishing him.
But, alas! Ellesmere rallied, and in three days
Bacon was obliged hypocritically to write,_
“I do find, God be thanked, a sensible amendment in my
Lord Chancellor. I was with him yesterday in private con-
* Feb. 12, 1616. Works, v. 371.
112 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
ference about half an hour, and this day again at such time
as he did Seal, which he endured well almost the space of an
hour, though the vapour of wax be offensive to him. But
whoever thinketh his disease is but melancholy, he maketh
no true judgment of it; for it is plainly a formed and deep
cough, with a pectoral Surcharge; so that at times he doth
almost animam agere. I forbear to advertise your Majesty
of the care I took to have commissions in readiness, because
Mr. Secretary Luke hath let me understand he signified as
much to your Majesty; but I hope there shall be no use for
them at this time.”” ;
He next seems to have tried to prevail upon the
old Chancellor to resign in his favour. But James
would put no constraint on the inclinations of Elles-
mere; and Bacon, to Secure his succession when a
vacancy should happen, now resorted to the expe-
dient of being made a Privy Councillor, which
was pretty much the same as, in modern speech,
being admitted to a seat in the Cabinet. He writes
to Williers,
“My Lord Chancellor’s health growing with the days, and
his resignation being an uncertainty, I would be glad you
went on with my first motion, my swearing Privy Coun-
cillor. Tho' I desire not so much to make myself more sure
of the other, and to put it past competition, for herein I rest
wholly upon the King and your excellent self, but because I
find hourly that I need this strength in his Majesty's service,
both for my better warrant and Satisfaction of my conscience
that I deal not in things above my vocation, and for my
better countenance and prevailing where his Majesty's service
is under any pretext opposed, I would it were despatched.
. . . . I sent a pretty while since a paper to Mr. John
Murray, which was indeed a little remembrance of some
* Feb. 15, 1616. Works, v. 374.
Chap. IV. BEGS A PRIWY-COUNCILLORSHIP. 113
things past concerning my honest and faithful services to his
Majesty; not by way of boasting, from which I am far,
but as tokens of my studying his service uprightly and care-
fully. If you be pleased to call for the paper which is with
Mr. John Murray, and to find a fit time that his Majesty
may cast an eye upon it, I think it will do no hurt ; and I
have written to Mr. Murray to deliver the paper if you call
for it.” +
To such minute artifices did he descend for
effecting his object.—After some interval, and
renewed solicitations, the King gave him his choice,
either that he should have an express promise to
succeed to the Great Seal, or that he should forth-
with be sworn of the Privy Council. The bare
promise, he thought, would not much improve his
chance, while a seat at the council-table could not
fail to place him above competition. More suo, he
makes his election in a letter to Williers to be shown
to James:— *
“The King giveth me a noble choice, and you are the
man my heart ever told me you were. Ambition would
draw me to the latter part of the choice; but in respect my
hearty wishes that my Lord Chancellor may live long, and
the small hopes I have that I shall live long myself, and,
above all, because I see his Majesty's service daily and in-
stantly bleedeth ; towards which I persuade myself (vainly,
perhaps, but yet in mine own thoughts firmly and con-
stantly) that I shall give, when I am of the table, some
effectual furtherance,—I do accept of the former, to be
Councillor for the present, and to give over pleading at the
bar; let other matter rest upon my proof and his Majesty's
pleasure, and the accidents of time.” t ^.
* Feb. 21, 1616. Works, v. 377.
f June 3 1616. Works, v. 420.
114 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
In consequence of Williers's representation the
King consented; and on the 9th of June Bacon was
sworn of the Privy Council, and took his place at
the table,_it having been, at his own request, pre-
viously arranged that, with permission to give advice
at chambers to those who might consult him, he
should cease to plead as an advocate at the bar in
private causes, unless some weighty matter might
arise in which he was to be allowed to be engaged
under the King's express licence.
Having thus got rid of his private practice, he
applied his leisure to a most noble account, dedicat-
ing himself by turns to the prosecution of his philo-
sophical pursuits, and to the improvement of the
As institutions of his country. The NOVUM ORGANUM
made great progress, though it was not ready to see
the light for some years; and he actually published
“A Proposition to his Majesty touching the Com-
piling and Amendment of the Laws of England.”
He commences this treatise with the following dig-
nified address:– -
“Your Majesty, of your favour, having made me Privy
Councillor, and continuing me in the place of your Attorney
Genéral, which is more than was three hundred years be-
fore, I do not understand it to be that, by putting off the
dealing in causes between party and party I should keep
holiday the more, but that I should dedicate my time to
your service with less distraction. Wherefore, in this
plentiful accession of time which I have now gained, I take
it to be my duty, not only to speed your commandments and
* Works, iv. 366.
*
*:
Chap. IV. VIEWS OF LAW REFORM. 115
the business of my place, but to meditate and excogitate of
myself wherein I may best by my travels derive your virtues
to the good of your people, and return their thanks and
increase of love to you again. And after I had thought of
many things, I could find in my judgment none more
proper for your Majesty as a master, nor for me as a work-
man, than the reducing and recompiling of the laws of
England.”
• In this scheme he displays great caution and
wisdom; not venturing to codify the common law,
but contenting himself with reforming the statute-
book, and extracting from the jumble of Reports
a series of sound and consistent decisions.” It is
curious to reflect that his exhortations in favour of
law reform produced no fruit till the Republic was
established under Cromwell, and that the subject
was entirely neglected from the Restoration to our
own times. Much has been done in the spirit which
he recommends; and in what remains to be done he
will be found our safest guide.
Bacon was called away from all such speculations
to conduct the prosecutions which arose out of the
murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. An attempt was
made to satisfy the public by the punishment of the
inferior agents in this black transaction; but the
guilt of the Somersets became so notorious, and the
cry for justice was so loud against them, that the
King found it necessary to have these noble culprits
* In this address Bacon displays his great anxiety about his repu-
tation as a lawyer. “And I do assure your Majesty I am in good
hope that when Sir Edward Coke's ‘Reports’ and my “Rules and
Decisions’ shall come to posterity, there will be, whatsoever is now
thought, question who was the greater lawyer.”
I 2
116 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
arrested, and brought to trial before the Court of
the Lord High Steward.
I am sorry to say that Bacon shared in the dis-
grace incurred by James and all his ministers in
that mysterious affair. He prepared the questions
to be put to the Judges prior to the trial, and
arranged the course to be adopted “if Somerset
should break forth in any speech taxing the King;”
and it is quite clear that, though the inferior agents
employed in the murder were to be sacrificed, he
was in collusion with the King to spare the two
great offenders who had planned it, notwithstanding
James's celebrated imprecation on himself and his
posterity if he should impede the course of justice.
Bacon has been praised for the mild manner in
which he stated the case against Somerset; but this
was in performance of his promise: “It shall be my
care so to moderate the manner of charging him as
it might make him not odious beyond the extent of
mercy.” The disgraceful pardon Bacon himself,
as Attorney General, prepared.
Coke, the Chief Justice, had now rendered him-
self very obnoxious to the Court by his activity in
detecting and prosecuting the murderers of Over-
bury, and by the part he had taken in the dispute
about Injunctions and the affair of Commendams, or
staying suits Rege inconsulto, which will be found
circumstantially detailed in the Life of Lord Elles-
mere.f Bacon, having at last gained an ascendancy
* April 28, 1616. Works, v. 395.
f How zealously Bacon laboured in the affair, and how he did his
*
Chap. IV. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST COKE. 117
over him, was determined to show him no quarter.
Little was to be apprehended from his rivalry in
the competition for the Great Seal, but there still
rested in Bacon's mind a rankling recollection of
unavenged insults. After the conviction of Somer-
Set, all manner of titles and offices were conferred
on the new favourite, who was ostensibly the King's
servant, but really ruled the King and the kingdom.
Bacon was on the best possible footing with him,
and they cordially entered into the schemes of each
other.* *
best permanently to pervert the due administration of justice in this
country, by establishing the power of the Sovereign to interfere in
private causes, strikingly appears from his letter to James, giving an
account of the manner in which he had tried on this occasion to
frighten the Judges. “Sir, I do perceive that I have not only
stopped, but almost turned the stream, and I see how things cool by
this, that the Judges, who were wont to call so hotly upon the business,
when they had heard, of themselves took a fortnight to advise what
they will do. Yet because the times are as they are, I could wish in
all humbleness that your Majesty would remember and renew your
former commandment, which you gave my Lord Chief Justice in
Michaelmas Term, which was, that after he had heard your Attorney
he should forbear further proceeding till he had spoke with your
Majesty. This writ (viz. a letter from the King forbidding the Court
to proceed Rege inconsulto) is a mean provided by the ancient law of
England to bring any cause that may concern your Majesty in profit
or power from the ordinary benches, to be tried and judged before
your Chancellor of England by the ordinary and legal part of his
power; and your Majesty knoweth your Chancellor is ever a prin-
cipal councillor and instrument of monarchy, of immediate dependence
upon the King, and therefore like to be a safe and tender guardian of
the royal rights.”—Jan. 27, 1616. Works, v. 366. Bacon knew
that he was misstating the law—to please the King—and to show
that, by appointing himself Chancellor, prerogative might be exercised
without control.
* * “Your Majesty certainly hath found out and chosen a safe nature,
a capable man, an honest will, generous and noble affections, and a
courage well lodged, and one that I know loveth your Majesty
unfeignedly, and admireth you as much as is in a man to admire his
118 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
About this time Williers had a personal quarrel
with Coke about the appointment to a lucrative
office in the Court of King's Bench, which he
wished to obtain for a dependant. Bacon, of course,
did all he could to assist in this job.” Coke, after
Some hesitation, at last peremptorily resisted the
encroachment on his patronage,_and his dismissal
was resolved upon. The difficulty was to find a
pretext for removing him. Although the Judges
all held during pleasure, the power of cashiering
them had hitherto been very sparingly exercised,
and never except upon Some charge of misconduct.
Coke was the greatest master of the Common Law
that ever had appeared in England. Notwith-
standing the arrogance with which he was charge-
able when at the bar, he had given the highest
Satisfaction to the profession and the public since his
elevation to the Bench. His opposition to the equi-
table jurisdiction of the Lord Chancellor, though
unjustifiable, was generally popular, and all man-
kind (with the exception of the King and the most
Sovereign upon earth.”—Bacon to James. Yet no human being ever
more thoroughly despised another than Buckingham his “Dad.”
# Bacon gives Williers an amusing account of a conversation on this
subject with Coke. “As I was sitting by my Lord Chief Justice, one
of the Judges asked him “Whether Roper" were dead 2’ He said,
“he for his part knew not.’ Another of the Judges answered, ‘It
should concern you, my Lord, to know it.” Whereupon he turned his
speech to me, and said, ‘No, Mr. Attorney, I will not wrestle now in
my latter times.’ ‘My Lord,” said I, ‘you speak like a wise man.”
* Well,” saith he, “they have had no luck with it that have had it.”
I said again, “Those days are past.” Here you have the dialogue to
make you merry.”—Jan. 22, 1616.
* The person who then held the office.
Chap. IV. FOOLISH CHARGE AGAINST COKE. 119
slavish of the ministers) approved of the noble stand
he had made for judicial independence in Peacham's
case and the affair of the “Commendams,” and he
had been rapturously applauded for his energy,
on the discovery of the murder of Sir Thomas
Overbury, in posting off to Theobald’s to arrest
Somerset with his own hands. The expedient to
which Bacon resorted shows that it is no more
possible “to hate”—than “to love, and be wise.”
The frivolous, unfounded, preposterous, ludicrous
charge brought against Coke was, that in his Re-
ports of decided cases he had introduced several
things in derogation of the royal prerogative.” On
no better ground, in the month of June, 1616,
though not formally superseded, and still allowed to
do duty at chambers, he was suspended from the
public execution of his office and from the council-
table, and, instead of appearing in Court at West-
minster, or going his circuit, it was most insultingly
ordered that, during the long vacation, “he should
enter into a view and retractation of such novelties
and errors and offensive conceits as were dispersed
in his Reports.”
Bacon, having laid his enemy prostrate on the
ground, trampled on his body. He now addressed
“an Expostulation to the Lord Chief Justice Coke,”
* Of these very Reports Bacon himself had deliberately written,
“To give every man his due, had it not been for Sir Edward Coke's
Reports, which, though they may have errors, and some peremptory
and extrajudicial resolutions more than are warranted, yet they con-
tain infinite good decisions and rulings over cases, the law by this
time had been almost like a ship without ballast.”
120 IIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. IV.
in which, after some profane applications of Scrip-
ture, and pointing out how in his fallen state he
ought to rejoice in the humiliation which God had
inflicted upon him, he thus pithily proceeds:—
“Not only knowledge, but also every other gift which we
call the gifts of fortune, have power to puff up earth; afflic-
tions only level these mole-hills of pride, plough the heart,
and make it fit for wisdom to sow her seed, and for grace to
bring forth her increase. Happy is that man therefore, both
in regard of heavenly and earthly wisdom, that is thus
wounded to be cured, thus broken to be made straight, thus
made acquainted with his own imperfections that he may be
perfected.
“Supposing this to be the time of your affliction, that
which I have propounded to myself is by taking this season-
able advantage, like a true friend, though far unworthy to
be counted so, to show you your true shape in a glass, and
that not in a false One to flatter you, nor yet in one that
should make you seem worse than you are, and so offend
you, but in one made by the reflection of your own words
and actions, from whose light proceeds the voice of the
people, which is often, not unfitly, called the voice of God.
It proceedeth from love and a true desire to do you good.
All men can see their own profit; that part of the wallet
hangs before. A true friend (whose worthy office I would
perform, since I fear both yourself and all great men want
such) is to show the other, and which is from your eyes.
“First, therefore, behold your errors. In discourse you
delight to speak too much, not to hear other men; this some
say becomes a pleader, not a judge. While you speak in
your own element, the law, no man ordinarily equals you ;
but when you wander, as you often delight to do, you wander
indeed, and give never such satisfaction as the curious time
requires.
“Secondly, you clog your auditory when you would be
observed; speech must be either sweet or short.
Chap. IV. INSULTING LETTER TO COKE. 121
“Thirdly, you converse with books, not men, and books
especially human; and have no excellent choice with men,
who are the best books; for a man of action and employment
you seldom converse with, and then but with your under-
lings; not freely, but as a schoolmaster with his scholars,
ever to teach, never to learn. But if sometimes you would
in your familiar discourse hear others and make election of
such as know what they speak, you should know many of
these tales you tell to be but ordinary, and many other
things which you delight to repeat and serve out for novelties
to be but stale. As in your pleadings you were wont to
insult over misery, and to inveigh bitterly at the persons,
which bred you many enemies, whose poison yet smelleth,
so are you still wont to be a little careless in this point, to
praise and disgrace upon slight grounds, and that Sometimes
untruly ; so that your reproofs and commendations are for
the most part neglected and condemned; where the censure
of a Judge, coming slow but sure, should be a brand to the
guilty, and a crown to the virtuous. You will jest at any
man in public, without respect to the person's dignity or
your own : this disgraceth your gravity more than it can
advance the opinion of your wit; and so do all actions which
we see you do directly with a touch of vainglory, having no
respect to the true end. You make the law to lean too
much to your opinion, whereby you show yourself to be a
legal tyrant, striking with that weapon where you please,
since you are able to turn the edge any way. Your too
much love of the world is too much seen, where, having the
living of a thousand, you relieve few or none. The hand
that hath taken so much, can it give so little? Herein you
show no bowels of compassion, as if you thought all too
little for yourself. We desire you to amend this, and let
your poor tenants in Norfolk find some comfort; where
nothing of your estate is spent towards their relief, but all
brought up hither to the impoverishing of your country.
“But now, since the case so standeth, we desire you to
give way to power, and so to fight that you be not utterly
122 LIFE OF LORD BACON." Chap. IV.
broken, but reserved entirely to serve the commonwealth
again, and to do what good you can, since you cannot do
all the good you would ; and since you are fallen upon this
rock, cast out the goods to save the bottom ; stop the leaks,
and make towards land; learn of the steward to make friends
of the unrighteous Mammon. You cannot but have much
of your estate (pardon my plainness) ill got. Think how
much of that you never spake for, how much by speaking
unjustly or in unjust causes. Account it then a blessing of
God if thus it may be laid out for your good, and not left for
your heir.
“Do not, if you be restored, as some others do, fly from
the service of virtue to serve the time, but rather let this
cross make you Zealous in God’s cause, Sensible in ours, and
more sensible in all.”
After much more reproof and admonition, he
jeeringly advises him not to be too much cast down:
“To humble ourselves before God is the part of a
Christian; but for the world aud our enemies the
counsel of the poet is apt, **
“‘Tu ne cede malis, sed contrå audentiorito.’” “
In no composition that I have met with is there
a greater display of vengeful malignity. Under
pretence of acting a Christian part, he pours oil of
vitriol into the wounds he had inflicted. There
seems to have been an intention to make Coke dis-
gorge some of his ill-gotten gains, by a heavy fine
in the Star Chamber. That was abandoned, but
the dismissal was consummated. After the long
vacation, the Chief Justice was summoned by Bacon
before the Privy Council, to give an account of
what he had done in the way of correcting his
* Works, v. 403.
Chap. IV. COKE DISMISSED. 123
Reports. He declared that in his eleven volumes,
containing 500 cases, there were only four errors,
and that there were as many in the much-esteemed
Plowden, which the wisdom of time had discovered,
and later judgments controlled. The order, prompted
by Bacon and pronounced by the Lord Chancellor,
was “that the Chief Justice should still forbear his
sitting at Westminster, &c., not restraining never-
theless any other exercise of his place in private.”
Bacon, having made a report of this proceeding to
the King, with a view of hastening the final blow,
says, -“If, upon this probation added to former
matters, your Majesty think him not fit for your
Service, we must in all humbleness subscribe to
your Majesty, and acknowledge that neither his
displacing, considering he holdeth his place but
during your will and pleasure, nor the choice of a
fit man to put in his room, are council-table matters,
but are to proceed wholly from your Majesty's great
wisdom and pleasure. So that in this course it is
but the signification of your pleasure, and the busi-
ness is at an end as to him.”
At length Bacon had the exquisite delight of
making out Coke's “supersedeas,” and a warrant
to the Lord Chancellor for a writ to create a new
Chief Justice.*
To add to his satisfaction, he contrived to get
himself into the good graces of Prince Charles, and
was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall.
* Sir E. Coke was removed Nov. 15, 1616, and Sir Henry, Montagu
was sworn in as his successor the following day.
124 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
CHAIPTER V.
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD BACON FROM HIS
APPOINTMENT AS CHANCELLOR, TILL HIS FALL.
THERE was nothing now wanting to the earthly
felicity of Bacon except the possession of the Great
Seal of England. He continued from time to time
to remind the King of his pretensions; and he in-
duced the Prince to say a good word for his further
advancement. He pretended that the King's service
was his great object, and adding, “were your Ma-
jesty mounted and seated without difficulties and
distates in your business as I desire to see you, I
should ex animo desire to spend the decline of my
years in my studies; wherein, also, I should not
forget to do him honour, who, besides his active and
politic virtues, is the best pen of Kings, much more
the best subject of a pen.”
On the 7th of March, 1617, his wish was accom-
plished. The Great Seal, having been surrendered
by Lord Ellesmere, was, between the hours of
eleven and twelve on that day, in the Palace at
Whitehall, delivered to Sir FRANCIS BACON by the
King, who, at the same time, in a speech, gra-
ciously commemorated his services as Solicitor
General, Attorney General, and Privy Councillor,
Chap. W. BECOMES LORD KEEPER. 125
and gave him four admonitions for his guidance as
Lord Keeper:—1. To restrain the jurisdiction of
the Court within its true and due limits. 2. Not
to put the Great Seal to letters patent without due
consideration. Quod dubites me feceris. 3. To re-
trench all unnecessary delays. Bis dat qui cito dat.
4. That justice might pass with as easy charge as
might be.” Sir Francis, on bended knees, humbly,
and with a most grateful mind, acknowledged the
constant and never-tiring kindness of the King, who
had conducted him, step by step, to the highest
pinnacle of honour, -professing dutifully his deter-
mination to preserve all the rights and prerogatives
of the Crown, -equally to administer the law to all
in the Courts in which he himself should preside,
and to exercise a general Superintendence over the
administration of justice throughout the realm.
As soon as Bacon had got home, the Great Seal,
in its silken purse, lying on the table before him,-
his eye glancing from the paper to the long-courted
bauble, and his heart overflowing with gratitude,-
he wrote the following letter to Williers, now Earl of
Buckingham, who had witnessed the ceremony at
Whitehall:—
“My dearest Lord, It is both in cares and kindness that
small ones float up to the tongue, and great ones sink down
into the heart in silence. Therefore, I could speak little to
your Lordship to-day, neither had I fit a time; but I must
* “Predictus Franciscus Bacon flexis genibus humiliter gratiosis-
simo animo agnovit constantem Dni Regis et prennem beneficor, cursum
utpote qui per tot gradus eum manu quasi duxerit ad sum. honoris
fastigium,” &c.—Cl. R. 16 Jac.
126 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
profess thus much, that, in this day's work, you are the
truest and perfectest mirror and example of firm and generous
friendship that ever was in Court. And I shall count every
day lost wherein I shall not either study your well-doing in
thought, or do your name honour in speech, or perform your
Service in deed. Good my Lord, account and accept me
“Your most bounden and devoted Friend
“ and Servant of all men living,
“FR. BACON, C. S.” +
With what rapture he must have written the
letters C. S., which he added to his name for the
first time ! It has been supposed by some of his
blind admirers that he reluctantly submitted to his
elevation, and that, inwardly desirous of retirement
and contemplation, he would have shut himself up
for the rest of his days in his library at Gorhambury,
had it not been for the importunities of his family
and dependents, joined to his hope of being able to
do more good to mankind by sacrificing his inclina-
tions, and showing to the world what could be
effected by a philosopher in high office and in the
exercise of great power. For this opinion no better
reason can be given than an extract of an Essay
written by him while a student in Gray's Inn;–
“Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of
the Sovereign or state; servants of fame; and Ser-
vants of business: so as they have no freedom, nei-
ther in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their
times. It is a strange desire to seek power and to
lose liberty, or to seek power, over others and to lose
power over a man's self.” (It may as well be said
-
ſ
*
|
* Essay, ‘Of Great Place.”
* Works, vol. v. 463,
Chap. V. THE KING's VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 127
that he despised money, because in his writings he
calls riches “the baggage of virtue.” In seasons of
reflection and remorse he must often have said to
himself,
“Video meliora proboque;
Deteriora sequor.”
His first act was graceful and becoming; he went
next day to York House to pay his respects to his
predecessor, to thank him for that kindness which
had contributed to his advancement, and, in the
King's name, to offer him an Earldom. sº
The Court was now in the bustle of preparation
for James's visit to Scotland. On his accession to
the throne of England he had promised his country-
men to pay them at least a triennial visit; but
during fourteen long years the halls of Holyrood had
been empty; and the progress to the north, at last
about to take place, attracted the attention of both
nations. Buckingham was to accompany the King,
that he might direct his proceedings, and take care
that no fresh favourite should engage his affections.
The new Lord Keeper was to be left at the head of
the government in London. In the contemplation
of this journey, he had prepared, while Attorney
General, “Remembrances for the King before his
going into Scotland;” and he now sketched out the
“Council business” to be done in his Majesty's
absence, the great object of which was to preserve
the public tranquillity during Easter Term, when the
town was expected to be very full of company.* The
* These papers show that the attendance of persons in London
from the country, now depending on the meeting of parliament, was
128 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
King took his departure from Whitehall on the 14th
of March, exactly a week after Bacon had received
the Great Seal.
It was luckily vacation time, and the Lord Keeper
had full leisure to prepare for entering on the dis-
charge of his judicial duties. His promotion had
given general satisfaction; he was congratulated upon
it not only by his Alma Mater, but by the University
of Oxford,” and the universal expectation was, that
the beau idéal of a perfect Judge, which he had so
admirably imaged in his Essay ‘Of Judicature,” was
really to be exemplified to the admiring gaze of man-
kind.
At the commencement of his judicial career there
was no disappointment. On the 7th of May, the
first day of Easter term, he took his seat in the Court
of Chancery. The splendour of the ceremony was
little impaired by the absence of the grandees who
were attending the King, their place being supplied
by the general eagerness to do honour to the new
Lord Keeper. The procession was formed at his
then regulated by the law terms, and this seems to have continued to
the reign of Queen Anne :-
“Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before term ends,
Oblig'd by hunger and request of friends.”
* To Cambridge he replied, “Your gratulations shall be no more
welcome to me than your business or occasions, which I will attend;
and yet not so but that I shall endeavour to prevent them by my care
of your good.” To Oxford : “I shall by the grace of God, as far as
may concern me, hold the balance as equally between the two Univer-
sities as I shall hold the balance of other justice between party and
party. And yet in both cases I must meet with some inclinations of
affection, which nevertheless shall not carry me aside.”—April 12,
1617,
Chap. V. INSTALLED AS LORD KEEPER. 129
“lodging” in Gray's Inn, and marched by Holborn,
Chancery Lane, the Strand, Charing, Whitehall, and
King Street, to Westminster Hall, in the following
order:-1. Clerks and officers in Chancery. 2. Stu-
dents of law. 3. Serjeant at arms, purse-bearer,
and gentlemen servants of the Lord Keeper. 4. The
Lord Keeper, in a gown of purple satin, riding be-
tween the Lord Treasurer and the Keeper of the
Privy Seal. 5. Earls and Barons. 6. Privy Coun-
cillors. 7. The Judges. 8. Knights and Esquires;
—all of whom followed the Lord Keeper, mounted
on caparisoned steeds. Alighting in Palace Yard,
and entering Westminster Hall, the Lord Keeper
was received by the Serjeants at Law and the
Benchers and Readers of the Inns of Court, and con-
ducted into the Court of Chancery, now filled with
those who had composed the cavalcade.
The oaths being administered to him, he delivered
an address on which he had bestowed much pains,
and which shows his intimate familiarity with the
duties he had to perform. He thus began;– “Before I
enter into the business of the Court, I shall take advan-
tage of so many honourable witnesses to publish and
make known summarily what charge the King's most
excellent Majesty gave me when I received the Seal,
and what orders and resolutions I myself have taken
in conformity to that charge, that the King may
have the honour of direction, and I the part of obe-
dience.” After some pardonable flattery of his royal
Master, he proceeds to lay down most excellent prac-
tical rules, which he undertook to observe. “I am
K
130 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
resolved that my decree shall come speedily, if not
instantly, after the hearing, and my signed decree
speedily upon my decree pronounced. For it hath
been a manner much used of late in my Lord's time,
of whom I learn much to imitate, and somewhat to
avoid, that upon the solemn and full hearing of a
cause nothing is pronounced in Court, but breviates
are required to be made, which I do not dislike in
itself in causes perplexed. But yet I find, when such
breviates were taken, the 'cause was sometimes for-
gotten a term or two, and then set down for a new
hearing. I will promise regularly to pronounce my
decree within a few days after my hearing, and to
sign my decree, at the least, in the vacation after
the pronouncing. For fresh justice is sweetest.
“Again, because justice is a sacred thing, and the
end for which I am called to this place, and therefore
is my way to heaven, (and if it be shorter, it is never
a whit the worse,) I shall, by the grace of God, as far
as God will give me strength, add the afternoon to
the forenoon, and some fortnight of the vacation to
the term, for the expediting and clearing of the
causes of the Court; only the depth of the three long
vacations I would reserve, in some measure, free from
business of estate, and for studies, arts, and sciences,
to which, in my own nature, I am most induced.*
“There is another point of true expedition which
resteth much in itself, and that is in my manner of
giving orders. For I have seen an affectation of
despatch turn utterly to delay at length. But I
* He here beautifully pays homage to philosophy.
Chap. V. HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 131
mean not to purchase the praise of expedition in that
kind. My endeavour shall be to hear patiently, and
to cast my order into such a mould as may soonest
bring the subject to the end of his journey.
“I will maintain strictly and with severity the
former orders which I find my Lord Chancellor hath
taken for the immoderate and needless prolixity and
length of bills and answers, as well in punishing the
party as fining the counsel whose hand I shall find
at such bills and answers.
“I shall be careful there be no exaction of any
new fees, but according as they have been heretofore
set and tabled. As for lawyers' fees, I must leave
that to the conscience and merit of the lawyer, and
the estimation and gratitude of the client.”
After touching on other topics rather of temporary
interest, he intimates his intention, for the sake of
the junior barristers who could not be heard above
once or twice in a term, to hear motions every Tues-
day between mine and eleven,_and he proceeds to
announce to their Lordships what he truly calls
“a fancy”—which would cause a mutiny at the bar
in our times. “It falleth out that there be three of
us the King's servants, in great places, that are law-
yers by descent, Mr. Attorney, son of a Judge, Mr.
Solicitor, likewise son of a Judge, and myself, a
Chancellor's son. Now, because the law roots so
well in my time, I will water it at the root thus far,
as besides these great ones I will hear any Judge's
son before a Serjeant, and any Serjeant's son before
a reader, if there be not many of them.”
K 2
132 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
He announced that he was preparing “new orders”
to regulate the practice of the Court, and again
proclaimed his loyalty by saying, “It is my com-
fort to serve such a Master, that I shall need to be
but a conduit only for the conveying of his goodness
to his people,”—not omitting a pious compliment to
his father, “optimus magistratus praestat optimae
legi; for myself I doubt I shall not attain it; yet I
have a domestic example to follow.”
Next morning he wrote an account of the cere-
imony to Buckingham :—
“Yesterday I took my place in Chancery, which I hold
only for the King's grace and favour, and your constant
friendship. There was much ado and a great deal of world :
but this matter of pomp, which is heaven to some men, is
hell to me (?), or purgatory at least. It is true I was glad
to see that the King’s choice was so generally approved, and
that I had so much interest in men's good will and good
opinions, because it maketh me a fitter instrument to do my
Master service, and my friend also. After I was set in
Chancery, I published his Majesty’s charge which he gave
me when he gave me the Seal, and what rules and resolutions
I had taken for the fulfilling his commandments. I send
your Lordship a copy of what I said. Men tell me it hath
done the King a great deal of honour, insomuch that some of
my friends, that are wise and no vain ones, did not stick to
say to me that there was not this seven years such a pre-
paration for a parliament, which was a commendation I
confess pleased me well. I pray take some fit time to show
it his Majesty, because, if I misunderstood him in anything,
I may amend it, because I know his judgment is higher and
deeper than mine.” +
* Works, iv. 486.
f Works, v. 469. Bacon no doubt expected that the letter as well
as the address would be laid before the King.
Chap. W. HIS GREAT DESPATCH IN CHANCERY. 133
He was greatly delighted with the following an-
SW6T –
“I have acquainted his Majesty with your letter and the
papers that came enclosed, who is exceedingly well satisfied—
especially with the speech you made at the taking of your
place in the Chancery. Whereby his Majesty perceiveth
that you have not only given proof how well you understand
the place of a Chancellor, but done him much right also in
giving notice to those that were present, that you have
received such instructions from his Majesty, whose honour
will be so much the greater in that all men will acknowledge
the sufficiency and worthiness of his Majesty's choice in pre-
ferring a man of such abilities to that place, which besides
cannot but be a great advancement and furtherance to his
service; and I can assure your Lordship that his Majesty
was never so well pleased as he is with this account you
have given him of this passage.””
The Lord Keeper resolved to show what could be
effected by vigour and perseverance. He sat fore-
noon and afternoon,_coming punctually into Court
and staying a little beyond his time to finish a matter,
which if postponed might have taken another day,+
most patiently listening to everything that could
assist him in arriving at a right conclusion, but
giving a broad hint to counsel by a question, a shrug,
or a look, when they were wandering from the sub-
ject, not baulking the hopes of the suitors by
breaking up to attend a Cabinet or the House of
Lords,-not encouraging lengthiness at the bar to
save the trouble of thought, +not postponing judg-
ment till the argument was forgotten,_not seeking
* Works, v. 475.
}.
134 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
to allay the discontent of the bar by “nods, and
becks, and wreathed smiles.” A
At the end of one month he had satisfactorily
cleared off the whole arrear, and on the 8th of June
he thus exultingly writes to Buckingham –
“My very good Lord, This day I have made even with
the business of the kingdom for common justice; not one
cause unheard; the lawyers drawn dry of all the motions
they were to make ; not one petition unanswered. And this
I think could not be said in our age before. This I speak
not out of Ostentation, but out of gladness when I have done
my duty. I know men think I cannot continue if I should
thus oppress myself with business; but that account is made.
The duties of life are more than life ; and if I die now, I
shall die before the world will be weary of me, which in our
times is somewhat rare.” "
He then goes on to mention a slight attack of the
gout in his foot, which he ascribed to “changing
from a field air to a Thames air,” that is, from Gray's
Inn to York House, of which he had now taken
possession with great delight, as his father had so
long occupied it, and it was the place of his own
birth.f
* Works, vi. 149.
* York House having been the residence of so many Chancellors
and Lord Keepers, and being so often mentioned, some further account
of it may please the curious reader. The see of York being deprived
of its ancient inn by Wolsey’s cession of Whitehall to Henry VIII.,
Heath, Archbishop of York and Chancellor, purchased a piece of land
and certain old buildings between the river Thames and the Strand,
near where Williers Street now stands; there he erected York House,
in which he resided, and which, under leases from successive Arch-
bishops of York, was occupied by almost all the holders of the Great
Seal who succeeded him down to Lord Bacon. The hall was fitted as
a court for business in the afternoons and out of term, and it contained
various accommodations for the Chancellor’s officers. Coming by
N
\
Chap. W. HIS PROFESSIONAL DINNERS. \ 135
To gain the good will of the profession, he wisely,
revived a practice which, having succeeded well
with Lord Chancellor Hatton, had fallen into desue-
tude, and which all prudent Chancellors follow, to
give dinners to the Judges and the leaders of the
bar.” He sends the following account in a letter to
Buckingham of his first banquet:-
“Yesterday, which was my weary day, I bid all
the Judges to dinner, which was not used to be, and
entertained them in a private withdrawing chamber
with the learned counsel. When the feast was past,
I came amongst them and sat me down at the end of
the table, and prayed them to think I was one of
them and but a foreman. I told them I was weary,
and therefore must be short, and would now speak to
them upon two points.” The first was about in-
junctions:—“I plainly told them that, for my part,
exchange to the Crown after the fall of Bacon, it was granted to
Buckingham. Being seized as forfeited by the Long Parliament, it
was granted to Lord Fairfax,−but reverting to the second Duke of
Buckingham, he sold it for building, and there were erected upon it
“George Street,” “Williers Street,” “Duke Street,” and “Bucking-
ham Street,” which, with “Of Alley,” still preserve his name and
title, the lines of Pope being a lasting record of his infamy.
* The complaints of Lord Eldon's delays were much aggravated by
his non-feazance in this respect. During a course of professional din-
ners by Sir Thomas Plomer, Romilly observed, that “the Master of
the Rolls was very properly clearing off the arrears of the Lord
Chancellor.”
f I do not exactly understand how my Lord Keeper Bacon com-
ported himself on this occasion. Are we to understand that he could
not be at table during dinner from indisposition? or that he was too
great to eat with his company, and condescendingly asked them to
“think he was one of them,” when he came in to harangue them?
Whoever has had the good fortune to be present when Lord Chancellor
Lyndhurst presides at similar dinners will form a better opinion of
the manners of the man and the times.

136 / LIFE OF I.ORD BACON. Chap. W.
/

s I would not suffer any the least diminution or de-
rogation from the ancient and due power of the
Chancery, so if anything should be brought to them
at any time touching the proceedings of the Chan-
cery, which did seem to them exorbitant or inordi-
nate, that they should freely and friendly acquaint
me with it, and we should soon agree; or if not, we
had a Master that could easily both discern and rule.
At which speech of mine, besides a great deal of
thanks and acknowledgment, I did see cheer and
comfort in their faces, as if it were a new world.”
The second point was, requiring from each of them
a written account of what they had done and ob-
served on circuits, to be sent to the King.
What was not so laudable, he already began to
tamper privately with the Judges, and soliciting
such of them as were most apt for his purpose, pro-
secuted a scheme for extending still farther the ,
usurped jurisdiction of the High Commission Court.
He continued regularly to correspond on all
matters of State with the King and Buckingham,
who were holding a parliament in Scotland, in the
vain hope of establishing episcopacy in that country.
Having at first ventured to oppose the projected
matrimonial alliance between Prince Charles and the
Infanta of Spain, he yielded to the King's wishes,
and did all in his power to promote it.
He was thus in the highest possible favour, when
suddenly his inextinguishable enmity to Sir E. Coke
had nearly accomplished his ruin. Not satisfied with
turning him out of his office of Chief Justice, and
Chap. W. PROPOSED MARRIAGE OF SIR. J. VILLIERS. 137
erasing his name from the list of Privy Councillors,
Bacon still went on with the absurd charge against
him about his Reports, and hoped to “make a Star
Chamber business of it.””
The Ex-chief Justice counteracted this scheme by
a most masterly stroke of policy. His second wife,
Lady Hatton, had brought him one child, a daughter,
who was to succeed to all her mother's immense pro-
perty. This heiress he offered in marriage to Sir
John Williers, the brother of the favourite, who was
eager for the aggrandisement of his family. The
proposal was highly agreeable to both brothers and
their mother who ruled them,--but most highly
alarming to Bacon. He was delighted to hear that
Lady Hatton disliked the match as much as himself,
and forgetting the scornful usage he had experienced-
from her in former days, when he sought her hand
in marriage, he opened a correspondence with her,
and strenuously abetted her resistance. Without
duly considering what were likely to be the feelings
of Buckingham on the occasion, he wrote to him,
“The mother's consent is not had, nor the young
gentlewoman's, who expecteth a great fortune from
her mother, which, without her consent, is endan-
gered. This match, out of my faith and freedom
towards your Lordship, I hold very inconvenient
both for your brother and yourself. First, he shall
marry into a disgraced house, which in reason of
* “I did call upon the committees also for the proceeding in their
purging of Sir Edward Coke's Reports, which I see they go on with
seriously.”—Bacon to Buckingham, May, 1617.
X
138 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
state is never held good. Next, he shall marry into
a troubled house of man and wife, which in religion
and Christian discretion is disliked. Thirdly, your
Lordship will go near to lose all such your friends as
are adverse to Sir Edward Coke, myself only except,
who out of a pure love and thankfulness shall ever
be firm to you. And, lastly and chiefly, it will
greatly weaken and distract the King's service.”
He therefore strongly advises that the match shall be
broken off, “ or not proceeded in without the consent
of both parents, required by religion and the law of
God.” + *
Bacon wrote still more strongly to the King,
pointing out the public mischief which would arise
from the notion that Coke was about to be restored
to favour. “Now, then, I reasonably doubt that, if
there be but an opinion of his coming in with the
strength of such an alliance, it will give a turn and
relapse in men's minds into the former state of things
hardly to be holpen, to the great weakening of your
Majesty's service.” Having dwelt upon the dan-
gerous influence which Coke might thus acquire if a
parliament were called, he contrasts himself with the
dangerous rival—whose coming patriotism seems to
have cast its shadow before: “I am omnibus omnia
for your Majesty's service; but he is by nature un-
sociable, and by habit popular, and too old now to
take a new ply. And men begin already to collect,
yea, and to conclude, that he that raiseth such a
smoke to get in, will set all on fire when he is in.”f
* Bacon's Works, v. 477. † Ibid., v. 478.
Chap. V. DIRECTS PROSECUTION OF COKE. 139
Bacon's head was so turned by his elevation, that in
this letter he madly went so far as to throw out some
sarcasms upon the favourite himself. To him, as
might have been expected, it was immediately com-
municated. Buckingham was thrown into an ecstacy
of rage, and he easily contrived to make the King, if
possible, more indignant at the presumption and im-
pertinence of the Lord Keeper.
Meanwhile the plot thickened in England. Lady
Hatton, with the concurrence of her present adviser,
carried off her daughter, and concealed her in a
country house near Hampton Court. The Ex-chief
Justice, tracing the young lady to her hiding-place,
demanded a warrant from the Lord Keeper to recover
her, and this being refused, he went thither at the
head of a band of armed men and forcibly rescued
her. For this alleged outrage he was summoned,
and several times examined before the Council,—
and, by the Lord Keeper's directions, Yelverton, the
Attorney-General, filed an information against him
in the Star Chamber.
Intelligence of these events being brought to
Edinburgh, the King and Buckingham put an end
to the sullen silence they had for some time observed
towards the Lord Keeper,” and wrote him letters
filled with bitter complaints, invectives, and threats.
Bacon suddenly awoke as from a trance, and all at
once saw his imprudence and his danger. In an
* Bacon had complained of this silence. “I do think long to hear
from your Lordship touching my last letter, wherein I gave you my
opinion of touching your brother's match.”—July 25, 1617.
140 LIFE OF LORD BAGON. Chap. W.
agony of terror, he ordered the Attorney-General to
discontinue the prosecution in the Star Chamber; he
sent for Lady Hatton, and tried to reconcile her to
the match, and he made the most abject submissions
to Buckingham's mother, who had complained of
having been insulted by him. He then sent de-
spatches by a special messenger to Edinburgh to
relate his altered conduct.
There never was a more striking instance of
“kissing the rod” than is exhibited in his answer to
the King. “I do very much thank your Majesty
for your letter, and I think myself much honoured
by it. For though it contain some matter of dislike,
in which respect it hath grieved me more than any
event which hath fallen out in my life, yet I know
reprehensions from the first masters to the best ser-
vants are necessary, and chastisement, though not
pleasant for the time, worketh good effects.” But
the great difficulty was to explain away the dispa-
raging expressions he had so unguardedly used about
Buckingham. “I know him to be naturally a wise
man, of a sound and staid wit, as I ever said unto
your Majesty. And again, I know he hath the best
tutor in Europe. But yet I was afraid that the
height of his fortune might make him too secure,
and, as the proverb is, a looker on Seeth more than a
gamester.” With respect to his treatment of Sir
Edward Coke, he says, “I was sometimes sharp, it
may be too much, but it was with end to have your
Majesty's will perſormed, or else when methought he
was more peremptory than became him, in respect
Chap. W. THE KING's LETTER TO HIM. 141
of the honour of the Table.* It is true, also, that I
disliked the riot or violence whereof we of the Council
gave your Majesty advertisement, and I disliked it
the more because he justified it by law, which was
his old song. Now that your Majesty hath been
pleased to open yourself to me, I shall be willing to
further the match by anything that shall be desired
of me, or that is in my power.”f
James, now on his return to the South, by order
of Buckingham, wrote back an answer showing an
unappeased resentment: : “Was not the thefteous
stealing away of the daughter from her own father
the first ground whereupon all this great noise hath
since proceeded? We never took upon us such a
patrocinying of Sir Edward Coke, as if he were a man
not to be meddled withal in any case. De bonis
operibus non lapidamus vos. But whereas you talk
of the riot and violence committed by him, we wonder
you make no mention of the riot and violence of
them that stole away his daughter.” After repeating
Bacon's explanation about the favourite, he proceeds,
“Now we know not how to interpret this in plain
English, otherwise than that you were afraid that
the height of his fortune might make him misknow
himself. We find him farthest from that vice of
any courtier that ever we had so near about us; so
do we fear you shall prove the only Phoenix in that
jealousy of all the kingdom. We cannot conceal that
* Privy Council. † Works, vi. 157.
# It is superscribed “James R.,” and coldly begins “Right trusty
and well-beloved Councillor, we greet you well.”
142 , LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
we think it was least your part of any to enter into
that jealousy of him, of whom we have often heard
Ayou speak in a contrary style. We will not speak
of obligation, for surely we think, even in good
manners, you had reason not to have crossed any-
thing wherein you had heard his name used till you
had heard from him.” ”
Bacon, with the most painful anxiety, awaited
the return of the Court to Whitehall, and he made
another desperate effort, by a letter to the King, to
apologise for his words about Buckingham. “My
meaning was plaim and simple, that his Lordship
might, through his great fortune, be the less apt to
cast and foresee the unfaithfulness of friends, and
the malignity of enemies, and accidents of time.
Therefore I beseech your Majesty to deliver me in
this from any the least imputation upon my dear
and noble Lord and friend.”
The time at length arrived when Bacon's fate
was to be decided. As soon as he heard of Buck-
ingham's return, he hastened to his house, but was
denied an audience. For two successive days was
he suffered to remain in an antechamber, among lac-
queys, seated on an old wooden box, with the purse
holding the Great Seal in his own hand, as if pre-
pared to go into the presence of the Sovereign, or to
receive a message from the Commons at the bar of
the Upper House. When, at length, he was ad-
mitted, he flung himself on the floor, kissed the
* Works, vi. 161.
Chap. W. DEFENDS MONOPOLIES. 143
favourite's feet, and vowed never to rise till he was
forgiven.*
Buckingham, having effectually frightened him
out of any future resistance to his will,—being con-
vinced that he himself could not find elsewhere so
pliant and useful an instrument of his government,
—accepted his submission, and agreed to a recon-
ciliation. The marriage was celebrated,—Bacon
retained the Great Seal,—and Coke was restored to
the Privy Council.
The Lord Keeper was soon made sensible of the
bondage into which he had fallen. He was well
aware of the evils of monopolies, which had excited
such complaints in the late and in the present reign,
and he had promised to stay such grants when they
came to the Great Seal: but Buckingham found
them the readiest means of enriching his own family,
and providing for dependants. He therefore multi-
plied them with reckless prodigality, and without
any control. The most famous, from the proceed-
ings to which they afterwards gave rise, were the
patents to Sir Giles Mompesson, the original of
Massinger's “Sir Giles Overreach,” and to Sir
Francis Michell, his “Justice Greedy,” for licensing
alehouses and taverns, and for the exclusive manu-
facturing of gold and silver lace,—with authority to
search houses and arrest interlopers, and other powers
as great as have ever been given to farmers of the
revenue in the worst governed states. These not
* See Sir Anthony Weldon's account of this scene.
144 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
only leading to gross frauds by the patentees, but
their agents abusing the enormous powers conferred
upon them to the wreaking of old grudges, and
even the corrupting of female chastity,+the public
clamour was so great that a reference was made by
the King to the Lord Keeper respecting the legality
of such proceedings. Having taken down Sir Giles
with him to Kew, where he went to recreate him-
self for a few days after long application to business,
he reports “that though there were some things he
would set by, he found some things that he liked
very well,”—and he afterwards gave a deliberate
opinion (in which he made the Attorney and Soli-
citor concur) in favour of the validity of the gold
and silver wire patent, as “a means of setting many
of his Majesty's poor subjects on work;”—with an
intimation that “it were good the dispute were
settled with all convenient speed,”—which is Sup-
posed to mean, it were good “ that certain of the
house of Williers should go shares with Overreach
and Greedy in the plunder of the public.” Sir
Edward, a half-brother of the favourite, was admitted
into the patent, and then the Lord Keeper com-
mitted to prison all who infringed it.
Buckingham's interference with the Lord Keeper
in his judicial capacity was still more reprehensible.
Few causes of any importance were about to come to
a hearing in the Court of Chancery, in which he
did not write to the Judge for favour to either of
the parties. He at first used the transparent qua-
lification, “so far as may stand with justice and
-
Chap. V. MADE LORD CHANCELLOR. 145
equity,”—or “so far as your Lordship may see him:
grounded upon equity and reason,”—and in a charity
suit he would pledge himself that the defendants
charged with breach of trust “desired only the
honour of their ancestor's gift;”—but he afterwards
often entirely omitted these decent forms, and
pretty plainly hinted that he was to dictate the
decree. While Bacon held the Great Seal, I do not
find one remonstrance against these applications,
and Buckingham and those who paid for them must
have believed that they were effectual. Such was the
result of the advice of the instructor to the pupil:
“By no means be you persuaded to interpose your-
self, either by word or letter, in any cause depending
in any court of justice l’’
As a reward for his subserviency, the Lord
Keeper, on the 4th of January, 1618, had the
higher title of Lord Chancellor conferred upon him,”
and a few months after he was raised to the Peerage
by the title of Baron Verulam,_the preamble re-
citing that the King was “moved by the grateful
sense he had of the many faithful services rendered
him by this worthy person,”—and the patent being
* The ceremony took place in the palace at Whitehall, at four in
the afternoon, when “in presencia excellentissimi Principis Caroli
Principis Wallie &c. predictus Dns Rex prim Mag. Sigill. a custodia dei
Dni Custodis Francisci Bacon requirens et recipiens et penes se pau-
lisper restinens atque grata obsequia et fidelia servia dei Dni Custodis
non solum in administratione justicie sed eciam in conciliis assidue
Dno Regi prestita comemorans et intendens ill. ad locum et officium
Dni Cancellarii Angl. ulterius erigere et transferre Regia Majestas
eidem Francisco Bacon Dno Cust, tanquam Cancellar. suo Angl. Mag.
Sig. Angl, reddidit et deliberavit,” &c.—Cl. R. 15 Jac. 1.
L
146 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
witnessed by the Prince of Wales and many of the
first nobility.
But he was now under considerable apprehension
from the violence of Lord Clifton, against whom he
had very justly pronounced a decree in the Court of
Chancery. The noble defendant being defeated in
his wicked attempt, when he had left the Court
declared publicly that “he was sorry he had not
stabbed the Lord Chancellor in his chair the moment
the judgment was given.” He was sent to the
Tower, where he manifested complete derangement
of mind, and finally destroyed himself. While he
was in confinement, Bacon thus wrote to Bucking-
ham, intimating an opinion that maniacs should be
made amenable to the criminal law, although it may
not be proper to carry the sentence against them into
full effect : “I little fear the Lord Clifton, but I
much fear the example—that it will animate ruffians
and rodomont against all authority, if this pass
without censure. The punishment it may please
his Majesty to remit ; and I shall not formally, but
heartily, intercede for him ; but an example (setting
myself aside) I wish for terror of persons that may
be more dangerous than he towards the first Judge
of the kingdom.”
The Lord Chancellor now acted rather a con-
spicuous part in an affair which reflected lasting
disgrace on the King and his Councillors. Sir
Walter Raleigh, after having been imprisoned many
years in the Tower since his conviction for treason,
had been released upon a representation of the glory
Chap. W. EXECUTION OF RALEIGH. 147
and riches he could secure to the nation by an
expedition to America, and having met with dis-
comfiture, was in custody on a charge of burning a
Spanish town, and making war against Spain con-
trary to his orders. There being much difficulty as
to the mode of proceeding against him, the Lord
Chancellor assembled all the Judges at York House,
and concurred with them in an opinion, “that Sir
Walter Raleigh, being attained of high treason,
which is the highest and last work of law, he cannot
be drawn in question judicially for any crime or
offence since committed,”—recommending “either
that a warrant should be immediately sent to the
Lieutenant of the Tower for his immediate execu-
tion under the former sentence, or that he should
be brought before the Council and principal Judges,
some of the nobility and gentlemen of quality being
admitted to be present, and there being a recital of
all his recent offences, and then he being heard and
withdrawn, without any fresh sentence, the Lords
of the Council and Judges should give their advice
openly, whether in respect of these offences the
King might not with justice and honour give war-
rant for his execution on his attainder P” The
course adopted was to bring Raleigh to the King's
Bench bar, where execution was awarded against
him, and the Lord Chancellor made out writs for
it, addressed to the Lieutenant of the Tower and
the Sheriff of Middlesex.
Did Bacon feel any satisfaction from the recol-
lection that Raleigh had been instrumental in
.* L 2
148 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
ruining Essex, and had guarded him with, Savage
exultation at his trial? No! Bacon had not even
the merit of being “a good hater,” and his enmities
as well as his friendships being short-lived, he would
have been better pleased iſ, without any inconveni-
ence to himself, this victim could have been spared.
When Raleigh was going on his expedition to
Guiana, and was desirous to have a formal pardon,
Bacon had said to him, “Sir, the knee-timber of
your voyage is money; spare your purse in this
particular, for upon my life you have a sufficient
pardon for all that is passed already, the King
having, under his Broad Seal, made you Admiral of
his fleet, and given you power of life and death
over the soldiers and officers you command.” It
must have been disagreeable for him now to declare
the law, that “nothing short of an express pardon
could purge the penalties of treason, and that Ra-
leigh, being civiliter mortuus, ought naturally to be
put to death.”
The end of this great man, notwithstanding his
~. f faults, was deplored and condemned. Bacon was
not suspected of prompting it, but he was severely
censured by his contemporaries for acquiescing in
it; and surely, if he had been the upright and con-
stant character we are now desired to consider him,
he would, as the head of the law, and superintend-
ing the administration of justice,—even at the
risk of offending the King or the favourite, have
resisted the outrage of executing a man under a
* 2 St. Tr. 37.
|
Chap. W. PROSECUTIONS. *. 149
sentence pronounced near sixteen years before, who
in the mean time, having gained universal applause
by his literary productions, had been intrusted with
Supreme power over the lives of others. A method
might have been discovered of trying him for his
alleged recent offences, which, if proved, could not;
have been legally visited with capital punishment.
Bacon was engaged in other juridical proceedings
about this time, which, though of less consequence,
ought not to be passed over unnoticed. In the first
case I shall mention, he was no more to blame than
that he was not in advance of his age in the science S
of political economy, and that he entertained notions
respecting the use of the precious metals which are
not yet entirely exploded. It was found that certain
Dutch merchants had clandestinely exported bullion
and coin from London to a large amount, in pay-
ment of commodities imported, and a cry was raised
that the country was robbed. To make certain
that the alleged delinquents should be amenable to
justice, the Chancellor issued writs against them of
“ne exeant regno,” and he appointed a commission
to investigate the matter, consisting of himself, Sir
E. Coke, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. On their
advice 180 informations were filed, and 20 of the
principal merchants, being tried and convicted, were
fined to the amount of 100,000l.
Then came a strange prosecution in the Star
Chamber, which seems to have been instituted by
Buckingham and Bacon to get rid of the Lord
150 IIFE OF I.ORD BACON. Chap. W.
Treasurer, the Earl of Suffolk. He and his wiſe
were accused of “trafficking with the public money,”
—and being convicted, they were ordered to be im-
prisoned and fined 30,000l., Sir E. Coke, who
presided, having proposed that the fine should be
100,000l. The ex-Chief Justice on this occasion
***
**t
_-- **
extorted praise from the Chancellor, who, in a letter-- ~ … --→"
giving an account of the proceeding to the King,
says, “Sir Edward Coke did his part; I have not
heard him do better, and began with a fine of
100,000l., but the Judges first and most of the rest
reduced it.”” Buckingham compromised the matter
with Suffolk for 7000l., and for 20,000l. sold the
Treasurer's place to Lord Chief Justice Montagu,
with a Peerage into the bargain.
Strong complaints began to be made against the
Chancellor's decisions in his own Court. He se-
lected as a subject of prosecution a libel upon
himself-not the most severe then circulated,—but
which luckily happened to be unſounded. He had
pronounced a decree against one Wraynham rather
hastily, not corruptly,–and an epistle to the King,
representing it as unjust, contained these words:
“He that judgeth unjustly must, to maintain it,
speak untruly, and the height of authority maketh
man to presume.” The sentence on the libeller was
the mildest I read of in the records of the Star
Chamber—merely “that the defendant should be
censured.” It may probably be accounted for by
* Letter, Nov. 13, 1619.
Chap. V. PROSECUTION OF YELVERTON. 151
the grudge against the prosecutor still harboured by
Sir Edward Coke, by whom it was proposed.*
The Chancellor, on the prompting of Bucking-
ham, was himself prosecutor and judge in the next
case of importance which came forward. Sir Henry
Yelverton had been appointed his successor as At-
torney General. “When the business was done, he
went privately to the King, and told him he did
acknowledge how like a good Master and worthy
Prince he had dealt with him, and although there
was never mention, speech, or expectation of any-
thing to be had for his place, yet out of his duty he
would give him 4000l. ready money. The King
took him in his arms, thanked him, and commended
him much for it, and told him he had need of it, for
it must serve even to buy him dishes.”f Buckingham
was chagrined that no part of this donation came to
his private purse, and Yelverton was afterwards so
indiscreet as to behave disrespectfully to the Chan-
cellor, who thus complains of him —“Mr. Attorney
groweth pretty pert with me of late; and I see well
who they are that maintain him. But be they flies
or be they wasps, I neither care for buzzies nor
stings.” He now gave great offence to both by
refusing to pass some illegal patents, and they vowed
his destruction. The pretext was, his having intro-
duced into a charter granted to the city of London
* 2 St. Tr. 1059.-But it has been suggested to me this could
hardly mean a mere reprimand; for “censure,” in the language of the
Star Chamber, is adjudge. Thus Prynne was “censured to lose his
ears,” &c.
f Diary of Whitelock, p. 63.
152 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
.*
certain clauses alleged not to be agreeable to the
King's warrant, and derogatory to his honour. For
this supposed offence the Chancellor ordered an in-
formation to be filed against him in the Star
Chamber, and resolved to preside himself at the
trial. There is a curious paper preserved to us with
the notes he had made for his speech in passing sem-
tence: “Sorry for the person, being a gentleman
that I lived with in Gray's Inn, served with him
when I was Attorney, joined with him in many
services, and one that ever gave me more attri-
butes in public than I deserved,—and, besides, a
man of very good parts, which, with me, is friend-
ship at first sight, much more joined with so
ancient an acquaintance. But, as Judge, hold the
offence very great,” &c.”
The following is Bacon’s boastful account to Buck-
ingham of the conclusion of the trial:—Yesternight
we made an end of Sir Henry Yelverton’s cause.
I have almost killed myself by sitting almost eight
hours. He is sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower
during the King's pleasure, the fine of 4000l., and
discharge of his place, by way of opinion of the
Court, referring it to the King's pleasure. How
I stirred the Court I leave it to others to speak; but
things passed to his Majesty's great honour. I
would not for anything but he had made his defence,
for many deep parts of the charge were deeper printed
by the defence.” Yelverton, having been suspended
from his office of Attorney General during the pro-
* Works, vi. 258.
Chap. W. THE NOW UM ORGANUM. 153
secution, was now turned out, and was farther
punished on the meeting of parliament for his con-
duct in the granting of monopolies; but he was
made a Judge of the Common Pleas at the commence-
ment of the next reign.”
Amidst all these low, grovelling, and disgraceful
occupations, Bacon was indefatigably employed upon
his immortal work, the “NOVUM ORGANUM,” which
had engaged his thoughts for thirty years, and which
he had twelve times transcribed with his own hand,
as often enlarging and amending it. He still con-
sidered it defective in itself, and it was only a part
of his ‘INSTAURATIO MAGNA.' which he once hoped
to have completed. But, “numbering his days,” he
thought he should best consult his own fame and the
good of mankind by now giving it to the world. It
was published in October, 1620, when he was in his
sixtieth year, the preceding long vacation having been
spent in again retouching it and getting it through
the press. º
In addition to the public Dedication to James, the
author accompanied the copy which he sent to him
with a private letter, giving this beautiful and com-
prehensive view of his undertaking:—“The work, in
what colour soever it may be set forth, is no more
but a new logic teaching to invent and judge by in-
* 2 St. Tr. 1141. Works, vi. 259.
+ “Ipse reperi in archivis dominationis suæ autographa plus minus
duodecim ORGANI NOVI de anno in annum elaborati, et ad incudem
revocati; et singulis annis, ulteriore lima subinde politi et castigati;
donec in illud tandem corpus adoleverat, quo in lucem editum fuit.”
—Rawley.
154 * LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
duction, as finding syllogism incompetent for sciences
of nature; and thereby to make philosophy and
Sciences both more true and more active.” The
compliment which follows may be excused:—“This
tending to enlarge the bounds of reason, and to
endow man's estate with new value, was no improper
oblation to your Majesty, who of men is the greatest
master of reason and author of beneficence.”
James's many failings are to a certain degree re-
deemed by his love of learning and respect for those
who had gained intellectual distinction. With his
own hand he wrote this answer: —
“My LoRD,
“I have received your letter and your book, than the
which you could not have sent a more acceptable present
unto me. How thankful I am for it, cannot better be ex-
pressed by me than by a firm resolution I have taken—first,
to read it through with care and attention, though I should
steal Some hours from my sleep, having otherwise as little
spare time to read it as you had to write it. And then to
use.the liberty of a true friend in not sparing to ask you the
question in any point whereof I shall stand in doubt, nam
ejus est explicare cujus est condere ; as on the other part I
will willingly give a due commendation to such places as in
my opinion shall deserve it. . . . . And so praying God to
give your work as good success as your heart can wish and
your labours deserve, I bid you heartily farewell.
“JAMES R.” +
Bacon replied, eagerly soliciting his Majesty's
criticism —“For though this work as by position and
principle doth disclaim to be tried by anything but
* Works, v. 535.
Chap. V. PRESENTATION COPY TO CORE. 155
by experience and the results of experience in a true
way, yet the sharpness and profoundness of your
Majesty's judgment ought to be an exception to this
general rule; and your questions, observations, and
admonishments may do infinite good:
“‘Astrum quo Segetes gauderent frugibus, et quo
Duceret apricis in collibus wa colorem l’”
Even Buckingham, who was not without generous
tastes and feelings, forgot his intrigues,—for once
ceased to consider Bacon as the instrument of his
power, and although incapable of fully appreciating
the work, wrote a kind and seemingly sincere con-
gratulation to him as a philosopher.
Bacon and Coke were now living together on terms
of decent courtesy, and frequently met at the coun-
cil-table. A presentation-copy of the NOVUM OR-
GANUM was therefore sent by the Chancellor to the
Ex-chief Justice. This copy is still preserved at
Holkham, showing, by the inscription upon the title-
page in Sir Edward's handwriting, in what spirit it
was received:—
“JEdw. C. oa, dono auctoris.”
“AUCTORI CONSILIUM.
“Instaurare paras veterum documenta sophorum,
Instaura Leges Justitiamque prius.”
This edition contains a device of a ship passing
through the pillars of Hercules, over which Sir Ed-
ward, driven by indignation against his nature to
make verses, has written–
“It deserves not to be read in schooles,
But to be freighted in the ship of Fools.” +
* Alluding to Sebastian Brand’s famous “Shyp of Folys.”
156 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
Notwithstanding the envious snarlings of a legal
pedant, the work was received with the highest
applause by all capable of understanding it, and
raised the fame of Bacon, and of the nation to which
he belonged, all over the civilised world.
Now was his worldly prosperity at its height, and
he seemed in the full enjoyment of almost everything
that man can desire. He was courted and flattered
by all classes of the community. The multitude,
dazzled by the splendour of his reputation as a states-
man, an orator, a judge, a fine writer, a philosopher,
—for a time were blind to the faults in his character,
and overlooked the evil arts by which he had risen.
Bystanders, who were not interested in the cases be-
fore him (a large class compared to the suffering
suitors”), were struck with the eloquence and appa-
rent equity of his decisions, and the murmurs of those
whom he had wronged were drowned by the plaudits
of his admirers. He was on the best terms both
with the King and the favourite; and it was gene-
rally expected that, like his father, he would keep
his office while he lived. Foreigners visiting this
country were more eager to see him as author of the
Novum ORGANUM than as Lord High Chancellor.
We have a specimen of the magnificent mode in
which he lived, from the description of the grand
banquet he gave at York House on entering his
60th year. Ben Jonson, who was present, celebrates
* Sir Samuel Romilly once observed to me, “The number of suitors
in Chancery is nothing compared to the community,+or this Court
would long ago have been abolished as a nuisance.”
Chap. W. MADE VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN’S. 157
“the fare, the wine, the men;” and breaks out in
enthusiastic praise of the illustrious host:
“England's high Chancellor, the destin’d heir,
In his soft cradle, to his father's chair;
Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full
Out of their choicest and their whitest wool.”
He had a villa at Kew, to which he could retire
for a day in seasons of business; and his vacations he
spent at Gorhambury, “in studies, arts, and sciences,
to which, in his own nature, he was most inclined,”
—and in gardening, “the purest of human pleasures.”
Here, at a cost of 10,000l., he erected a private
‘retreat, furnished with every intellectual luxury,
to which he repaired when he wished to avoid all
visitors, except a few choice spirits, whom he occa-
sionally selected as the companions of his retirement
and his lucubrations.
From thence, in January, 1621, he was drawn,
not unwillingly, to the King's Court, at Theobalds;
for there he was raised in the peerage by the title of
Wiscount St. Alban's, his patent being expressed in
the most flattering language, particularly celebrating
his integrity in the administration of justice; and he
was, with much ceremony, according to the custom
of the times, invested by the King with his new dig-
nity, Buckingham supporting his robe of state, while
his coronet was borne by the Lord Wentworth.* In
answer to a complimentary address from the King,
he delivered a studied oration, enumerating the suc-
* A question had arisen immediately after his appointment as Lord
Keeper, whether an Earl could be created without this investiture.—
Works, vol. v. 465, 474.
v
158 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
cessive favours he had received from the Crown, and
shadowing forth the fresh services he was to render,
in his future career, as evidence of his gratitude.
In little more than three months from this day he
was a prisoner in the Tower, stripped of his office
for confessed corruption,--and condemned to spend
the remainder of his days in disgrace and penury.
It is a remarkable circumstance, and affords a strik-
ing instance of a really great man being very igno-
rant of the state of public opinion, that Bacon had
strongly recommended the calling of a parliament,
and confidently expected, not only that there would-
be a grant of liberal supplies, but that no difficulty
would be experienced in stifling all inquiry into
grievances, and in carrying through the measures of
the government. He had penned a reasoned pro-
clamation for calling parliament, with a view to in-
fluence the elections; and he had prepared a plan of
operations, which had been approved of by the King
and Buckingham, for the conduct of the session.
On the 30th of January, a day inauspicious to the
Stuarts, the two houses assembled. James, having
made a long speech from the throne in his ramblin
familiar shrewd style,” the Lord Chancellor thus
addressed him: “May it please your Majesty, I am
struck with admiration in respect of your profound
* He now complains that his eloquence on former occasions had not
been properly appreciated, and he says with much naïveté-" So it
may be it pleased God (seeing some vanity in me) to send back my
words as wind spit into my own face. So as I may truly say, I have
often piped unto you, but you have not danced; I have often mourned,
but you have not lamented.”—1 Parl. Hist. 1176.
Chap. W. PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT. 159
discourses, with reverence of your royal precepts,-
and contentment in a number of gracious passages
which have fallen from your Majesty. For myself,
I hold it as great commendation in a Chancellor to
be silent when such a King is by, who can so well
deliver the oracles of his mind. Only, Sir, give me
leave to give my advice to the Upper and Lower
House briefly in two words, Nosce teipsum. I would
have the parliament know itself: 1st, in a modest
carriage to so gracious a Sovereign: 2ndly, in valuing
themselves thus far as to know now it is in them,
by their careful dealing, to procure an infinite good
to themselves in substance, and reputation at home
or abroad.”*
As soon as a speaker had been chosen and ap-
proved,f the Commons set to work in a manner
which showed that they knew their duty, and were
resolved to fulfil it. They first voted an adequate
supply, that there might be no ground ſor saying
that the Crown was driven to unconstitutional modes
of raising money. They then proceeded to the re-
dress of grievances, and here they were headed by
Sir Edward Coke, become member for Liskeard, and
a flaming patriot. He had for several years been
contented with assisting in the judicial business of
the Privy Council without office or emolument.
+ 1 Parl. Hist. 1168.
+ Bacon, in yielding to the Speaker's prayer for liberty of speech,
added this caution : “That liberty of speech turn not into licence, but
be joined with that gravity and discretion as may taste of duty and
love to your Sovereign, reverence to your own assembly, and respect
to the matters ye handle.”
160 IIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
Finding this rather dull work,+presuming that the
intention was to make use of his services without
promoting him, and having the Sagacity to discover
that the time had arrived when he might gratify the
envy and malignity with which he had viewed the
ascendancy of his rival, he entirely broke with the
Court, and he was gladly hailed as leader of the op-
position.
He struck a decisive blow by moving for a com-
mittee to inquire into the grievance of monopolies,
which the ministers found they could not attempt
to resist. A report was speedily presented, showing
the dreadful oppression which the monopolies were
producing, and it was resolved to demand a con-
ference on the subject with the Lords. The message
to demand the conference was sent up by Sir Edward
Coke.
It must have been curious to have witnessed the
following scene at the bar of the House of Peers on
this occasion, when the two rivals came into such
close contact. Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.
—“My Lords, a message from the House of Com-
mons.” Bacon.—“Is it your Lordships' pleasure
that the messengers be called in 2 Call in the mes-
sengers.” (The Chancellor leaves the woolsack with
the purse holding the Great Seal in his hand, and
marches towards the bar, where he sees Sir Edward
Coke. Their eyes encounter, but all indecorous
looks and gestures are suppressed. Coke makes his
congés, delivers in his paper, and retires.) Bacon
from the Woolsack.--"The message from the Com-
Chap. W. SCENE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 16.1
mons by Sir Edward Coke and others is this, that
the Commons, having entered into a due considera-
tion of divers heavy grievances, touching patents
and monopolies, do desire a conference with your
Lordships thereupon, leaving the time and place
and numbers to your Lordships' appointment.”
(The messengers being again called in), Bacon, sit-
ting on the woolsack covered.—“I am desired by
their Lordships to inform the Commons that their
Lordships agree to the conference, and appoint it to
be held on the 5th of March, at two of the clock in
the afternoon, in the Painted Chamber, where, in
respect of the importance of the subject, the whole
House will attend.” Sir Edward Coke.—“My
Lords, I crave liberty to explain my message a little
further. The Commons will scantly be prepared to
meet your Lordships So Soon, and their wish was,
that, if your Lordships should yield to a conference,
they would prepare the business, so as to give least
interruption to your Lordships' greater affairs; and
when they are ready, I will return and inform your
Lordships therewith.” Bacon.—“Gentlemen of
the House of Commons, their Lordships will suspend
the time till they have notice that the Commons are
ready for the conference.”
Buckingham and the King were now fully aware
of the impending danger. Another committee of
the House of Commons was sitting to inquire into
“the abuses of Courts of Justice,”—the proceedings
of which were directed by the indefatigable and
* 1 Parl. Hist. 1199. Journals of Lords, 18 Jac. 1.
M
162 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
vindictive Sir Edward Coke, although, out of de-
cency, he had declined to be its chairman. The
object of this inquiry was known to be to establish
certain charges of bribery and corruption against the
Lord Chancellor, and to effect his ruin.
This was the crisis in the fate of the man whose
life we shall next have to relate, Williams, then
Dean of Westminster, afterwards Lord Keeper of
the Great Seal, Bishop of Lincoln, and Archbishop
of York. Hitherto he had only been known to
Buckingham as a divine, having been employed by
him to convert from the errors of popery the Lady
Catherine Manners, a great heiress, whom he wished
to marry, and to smooth the difficulties which
stood in his way in that enterprise. But Williams
being noted for his shrewdness and dexterity in
business, his advice was asked in the present extre-
mity, and he declared that the storm was too violent
to be resisted, and that Buckingham himself would
be in danger if some great concession were not
speedily made to public opinion. He recommended
that Sir Edward Williers, implicated with Mom-
pesson and Michell in the most obnoxious monopo-
lies, should be sent abroad on an embassy; that the
other two “should be thrown overboard as wares
that might be spared;” and that the power of the
Crown should not be exerted to screen the Chan-
cellor from any charges which might be established
against him. “Swim with the tide,” said he,
“ and you cannot be drowned.” Buckingham,
* Hacket's Life of Williams, Part I. 50.
Chap. W. CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES. 163
pleased with his insinuating manner and plausible
advice, immediately carried him to the King, and
from that moment the Dean of Westminster directed
the measures of the Court, although it was a consi-
derable time before the public, or even Bacon, be-
came aware of his influence.
Sir Edward Williers was sent on his embassy.
Mompesson and Michell were impeached, and in due
time sentence was pronounced upon them of fine,
imprisonment, and perpetual infamy.
At a conference on this subject between the two
Houses, at which the Lord Chancellor was one of
the managers for the Peers, he took the opportunity,
—very irregularly, though dexterously,–to make a
long speech to the Commons, vindicating the whole
of his own conduct, which had recently been brought
in question before them. He might have been
forewarned of his approaching fall by the proceeding
which took place on the return of the managers to
the House. The Lord Chamberlain then com-
plained, “that the Lord Chancellor, at the confer-
ence, had spoken in his own defence, not being
allowed so to do, the said conference being directed
and limited by this House, which was against the
ancient orders thereof,” and moved “ that an order
may now be entered to prevent the like hereafter,
and that the Lord Chancellor should give the House
satisfaction by an acknowledgment of his error
herein.” The Lord Chancellor had the mortifica-
tion to put the question upon this motion, and to
declare “the CONTENTS have it,”—no one ven-
M 2
164 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
turing to dissent. “Whereupon the Lord Chan-
cellor, removing from the woolsack to his seat as a
Peer, did acknowledge that, contrary to the orders
of this House, he had spoken at the last conference
more than he had direction from the House to do,
and owned that he had erred therein.””
In three days more the public exposure of the
Lord Chancellor began—by the Report of the com-
mittee on the abuses in Courts of Justice being pre-
sented to the House. It expressly charged him
with corruption, on the complaint of parties against
whom he had given judgment. One Aubrey stated,
“ that having a suit pending in the Court of
Chancery, and being worn out by delays, he had
been advised by his counsel to present 100l. to the
Chancellor, that his cause might, by more than
ordinary means, be expedited, and that in conse-
quence he had delivered the money to Sir George
Hastings and Mr. Jenkins, of Gray's Inn, by whom
it was presented to his Lordship; but notwithstand-
ing this offering, the Chancellor had pronounced a
killing decree against him.” Egerton was the other
petitioner, who averred that, “to procure my
Lord's favour, he had been persuaded by Sir George
Hastings and Sir Richard Young to make some
present to the Chancellor, and that he accordingly
delivered to them 400l., which they presented to
the Chancellor as a gratuity, under colour that my
Lord, when Attorney General, had befriended him
—which was in addition to a former gratuity of a
* Lords' Journals, 18 Jac. 1. 1 Parl. Hist. 1202.
Chap. V. CHARGED WITH CORRUPTION. 165
piece of plate worth fifty guineas, but that, not-
withstanding these presents, the Lord Chancellor,
assisted by Lord Chief Justice Hobart, decided for
his opponent.” Various witnesses had been ex-
amined in support of these charges, and the com-
mittee had passed a resolution that they ought to
be made the subject of an impeachment of the Lord
Chancellor.
Bacon, reckoning on the support of the Crown,
and thinking that the worst that could happen
would be a sudden dissolution of the parliament,
at first had talked with scorn and defiance of these
accusations,—but he became alarmed by the increased
roar of public disapprobation, and the diminished
courtesy of the hangers-on about the Court.
On the 17th of March he presided in the House
of Lords,-for the last time. He had a fright on
that day by the spectre that had so often crossed his
path, and was now ever present to his imagination.
“A message from the Commons” was announced,
—and the Chancellor marching down to the bar
perceived that it was brought by Sir Edward Coke.
He suspected that the message might have been to
exhibit articles of impeachment against himself for
bribery and corruption. He was relieved when
Coke declared the message to be, “that the Com-
mons, for the furtherance of justice, waived an
objection they had at first made to members of their
House being sworn at the bar of the House of Lords
as witnesses against Mompesson and Michell.”
* Coke himself had long battled this point of privilege, contending
166 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
Notwithstanding this respite, Bacon's courage now
failed him;--he hurried the adjournment of the
House as much as possible, lest another message might
come up of a more serious nature, which it would
have been very awkward for him to have announced
from the woolsack;-and as soon as he got home, he
took to his bed, pretending a sudden and serious ill-
ness. From an interview he had had with Buckingham
and the King, he discovered that they were not to
be relied upon, and he heard of the declarations they
were now making to gain popularity, “that mono-
polies should be put down, and that guilt in high
places deserved severer punishment.”
At Bacon's own request a commission passed the
Great Seal, reciting that, by reason of illness, he was
unable to attend in the House of Lords, and authorising
Sir James Ley, Knight and Baronet, Chief Justice of
the King's Bench, to act as Speaker in his absence.*
On the 19th of March the Chief Justice took his
place on the woolsack under this commission, and
immediately a conference was demanded by Sir
Robert Phillips and others, on the part of the Com-
mons, respecting “abuses in the Courts of Justice.”
A present conference being granted, “they com-
mended the incomparable good parts of the Lord
Chancellor; they magnified the place he holds, from
whence bounty, justice, and mercy were to be dis-
that the members of the House of Commons were quasi Judges in par-
liament, and that Judges were not to be sworn in their own court.—
1 Parl. Hist. 1206.
* The Chief Justice has now a standing commission to act as Speaker
of the House of Lords in the absence of the Chancellor.
Chap. W. LETTER TO THE PEERs. 167
tributed to the subjects; but they were obliged to
declare that the Lord Chancellor was accused of
bribery and corruption in this his eminent place.”
They proceeded to detail the particulars and proofs
of the charge.
Next day Buckingham, affecting to act a friendly
part to the Chancellor, declared in the House of
Lords that “he had been twice to see him, being
sent to him by the King—that the first time his
Lordship was very sick and heavy, but the second
time he found him better, and much comforted with
the thought that the complaint against him was come
into this House, where he assured himself to find
honourable justice, in confidence whereof his Lord-
ship had written a letter to the House The letter
WàS delivered into the hands of the Chief Justice,
and tead by him from the woolsack:-
“To the Right Honourable his very good Lords, the
| Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Upper House
of Parliament assembled.
“My very good Lords,--I humbly pray your Lordships all
to make a favourable and true construction of my absence.
It is no feigning or fainting, but sickness both of my heart
and of my back, though joined with that comfort of mind
which persuadeth me that I am not far from heaven, whereof
I feel the first fruits. And because, whether I live or die, I
would be glad to preserve my honour and ſame so far as I
am worthy, hearing that some complaints of base bribery
are before your Lordships, my requests to your Lordships
3.16 —
“First, That you will maintain me in your good opinion,
without prejudice, until my cause be heard.
“Secondly, That in regard I have sequestered my mind at
168 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. Y.
this time in great part from worldly matters, thinking of my
account and answers in a higher Court, your Lordships will
give me convenient time, according to the course of other
Courts, to advise with my counsel, and to make my answer;
wherein, nevertheless, my counsel's part will be the least,
for I shall not, by the grace of God, trick up an innocency
by cavillations, but plainly and ingenuously (as your Lord-
ships know my manner is) declare what I know or remember.
“Thirdly, That according to the course of justice I my
be allowed to except to the witnesses brought against me,
and to move questions to your Lordships for their crºss-
examinations; and likewise to produce my own º
for the discovery of the truth.
“And, lastly, That if there be any more petitions of like
nature, that your Lordships would be pleased not to take any
prejudice or apprehension of any number or muster of them,
especially against a Judge that makes 2000 orders and
decrees in a year (not to speak of the courses that have been
taken for hunting out complaints against me), but that I
may answer them according to the rules of justice severally
and respectively. - ;
“These requests I hope appear to your Lordships no other
than just. And so thinking myself happy to have so noble
peers and reverend prelates to discern of my cause: and
desiring no privilege of greatness for subterfuge of guiltiness,
but meaning, as I said, to deal fairly and plainly with your
Lordships, and to put myself upon your honours and favours,
I pray God to bless your counsels and persons, and rest your
Lordships’ humble servant,
“FR. ST. ALBAN, Canc.”

A courteous answer was returned to him, “that
it was the wish of the House that his Lordship should
clear his honour from all the aspersions cast upon it,
and that they prayed he would provide for his de-
ſence.”
Chap. W. FRESH CHARGES, 169
The King was startled at these prosecutions, which X
he considered dangerous to prerogative, and in the
hope of diverting the Commons from their purpose
without offending them, he sent them a message,—
“That he was very sorry a person so much advanced
by him, and sitting in so high a place, should be
suspected; that he cannot answer for all others under
him, though his care in the choice of Judges had
been great; but if this accusation could be proved,
his Majesty would punish him to the full; that the
King would, if it be thought fitting, here grant a
commission under the Great Seal of England to ex-
amine all upon oath that can speak in this business.”
This message was most gratefully welcomed by the
Commons, and had nearly gained its object, when
Sir Edward Coke rose and begged “they would take
heed this commission did not hinder the manner of
their parliamentary proceeding against a great public
delinquent.” Thereupon a general address of thanks
to the King was voted, and they resolved to prose-
cute the case before the Lords.”
A vast number of fresh charges of bribery and cor-
ruption now poured in against the Chancellor, and the
Commons were preparing regular articles of impeach-
ment on which he might be brought to trial, when, on
the approach of Easter, the two Houses were adjourned
by royal mandate till the 17th of April, -in the
hope that during the recess the clamour might sub-
side, or some expedient might be devised to defeat
or delay the investigation. Before the adjournment
Q * 1 Parl, Hist. 1223,
X
*
170 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
his Majesty, rather in an unusual manner, came to
the House of Lords, and in the absence of the
Commons made a long speech in which he alluded
to the Chancellor's case, and expressed his readiness
at all times, without the assistance of parliament, to
do justice to his subjects. The Lords affected to be
So much pleased with this condescension, that they
made an order that ever after a sermon should be
preached on the anniversary of the day, and that in
all future parliaments the Lords should on that day
sit in their robes, in perpetuam re; memoriam ;*—
but nevertheless they saw through James's king-
craft, and were resolved to defeat it.
The state of Bacon's mind during this interval is
differently represented. One acquaintance of his
wrote to a correspondent, “Your good friend the
Lord Chancellor hath so many grievous accusations
brought against him, that his ennemies do pittie
him, and his most judicious friends have alreadie
given him for gon. Notwithstanding, himself is
merrie, and doubteth not that he shall be able to
calme al the tempests raysed against him.” Another
describes him as “ sick in bed and swoln in his
body, and suffering none to come at him;” and
adds, “ some say he desired his gentleman not to
take any notice of him, but altogether to forget
him, and not hereafter to speak of him, or to
remember there ever was such a man in the
world.”f His servants rising as he passed through
the hall, “Sit down, my friends,” he said; “ your
* 1 Parl. Hist. 1228. + See Montagu's Life of Bacon, cccxxviii.
Chap. W. LETTER TO THE KING. 171

rise has been my fall.” When one of his friends, to
comfort him, observed, “You must look aroun
you;” he answered, with an air of piety, which he
knew how to assume with great effect, “I look
above me.” He declared, “If this be to be a
Chancellor, I think, if the Great Seal lay upon
Hounslow Heath, nobody would take it up.”
Meanwhile he tried to soften the hearts of Buck-
ingham and the King. The former he denominated
“ his anchor in these floods.”—He thus addressed
the latter:
“Time hath been when I have brought unto you ‘gemitum -
columbae? from others, now I bring it from myself. I fly
unto your Majesty with the wings of a dove, which, once
within these seven days, I thought would have carried me a
higher flight. When I enter into myself, I find not the
materials of such a tempest as is come upon me. I have
been (as your Majesty knoweth best) never author of any
immoderate counsel, but always desired to have things carried
swavibus modis. I have been no avaricious oppressor of the
people. I have been no haughty, or intolerable, or hateful
man in my conversation or carriage. I have inherited no
hatred from my father, but am a good patriot born. Whence
should this be P for these are the things which are to raise
dislikes abroad.
“For the House of Commons, I began my credit there, and
now it must be the place of the sepulture thereof.
“For the Upper House, even within these days, before
these troubles, they seemed as to take me into their arms,
finding in me ingenuity, which they took to be the true
straight line of nobleness, without crooks or angles.
“And for the briberies and gifts wherewith I am charged,
when the books of hearts shall be opened, I hope I shall not
be found to have the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart in
172 LIFE OF LORD BACON, Chap. V.
a depraved habit of taking rewards to pervert justice; how-
Soever I may be frail, and partake of the abuses of the times.
“And therefore I am resolved, when I come to my answer,
not to trick my innocency (as I went to the Lords) by cavil-
lations or ordinances, but to speak to them the language that
my heart speaketh to me, in excusing, extenuating, or inge-
nuous confessing, praying God to give me the grace to see
the bottom of my faults, and that no hardness of heart steal
upon me, under show of more neatness of conscience than is
cause.” 2
After many apologies and compliments, he con-
cludes by saying, “I rest as clay in your Majesty's
gracious hands.”
Having no answer, and there being no re-action
in his favour, before the Houses met again he had
a private interview with the King. Preparatory to
this he made some notes, which are preserved, of
the topics he was to use: “The law of nature
teaches me to speak in my own defence: With
respect to this charge of bribery, I am as innocent
as any born upon St. Innocent's day: I never had
bribe or reward in my eye or thought when pro-.
nouncing sentence or order. If, however, it i.
absolutely necessary, the King's will shall be obeyed.
I am ready to make an oblation of myself to the
King, in whose hands I am as clay, to be made a
vessel of honour or dishonour.” At the interview,
Bacon recommended an immediate dissolution of the
* Works, v. 549.
f A clear “negative pregnant,” admitting that the bribes had been
received, although he was not influenced by them in giving judgment.
It would puzzle a casuist to say whether disregard of the bribe when
received be an extenuation or aggravation of the offence.
Chap. W. IIIS IMPEACHMENT., 173
parliament, but James advised him to submit him-
self to the House of Peers, promising to restore him
again if they should not be sensible of his merits.
Bacon exclaimed, “I see my approaching ruin:
there is no hope of mercy in a multitude. When
my enemies are to give fire, am I to make no resist- >
ance, and is there to be none to shield me? Those.
who strike at your Chancellor will strike at your
crown. I am the first, I wish I may be the last
sacrifice.” d
James was greatly shaken, and inclined to dis-
solve the parliament, even if thereby the subsidy
voted him should be lost. He was kept steady,
however, by his new adviser, the Dean of West-
minster, who said, “ there is no colour to quarrel
at this general assembly of the kingdom for tracing
delinquents to their form. If you break up this
parliament while in pursuit of justice, only to save
some cormorants who have devoured that which
they must disgorge, you will pluck up a sluice which
will overwhelm you all.”
Accordingly, parliament was again permitted to
assemble on the 17th of April; and the members of
the Lower House returned keener for the attack
from their intercourse with their constituents,
the cry for justice having been raised all over Eng-
land. The Lords vigorously resumed their inquiries
into the charges against the Chancellor, which were
now reduced into form, and were twenty-three in
number. He was about to be regularly put upon
* Hacket's Life of Williams, Part I. 50.
174 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
his trial; but on the 24th of April, the Prince of
Wales was the bearer from him of the following
paper, which Buckingham and the King had previ-
ously approved and intrusted to the heir apparent
as a messenger, that it might be more favourably
received: -
“To the Right Honourable the Lords of Parliament,
in the Upper House assembled.
“The humble submission and supplication of the Lord
Chancellor. *-
“It may please your Lordships, I shall crave, at your
Lordships’ hands, a benign interpretation of that which I
shall now write. For words that come from wasted spirits,
and an oppressed mind, are more safe in being deposited in
a noble construction than in being circled with any reserved
caution.
“This being moved, and as I hope obtained in the nature
of a protection to all that I shall say, I shall now make into
the rest of that wherewith I shall, at this time, trouble your
Lordships, a very strange entrance. For in the midst of a
state of as great affliction as I think a mortal man can endure
(honour being above life), I shall begin with the professing
of gladness in some things.”
[He artfully suggests, that from what has already taken
place, it will be remembered hereafter that greatness is no
protection to guiltiness, and that Judges will fly from any-
thing like corruption.]
“But to pass from the motions of my heart, whereof God
is only Judge, to the merits of my cause, whereof your Lord-
ships are Judges, under God and his Lieutenant, I under-
stand there hath been heretofore expected from me some
justification; and, therefore, I have chosen one only justifica-
'tion, instead of all other, out of the justifications of Job.
For, after the clear submission and confession which I shall
now make unto your Lordships, I hope I may say and justify
Chap. W. HIS CONFESSION. 175
with Job in these words: I have not hid my sin as did
Adam, nor concealed my faults in my bosom. This is the
only justification which I will use. º,
“It resteth, therefore, that, without fig-leaves, I do in-
genuously confess and acknowledge, that, having understood
the particulars of the charge, not formally from the House,
but enough to inform my conscience and memory, I find
matter sufficient and full both to move me to desert the de-
fence, and to move your Lordships to condemn and censure
me. Neither will I trouble your Lordships by singling those
particulars which I think may fall off. -
“‘Quid te exempta juvat spinis de pluribus una.”
“Neither will I prompt your Lordships to observe upon
the proofs where they come not home, or the scruples touch-
ing the credits of the witnesses; neither will I represent unto
your Lordships how far a defence might, in divers things,
extenuate the offence, in respect of the time or manner of the
gift, or the like circumstances, but only leave these things
to spring out of your own noble thoughts and observations
of the evidence and examinations themselves, and charitably
to wind about the particulars of the charge, here and there,
as God shall put into your mind, and, so submit myself
wholly to your piety and grace.”
[He then reminds their Lordships, that they are not tied
down, like ordinary Courts, by precedents; and points out to
them how mercy, in one case, may do as much good as
severity in another, from the example of Quintus Maximus;
who, after being sentenced, was pardoned for fighting without
orders; the same offence for which Tit. Manlius was put to
death. Neque minus firmata est disciplina militaris periculo
Quinti Mawāmi quam miserabili supplicio Titi Manlii.]
“But my case standeth not there. For my humble desire
is, that his Majesty would take the Seal into his hands,
which is a great downfall, and may serve, I hope, in itself,
for an expiation of my faults. Therefore, if mercy and
mitigation be in your power, and do no way cross your
176 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
ends, why should I not hope of your Lordships favour and
commiseration ?”
[Having introduced elaborate compliments to the King,
the Prince, and the Peers, reminding them that there are
vitia temporis, as well as vitia hominis, he thus concludes:]
“And therefore my humble suit to your Lordships is, that
my penitent submission may be my sentence, and the loss of
the Seal my punishment ; and that your Lordships will
spare any further sentence, but recommend me to his Ma-
jesty’s grace and pardon for all that is past. God's holy
Spirit be amongst you. Your Lordships’ humble servant
iant
and suppliant, “FR. ST. ALBAN, Canc.”
This was a very dexterous move; for although
the submission had the appearance of a confession to
be followed by punishment, as no specific charges
had been communicated to him, its generalities might
easily afterwards have been explained away, and the
Great Seal, after being a little while in commission,
might have been restored to him.
The Lords, though by no means disposed to treat
him with unnecessary harshness, and ever bearing
in mind his high qualities which rendered his pro-
secution so painful a duty to all concerned in it,”
resolved “that the Lord Chancellor's submission
gave not satisfaction to their Lordships; that he
should be charged particularly with the briberies
and corruptions alleged against him, and that he
should make a particular answer thereunto with all
convenient expedition.”
The formal articles of charge were now com-
* Except Sir Edward Coke,
Chap. W. FULL CONFESSION. 177
municated to him, with the proofs in support of
each. On the 30th of April, the Lord Chief Justice
signified that he had received from the Lord Chan-
cellor a paper-roll sealed up. Being opened and
read by the Clerk, it was found entitled “The Con-
fession and humble submission of me, the Lord
Chancellor.” It begins:—“Upon advised considera-
tion of the charge, descending into my conscience
and calling my memory to account So far as I am
able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am
guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defence,
and put myself upon the grace and mercy of your
Lordships.” He then goes over the different charges
articulately, confessing in every instance the receipt
of the money and valuable things from the suitors in
his Court, though with qualification in some instances,
that it was after judgment, or understood by him to
be as new-year's gifts, or for prior services.
The confession being read, it was resolved “that
certain Lords do go unto the Lord Chancellor and
show him the said Confession, and tell him that the
Lords do conceive it to be an ingenuous and full
confession, and demand whether it be his own hand
that is subscribed to the same?” Nine temporal
and three spiritual Lords, being appointed a com-
mittee for this purpose, repaired to York House, and
were received by him in the hall where he had been
accustomed to sit as Judge. After mutual Salutations,
they with great delicacy asked him merely if the
signature to the paper which they showed him was
genuine? He passionately exclaimed,—“My Lords,
N
178 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W
it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your
Lordships to be merciful to a broken reed.” Shocked
at witnessing the agonies of such a mind, and the
degradation of such a name, they instantly with-
drew, and he again retired to his chamber in the
deepest dejection.
Still a difficulty remained in proceeding farther
while he retained the Great Seal, for by the rules
and customs of the House of Lords, a defendant pro-
secuted before them is to receive sentence on his
knees at the bar, and the Lord Chancellor, if present,
must preside on the woolsack and pass the sentence.
This embarrassment was removed on the 1st of May,
when the King, finding all further resistance hopeless,
sent the Lord Treasurer, the Duke of Lennox, the
Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of Arundel to de-
mand the Great Seal.” They found Bacon confined
to his bed by illness; and when they had explained
the object of their mission,-hiding his face with one
hand, with the other he delivered to them that bauble
for which “he had sullied his integrity, had resigned
his independence, had violated the most sacred obli-
gations of friendship and gratitude, had flattered the
* “Dns Thesaurarius, &c. ad illustrissimum Franciscum Vicecomt.
Sanct. Alban' Cancellar. Angl. in Ed. Ebor. morbo laborantem et ad
lectum suum decumbentem accesser. ubi posteaguam mentem et pro-
positum Regie majestatis de Magno Sigillo Angl. resumendo paucis
explicassent Dns Cancellarius dcm sigillum, &c. Dno Thesaurario,
&c. omni qua decuit reverencia in manus exhibuit,” &c.—Cl. R. 19
Jac. I., which tells us that the messengers, having put the Seal into its
silk purse, carried it to the King at Whitehall, where three commis-
sions were sealed with it by the Ning’s order: 1. To the Master of the
&olls and others to hear causes in Chancery; 2. To the Chief Justice
to preside in the House of Lords; and, 3. To the Lord Treasurer and
others to seal writs and patents, *
Chap. V. SUMMONED TO HEAR JUDGMENT. 179
worthless, had persecuted the innocent, had tampered ſº
with Judges, had tortured prisoners, and had watºy
on paltry intrigues all the powers of the most exqui-X.
sitely constructed intellect that has ever been bestowed
on any of the children of men.”” t
On the 2nd of May the House of Lords resolved to
proceed to judgment next day, “wherefore the gen-
tleman usher and the Serjeant-at-arms were com-
manded to go and summon the Wiscount St. Alban
to appear here in person to-morrow morning by nine
of the clock.” They reported that, having repaired
to York House, they found him sick in bed, and that
he had declared he feigned not this for an excuse,
for that if able he would willingly have obeyed the
summons, but that it was wholly impossible for him
to attend. The Lords readily sustained the excuse,
and resolved to proceed to sentence in his absence.
He was thrown into great consternation when he
heard of this, and made a last effort to obtain the
interposition of the King in his favour, that so “the
cup might pass from him.” He thus concludes his
letter, perhaps not in the best taste :-‘‘But because
he that hath taken bribes is apt to give bribes, I will v./
go further and present your Majesty with a bribe;
for if your Majesty give me peace and leisure, and
t
f
* Macaulay's Essays, vol. ii. 349. What a contrast between
Bacon's feelings now, and those with which he surveyed the Great
Seal when he carried it home to Gray’s Inn, and wrote his first letter
signed “F. Bacon, C.S.” There might be a very instructive set of
prints referring to those remote times, entitled “The Lawyer's Pro-
gress,”—the two most remarkable of which would be his “selling
himself to the Devil,”—and “Mephistopheles coming to enforce the
terms of the bargain.”
N 2
180 - MLIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
God give me life, I will present you with a good
History of England, and a better Digest of your
Laws.”
The King could not interpose, and, on the 3rd of
May, final judgment was pronounced. The pro-
ceeding began by the Attorney General reading the
articles, and the confession. The question was phen
put, “whether the Viscount St. Alban was guilty of
the matters wherewith he was charged?” and it was ,
agreed that he was guilty, nemine dissentiente. Theº
punishment was then considered, and there being a
majority, by means of the Bishops, against suspending
him from all his titles of nobility during life, there
was unanimity as to the rest of the sentence, and a
message was sent to the Commons “that they were
ready to give judgment against the Lord Viscount
St. Alban if the Commons should come to demand
it.” In the mean time the Peers robed, and the
Speaker, soon after coming to the bar, “demanded
judgment against the Lord Chancellor as his offences
required.” g -
The Lord Chief Justice declared the sentence to
be, “1. That the Lord Wiscount St. Alban should
pay a fine of 40,000l. ; 2. That he should be impri-
soned in the Tower during' the King's pleasure; 3.
That he should be for ever incapable of holding any
public office, place, or employment; 4. That he
should never sit in parliament, nor come within the
verge of the Court.”
Thus was deservedly fixed the ineffaceable brand
of public infamy upon the character of this most ex-
Chap. W. JUSTICE OF THE SENTENCE. 181
traordinary man. Although there were none bold
or weak enough to defend these transactions in the
times when they could be best examined and appre-
ciated, we are told by some of his amiable admirers
in the nineteenth century, that he was made a sacri-
fice to the crimes of others, and that he was free
from all legal and moral blame. While I can easily
forgive such well-meant efforts produced by a sincere
admiration of genius, I cannot but lament them,-
and the slightest attention to fact must show them to
be futile. -
It is affirmed that there is an undisclosed mystery
in the course which Bacon adopted of making no
defence. But he pleaded guilty for this plain reason,
that he had no defence to make. Whoever will
submit to the trouble of comparing the charges and
the evidence, will see that they are all fully substan-
tiated.* Instead of questioning the veracity of the
witnesses, he circumstantially admits their statements;
* It may be said that his decree in Egerton v. Egerton was con-
firmed by Lord Coventry, but this was on the express ground that both
parties had acquiesced in the decree; and it was then found as a fact,
that “the matter alleged in the parliament against the said Lord
Viscount St. Alban’s, that he the said Wiscount St. Alban's had received
from the said Edward Egerton (plaintiff), and after from the said Sir
Rowland Egerton (defendant), several sums of money before making
the said decree, appeareth to be true.”—Reg. Lib. 19 Nov. 1627.
3 Car. I.-Lord Hale accounts for the introduction of appeals to the
House of Lords in equity cases from the notorious misconduct of Bacon
as a judge : “The Lord Verulam being Chancellor made many decrees
upon most gross bribery and corruption, for which he was deeply cen-
sured in the parliament of 18 Jac. And this gave such a discredit
and brand to the decrees thus obtained, that they were easily allowed;
and made away at the parliament of 3 Car. for the like attempt
against decrees made by other Chancellors.”—Hale's Jurisdiction,
ch. xxxiii.
182 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
and the qualified denials to which he at first resorted,
when accurately examined, will be ſound quite con-
sistent with his final confession. He knew that he
had no contradictory evidence to offer, and further
investigation would only have made his delinquency
more aggravated and more notorious. We must be-
lieve then that repeatedly and systematically he re-
ceived money and articles of value from the parties
in causes depending before him, which he was aware
they presented to him with a view to influence his
judgment in their favour. I presume it is not dis-
puted that this in point of law amounts to judicial
bribery, subjecting the Judge to be prosecuted for a
high misdemeanour; and the only question that can
be made is, whether it implies moral turpitude P
There can be no doubt that men are to be judged
by the standard of their own age. It would be very
unjust to blame persons who were engaged in the
sixteenth century in burning witches or heretics, as
if these acts of faith had occurred in the reign of
Queen Victoria: and if it can be shown that judicial
bribery was considered an innocent practice in Bacon's
time, he is to be pitied, and not condemned. But
the House of Commons who prosecuted him, the ,
House of Lords who tried him, and the public who
ratified the sentence, with one voice pronounced the
practice most culpable and disgraceful. He had no
private enemies; he had not, like Strafford, in the
next age, strong party prejudices to encounter; he
was a favourite at Court, and popular with the nation,
who were pleased with the flowing courtesy of his
Chap. W. HUGH LATIMER ON JUDICIAL BRIBERY. 183
manners, and proud of his literary glory. Yet there
was a national cry for his punishment, and no solitary
individual stood forward to vindicate his innocence,
or to palliate the enormity of his guilt. Look back
to the time when similar charges were unjustly
brought against the virtuous Sir Thomas More. He
demonstrated that they were all unfounded in fact,
but he allowed that he might have been properly
punished if they could have been established by
evidence.
As a proof of the public feeling upon the subject,
it might be enough to give an extract from an ener-
getic sermon of Hugh Latimer, who continued to be
much read in the reign of James, and who, preaching
against bribery, says, “I am sure this is scala inferni,
the right way to hell, to be covetous, to take bribes,
and pervert justice. If a Judge should ask me the
way to hell, I would show him this way. First, let
him be a covetous man; let his heart be poisoned
with covetousness. Then let him go a little farther,
and take bribes; and, lastly, pervert judgment. Lo,
there is the mother, and the daughter, and the
daughter's daughter. Avarice is the mother; she
brings forth bribe-taking, and bribe-taking perverting
of judgment. There lacks a fourth thing to make
up the mess, which, so help me God, if I were a
Judge, should be hangwm tww.m., a Tyburn tippet to
take with him; an it were the Judge of the King's
Bench, my Lord Chief Justice of England, yea, an
it were my Lord Chancellor himself, to Tyburn with
him / He that took the silver basin and ewer for a
184 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. V.
bribe, thinketh that it will never come out. But he
may now know that I know it, and I know, it not
alone; there be more beside me that know it. Oh,
briber and bribery He was never a good man that
will so take bribes. It will never be *; in
England till we have the skins of such.” |
But from his own mouth let us judge him. Sie
cogitavit Franciscus de Verulamīo: “For corruption;
do not only bind thine own hands or thy servant's
hands from taking, but bind the hands of suitors also
from offering. For integrity used doth the one;
but integrity professed, and with a manifest detesta-
tion of bribery, doth the other: and avoid not only
the fault, but the suspicion.” +
The crime of judicial bribery had been practised
like perjury and theft, but it was evidently held in
abhorrence;—and there never has been a period in
our history, when, the suitors in a court of justice
and the Judge being the parties spoken of an histo-
rian could have said, “ Corrumpere et corrump?
seculum vocatur.” -
Bacon, doubtless, sometimes decided against those
who had bribed him : but this was inevitable where,
v: occasionally happened, he had received bribes from
both sides, or where the bribing party was flagrantly
in the wrong, or a common-law Judge had been called
in to assist, or where, from the long list of bribes,
they could not be all borne in recollection at the
moment when the decision was to be pronounced.
We are told, indeed, that the offence could not by

* Essay, ‘Of Great Place.”
Chap. v. ARGUMENTS IN HIS DEFENCE FUTILE. 185
possibility be committed by him, on account of the
purity of his character; but ought we not rather to
judge of his character from his actions, than of his
actions from his character P Evidence of “ habit
and repute,” I fear, would not be in favour of this
defendant. Notwithstanding his gigantic intellect,
his moral perceptions were blunt, and he was ever
ready to yield to the temptation of present interest.
When he received the Great Seal he was still harassed
by debts which he had imprudently contracted, and,
instead of then trying to discharge them, his love
of splendour involved him in increased difficulties.
His secretaries and servants found a ready resource
in the offers made by the suitors, and when it was
once understood that money was available, till the
catastrophe occurred, the system was carried to such
a pitch that even eminent counsel, at their consulta-
tions, recommended a bribe to the Chancellor.” His
confession ought to be received as sincere, even out
of regard to his reputation; for, although the taking
of bribes by a Judge be bad, there would be still
greater infamy in a man acknowledging himself to
be guilty of a series of disgraceful offences which he
had never committed, merely to humour the caprice
of a King or a minister. But it is absurd to suppose
that James and Buckingham would not cordially
have supported him if he could have been success-
fully defended;—for, setting aside friendship and
personal regard, which, in courts, are not much to be
calculated upon,-they had no object whatever to
* See Aubrey's case in the impeachment. 2 St. Tr. 1101.
186 - LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. W.
gain by his ruin, and it would have been most
desirable in their eyes, if possible, to have repulsed
the first assault of the Commons on a great officer of
the Crown, and to have prevented a precedent which
they distinctly foresaw would be dangerous to the
royal prerogative, which was soon actually directed
against Buckingham himself, though ineffectually,–
and which did mainly assist in the prosecution of a
favourite of the son of James, and in bringing on the
ruin of his dynasty. Y
I have thought it becoming to make these obser-
vations in vindication of the great principles of right
and justice: but I now have a more pleasing task,-
to record the composure, the industry, the energy
displayed by Bacon after his fall, and the benefits he
continued to confer by his philosophical and literary
labours on his country, though I must again be
pained by pointing out instances of weakness and
meanness by which he still tarnished his fame.
Chap. VI. COMMITTED TO THE TOWER. 187
CHAPTER VI.
CONCLUSION OF THE LIFE OF LORD BACON.
IF Bacon's illness had been feigned when proceed-
ings were pending against him,_after his sentence
it was real and alarming. For some time he could
not have been removed from York House without
hazard of his life. But the first burst of mental
agony having expended itself, he recovered his
composure, and his health improved. There was a
disposition, creditable to all parties, to show him
the utmost consideration and forbearance consistent
with the substantial interests of justice. Still the
sentence of the house of Peers could not be treated
as a nullity, although it might be mitigated by the
prerogative of mercy in the Crown.
On the last day of May he was carried a prisoner
to the Tower. To save him the humiliation of
marching through the Strand and the principal
streets of the city in custody of tipstaves, a pro-
cession contrasting sadly with that which he headed
when he proudly rode from Gray's Inn, attended by
the nobility and Judges, to be installed as Lord
Keeper in Westminster Hall,—a barge was privately
ordered to the stairs of York House, and, the tide
suiting early in the morning so that London Bridge
might be conveniently shot, he was quietly con-
188 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
ducted by the Sheriff of Middlesex to the Traitors’
Gate, and there, with the warrant for his imprison-
ment, delivered to the Lieutenant of the Tower. A
comfortable apartment had been prepared for him ;
but he was overcome by the sense of his disgrace.
He might have had some compunctious visitings
when he recognised the scene of Peacham's tortures,
and we certainly know that he could not bear the
thought of spending even a single night near those
cells—
“With many a foul and midnight murder fed.”
He instantly sat down and wrote the following
letter to Buckingham:
“Good my Lord, Procure the warrant for my discharge
this day. Death, I thank God, is so far from being unwel-
come to me, as I have called for it (as Christian resolution
would permit) any time these two months. But to die be-
fore the time of his Majesty’s grace, and in this disgraceful
place, is even the worst that could be; and when I am dead,
he is gone that was always in one tenour a true and perfect
servant to his Master, and olie that was never author of any
immoderate, no, nor unsafe, no (I will say it), nor unfortu-
nate counsel, and one that no temptation could ever make
other than a trusty, and honest, and Christ-loving friend to
your Lordship; and (howsoever I acknowledge the sentence
just, and for reformation sake fit) the justest Chancellor that
hath been in the five changes since Sir Nicholas Bacon’s
time.* God bless and prosper your Lordship, whatsoever
becomes of me. .
“Your Lordship's true friend, living and dying,
“Tower, 31st May, 1621. FRANCIS ST. ALBAN.”
* He tries to delude himself into some sort of self-complacency,
from the thought that his decrees were sound in spite of all the bribes
he had accepted, and that he sold justice, not injustice,
§º
Chap. VI. HE IS LIBERATED. . 189
At the same time he wrote a letter to the King
which is not preserved, but which we may believe
was very touching, from his own representation,
that it was “de profundis.”
Prince Charles, in a manner for which he has not
been sufficiently praised, hearing of the deplorable
condition of the prostrate Ex-chancellor, took a
more lively interest in procuring his liberation than
older councillors, who were afraid of giving offence
to the parliament. Nothing effectual could be done
that day; but on the first of June, a warrant under
the sign-manual was made out for the noble pri-
soner's discharge. It was arranged that Sir John
Vaughan, who held an office in the Prince's house-
hold, and lived in a beautiful villa at Parson's
Green, should receive him, and that he should
continue in retirement there till parliament was
prorogued.* The very same day he returned his
warmest thanks to the Prince:–“I am much be-
holden to your Highness's worthy servant, Sir John
Vaughan, the sweet air and loving usage of whose
house hath already much revived my languishing
spirits. I beseech your Highness thank him for me.
God ever preserve and prosper your Highness.”f
The buoyancy of his spirit immediately returned,
and in three days after he thus writes to Bucking-
ham. “I heartily thank you for getting me out of
prison; and now my body is out, my mind never-
* Camden says, “Ex-cancellarius in arcem traditur; post biduum
deliberatus;” but he must reckon time according to the manner of the
Jews. † Works, v. 552.
190 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
*ś.
theless will be still in prison till I may be on my
feet to do his Majesty and your Lordship faithful
sevice. Wherein your Lordship, by the grace of
God, shall find that my adversity hath neither spent
nor pent my spirits.”
But his creditors, finding out where he was, be-
came very troublesome to him. He wished to have
been allowed to return to York House and to re-
main there till he had made some settlement of his
affairs; and he sent his faithful secretary, Meautys,
who served him in his adversity with fresh zeal, to
obtain this favour; but, although the Prince joined
in the solicitation, it was refused—on the ground
that he had been condemned “not to come within
the verge of the Court.” He was ordered imme-
diately to take up his residence at Gorhambury, and
not to move elsewhere till his Majesty's pleasure
should be further notified to him. •ºmº
Thither he accordingly repaired; but the place
had a very different aspect to him from what it had
presented when, accompanied by the great and the
witty, he retreated to its shades after the splendid
fatigues of office. He found this solitude,--without
cheering retrospect or anticipation,-most painful,-
and he prepared a petition to the House of Lords,
that he might be released from it. To move their
compassion he says, “I am old, weak, ruined, in
want, a very subject of pity. My only suit to your
Lordships is to show me your noble favour towards
the release of my confinement—to me, I protest,
* Ibid. V. 554.
Chap. VI. PETITION TO THE LORDS. 191
worse than the Tower. There I could have com-
pany, physicians, conference with my creditors and
friends about my debts, and the necessities of my
estate, helps for my studies and the writings I have
in hand. Here I live upon the sword point of a
sharp air, endangered if I go abroad, dulled if I
stay within, solitary and comfortless, without com-
pany, banished from all opportunities to treat with
any to do myself good and to help out any wrecks;
and that which is one of my greatest griefs, my
wife, that hath been no partaker of my offending,
must be partaker of this misery of my restraint.”
After imploring them to intercede for him, he thus
concludes:—“Herein your Lordships shall do a
work of charity and mobility; you shall do me good;
you shall do my creditors good, and it may be you
shall do posterity good, if, out of the carcass of dead
and rotten greatness, as out of Samson's lion, there
may be honey gathered for the use of future times.”
But the public indignation had not yet sufficiently
subsided to permit his restoration to Society, and he
was obliged to shut himself up at Gorhambury till
the spring of the following year.”
For some time he was most irksomely occupied
with his pecuniary accounts; and he found it diffi-
cult to provide for the day that was passing over
him. To Buckingham he writes, “I have lived
hitherto upon the scraps of my former fortune; and
* Buckingham, in the King’s name, sent him a refusal to reside in
London, “which being but a small advantage to you, would be a
great and general distaste, as you cannot but easily conceive, to the
whole state.”
192 . LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
I shall not be able to hold out longer.” To the
King, “The honours which your Majesty hath
done me have put me above the means to get my
living, and the misery I am fallen into hath put me
below the means to subsist as I am.”
These representations produced such an im-
pression that an arrangement was made, which,
with common prudence, might have enabled him to
live in comfort during the rest of his days. The fine
of 40,000l. was in truth remitted; but, to protect
his property from his more importunate creditors, it
was assigned to trustees for his benefit. A pension
was granted to him of 1200l. a year; he drew 600l.
from the Alienation office, and the rents of his
estate amounted to a further sum of 700l. a year,
making altogether an income equal, probably, to that
of many of the hereditary nobility.
The nation would not yet have endured an entire
remission of his sentence, whereby he would have
been entitled to sit in parliament, and to hold office
under the Crown; but the King signed a warrant
for a qualified pardon to be made out for him.
This was opposed by the new Lord Keeper, who
began to be alarmed lest his predecessor might ere
long be his successor, and wrote him a letter, pro-
posing to suspend the sealing of the pardon till
after the close of the ensuing session of parliament.
Williams, at the same time, strongly remonstrated
with Buckingham against it—suggesting that the
two Houses would consider themselves mocked and
derided by such a proceeding. He likewise at-
Chap. VI. HIS HOPES OF RE-INSTATEMENT. 193
tempted to do Bacon a permanent injury, by repre-
senting that he had been guilty of a gross fraud in
the manner in which the fine had been kept alive
and assigned for his benefit.”
This malicious attempt was defeated; a peremp-
tory order from the King came to speed the pardon,
and, on the 17th of October, it passed the Great
Seal. Williams's fears were very natural; for
Bacon certainly had now hopes of recovering his
ascendancy. When he wrote to the King—counting
a little upon royal ignorance—with this view he did
not scruple slightly to pervert history, that he might
quote parallel cases of reintegration: “Demosthenes
was banished for bribery of the highest nature,
yet was recalled with honour. Marcus Lucius was
condemned for exactions, yet afterwards made
consul and censor. Seneca was banished for divers
corruptions, yet was afterwards restored, and an
instrument in that memorable Quinquennium Ne-
ronis.”f
Although he still cast a longing, lingering look
behind at the splendours of office, and the blan-
dishments of power, he now magnanimously and
vigorously resumed his literary labours, inspired
by the nobler ambition of extending the boundaries
* “The pardoning of his fine is much spoken against, not for the
matter (for no man objects to that), but for the manner, which is full
of knavery, and a wicked precedent. For by this assignation of his
fine he is protected from all his creditors, which I dare say was neither
his majesty's nor your lordship's meaning. His lordship was too
cunning for me. He passed his fine (whereby he hath deceived his
creditors) ten days before he presented his pardon to the seal.”—
Williams to Buckingham. f Works, v. 559.
O
194 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
of human knowledge, and enlarging the stores of
material and intellectual enjoyment.
Great expectation was excited, both at home and
on the Continent, by the announcement that he was
engaged upon an historical work, ‘The Life and
Reign of Henry VII.” He finished it at Gor-
hambury, and was allowed to come to London to
superintend the printing of it in the beginning of
1622. It was dedicated to the Prince as a mark
of gratitude for the generous interest Charles had
taken in his misfortunes. He sent a copy to the
Queen of Bohemia, with a letter strongly showing
the feelings of a disgraced minister: “Time was,
I had honour without leisure; and now I have
leisure without honour.” *.
Of all his works this gave the least satisfaction to
the public ; and after recently again perusing it, I
must confess that it is hardly equal to Sir Thomas
More's History of Richard III., or to Camden's of
Queen Elizabeth, leaving the reproach upon our
literature of being lamentably deficient in historical
composition till the days of Hume, Robertson, and
Gibbon. Some have accounted for Bacon's failure
by supposing a decline in his faculties; but he
afterwards showed that they remained in their pris-
tine vigour to the very close of his career. The
true solution probably is, that he undertook the
* A learned Italian, writing to the Earl of Devonshire, says “he
should impatiently look for the promised history of Lord Chancellor
Bacon, as a thing that would be singularly perfect, as the character of
Henry VII. would exercise the talent of his divine understanding.”—
I?awley's Life of Bacon.
Chap. VI. HISTORY OF HENRY VII. 195
subject to please the King, with a view of doing .
honour to the ancestor of the reigning family, who *
had united the Roses by his own marriage, and
had united the kingdoms by the marriage of his
daughter. The manuscript was from time to time
submitted to James, and he condescended to correct
it. Bacon was therefore obliged by anticipation to
consider what would be agreeable to the royal censor,
and could neither use much freedom with the cha-
racter of his hero, nor introduce any reflections
inconsistent with the maxims of government now
inculcated from the throne.” He gives us, there-
fore, a tame chronological narrative, filled up with
proclamations and long speeches, descending to such
minute facts as a call of Serjeants, and, though inter-
spersed with some passages of deep thought, by no
means abounding in the delineations of men and
manners which might have been expected from so
great an artist.t
This task being performed, he returned to philo-
sophy, and was “himself again.” It is most conso-
latory to think of the intervals of pleasure and con-
tentment which he now enjoyed. He was compared
to a mariner, who, being wrecked on an island with
a rocky and Savage shore, on going into the interior
finds it covered with beautiful verdure, watered with
clear streams, and abounding with all sorts of deli-
cious fruits.
* His letters, accompanying the copies he sent to the King, Buck-
ingham, and the Lord Keeper, are still preserved; but they contain
nothing beyond commonplace compliments. w
+ James even made him expunge a legal axiom, “that on the
reversal of an attainder the party attainted is restored to all his rights.”
O 2
196 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
In the following year he gave to the world his
celebrated treatise, ‘De Augmentis Scientiarum,'
which still raised his reputation among his country-
men, and was not only republished on the Continent,
but was immediately translated into French and
Italian. His ‘Advancement of Learning’ was the
J basis of this work; but he recast it, and enriched
and improved it to such a degree, that he again made
a sensation among the learned, as if a new prodigy
had suddenly appeared in the world.
w He soon followed this up with his ‘Historia Vitae
et Mortis,'—with several of his minor publications,—
and with another edition of his Essays, adding several
new ones, which gave striking proof of his incessant
industry and the fertility of his genius. As far as
his literary fame is concerned, his political misfor-
tunes are not to be regretted. More than any man
who ever lived he could mix refined speculation
with grovelling occupations; but if he had continued
to preside at the Council Board, in the Star Chamber,
in the Court of Chancery, and on the Woolsack, till
carried off by disease, we should have had but a
small portion of those lucubrations which illustrated
the five last years of his life. In his happier mood,
no one could make a juster estimate of the superi-
ority, both for present enjoyment and lasting fame,
of success in literature and science, over the glitter-
ing rewards of vulgar ambition.*
* Several Englishmen owe their distinction as authors to their
crosses as politicians. If my “Lives of the Chancellors' gain any
celebrity, my humble name may be added to the class adorned by
Clarendon and Bolingbroke. I shall then be highly contented with
Chap. VI. |HIS WANT OF MONEY. 197
But he was now struggling with penury. Though
his income was large, his old debts were very heavy;
and one of his weaknesses was a love of show. He
had been obliged to sell York House, with all its
splendid furniture, very much to reduce his esta-
blishment at Gorhambury, and to confine himself
chiefly to his “lodgings” in Gray's Inn. Yet when
he came into public, or made a journey into the
country, he still insisted on appearing in a handsome
equipage, attended with a numerous retinue. About
this time, Prince Charles, falling in with him on the
road, exclaimed with surprise, “Well! do what we
can, this man scorns to go out in snuff.” The con-
sequence was, that his embarrassments multiplied
upon him, instead of being cleared off. He was
obliged to write (very irregularly) to the Lord Keeper,
praying him not to issue an extent on a security he
had given to a goldsmith for a shop debt twelve
years before.” He often wanted funds for his most
pressing necessities; and was obliged to borrow small
sums from his friends. The steadiest of these was
Sir Julius Caesar, the Master of the Rolls, who had
married his niece,—and now not only lent him
money, but occasionally received him into his house
in Chancery Lane. There is even a tradition, that
my lot. I do not undervalue great judicial reputation, but I would
rather have written Hyde's character of Falkland, than have pro-
nounced the most celebrated judgments of Lord Hardwicke or Lord
Eldon.—Written in 1845 when I was Ex-Chancellor of Ireland, with-
out prospect of ever again being in office. My success as a Biographer
makes me cordially rejoice that for near seven years I remained with-
out office, profession, salary, or pension. -
* May 30, 1622. -
198 LIFE OF I.ORD BACON. Chap. VI.
not liking the beer of Gray's Inn, and not having
credit with the publicans of Holborn, the Ex-chan-
cellor sent to borrow a bottle of beer from Greville
Lord Brooke, who lived in the neighbourhood, and
that, having done this so often, the butler had at
last orders to deny him.* Yet he would not allow
his woods to be cut down at Gorhambury, from which
he might have had a handsome supply ;—exclaim-
ing, “I will not be stripped of my feathers.”f
The provostship of Eton becoming vacant, he
pressingly applied for the situation, in terms which
should have insured his success. “It were a pretty
cell for my fortune. The college and school, I do
not doubt but I shall make to flourish.”f Every
one must wish that he had succeeded; not only from
a kindly feeling towards him, but for the benefit of
this great seminary, and the cause of good education
in England. The Lord Keeper spitefully interposed
with his wise saws: “It is somewhat necessary to
be a good scholar; but more that he be a good hus-
band, and a careful manager, and a stayed man;
which no man can be that is so much indebted as
the Lord St. Alban.” $ A prior promise to Sir
William Beecher was the first excuse; but the place
was finally jobbed to Sir Henry Wotton, on his re-
leasing a reversionary grant of the Mastership of the
Rolls, to be conferred on a rapacious dependent of
Buckingham, who could still do him service. Bacon
* Wilson’s Hist. James I. Kennet, vol. ii. 736.
# Ibid. f Ibid.
§ Williams to Buckingham, 11 April, 1623.
Chap. VI. HIS INTERVIEW WITH THE KING. 199
received the news of this appointment while he was
dictating to Rawley, his chaplain and Secretary; and
when the messenger was gone, he said calmly,
“Well, Sir, yon business won’t go on; let us go on
with this, for this is in our power ;”—and then
he dictated to him afresh for some hours without
the least hesitation of speech, or interruption of
thought.
When fresh grievances and conflicts had made the
people forget the Ex-chancellor's offences and his
punishment, the part of his sentence, “that he
should not come within the verge of the Court,” was
disregarded; and at his earnest entreaty, the King
agreed to see him privately at Whitehall. We have
an account of what passed at this interview by Bacon
himself, which he drew up and sent to the King,
that the impression might be more lasting. Amidst
a great deal of flattery heaped upon his Majesty, he
seems not to have overlooked his own merits and
services; dwelling as he was often wont to do on the
assertion, that “no measure he had ever brought
forward had miscarried, and that though unfortunate
for himself, he had always been successful for the
Crown.” He then strongly pressed that he might
be again employed; promising, that in that case,
“ he would so live and spend his time, as neither
discontinuance should disable him, nor adversity dis-
courage him, nor anything he did should bring any
scandal or envy upon him.” If he cannot have
public employment, he begs that his opinion may be
taken, or that propositions may be required of him
200 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
privately, as he should be glad even to be a labourer
or pioneer in the service. Lastly, he prayed that he
might serve calamo, if not consilio ; and that the
King, an universal scholar, would appoint him some
new task or literary province, to which he might
devote himself for his Majesty's honour. Upon this
occasion he seems to have aimed several blows at the
more prosperous courtiers, who were still basking in
the sunshine of royal favour: “There be mounte-
banks as well in the civil body as in the natural. I
ever served his Majesty with modesty; no shoulder-
ing, no undertaking. Of my offences, far be it from
me to say, dat veniam corvis vexat censura columbas;
but I will say that I have good warrant for, they
were not the greatest offenders in Israel upon whom
the tower of Siloam fell.” He contended that his
recall to office would rather be well received by the
public: “For it is an almanack of the last year,
and, as a friend of mine said, the Parliament died.
penitent towards me.” To the objection, that a
miracle only could restore him, he answers, “Your
Majesty has power; I have faith; therefore a miracle
may soon be wrought.” His last observation, which
affects to be merry, is full of melancholy. “I would
Hive to study, and not study to live; yet I am pre-
pared for date obolum Belisario ; and I that have
borne a bag,” can bear a wallet.” But Buckingham
had found agents whom he considered more useful,
and Bacon remained in disgrace.
* The bag or purse containing the Great Seal.
Chap VI. HIS EXCLUSION FROM PARLIAMENT. 201
During the romantic expedition of “Baby Charles,”
and “the Dog Steenie,” to Madrid to hasten the
match with the Infanta, he renewed his instances
with the King, but even with less prospect of success,
for the royal word had been passed that no change
should be made till their return.
On this event, Bacon sent a letter of congratula-
tion to Buckingham, concluding with the prayer,
“My Lord, do some good work upon me that I may
end my days in comfort, which nevertheless cannot
'be complete, except you put me in some way to do
your noble self service.””
Still, while the nation was agitated by the discus-
sion between the King and the Commons, by the
sudden dissolution of parliament, by the unhappy
fate of the Palatinate, by the intrigues about the
Spanish match, by the struggle between Buckingham
and Bristol, by the new alliance with France, and by
the impeachment, in a new parliament, of the Lord
Treasurer Middlesex,−Bacon was condemned to
look on as an idle spectator, or to shut himself up in
Gray's Inn like a cloistered friar.
What he felt most severely was his exclusion
from parliament. During his long career in the
House of Commons, and during the short time he
had sat in the House of Peers, he had enjoyed the
consequence of being the best debater of his time, ºr
and he was confident that, if the disqualification im-
posed by his sentence were removed, he not only
* Works, v. 577.
202 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
would have an agreeable and creditable occupation
in again taking a part in parliamentary business, but
that the weight and importance he should soon
acquire would force him back into high office. This
speculation was very reasonable. Never sat so for-
midable an Ex-chancellor. In the first encounter he
must have utterly extinguished the Right Reverend
the Lord Keeper Williams, the present occupant of
the woolsack. He might for a season have had to
encounter a little coldness and shyness; and there
might have been a few awkward allusions to the
cause of his long absence from the House; but from
the amenity of his manners, his unrivalled eloquence,
and his power of sarcasm, he would soon have been
courted, feared, and flattered. The past being for-
gotten by general consent, he would have swayed
the deliberations of the assembly, and the govern-
: ment must have secured his support on his own
terms. 'w
Perhaps some such contemplations mixed them-
selves up with his affected humility, when he thus
wrote to the King: “I prostrate myself at your
Majesty's feet, I, your ancient servant, now sixty-
four years old in age, and three years five months
old in misery. I desire not from your Majesty
means, nor place, hor employment, but only, after so
long a time of expiation, a complete and total remis-
sion of the sentence of the Upper House, to the end
that blot of ignominy may be removed from me, and
from my memory with posterity; that I die not a
condemned' man, but may be to your Majesty, as I
Chap. VI. HIS FULL PARDON. 203
am to God, nova creatura. Look down, dear Sove-
reign, upon me in pity. This my most humble
request granted, may make me live a year or two
happily; and denied, will kill me quickly.””
This appeal was effectual, and the King directed a
warrant to the Attorney General, whereby, after re-
citing the sentence upon the late Lord Chancelior,
his former services, how well and profitably he had
spent his time since his trouble, his Majesty's desire
to remove from him that blot of ignominy which yet
remained upon him of incapacity and disablement,
required a pardon to be made out in due form of the
whole sentence. &
This was accordingly dome, and Bacon was once
more entitled to appear in his robes on the Wiscounts’
bench, and to enjoy all the rights of the Peerage.
But parliament did not again assemble during the
remainder of this reign; and although he was sum-
moned to the parliament which met on the accession
of Charles I., he was then so broken down by age
and sickness, that he was unable to take his seat,
and all his visions of power and greatness had for
ever fled. `A
Surmounting the feebleness of frame which had
prevented him from partaking in schoolboy sports,
his constitution never was robust; from severe study
the marks of age were early impressed upon him,
and his mental sufferings had greatly assisted the
attacks of disease by which he was periodically
* Works, v. 583.
204 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
visited. He continued, however, to carry on a noble
struggle against all his ills and infirmities. He pub-
lished new editions of his works, and, with assistance,
4 translated those in English into Latin,_from the
mistaken notion that this would for ever continue
the familiar dialect of all men of education, and that
only fleeting fame could be acquired by composing
in any modern tongue. His English Essays and
Treatises will be read and admired by the Anglo-
Saxon race all over the world, to the most distant
generations; while since the age which immediately
succeeded his own, only a few recondite scholars
have penetrated and relished the admirable good
sense enveloped in his crabbed Latinity.
To show the versatility of his powers, in imita-
tion of Julius Caesar, he wrote a ‘Collection of
Apophthegms,” or a ‘Jest Book.’ This is said
“to have been dictated by him in one rainy day, and
to be the best extant.” That it was begun in a
\ Tainy day is very probable, but it is evidently the
result of much labour, and of repeated efforts of
recollection. He himself, after praising these mu-
crones verborum, says, “I have for my own recrea-
tion, amongst more serious studies, collected some
few of them,”—language not at all applicable to one
continuous dictation. As to its “excellence,” the
world is certainly much indebted to it, for it con-
tains many most excellent mots of the author and
his contemporaries, which otherwise would have
perished; but they are mixed up with not a few
platitudes, which do not give us a high notion of
*
Chap. VI. DEATH OF JAMES I. . 205
the relish for true wit among the lawyers and states-
men of Elizabeth and James.
In performance of his promise to the King, he
actually began the stupendous undertaking of
framing a ‘Digest of the Laws of England; but
finding “it was a work of assistance, and that
which he could not master by his own forces and .
pen, he soon laid it aside.” He seems to have
been conscious that he did not excel in historical
composition; for having been urged to write a
• History of Great Britain,” and a ‘History of
the Reign of Henry VIII.,’ he never got beyond
the first chapter of either. His last publications in
James's reign were his “Dialogue touching an
Holy War,'— an abstract speculation upon the
grounds of justifiable warfare among Christians,—
and “Considerations touching a War with Spain, in-
scribed to Prince Charles,'—partly pamphlets for the
Duke of Buckingham,_palliating the perfidy with
which he had broken off negotiations with the
Spanish government, and the folly with which he
was involving the country in useless hostilities.
This help was much wanted, for the adherents of
Bristol and Pembroke were multiplying rapidly,
and bitter discontent was spreading among all ranks
of society.
While Bacon looked for his reward, the scene
suddenly shifted. The Sovereign whom he had so
long despised and flattered was no more, and a new
reign had commenced.
* Preface to Holy War.
206 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
Bacon no doubt was in hopes that Charles, who
had shown such attachment to him, and whom he
had so sedulously cultivated by letters, dedications,
and messages, being on the throne, Buckingham,
who had kept the prince in a state of great thral-
dom, would be dismissed, and he himself might be
placed at the helm of affairs. Even if Buckingham
retained his ascendancy, a hope remained to the
Ex-chancellor from a growing coldness between him
and Lord Keeper Williams. But what was Bacon's
mortification to see the despotism of Buckingham
still more absolute if possible under the son than it
had ever been under the father, and the Great Seal
restored to the keeping of the Welshman, whom he
invariably despised, and whom he had such reason to
dislike
He felt the deepest disappointment;* a severe
attack of illness followed, and he resolved to re-
nounce politics—in which he bitterly regretted that
he had ever engaged,—uttering this lamentation,--
“The talent which God has given me I have mis-
spent in things for which I was least fit.” He
published no more pamphlets; he wrote no more
letters of solicitation to Buckingham ; he did not
seek to disturb by any memorial of himself the festi-
vities of the young Sovereign on his marriage with
a French bride; he declined attending the corona-
tion as a Peer, which he was entitled to do, taking
* Even in his last will he cannot conceal his sense of the incon-
stancy of Charles, whom he thus describes: “My most gracious
Sovereign, who ever when he was Prince was my patron.”
Chap. VI. MAKES HIS WILL. 207
precedence of all the ancient Barons; and when the
writ of summons to the parliament requiring him to
be present to counsel the King circa ardua regni
was delivered to him, he said, “I have done with
such vanities.” While squabbles were going on in
parliament, first at Westminster and then at
Oxford, and the nation was in a flame by the
abrupt dissolution,--he remained in retirement at
Gorhambury, and, as far as his exhausted frame would
permit, dedicated himself to those studies which he
regretted had been so often interrupted by pursuits
neither calculated to confer internal peace nor solid
glory.
He even heard without emotion, in the following
November, that, preparatory to the summoning of
another parliament, Lord Keeper Williams had been
dismissed, and that, without any application or
communication to himself, the Great Seal had been
transferred to Sir Thomas Coventry. He foresaw
that his earthly career was drawing to a close, and
he prepared to meet his end with decency and
courage. He was reconciled to Bishop Williams,
whom he forgave the various evil turns he had for-
merly so bitterly complained of, and whom he even
now admitted into his confidence.
On the 19th of December, 1625, with his own
hand he wrote his last will,—which contains touches
of true pathos and sublimity. After some intro-
ductory words, he thus proceeds: “For my burial,
I desire it may be in St. Michael's Church, near St.
Alban's: there was my mother buried, and it is the
208 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
parish church of my mansion-house at Gorhambury,
and it is the only Christian church within the walls
of old Verulam. For my name and memory, I leave
it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign
nations, and the next ages.” He then gives direc-
tions respecting his published works, and leaves two
volumes of his Speeches and Letters, which he had
collected, to the Bishop of Lincoln and the Chan-
cellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, to be dealt with
as they should think fit. He bequeaths many
legacies to his friends, and directs the surplus of
his property, after payment of debts and legacies,
to be laid out in founding lectureships in the
|Universities. \
Laudably anxious about his future fame, while he
was making Christian preparation for the great
change which approached, he wrote a few days after
to the Bishop of Lincoln, to inform him of the trust
he wished him to undertake :—“I find that the
ancients, as Cicero, Demosthenes, Plinius Secundus,
and others, have preserved both their orations and
their epistles. In imitation of whom I have done
the like to my own, which nevertheless I will not
publish while I live; but I have been bold to be-
queath them to your Lordship and Mr. Chancellor
of the Duchy. My speeches perhaps you will think
fit to publish: the letters many of them touch too
much upon late matters of state to be published; yet
I was willing they should not be lost.” The Bishop
said in his answer, “I do embrace the honour
with all thankfulness, and the trust imposed upon
Chap. VI. HIS TRANSLATION OF PSALMS, 209
me with all religion and devotion.” At the same
time, while he does justice to Bacon's oratorical
powers, he pretty plainly intimates that his fame
would not be raised by the publication of his letters,
—a criticism in which I entirely concur; in general
they are written in a stiff, formal, ungraceful style,
—and when the writer tries to be light and airy,
we have such a botch as might have been expected
if Horace Walpole had been condemned to write the
NOVUM ORGANUM. The felicitous epistolary tone
had not yet been caught from the French ; and it
was not till near half a century afterwards that there
were any good letters in our language.
Though his body was now much enfeebled, his
mental activity never left him. He wrote some
religious tracts, and he employed himself in a me-
trical translation, into English, of some of the Psalms
of David, showing by this effort, it must be con-
fessed, more piety than poetry. His ear had not
been formed, nor his fancy fed, by a perusal of the
divine productions of Surrey, Wyat, Spenser, and
Shakspeare, or he could not have produced rhymes
so rugged, and turns of expression so mean. Few
poets deal in finer imagery than is to be found in
the writings of Bacon; but if his prose is sometimes
poetical, his poetry is always prosaic.
This, the last of his works which he lived to
finish, he dedicated to a much valued private friend,
who was a divine, and himself a writer of sacred
poetry; thus addressing him:-“It being my
manner for dedications to choose those that I hold
P
210 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
most fit for the argument, I thought that in respect
of divinity and poesy met, whereof the one is the
matter, the other the style of this little writing, I
could not make better choice.”
“By means of the sweet air of the country he
had obtained some degree of health”f in the autumn
of 1625; but a dreadfully severe winter followed,
which aggravated his complaints and brought him
very low. In the beginning of the following year
he was removed, for the benefit of medical advice,
to his lodging in Gray's Inn, and his strength and
spirits revived; but he confined himself to those
noble studies which he had long sacrificed to pro-
fessional drudgery and courtly intrigue.
Summoned as a Peer to Charles's second parlia-
ment, which met in February, he declined to take
his seat, or to interest himself in the struggles going
on between the King and the Commons, and between
Bristol and Buckingham. But the firmness and
magnanimity which he displayed gave to this last
Sad stage of his life a dignity beyond what office
and power could bestow. His friends affectionately
gathered round him, showing him every mark of y
attachment and respect; the public, forgetting his
errors, anticipated what was due to his “name and
memory;” and the learned in foreign countries
eagerly inquired after the great English Philosopher,
who was hardly known to them as a Judge or a
Minister.
* Mr. George Herbert. Works, ii. 552.
f Letter to Mr. Palmer, Oct. 29, 1625.
Chap. VI. VISITED BY FOREIGNERS. 211
Many distinguished foreigners came to England
for the express purpose of seeing and conversing
with him.* Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador,
having returned to his own country, kept up a close
correspondence with him till the time of his death.
The Marquis D’Effiat, who brought over the
Princess Henrietta Maria, distinguished for his ele-
gant accomplishments no less than his high rank,
went to Gray's Inn to pay his respects to the man
whose writings he had studied and admired. Bacon,
sick in bed, did not like to turn him away, but
received him with the curtains drawn. “You re-
semble the angels,” said the Ambassador; “we hear
those beings continually talked of; we believe them
superior to mankind; and we never have the con-
solation to see them.”
In reference to the noble close of his career Ben
Jonson exclaimed, “My conceit towards his person
was never increased by his place or honours; but I
have and do reverence him for the greatness that
was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me
ever by his works one of the greatest men, and most
worthy of admiration, that had been in many ages:
in his adversity I ever prayed that God would give
him strength, for greatness he could not want;-
neither could I condole in a word or syllable for
him, as knowing no accident could do harm to
virtue, but rather help to make it manifest.”
* “Viri primarii aliquot, dum adhuc in vivis fuit, nullam aliam ob
causam huc in Angliam transfietarunt, quam ut eum conspicirent et
cum eo coram loquendi opportunitatem captarent.”—Rawley.
P 2
212 - LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
His love of science never was more eager and
unwearied than now, amidst the evils which sur-
rounded him, and which he knew he could not over-
come. In contemplation of a new edition of his
“Natural History,’ he was keenly examining the
subject of antiseptics, or the best means of prevent-
ing putrefaction in animal substances. “The great
apostle of experimental philosophy was destined to
become its martyr.” It struck him suddenly, that
flesh might as well be preserved. by snow as by salt.
From the length and severity of the winter, he
expected that snow might still, in shaded situations,
be discovered on the ground. Dr. Wetherborne, the
King's physician, agreed to accompany and assist .
him in a little experimental excursion. At High-
gate they found snow lying behind a hedge in great
abundance, and, entering a cottage, they purchased
a fowl lately killed, which was to be the subject of
the experiment. The philosopher insisted on cram-
ming the snow into the body of the fowl with his
own hands. Soon after this operation, the cold and
the damp struck him with a chill, and he began to
shiver. He was carried to his coach, but was so
seriously indisposed that he could not travel back to
Gray's Inn, and he was conveyed to the house of
his friend, the Earl of Arundel, at Highgate. There
he was kindly received, and, out of ceremony, placed
in the state bed. But it was damp, not having been
slept in for a year before, and he became worse. A
messenger was despatched for his old friend and
connexion, Sir Julius Cæsar, who immediately came
Chap. VI. *. HIS DEATH. , 213
to him. Next day he was rather better, and was
able to dictate the following letter to the Earl of
Arundel, which proved his dying effort:-
“My very good Lord,
“I was likely to have had the fortune of Cajus Plinius
the elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about
the burning of the Mount Vesuvius. For I was also
desirous to try an experiment or two, touching the conserva-
tion and induration of bodies. As for the experiment itself,
it succeeded excellently well; but in the journey between
London and Highgate I was taken with such a fit of casting
as I knew not whether it were the stone, or some surfeit of
cold, or indeed a touch of them all three. But when I came
to your Lordship’s house I was not able to go back, and
therefore was forced to take up my lodging here, where your
housekeeper is very careful and diligent about me, which I
assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon toward
him,” but think the better of him * for it. For indeed your
Lordship's house was happy to me; and I kiss your noble
hands for the welcome which I am sure you give me to it.
“I know how unfit it is for me to write to your Lordship
with any other hand than my own; but, by my troth, my
fingers are so disjointed with this fit of sickness that I cannot
steadily hold a pen.”
A like fortune to that of the elder Pliny actually
did abide him ; for a violent attack of fever super-
vened, with a defluxion on his breast; and early in
the morning of Easter Sunday, the 9th of April,
1626, he expired in the arms of Sir Julius Caesar.
* Sic. Housekeepers then were of the male sex.- “To be said an
homest man and a good housekeeper.”—Shakspeare. The word had
changed its gender in the reign of Queen Anne :
“Call the old housekeeper, and get her
To fill a place for want of better.”—Swift,
214 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
He had not in his last moments the soothing con-
solations of female tenderness. Although his wife
had brought him no children, and she had never
been a companion to him, they had lived together
on decent terms till within the last few months,
when they had separated, and he, “for just and
great causes,” had revoked all the testamentary dis-
positions he had made in her favour.”
Thus died, in the 66th year of his age, Francis
Bacon, not merely the most distinguished man who
ever held the Great Seal of England, but, notwith-
standing all his faults, one of the greatest ornaments
and benefactors of the human race.
The plan of the present work has justified me
in giving this circumstantial account of his life,
but prevents me from dwelling at any length upon
his character, or attempting an analysis of his
writings. *
Unfortunately hardly any of his judgments on
questions of law or equity have come down to us;
but we need not doubt that, when unbiassed by
mandates from Buckingham, or gifts from the parties,
they were uniformly sound. No one ever sat in
Westminster Hall with a finer judicial understand-
* Rawley, in terms which shake our confidence in him as a bio-
grapher, celebrates their uninterrupted connubial love and happiness.
* Neque vero liberorum defectus ullo pacto amorem ejus erga nuptam
imminuit, quann summa semper dilectione conjugali et amroris indiciis
prosecutus est; supellectili lauta, monilibus variis et fundis insuper
donavit.” Whereas the irritated husband says by his codici), “What-
soever I have given, granted, confirmed, or appointed to my wife, I do
now, for just and great causes, utterly revoke and make void, and leave
her to her right only.”
Chap. VI. HIS LESSON TO KING JAMES. 215
ing; no one ever more thoroughly understood the
duties of a Judge,” and his professional acquirements
and experience were sufficient to enable him satis-
factorily to dispose of all the variety of business
which came before him. I attach little weight to
the assertion that “none of his decrees were re-
versed,” as there was then no appeal from the Court
of Chancery, and there is no authentic account of
what was done when some of the cases he had
decided were reheard by his successor.
The “Orders” which he promised when he took
his seat he soon issued to the number of one hundred,
and they remain a monument of his fame as a great
Judge. They are wisely conceived, and expressed
with the greatest precision and perspicuity. They
are the foundation of the practice of the Court of
Chancery, and are still cited as authority.t
King James, being told by Lord Coke that he
could only dispense justice in the courts of law by
his Judges, had a mind to try his hand in Chancery,
believing, according to the vulgar notion, that the
only thing to be done there was to temper rigid
* See particularly his Essays, “Of Great Place,’ ‘Of seeming
wise,’ and “Of Judicature,” which ought to be frequently read and
pondered by all Judges.
# Although they have been varied in detail, I only find in them one
principle which would not now be recognised. No. 6. “No decrees
shall be made upon pretence of equity against the express provision of
an act of parliament.” (So far so well.) “Nevertheless if the con-
struction of such act of parliament hath for a time gone one way in
general opinion and reputation, and after by a later judgment hath
been controlled, then relief may be given upon matter of equity for
cases arising before the said judgment, because the subject was in no
default.”—See Beames's Orders. f
216 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
rules according to the justice of the particular case,
which he thought was peculiarly the province of
the Sovereign. Bacon, however, soon disgusted
him with equity, by making him understand that
he must hear both sides before he determined. The
modern Solomon declared that he could make up
his mind without difficulty when he had only heard
the plaintiff's case, but that the conflict between
the counsel on opposite sides so puzzled and per-
plexed him, that, if he must hear both, he would
thereafter hear neither;-and he went off to join in
the safer amusement of hunting at Royston.*
While Bacon was Chancellor he regularly twice
a year—before the commencement of each of the
two circuits—assembled all the Judges and all the
Justices of Peace that happened to be in London
in the Exchequer Chamber, and lectured them upon
their duties—above all admonishing them to up-
hold the prerogative—“the twelve Judges of the
realm being the twelve lions under Solomon's
* But James in the early part of his reign actually heard to the end
a long trial in the Star Chamber, presiding and giving judgment.
Countess of Eaceter v. Sir Thomas Lake. On this occasion he was
celebrated by the courtiers for having even exceeded the best per-
formances of the ancient Solomon. “His most excellent Majesty, with
more than Solomon's wisdom, heard the cause for five days, and pro-
nounced a sentence more accurately eloquent, judiciously grave, and
honourably just, to the satisfaction of all hearers and of all the lowers
of justice, than all the records extant in this kingdom can declare to
have been at any former time done by any of his royal progenitors.”
—Hudson, p. 9. The Star Chamber being in reality only the Privy
Council, over which the King continued personally to preside, James
was probably here acting according to law, if it was his taste to play
the Judge, however wrong he might be in contending that he had a
right to decide causes in the King's Bench, although they are said to
be “coram Rege ipso.”
Chap. VI. , ADVICE TO A JUDGE. 217
throne, stoutly to bear it up, and Judges going
circuit being like planets, revolving round the
Sovereign as their sun.” He warned them against
hunting for popularity, saying, “A popular Judge
is a deformed thing, and plaudites are fitter for
players than magistrates.” The Justices he roundly
threatened with dismissal if they did not effectually
repress faction, “ of which ensue infinite incon-
veniences and perturbations of all good order, and
crossing of all good service in court and country.”
And he told them he should follow a fine remedy
devised by Cicero when consul, a mild one but
an apt one: Eos quº otium perturbant reddam
otiosos.”
In swearing in new Judges, he delivered most
excellent advice to them, which should be kept in
remembrance by all their successors. Thus he
counsels JUSTICE HUTTON, when called to be a
Judge of the Common Pleas:—
“Draw your learning out of your books, not out of your
brain.
“Mix well the freedom of your own opinion with the
reverence of the opinion of your fellows.
“Continue the studying of your books, and do not spend
on upon the old stock.
“Fear no man's face, yet turn not stoutness into bravery.
“Be a light to jurors to open their eyes, not a guide to
lead them by the noses. *
“Affect not the opinion of pregnancy and ea pedition by
an impatient and catching hearing of the counsellors at the
bar.
—r-
* Bacon’s Works, vol. vi. 141, 194, 244, iv. 497.
218 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
“Let your speech be with gravity, as one of the sages of
the law, and not talkative, nor with impertinent flying out
to show learning.” -
“Contain the jurisdiction of your Court within the ancient
mere-stones, without removing the mark.”
Bacon, although without any natural taste for
‘legal studies, felt that he must ascribe the elevation
which he prized so much to his profession, and he
had a sincere desire to repay the debt of gratitude
which he was ever ready to acknowledge that he
owed it. He wrote valuable treatises to explain and
improve the laws of England,-he was eager to
assist in digesting them,-and he induced the King
to appoint reporters with adequate salaries, who
should authoritatively print such decisions of the
Courts, and such only, as would be useful—guarding
against the publication of crude, trifling, contra-
dictory cases, which had then become alarming, and
by which we are now overwhelmed.t
Viewed as a statesman,—as far as right principles
and inclinations are concerned, Bacon deserves high
commendation. He was for governing constitu-
tionally by parliaments; he never counselled violent
* “An overspeaking Judge is no well-timed cymbal. It is no grace
to a Judge first to find that which he might have heard in due time
from the bar, or to show quickness of conceit in cutting off evidence
or counsel too short, or to prevent [anticipate] information by ques-
tions, though pertinent.”—Essay of Judicature.
+ Rymer’s Foed, vol. xvii. p. 27. “Ordinatio qua constituantur les
Reporters de lege.” After stating the King's anxiety to preserve the
ancient law and to prevent innovations, he declares that he has thought
it good to revive the custom of appointing some grave and learned
lawyers as reporters, &c.; their stipend was fixed at 100l., but there
were only two for all the Courts.
Chap. VI. . As A STATESMAN. 219,
measures; and, though he laboured under the
common error about the balance of trade and the
necessity for laws to prevent the exportation of coin,
he had generally just views both of domestic and
foreign policy. He was a reformer, yet he saw the
danger of rash innovation; and he says, “it is not
good to try experiments in states except the neces-
sity be urgent, or the utility evident, and well to
beware that it is the reformation that draweth on
the change, and not the desire of change that pre-
tendeth the reformation.”
The advice he gave respecting Ireland is beyond
all praise, and never having been steadily acted
upon, it is unfortunately highly applicable to our
own times. On new-year's day, 1606, he presented
to the King, as a “Gift,” a “Discourse touching
the Plantation in Ireland,’ saying to him, “I assure
myself that England, Scotland, and Ireland, well
wnited, is such a trefoil as no Prince, except your-
self, who are the worthiest, weareth in his crown;”
—and points out to him how, by liberality and
kindness, the union might be accomplished. He
displays a most intimate knowledge of the miseries
of Ireland, their causes and cure. “This desolate
and neglected country is blessed with almost all
the doweries of nature—with rivers, havens, woods,
quarries, good soil, temperate climate, and a race
and generation of men, valiant, hard, and active, as
* If misled by no personal interest, he would have supported the
Bill of Rights in 1689, and the Reform Bill in 1832;-and by going
so far, and no farther, would have assisted in saving the constitution.
220 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
it is not easy to find such confluence of commodi-
ties,—if the hand of man did join with the hand of
nature: but they are severed,—the harp of Ireland
is not strung or attuned to concord.”
We must not suppose that he was either insincere
or unenlightened in his political theories by merely
regarding his practice; for he had no moral courage,
and no power of self-sacrifice or self-denial. Hence
we account for his clinging to every minister who
could advance him, for his sealing patents to
create a monopoly in all articles of necessity and
luxury,+and for his writing in defence of a Spanish
war, for which he knew there was no just cause,
and which he knew could promote no national
object. * ,
His published speeches (which he evidently
thought might be compared to the choice specimens
of ancient eloquence) do not support his fame as
an orator. They are superior to those of his con-
temporaries, and even to those of the leaders of the
Long Parliament, who, as boys, were studying under
him, but who suffered the effect of their masculine
thinking to be weakened by endless heads and sub-
divisions, and to be counteracted by courtly ribaldry
or by puritanical cant. Nevertheless, no speech of
his, at the bar or in parliament, even approaches the
standard of pure and sustained eloquence set us by
Erskine and Burke, and to get at his weighty,
rich, and pathetic passages, we must pass over much
that is quaint, pedantic, and dull.”
* In his own time he seems to have been considered equally eminent
Chap. VI. AS A PHILOSOPHER. 221
But it was as a philosopher that Bacon conquered
immortality, and here he stands superior to all who
went before, and to all who have followed him. If
he be not entitled to a place in the interior of the
splendid temple which he imagined for those who,
by inventing arts, have embellished life, his statue
ought to appear in the more honourable position of
the portico, as the great master who has taught how
arts are to be invented—with this inscription on its
pedestal,—
“O tenebris tantis tain clarum extollere lumen
Qui primus potuisti, illustrans commoda vitae.”
However, I must limit myself to declaring my
humble but hearty concurrence in the highest praises
that have been bestowed upon him for what he did
for science. No one is so absurd as to suppose that
he was the first to render experience available in the
search after truth; but he it was that first system-
atically showed the true object of philosophical in-
quiry, and the true means by which that object was
to be attained. Before and during his time dis-
coveries were accidentally made; but they were
retarded and perverted by fantastical a priori theories,
which they were supposed to illustrate. He taught
as one inspired, that the labour of all who think ought
to be to multiply human enjoyments and to mitigate
human sufferings, and that for this purpose they
as an orator and as an author. Raleigh, no mean judge, declared that
“Lord Salisbury was a great speaker but a bad writer, and Lord
Northampton was a great writer but a bad speaker, while Lord Bacon
was equally excellent in speaking andwriting."
222 IIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
must observe and reason only from what they see.
All who have studied the history of ancient or mo-
dern Science, must be aware of the host of established
errors he had to encounter, which were supposed to
be sanctioned by names of no meaner note than those
of Plato and Aristotle. But with what courage,
steadiness, and perseverance did he proceed with his
undertaking ! Luckily he was in no danger of losing
the place of Solicitor or Attorney General, or Lord
Chancellor, by exposing the idola tribus, the idola
specus, the idola fori, or the idola theatri.
His plan was left unfinished; but in spite of all
the distractions of professional drudgery and gro-
velling ambition,-although, in the language of Sir
Thomas Bodley, “he wasted many years on such
study as was not worthy of such a student,”—he
accomplished more for the real advancement of
knowledge than any of those who spent their lives
in calm meditation under sequestered porticoes or
amidst academic groves.
With all his boldness he is entirely free from
dogmatism and intolerance,—unlike the religious
reformers of his day, who, assailing an ancient super-
stition, wished to burn all who doubted the new sys-
tem which they set up in its place. Having put
down tyranny, he did not himself assume the sceptre,
but proclaimed freedom to mankind.
I deny the recent assertion, that little practical
benefit arose from his writings—which is founded
on the false statement that they were little read in
England, and were hardly known abroad till analysed
Chap. VI. A GREAT ETHICAL WRITER. 223
in the Preface to the French Encyclopaedia by
D'Alembert and Diderot. They were eagerly read
and studied in this country from the time they were
respectively published; and as soon as they appeared
here, they were reprinted and translated on the Con-
tinent. Attacked by obscure men, they were de-
fended by Gassendi, Puffendorff, and Leibnitz. They
made a deep impression on the public mind of Europe,
which has never been effaced; and to their direct
and indirect influence may be ascribed many of the
brilliant discoveries which illustrated the latter half
of the seventeenth century.*
I must likewise indignantly repel the charge
brought against him, that he is a mere “utilitarian”
—in the contracted and bad sense of the word—
having regard only to our physical wants. He
always remembered that man is a social and reason-
able and accountable being, and never erred by sup-
posing that his true welfare could be promoted
without ample provision for cultivating his affections,
enlightening his understanding, and teaching him
his duties to his Maker. A most perfect body of
ethics might be made out from the writings of Bacon;
and though he deals chiefly, in his examples, with
natural philosophy, his method is equally well
* It is not very creditable to England that Bacon's philosophical
works have fallen into comparative neglect in his own country.
Aristotle excludes them at Oxford, and they are not the subject of any
lectures or examinations at Cambridge, while at most foreign univer-
sities “the Baconian system’’ is regularly taught, and it is to Scotch
professors, Reid, Dugald Stewart, Robison, and Playfair, that it owes
its best illustrations. -
224 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
|
adapted to examine and classify the phenomena of
mind. -
I may not enter into any minute criticisms on the
style of his philosophical works, whether English or
Latin; yet I cannot refrain from remarking, that
while he instructs he is exact, perspicuous, and
forcible, charming his reader with a felicity of illus-
tration peculiar to himself—ever seconded by the com-
manding powers of a bold and figurative eloquence.
To beginners, the “Advancement of Learning’ is cer-
tainly the most captivating performance,—but let
them proceed, and they will soon be familiar with the
‘De Augmentis,'—and the most abstract aphorisms
in the “NOVUM ORGANUM" will yield them delight.
Bacon's miscellaneous literary productions would
of themselves place him high as an author. Many
# of the observations on life and manners in his
‘Essays’ have passed into maxims or proverbs, and
are familiar to us from infancy. Of all the composi-
| tions in any language I am acquainted with, these
will bear to be the oftenest perused and re-perused, !
and after every perusal they still present some new
meaning and some new beauty. He was himself:
conscious of his power in this department of lite-
rature, and of the “lustre and reputation these
recreations of his other studies would yield to his
name.” - !
His ‘New Atlantis’ he seems to have intended as
* Letter to Bishop of Winchester. Again, he resembles his short
Essays to the reformed coin, “where the pieces are small, but the
silver is good.”

Chap. VI. HIS LATIN STYLE. 225
a rival to the ‘Utopia’ of Sir Thomas More, although
his object was less to satirise existing institutions and
manners than to point out the unbounded progress
that might be made in discovery and improvement.”
Some of his suggestions which must have appeared
the most extravagant to his contemporaries have been
realised in the present age. ,
His tract ‘ On Church Controversies’ is admirably
written,_to inculcate the salutary precept that
Christians should contend “not as the brier with the
thistle, which can wound deepest; but as the vine
with the olive, which bears best fruit.”
His derivation of all physical and moral truth
from mythological fables in his ‘Wisdom of the
Ancients,’ is often forced and far-fetched; but
nowhere do we trace more striking proofs of his
imagination, and his power of discovering re-
semblances and differences, in which consist wit
and wisdom. -
His Latin style, though pointed and forcible, is
not sweet nor pure; but he has left us some of the
best specimens of genuine Anglicism, and the few
antiquated words and turns of expression which we
find in his writings, as in the contemporary transla-
tion of the Bible, only give additional weight and
solemnity to the sentiments which he expresses.
* This work seems to have been deeply studied by Swift, who has
happily ridiculed some parts of it in Gulliver's Travels, particularly
in the voyage to Laputa. Another Lord Chancellor has attempted a
philosophical romance, but Lord Erskine’s “Armata' does not
encourage his successors to venture again upon this mode of addressing
the public. *-
Q
226 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
Addison, who knew what good composition was,
talks with rapture of his “beautiful lights, graces,
and embellishments.”
In considering his private character, we must begin
with the formidable admission that he was without
steady attachments as well as aversions, and that, re-
gardless of friendship or gratitude, he was governed
by a selfish view of his own interest. But he was
perfectly free from malignity; he was good-natured
and obliging; when friends stood between him and
his object, sacrificing them to the necessary extent,
—he did them as little further damage as possible,_
and instead of hating those whom he had injured, he
was rather disposed to be reconciled to them, and to
make them amends by courtesy, if he could not ren-
der them real service. -
I find no impeachment of his morals deserving of
attention,-and he certainly must have been a man
of very great temperance, for the business and studies
through which he went would be enough to fill up
the lives of ten men who spend their evenings over
their wine, and awake crapulous in the morning.
“Nullum momentum aut temporis segmentum perire
et intercidere passus est,”*—knowing that if he took
good care of sections of an hour, entire days would
take care of themselves. -
... All accounts represent him as a most delightful
companion, adapting himself to company of every
degree, calling, and humour, not engrossing the
* Rawley.
Chap. VI. FANCIFUL ABOUT HEALTH. 227
conversation,-trying to get all to talk in turn on the
subject they best understood, and not disdaining to
light his own candle at the lamp of any other.” He
was generally merry and playful, bringing out with
great effect his unexhausted store of jests, new and
old, and remembering that “to be free-minded and
cheerfully disposed at hours of meat, and of sleep,
and of exercise, is one of the best precepts of long
lasting.”f -
If he was not very steady in his friendships,
where disturbed by ambition or rivalry, it should be
recollected that he was ever kind to his servants and
dependants; and the attachment of Meautys, who
remained devotedly true to him in all his fortunes,
is equally honourable to both parties.
He was rather fanciful about his health, preferring
meats which bred “juices substantial and less dissi-
pable,”—taking three grains of nitre daily in warm
broth, and an infusion of rhubarb into white wine
and beer once in six or seven days, immediately
before his meal, “that it might dry the body less.”
To show something supernatural about such a
* “Convivantium neminem aut alias colloquentium pudore suffun-
dere gloriae sibi duxit, sicut nonnulli gestiunt; sed facultates eorum
qualescunque fovere et provehere paratus erat. Quin et sermonis
licentiam Sibi soli arripere in more non erat; sed et aliis simul con-
sidentibus libertatem et vicissitudinem loquendi permittere: hoc etiam
addendo, quod in arte unumquemgue propria lubentissime audiret, et
ad ejusmodi dissertationem pellicere et provocare consueverit. Ipse
autem nullius observationes contempsit; sed ad candelam cujuslibet
lampada suam accendere non erubuit.”—Rawley. This passage seems
to have escaped the attention of two illustrious writers who have,
drawn his character.
+ Rawley. Oh for a Boswell to have recorded the conversation,
when he had Raleigh, Ben Jonson, Selden, and Gondomar for guests!
Q 2
228 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
man, for the purpose of raising our wonder and
admiration, — Rawley, his chaplain and secretary,
asserts, and his subsequent biographers have re-
peated,—that at every change or any eclipse of the
moon he invariably fainted, although he was not
aware that such an event was to take place; but that
he recovered as soon as the Sun's rays again illumined
her disc.” As no instance is recorded of his ever
having fainted in public, or put off the hearing of a
cause on account of the change of the moon, or of
any approaching eclipse, visible or invisible, -and
neither himself nor any of his other contemporaries
refer to any such infirmity, and such a “delicacy of
temperament” is somewhat incredible, we must set
down the story to the invention or easy credulity of
the man who thought that it might be explained by
his hero’s “lunar horoscope at the moment of his
birth.”
A more seribus matter is the charge brought against
him of infidelity. At one time in his youth, he
seems not only to have been sceptical, but to have
been disposed openly to insult the religion of others.
Notwithstanding the stout denial that he was the
author of the ‘Paradoxes,” I cannot doubt that the
publication is from his pen, and I cannot characterise
it otherwise than as a profane attempt to ridicule
* “Verisimile est lunam in themate ejus natalitio praecipuum
aliquem locum (veluti in horoscopo aut medio coeli) tenuisse. Quoties
enim luna defecit aut eclipsim passa est, repentino animi deliquio cor-
reptus fuit: iddue etiam si nullam defectionis lunaris notitiam praeviam
habuisset. Quamprimum autem luna lumini priori restituta fuisset,
confestim refocillatus est et convaluit.”—Rawley. -
Chap. VI. CHARGED WITH INFIDELITY. 229
the Christian faith. But Isuspect that he is describing
the history of his own mind when he says, “It is an
assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a
little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may in-
cline the mind of man to atheism, but a further pro-
ceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to
religion; for in the entrance of philosophy, when
*the second causes, which are next unto the senses,
do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell
and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the
highest cause; but when a man passeth on further,
and seeth the dependence of causes and the works of
Providence,—then, according to the allegory of the
poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of
Nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot of
Jupiter's chair.”*
He certainly received a most pious education; and
if his early religious impressions were for a time
weakened or effaced by his intercourse with French
philosophers, or his own first rash examination of the
reasons of his belief, I am fully convinced that they
were restored and deepened by subsequent study and
reflection. I rely not merely on his ‘Confession of
Faith,” or the other direct declarations of his belief
in the great truths of our religion (although I know
not what right we have to question his sincerity),
but I am swayed more by the devotional feelings
which from time to time, without premeditation or
design, break out in his writings, and the incidental
* Adv. of Learning. See the Essay “Of Atheism,' which was
added in the later editions. *
230 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
indications he gives of his full conviction of the being
and providence of God, and of the Divine mission of
our blessed Saviour. His lapses from the path of
honour afford no argument against the genuineness
of his speculative belief. Upon the whole, we may
be well asured that the difficulties which at one time
perplexed him had been completely dissipated; his
keen perception saw as clearly as it is ever given toº
man in this state to discover—the hand of the Cre-
ator, Preserver, and Governor of the universe;—and
his gigantic intellect must have been satisfied with
the consideration, that assuming the truth of natural
and of revealed religion, it , is utterly inconsistent
with the system of human affairs, and with the con-
dition of man in this world, that they should have
been more clearly disclosed to us.
Among his good qualities it ought to be mentioned,
that he had no mean jealousy of others, and he was
always disposed to patronise merit. Feeling how
long he himself had been unjustly depressed from
unworthy motives, he never would inflict similar in-
justice on others, and he repeatedly cautions states-
men to guard against this propensity. “He that
plots to be a figure among ciphers is the decay of a
whole age.”
He retained through life his passion for planting
and gardening, and when Chancellor, he ornamented
Lincoln's Inn Fields with walks and groves, and gave
the first example of an umbrageous Square in a great
metropolis.” }
*
* Letter to Buckingham, Nov. 12, 1618.
Chap. VI. DUTY OF THE BIOGRAPHER. 231
*
Little remains except to give some account of his
person. He was of a middling stature, his limbs
well formed, though not robust,-his forehead high,
spacious, and open,-his eye lively and penetrating;
—there were deep lines of thinking in his face;—
his smile was both intellectual and benevolent;-the
marks of age were prematurely impressed upon him;
—in advanced life, his whole appearance was vene-
rably pleasing, so that a stranger was insensibly drawn
to love before knowing how much reason there was
to admire him.
It is with great pain that I have found myself
obliged to take an impartial view of his character
and conduct:—
“A fairer person lost not heaven; he seem’d
For dignity composed and high exploits;”
but to suppress or pervert facts, to confound, for
the purpose of holding him up as a perfect being,
moral distinctions which should be kept well defined
and far apart, would be a vain attempt to do honour
to his genius, would not be creditable to the bio-
grapher who perceives his faults, and would tend
to demoralise as far as it might be effectual. Others
who really believe Bacon to be immaculate, are fully
justified in proclaiming him to the world to be so.
This was by no means the opinion he entertained of
himself. He acknowledges to Sir Thomas Bodley
his many errors, and among the rest, says he, “this
great one which led the rest, that knowing myself by
232 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap.;VI.
inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than play a
part, I have led my life in civil causes, for which I
was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by pre-
occupation of mind.”
When young, he had “vast contemplative ends
and moderate civil ends.” If he had inherited the
patrimony intended for him by his father, if he had
obtained the provision which he solicited from the
minister on his father's death, it is possible that he
might have sunk into indolence and obscurity; but
from his native energy, and from the consciousness
with which he seems to have been very early inspired
of his high calling to be “the great reformer of phi-
losophy,” the probability is, that he would have left
the Instauratio Magna complete, – preserving a
spotless reputation. Then, indeed, we should have
justly honoured him beyond any of his species, to
whom miraculous gifts have not been directly im-
parted by Heaven. But without incurring any
blame in the first instance, he was driven to betake
himself to the profession of the law for a subsistence;
hence, he was involved in the vortex of politics; in-
tellectual glory became his secondary object; and his
nature being changed and debased,—to gain profes-
sional advancement, official station, and political
power, there was no baseness to which he was not
ready to submit, and hardly any crime which he
would not have been willing to perpetrate. I still
readily acknowledge him to be a great man; but can
only wish he had been a good man. Transposing
Chap. VI. MONUMENT AND INSCRIPTION. 233
the words applied by Tacitus to Agricola, I may
truly say, “Magnum virum facile crederes, bonum
libenter.”
According to the directions in his will, his remains
were interred in St. Michael's Church, near St.
Alban's. No account has reached us of his funeral,
and there is reason to fear that, on this occasion, as
his connexion with the Court had entirely ceased,
and a party squabble was engrossing the attention of
the public, the great and the noble did not attend to
do honour to his memory. But then and there, no
doubt, appeared as a mourner, and wept tenderly,
Meautys, his faithful secretary, who, at his own ex-
pense, erected to him, in the church where he lies
buried, a handsome and characteristic monument, re-
presenting him in a sitting posture with his hand
supporting his head, and absorbed in contemplation—
with this inscription :-
Franciscus Bacon Baro de Verula Sti Albni Victms
Sive notioribus titulis
Scientiarum Lumen Facundiae Lex
Sic sedebat.
Qui postguam omnia naturalis sapientiae
Et civilis arcana evolvisset
Naturae decretum explevit.
Composita solvantur
An° Dni MDCXXVI.
AEtat. LXVI.
Tanti viri
Mem.
Thomas Meautys
Superstitis cultor
Defuncti admirator.
H. P
234 LIFE OF LORD BACON. Chap. VI.
Notwithstanding all the money he had received,
duly and unduly,–such was his love of expense,
and his neglect of his affairs, that upon his death his
estate appears to have been found insolvent. All
the six executors whom he named in his will refused
to act, and on the 13th of July, 1627, administration
with the will annexed was granted to Sir Thomas
Meautys and Sir Robert Rich, a Master in Chancery,
as two of his creditors.-No funds were forthcoming
for the foundation of his lectureships.”
His wife survived him twenty years, but lived in
retirement. w
Bacon perhaps comforted himself for his want of
* Since the publication of the first edition of this Life, by the
assistance of my friend Mr. C. Monro I have ascertained beyond all
question that Bacon died insolvent. It appears by the Registrar's
Book that a creditors’ suit was instituted for the administration of his
estate. His servants were by consent to be paid their wages in full,
and the fund arising from the sale of his property was to be divided
rateably among the other creditors. A report to the Lord Chancellor,
on the state of the debts and assets, contains these very curious pas-
sages:—“That concerning the several debts demanded by Sir Peter
Van Lord, Mr. Peacock, and Philip Holman, it is alleged that the
testator was sentenced for them in parliament as bribes, and therefore
not conceived reasonable that they should come in as creditors.
Nevertheless, further time is given them to produce their proofs, and
to hear what can be said on either side touching their said demands.”
Then with respect to a bond for 1000l. to secure that amount lent to
him when he was Attorney General, the report, after stating the
objection by the creditors, says, “I have thought fit to set down the
testator's own words touching the said debt, and so leave the same to
your lordships' consideration : “A note of such debts as either in
respect of length of tyme or the nature of the first borrowing or agree-
ment since, need not be thought upon for repayment; viz. The farmers
of the Customs 1000l., lent long since, when I was Attorney, and
without interest, upon great and many pleasures don to the said
farmers, and whereas I was wont to have of them yearly a new yeares
guift of 100l. at least—upon this money lent it was discontinued, and
soe the principall worne out, for interest was never intended.”—Reg.
Lib. 19 Feb. 1626. -
Chap. VI. DIED WITHOUT OFFSPRING. 235
offspring, by recollecting the instances from which
he drew his saying, that “Great men have no con-
tinuance;” but he seems at times to have felt a pang
at the ‘thought that he was to leave no children to
close his eyes, or to weep over his grave: “They
increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the re-
membrance of death.””
* Essay, ‘Of Parents and Children.’
*
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