ministers drove the prosecution on Effex's treafon, which might as well have been ftiled madness, with fuch unaccountable fury, and exercifed fuch rigour against all offenders; nay, and all suspected of having a will to give offence, as is fcarce credible to us in better times. In a feafon like this, Mr. Bacon, who had been both a favourite, and of the privy-council, to the earl of Effex, might very well doubt his fafety, and make it his choice rather to perform fuch a difagreeable office, yet with tendernefs and decency, (as it is owned he did) than expofe himself either to the queen's anger, or to the refentment of those minifters who had her confidence at that time, and whose power in the fucceeding reign not only continued but increased.

He had been long compofing his Maxims of the Law, and having now finished it, he dedicated it to queen Elizabeth, 1596 but never printed it himself. As we have it now, it has fuffered confiderably. Soon after, he published a work of quite another kind, the first part of his Efays or Councils civil and moral; an admirable work, in which the author inftructs us in the most useful principles of wisdom and prudence, and teaches us how to acquire what are esteemed the greatest bleffings, and how to avoid the evils most dreaded in the conduct of human life. His penetration, exactness, and perfect skill in all the offices of civil life appeared to great advantage in this performance; which, as he himself was fenfible, proved of great service to his character, and promoted the high esteem that was already conceived of his parts and learning. He compofed on a particular occafion, his Hif1598 tory of the Alienation Office. There never fell any thing from his pen which more clearly and fully demonftrated his abilities in his profeffion. In this piece he hath shewn how great a mafter he was, not only in the law, but in our history and antiquities. It is not written in a dry, dark, and unentertaining way, which fo much difcourages young readers in books of this kind: the file is pleafant and agreeable, though plain and fuitable to the fubject; and facts, authorities, obfervations, remarks, and reflections, are fo judiciously interwoven, that whoever reads it, with a competent knowledge of the subject, must acknowledge him to have been an able lawyer, and an elegant writer.

He was chofen double reader by the learned fociety of which he was a member; and this office he discharged with remarkable sufficiency, as appears by his Reading on the Statute of Ufes. It is printed in his works, and is an everlasting monument of his abilities in his 1600 profession. During the latter part of the queen's reign, he greatly diftinguished himself in the house of commons ; and his fentiments were generally approved by that auguft affembly. He gained much esteem and popularity. At the fame time he preferved his zeal and fidelity to his fovereign to the last hour of his life; and though he had received but slender marks of honour, and scarce any of profit, which his family, his merit, and his circumftances, his near relation to the ministers, and personal favour with the queen, feemed to require; yet this did in no wife warp his affection to the queen's memory; but he immediately after her decease, compofed a Memorial of the Happiness of ber Reign, which did equal honour to her administration, and to the capacity of the author; who appears to have added to his other great qualities that of an admirable and profound politician. It was not published till after his decease. There is not, in all the works of the lord-chancellor Bacon, any that does more honour to his name than this.

He early applied to the queen's fucceffor, king James I. from whom he met with a very gracious reception. He offered his pen, and drew up a proclamation, which, though it was not used, was kindly received, as a mark of his duty and affection. At Whitehall, he had the honour of knighthood conferred 1603 on him. The fubject of the purveyors being now greatly debated in the houfe of commons, the parliament appointed him to fet forth the fenfe of the house on this affair, which was found to be a great grievance to the people, and had in part, and was intended wholly to have been redreffed in the preceding reign. This office, which fhews his credit in parliament at that juncture, he performmed in such a manner, as both satisfied the house and pleased the king; who was not content with continuing him in the fame station in which he had ferved the queen, but when his affairs were better fettled, thought fit to fhew him higher marks of

favour;

Barnham, Efq; alderman of London, a lady who brought him an ample fortune, but by whom he never had any children.

favour; and accordingly constituted him by patent one of his council, with 1604 a fee of 40 l. a year. This is faid to be the first act of royal power in that nature. The fame day he granted him by another patent under the great feal, a pension of fixty pounds a year, for special services received from his brother Anthony Bacon, and himself. He feemed now to be in a fair road for preferment: but he found himself ftill croiled by two great men ; namely, his old antagonist, Sir Robert Cecil, (now earl of Salisbury, and in as great credit with king James as his father, lord Burleigh, had been with queen Elizabeth) and the famous Sir Edward Coke, then attorney-general. They were both afraid of his parts, and apprehended that the courfe of his fortune might thwart the views of their ambition. The latter in particular affected to fight Sir Francis Bacon's knowledge in his profeffion, enired his general reputation, and feared his abilities as a statesman. Sir Francis knew all this perfectly well; yet he behaved towards them with civility. The former, however, he would frequently admonish of his friendship, fair promises, and what from their near relation, he might reafonably expect; and the latter he would fometimes treat with lefs ceremony, as appears by a letter he once wrote to him, in which he expoftulated with Mr. Attorney very roundly, on the ufage he had met with.

In the midst of these difficulties and difappointments, he profecuted his ftudies with the utmost steadiness, and published the first specimen of his great work, in his

book of the Advancement of Learning. 1605 The author afterwards incorporat

ed it into the great fyftem, of which it was only a part. He likewife continued his diligence in parliament, where he did the king and his minifters great fervice.

The king was very defirous of uniting the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, that he might be fully and perfectly, as well as literally, king of Great-Britain. In parliament, Sir Francis Bacon laboured this point with the greatest diligence and reputation, tho' it went on flowly, and never came to any conclufion. He used the fame application in other affairs of the like nature, which not only procured him great countenance at court, but gained him a general esteem from men of all ranks. About this time he married Alice, daughter of Benedict

The place of folicitor general becoming vacant, he renewed his application to his cousin the earl of Salisbury, and at last obtained it; and then he appeared more frequently in Westminster-hall, grew into more extenfive practice as a lawyer, and had a part in almost all causes. He affured the king before he 1607 obtained this employment, that it would give him fuch an increase of capacity, though not of zeal, to ferve his majefty, that what he had done in time past fhould feem as nothing in comparison of the fervices he could render for the future. In this refpect he kept his word; for in the feffion of parliament held that fame year, he ran through great variety of bufinefs, and that of fuch a nature as demanded a man, not only of extensive abilities but great art, and yet of general reputation; for he was employed from the houfe of commons to king James, to represent to him the grievances under which the nation laboured; and though the paper relating to them was couched in pretty strong terms, which could not but be difagreeable to his majesty's temper, yet Sir Francis Bacon, by a foft and fmooth fpeech, fo abated their harshness, as to perform this difficult commiffion with univerfal applaufe. When the commons conferred with the lords, in order to perfuade them to join in an application to the crown for taking away the ancient tenures, and allowing a certain and competent revenue in lieu of them, they employed Sir Francis Bacon in this business; and in his speech on the occafion, he fet that affair in fo clear a light, as to excite that spirit which procured the diffolution of the court of Wards: a point of the greatest confequence to the liberties of the kingdom. He likewife fatisfied the house at a time. when they were much out of humour, at the manner in which the king's meffages were conveyed to them; and at the clofe of the fession, when the supply stuck in the house, he procured a paffage for it by a short and well-timed speech. This effectually fhews of how great confequence fo able and popular a speaker was to his majesty.

Amidft fo many arduous affairs of ftate, joined to the care of his employment, and business of his profeffion, one

fhould

fhould have imagined that Sir Francis Bacon would have had but little leifure for his philofophic Atudies; 1608

and yet he had about this time in fome measure digefted the plan of the fecond part of his great work, which he tranfmitted to his friends, who were the ableft and best judges in the kingdom, in order to have their free fentiments upon the fubject; for as he laboured only at truth, and not to acquire a mighty reputation, fo he was rather defirous of hearing the objections that might be made against his new fyftem, than to feek the applause of fuch as were more willing to bestow applaufe than to enquire whether he had any just title to it. This piece was entitled, Cogitata & Vifa, and contained the groundwork or plan of his Novum Organum, fo effential a part of his Inftauration, that it fometimes bears that title. It was by thefe means, which very few writers have taken, that Sir Francis Bacon obrained fuch lights, as enabled him to finish those parts of the Inftauration to fo high a degree of perfection. He likewife avoided, by taking this method, thofe ill natured cenfures and criticifms, to which works of this nature are ufually expofed; and his own fyftem in particular, as it was on entirely new principles, therefore could be fupported only by its own worth, and stand on no other foundation than its own folidity. But that he might relieve himself a little from the feverity of these studies, and, as it were, amuse himfelf with erting a magnificent pavilion, while his great palace of philofophy was building, he compofed and 1610 fent abroad his celebrated treatife, Of the Wisdom of the Ancients; in which he fhewed that none had studied them more clofely, was better acquainted with their beauties, or had pierced deeper into their meaning. There have been very few books published, which deferved or received greater applaufe than this, or that will retain it longer.

expedient to have asked of the king; so, on the other, there was no danger that any fuit he obtained thould beget either popular dislike, or diftafte of thofe of his profeffion yet it does not appear, that he made any great advantages of this favourable fituation. Indeed, he procured the office of judge of the marshal's court, jointly with Sir Thomas Vavafor, then knight-marshal; by which he prefided, though for a very fhort time, in the court newly erected, under the title of the palace court for the verge of the king's house; in which station he has left us a very learned and methodical Charge, given to the Jury there, upon a Commiffion of Oyer and Terminer.

He now found himself at very great eafe; his private fortune was never in a better condition, or his domestic affairs in a happier situation. He was poffeffed, and had been fo many years, of a good eftate in Hertfordshire, and of his father's fine feat at Gorhambury, which had come to him by the death of his brother Anthony. He was in great practice at the bar; king's follicitor; and befides had just taken poffeffion of the office, which had been granted to him twenty years before, of register of the court of Starchamber; a place of great value. So that at this time he could not enjoy less than five thousand pounds a year, including his wife's fortune: a very great fum in those days. Befides, his employments were of a nature that did not require much grandeur or expence; so that, notwithstanding the generofity of his temper, which bordered a little upon profufenefs, he must have been at this juncture in very easy cireumftances: a very agreeable situation to a man, who never affected riches, more than neceffity required, Gince nothing could be done without them; especially when joined to the great reputation, and unenvied credit, he at this time enjoyed.

He had now the king's ear so entirely, that his majesty promifed him he should fucceed Sir Henry Hobart, then attorneygeneral, in cafe either of his death or removal. That worthy man. being taken with a very fevere fit of illness, Sir Francis Bacon reminded king James of 1612

covered;

covered; and he did not fucceed him in that employment, till the year 1613 following, when Sir Henry was made chief justice of the common-pleas, in the room of Sir Edward Coke, removed to the king's-bench. In this office, Sir Francis Bacon made as great a figure as any of his predeceffors; and had fome honours conferred on him, which few or none had ever received; in particular, he was allowed to take his feat in the house of commons, though, by reafon of his office, he had no right to it, as being an attendant on the house of lords. But this favour was granted him purely out of respect to his perfon, and to the fervices he had formerly rendered his country in that house. Shortly after a folemn de ree was made in the court of Star-chamber, against the fashionable, though fatal, practice of duelling; and the Speech of Sir Francis Bacon, which gave occafion to it, was, contrary to custom, printed therewith.

The earl of Salisbury being dead. and Sir Francis having overcome all difficulties, now ftood fecurely on his own intereft with the king, without any dependence on the earl of Somerfet, the then reigning favourite, with whom he was always at a distance, when he was in his greatest power, and fo had nothing to answer for with respect either to mis perfonal or political failings. It is, however manifeft, that after the death of the earl of Salisbury, there grew 1614 many diforders in the government, which verified the character Sir Francis Bacon gave of that great minifter to the king his mafter; "That though it was not likely the king's affairs should have gone much better under his management, yet he was fuch a minister as would have hindered them from growing worfe." There were feveral perfons, about this time, who to ingratiate themfelves with the court made a tender of their intereft to the king, with a promife, that, in cafe they were obliged, his majefty's affairs in parliament fhould be conducted to his wish; but thefe undertakers, as they were called afterwards, having prefumed too much upon their own power and abilities, foon found their influence too small to effect what they had promiled; and the whole fcheme was difcovered. The commons immediately took cognizance of this affair, and commenced

:

an enquiry. To pacify the heats occafioned by this project, the attorney-general, (Sir Francis Bacon) made a long and very fine speech, which is ftill preserved, but it had not the defired effect for the house was so much out of humour at this, and fome other errors in the adminiftration, that James diffolved the parliament in great heat, and committed fome of the members, who had fpoken freely. This, instead of allaying, increased the ferment in the nation. In the mean time, the attorney-general, in right of his office, was employed in the profecution of two offenders for high treafon. The first was one Peacham, a clergyman, for inferting feveral treafonable paffages in a fermon he was afterwards pardoned. The other was Mr. Owen, of Godstowe in Oxfordshire, who, returning out of Spain, affirmed and enforced a doctrine he had imbibed from the Jefuits, that if the king was excommunicated and deprived by the pope, it was lawful for any perfon to kill him. This being a pofition in direct terms contrary to the oath of allegiance, and of dangerous confequence, (as it might affect weak and fuperftitious minds) if believed and propagated, it was thought neceffary that he should be made an example of; and accordingly he was p.ofecuted in the king's bench, and convicted. The Speech of Sir Franais Bacon on this occafion is extant in his works; and it appears by his letters, that he had a great concern, and much trouble in these prosecutions.

The famous George Villiers, afterwards well known by the title of duke of Buckingham, began now to engross the good graces of king James. Among thofe who courted this rifing favourite, none was more zealous than Sir Francis Bacon ; as none was more able to serve him more nobly or more usefully. Vil- 1615 liers had at this time fenfe enough to feel his inexperience in business, and therefore had recourse to our author for his ad, vice; which he gave him fully in a letter, ftill extant among his works, written with fo fuperior a judgment and fuch honest freedom, that it does honour equally to his head and heart. He ranged his thoughts under feven or eight principal topics of confideration, and entered into an accurate detail of what a minifter ought to know and practise. The whole was equally free and friendly, calculated to make the

perfon

perfon to whom it was addreffed, not only great but good. He told him he was a new risen star, and the eyes of all men were upon him; "let not your own negligence then, adds he, make you fall like a meteor." In another letter to him, he has these remarkable words: "It is now time that you should refer your actions chiefly to the good of your fovereign and your country. It is the life of a beaft always to eat, and never to exercife. In this dedication of yourfelf to the public, I recommend to you principally that which I think was done never fince I was born, and which not done, hath bred almost a wilderness and folitude in the king's service; which is, that you countenance, encourage, and advance, able and virtuous men, in all kinds, degrees, and profeffions." This excellent advice the favourite received with thankfulness, and neglected.

The application of Sir Francis Bacon to this rising far has been by some objected as a defect in his conduct. There might be lightnefs and indifcretion in the king's choice of fo young a favourite ; but certainly there was nothing strange, or that could give offence, in the endeavours of Sir Francis to make him become his place; to enable him of a young courtier to be a good ftatefman; and to turn to the benefit of the nation what the king had no other view in doing, than to please himself. And whoever fhall confider what occafion Sir Francis Bacon had of the interest of Sir George Villiers, and, on the other hand, how neceffary to Sir George Villiers the counfels of Sir Francis Bacon were, will eafily difcern that this was, in its beginning at leaft, a very equal friendship; and that the king's attorney-general did not run himself into a hafty and indecent dependence upon a youth just come into favour at court.

But while Villiers was rifing, his predeceffor Robert Car, earl of Somerfet, was falling. The occafion of this unexpected event was the difcovery of the deep concern, that the earl and his countefs * had in the barbarous affair of Sir Thomas Overbury's death, who had been poifoned through their means by one Weston, an apothecary's fervant in 1613. Weston was now tried, condemned, and execut

ed; but the earl of Somerfet had so many friends, that notwithstanding nothing could be clearer than the proceedings, they endeavoured, by mifrepresenting what had passed at Weston's trial, and by asking him questions at the gallows, to make the whole pafs for nothing better than an artificial contrivance to ruin that nobleman. This brought Sir Francis Bacon into the business: for, as attorney-general, he received his majesty's commands to profecute those who had been the busieft in these base arts, in the Star-chamber. Accordingly, he there brought a charge against Mr. Lumsden, a courtier, and a gentleman of good fa→ mily in Scotland; Sir John Hollis, afterwards earl of Clare; and Sir John Wentworth. The defign of this profecution was to vindicate the justice of the nation, and to prevent the obstructing of its courfe; which might have been the confequence, if the methods taken by thefe gentlemen, and indeed by many others, out of their too great affection to the earl of Somerset, had prevailed, and eftablished a notion that Wefton died innocently, or had not accused the earl; befides, the honour of the king was deeply injured by these afperfions. Sir Francis made 1616 a very excellent speech upon this occasion. Amongst many other learned obfervations, he said, "Every one undoubt edly might speak freely at their last hour, but then it must come from the free motion of the parties, not by temptation of queftions. The questions that are to be asked, added he, ought to tend to farther revealing of their own or others guiltiness. But to use a question in the nature of a falfe interrogatory, to falfify that which is already judged and determined, is intolerable for that were to erect a court or commiffion of review at Tyburn, agrinst the King's Bench at Westminster. And befides, it is a thing vain and idle for if they anfwer according to the judgment paffed, it adds no credit; or, if it be contrary, it derogateth nothing; but yet it subjecteth the majesty of justice to popular and vulgar talk and opinion. My lords, these are great and dangerous offences; for if we do not maintain juftice, juftice will not maintain us." Sir Edward Coke did not behave fo civilly to the offenders, but treated them rudely

enough.