so favourable an opinion of him, that he sent him over to England with a message to the queen which required secrecy and dispatch. Having executed his commission in a manner which procured him the thanks of the queen, he returned to France, and travelled through several of the provinces, to acquaint himself with the customs and manners of the nation. (Hist. of Life and Death. Works, vol. iii. p. 180.) An indubitable proof of the industry with which, during this period, he collected political information, and of the sagacity and penetration with which he pursued his inquiries and reflections, remains in a work, written, in part at least, when he was only nineteen years of age, but probably finished and revised while he lived in Gray's Inn. It is entitled "Of the State of Europe,' "and contains minutes of the princes then reigning, their families, interests, forces, revenues, and principal transactions, with observations which strongly mark the early maturity of the writer's judgment.

The sudden death of sir Nicholas Bacon left his son Francis, the youngest of five brothers, in circumstances which obliged him to return abruptly from France, and to engage in some lucrative profession. His choice was soon fixed upon the study of the common law, not, however, as his principal object, but merely as a subsidiary pursuit. Entering himself in the society of Gray's Inn, he applied with so much assiduity to the studies peculiar to his profession, that at the age of twenty-eight years he was appointed by the queen to the honourable post of her learned Council Extraordinary. But the commanding genius of Bacon, capable of comprehending and enlarging the field of science, was not to be confined within the narrow limits of professional studies. The germ of that grand idea which he had conceived at the university now began to expand; and, at this carly period of his life, probably about the twentysixth year of his age, he formed the first sketch of the great work which he afterwards completed in his "Instauration of the Sciences." The vanity of a young mind pregnant with noble conceptions and vast designs is, surely, venial; and Bacon may be pardoned, if, in the first glow of affection towards the fair offspring of a vigorous intellect, he gave it a vaunting name. That he lived to recollect with regret this instance of juvenile folly, appears from a letter, written, towards the close of his life, to father Fulgentio, a learned Italian, who requested from him an account of his works. Having modestly confessed that he had endea

voured to accomplish great things by a small force, (Conamur tenues grandia) and declared that the ardor and constancy of his mind in this undertaking had never, through so long a period, abated or cooled, he adds; "Equidem memini me quadraginta abhinc annis juvenile opusculum circa has res confecisse, quod magnâ prorsus fiducià et magnifico titulo, Temporis Partum Maximum,' inscripsi." Epist. ad Fulg. Works, vol. ii. p. 404. [I remember that forty years ago I composed a juvenile work upon this subject, to which I had the extreme confidence to prefix the pompous title of "The greatest Birth of Time."] These rudiments of Bacon's philosophy have been supposed to be lost; but it is probable that they remain under the more modest title of "The Interpretation of Nature," (Works, Append. p. 17.) and that philosophers may still be gratified with tracing the steps by which the genius of this great man advanced in erecting his system.

In the character of a philosopher, Bacon appears with so much pre-eminence, that it is painful to interrupt the narrative of his scientific labours, in order to see him, in other capacities, brought down to the level of ordinary men, and even exhibiting an humiliating example of human frailty. The contracted circumstances in which he was left by his father, afforded him. no other alternative, but either to pursue his speculations in obscure retirement, or to become an obsequious dependant upon the court. Unfortunately for the reputation and happiness of Bacon, he made the latter choice. The post already conferred upon him by the queen was rather honourable than lucrative; but it probably excited the desire, and encouraged the expectation, of further advancement. He had not only received, on several occasions, flattering marks of attention from his sovereign, but was allied by marriage to the lord treasurer Burleigh, and to his son sir Robert Cecil, principal secretary of state. He therefore thought himself entitled to expect some honourable and advantageous post: but the friendship which he had from his youth professed for the earl of Essex, Cecil's avowed enemy, proved an insuperable obstacle to his success. All that he was ever able to obtain through the interest of lord Burleigh was the reversion of the office of register to the Star-chamber, worth about 1600l. a year, which did not fall to him till twenty years afterwards. When, in 1594, the earl of Essex used all his interest to obtain for him the post of solicitor general, Cecil represented him to the queen as a man so devoted to speculation, as to

be wholly unfit for public business; and the suit was rejected. Essex, who loved his friend, and whose high spirit did not easily brook a refusal, resolved to make Bacon some compensation for his disappointment, and generously presented him with an estate in land, which he afterwards sold, at an under price, for 1800l. The particulars of this singularly noble act of friendship are related by lord Bacon himself with warm expressions of affection and gratitude. (ApoJogy; Works, vol. iv. p. 430.) Nevertheless, without any apparent cause of alienation, the ungrateful Bacon, rather than relinquish an empty honour and uncertain prospects, abandoned his friend and benefactor in the moment of peril; displayed to the privy council the undutiful expressions in the earl's letters on his trial for high treason; though not obliged by his office to appear, pleaded against him; and, after his execution, undertook the task of vindicating the conduct of the administration in an appeal to the public, under the title of " A Declaration of the Treasons of Robert Earl of Essex." This declaration was, it is true, drawn up with such apparent marks of tenderness for the reputation of Essex, that the queen, when Bacon read the paper to her, observed to him, that old love, she saw, could not easily be forgotten. (Cabala, p. 83.) But this circumstance only proves, that, in executing the task imposed upon him by his royal mistress, he acted in direct opposition to his best feelings, and affords little palliation of the baseness of violating, for selfish ends, the sacred obligations of friendship and gratitude. The general dissatisfaction which the conduct of Bacon, through the whole of this transaction, excited in the mind of the public, induced him to write a long and elaborate "Apology" for himself, which he addressed to the earl of Devonshire. His ingenuity and eloquence were, however, on this occasion, thrown away; for it was easily perceived, that no plea of duty to his sovereign, or of imprudence, rashness, or criminality on the part of Essex, could exculpate him from the odious charge of ingratitude. If Bacon expected to reap any benefit from this base servility, he was disappointed: no new honours or emoluments were bestowed upon him during the remainder of Elizabeth's reign; and to the men in power he still continued an object of jealousy and aversion.

Notwithstanding the pusillanimity and servility which Bacon discovered in the affair of the earl of Essex, there were other public concerns in which he acted with firmness and dignity. Having been, in 1593, chosen to represent the

county of Middlesex in parliament, he soon di stinguished himself in the debates of the house, and on several public questions, though in the service of the crown, he took the popular side against her majesty's ministers. On the question of subsidies, though he assented to them, he proposed that six years should be allowed for the payment, urging the necessities of the people, the danger of exciting public discontent, and the impropriety of setting an evil precedent against themselves and their posterity. The freedom of this speech gave great offence to the queen, and was, probably, one principal cause of her disinclination to listen to solicitations for his advancement. In 1597 he made a motion in the house against inclosures, and in his speech employed the popular arguments which have since been so frequently_repeated. Towards the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, his parliamentary conduct became more servile. To show his duty to her majesty, he strenuously supported the question on the supplies, and opposed the proceedings of the commons against monopolies. His poverty, however, may be recollected as some extenuation of his fault: he had been disappointed in a project for a lucrative matrimonial connection; and was se deeply involved in debt, that he had been twice arrested.

Upon the accession of James 1. fortune, whom Bacon had long courted in vain, began to smile upon him. Through the interest of several of the king's friends, both Scotch and English, and probably still more through his own eminent literary reputation-for James valued himself upon being the patron of letters

he soon obtained the favour of his new sovereign. In 1603 he received the honour of knighthood. A favourable opportunity soon afterwards occurred for recovering his popularity. The house of commons, in the first parliament of this reign, undertook the redress of the griev ance, of which the nation had long complained, arising from the exactions of the royal purveyors. Sir Francis Bacon found means to procure for himself the nomination to the difficult service of making a solemn representation to the throne of the injuries and oppressions committed by these officers, under the pretext of taking royal provision; and he executed the delicate task with so much ability and address, that he at the same time gave satisfaction to the house, and pleased the king. From the former he received a vote of thanks, and from the latter a patent as one of the king's counsel, with a salary of forty pounds a year. This grant was accompa

nied with an additional pension from the crown of sixty pounds a year, for special services received from his brother Anthony Bacon and himself. (Rymer, vol. xv. p. 597.) Sir Francis seemed now in the high road to preferment: but his progress was still obstructed by the hostile efforts of his old enemy, sir Robert Cecil, now earl of Salisbury. He found, besides, a new and powerful opponent in sir Edward Coke, attorney-general, who, though he affect ed to slight the professional learning of Bacon, envied his talents and reputation as a philosopher. Still, however, he prosecuted his plans for advancement with steady perseverance; and by industriously pursuing, both in parliament and in the courts, the king's favourite object of a union of the two kingdoms, and publishing, in the year 1605, one of his most important works, "On the Advancement of Learning," he so effectually recommended himself to the favour of his royal master, that, in 1607, upon a vacancy occasioned by the advancement of sir John Dodderidge to a higher post, he was appointed solicitor-general. His practice as a lawyer, from this time, became more extensive, and there were few great causes in Westminsterhall in which he was not concerned. His fortunes were, about this time, improved by his marriage with Alice, daughter of Benedict Barnham, esq. a wealthy alderman of the city of London. In the senate as well as in the courts, his great talents were now eminently displayed; and by the manner in which he executed a commission from the house of commons to represent to the king sundry grievances under which the nation laboured, as well as by his judicious and able speech on the question of exchanging the ancient tenures of the crown for a competent revenue, he acquired much popularity. His grand philosophical speculations and pursuits were, in the mean time, by no means neglected. Having drawn an outline of his intended work, under the title of "Cogitata et Visa," he circulated copies of it among the learned for their animadversions; and, in 1610, he published his treatise, entitled, "Of the Wisdom of the Ancients."

In 1611, sir Francis was appointed to the office of judge of the Marshalsea court, in conjunction with sir Thomas Vasavor. About this time he came into the possession of the profitable post of register to the Star-chamber, granted him in reversion under Elizabeth; and, in 1613, on the advancement of sir Henry Hobart to the office of chief justice of the common pleas, he was made attorney-general. The functions of the latter office requiring frequent attendance in

the house of lords, it had been customary to consider it as incompatible with the possession of a seat in parliament; but, merely from considerations of personal respect, this indulgence was granted to sir Francis. In some of the state trials which came before the courts while he held this office, he supported the government in the oppressive exercise of arbitrary power, particularly in the prosecution of Mr. St. John for writing a letter against benevolences, and of Peacham, a clergyman, for treasonable passages in a sermon found in his study, but never preached, and, as some said, never intended to be preached. His official duty was, however, on many occasions faithfully and meritoriously performed: and he is entitled to great praise for his active exertions to suppress the savage practice of duelling. Upon an information exhibited in the Star-chamber against Priest and Wright, he delivered so excellent a charge on this subject, that the lords of the council ordered it to be printed and published with the decree of the court: (See this Charge, Works, vol. iv. p. 297.) and he afterwards prosecuted, in the Star-chamber, Mr. Markham, for sending a challenge to lord Darcy.

Sir Francis Bacon's circumstances were now affluent, and with moderation and economy might have afforded him a noble independence: but prodigality rendered him, with a large income, a needy man; and ambition, which aspired at the first dignity in the law, prompted him to descend to mean services and unwarrantable artifices to obtain it. George Villiers, afterwards duke of Buckingham, having become the king's favourite, Bacon immediately entered into a strict friendship with him, which, though at first equal and generous, as fully appears from an excellent letter of advice on his first advancement, (Works, vol. iii. p. 564.) afterwards degenerated, on the part of Bacon, into selfish servility. He not only showed peculiar solicitude for the advancement of the honours and fortunes of Villiers, and gave him proofs of particular kindness in his official capacity as attorney-general, but submitted to the degrading servitude of acting as steward to the estates bestowed upon him by the king. In order to secure his favourite object, when the expected death of the lord chancellor promised him an opportunity of succeeding, Bacon did not choose wholly to rely upon the interest which his faithful services to the crown might have created for him in the breast of his royal master, but wrote a letter to his majestyin which he endeavoured to depreciate the merit of those men who might probably be thought

of as proper to fill this high office, and rested his own claim on his ready obedience, and his power of influencing the lower house of parliament. The letter so fully lays open the mind of Bacon in this affair, that it will not be improper to make an extract from it of considerable length.

"I beseech your majesty, let me put you the present case truly. If you take my lord Coke, this will follow: first, your majesty shall put an over-ruling nature into an over-ruling place, which may breed an extreme; next, you shall blunt his industry in matter of 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 take my lord Canterbury, 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 performed; 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 interest in the gentry of England, and shall be able to do some good 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 conscience for justice; but it is the other parts, of a moderator amongst your counsel, of an overseer over your judges, of a planter of fit justices and governors in the country, that importeth your affairs, and these times most.". (Works, vol. iv. P. 607.)

The address of Bacon in this business, so near

his heart, succeeded; and in March 1617, upon the resignation of the aged and infirm lord viscount Brackley, the king delivered to him the seals, with the title of lord keeper, after having, the preceding year, raised him to the dignity of privy-counsellor. A letter, (Works, vol. iv. letter 168.) written that very day to the earl of Buckingham, shows that he considered himself as, in a great degree, indebted to the interest of that nobleman for his advancement to these honours. They were, shortly afterwards, succeeded by others in the beginning of 1619, he was created lord high chancellor of England, and baron of Verulam, which title he exchanged, the year following, for that of viscount of St. Albans: circumstances, which it may be sufficient barely to mention; for, to the name of Francis Bacon, titles could add no lustre; and it must be added, that this great name would have been transmitted to posterity with less tarnished splendour, had it never been decorated with those tinsel ornaments. To the seductions of high rank and station Bacon owed every blot which stains his memory.

For four years, from the age of fifty-six, lord Verulam enjoyed the gratification of occupying the highest department in the law; but it soon proved to its possessor a post of vexation and disgrace, rather than of honour. By opposing, though with timidity, the proposed treaty of marriage between Charles, prince of Wales, and the infanta of Spain, he displeased the king. By interfering to prevent a marriage between sir John Villiers, Buckingham's brother, and sir Edward Coke's daughter, from which he apprehended the advancement of his rival, he gave offence to the favourite. If in the former measure he was influenced by patriotic motives, it can scarcely be questioned that in the latter he was governed by an unworthy spirit of personal jealousy. The alienation which this opposition occasioned was, however, removed; the king again admitted the lord keeper to his confidence, conferred upon him the honours already specified, and Buckingham corresponded with him apparently with the same cordiality as before. In truth, neither the king nor his favourite had much cause of personal dissatisfaction with the chancellor. His new honours prompted him to serve his master's private interest with increasing assiduity, and, though he sometimes checked the rapacity of Buckingham by refusing grants which he recommended, he in numerous instances encouraged it by affixing the great seal to patents which were evidently intended as instruments of extortion. On this account, however, and on others in which his

own lucrative advantage was the immediate object, his country had great reason to complain, and national justice at length demanded an inquiry into his conduct.

The parliament which, at the beginning of the year 1631, James had called for the purpose of obtaining legal supplies, entered into an early and minute examination of the grievances which had arisen from the grants of licences and patents, under the pretext of which large sums of money had been exacted. These grievances the commons represented to the king, who expressed an earnest desire that the abuses which had crept into administration might be corrected, and said before all the members of the house, "Spare none, where you find just cause to punish." (Hacket's Life of Archbishop Williams, p. 49.) With this encouragement, from the suppression of monopolies they proceeded to other acts of public justice; and a committee was appointed for examining into the proceedings of the courts of law and equity. A petition had, a short time before, been presented to the king by one Wrenham, against the lord chancellor, complaining of injury in a decree of the court of chancery; and though, upon examining the grounds of the suggestion, the chancellor was in this instance exculpated, suspicion was awakened; new complaints arose, which furnished the parliamentary committee of inquiry materials of accusation. The business was transferred to the house of lords. Before their select committee were brought above twenty distinct charges of corruption and bribery, to the amount of several thousand pounds; of which presents some indeed were received after the decree was passed, but several before, or while the cause was depending. The chancellor, who wished to escape an inquiry which he was not prepared to meet, made application to the king, both by letter and in person, earnestly entreating his favour and protection. The king, who had shed tears on the first news of the chancellor's perilous situation, received him with affection; and he gave him an unequivocal proof of his desire to rescue him from disgrace, by procuring, probably at the chancellor's request, a short recess of parliament. Things were, however, rather aggravated than softened by this expedient; for every day brought new grounds of accusation, and heightened the public clamour. Conscious of guilt, instead of attempting a formal defence, the humbled culprit determined to avoid the confusion and mortification of a minute inquiry by a general confession; and in a submissive letter to the house of lords, in which, notwithstanding his critical

VOL. I.

situation, his accustomed eloquence is eminently displayed, he casts himself upon the mercy of his peers, and entreats that his sentence may not be extended beyond his dismission from the high office which he had disgraced. The lords, however, insisted upon a particular confession respecting each article of bribery and corruption of which he was accused. Accordingly, on the 30th of April, the chancellor sent to the house a full and particular confession and submission, in which, of the twenty-three articles of corruption with which he was charged, though he extenuated some on the plea that the present was received after the suit was ended, he acknowledged the greater part, again throwing himself on the mercy of the house. When he was asked, whether the confession which had been read was subscribed by his own hand, he replied, "It is my act, my hand, my heart; I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." The chancellor's delinquency, however, was so heinous, that it was deemed necessary to inflict upon him a severe penalty; and he was sentenced to pay a fine of forty thousand pounds, to be imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure, to be for ever incapable of any office, place, or employment, and never again to sit in parliament, or come within the verge of the court. court. (State Trials, vol. i. p. 383, &c.)

The punishment was heavy; and it must ever be regretted, that it was incurred by a man whose talents have commanded the admiration of the world: but no sufficient evidence appears to prove that the rigour of the sentence was to be imputed to any other cause than the strict exercise of justice. Lord chancellor Bacon might not perhaps be guilty of any flagrant infringement of equity in his official decrees; he might pass just decisions even against the very persons who had bribed him; but a bribe was not a likely means of guiding him to an equitable judgment: and where it produced no effect, the persons from whom he received the wages of iniquity might have some reason to complain. This great man was not, it is true, chargeable with the sordid vice of avarice: he was not tempted to receive dishonourable gratuities by the desire of accumulating wealth, but from the false ambition of supporting the splendor of rank and office: he may even be pitied for the facility with which he suffered his servants to become the instruments of his ruin; and the situation to which he was reduced was truly lamentable, when, in the midst of his troubles, as he was passing through a hall where several of his retinue rose up to salute him, he said to them sarcastically, "Sit down, my ma30