Arab he ever met, described them as all derived from one original stock, the Koheyleh, which in course of time was divided, after the names of celebrated mares into the following five branches: Obeyan, Sherakh, Hedba Zayhi, Manekia Hedrebji, Shouaymah, Sablah, and Margúrb. These from the Kamse, or the five breeds, from which alone entire horses are selected to propagate the race. From the Kamse have sprung a number of families, no less noble, perhaps, than the original five, but they do not stand in the same high repute. The same writer enters at length into details concerning the Arab horses, in his Nin. and Babyl. p. 527 et seq.

THE LATEST FACTS ABOUT BACON.

PART II.

THERE are some records also of Bacon's career outside the Star Chamber. He did real service to his sovereign and his country by his endeavour to promote the union of England and Scotland; and Hume has compared the speeches of the monarch and his minister with a show of that favour with which he was wont to look upon James the First. In Lord Mostyn's valuable collection there is the speech of Sir Francis Bacon "concerning the generall naturalizacon of the Scottish nation, anno 5 Jacobi," which Mr. Spedding has printed, together with other documents relating to this period, in his tenth volume.

But the political actions of Bacon were not always of a beneficial nature, any more than his official. It seems perfectly consis tent to read in his history of Henry that "enclosures at that time began to be more frequent . . and this bred a decay of people, and, by consequence, a decay of towns, churches, tithes and the like," and that "in remedying of this incovenience the king's wisdom was admirable, and the parliament's at that time "--that is to say, by the promulgation of an ordinance by which lands devoted to husbandry should be maintained and kept up for ever-and then to turn to an earlier portion of his career, where he introduced two bills against enclosures in Elizabeth's parliament of 1597-8, and spoke warmly in their favour. But what becomes of this consistency when we hear that he was appointed by letters patent, dated 19th May, 1615, with Sir Henry Yelverton and others, a commissioner "for contracting and compounding with lords of manors for grants of license to enclose and empark lands, and for liberty of free warren." It seems, indeed, that he constantly hid himself behind his duty to his sovereign, and it is to some such acts as these concerning the occupation of land, when the dissolution of the monasteries brought about such a revolution in the system of landholding, that we are now approaching so nearly a grave political question which has called forth from the Government Statistical Department our modern Doomsday Book.

What the nature of this "contracting and compounding" was the reports do not tell us, but it seems to point without much difficulty to the raising of money. James had parted with his ParliaMr. Spedding has published his speech: vol. ix., page 82. + House of Lords Papers, 3rd report, page 15.

ment in June of the preceding year with great indignation, and with no supplies. It was therefore a matter of importance to introduce every means to raise money; and patents and benevolences were vigorously used. At a former period of his reign, when the same difficulty as to money had arisen, we have a document from the Duke of Northumberland's collection which illustrates another mode of putting funds in the Exchequer. "Sir Francis Bacon, the Solicitor General, signified to the Lords that the commissioners for causes ecclesiastical in the time of Elizabeth imposed two several fines to her Majesty's use, amounting in all to £150, upon John Bisse, of Pegledge, for his notorious adultery: statement of further proceedings in the matter. . . . . the lords of the council, after mature advisement, had, and for a perpetual settling of his Majesty's jurisdiction, authorities, superiorities, and pre-eminences, spiritual and ecclesiastical, decreed that the plea in question shall be cessated and pronounced void in law, and the parties thereunto against the king shall be condemned in costs, and the same fines levied with all convenient speed; and that Sir Francis Bacon shall, nevertheless, make a general argument for his Highness's jurisdiction in all cases ecclesiastical whatsoever."*

We get an insight, by such documents as these, into the manner that Bacon took up the cudgels for the court in its fight for divine right. In 1610 the Commons had striven ineffectually to obtain some of the advantages of the abolition of the Papal power which they felt was, under the show of religion. gradually making advances to usurp the whole civil power (Hume). But Henry VIII., in overthrowing the Pope's authority in England, had appropriated it to himself; Elizabeth regained it from her Romish sister; and James was not the man to let such an arm of his power pass away unheedingly. The Lords defended the barrier of the throne, and twice rejected the bill of the Commons. Closely following upon these transactions is the case against William Talbot in the Star Chamber.† Bacon's charge in this matter is to be found among the collections of the Duke of Devonshire (III. 43), and Lieut.-Col. Carew (IV. 374), but his speech seems little in accordance with the spirit of his pamphlet on church matters, written towards the end of 1603.

Among the documents referring to Bacon, which it is convenient to mention now, is one which will show his action during that memorable episode of Irish history, known as "the plantation of Ulster," and the subsequent calling together of the Irish Parliament, after a recess of twenty-five years. No wonder that the

* This bears date, Feb., 28, 1612-3, vide, iii. 61.

† Mr. Spedding, vol. xii.

meeting was tumultuous, and that James's first Irish Parliament was prorogued without transacting any business whatever! The document referring to this is among the Carew manuscripts. It

is the "Charge of the Partie Parliament in Ireland which brake and receded from Parliament then assembled, and after came over to justify and excuse the same, by Sir Francis Bacon, S. G., before his Majesty in Council, when the delinquents were convented."*

There are also the following papers which do not call for any particular placement, but are noticed with reference to Mr. Spedding's splendid collection. "The cause of the Marches of Wales: argument of Sir F. Bacon in maintaining the council of the marches over the four shires. The effect of the argument of Serjeants Hutton and Harris in opposition and reply to Sir F. Bacon. Andthe third and last argument of Bacon." A breviate of Sir F. Bacon's information of intrusion against Walter Myers and others for cottages built upon Pickering, Nash, and Sampthore in Redrith, Surrey, dated October, 1666.‡ The judgment of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, ocncerning the manor of Cranborne dated May 22, 1617.§ A letter from Francis Verulam, Chancellor, to Dr. Corbett, Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge dated July 12, 1620, as to a lease of lands in Moulton. Letter to Buckingham, dated 1619, Nov. 13,-news, Lord and Lady Suffolk fined £40,000 and imprisoned-Bingely fined £2000 and sent to the Fleet - Sir Edward Cook did his best and he (Bacon) never heard him do better. T

We now have to refer more especially to the time when he was sworn a member of the Privy Council in 1666, became Lord Keeper in the following year, and in 1618 Lord Chancellor. Among the documents relating to this period is a council letter, signed Fr. Bacon and dated 1617, directing inquiries about the decay of cloth manufactures in Somersetshire.** Another case, which bears reference to the trade of this period, is from a letter of Bacon's dated Nov. 24, 1617, in the collection of the Honourable G. M. Fortescue of Dropmore, Maidenhead, recommending "the king to buy up Sir R. Houghton's alum works, but not to use them.” This letter of itself is almost unexplai nable, but in conjunction with a later one of the same collection it tends to show the position of Bacon in the matter. On July 20 1620,†† Lord Suffield writing to the Marquis of Buckingham, complains of harsh treatment from the

* iv., 374.

+ Marquis of Westminster's Mss., iii. 214. Spedding, vol. vii. See also the Carlisle Cathedral Mss., ii. 122, on " The Laws of Marches." Marquis of Salisbury's Mss., iii. 179. $ Ibid. || ii. 122.

iii. 196.

** Phelip's Mss., i. 57. Vide "Craik's British Commerce Book," ii., cap. vii. ++ The reporter queries this year.

alum commissioners. That the king eventually turned the monopoly of alum to his own benefit, we have evidence as we proceed further. By statute, 21, Jac. cap. iii, all monopolies are declared unlawful, but tacked to this general enactment were provisoes barring its operation to various patents and monopolies and among them of alum (Craik's Commerce Book ii. cap. vii.) and in the Calendar of the House of Lords for 1640 (iv. 42) appears a petition for redress against certain persons who formed the alum works of his late majesty."

Bacon assumed the office of Lord Keeper in 1617 and there have been preserved no less than three copies of "the effect of that which was spoken by the Lord Keeper of the great seal of England at the taking of his place in Chancery in performance of the charge bis majesty had given him when he received the seal." Following this, in the same collections, are copies of his speeches to Sergeant Hutton on being appointed one of the Justices of the Common Pleas, to Sir John Denham on his being made one of the Barons of the Exchequer, and to Sir William Jones on his appointment as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland."* There is a curious letter, described in the fifth report, from the Earl of Arundell in Scotland to Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, praying for a decree as to the possession of certain lands of his uncle of Northampton, and soliciting from the Lord Keeper a speedy hearing of a "cause dependinge befor you between me and one Parkes."t

In 1618, he receive the higher dignity of Lord Chancellor, and in this office he appears at his worst. The celebrated case of "the gold and silver thread" patent, is amply illustrated from the calendar of documents in the House of Lords, given in the third report. In April, 1618, a commission was issued to the Lord Chancellor and others to "examine, find out, and punish abuses in the making or importing of gold and silver thread " (p. 16), and following quickly upon this are copies of warrants for the impeachment of certain persons for breach of the patent. Another commission was issued in October of the same year, and in April, 1619, summonses were sent to certain persons to appear before Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Michell as Commissioners, and in the same year a document setting forth the grievances of Michael Sellar, wrongfully imprisoned by the same.‡ It is needless to trace the history of this wretched business through all the stages that the report on the House of Lords' papers allows of; but I * i. 62; iii. 213; iv. 374. This is only dated 1619, or it might remove Mr. Spedding's distrust of Mr. Gardiner's date of June, 1619. Vol. xiv., p. 206. (Vol vii. of “Life and Letters.")

+ Miss C. Griffith's Papers, v. 409.