ceding 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 continually 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 endangered 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 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 possible 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 accustomed 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 produced A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons of Robert, late Earl of Essex.' No honourable man would purchase Bacon's subsequent elevation at the price of being the author of this publication. A mere report of the trial for treason 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 innocent. Having begun by saying that the favourite aspired to the greatness of the Præfectus Prætorio 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, A.D. 1600. HIS INGRATITUDE TO ESSEX. 41 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 potestatem vitæ et necis et arbitrium belli et pacis 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 maintained 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 depositions 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 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 appointment, 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 afterwards tried to soften this by his Apology addressed to Mountjoy Earl of Devonshire,'-a tract from which I have taken most of the facts on which my censure is founded, and which seals his condemnation with posterity; as it not only admits these facts, but shows that he had before his eyes no just standard of honour, and that in the race of ambition he had lost all sense of the distinction between right and wrong.* s This melancholy discovery was made by my friend Mr. Jardine. See his Criminal Trials, vol. i. 332. He begins by giving a false account of A zealous advocate, however, has sprung up, 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 transactions 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 ranting and absurd maxim in the 'Apology,' that “ every honest man that hath his heart well planted will forsake his friend ratherthan 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 advancement 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, embowelled, beheaded, and quartered? Etiquette cannot be opposed to the feelings of nature, or the dictates of morality. A dispensation might easily have been obtained, if there had been a willingness to renounce the advantage and éclat of the appearance. 3. “ 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 im 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 A.D. 1601. BILL FOR WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 43 prove 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? For some time after Essex's execution, Bacon was looked upon with great aversion; and, from the natural 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 contemporaries forget their errors and misconduct by drawing the public attention to themselves in new situations and circumstances. Oct. 1601. Parliament meeting a few months after the execution of Essex, that event which had so deeply interested the nation was, for a time, almost forgotten in the excitement occasioned by the Queen's fainting 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 Commons, 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 ascendency. 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 introduced 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 set this as a paradox in the forefront 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 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 previously granted (four subsidies and eight fifteenths), Bacon warmly supported it, and ridiculed a motion for exempting "threepound men," saying, "dulcis tractus pari jugo;" therefore, the poor as well as the rich should pay. 66 This drew upon him a sarcasm from Sir Walter Raleigh, then at variance with the Court, who (without 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 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 301. or 401. 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. par But the great question of the session was MONOPOLY,-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 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: "Prerogativum nostrum nemo audeat disputare;" adding, "and for my own part, I like not these courses should be taken and you, Mr. Speaker, should perform the charge her Majesty gave unto you in the |