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have often disolved the coldness of my fortune, so in this argument your Lordship will do the like with your pen."

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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 excellent parts are, you are not ignorant. What advantages 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 any thing, 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." Nevertheless, 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 Ecclesiastical Court. Bacon, in the result, had great reason to rejoice at this escape; for the lady, from the honeymoon onwards, led Coke a most

[Nov. 1598.] wretched life - refusing even to take his name,

separating from him, doing every thing to vex and annoy him, and teaching his child to rebel against him.

The

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 entertaining 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 3007. 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 congnovit, with a stay of execution. time of forbearance expired, and he was still unprepared to pay. He denounces "the Lombard" as very hard-hearted, seemingly without 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 carry him im

* This seems then to have been used as a term of reproach, as Jew now is with us.

mediately 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."

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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 insisting 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 delay me while he knew I came from the Tower about her Majesty's special service was, to my understanding, very bold."+ 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 a motion about re-seizing the lands of a relapsed re[APRIL, 1601.] cusant in which the Crown was concerned. Bacon in his own defence having used as gentle and reasonable terms as might be, Mr. Attorney kindled and said, " 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 expressed)."

Bacon (stirred, yet self-possessed). "Mr. Attorney, 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."‡

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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.”

* Letters to the Lord Keeper and Sir R. Cecil, Oct. 1598. Works, vol. vi. 42. † Ibid.

I. e. not sworn as Attorney or Solicitor General; yet he must have taken the oaths to serve her Majesty as Queen's Counsel.

Mr. Attorney. "It were good to clap a capias utlegatum upon your back."

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 experience, 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 Alienation Office," a treatise worthy of Hale,-showing a most copious and accurate acquaintance with existing law, and with our legal antiquities.

He likewise delivered his celebrated argument in the Exchequer Chamber in Chudleigh's Case, or" the Case of Perpetuities." This was a very important crisis in the History of the Law of Real Property in England. An attempt, which in the following century succeeded in Scotland, was making to introduce, by the artifices of conveyancing, a system 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 contingent 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 [A. D. 1600.] in Perrin v. Blake. Westminster Hall,-was equal to that of Blackstone He afterwards shaped it into a Reading of 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

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* Bacon's Works, vol. vi. 46.

† 1 Rep. 120. a.

the satisfactory footing on which it has remained 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 commerce 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 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 to 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 continual 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 impossible 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 auspicious period of Bacon's career. By increased practice at the bar he had overcome his pecuniary difficulties. He was sure [A. D. 1598—1599.] of professional advancement 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 progress 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 literary eminence was very great both in England and on the Con

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* 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, having an opinion that there was treason in it, asked him if he could not find any places within 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). "Wherein ?”—Bacon. "Madam, the author hath committed very 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.

tinent, 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 conservative 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.

CHAPTER LIII.

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 great[A. D. 1599.] er 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 abatement till the ill-fated young nobleman had incurred the displeasure of his Sovereign. He steadily supported 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.

In spite of Essex's unfortunate campaign, and unsuccessful 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 command, 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 expiated his offences on the scaffold, Bacon showed

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