A CLAIM TO BE THE BEST OF CHANCELLORS." 465 imagination a man has few evils to encounter. But the prospect of a lingering life in pain, with broken bones, with diseased joints, will strike the most callous heart. If the man is borne down even to tears who shall be surprised? He knows that ere the sun has gone down, his hopes of life and joy will be crushed for ever. That for him henceforth existence will drag wearily on. That his strength will be but weakness, his life but a heaviness, his course of hope but despair. time, smitten swiftly, as by an Blasted into misery and grief. and bloody instruments of torture, the wheel, the "manacles," the slow fire-Bacon's suggestion-and the torturing screws. He knows that the flesh will be torn from his quivering body, and that death were a merciful and noble relief. He will be old before his assassin stroke, with age. He recoils at the ghastly Yet such a fate was the apostle of truth prepared to inflict on his fellow man for the basest hopes of selfaggrandizement-such cruelty enact, with the mere hope of conciliating a patron, and of establishing himself in power. In this very letter, containing the suggestion, “If it may not be done otherwise, it is fit Peacock be put to the torture," there is a claim made for praise so like satire that Satan might have guided the hand. "As without flattery I think your Majesty the best of Kings, my noble Lord of Buckingham the best of persons favoured, so I hope without presumption, for my honest and true intentions to state and justice and my love to my master, I am not the worst of Chancellors." No great changes have taken place during the last THE EIGHTH AND LAST HONOUR! 466 The same even course of favouring Villiers' suitors is held. Yelverton, however, has fallen a little into disfavour with Bacon. In February he writes to Buckingham: " Mr. Attorney growing pretty pert with me of late; but be they flies or be they wasps, I neither care for buzzes nor stings in anything that concerneth my duty to his Majesty or to your lordship." In June he is informed against at Bacon's instance in the Star Chamber, and the Commissioners advise his sequestration.* Bacon has framed some laws for the management of the Star Chamber, which he regards as one of the pillars of the state, although contrary to the common law of the realm and a mere court of inquisition. In In October of this year he has brought out his Novum Organum,' which he dedicates, in his usual and characteristic style of servile adulation, to his Majesty, styling him among men "the greatest master of reason and author of beneficence." He is not unaware of the unpopularity and scandal created by the monopolies. November he speaks of two-" the one of Sir Giles Monpesson, touching inns, the other touching recognizances for ale-houses, are more renowned both by the vulgar and by the gentlemen, yea, and by the judges themselves, than any other patents at this day." In December he suggests that while parliament lasts they should be abolished, to be restored again after. In January 1621, he is created Baron St. Albans by plenary investiture. "This is the eighth honour," writes Bacon, in acknowledgment of the royal favour, "your Majesty hath * Montagu, vol. xii., p. 372. REDRESS IMMINENT AT LAST. 467 given me, a diapason in music, even a good number and He little thinks how nearly his accord for a close."* wisdom is prophetic. On the 30th, Parliament met, James opening it in person, and, contrary to his usual custom, riding and saluting the people, with much graveness, saying, "God bless ye!" till coming opposite a window where some ladies were seated in yellow ruffs, the royal dignity could not contain itself, but shouted out, "Pox take ye! are ye there?" he having an aversion to that fashion. One of the first acts of the new Parliament is to declare for freedom of speech, beginning with religion. The Commons commenced, as Bacon feared, with grievances, particularly those referring to Mitchel and Monpesson. On the 23rd, Mitchel is sent ignominiously to the Tower: by the 8th Monpesson has fled, and a proclamation has issued. On the 10th, a conference was held by both houses on the subject, "the inducement to this conference being to clear the King's honour touching grants to Sir Giles, and the passages in procuring the same.' At this conference Bacon, hardly to his surprise, because he knew himself implicated, but perchance with fear, found himself involved. The Earl of Pembroke afterwards complained that St. Albans and the new Lord Viscount Mandeville (Sir H. Montagu), the Lord Treasurer, spoke in their own defence, not being allowed to do so when the committees were named '† in other words, taken from Camden, the House complains that the lawyers whom they sent to *Feb. 17, 1619-20. Montagu, vol. xii., p. 403. 468 ENGLAND AROUSED. appeal and refer a matter to the Lords, acted deceitfully and prevaricated. This is on the 9th of March. Now this mighty tower which Bacon has with so much labour builded upwards to scale the skies, in defiance of truth and justice, of heaven's mandates, and the fear of God, rocks to its fall. Tongues wag against him, prevarication cannot save him. The House is in earnest. Gondomar's sarcasm, "That there are many people in England but no men," has gone out, and will strike fire in many hearts. What though near twenty years of wretched rule have reduced an orderly household into chaos and disorder. What though miserable imbecility has degraded the court, turned the sword of Hercules into a distaff, made Samson a blind buffoon; yet there is vitality left. Only those who know in a house of business, in a bank, in a household, in a corporation, what evil may be wrought by incompetency, can appreciate the mischief. Yet every evil is magnified by the scale of its enlargement. 'Tis not a town, or city, but an empire that has been endangered. Crime has begotten crime till the progeny is monstrous in number and form. The utmost imagination can barely conceive what seventeen years of James's government have wrought. All historians agree on this point. The profligacy of the court is unparalleled. There is no statesman, no lawyer, save Coke, worthy the name. Villiers is the Monarch, and he, preferring pleasure to work, is in great part ruled by his mother. The King is but a puppet in their hands. She, the Lady Compton, has the best head and the most powerful hand at court. Gondomar writes THE CONSPIRATORS OVERTHROWN. 469 home, professedly to his master, that there is hope of England's conversion to their faith now. "More prayers are offered to the mother than the son." The Commons see in the mother and her brood the authors of all their misery. They are loth to strike at the crown, such divinity doth hedge a King. They are not strong enough yet to touch Villiers, that will come by-and-by. Coke will do it. No man else. No other man will dare. No other man will have the power. But at present the branches must be lopped, though the timber stand. Bacon and Yelverton are compromised. Mitchel, Monpesson, and Villiers' brother. Two of the gang have fled. Mitchel is in the Tower. Bacon and Yelverton are at hand. But Bacon's complicity in these monopolies-Bacon's merely indirect aid in their frauds-will not be his downfall. He is too high for that. Matter blacker is at hand. For months petitions have grown, accusing him of scandalous practices as a judge. He, the fit and worthy confederate of Monpesson and Mitchel, must stand and fall with them. The Commons is hot on the scent. His case is pernicious in the extreme. Coke knew him from the commencement; hence their antipathy. He will take care that Bacon has justice. In all their long quarrel, his rival has shown great forbearance, save and except his carriage against him as Attorney. The great Chief Justice has borne with him. He did not answer his virulent letter. He apparently never resented it. He knew his duplicity, his cowardice, his treachery. But no accusation or abuse of Bacon lies in his writings against him. He has observed, "that his gettings were like a prince with a strong hand, and his spendings like a pro |