UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 UNIVERSITY o? CALJFCRWf* 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 LIBRARY
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER 
 
 MACAULAY AND BACON 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES SPEDDING- 
 
 WITH A PREFATORY NOTICE BY 
 GK S. VENABLES 
 
 " Xam isti homines, stylo acres, judicio impares, et partis sure memores, 
 rorum minus fideles testes suut." BACON 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 YOL. I. 
 
 LONDON 
 KEGAN PAUL, TKENCH & CO., 1, PATEKKOSTEB SQUARE 
 
 1881
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT lias been thought desirable to publish one of 
 the most characteristic writings of a man of letters 
 who made no effort to acquire popular reputation. 
 In the opinion of competent judges, Mr. Spedding 
 was second to none of his contemporaries in power 
 of reasoning, in critical sagacity, or in graceful 
 purity of style ; nor had he any superior in con- 
 scientious industry. No one has hitherto possessed 
 so complete a knowledge of the subject to which his 
 life was chiefly devoted ; and it is improbable that 
 future students should throw additional light on the 
 career and character of Bacon. In the course of 
 his indefatigable researches, Mr. Spedding deduced 
 many independent and original conclusions from 
 the profound familiarity which he had acquired 
 with the history of the time. The relation of the 
 " Evenings with a Reviewer " to Spedding's ex- 
 haustive " Life of Bacon " will be noticed hereafter. 
 It may be convenient, in the first instance, to give 
 a short account of his own quiet and laborious life. 
 
 James Spedding was born at his father's resi- 
 dence, Mirehouse, in Cumberland, in June, 1808.
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 lie was educated at the Grammar School of Bury 
 St. Edmund's, where among his friends and con- 
 temporaries were some of the sons of Sir Samuel 
 Itomilly, and John Kemhle, afterwards eminent as 
 a philologist and antiquarian. In 1827 he hegaii 
 residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he 
 became a scholar, and in later life an honorary 
 fellow. His success both in his own college and in 
 the University examinations would have been more 
 brilliant if he had possessed the gift of rapid com- 
 position and translation. It was his nature to be 
 in all tilings deliberate; and he was neither willing 
 nor able to struggle against his characteristic tem- 
 perament. At a later period of his life lie gave as 
 a reason for declining a high appointment in the 
 public service, that he should have found it in- 
 tolerable to turn his attention to ten or twenty 
 unconnected matters in the course of a single day. 
 Jlis j tower of sustained labour has rarely been sur- 
 passed, but in his intellect and his temperament 
 there was no versatility. Though he neither took 
 a high degree nor obtained a fellowship, Spedding 
 was an accomplished classical scholar. A Platonic 
 dialogue, in which with dramatic litness he resolved 
 Falstaifs disquisition on honour into a. series of 
 ((notions addressed to a puz/led interlocutor bv 
 Socrates, resembled his model almost as faithfully in 
 (ireek style as in thoroughly congenial reasoning. 
 N o member ol the well-known societ v of Cambridge 
 apostles \vas more heartilv respected ami beloved 
 bv his maiiv friends within and without that bodv.
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 The manner which faithfully represented his dis- 
 position was already formed, and it never afterwards 
 varied. Calm and unirnpassioned, he contributed his 
 full share to conversation in a musical voice which 
 never rose above its ordinary pitch. The ready 
 smile with which he welcomed humorous or amusing- 
 remarks was singularly winning. His impertur- 
 bable good temper might have seemed more meri- 
 torious, if it had been possible to test his equanimity 
 by treating him with negligence or harshness. The 
 just impression of wisdom which was produced by 
 his voice, his manner, and the substance of his 
 conversation, was well described in the form of 
 humorous exaggeration by one of the acutest and 
 most brilliant women of his time, Harriet, the second 
 Lady Ashburton. Lord Houghton, in his " Mono- 
 graphs," quotes her as saying, " I always feel a kind 
 of average between myself and any other person 
 I am talking with between us two, I mean ; so 
 that when I am talking to Spedding I am unutter- 
 ably foolish beyond permission." While his closer 
 intimacies were warm and lasting, his relations to 
 those with whom he associated, in all degrees of 
 acquaintance, were cordial and kindly. Among his 
 contemporary friends and companions at Cambridge 
 were Air. Charles Tennyson, Mr. Alfred Tennyson, 
 Lord Houghton, Archbishop Trench, Dr. Thompson 
 (now Master of Trinity), Arthur Hallam, Dean 
 Merivale and Dean Blakesley, Thackeray, Edmund 
 Lushington, and Henry Lushiugton. In irresistible 
 humour none of them rivalled Brookfield, of whom
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 Speckling said, in a graceful contribution to Lord 
 Lyttelton's Memoir, "In him a -new and original 
 form of human genius was revealed to me." One 
 of the few survivors may be pardoned for retaining, 
 after fifty years, the opinion or prejudice that the 
 society in which Spedding and his Cambridge 
 friends then lived was extraordinarily interesting 
 and genial. 
 
 After taking his degree in 1831, Spedding re- 
 sided principally at Cambridge, till in 1835 he 
 entered the Colonial Office on the introduction of 
 Sir Henry Taylor, who was to the end of Spedding's 
 life one of his most valued and most appreciative 
 friends. Sir Henry Taylor has kindly allowed me 
 to insert in the present account a notice, which he 
 had written fur another purpose, of Spedding's short 
 official career. But for Sir Henry Taylor's unques- 
 tioned authority as a competent and interested 
 observer, I should have thought that, for the reason 
 expressed by himself, official life was not well suited 
 to Spedding's tastes and habits of thought ; but 
 perhaps his business in the Colonial Office may not 
 have been as various as that of an. Under Secretary' 
 of State. 
 
 "At this time" (1835), says Sir Henry Taylor, 
 " I obtained another relief [in the work of the 
 Colonial Office], and in obtaining it obtained a 
 friend for life. James Spedding was the younger 
 son of a Cumberland squire who had been a friend 
 of my lather's in former days, though 1 think thev 
 had not met in latter. In the notes to Van Arte-
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 velde I had quoted a passage from an admirable 
 speech spoken in a debating club at Cambridge 
 when he was an undergraduate. This led to my 
 making his acquaintance ; and when some very 
 laborious business of detail had to be executed, I 
 obtained authority to offer him the employment, with 
 a remuneration of 150 a year. He was in a diffi- 
 culty at that time about the choice of a profession ; 
 and, feeling that a life without business or occu- 
 pation of some kind was dangerous, was glad to 
 accept this employment as one which might answer 
 the purpose well enough, if he proved suited to it, 
 and, if not, might be relinquished without difficulty 
 and exchanged for some other. I wrote to Mr. 
 Southey (24th January, 1S3G), ' Spedding has been 
 and will be invaluable, and thev owe me much 
 
 */ 
 
 for him. He is regarded on all hands, not only as 
 a man of first-rate capacity, but as having quite a 
 genius for business. I, for my part, have never seen 
 anything like him for business on this side Stephen. 
 . . . When I contemplate the long labours of 
 Stephen and one or two others, I am disposed to 
 think that there are giants in these days.' For six 
 years Spedding worked away with universal appro- 
 bation, and all this time he would have been willing 
 to accept a post of precis-writer with 300 a year, 
 or any other such recognized position, and to attach 
 himself permanently to the office ; but none such 
 was placed at his disposal. Stephen had once said 
 to me, when advising me to depend upon the public 
 and upon literature for advancement, and not upon
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 the Government, ' You may write off the first joint 
 of vour finders for them, and then you may write 
 
 * O ** 
 
 off the second joint, and all that they will sav of 
 
 t* 
 
 you is, ' ; What a remarkably short-fingered man." 
 They did not say this of Spedding, Lut they did 
 nothing for him, and lie took the opportunity of the 
 Whig Government going out in 1841 to give up 
 his employment. lie then applied himself to edit 
 the works and vindicate the fame of Lord Bacon." 
 
 Two or three years ago Spedding republished 
 from the Wtnlmryk Jtcciew some articles in which 
 he had defended the Jamaica policy of Lord Mel- 
 bourne's Government, which was, I believe, in great 
 measure directed by Sir Henry Taylor. It was 
 impossible to revive, after a lapse of fortv years, the 
 interest which had been felt at the time in a con- 
 troversy lung since forgotten. Curious readers who 
 remembered the contemporary discussion had no 
 difficult v in recognizing Speddi Jig's forensic ability 
 
 * O 1 */ 
 
 as advocate of a cause which lie would not have 
 undertaken to defend, if he had not believed it to 
 be just. Xo other record remains of his official 
 career, except in Sir Ilenrv Tavlor's eloquent tribute 
 to his merits. In lS-12 Spedding accompanied the 
 first Lord Ashburton as private secretary on his 
 mission to America for the settlement of the dispute 
 on llie Xortli-\Ycsl Boundary. The onlv public 
 employment which he afterwards undertook was that 
 of secretary to the Civil Service Commission when 
 it was first instituted in Is,")."). As soon as the office 
 wn> bmiiii'lil into \v-rkin-- order, lie lo.-'t no time
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 in transferring- his duties to Mr. J. Gr. Maitland, 
 whom he recommended as his successor. It was by 
 his own choice that he passed his life in gratuitous 
 literary labour. "In 1847," says Sir Henry Taylor, 
 " on Sir James Stephen's retirement, the office of 
 Under Secretary of State, with 2000 a year, was 
 offered to him by Lord Grey (before it was offered 
 to me), and he could not be induced to accept it. 
 He could not be brought to believe, what no one 
 else doubted, that he was equal to the duties. I>e 
 this as it may, the fact that this man, being well 
 known and close at hand for six years, who could 
 have been had for 300 a year in 1841, should have 
 been let slip, though he was thought worth 2000 
 a year in 1847, if not a rare, is a clear example of 
 the little heed given by the Government of this 
 country to the choice and use of instruments. It 
 was at my suggestion that the offer was made ; but 
 I am not sorry that it was declined. He has de- 
 voted his singular abilities and his infinite industry 
 in research, during a long life, to a great cause, and 
 Lord Bacon will become known to posterity, gradu- 
 ally perhaps, but surely, as the man that he truly 
 was illustrious beyond all others except Shake- 
 speare in his intellect, and, witli whatever infirmities, 
 still not less than noble in his moral mind. . . . 
 James Spedding was well quit of the Colonial Office. 
 His friends, it is true, were highly dissatisfied with 
 his decision to refuse the office of Under Secretary 
 of State ; but he maintained that he knew his own 
 deficiencies belter than they, and observed, with the
 
 Xll PREFACE. 
 
 tjuiet humour which was characteristic of him, that 
 ' it was fortunate he was by when the decision was 
 taken.' ' 
 
 His own judgment must be accepted ; but of all 
 others who could form an estimate of his qualifica- 
 tions for the office, the man best entitled to be heard 
 is he who was leaving it, Sir James Stephen. Owing 
 to the state of his health, he was absent at the time 
 when the questions of this or that successor were 
 discussed ; but Sir Henry Taylor was in corre- 
 spondence with him, and on the 20th October, he 
 wrote : " It is a perfect cordial to me to hear of 
 Spedding. How could I be so stupid as to forget 
 him ? so gentle, so wise, so luminous, and, in. his 
 own quiet way, so energetic is he, that I would 
 rather devolve my functions in his hands than to 
 any person I know or have known/' 
 
 It would be difficult to find another instance in 
 which a man of great ability and of considerable 
 official experience lias declined a high position and 
 a liberal income for the sake of a laborious and 
 unrumunerative literary enterprise. The desire of 
 fame or of any other personal advantage had no 
 share in his deliberate choice of a career. His sole 
 object was to dispel prevalent delusions by vindi- 
 cating the character of Bacon. His own estimate of 
 his unfitness for the office which he declined was 
 undoubtedly sincere. Disinclination to a rapid suc- 
 cession of matters to be dealt with in public business 
 shared with his devotion to Bacon in the determi- 
 nation of his course of life.
 
 PREFACE. xill 
 
 It is not known that he at any subsequent time 
 regretted a decision which appeared to many fanciful 
 and perverse. His life before and after his rejection 
 of official rank was uniform and uneventful. His 
 habits were active and manly. He was a good 
 walker and an excellent swimmer ; and till after 
 middle life he regularly shot. Spedding for some 
 years occupied chambers in Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
 which were the frequent resort of many of his 
 contemporaries, and of younger friends whose ac- 
 quaintance he was always ready to cultivate. In 
 his later years he lived with some members of his 
 family in Westbourne Terrace. His habits con- 
 tinued to be sociable ; and in the intervals of his 
 literary labour he practised simple recreations for 
 the occupation of his leisure or the benefit of his 
 health. He became moderately proficient in archery, 
 and he was a persevering, though scarcely a suc- 
 cessful, student of the art of billiards. A growing 
 deafness, which was the only infirmity caused by 
 advancing age, tended to depress his spirits, but 
 there was to the last little change in his habits of 
 life. 
 
 Like many literary predecessors, Spedding had 
 probably formed an insufficient estimate of the 
 magnitude of his projected undertaking. His edi- 
 tion of Bacon, with the accompanying Life, occu- 
 pied him for nearly thirty years, to the regret of 
 some who thought that the exclusive devotion of a 
 long life and of ability approaching to genius was 
 a heavy price to pay for the attainment of a not
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 inconsiderable object. On the other hand, com- 
 petent judges, among whom Sir Henry Taylor is 
 perhaps entitled to the highest rank, have thought 
 that the task which Speckling perfectly accomplished 
 is worth all the sacrifice which it involved. On the 
 publication in 18G1 of the first two volumes of the 
 ' Life and Letters of Lord Bacon," Sir Henry Taylor, 
 in a letter to a friend, did justice not only to the 
 book, but to the diligence and genius of the author : 
 " I have been reading Spedding's ' Life of Bacon ' 
 with profound interest and admiration admiration, 
 not of the perfect style and penetrating judgment 
 only, but also of the extraordinary labour bestowed 
 upon the work by a lazy man ; the labour of some 
 twenty years, I believe, spent in rummaging among 
 old records in all places where they were to be 
 found, and collating different copies of manuscripts 
 written in the handwriting of the sixteenth century, 
 and noting the minutest variations of one from 
 another an inexpressibly tedious kind of drudgerv, 
 and, what was perhaps still worse, searching far and 
 wide, waiting, watching, peering, prying, through 
 long years for records which no industry could 
 recover. I doubt whether there be any other ex- 
 ample in literary history of so large an intellect as 
 Spedding's devoting itself with so much self-sacri- 
 fice to the illustration of one which was larger still ; 
 and doing so out of reverence, not so much for that 
 largest intellect as for the truth concerning it.'' At 
 a later period Sir Henry Taylor entered more fully 
 into the difficulties which Spedding had to over-
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 come, and into the reception of the book and its 
 effect upon the author : " Fourteen years' more 
 labour were to follow [after 1861] and five more 
 volumes. And his heroic perseverance had to main- 
 tain itself against divers discouragements. As long 
 as books last, and philosophy is cared for, and there 
 are human beings who care to investigate human in- 
 tellect and human nature in one of its most wonder- 
 ful manifestations, the most elaborate and authentic, 
 and, I will say also, most impartial ' Life of Lord 
 Bacon ' will be read by the studious and highly 
 cultivated classes in each generation. But these 
 are the few, and popularity is not to be expected for 
 biographers such as these. To the popular mind 
 impartiality is not interesting. A story told by a 
 bold and vigorous partisan, fastening upon the 
 features and incidents which are sure to take effect, 
 finding no difficulties, or, if finding them, keeping 
 them sedulously out of sight, rounding off every- 
 thing into a factitious clearness and consistency- 
 such a story of a life will have a much better chance 
 of popular acceptation than the other. Popularity, 
 therefore, had never been in question ; and in so far 
 as some of the facts he presented ran counter to 
 long-established misconceptions and prejudices, there 
 was perhaps an element of ^popularity. But, in 
 some cases, not popular sympathy only, but the 
 sympathy of personal friends was found wanting ; 
 and that not from dissent or opposition in opinion, 
 but from simple indifference and neglect. One of 
 them so far misconceived the situation as to con-
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 gratulate him on the publication of the first two 
 volumes as the completion of his task, kindly ex- 
 horting him. to undertake another. This he men- 
 tioned in a letter to me, adding that, ' if he had not 
 known all that long ago, and digested all that it 
 implied,' he should have thought it discouraging ! 
 ' But,' he added, ' I have long been aware that to 
 ninety-nine hundredths of the reading public, in- 
 cluding about nine-tenths of my own particular 
 friends, the most satisfactory intelligence with 
 regard to my immortal work would be that there is 
 no more to come, and that I might have made that 
 announcement at the end of my volume without 
 danger of detection. ... In the vote on the ques- 
 tion whether my idea of Bacon's character is the 
 right one, I have always expected a large majority 
 against me ; and, indeed, for that matter, I care very 
 little how it goes. All I want is, that those who 
 would sympathize with me if they heard the .story 
 rightly told should not be prevented by hearing it 
 told wrong/ ' 
 
 Sir Henry Taylor relates how at one time Sped- 
 ding's interest in his work seemed to decline. His 
 eyes and memory were, he said, no longer what they 
 had been, and both research and composition were 
 irksome to him. "But, after a year or so of rest, 
 there is found a revival of the old ardour, and the 
 eyes and the memory prove themselves not unequal 
 to twelve or thirteen years more of their long-en- 
 during and not easily exhaustible efforts. . . . The 
 labours of more than thirty years reached their com-
 
 PREFACE. XVll 
 
 pletion in 1874, and the truth of fact fact developed 
 from Bacon's life, and fact throwing light upon it- 
 was presented to mankind in all its length and 
 breadth and height and depth, leaving it to the 
 justice of mankind to arrive at such truth of inference 
 as long-established prepossessions might permit." 
 
 During the long continuance of Spedding's 
 labours on Bacon, the episodes or intellectual diver- 
 sions in which he indulged sometimes partook of the 
 nature of hobbies. Though he was in political 
 opinion a steady Liberal, he felt but a slight and 
 occasional interest in ordinary political disputes ; 
 but in 1848 and 1849 he became a vehement par- 
 tisan of Hungary, which was then engaged in its 
 gallant struggle against Austrian usurpation. He 
 was on the side of justice or historical right, but 
 there were before and after that time many contests 
 for just causes in which 'he took only a faint interest. 
 In later years he became a zealous and powerful 
 advocate of the theory that words should be written 
 in strict conformity to the actual or assumed pro- 
 nunciation of the day. He was always ready to 
 defend by forcible or plausible argument a doctrine 
 which for the present lies outside the range of prac- 
 tical controversy. It would seem that some persons 
 are destined by nature to lapse into the phonetic 
 heresy, while the rest of the world is beyond the 
 reach of proselytism. In some vigorous minds, and 
 to a certain extent in Spedding's, originality tends 
 to border on paradox. He found readier sympathy 
 in his literary predilections, which were for the most 
 
 VOL. I. b
 
 XV111 PREFACE. 
 
 part both earnest and just, though they were by 
 choice or accident limited to a few authors. His 
 study of philosophy or scientific method was, I think, 
 confined to Bacon ; and his knowledge of the details 
 of history extended in neither direction beyond the 
 times of Elizabeth and James I. He took pleasure 
 in displaying, and sometimes in exaggerating, his 
 want of acquaintance with many things which arc 
 supposed to be universally known. He was in the 
 habit of saying that he got undeserved credit for 
 knowledge, because no one would believe that such 
 a man could be so profoundly ignorant. His ap- 
 parently simple desire for information not unfre- 
 quently resolved itself into a Socratic exposure of 
 fallacies ; but it was true that he deliberately ab- 
 stained from the study of subjects in which he felt 
 no concern. The literature of fiction for the most 
 part failed to attract him, but he had a minute and 
 accurate knowledge of Miss Austen's novels, in the 
 spirit of a thorough-going admirer and loyal cham- 
 pion, he formerly maintained that Miss Austen had 
 never made a mistake; and, when he was reminded 
 that Emma ate strawberries in Mr. Knightley's 
 garden under apple trees in blossom, he took much 
 trouble to ascertain whether some apple blossoms are 
 not very late, and some strawberries very early. At 
 last he had the candour to admit that Miss Austen's 
 perfect fidelity to nature had been in a single in- 
 stance interrupted. His poetical tastes were more 
 comprehensive. Ilis appreciation of Wordsworth 
 was neither enthusiastic nor indiscriminate ; and he
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 admired Byron, who was less cordially liked by his 
 contemporary friends. He thought with good reason 
 that Keats would have become a poet of a very high 
 order, arid he was one of the earliest and steadiest 
 votaries of the genius of Tennyson. It is well 
 known that the touching little poem which bears his 
 initials was addressed to Spedding. To the collected 
 edition of Charles (Tennyson) Turner's beautiful 
 sonnets he contributed an excellent critical essay. 
 His knowledge of Shakespeare was extensive and 
 profound, and his laborious and subtle criticism 
 derived additional value from his love of the stage. 
 In his collected essays on subjects unconnected 
 with Bacon is included an instructive criticism on 
 Miss Ellen Terry's representation of Portia, and 
 on the character itself and the due place of Portia 
 in the play. In his opinion Shylock had, through 
 the histrionic capabilities of his part, usurped in 
 popular estimation the protagonism which, as he 
 thought, properly belonged to Portia. A genera- 
 tion has passed away since Spedding was induced to 
 become an enthusiastic admirer of Mdlle. Jenny 
 Lincl by the combined charm of her voice and of her 
 exquisite acting. His musical taste was as little 
 diffusive as his political sympathy. Jenny Lind 
 among singers, like Hungary among insurgent 
 nations, had a monopoly of his devotion. He had 
 a genuine love of art and a discriminating taste, 
 and he took pleasure in the society of painters and 
 sculptors. His knowledge of science was confined 
 to his mathematical studies at Cambridge. He knew
 
 XX PREFACE. 
 
 little or nothing of the pursuits which seemed to 
 Bacon alone worthy of a philosopher. 
 
 His violent and sudden death caused a wide- 
 spread feeling of regret, as well as deep distress to 
 those who were nearest to him. On the 1st of 
 March, 1881, he was knocked down and severely 
 injured by a cab at the bottom of Hay Hill. The 
 occupant of the cab, instead of ascertaining his ad- 
 dress, sent him to St. George's Hospital, from which 
 it was afterwards found impossible to remove him to 
 his home. The case was from the first hopeless, and 
 he died in the hospital on the 9th. While he was 
 still conscious, he was careful to assure those around 
 him that the driver was not to blame. The almost 
 paradoxical love of justice, whether or not his 
 opinion was well founded, was in the highest degree 
 characteristic. 
 
 The imperfect or deferred attainment of the chief 
 object of his life was, I think, in some degree 
 attributable to an original error in the plan of his 
 work. His vindication of the character of Bacon is, 
 as he intended, complete and conclusive, but only on 
 the condition that it is read. He insisted that his 
 readers should have before them all the proofs on 
 which his own convictions were founded. In his 
 great work the documentary evidence, consisting 
 mainly of Bacon's letters and occasional writings, is 
 inserted at proper intervals in the midst of the 
 biographer's argument and narrative. By an almost 
 perverse self-effacement, the extracts are given in large 
 print, and the far more interesting "Life of Bacon"
 
 PREFACE. xxi 
 
 in small print. Spedding was never in a hurry, and 
 lie knew that he was too late to convert his own 
 generation, but he determined, as he said, that all 
 persons who might be born in or after 1850 should 
 have the means of forming an accurate and inde- 
 pendent judgment. Many of his expected proselytes 
 have now reached middle life without taking; ad- 
 
 o 
 
 vantage of the opportunities which he provided. 
 It is the business of a literary artist, and especially 
 of an historian, while he collects raw materials only 
 for his own use, to supply finished products to his 
 readers. Spedding may boast of an illustrious 
 imitator, for the plan of Carlyle's history of Oliver 
 Cromwell was borrowed from the cumbrous arrange- 
 ment of the " Life of Bacon." Even the irritating 
 distinction of type is transferred from the original 
 to the copy ; for both biographers seem to have been 
 affected by the spirit of hero-worship which led 
 Assyrian sculptors to represent kings on a larger 
 scale than that which was assigned to themselves as 
 ordinary men. If the text of the " Life of Bacon " 
 had not been disfigured by incessant interpolations 
 it would not have been unreasonably voluminous. In 
 Spedding's own composition there is nothing super- 
 fluous or tedious ; and the style is vigorous, pure, 
 and transparently clear. The " Evenings with a 
 Reviewer," written five and thirty years ago, and 
 now for the first time published, contain the substance 
 of the argument which was afterwards fortified by 
 detailed proofs and illustrations. The friends who 
 at the time received copies of the book regretted with
 
 XX11 PREFACE, 
 
 good reason Spedding's resolution to postpone the 
 publication ; and he seems, after a long interval, to 
 have discovered his mistake in suppressing his more 
 compendious vindication of Bacon's character. He 
 had recently prepared the book for the press, with 
 little change beyond the suppression of passages 
 which might seem to be tinged with controversial 
 acrimony. 
 
 Macaulay's " Essay on Bacon," written during his 
 residence in India, has confirmed the vulgar belief 
 on which it was founded more effectually than if it 
 had been more elaborate in its details. Readers who 
 are familiar with Macaulay's intellectual mannerism 
 cannot but have observed that the essay is a mere 
 amplification of Pope's hackneyed paradox about the 
 greatest, wisest, and meanest of mankind. The 
 almost hyperbolical language in which Bacon's 
 genius is exalted prepares the way for indignation 
 and contempt against the alleged baseness and ser- 
 vility of his practical career. Although the first 
 gloss of Macaulay's popularity is worn off, it may 
 be hoped that the essay is still sufficiently well 
 known to excite an interest in the question whether 
 the rhetorical antithesis which it propounds is 
 either credible or true. Those who may be suffi- 
 ciently curious to study Spedding's examination of 
 Macaulay's elaborate libel will be surprised to find 
 that the comment is at least as entertaining as the 
 text, while it is infinitely more conclusive. On some 
 points there may still be room for a difference of 
 opinion, as for instance on the completeness of 1he
 
 PREFACE. XXI 11 
 
 exculpation of Bacon in his relations to Essex ; but 
 few students of Spedding's apology will recur to the 
 moral standard by which Macaulay judges of the 
 transaction. The biographical epigrammatist thinks 
 it sufficient to compare the pecuniary benefits which 
 had been respectively conferred on Bacon by Eliza- 
 beth and by Essex. The grave historian reminds 
 the serious inquirer that, as Bacon owed loyal alle- 
 giance to the parsimonious queen, he was bound 
 to vindicate her cause against his open-handed 
 friend who had become a rebel. It was an easier 
 task to expose the futility of the incessant sneers 
 and misrepresentations which Macaulay directs 
 against Bacon because he complied with the cere- 
 monious usages of his time. For the fatal irregu- 
 larities which caused Bacon's fall Spedding offers 
 no defence, but he succeeds in extenuating errors 
 which scarcely amounted to crimes. It is a matter 
 of serious regret that Macaulay had not the oppor- 
 tunity of reading the " Evenings with a Reviewer." 
 In other cases it was his habit to trust to his 
 reputation, and to the comparative obscurity of his 
 critics, even in cases where, according to every judg- 
 ment but his own, they had clearly convicted him 
 of error. In republishing the " Essay on Bacon," 
 he boldly relied on the improbability that his readers 
 should have consulted Mr. Jardine's treatise on the 
 Law of Torture, which he slightly mentions. He 
 justly calculated on the general indifference with 
 which Mr. Impey's vindication of the character of his 
 grandfather the Chief Justice was received ; and
 
 XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 with less good fortune he underrated the demon- 
 stration of his mistakes which is contained in Mr. 
 Paget's " New Examen." He could scarcely have 
 afforded to treat the " Evenings with a Reviewer " 
 
 o 
 
 with equal levity. Spedding was his intellectual 
 equal, and he was not unknown in literary and 
 general society. Macaulay could scarcely have failed 
 to perceive that his own superficial acquaintance with 
 the history of Bacon was not to be compared with 
 the results of long and profound study. At a later 
 time Spedding was in the habit of suggesting a 
 conjectural excuse for Macaulay's occasional inac- 
 curacy, and for his obstinacy in refusing to correct 
 his mistakes. Both peculiarities were with much 
 probability ascribed to habitual reliance on a mar- 
 vellous memory. The errors which could not always 
 be avoided during his youthful accumulation of 
 various knowledge became stereotyped in a recol- 
 lection which probably reproduced with unfailing 
 fidelity the original impression. It might be ex- 
 cusable in a hasty student to accept and to exaggerate 
 the popular estimate of Bacon's character; and farther 
 study and reconsideration probably seemed super- 
 fluous. The proverbial warning, " (Vive ab homine 
 unius libri," was naturally overlooked by the pos- 
 sessor of vast stores of miscellaneous erudition. 
 
 The most valuable part of Macaulay's " Essay on 
 Bacon " is his bold and ingenious reduction of 
 Bacon's philosophical doctrine to the simple rules 
 of common sense. In the " Evenings with a Ko- 
 viewer " Spedding wholly abstains from dealing
 
 PREPACK XXV 
 
 with questions of which he never considered him- 
 self a thoroughly competent judge. His vindication 
 of Bacon's character from the popular imputation 
 of meanness could in no degree have been strength- 
 ened by arguments in support of the admission 
 that he was also the greatest of mankind, but 
 Spedding profoundly believed in the soundness of 
 the general estimate of Bacon's services to the cause 
 of knowledge. He justly deemed himself fortunate 
 in securing the aid of the late Mr. R. Leslie Ellis 
 as editor of Bacon's Philosophical Works. No 
 commentator was more capable than Mr. Ellis of 
 appreciating any relation which might be found to 
 exist between the precepts contained in the " Novum 
 Organon " and the scientific discoveries of later 
 times. Writers of the rank of Sir John Herschel 
 and Dr. Whewell have in recent times confirmed by 
 their authority the long-established belief that the 
 philosopher 
 
 " Whom a wise king and Nature chose 
 Lord Chancellor of both their laws " 
 
 had prepared the way for the conquests which he 
 was not himself permitted to achieve 
 
 " And from the Pisgah-top of his exalted wit 
 Beheld the promised land, and showed us it." 
 
 Mr. Ellis, in his learned and argumentative preface 
 to the Philosophical Works, examined more severely 
 the pretensions which have been advanced on be- 
 half of the most eloquent commentator since Plato 
 on the conditions of human knowledge. In his
 
 XXVI PllEFACE. 
 
 conclusions Mr. Ellis will be found not to differ widely 
 from Lord Macaulay. He deduces from careful in- 
 quiry the proposition that Bacon contributed nothing 
 to the process of induction, and that his scientific 
 method would not have conduced to the advance of 
 knowledge, if it had ever been applied to the purpose 
 by any discoverer. For the general knowledge, for 
 the practical wisdom, and for the imaginative 
 eloquence of Bacon Mr. Ellis expresses cordial ad- 
 miration ; but his rejection of Bacon's supposed 
 claims to the gratitude of mankind must have 
 disappointed his enthusiastic coadjutor. With cha- 
 racteristic honesty Spedding both published Mr. 
 Ellis's- preface in his edition, and called attention 
 to his disparaging judgment of Bacon's services to 
 science. His own unshaken belief in the importance 
 of the " Novum Organon " was not inconsistent 
 with Mr. Ellis's assertion that Bacon's method had 
 never been tried by men of science. The zealous 
 biographer was inclined to suspect that their neglect 
 had obstructed the process of discovery, and he per- 
 suaded himself that the greater attention devoted in 
 the present day to the collection of physical facts 
 involved a tardy and wholesome approximation to 
 Bacon's neglected method. The issue was not 
 material to his life-long task. The historical and 
 biographical conclusions which he established de- 
 pend on an exhaustive accumulation of evidence 
 arranged and interpreted by the clearest of intellects 
 with an honesty which is rarely known in con- 
 troversial discussion. No more conscientious, n 
 
 o
 
 PREFACE. XXV11 
 
 more sagacious critic has employed on a not un- 
 worthy task the labour of a life. It will be well, 
 rather for students of history and of character than 
 for himself, if his just fame is rescued from the 
 neglect which he regarded with unaffected indif- 
 ference. 
 
 G. S. V.
 
 EVENING THE FIRST. 
 
 A. 
 
 Edinburgh Keview, July 1S37. Judex damned ur cum 
 nocens absolvitur. Xo\v, then, are you ready ? 
 
 " We return our hearty thanks " 
 
 I suppose we need not trouble ourselves with the preliminary 
 flourish. It is only the ceremony of shaking hands before 
 the fight. 
 
 13. 
 
 No, no. I cannot let Macaulay go away with his first 
 paragraph on that pretence. It is not a matter of compli- 
 ment : it is the judgment of the Edinburgh Eeview upon 
 the merits of the book. 
 
 A. 
 
 " We return our hearty thanks to Mr. Montagu, as well for 
 his very valuable edition of Lord Bacon's works, as for the 
 instructive Lii'e of the immortal author contained in the last 
 volume. We have much to say on the subject of this Life, and 
 will often find ourselves obliged to dissent from the opinions of 
 the biographer. But about his merits as a collector of the 
 materials out of which opinions are formed there can be no 
 dispute. And we readily acknowledge that we are in great 
 measure indebted to his minute and accurate researches for the 
 means of refuting what we cannot but consider as his errors." 
 A'OL. I. F.
 
 2 EVENINGS WITH A RE 'VIE 'WEIL 
 
 B. 
 
 Stop. It is not worth while to enter upon the question 
 as to the real merits of Mr. Montagu's well-meant book. 
 But it is worth while to say that this critical estimate of it 
 is so absurdly inapplicable that I can only suppose it to 
 have been pronounced at mere Imp-hazard. Ask anybody 
 who has read the Life with attention, or attempted to use 
 the edition, and he will tell you that no competent critic 
 who cared whether he described the book correctly or not 
 could possibly have described it so. For my own part I 
 believe that the reviewer did in fact never trouble his hca 1 
 to consider what an edition of Bacon ought to be ; perhaps 
 had not even turned over the leaves of half the fifteen 
 volumes octavo upon which he was pronouncing judgment. 
 
 A. 
 
 Very likely. He was going to review Bacon himself, not 
 his editor. It suited him to use Montagu's facts in order to 
 overthrow his theory ; and a good round compliment like 
 this was a striking position to start from ; besides that it 
 made a show (however delusive) of candour. \Yhelher the 
 compliment were merited or not, I suppose he did not 
 trouble himself to inquire. I told you it was only a flourish, 
 shaking hands before the fight. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes; but remember, when I charge him presently witli 
 the same kind of recklessness in making round assertions, 
 without caring whether he has any ground for them or not, 
 you are not to say that he is incapable of it. Ixomember, 
 that it will not be the first time lie lias been pulled up for 
 that offence. Judex damnatur cum noccns alwh'itur. The 
 guilty has been acquitted in the first page : see now whether 
 he will not attempt to mend the matter by condemning tho 
 innocent.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 3 
 
 A. 
 
 "Well, here are more compliments : " Labour of love," 
 " generous enthusiasm," " activity," " perseverance," " zeal 
 which has perverted his judgment," &c. &c. Will you 
 have all this ? 
 
 B. 
 
 No, I allow all that. And I have not much to say upon 
 the next paragraph, in which the reviewer apologises on 
 behalf of the rest of mankind for the weakness of treating 
 their benefactors with tenderness. I am not myself con- 
 cerned to advocate the practice ; and if he has any tendency 
 that way himself (as he seems to confess), I think we must all 
 acquit him in this case of the weakness of yielding to it. It 
 may be as well to say however, by way of caution, that I 
 think him quite wrong as to the fact. I never saw that 
 posterity was reluctant to think ill of the personal characters 
 of great writers. I was never taught, nor ever wished, to 
 think of Sallust as a good man. Who has tried to prove 
 that Fielding did not bilk landladies ? And as for Shake- 
 speare's cudgelling of gamekeepers, if we are so reluctant to 
 believe him capable of such a thing, why do we believe it ? 
 There is no evidence of the fact except a popular rumour, 
 which cannot be traced back within half a century of the 
 time when it is supposed to have been committed. The 
 truth is, it is not great writers whose faults are winked at by 
 posterity, but great sufferers, where the suffering has been 
 exhibited in picturesque and pathetic situations. But this 
 is not our business at present. Let Cicero and Middleton 
 pass. We will suppose if you will that " a great writer is 
 the friend and benefactor of his readers, and they cannot but 
 judge of him under the deluding influence of friendship and 
 gratitude," (those are the words, I think) and that Bacon 
 owes the popular estimate of his personal character, " wisest, 
 brightest, meanest," &c., to the prevalence of that affectionate 
 delusion. Pass on to the bottom of page 4, where business 
 begins.
 
 4 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Mr. Montagu's faith is sincere and implicit. He practises 
 no trickery ; he conceals nothing; he puts the facts before us in 
 the full confidence that they will produce on our minds the 
 effect they have produced on his own. It is nut till he comes to 
 reason from facts to motives that his partiality shows itself; and 
 then he leaves Middleton himself far "behind. His work proceeds 
 on the assumption that Bacon was an eminently virtuous man. 
 From the tree Mr. Montagu judges of the fruit 
 
 13. 
 
 Well, if a tree lias to my knowledge borne apples for 
 twenty years, I suppose I may suspect some mistake when I 
 am told that it has borne crabs on the twenty-first. 
 
 A. 
 
 Stop a moment : we are nut at the end of the sentence'. 
 
 "He is forced to relate many actions which, if any man Imi 
 Bacon had committed them, nobody would have dreamed of 
 defending, which are readily and completely explained by .sup- 
 posing Bacon to have been a man whose principles were nut 
 strict and whose spirit was nut high, actions which can be ex- 
 plained in no other way without resorting to some grotesque 
 hypothesis, for which there is not a tittle of evidence. But 
 any hypothesis is in Mr. Montagu's opinion more probable 
 than that his hero should ever have done anything very 
 wrong. This mode of defending Bacon seems to us by no 
 means Baconian. To take a man's character for granted, and 
 then from his character to infer the moral quality of his actions, 
 is surely a process the very reverse of that which is recommended 
 in the Novum Onjanum. Nothing, we are sure, could have led 
 Mr. Montagu to depart so far from his master's precepts except 
 zeal for his master's honour." 
 
 Stay a moment, and consider. Xuw, does all lliis 
 sound to you like a fair exposition of 3fr. Montagu's modus 
 operandi ? Do you think lie really Icyau his study of 
 Bacon's actions bv taking his character for granted ?
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. f) 
 
 A. 
 
 Nay, how should I know ? If lie did not, the reviewer 
 does him injustice. 
 
 B. 
 
 To be sure he does : and you will find that he does in- 
 justice to everybody in the same way. But does it not 
 carry exaggeration and caricature on the face of it ? I do 
 not say that Mr. Montagu is not partial for Bacon, any 
 more than that Macaulay is not partial against him. Both 
 of them have a pleasure in making their periods round and 
 their picture complete ; and both try occasionally to effect 
 it by supposing circumstances for which, though possible, 
 they can produce no evidence. But the method is logical 
 enough. Mr. Montagu had a general impression of Bacon's 
 character, not -pi-e-assumed, but pre-formed upon a general 
 survey of his words and actions of the context of his life. 
 It is quite right that in interpreting each separate passage 
 this general impression should be taken into account. Every 
 man is entitled to the benefit of such an impression. No 
 court of justice rejects as irrelevant evidence to the 
 prisoner's general character where the direct evidence leaves 
 room for doubt. Mr. Montagu started, not with a theory 
 that a great writer must be a good man, but with a notion 
 derived in the same way in which we all derive our notions 
 of each other's character, that Bacon iras a good man. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, well. Never mind Mr. Montagu : our business is 
 with Bacon. Whether the reviewer be right or wrong in 
 charging this fault upon Mr. Montagu, it will be enough 
 for me if he avoid it himself. Listen to this : 
 
 " We shall pursue a different course. We .shall attempt, 
 with the valuable assistance which Mr. Montagu has afforded 
 
 US, TO FRAME SUCH AN ACCOUNT OF BACON'S LIFE AS MAY ENABLE OUR 
 READERS CORRECTLY TO ESTIMATE HIS CHARACTER." 
 
 Come, what can you desire better than that ?
 
 o EVEXJNGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 Nothing. I am glad to hear you read the passage with 
 such emphasis ; for I may have occasion to remind you of 
 it. I understand then that lie is addressing himself not 
 simply to overthrow 3Ir. Montagu's estimate, nor simply to 
 make out a case for his own, but to present the facts in such 
 a way that you and I (who are supposed to know nothing of 
 the matter) may form a correct estimate for ourselves. This 
 is the promise. Now mind ; if he confine himself only to 
 the more questionable and less creditable parts of Bacon's 
 history, however candidly he may discuss them leaving 
 unnoticed or lost in the background those parts which are 
 unquestionable and certainly to his honour I shall not 
 think that promise fulfilled. If the temptations to which 
 Bacon yielded are to be made the most of (and I would 
 have nothing kept back), I must insist on having some 
 account of those to which he did not vield. 
 
 By all means. Here follow four or five pages upon the 
 character of the statesmen of the generation preceding, who 
 are introduced apparently by way of contrast. Shall I read 
 them ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Not for anything I have to say on the subject. I am 
 not well enough acquainted with them to give an opinion. 
 From what I do know indeed, I am not inclined to agree 
 altogether with Macaulav. He draws a striking contrast 
 
 o 
 
 between these two generations of statesmen: but 1 do not 
 think he has taken the points of contrast truly. The dif- 
 ference was not so much, I think, in the men themselves as 
 in the times and the personal character of the sovereigns. 
 Francis Bacon bears a remarkably strong resemblance to 
 his father in character and disposition. His temperament, 
 the fiery element which fed his genius, probably came 
 from his mother. And on the other side the character and
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 7 
 
 fortunes of Kaleigh and Essex are not without sufficiently 
 near parallels among the generation of their fathers. But 
 these matters have little or nothing to do with the sequel. 
 Therefore let them pass. 
 
 A. 
 
 Together with the dissertation on female education, I 
 suppose, which occupies ten pages more. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes ; an account of the actual relation between Francis 
 Bacon and his mother during the first forty years of his life, 
 would have been more to the purpose. But none of his 
 biographers have taken any notice of this ; and probably 
 Macaulay did not know that anything was to be known 
 about it. His conduct both as a son and as a brother during 
 his early manhood throws much light upon his personal 
 character, and should certainly be taken along with us as we 
 follow him through his career. But his mother's skill in 
 the learned languages has but little bearing on the subject ; 
 therefore you may pass, if you will, to page 12. 
 
 A. 
 
 Does Mr. Montagu say nothing about it ? 
 
 B. 
 
 He gives a long list of eminent men who have had 
 mothers. But he does not tell us what sort of woman Lady 
 Ann Bacon was ; or how she was writing daily letters to her 
 sons, full of affection, pride, passion, grief and dissatisfaction ; 
 interfering in all their affairs, expostulating upon all their 
 proceedings, quarrelling with all their friends, and treating 
 them like children who could not take care of themselves : 
 a very singular and interesting person, who must have been 
 extremely difficult to get on with ; the consideration of 
 whose feelings and infirmities musf, I think, have entered 
 into and modified every act of her sous' lives. But (as 1 
 said) I have no reason to suppose that the reviewer knew
 
 8 E VEXING S WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 anything about her more than her reputation for Greek and 
 Latin. Therefore I infer nothing from his silence, except 
 perhaps this, I do not think he can have felt any intelligent 
 curiosity about Bacon's personal character ; for under a 
 genuine and earnest desire to understand his character, so 
 acute and book-learned a man would hardly have forgotten 
 to look in that direction for indications of it. But let us 
 hear how he tells those parts of the story which he has 
 looked into. 
 
 " Francis Bacon, the youngest son of Sir Nicholas, was born 
 at York House, his father's residence in the Strand, 011 the 22nd 
 of January 1561." 
 
 You do not dispute that, I suppose ? 
 
 K 
 
 1561 according to our way of reckoning. In those days 
 it was called 15GO. To avoid confusion, it is always better, 
 in speaking of times when the civil year was reckoned as 
 beginning on the 25th of March, to give the double date, 
 1500-1. But, well ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " His health was very delicate, and to this circumstance mav 
 be partly attributed that gravity of carriage and that love of 
 sedentary pursuits which distinguished him from other boys. 
 Everybody knows ho^v much his premature readiness uf wit and 
 sobriety of deportment amused the Queen, and how she used to 
 call him her young Lord Keeper." 
 
 It is a small matter, hardly worth stopping for, perhaps ; 
 except that it shows the kind of licence these lively writers 
 indulge in. I confess I should have preferred the un- 
 varnished report of Dr. JJuwley (which is the sole authority 
 for this circumstance) without any pleasant turn given to it 
 out of the writer's head for the entertainment of the reader.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EEV1EWEE. 9 
 
 Dr. Eawley only says that " the Queen delighted much then 
 to confer with him and to prove him with questions ; unto 
 whom he delivered himself with that gravity and maturity 
 above his years, that Her Majesty would often term him her 
 young Lord Keeper." Who can say from this whether the 
 Queen questioned him for amusement or from a rational 
 interest ; whether his gravity was absurd, or only re- 
 markable ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Come, come ; confess that he was something of a prig. 
 One cannot imagine that he was ever a boy with a boy's 
 heart in him. Look here 
 
 " We are told that while still a mere child, lie stole away 
 from his playfellows to a vault in St. James's Fields, to in- 
 vestigate the cause of a singular echo which lie had observed 
 there." 
 
 B. 
 
 Ay, there again ! That comes not from Dr. Eawley, but 
 from Mr. Montagu. The fact is simply that in his old age 
 he described this singular echo, and stated what he (being 
 then above sixty) conceived to be the cause of it. For the 
 fact of "stealing from his playfellows," and the purpose 
 " to investigate the cause," we are indebted solely to Mr. 
 Montagu. It is purely an inference, and (as it happens) 
 a very bad inference. There was a brick conduit with a 
 window in it, leading to a round-house of stone in which 
 was a rift ; and the phenomenon was, that if you cried out 
 in the rift it made " a fearful roaring at the window." It 
 may be probable (though it is not stated) that he made 
 acquaintance with this fact when he was a child ; but it 
 must have been in the company of at least one of his 
 playfellows. For there must clearly have been two, one 
 to cry at the rift and the other to listen at the window. 
 Certainly if I were to draw any inference from his recol- 
 lection of this echo, it would be that he had been used 
 when a boy to play there with his companions. It must
 
 10 ErZXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 have been a delightful place for boys to play in. The 
 " fearful roaring " is loy, all over. The young Lord Keeper 
 listening to the fearful roaring would make a pretty picture 
 in the hands of a good artist. Is there any more of this ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Not much. 
 
 " It is certain that at only twelve he busied himself with 
 very ingenious speculations on the art of legerdemain, a 
 subject which, as Professor Dugalcl Stewart has most justly 
 observed, merits much more attention from philosophers than it 
 has ever received." 
 
 B. 
 
 Bravo! I did not think he could have capped the last. 
 This again conies from Mr. Montagu. But the Edinburgh 
 reviewer, in compliment I suppose to the Edinburgh pro- 
 fessor, has a little improved it. Mr. Montagu only says 
 that " in his twelfth year he was meditating on the laws of 
 the imagination." His grounds he gives in a footnote ; so 
 that in this instance the reviewer knew what he was talking 
 about. And what do you think they amount to ? In his 
 twelfth year (or much earlier, or indeed two or three years 
 later, for anything we know) Francis Bacon saw at his 
 father's house a juggler who played tricks with cards. At 
 some after-time (how long after we have no data whatever 
 for determining) he met with " a protended learned man, 
 that was curious and vain enough " in speculations con- 
 cerning the imagination, and related to liim the tricks which 
 the juggler had played, and the manner of it in detail ; 
 upon which the learned man expounded to him an ingenious 
 theory on the subject : a theory which, it is clear from his 
 
 tl n) fj 
 
 manner of telling the story, was at the time quite new to 
 him; and which, "though" (lie adds) "it did somewhat 
 sink with me, yet I made it lighter than 1 thought, and 
 said I thought it was confederacy between the juggler and 
 the two servants," &&. And this is all. And upon no more 
 than this Mr. Montagu tells us that " in his twelfth vear
 
 E7EX1XGS WITH A REVIEWER. II 
 
 Bacon was meditating on the laws of the imagination : '' 
 and the reviewer announces it " as certain that at only 
 twelve he busied himself with very ingenious speculations on 
 the art of legerdemain." And this with the entire facts of 
 the case lying legible (though in small print) under his 
 nose ! 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, but he builds nothing upon this. He goes on 
 
 " These are trifles. But the eminence which Bacon after- 
 wards attained renders them interesting." 
 
 B. 
 
 I do not accuse him of building anything upon it ; nor 
 of ascribing to these things undue value, I accuse him of 
 stating them as if they were ascertained facts, when they 
 are not so much as flying reports. The error, you may say, 
 is trifling, as the things themselves are trifles. And so it is 
 in these particular cases. But the habit which it implies 
 is no trifle. It is a habit of inaccuracy ; of carelessness iu 
 the use of words ; of introducing essential variations into 
 a story, not only without authority, but without notice ; 
 possibly without knowing it. And do not ask me to believe 
 that a man who will do this in trifles upon no provocation, 
 will not do it in serious things where there is provocation. 
 If a boy under sixteen watching the tricks of a juggler 
 is from inadvertency or for effect to be converted into a boy 
 of twelve busying himself with very ingenious speculations 
 on an important subject to this day neglected by philo- 
 sophers, what security have I that a young man modestly 
 applying for employment shall not be converted into the 
 great philosopher meanly prostituting his genius and cha- 
 racter for a place ? You will find as we go on that it is not 
 in trifles only that the reviewer indulges in this kind of 
 liberty. Kernember that I do not impute to him wilful 
 inaccuracy, I have no doubt he believes all he says, but 
 inaccuracy so habitual that it has grown to be unconscious ; 
 which (in a historian) is a worse thing. I accuse him of a
 
 12 FVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 readiness to believe anything that will heighten the effect of 
 his description or sharpen the points of his argument. 
 Now let ns see what lie makes of Bacon at Cambridge. 
 
 A. 
 
 " In his thirteenth year he was entered at Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. That celebrated school of learning enjoyed the 
 peculiar favour of the Lord Treasurer and the Lord Keeper," &c, 
 
 Here follows an attack on the memory of Whitgift. Have 
 you any objection to my considering him, on the authority 
 of the reviewer, as at this time a chrysalis, ' a kind of inter- 
 mediate grub between sycophant and oppressor " ? I begin 
 to be prepared to modify my opinions in such matters. 
 
 B. 
 
 No ; I know nothing about "Whitgift, except that some 
 years after he took a leading part in measures which Bacon 
 did not approve. I shall keep my own opinion open until I 
 know more. You can do as you like. 
 
 A. 
 
 I think we may as well let him rest for the present. 
 
 " It has often been said that Bacon, while still at college, 
 planned that great intellectual revolution with which his name 
 is inseparably connected. The evidence on this subject, how- 
 ever, is hardly sufficient to prove what is itself so improbable, as 
 that any definite scheme of that kind should have been so early 
 formed even by so powerful and active a mind. But it is certain 
 that after a residence of three years at Cambridge, Bacon de- 
 parted, carrying with him a profound contempt for the course of 
 study pursued there ; a fixed conviction that the systems of 
 academic education in England were radically vicious ; a just 
 scorn for the trifles on which the followers of Aristotle had 
 wasted their powers; and no great reverence for Ari-totlo 
 himself." 
 
 B. 
 
 All this is certain, is it? I should like to know where 
 the evidence is. For if it be true that Bacon felt at sixteen
 
 El'EXINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 1 .'J 
 
 so much profound contempt, just scorn, and fixed conviction, 
 I must materially alter my conception of his character. I 
 know very well that in speaking of the Universities some 
 fifteen or twenty years after, he pointed out certain grave 
 errors and defects in the plan of education adopted there ; 
 also, that he had, some years earlier, come to the conclusion 
 that the whole system of philosophy which was taught there 
 was a progress in the wrong direction. But I know nothing 
 of the contempt and scorn and spirit of sweeping condom- 
 nation which is here imputed to him at sixteen. Through- 
 out his life he spoke of the Universities always with affection 
 and respect, and treated them accordingly. The impression 
 under which Macaulay wrote this sentence was suggested, 
 I suppose, by Mr. Montagu's account of this period of 
 Bacon's life ; which is made up by gathering together 
 everything he ever said about our own Universities, about 
 the schoolmen of the middle ages, and about knowledge in 
 general, and supposing that he felt it all while he was there. 
 What we knoiv of the matter is what Bacon himself told Dr. 
 Eawley which goes, by the way, rather to prove the point 
 which the reviewer rejects as improbable, than those which 
 he sets down as certain, to wit : 
 
 " "Whilst ho was commorant at the University (as his Lord- 
 ship hath been pleased to impart unto myself) he .first fell into 
 the dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle ; not for the worth- 
 lessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high 
 attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way ; being a 
 philosophy, as his Lordship used to say, only strong for dis- 
 putations and contentions, but barren of works for the benefit of 
 the life of man ; in which mind he continued till his dying day." 
 
 And certainly the title Temporis partus maximus, which he 
 gave to a treatise composed about eight years after he left 
 Cambridge, of which nothing but the title remains, does 
 imply something like an idea of the Instauratio Magna, and 
 a formed plan of the great intellectual revolution which the 
 reviewer speaks of. And I do not know how it strikes you, 
 but for my own part I can much more easily believe that he 
 left the University at sixteen with such a plan in his head, 
 than in the state of mind imputed to him. Well ?
 
 ]-i EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 " In liis sixteenth year he visited Paris, and resided there for 
 tome time under the care of Sir Amias Paulet, Elizabeth's 
 minister at the French court, and one of the ablest and most 
 upright of the many valuable servants whom she employed. 
 France was at that time in a state of deplorable agitation. The 
 Huguenots and the Catholics were mustering their forces fur the 
 fiercest and most protracted of their many struggles ; while the 
 piince, whose duty it was to protect and restrain both, had by 
 his vices and follies degraded himself so deeply, that he had no 
 authority over either. Bacon however made a tour through 
 several provinces, and appears to have passed some time at 
 Poitiers." 
 
 B. 
 
 How docs he know (I wonder) that he made a tour 
 through several provinces ? Oh, I sec. Mr. Montagu says, 
 that " after the appointment of Sir Amias Paulet's successor, 
 Bacon travelled into the French provinces, and spent some 
 time at Poictiers." Well, I will admit that as a sufficient 
 justification of the statement ; though it happens to be 
 wrong. Mr. Montagu knew that Bacon had been at Poictiers 
 in his youth, and not knowing when or on what occasion, 
 supplied the defect by a very fair conjecture. I have no 
 fault to find with it, considered as a conjecture ; but I object 
 to the statement of it as a fact. The fact is, that the French 
 court Avas at Poictiers in the autumn of 1577, and Sir Amias 
 Paulet (who had been moving about from place to place 
 during the early part of the summer, that he might have an 
 interview with the king upon some important and urgent 
 matters of public business) remained there as ambassador 
 from the latter end of July to the latter end of October; 
 Bacon being no doubt in his suite; in which lie continued 
 certainly until his father's death, sixteen months after ; 
 whether until the appointment of Sir Amias's successor 
 (November 1st, 1570), we do not know. 
 
 A. 
 
 " \\ e have abundant proof that during his stay on the Con- 
 tinent he did not neglect literary and scientific pursui's.' 1
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 15 
 
 B. 
 
 Abundant proof? Unless be mean tbat bis early pro- 
 ficiency is a proof, and it is certainly a fair presumption, 
 I doubt wbetber we bave any proof wbatever. Mr. Montagu 
 talks indeed of bis contracting lasting friendsbips with men 
 of letters, and making great impressions upon grave states- 
 men and learned pbilosopbers ; but be mentions no name 
 and quotes no authority. 
 
 A. 
 
 But you do not deny tbe fact ? 
 
 B. 
 
 By no means. Tbe presumption is obvious and most 
 reasonable ; and I know of notbing wbatever to contradict it. 
 I am myself fully persuaded tbat be did not neglect literature 
 or science. But I object to tbe assertion of it as a fact of 
 wbicb we bave abundant proof, wben tbere is in fact no 
 proof, but only a natural presumption ; because I may be 
 told presently that there is abundant proof of something of 
 which I am by no means fully persuaded, however presum- 
 able it may be in the much-presuming eyes of the reviewer. 
 Please therefore to remember that I checked you here ; for I 
 may bave occasion, as you go on, to remind you that he is in 
 the habit of using such words loosely. 
 
 A. 
 
 Very well, I'll remember. But do let us get on to the 
 material points. 
 
 " But bis attention seems to have been chiefly directed to 
 statistics and diplomacy. It was at tins time that he wrote 
 those Notes on the State of Europe that are printed in liis 
 works." 
 
 B. 
 
 I beg your pardon. It is a small matter again, but you 
 really must let me stop you. Here indeed our reviewer lias 
 taken some pains to be accurate ; for he has materially 
 modified the grossly inaccurate statement of Mr. Montagu.
 
 16 EVES1XGS WITH A HE VIE WEE. 
 
 But he has not quite succeeded. It is indeed most probable 
 that Bacon was at this time collecting tlte materials for those 
 Xotes ; if they are really his, which is doubtful.* But the 
 composition must have been as late as May 1582, as may be 
 known from the allusion to the French levies in aid of Don 
 Antonio, who " is now in France." f It is a small matter as 
 I said ; but yet it is something to know whether such a 
 work was composed at nineteen or at two and twenty. 
 
 A. 
 Yes. 
 
 " He studied the urt of deciphering with great interest ; and 
 invented a cipher so ingenious, that many years later he thought 
 it deserving a place in the De Augmentis" 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, this (at last) is really correct. Mr. Montagu talks 
 less correctly of his " preparing a work upon cyphers, which 
 he afterwards published." The art of deciphering must 
 necessarily have attracted his attention ; the most important 
 diplomatic correspondence being then conducted in cipher. 
 
 A. 
 
 "In February 1580" 
 
 79-80, you would have him say 
 
 B. 
 
 Not exactly. It is a good example of the inconvenience 
 of not preserving the double date. Mr. Montagu tells us 
 that Bacon returned to England "instantly," upon the deatli 
 of his father "on tin- 20th of February 1570;" and then 
 passes at once to the year 1580. The reviewer, supposing 
 naturally enough that he used the old reckoning, reduces it 
 without inquiry to the modern : thereby misdating the fact 
 a whole year. Sir Nicholas Bacon died on the 20th of 
 February 1578 9, as you may see cither in Stow or Camden. 
 Francis was then in Paris. 
 
 * For my reasons for doubling, soc " Letters and Life of Francis Bacon," 
 vol. i. pp. lf>-17. 
 
 t Lnns'l MSS. 35, f. 13.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 17 
 
 A. 
 
 In February 1578-9, then, 
 
 " He received intelligence of the almost sudden death of his 
 father, and instantly returned to England. 
 
 " His prospects were greatly overcast by this event. He was 
 most desirous to obtain a provision which might enable him to 
 devote himself to literature and politics. He applied to the 
 government ; and it seems strange that he should have applied 
 in vain. His wishes were moderate ; his hereditary claims upon 
 the administration were great. He had himself been favourably 
 noticed by the Queen. His uncle was prime minister. His 
 own talents were such as any minister might have been eager 
 to enlist in the public service. But his solicitations were un- 
 successful." 
 
 B. 
 
 Unsuccessful, so far as the provision was concerned. But 
 in other respects the answer to his first application (when he 
 was in his twentieth year) was surely favourable. The Queen 
 sent him some message so encouraging that he calls it " an 
 appropriation of him to her service." : What it was in 
 particular that he applied for, I cannot clearly make out. I 
 should guess, however, that it was not for any independent 
 provision or political appointment (as the reviewer seems to 
 suppose), but for some employment, or for some advance- 
 ment with a view to subsequent employment, in the public 
 service, as a lawyer. Some provision to relieve him from 
 the ordinary practice of the law may have been included in 
 his suit, likely enough, though there is no hint of it in the 
 letter ; but service, and service as a lawyer, seems to bo 
 clearly indicated. " Although " (lie says) " it must be con- 
 fessed that the request is rare and unaccustomed, yet if it be 
 observed how few there be which fall in with the study of 
 the common laws, either being well left or friended, or at 
 their own free election, or forsaking likely success in other 
 studies of more delight and no less preferment, or setting 
 hand thereunto early without waste of years ; upon such 
 
 * "Letters and Life," vol. i. p. 14. 
 
 VOL. i. c
 
 18 EWUXIXGS WITH A IIEV1EWEH. 
 
 survey made, it may be my case may not seem ordinary no 
 more than my suit, and so more beseeming unto it." That 
 is to say, not many persons in my case would betake them 
 to the study of the law at all ; therefore if I ask for a favour 
 out of the common way, remember that my course is out of 
 the common way ; an argument in which, had he been 
 applying to be relieved from the study of the law, there 
 would have been no sense. If I were myself to hazard a 
 guess on the subject it would be this : Bacon had been 
 admitted de societate mayistrorum of Gray's Inn in June 
 1576. As soon as he returned to England and had to work 
 for his livelihood, he naturally betook himself to the law as 
 his profession. But his hope and wish was, through his 
 interest with Burghley and the Queen, to be relieved, by an 
 early advancement to some place in the Queen's service, not 
 from the study, but from the ordinary practice, of the law. 
 It was an object to him therefore to rise as fast as might be 
 through the successive degrees which all lawyers had to 
 pass, that he might be called as soon as possible within the 
 bar. His suit therefore at this time was probably for some 
 facility or dispensation in being called to the bar ; and this, 
 I take it, was granted ; for he became an utter barrister in 
 1582, after only three years' study. Afterwards, in 15SG, 
 lie appears to have applied (in pursuance of the same object) 
 for some "ease in being called icitlim bars ; "f about which 
 some difficulty was made at the time,* though it was 
 ultimately granted, as we shall sec probably as we go on. 
 1 do not know in \\hat manner the Queen could help him 
 on in the first instance. But if she could and did, this 
 explanation seems to satisfy all the other conditions. 
 
 This however is all guess-work, and of no great con- 
 sequence. But whatever the first application may have 
 been for, I can hardly doubt that it was favourably received. 
 It was made to Burghley on the 10th of September 1580 ; 
 and on the 18th of the following mouth it is that he writes 
 
 * "Letters and Life," veil. i. p. 1IJ. f Ibid., vol. i. p. 59. 
 
 J Letter to Anthony Bacon, Jan. 'J.">, 10'Jl : Ibid., vol. i. p. !!18. 
 Ibid , v>l. i. p. VI,
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 19 
 
 again to him, in acknowledgment of "his comfortable 
 relation of Her Majesty's gracious opinion and meaning 
 towards him." Fie writes in the tone of a man who has 
 received at least as much encouragement as he had ex- 
 pected. He speaks of " her benignity being made good 
 and verified in his father so far forth as it extendeth to his 
 posterity ; accepting them as commended by his service 
 during the non-age of their own deserts." He hopes that 
 God will supply the defects of those whom he has inspired 
 with zeal, and "see them appointed of sufficiency convenient 
 for the rank and standing where they shall be employed." 
 He can promise " for his endeavour that it shall not be in 
 fault ; but that what diligence can entitle him to r that he 
 doubts not to recover : " and " seeing that it hath pleased 
 Her Majesty to take knowledge of this his mind, and to 
 vouchsafe to appropriate him unto her service, preventing any 
 desert of his with her princely liberality," &c. &c.* Now 
 what can all this mean but that his solicitation (so far) had 
 been successful ? It is not a letter of formal acknowledg- 
 ment, but evidently written out of the fulness of his heart, 
 a modest and bashful heart, overflowing and apparently a 
 little fluttered with encouragement. And we hear nothing 
 further in the way either of solicitation or acknowledgment 
 for the next six years. 
 
 You may think that tlie mistake (if it be one) is trifling. 
 I am not sure of that. Every man's career does in fact 
 depend upon the manner in which his prospects open. And 
 besides, you will see as you go on that upon this supposed 
 rebuff of a supposed application some serious insinuations 
 against the character both of Bacon, and of Burghley, and 
 of the Queen, do in fact rest. 
 
 A. 
 
 But you stopped me in the middle of a long paragraph. 
 Let us hear what more the reviewer has to say before we 
 decide upon this point. 
 
 " The truth is that the Cecils disliked him, and did all that 
 they decently could to keep him down." 
 
 * " Letters and Life," vol. i. p. 14.
 
 20 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 
 
 I suppose you will ask for proof of this ; for your story 
 does not seem to imply any want of assistance, on the part 
 of Burgliley at least. And Robert Cecil must have been 
 still a boy. 
 
 B. 
 
 Robert Cecil was about seventeen, and of course could 
 have nothing to do with the matter. Of Burghley's be- 
 haviour all we know is, that Bacon's application had been 
 made through him, and through him the encouraging 
 answer had been received ; which does not to me look like 
 disliking or keeping down. I admit however that the charge 
 is not of Macaulay's invention, but has some support from 
 respectable contemporary authority, though I cannot make 
 out that there is much colour for it ; and what colour there 
 is belongs to a much later period, which, as involving new 
 circumstances, should be considered separately. For the 
 present, therefore, we had better not enter into the question. 
 Only you are to bear in mind that Bacon is not yet twenty ; 
 that Burgliley has not yet shown any disposition to keep 
 him down ; and that whether he ever did, is a question 
 which remains to be proved. 
 
 A. 
 
 Very well. I will bear in mind anything that is reason- 
 able. 
 
 " It has never been alleged that Bacon had done anything to 
 merit this dislike. Xor is it at all probable that a man wlicse 
 temper was naturally mild, who.se manners were courteous, who 
 through life nursed his fortunes with the utmost care, who was 
 fearful even to a fault of offending the powerful, would have 
 given any just cause of displeasure to a kinsman who had the 
 means of rendering him essential service and of doing him 
 irreparable injury." 
 
 B. 
 
 All this speculation belongs of course to the general 
 question whether any such supposed dislike existed, and 
 may be put off till we come to consider that. But I may as
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER, 21 
 
 well warn you in the mean time that I do not admit this as 
 
 a true account of Bacon's character. " Mild " is not the word 
 
 by which I should describe his temper ; at least, it requires 
 
 a good deal of qualification. His temper was very quick 
 
 and sensitive. His mildness was the effect of the sweetness, 
 
 thoughtfulness, nobleness, and modesty of his nature, his 
 
 sense of justice, and his self-command. Neither can I allow 
 
 that he was a good nurser of his fortunes, otherwise than 
 
 through a cultivation of his faculties so assiduous and 
 
 effectual, that fortune could make him no offer which he was 
 
 not qualified by merit, capacity, and preparation, to accept. 
 
 But I suppose there was never any man who got so little in 
 
 proportion to what he gave ; and why ? Because he did not 
 
 understand liow to make bargains with fortune ? No : but 
 
 from the necessity of a noble nature, which will not stoop to 
 
 chaffer and take advantages. He could not but know that 
 
 the way to get on in the world is, first by giving a taste of 
 
 your services to make their value understood, and then, by 
 
 holding: them back, to make the want of them felt. But the... 
 
 O y 
 
 principle upon which through his whole life he acted was the 
 reverse. He always began by giving all he had to give, 
 leaving the recompense to be settled afterwards by those who 
 had already received the value. The consequence of which 
 was, that during the best years of his life the government 
 had the use of his best services for nothing. He was more 
 than forty-six years old before he even obtained any lucrative 
 office ; and I think (if we except a pension of GO/, which 
 King James gave him when he was forty-three, and the 
 clerkship of the Star-chamber which fell to him when he 
 was about fifty, and which he held for five or six years) he 
 was at least fifty-eight before he received sixpence from the 
 government (and he did not ask for it then) beyond the 
 ordinary salaries and fees of the very laborious places in 
 which he served.* 
 
 However, these are points upon which people may 
 
 * I did not then know that in August 1G01, ho received (out of the fine 
 imposed on Catesby for his share in Ihe Earl of Es-sex'n conspiracy) 1SOOZ. 
 See " Letters and Life," vol. iii. p. 11.
 
 22 ETENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 reasonably differ. And in the mean time I quite agree that 
 he is very unlikely to have given just cause of offence to 
 Burghley or any one else. What next ? 
 
 " The real explanation, wo have no doubt, is this : liobert 
 Cecil, the Treasurer's second son, was younger by a few months 
 than Bacon." 
 
 15. 
 
 Younger by two years and a half, nearly, if we may trust 
 Sir Theodore Mayerne, who has recorded both the day and 
 the hour at which he was born. 
 
 A. 
 
 "lie had been educated with the utmost care; had been 
 initiated, whilst still a boy, in the mysteries of diplomacy and 
 court intrigue ; and was just at this time about to be produced on 
 the stage of public life." 
 
 B. 
 
 Just at this time ? And what time was this ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Oh, when Bacon made his application, I suppose. 
 
 B. 
 
 That was in September 1580, when liobert Cecil was 
 only seventeen years and three months old. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, never mind. Bacon's applications continued no 
 doubt till liobert was old enough, lie does not mean that 
 Burghley refused Bacon once for all, but that he continued 
 to neglect him. 
 
 " The wish nearest to Burghley's heart was that his own 
 greatness might descend to this favourite child. But even 
 Burghley's fatherly partiality could hardly prevent him from
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 23 
 
 perceiving that Kobert, with all his abilities and acquirements, 
 was no match for his cousin Francis. This seems to us the only 
 rational explanation of the Treasurer's conduct. Mr. Montagu 
 is more charitable. lie supposes that Burghley was influenced 
 merely by affection for his nephew ; and was ' little disposed to 
 encourage him to rely on others rather than himself, and to 
 venture 011 the quicksands of politics instead of the certain 
 profession of the law.' If such were Burghley's feelings, it 
 seems strange that he should have suffered his son to venture 
 on those quicksands from which he so carefully preserved his 
 nephew." 
 
 That is one among many of Mr. Montagu's suggestions 
 in which I do not concur ; therefore it is not worth while to 
 question the validity of the argument. But I hope you do 
 not think it conclusive, or see anything strange in a man 
 thinking that of t\vo young men, very unlike each other 
 though both of rare ability, one will do better in law, the 
 other in politics. As it turned out indeed, the judgment 
 would have been abundantly justified. To tread the "quick- 
 sands of politics " was precisely what Kobert Cecil was made 
 for ; whereas Bacon, though under a sovereign that under- 
 stood his value he would have made the greatest of all prime 
 ministers, was ill qualified to work his way up through a 
 court. 
 
 A. 
 
 That is a new doctrine, is it not ? 
 
 B. 
 
 A strange one perhaps, like all true doctrine about 
 Bacon, to these times. Xot the less sound though. Why he 
 was ill qualified it would be hopeless to explain now, when 
 his writings are so little read and his character so totally 
 misunderstood ; and it will be needless to explain hereafter, 
 if his life should ever come to be studied ; for the explana- 
 tion will suggest itself. However, we have yet (you know) to 
 prove that Burghley did not do his best to advance Bacon 
 in the course which Bacon himself wished.
 
 24 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 Yes. And here, I think, we have it. 
 
 "But the truth is, that if Burghley had been so disposed lie 
 might easily have secured Bacon a comfortable provision which 
 would have been exposed to no risk." 
 
 What do you say to that ? 
 
 B. 
 
 In the first place, I say, How do we know that ? 
 Burghley, though the most powerful man in council, was 
 not omnipotent. Elizabeth was mistress, and took good 
 care that her counsellors should know it. And it is noto- 
 rious that in matters of this kind she was anything but 
 manageable. Moreover she was not profuse of gifts (except 
 occasionally to personal favourites), and was always better 
 pleased (partly out of policy perhaps, partly out of economy, 
 and partly out of pride) to see her servants in hope and 
 appetite for favours to come, than grateful and independent. 
 What could Burghley have got for Bacon, and when ? 
 
 In the second place, I ask If Burghley could have pro- 
 cured him a comfortable provision exposed to no risk (which 
 I doubt), and if he did want to get him out of Robert Cecil's 
 way (which there is no reason for believing), why did he not 
 do it at once ? By not providing for him he left him in the 
 way. 
 
 A. 
 
 No. By forcing Bacon into the law he threw him into a 
 different line of competition. 
 
 And by providing for him in that line he would have 
 kept him in it. But by leaving him in a condition (for you 
 have no right to say that he forced him into it) which, 
 without diminishing cither his necessities or his preference 
 for political life, constrained him to add to his other 
 qualifications those of a trained and grounded lawyer,
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 20 
 
 what did ho do but make him a more formidable rival than 
 before ? 
 
 A. 
 
 There is something in that, I confess. But here is more. 
 
 " And it is equally certain that lie showed as little dis- 
 position to enable his nephew to live by a profession as to 
 enable him to live without a profession." 
 
 B. 
 
 Alluding, I suppose, to the period when the places of 
 attorney and solicitor-general were vacant. That was not 
 till 1593, twelve years and more after the time we have 
 hitherto been talking of. At least I am not aware that 
 before that time Burghley had omitted any opportunity of 
 advancing Bacon in his profession. Many things may hap- 
 pen in twelve years, and therefore we had better leave the 
 discussion of his conduct on that occasion till we approach 
 nearer to it. In the mean time you will understand that 
 I do not admit that he acted an unfriendly part even then. 
 
 A. 
 
 But what do you say to Bacon's own testimony on the 
 subject ? Listen. 
 
 " That Bacon himself attributed the conduct of his rela- 
 tives to jealousy of his superior talents we have not the smallest 
 doubt. In a letter written many years after to Yilliers, he 
 expresses himself thus : ' Countenance, encourage, and advance 
 able men in all kinds, degrees, and professions. For in the 
 time of the Cecils, the father and the son, able men were by 
 design and of purpose suppressed.' " 
 
 B. 
 
 Well, I dare say the censure was just in the general 
 case ; but it says nothing about his own in particular. If it 
 was true of himself only, it was untrue as a general charge. 
 If it was true of others, why suppose that he was thinking 
 of himself? I say to you now that the system of our own
 
 26 ErEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 public service at this day is Lad, because it offers no ade- 
 quate reward for industry and ability : do I therefore say 
 that any industry or ability of my own has been thrown 
 away upon the public ? Surely no man who has room in 
 his soul for anything besides himself will so interpret me. 
 I believe there is not a single sentence on record in which 
 Bacon betrays so much as a passing suspicion that Burghley 
 wished to keep him down ; and I am sure there are several 
 in which he gratefully and affectionately acknowledges his 
 good offices in endeavouring to advance him. 
 
 A. 
 
 I understood you to say that there was contemporary 
 authority for the charge against the Cecils, 
 
 B. 
 
 Not against Burghley, that I know of. I was thinking 
 of what Dr. Eawley says of " the arts and policy of a great 
 statesman then, who laboured by all underhand and secret 
 means to suppress and keep him down, lest if lie had risen 
 he might have obscured his glory." The allusion I think 
 is not to Burghley, but to liobert Cecil, and as against him 
 I dare say the imputation is just. It was certainly an 
 impression current among Bacon's friends at the time, and 
 shared more or less by Bacon himself. I sec, indeed, that 
 Mr. Payne Collier,* on the authority of Cecil's correspond- 
 ence preserved at Bridgewater House, discredits it. And 
 there were times no doubt when he showed himself really 
 friendly. But Robert Cecil was a great artist in dissembling 
 and double-dealing. He had just the constitution for 
 it ; " Temper amentum calidum, siccum, liliosum ; Cerebrum 
 friyidissimum, liumidissimum" f- -But go on. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Whatever Burghley 's motives might be, his purpose was 
 unalterable. The supplications which Francis addressed to his 
 uncle and aunt were earnest, humble, and almost servile." 
 
 * Egcrton Papers (Camden Society). 
 t Sir Theodore Mayerne's Memoranda.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 2 < 
 
 B. 
 
 "His uncle and aunt." We are still then in September 
 1580 ; Francis not yet twenty. There is no letter to his 
 aunt later than that. The other letters to Burghlcy we 
 shall hear more of, and I shall have something to say about 
 them. In the mean time I wish you to mark that word 
 " servile ; " because the reviewer's notions of servility arc 
 peculiar, and very necessary to be understood by those who 
 would understand the true value of those epithets, from the 
 thick laying-on of which his reasoning sometimes acquires 
 an appearance of force. Will you read those two letters, 
 and tell me what one expression in either of them deserves 
 any worse epithet than modest, respectful, and affectionate ? 
 You will find them in Volume xii.* there, with the red back, 
 page 471. 
 
 A. 
 
 How old was Burghley at this time ? 
 
 13. 
 
 Sixty. He had been Elizabeth's principal counsellor for 
 twenty-two years. 
 
 A. 
 
 And Bacon not yet twenty ? Here it is. 
 
 " To my Lady Burghley. 
 
 " My singular good Lady, I was as ready to show 
 myself mindful of my duty by waiting on your Ladyship at 
 your being in town, as now by my writing ; had I not feared 
 that your Ladyship's short stay and quick return might well 
 spare one that came of no earnest errand. I am not yet 
 greatly perfect in ceremonies of court, whereof I know your 
 Ladyship knoweth both the right use and true value. My 
 thankful and serviceable mind shall be always like itself, 
 howsoever it vary from the common disguising. Your 
 Ladyship is wise and of good nature to discern from what 
 * Montagu's Edition,
 
 23 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 mind every action proceedeth, and to esteem of it accord- 
 ingly. This is all the message which my letter liatli at this 
 time to deliver; unless it please your Ladyship further to 
 give me leave to make this request unto you ; that it would 
 please your good Ladyship, in your letters wherewith you 
 visit my good Lord, to vouchsafe the mention and recom- 
 mendation of my suit ; wherein your Ladyship shall bind 
 me more to you than I can look ever to be able sufficiently 
 to acknowledge. Thus in humble manner I take my leave 
 of your Ladyship, committing you as daily in my prayers, 
 so likewise at this present, to the merciful providence of the 
 Almighty. From. Gray's Inn, this IGth of September 1580. 
 Your Ladyship's most dutiful .and bounden nephew, B. 
 FRA." 
 
 B. 
 
 So much for my Lady. Now for my Lord. 
 
 A. 
 
 "To Lord Burghley, to recommend him to the Queen. 
 " My singular good Lord, My humble duty remembered, 
 and my humble thanks presented for your Lordship's favour 
 and countenance, which it pleased your Lordship at my 
 being with you to vouchsafe me above my degree and desert ; 
 my letter hath no further errand but to commend unto your 
 Lordship the remembrance of my suit, which I then moved 
 unto you ; whereof it also pleased your Lordship to give me 
 good hearing so far forth as to promise to tender it unto her 
 Majesty ; and withal to add in the behalf of it that which 
 I may better deliver by letter than by speech ; which is, 
 that, although it must be confessed that the request is rare 
 and unaccustomed, yet if it be observed how few there be 
 which fall in with the study of the Common Laws, either being 
 well left or friended, or at their own free election, or forsaking 
 likely success in other studies of more delight and no less 
 preferment, or setting hand thereunto early, without waste 
 of years, upon such survey made, it may be my case may 
 not scorn ordinary, no more than my suit, and so more lie-
 
 EVLXIXGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 20 
 
 seeming imto it. As I force myself to say this in excuse of 
 my motion, lest it should seem altogether undiscreet and 
 unadvised, so my hope to obtain it resteth upon your Lord- 
 ship's good affection towards me and grace with her Majesty ; 
 who methinks needeth never to call for the experience of the 
 thing, where she hath so great and so good of the person 
 which recommendeth it. According to which trust of mine, 
 if it may please your Lordship both herein and elsewhere to 
 be my patron, and to make account of me as one in whose 
 A\ ell-doing your Lordship hath interest, albeit indeed your 
 Lordship hath had place to benefit many, and wisdom to 
 make due choice of lighting-places for your goodness, yet 
 do I not fear any of your Lordship's former experiences for 
 staying my thankfulness borne in heart, howsoever God's 
 good pleasure shall enable me or disable me outwardly to 
 make proof thereof "- 
 
 Stay, I don't understand that last sentence. 
 
 B. 
 
 No. There is something wrong in the text. The letter 
 is preserved only in a copy, and some words have most likely 
 dropped out. The meaning must have been Though your 
 goodness has lighted upon many worthy subjects, it has not 
 lighted upon one more truly thankful than I shall prove so 
 far as I may have opportunity, 
 
 A, 
 
 Yes, I see. " For I cannot account your Lordship's 
 service distinct from that which I owe to God and my 
 prince ; the performance whereof to best proof and purpose 
 is the meeting-place and rendezvous of all my thoughts. 
 Thus I take my leave of your Lordship in humble manner, 
 committing you as daily in my prayers, so likewise at this 
 present, to the merciful protection of the Almighty. From 
 Gray's Inn, this 16th of September 1580. Your most 
 dutiful and bouuden nephew, 13. FIIA." 
 
 Well, I expected something worse than this, I confess. 
 To be sure it is not the kind of letter that the reviewer him-
 
 30 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 self would have written in such a case. I suppose ho cannot 
 well imagine a youtli of so great talents really feeling so 
 much deference for mere a<?e and dignity ; therefore looks 
 
 O O v i 
 
 on it as false and affected, a sacrifice of self-respect to the 
 desire of self-advancement. I don't say that I think the 
 supposition a fair one in this instance ; but if I did if I 
 took the same yiew of it as I dare say he does I should not 
 object to his calling it " seryile." I do not think he meant to 
 misrepresent the character of the letter. I can well believe 
 that he really felt some scorn to see a young philosopher 
 taking off his hat to an old uncle. 
 
 B. 
 
 I do not dispute that. I only wish you to bear in mind 
 that his description of these letters made you expect some- 
 thing very different from what you find. I can easily be- 
 lieve that he felt what you describe ; but what are the 
 opinions of a man good for who does feel so ? 
 
 They should, perhaps, be taken with some little 
 allowance. By the by, why does Bacon sign himself B. Fra. / 
 
 B. 
 
 I cannot guess. These, and another dated 18th October, 
 are the only instances I have met with. The letters are all 
 transcripts, and transcribed in the same hand ; some fancy 
 of the transcriber, I suppose. The full name, Fra. Bacon, is 
 given in the docket, and they are no doubt his composition. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well; I agree to drop the "almost servile," and sub- 
 stitute " modest." 
 
 "The supplications "--["that, by the way, is a .stronger 
 word than the occasion calls for; but never mind '* which 
 Francis addressed to Ins uncle and aunt were earnest, humble, 
 and modest. Ue was the most promising and accomplished, 
 young man of his time. His father had been the brother-in-law,
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 31 
 
 the most useful colleague, the nearest friend of the minister. 
 But all this availed poor Francis nothing. He was forced much 
 against his will to betake himself to the study of the law. He 
 was admitted at Gray's Inn, and during some years he laboured 
 there in obscurity." 
 
 Do you admit any of this to be correct ? For I will at 
 once grant you that there is a good deal in it which is not 
 correct. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, I admit that he was a very promising young man, 
 with hereditary claims upon Burghley's favour. How large 
 and how sure the promise appeared in the eyes of the elderly 
 statesmen of the day, while it was yet only in blossom, it 
 would not perhaps be very easy to determine. Elderly 
 statesmen are apt to be cautious in their judgments of 
 youthful promise ; especially of youths who start with an 
 announcement that their elders and teachers are all in the 
 wrong. Xeither would I undertake to say that even in the 
 most discerning eyes Francis Bacon's promise of abilities- for 
 active service must have been greater than that of some 
 others Philip Sidney, for instance, or Walter Ealeigh. 
 Therefore had Burghley only held back that he might prove 
 him before he used him, I do not see that he could be 
 reasonably blamed. But I dispute the assertion that 
 Burghley did hold back. I deny that Burghley's back- 
 wardness had anything to do with his admission at Gray's 
 Inn. It was his father, not Burghley, who caused him to be 
 admitted there. I deny that he betook himself to the study 
 of the law against his will : for it is clear from the terms of 
 
 o 
 
 his first application to Burghley, which you have just read, 
 that he had already begun, and meant to go on with the 
 study of the Common Law ; however he might hope to be 
 relieved at an early period from practising it for his liveli- 
 hood. I deny that his claims on Burghley " availed him 
 nothing ; " for I am inclined to believe (for reasons which I 
 will tell you presently) that he enjoyed through Burghley's 
 influence some important dispensations and exemptions,
 
 32 J-TJ-XIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 which hastened his career through Gray's Iim. And finally 
 I deny that " he laboured some years there in obscurity ; " 
 because his rise was unusually rapid. 
 
 But I think we have done enough for one evening. We 
 have scarcely got to Bacon himself yet. "We are now ap- 
 proaching the period of his life of which we know something, 
 and had better enter upon it as upon a fresh chapter ; which 
 we will open if you please to-morrow. In the mean time I 
 think you will do well to look through what you have read 
 to-day, substituting as you go correct expressions for what 
 you find incorrect, and then see how much remains. It is 
 an exercise I shall frequently have to propose to you, and 
 will throw great light upon this subject, 
 
 A. 
 
 I am afraid the residue will taste rather flat, 
 
 B. 
 
 By which you will learn how much was only fixed air. 
 If I had to decide what should be done to the reviewer for 
 writing this article, I would require nothing worse of him 
 than that he should perform that office himself; discarding 
 every sentence, epithet, expression, and assertion which ho 
 could not justify; putting " J" instead of " We," but with- 
 out otherwise altering the form ; and then print it with his 
 name. It would look as forlorn as a plucked peacock, 
 strutting and shouting without a tail to spread. 
 
 A. 
 
 I'll do it.
 
 EVENING THE SECOND. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, I have tried to correct and expurgate what we read 
 yesterday ; but I find it will not bear the process. By dis- 
 carding epithets and superlatives and qualifying round 
 statements, you not only diminish the force and liveliness 
 of the composition, but destroy its logical coherency. 
 
 But we are only in the fifteenth page, and we have fifty 
 more to get through before we come to the Philosophy ; and 
 (to judge by the marginalia which I see before me) our pro- 
 gress is not likely to be more rapid. Therefore if you please 
 we will wander as little as possible from the text. 
 
 B. 
 
 Very well. I will not stop you to make comments of 
 my own ; but only to dispute statements of fact, and in- 
 ferences which, if undisputed, are in danger of taking place 
 -as facts. 
 
 We left " poor Francis " labouring in obscurity (if we 
 are to believe the last paragraph), rising very rapidly 
 into business and distinction (if we are to believe the next) 
 at Gray's Inn. We are now to hear what kind of lawyer 
 he makes. 
 
 A. 
 
 " What the extent of his legal attainments may have been, 
 it is difficult to say. It was not hard for a man of his powers 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 to acquire that very moderate portion of technical knowledge 
 which, when joined to quickness, tact, wit, ingenuity, eloquence, 
 and knowledge of the world, is sufficient to raise an advocate 
 to the highest professional eminence. The general opinion 
 appears to have been that which was on one occasion expressed 
 by Elizabeth. ' Bacon ' (said she) ' had a great wit and much 
 learning ; but in law showeth to the uttermost of his knowledge, 
 and is not deep.' The Cecils, we suspect, did their best to spread 
 this opinion by whispers and insinuations. Coke openly pro- 
 claimed it with that rancorous insolence which was habitual 
 to him. No reports are more readily believed than those which 
 disparage genius and soothe the enmity of conscious mediocrity. 
 It must have been inexpressibly consoling to a stupid serjeant 
 the forerunner of him who 150 years later ' shook his head 
 at Murray as a wit ' to know that the most profound thinker 
 and the most accomplished orator of his age was very im- 
 perfectly acquainted with the law touching bastard eigne and 
 mulier puisne, and confounded the right of free fishery with that 
 of common piscary. 
 
 " It is certain that no man in that age, or indeed during the 
 century and a half which followed, was better acquainted with 
 the philosophy of law. His technical knowledge was quite 
 eufficient, with the help of his admirable talents and his in- 
 sinuating address, to procure clients. Ho rose very rapidly into 
 business, and soon entertained hopes of being called within the 
 bar. Ho applied " 
 
 13. 
 
 Stop a moment. IS~ow what do you collect from all this 
 to be Maeaulay's opinion of Bacon's attainments us a lawyer ? 
 
 A. 
 
 As a practical lawyer ? It is clear enough, is it not ? 
 ]Tc thinks thnt he was superficial, and apt, perhaps, to make 
 blunders; but that nevertheless he had as much law as a 
 gentleman and a philosopher could want, that is, as much 
 as was necessary to gain clients. To judge from the tone of 
 the paragraph, I should say he thinks rather the better of 
 him for not knowing more.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEW Eli. 35 
 
 B. 
 
 In short, that the opinion which the Cecils dH their 
 best to spread by whispers and insinuations was in fact the 
 truth. If so, does it not strike you as rather hard upon 
 them that they should be censured for spreading it, as if 
 their only motive had been jealousy ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly it would appear to have been their best justifi- 
 cation, if it was so. For the Queen's service required, no 
 doubt, real learning and practical skill, not philosophy and 
 plausibility only. But w r as it so ? Bacon surely was not 
 the sort of man to be contented with superficial knowledge 
 and plausibilities in anything that he had to deal with. 
 
 B. 
 
 The last man in the world. And therefore (though I 
 can easily believe that his head was not a library of law r - 
 cases, as Coke's was, and that on that account Coke very 
 honestly despised him), I should be slow to think that he 
 was apt to confound any two things that w r ere distinct, or 
 that he was superficially acquainted with the law in any 
 case which he was prepared to argue. I have not seen it 
 stated that he ever gave an opinion on a point of law which 
 was wrong, or ever attempted anything in his profession 
 which he did not perform excellently well. His writings on 
 legal subjects it is not fair to form a judgment by. They 
 -were none of them published by himself. They are all, or 
 almost all, fragments, and very incorrectly printed ; and yet 
 they are so good that some learned judge has recorded his 
 regret for the waste of such a mind upon other studies. This 
 however is a point upon which it would be absurd in me to 
 attempt to form an opinion of my own. Only until I hear 
 of an instance in which his want of technical knowledge 
 betrayed him into an error, I shall believe that he was a 
 good technical lawyer. 
 
 But it was not for this that I stopped you here. I
 
 36 EVEX1XGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 wished only to remind you that when you hear a little 
 further on (or a little further back) the Cecils censured as 
 backbiters because they told the Queen that he was not a 
 deep and sound practical lawyer, but great only in specu- 
 lation ; the Queen censured for injustice so gross as to 
 cancel all obligations because she did not make him one of 
 her principal law-officers when he was only thirty-three ; 
 and himself censured for servility because he did not, in 
 resentment of that neglect, plunge himself into the faction 
 and fortunes of a dangerous malcontent and rebel, but con- 
 tinued faithful to his original trust ; you are to remember 
 that the Cecils said no more against him than the reviewer 
 now says, that the Queen slighted no claims but such as 
 the reviewer now believes he did not possess, and that 
 Bacon had nothing to resent except the not being advanced 
 to an office for which (if the reviewer's opinion be correct) 
 he was not eminently qualified. Mind, I do not myself 
 agree that it was so. I cannot but believe that Bacon was, 
 by professional as well as by all other accomplishments, 
 eminently qualified for the highest offices ; and that the 
 Queen did herself no good service when she made Coke her 
 attorney-general instead of him. But I can well believe 
 that this was not the opinion of the world ; for when did the 
 world ever believe a man to be good at his own trade who 
 had shown that he was good for anything else ? Why 
 should we suppose that Burghley and Cecil did not think 
 as the world thought ? And how should the Queen know 
 better than they ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Surely. I suppose that (now-a-days at least) the repu- 
 tation of a Temporis partus maximus at twenty-four would be 
 quite fatal to the prospects of a lawyer, though he had law 
 accumulating in his head enough to furnish forth another 
 " Coke upon Littleton." The attorneys would certainly be 
 shy. And even when recommending him to the Prime 
 Minister for a commissionership, a judicious friend would 
 keep the progress of the liiofaurufto Mayna in the back-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 07 
 
 ground. Yes ; I can make allowance for the Cecils and the 
 Queen. And if our young friend Francis can also make 
 allowance for them and hold on his course unaltered, I shall 
 think the better of him and not the worse. 
 
 B. 
 
 Then you will find yourself very much out with your 
 favourite reviewer. 
 
 A. 
 
 We shall see. 
 
 " He rose very rapidly into business, and soon entertained 
 hopes of being called within the bar. He applied to Lord 
 Burghley for that purpose, but received a testy refusal. Of the 
 grounds of that refusal we can in some measure judge from 
 Bacon's answer, which is still extant. It seems that the old 
 lord, whose temper, age and gout had by no means altered for 
 the better, and who omitted no opportunity of marking his dis- 
 like of the showy quick-witted young men of the rising genera- 
 tion, took this opportunity to read Francis a very sharp lecture 
 on his vanity and want of respect for his betters. Francis 
 returned a most submissive reply, thanked the Treasurer for the 
 admonition, and promised to profit by it." 
 
 Let me see. By this we are meant to understand that 
 Francis showed some want of spirit in not telling his old 
 uncle to make him a better answer. Was Burghley 's 
 rebuke so very unreasonable ? 
 
 B. 
 
 That I really cannot pretend to say. The admonition 
 does not appear to have been conveyed in a letter, but in a 
 conversation ; and we know nothing of the terms or spirit of 
 it, any more than of the grounds, except as we may infer 
 them from the terms and spirit of the letter which Francis 
 wrote, after reflecting (I suppose) upon what Burghley had 
 said. Burghley, it seems, had heard some insinuations to 
 the disadvantage of Bacon, of which he thought it right to 
 inform him ; and in so doing he alluded to his recent appli- 
 cation as in some degree bearing them out. But Bacon's
 
 38 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 letter is not long. We had better read it ; and then you 
 will know all that the reviewer knew of the matter, and can 
 judge for yourself. It is worth while to do it now ; because 
 we shall meet with more than one sweeping clause in which 
 Bacon's habitual demeanour to his patrons is touched on in 
 passing as if it were notorious ; the fact on which the de- 
 scription is founded being contained in this letter. Here it 
 is 6th of May 1580 Bacon being, as you will remember, 
 only twenty-five years and three months old. 
 
 " 3Fy very good Lord, I take it as an undoubted sign of 
 your Lordship's favour unto me, that being hardly informed 
 of me, you took occasion rather of good advice than of evil 
 opinion thereby ; which if your Lordship had grounded 
 only upon the said information of theirs, I might and would 
 truly have upholden that few of the matters were justly 
 objected ; as the very circumstances do induce, in that 
 they were delivered by men who did misaffect mo, and 
 besides were to give colour to their own doings. But because 
 your Lordship did mingle therewith both a late motion of 
 mine own, and somewhat that you had otherwise heard, I 
 know it to be my duty (and so do I stand affected) rather to 
 prove your Lordship's admonition effectual in my doings 
 hereafter, than causeless by excusing what is past. And yet 
 (with your Lordship's pardon humbly asked) it may please 
 you to remember that I did endeavour to set forth that said 
 motion in such sort as it might breed no harder effect than a 
 denial. And I protest simply before God that I sought 
 therein an ease in coming within Bars, and not any extra- 
 ordinary or singular note of favour. 
 
 " And for that your Lordship may otherwise have heard 
 of mo, it shall make me more wary and circumspect in 
 carriage of myself. Indeed I find in my simple observation 
 that they who live as it were in nmlra and not in public or 
 frequent action, how moderately and modestly soever they 
 behave themselves, yet laborant inridia. I find also that 
 such persons as are of nature bashful (as myself is), whereby 
 they want that plausible familiarity which others have, an; 
 often mistaken for proud. But once 1 know well, and I
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 39 
 
 most IminLly beseecli your Lordship to believe, that ar- 
 rogancy and overweening is so far from my nature, as if I 
 think well of myself in anything it is in this, that I am free 
 from that vice. And I hope upon this your Lordship's 
 speech I have entered into those considerations as my be- 
 haviour shall no more deliver me for other than I am. 
 
 " And so wishing unto your Lordship all honour and to 
 myself continuance of your good opinion with mind and 
 means to deserve it, I humbly take my leave. Gray's Inn, 
 this 6th of May 1588. Your Lordship's most boundeu 
 nephew, FK. BACOX." 
 
 A, 
 
 Is that all ? 
 
 B. 
 Every word. 
 
 A. 
 
 And is nothing more known of the matter or manner of 
 Burghley's speech ? 
 
 B. 
 
 But for this letter we should not have known that any 
 such application had been either made or refused, any such 
 admonition either needed or given. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then the testiness of the refusal ; the sharpness of the 
 lecture ; the imputation of want of respect for his letters ; 
 are all out of the reviewer's own head ? 
 
 B. 
 
 All. For you see the offence was not any want of 
 respectfulness in his demeanour towards Burghley himself, 
 or any of that generation ; but apparently an overweening 
 estimate of his own pretensions and abilities, as compared 
 with the men of his own generation. These persons who 
 " did misaffect him " were most likely his competitors for 
 advancement and favour ; who thought him a conceited 
 young fellow, and wished to lower him in Burghley's opinion.
 
 40 EVEXTXOS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 For anything I can gather from this letter, Burghley's 
 admonition may have been the kindest thing possible in 
 itself, and done in the kindest manner. Even the fact that 
 Bacon's application had been refused is not certain. For we 
 do not know exactly what it was that he asked for ; or 
 whether it was a thing that could be done immediately. 
 And we do happen to know that Bacon was ultimately 
 (though I cannot make out exactly at what time) admitted 
 within the bar in some unusual manner. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, I was right to stop, I wonder if all history is 
 written in this way. 
 
 " Strangers meanwhile were less unjust to the young barrister 
 than his nearest kinsmen had been." 
 
 B. 
 
 Kinsmen? meaning, I suppose, Burghley and Robert 
 Cecil ; Burghley, whose injustice to him had consisted at 
 the very worst in not procuring him an independent provision 
 when he was twenty, and not getting him called within the 
 bar at twenty-five ; Cecil, who was as yet only twenty- 
 three, and cannot be supposed to have had any influence 
 independent of Burghley. Well ; what did the strangers 
 do? 
 
 A. 
 
 " In his twenty-sixth year he became a Bencher of his Inn : 
 and two years after he was appointed Lent Header." 
 
 B. 
 
 True. But he had also received other distinctions of a 
 special character, with which it seems probable that Burgh- 
 ley had something to do, though I cannot positively aflirm 
 it. There is preserved among the Lansdowne MSS. an 
 extract from the Gray's Inn Register, with some memoranda 
 upon it in Burghley's hand. The memoranda are written 
 short, after Burghley's fashion, and not very legibly ; so that
 
 ETENINGS WITH A EEVJEWF.K. 41 
 
 1 cannot be sure of all the words. But it is plain that they 
 are an enumeration of certain special distinctions enjoyed by 
 Francis Bacon at Gray's Inn. It seems that he was admitted 
 " of the Grand Company " in some unusual manner so as to 
 give him an advantage over others in point of standing : 
 " whereby " (writes Burghley) " he hath won ancienty of 40." 
 It also appears that he became an " Utter Barrister upon 3 
 years' study " (I suppose unusually early) ; that some of 
 the regulations respecting attendance in Commons had been 
 specially set aside in his favour ; and finally that he was 
 specially admitted to have place at the Eeader's table on 
 the 10th of February 1586, two years before he was himself 
 a Reader. These memoranda being unquestionably in 
 Burghley's hand, the natural inference is that Burghley had 
 something to do with these distinctions and exemptions. 
 But, however that be, they are enough to show that, through 
 the influence either of his kinsmen or of strangers, Francis's 
 interests had not hitherto been neglected. And he is now 
 entering on his twenty-seventh year. Go on. 
 
 A. 
 
 " At length, in 1590, he received for the first time show of 
 favour from the court. He was sworn in Queen's Counsel ex- 
 traordinary. But this mark of honour was not accompanied 
 with any pecuniary emolument." 
 
 B. 
 
 This is the date assigned by Mr. Montagu, I do not 
 know on what authority. Some one else says 1588. Dr. 
 Rawley only says " after a while." The fact I believe to be 
 that he was employed by the Queen's command in business 
 belonging properly to members of the Learned Counsel, 
 without any regular appointment either by patent or in 
 writing. But this was some years later. I have not yet 
 found any ground for fixing the exact date. Moreover he 
 was not sworn. But how can it be said that he had not 
 received sJioiv of favour from the court before ? He had had 
 the privilege of access to the Queen all this time ; which,
 
 42 ETENTXGS WITH A BE VIEWER. 
 
 coming from Queen Elizabeth, and being generally upon 
 business of state, was no small show of favour. What he 
 had not received was money. 
 
 A. 
 
 " lie continued therefore to solicit his powerful relatives for 
 some provision which might enable- him to live without drudg- 
 ing at his profession. lie bore with a patience and serenity 
 which we fear bordered on meanness, the morose humours of his 
 uncle and the sneering reflections which his cousin cast on 
 speculative men lost in philosophical reveries and too wise to be 
 capable of transacting public business." 
 
 B. 
 
 Is it worth while to stop you here that you may take in 
 the full light which this sentence reflects on the character, 
 not of Bacon, but of the reviewer ? 
 
 If you allude to the word " meanness " as characterising 
 the letter you read just now, I noted that. And it is not 
 more than I was prepared for, though much more than I can 
 assent to. I told you he seemed to think Francis wanting 
 in spirit for not making a sturdier answer. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes. But that might be from misunderstanding the 
 occasion and spirit of the letter. There is something more 
 implied here. Hero we get some light (and we shall get a 
 good deal more presently) as to his principles of moral ap- 
 probation and disapprobation. Take the fact exactly as he 
 understands it. Suppose Burghley to have been " morose," 
 and Francis to have been " patient and serene." "What 
 follows ? "Patience'" and " serenity" shown by a nephew of 
 twenty-six in bearing the morose humours of an uncle of 
 sixty of an uncle whom lie had been brought up to revere 
 a man full of years and honours- -the most eminent man 
 in the kingdom his dead father's nearest friend and col- 
 league the husband of his living mother's own sister, a
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 4,'J 
 
 man, too, whose very moroseness was the effect of age and 
 sickness : patience and serenity border on meanness ! 
 
 A. 
 
 A thing to be remembered, I confess. I am afraid our 
 friend has not a clear notion of the difference between 
 magnanimity and magniloquence, and judges of the great- 
 ness of a man's heart by the bigness of his words. 
 
 But I am not so well satisfied about that younjj Robert. 
 
 
 With him, I think Bacon might have been angry and sinned 
 
 not. 
 
 _ 
 
 B. 
 
 Why, so he was. The particular expressions indeed 
 which are here put into Robert's mouth, it would not be 
 fair to charge him with. Mr. Montagu thinks he has seen 
 them somewhere, but cannot remember where. But Bacon 
 certainly did once suspect him of having put the word 
 speculation into the Queen's ear in a disparaging sense, and 
 otherwise to have been working underhand against him ; 
 how truly I cannot say ; and what then ? His patience and 
 serenity quite failed him, and he was betrayed on the 
 moment into a tone of unreasonable irritation and almost 
 petulant remonstrance, which the reviewer might probably 
 think fine, but which in my opinion (and I think in his 
 own upon reflexion) it was easier to excuse than to justify. 
 And yet I am glad the record remains ; for it shows how 
 keenly he could feel an injury, and how much his habitual 
 serenity and patience were owing, not to want of sensibility, 
 but to self-controlling virtue. This also was characteristic 
 of him in the matter : he made his complaint against Robert 
 Cecil not o/him, but to him. 
 
 A. 
 
 Come, I am glad he could be angry and unreasonable. 
 They told me he was made up of policy. 
 
 " At length the Cecils were generous enough to procure him 
 the reversion of the Eegistrarship of the Star-chamber. This
 
 4-1- EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 was a lucrative place ; but as many years elapsed before it 
 fell in, he was still under the necessity of labouring for his 
 daily bread." 
 
 B. 
 
 My only exception to that sentence is upon the inde- 
 finite " at length " ; which makes the period of application 
 and neglect seem longer than it really was. The date of 
 the grant was the 29th October 1589, Bacon's twenty-ninth 
 year. It was obtained for him by Burghley, and (as Bacon 
 himself declares) against great opposition. 
 
 A. 
 
 " In the parliament which was called in 1593 he sate as 
 member for Middlesex, and soon attained eminence as a 
 debater." 
 
 Here follows a discussion upon his style of oratory, with 
 the quotation from Ben Jonson. Unless you have some 
 exception to make, we may skip this ; for it has no bearing 
 upon his personal character, which is what I want to see 
 cleared up. 
 
 B. 
 
 If you please. It would have been more to the purpose 
 if the reviewer had spent a few hours over D'Ewes's 
 Journals and endeavoured to trace, by the scattered foot- 
 prints which remain, Bacon's path in politics from the time 
 he first entered parliament in 1584. He would have come 
 better prepared to understand the single passage which, out 
 of a very prominent and active parliamentary career of 
 thirty years, he has selected as a sample ; not a bad sample 
 if rightly reported ; but, as he reports it, a mere contrast 
 and incongruity. Of this passage I shall have much to 
 say. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Bacon tried to play a very difficult game in politics. Ue 
 wished to be at once a favourite at Court and popular with the 
 multitude."
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIE WEE. 45 
 
 B. 
 
 Popular with the multitude! When in all his life did 
 Bacon address himself to the multitude ? 
 
 A. 
 
 The popular party in the House of Commons was popular 
 (I suppose) with the people generally ; and he seems to 
 have wished to stand well with them. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, but the " multitude " was not then a party to the 
 proceedings in the House of Commons. There were no 
 strangers in the gallery. He spoke for his constituents, not 
 to them. To establish a reputation out of doors as a patriot, 
 it was not enough now and then in the House to support a 
 popular measure, so long as he was known to be in the 
 service and favour of the Court. The populace judge by 
 broad facts. To win the reputation of a popular man, it 
 would have been necessary to break with the Court. What 
 he did wish was to be in favour at once with the Court and 
 the House of Commons, by being faithful to both his trusts. 
 My objection is to the use of the word multitude. 
 
 A. 
 
 AYell, then, " with the popular party in the House of 
 Commons," we'll say. It is not material. 
 
 " If any man could have succeeded in this attempt, a man of 
 talents so rare, of judgment so prematurely ripe, of temper so 
 calm, of manners so plausible 
 
 B. 
 
 For " calni " read " well under command " ; and for 
 " plausible " read " simple, noble, and courteous." 
 
 A. 
 
 " might have been expected to succeed. Nor did he wholly 
 fail. Once, however, lie indulged in a burst of patriotism
 
 46 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 
 
 13. 
 
 A 'burst ? But go on. I have a long story to tell you 
 about this presently. 
 
 A. 
 
 " which cost him a lung and bitter remorse, and which lie 
 never ventured to repeat. The court asked fur large subsidies 
 and for speedy payment. The remains of Bacon's speech breathe 
 all the spirit of the Long Parliament." 
 
 B. 
 
 Does he not say what the subsidies were wanted for ? 
 Were they wanted for national or only for court objects ? 
 for a popular or an unpopular cause ? a sufficient or an 
 insufficient one ? 
 
 A. 
 
 No, he says nothing of that? But of course we are to 
 understand him as condemning the proposition. Where 
 there is a difference on any question either of policy or of 
 fact between the government and anybody else, all our 
 modern liberal historians assume as a matter of course that 
 the government is in the wrong. With them all opposition 
 is presumably patriotism. It is as superfluous to ask which 
 party the reviewer thinks right in this case, as whether ho 
 is coins; to vote with Sir liobert or Lord John the next 
 
 O O 
 
 time they divide against each other. But let us see what 
 Bacon lias to say about it. 
 
 " The gentlemen (said lie) must sell their plate, the farmers 
 their brass pots, eie this will be paid : and fur us, we are hero 
 to search the wounds of the realm, not to skin them over. The 
 dangers arc these : First we shall breed discontent and en- 
 danger her Majesty's safety, which mu>t consist more in the 
 love of the people than in their wealth. Secondly, this being 
 granted in this sort, other priii"es hereafter will look for the 
 like; so that we shall put an evil precedent upon ourselves 
 and our posterity: and in histories it is to be observed of all 
 nations that the Knglish are not to be eubjcct, base, or taxable.''
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 47 
 
 B. 
 
 Well this was his one burst of patriotism, I suppose. 
 Now for the " remorse." 
 
 A. 
 
 " The Queen and her ministers resented this outbreak of 
 spirit in the highest manner. Indeed, many an honest member 
 of the House of Commons had for a much smaller matter been 
 sent to the Tower by the proud and hot-blooded Tudors." 
 
 B. 
 
 There was some courage then at any rate in venturing it. 
 
 A. 
 
 Wait. 
 
 " The young patriot condescended to make the most abject 
 apologies. He adjured the Lord Treasurer to show some favour 
 to his poor servant and ally. He bemoaned himself to the Lord 
 Keeper in a letter which may keep in countenance the most 
 nnmanly of the epistles which Cicero wrote during his banish- 
 ment." 
 
 I suppose we had better have a look at the letters them- 
 selves. An " almost servile supplication " turned out just 
 now to be only a modest request. Perhaps the " abject 
 apology " may turn out to be only a respectful justification. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, we will have the letters now, while this character 
 of them is fresh in your ears. And then I will give you 
 a true history at large of this transaction, which is really a 
 very significant one. Here is the first letter to Burghley, 
 written upon the first official intimation of the Queen's 
 displeasure. 
 
 " It may please your Lordship, I was sorry to find by 
 your Lordship's speech yesterday, that my last speech in 
 parliament, delivered in discharge of my conscience and 
 duty to God, her Majesty, and my country, was offensive.
 
 -18 E I- E XIX GS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 If it wore misreported, I would be glad to attend your 
 Lordship to disavow anything I said not : if it were mis- 
 construed, I would be glad to expound myself to exclude 
 any sense I meant not. If my heart be misjudged by 
 imputation of popularity or opposition, by any envious or 
 malicious informer, I have great wrong ; and the greater, 
 because the manner of my speech did most evidently show 
 that I spake simply and only to satisfy my conscience, and 
 not with any advantage or policy to sway the cause ; and 
 my terms carried all signification of duty and zeal towards 
 her Majesty and her service. It is true that, from the 
 beginning, whatsoever was above a doable subsidy I did 
 wish might for precedent's sake appear to be extraordinary, 
 and for discontent's sake might not have been levied upon 
 the poorer sort : though otherwise I wished it as rising, as 
 I think this will prove, and moro. This was my mind ; 
 I confess it : and therefore I. most humbly pray your good 
 Lordship first to continue me in your own good opinion ; and 
 then to perform the part of an honourable friend towards 
 your poor servant and alliance, in drawing her Majesty to 
 accept of the sincerity and simplicity of my heart and to 
 bear with the rest, and restore me to her Majesty's favour, 
 which is to me dearer than my life. 
 
 " And so &c., 
 ' Your Lordship's most humble in all duty." 
 
 A. 
 
 I thought so. No apology at all, but a plain justification. 
 Now for the other letter ; written, I suppose, about the 
 same time. 
 
 I think later ; but I can find nothing to determine the 
 exact date. However it is of no consequence. 
 
 "My Lord," [ I believe by the way that the Lord to whom 
 the letter is addressed was the Karl of Essex, not the Lord 
 Keeper*], "It is a great grief unto me joined with marvel, 
 
 * See l< Letters ami Life," vol. i, p. 2W.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A. REVIEWER. 49 
 
 that her Majesty should retain an hard conceit of my 
 speeches in parliament. It might please her sacred Majesty 
 to think what might be my end in those speeches, if it were 
 not duty, and duty alone. I am not so simple, but I know 
 the common beaten way to please. And whereas popularity 
 hath been objected, I muse what care I should take to 
 please many, that take a course of life to deal with few. 
 On the other side, her Majesty's grace and particular favour 
 towards me hath been such, as I esteem no worldly thing 
 above the comfort to enjoy it, except it be the conscience 
 to deserve it. But if the not seconding some particular 
 person's opinion shall be presumption, and to differ upon 
 the manner shall be to impeach the end, it shall teach my 
 devotion not to exceed wishes, and those in silence. Yet, 
 notwithstanding, to speak vainly as in grief, it may be her 
 Majesty hath discouraged as good a heart as ever looked 
 toward her service, and as void of self-love. And so in 
 more grief than I can well express, and much more than I 
 can well dissemble, I leave your Lordship ; being, as ever, 
 your Lordship's entirely devoted, etc." 
 
 A. 
 
 Why, this is better and better. This means, if it mean 
 anything, that he cannot apologise for what he has done, 
 and only regrets that it should be so ill taken. It means 
 that he cannot serve the Queen at all, if service on these 
 conditions is not accepted. But tell me ; what after all 
 was it that he had done ? 
 
 B. 
 
 That is the very thing I was going to tell you. This 
 one toirst of patriotism in which he indulged But I drew 
 up a few weeks since an account of the whole affair. I had 
 better read it to you ; and that will be enough for to-night. 
 
 In February 1592-3, Bacon's duty as a member of the 
 House of Commons drew him into a course which deeply 
 displeased the Queen, and materially damaged his prospects. 
 The case is curious, and for its bearing upon his character 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 EVENING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 as well as his fortunes, deserves to be carefully noticed. To 
 understand his position fully, it is necessary to go a little 
 further back. 
 
 The parliament which met on the 4th February 1588-9 
 (the year after the Spanish Armada) had been summoned 
 especially for supplies. Francis Bacon was one of the 
 committee to which the question of the supply was referred, 
 and appears to have taken a prominent part in the de- 
 liberations ; for when they had agreed to recommend an 
 extraordinary provision in proportion to the extraordinary 
 necessity, yet at the same time to provide by words inserted 
 in the preamble of the bill against its being drawn into a 
 precedent, it was he who " set down a note in writing " for 
 that purpose, and was appointed to repair with it to the 
 Queen's learned counsel, who were charged with the pre- 
 paration of the bill. On this occasion no further difference 
 appears to have arisen ; the bill finally passed the Commons 
 on the 10th of March and the Lords on the 17th. 
 
 The next House of Commons, which met on the 10th of 
 February ] 592-3, under circumstances very similar, appears 
 to have been disposed to take this proceeding for a pre- 
 cedent. The business was supplies, and the occasion the 
 designs of Spain. 
 
 A debate (in which Francis Bacon took a leading part) * 
 upon the dangers the country then stood in, was followed by 
 the appointment of a committee of supply; which agreed 
 to recommend the same provision that had been voted the 
 last parliament (two subsidies and four fifteenths and tenths) 
 coupled with the same precaution, vi/. a reference in the 
 preamble of the bill to the circumstances which made the 
 case extraordinary. "\Vith the proposed amount, however, 
 it seems that the court was not satisfied; for, while the bill 
 was yet in preparation, the Lords desired a conference with 
 the Commons, at which it was flatly declared in their name 
 by Burghley, that '" they might not nor they would not give 
 
 * The Mid of his .-pei-rh (as we Irani from I)'l\\\< .-. p. 171 ), \\as in in force 
 the neres.-ity " ff pre.-enf ronmiltntion and prnvi-imi of treasure to prevent 
 the dangers intended against the realm l>y the King of JSpain, the I 'ope, and 
 oth'T confederates (.{'the Holy League."
 
 EVENINGS WITH A BE VIE WEI? . 51 
 
 their consents to less than a treble subsidy; and not to a 
 treble nor a quadruple, unless qualified both in substance 
 and in circumstance of time : " * " to what proportion of 
 benevolence, or unto how much their Lordships would give 
 their assents in that behalf, they would not then show," but 
 desired another conference. 
 
 The substance of this communication being referred to 
 the House by kSir Eobert Cecil (apparently without any 
 motion or opinion from himself), " Mr. Francis Bacon " (who 
 had been himself present at the conference) " stood up, and 
 made a motion." And now what do you think he will say? 
 The immediate question is not what amount of supply they 
 shall yield to, but what answer they shall send to the Lords. 
 The Lords (that is, the Court party) desire to confer with 
 the Commons in order to set before them the case of the 
 realm, and persuade them to vote a larger supply. Bacon 
 is a young and aspiring lawyer with a good prospect of rapid 
 advancement through court patronage, and without any 
 prospect of advancement from any other quarter. Of course, 
 you will say, he will go with the court party : his motion 
 will be that the House agree to the conference as proposed 
 by Burghley. And indeed why not ? Whom can he offend 
 by doing so ? What credit can he lose ? To what odium or 
 reproach can it expose him ? Obviously it is the safe and 
 prudent course : apparently it is quite unobjectionable. But 
 perhaps you think it may lose him credit, or the opportunity 
 of gaining credit, in the House of Commons. To be promi- 
 nent in support of the government (you think) may weaken 
 his authority with the popular party. In that case he has only 
 to hold his tongue. There is no call on him to take an active 
 part. No inference can be drawn from his silence. No need, 
 if the court is to be opposed, that he should lead the opposi- 
 tion. But you are wrong. He will do neither the one nor 
 the other. He thinks that for the Lower House to consent to 
 a conference with the Upper for the avowed purpose of dis- 
 cussing the amount of contribution to be voted (and this 
 was unquestionably Lord Burghley's proposal), will be to 
 
 * Ilargr. B24, f. 21.
 
 52 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 abandon one of their understood and ascertained privileges. 
 He does not object to an increase of the grant, nor to the 
 reconsidering of the question : he objects to admit the Lords 
 as a party to the discussion of a money question. Accord- 
 ingly he rises at once and advises the House to decline to 
 accede to Burghley's proposition ; in fact (to translate it 
 into the modern phrase), he, though belonging to the 
 government party, does on this occasion Itad tlie opposition 
 against the government. " His motion was for yielding to 
 the subsidies; but disliked that we should join with the 
 Lords of the Higher House in the granting of it : for the 
 custom and privilege of this House had always been to 
 make offer of the subsidy from hence unto the Higher 
 House. And reason it is that we should stand upon this 
 our privilege. Seeing the burden resteth upon us as the 
 greater number, no reason the thanks should be theirs. 
 And in joining with them in this motion, we shall derogate 
 from ourselves ; for the thanks will be theirs and the blame 
 ours, they being the first movers. Wherefore he could wish 
 that in this action we should proceed as heretofore we had 
 done, apart by ourselves, and not joining with them. And 
 to satisfy their Lordships who expect an answer to-morrow, 
 some answer would be made in all obsequious and dutiful 
 manner." (You see it was not the Queen and government 
 only to whom he thought it right, even in opposing them, 
 to be obsequious and dutiful. Indeed the answer which ho 
 proposes that the Commons should send to the Lords might 
 perhaps by the reviewer be called an ''abject apology." It 
 has as much right to be so called as the letter to lUirghley 
 which we read just now. There is as much modesty and 
 respect in it, and as little acquiescence.) 
 
 " And out of his bosom he drew an answer framed by 
 himself, to this effect in brief: That we hud considered 
 their Lordships' motion, thought upon it as was lit, and in 
 all willingness would address ourselves to do as so great a 
 cause desired; but to join with their Lordships in this 
 business we could not but with prejudice to the privileges of 
 this House, wherefore desired as \\e were wont, so that now
 
 EVENINGS WITH A BEVIEWEE. 53 
 
 we might proceed therein by ourselves apart from their 
 Lordships. 
 
 " Thus," (he added) " I think we may divide ourselves 
 from their Lordships, and yet without dissension. For this 
 is but an honourable emulation and division. To this he 
 cited a precedent in Henry the Eighth's time. Four of the 
 Lords came down into the Lower House and informed them 
 what necessity there was of subsidy. Hereupon the House 
 considered of it and granted a subsidy." * 
 
 His motion was " well liked by the House " (the govern- 
 ment party being taken I suppose by surprise, and making 
 no opposition), and the committee was appointed to frame 
 an answer accordingly. 
 
 But before we follow the business forth to its issue, let 
 us pause for a moment and consider it as it regards Bacon's 
 character and ways. For as far as he is concerned it is 
 already a complete act ; a decision promptly, decidedly, and 
 effectually taken ; no if in the matter ; no back-door open 
 for retreat or explanation ; no device reserved for giving it 
 a different colour. What could be his motive ? He could 
 not be ignorant that he was doing a thing very unpalatable 
 to Burghley, to Cecil, and to the Queen herself ; and 
 omitting to do a thing which would have been extremely 
 palatable to them. Was it in pique then ? Could he be 
 in despair of any good to come from that quarter ; or angry, 
 as feeling that his interest and pretensions had been neg- 
 lected ? Surely no. It was but two years since he had 
 received through Burghley 's influence the reversion of a 
 valuable office ; this very year he had gone out of his way 
 to write the most affectionate and eloquent vindication on 
 record of the characters both of Burghley and Cecil ; he 
 was beginning to be employed in business of trust by the 
 Queen ; a vacancy in the law offices had just been made by 
 the death of the Master of the Rolls ; and it was but a few 
 months after that he was one of the most likely candidates 
 for the Attorney-Generalship. He could have had neither 
 
 * Ilargr. MSS. 324.
 
 54 E7EXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 end nor motive to make him seek an occasion for quarrelling 
 with Burgh ley. Or if you suppose that he was less careful 
 to keep well with Burghley because he had now begun to 
 depend upon Essex, through whom his other chance lay ; 
 you must remember that this other chance also lay through 
 the Queen. To oftcnd the Queen's party was as fatal to the 
 one as to the other. For his own private fortunes in that 
 direction, he could not but see that he was not pursuing a 
 prudent course. 
 
 Was there then any other direction in which he could 
 be beginning to look ? any interest elsewhere, which he 
 could have hoped by this show of popularity to improve ? 
 Could he be preparing to rat, to become instead of the 
 Queen's man the people's man ? Surely this would have 
 been the vainest of all projects. It is true there was a 
 popular party in the country and in the House of Commons ; 
 and of that party lie might easily have made himself the 
 idol. But what could he have gained by that ? Wealth or 
 greatness it was not in their power to bestow ; nor was there 
 any chance of their having it for many years to come. 
 Thirty years afterwards an ambitious young courtier with 
 popular talents might well have ratted to the parliament as 
 to the most powerful patron. But in Queen Elizabeth's 
 time the popular party was a small minority which could 
 only promote its leaders to the Tower. Or even now if 
 Bacon had been a rich and powerful man, a man of lands and 
 alliances, who wanted not fortune but greatness and political 
 power, he might have allied himself to the popular party as 
 a politic move. His ambition might have tempted him that 
 way as the likeliest road to what he wanted. A man like 
 Essex might in t, iking such a course have been suspected of 
 Selfish objects. But this would not have done for Bacon. 
 His want was the means of living and working, which the 
 popular party could not have hdjed him to. X< 'ither any 
 lucrative ofliee, nor success in the ordinary praetiee of his 
 profession, nor importance that could in any way lie turned 
 into money, nor even a portion that would have brought 
 him helps for his studies, could have come to him through
 
 EVENINGS WITH A BE VIE WEB. 55 
 
 that channel. Not to add that his whole life had been laid 
 out on another plan, which tended to withdraw him (except 
 as an active member of Parliament) from all popular courses. 
 
 But, you will say, though he may not have been court- 
 ing popularity, he may yet have been influenced by the fear 
 of wwpopularity. And had the cause been a very unpopular 
 one, he might perhaps not unreasonably have been suspected 
 of such a motive. But this was by no means the case. The 
 cause was contribution, the contribution was to sustain the 
 war against Spain ; than which nothing was more popular, 
 either with the House of Commons or with the nation 
 generally. Of the many prominent men who sided with the 
 court on this occasion, and of the many more who held their 
 tongues, it does not appear that any one was at all the less 
 popular on that account. 
 
 Again, then, I ask, why did Francis Bacon, the 
 courtier, the aspiring lawyer, whose hope and object at this 
 time was to obtain through court patronage some place under 
 government which might relieve him from the necessity of 
 drudging at the law for a livelihood why did he on this 
 occasion oppose the court ? I can think but of one reason 
 a reason plain, simple, and sufficient, if people would but be- 
 lieve it. He thought it his duty. He sat in the House of 
 Commons in a judicial capacity, as a representative of the 
 Commons, as a guardian of their rights and interests, as a 
 party to the making of laws and to the imposing of public 
 burdens for the service of the commonwealth. As such, he 
 believed it to be his duty to oppose what he thought in- 
 jurious and to promote what he thought beneficial. The 
 proposed conference with the Lords, though the proposal 
 came from his own friends and patrons, he saw would be a 
 dangerous precedent ; and he advised the Commons not to 
 agree to it. What can be plainer or more rational ? Only 
 it requires us to suppose that the public interests, not his 
 own, were uppermost in his thoughts ; that (to use his own 
 words) " he loved his country more than was answerable to 
 his fortune." 
 
 And now let us inquire how the matter was curried on,
 
 56 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 and whether he did anything in the sequel that is incon- 
 sistent with this supposition. 
 
 The committee met, but could not agree. At length 
 however, after a good deal of debate, they reported to the 
 House, that a majority of their number was for the conference. 
 But a debate arising upon the report (in which a fresh pre- 
 cedent against the conference,- which satisfied the greater 
 part of the House, including Coke the Speaker, was brought 
 forward by Mr. Beale ; but the privy counsellors and courtiers 
 were still earnest for it), it was carried upon a division by 
 217 to 128, "that no such conference should be had with 
 the said committee of the Lords by the said committee of 
 this House." A grave and respectful answer was framed 
 accordingly ; and a committee appointed (in which it is to 
 be observed that, if Sir S. D'Ewes's list be correct, Bacon 
 was not included) to go up with it : the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer to declare it. 
 
 Such was the immediate result of Bacon's motion. But 
 this was not the end. For the Lords were not satisfied 
 with the answer, returned a message expressive of regret, 
 and desired to "see the precedents by which the House 
 seemed to refuse the said conference." L'pon which, though 
 the Commons resolved not to send the precedents, yet a 
 general disposition appears to have arisen in the House to 
 yield to the conference, upon the ground that the nature of 
 the question had been misunderstood. Mr. Beale admitted 
 that he had himself misunderstood it; that the precedent 
 which he had cited was inapplicable (for in that case the 
 Lords had proposed that the Commons should confirm what 
 they had done, not confer about it), and that if lie had con- 
 ceived the question as it was meant, he would have been of 
 another opinion. Others followed with retractations upon 
 the same ground. Sir Ifobert Cecil (to smooth the way 
 again) declared, what, unless the reports are total I v in- 
 accurate, was not true. -that " it was never desired of the 
 Lords to confer with tlm Commons about a, subx/th/" And 
 Sir Walter .Raleigh, promptly taking the hint, proposed that 
 it should be put to the House as a new question whether
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 57 
 
 they should agree to a general conference with the Lords, 
 without naming a subsidy ; which question was put accord- 
 ingly and carried nem. con. Whether Bacon took any part 
 in this latter debate, or whether he was present, we cannot 
 tell ; for in the imperfect accounts which we have of the pro- 
 ceedings of the day, his name is not mentioned. But I 
 suppose we may safely conclude that he was not among 
 those who retracted their opinions, for such a circumstance 
 could hardly have escaped mention. 
 
 The committee having been sent up to the Lords with 
 this message and having heard what they had to say, re- 
 turned to take fresh instructions as to their further answer ; 
 and upon this a general debate * arose concerning the 
 dangers of the kingdom and the remedies. That three 
 subsidies and six-fifteenths should be granted was generally 
 agreed ; the difference of opinion turned chiefly upon the 
 time and manner of payment. " Some of the committees 
 (says Sir S. D'Ewes) would have this propounded, whether 
 the three subsidies should be raised in four years or in 
 three : others dissented from it." 
 
 And now, once more, what line will Francis Bacon take ? 
 If his first motion was made (which it is hardly possible to 
 suppose) inconsiderately, without reflecting upon the con- 
 sequences to his own standing in the good graces of the 
 Queen, he could not at any rate be under any such mistake 
 now. It was notorious that the court was much offended 
 and annoyed at the opposition. It had been publicly talked 
 of in the House as an offence which had been reported to 
 the Queen and members " noted " for it ; f and though he 
 had omitted the opportunity which had been already offered, 
 of retracting his opinion (as others had done) on the plea of 
 having misunderstood the nature of the question, he might 
 now at least make some amends by actively seconding the 
 government proposition for the speedy collection of the 
 increased contribution. This he could do without any ap- 
 parent inconsistency, because he had from the first declared 
 himself to be in favour of the proposed increase, and had 
 * Wednesday, March 7. f Sir Henry Uiupton'a speech.
 
 58 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 said nothing about the time or manner of collection. It 
 was also evident that there was no strong feeling in the 
 
 o o 
 
 House against it; in fact, that there was a majority of 
 voices in favour of it. What motive can he now have for 
 opposing his party and so increasing the displeasure which 
 he knew that his first opposition had drawn upon him ? 
 
 Yet again we find him leading the opposition in a speech 
 which it is plain (because all the leading members of the 
 Court party addressed themselves to answer it) was a telling 
 and effective one. After Mr. Heale had spoken on the 
 Court side, recommending that " more than subsidies should 
 be yielded," and if subsidies only, then that the commis- 
 sion should have power to " force men," Bacon got up, and 
 assenting to the three subsidies (as he had done at first) 
 objected to " the payment under six years," as making each 
 subsidy in effect a double subsidy, which would entail a 
 twofold danger ; one to the Queen, for the burden would 
 be found so heavy that the collection would breed discon- 
 tent dangerous to her safety ; the other to the country, for 
 it would stand as a precedent which other parliaments would 
 be expected to follow and other sovereigns would claim. 
 He objected also to the manner of supply (though it had 
 been intimated that morning by the Vice-Chamberlain, that 
 " the Queen liked not such fineness of device and novel 
 inventions, but liked rather to have the ancient usages 
 offered"), and recommended a supply "by levy or im- 
 position when need should most require " rather than by 
 subsidy. He was answered by Sir Thomas Heneage (Yice- 
 Chainberlain), by Sir Walter lialeigh, by Mr. Heale, and 
 by Sir Robert Cecil, each of whom (as appears by such 
 memoranda of their speeches as have been preserved) ad- 
 dressed himself directly to answer his arguments. And in 
 the end it was carried against him without a division. 
 
 After this, we have no particulars of the debates upon 
 this question ; we only know that a bill was framed accord- 
 ing to this resolution, and going through the usual stages 
 (though difficultly and not without the help of the Speaker,* 
 
 * Cuke,
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 59 
 
 who is stated to have " overreached the House in the subtle 
 putting of the question ") was passed on the 22nd of March. 
 
 I must confess that upon reviewing Bacon's conduct in 
 this matter, I find some difficulty in accounting for it ; 
 though it is not the kind of difficulty which his conduct 
 generally is supposed to involve. That he should have been 
 rather shy in publicly opposing a proposition of this kind, 
 even if it were one which he did not altogether approve, 
 could not seem strange to any one in the year 1S45. But 
 that a young member, whose reputation was not yet fully 
 made and whose fortune was all to make, should divide his 
 own party upon a question of such deep interest to them, 
 unless he were constrained to do it by some stronger motive 
 than (in our present imperfect knowledge of the affairs of 
 the time) we can discover, does, according to our modern 
 code of party morals, seem odd. The occasion for these 
 subsidies was confessedly great, worthy, and popular. The 
 difficulty might indeed be considerable ; the danger of 
 discontent when they came to be collected probably was 
 serious ; and it may be that the measure was on that 
 account really impolitic, and that the Queen would have 
 acted more wisely for her own interest had his suggestion 
 been adopted. But it does not appear that there was any 
 imminent or desperate danger. Such danger as there was 
 he might have thought it his duty to point out ; but this 
 lie might have done quietly in the committee, and then left 
 it to the government and the House to settle it for them- 
 selves upon their own responsibility. He was not in such 
 a position of authority with the House that his silence was 
 to carry the question. He could hardly think therefore 
 that he lay under any imperative duty to go out of his way 
 for the purpose of obstructing a measure upon which his 
 own party were so earnestly bent. It was such a point as 
 a member of the cabinet might in these days dissent from 
 his colleagues upon, and in the cabinet earnestly oppose 
 them ; being nevertheless prepared to give up his oppo- 
 sition if outvoted, and go along with them whea the matter
 
 60 E VEXING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 caine before the House. Perhaps the privacy of the House 
 of Commons in those days (which was then really a de- 
 liberative assembly) may partly account for it. The matter 
 was (as it were) within the walls of the Council Chamber, 
 and every one might speak his thought. But I cannot help 
 thinking that we must look further for the true secret of 
 it, in some peculiarity of his personal character. A year 
 or two after, the Lord Keeper Puckering had taken offence 
 at something which he had said or written, and Essex 
 writing to pacify him says, " I told you before this manner 
 of his was only a natural freedom and plainness which lie 
 hath used with me, and to my knowledge with some other 
 of his best friends ; " and this, I suspect, contains the true 
 key of his conduct on this occasion. It was the simplicity 
 and earnestness of the man, and the careless confidence of 
 a good intention, which prompted him to speak out what 
 he thought and felt, presuming that what was uttered so 
 candidly would meet with as candid a construction ; what 
 was meant only for the good of all would surely be taken 
 as well-meant. It was the advice which (had he had a 
 right to advise) he would himself have given to the Queen ; 
 and (having such a right in the House of Commons) he 
 gave it by way of advice to them. As an approved friend, 
 it was his privilege to give a free censure ; as a man who 
 had no personal interest in the course he recommended, lie 
 could the better recommend it boldly. That a man of so 
 singular a genius should have some singularity of character 
 is but natural ; and this I suppose was his. For certainly 
 though he could not but have known that such a course 
 would not be acceptable to the Queen, he does not seem to 
 have been prepared for the degree of displeasure which it 
 brought upon him. And even when the extent of her dis- 
 pleasure was fully known to him, he could not bring himself 
 to make any apology or retractation, or to explain away 
 what he had said. 
 
 P)iit this again should be considered apart, as a fresh ease. 
 His duty to the House of Commons and to the puMir has
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 61 
 
 been performed ; the offence to his party and to the Queen 
 has been given ; his fortunes are in jeopardy. How will he 
 set about to recover the favour which he has lost ? The 
 Queen would not allow him access, as she had used to do ; 
 and caused the occasion, namely his late speeches in parlia- 
 ment, to be intimated to him through Burghley. As to the 
 real ground of her displeasure, there could be little doubt. 
 It could not be so much for the single act, a solitary " burst 
 of patriotism," as Macaulay describes it, as for the spirit 
 and temper which it manifested. Here was a young courtier 
 who could not be relied on for supporting the measures of 
 the Court ; who, however zealous a royalist, nevertheless 
 acknowledged a divided duty ; and held himself bound, as a 
 member of parliament, to stand by his own opinion and 
 follow his own course in opposition to hers, if he could not 
 bring himself to approve it. To be restored to her con- 
 fidence and favour was not only, from affection and loyalty, 
 a natural wish ; but with a view to his own fortunes, which 
 seemed to be then upon the point of being made or marred, 
 it was at that moment a prime object. The way to bring 
 about this object was obvious enough. It was to be sought, 
 not by justifying his conduct as enjoined by duty ; that 
 would but aggravate the offence ; but by acknowledging it 
 as an error ; by explaining it away ; by ascribing it to mis- 
 apprehension ; by pretending some secret design to win 
 thereby the confidence of the House, disarm suspicion, and 
 acquire authority there, that he might be the better able 
 to further her ends afterwards ; in short, by putting some 
 colour upon it that might make her believe he would not 
 do so again, but might be depended upon as an obsequious 
 and manageable supporter. He could hardly have had 
 much difficulty in conveying such an impression, had he 
 really wished it ; he could certainly have no difficulty (con- 
 science apart) in inventing a construction for his conduct 
 tending that way ; and ample time he had for working, 
 seeing that her displeasure lasted at least two years and 
 a half. 
 
 Now I do not find that he moved a single inch in this
 
 62 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 direction. He stood frankly and firmly upon his justifi- 
 cation ; refusing to understand upon what ground his con- 
 duct (rightly construed) could be considered offensive. His 
 tone and terms were, no doubt, modest and respectful ; of 
 sorrow and discouragement rather than of haughtiness and 
 self-assertion; but the substance of his answer was remon- 
 strance and expostulation, as of a man who feels that he is 
 injured ; not submission or apology. Look back at the 
 letter to Burghley which we have just re-ad. He is sorry to 
 find that his speech, delivered in discharge of his duty to 
 God, her Majesty and his country, was offensive. He thinks 
 it must have been misreported or misunderstood ; and, if so, 
 would be glad of an opportunity to explain. If he were 
 suspected of " popularity or opposition" (i.e. of joining the 
 party then in opposition and turning demagogue) he had 
 great wrong, for there was nothing in his speech that 
 savoured of party opposition : " the manner of it did most 
 evidently show that lie spake simply and only to satisfy his 
 conscience, and not with any advantage or policy to sv:ay the 
 cause; and his terms carried all signification of duty," &c. ; 
 all which was strictly true. I jut did he retract or explain 
 away anything ? Not a jot. It was tine that ''whatsoever 
 was above a double subsidy he did wish" (just as he had 
 wished in 1-588 when he himself drew up a clause in the 
 preamble for that purpose) " for precedent's sake might 
 seem to be extraordinary, and for discontent's sake might not 
 have been levied upon the poorer sort ; though otherwise he 
 wished it as rising," CY.C. (and though it is true that he says 
 nothing on this occasion about his opposition to the speedy 
 collection, which he alludes to in a letter on the same 
 subject of later date, yet he says nothing to explain away or 
 retract even that). "This v\as his mind: he confesses it; 
 and therefore lie hopes that Ihirghley will continue him in 
 his own good opinion, and endeavour to draw her Majesty to 
 accept of the simplicity and sinecrilv of his xcal, and to 
 hold him in her favour," IY.C. In other words, It is true 
 that I opposed the government proposition; bnl 1 opposed 
 it not out of any ill-will to the government, but because I
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 63 
 
 thought it impolitic and dangerous ; therefore what could I 
 do but oppose it ? And therefore the Queen ought to think 
 the better of me for what I did, seeing that I did only what 
 I thought right. 
 
 But this was a strain of public morals rather too high for 
 the Queen. That was not the kind of service which would 
 do for her; and her displeasure showed no symptoms of 
 abating. 
 
 Seeing then that she would not think better of it, did he 
 begin to think better of it himself, and try to show that her 
 displeasure had had the effect of bringing him to a better 
 sense of his duty ? There would have been good hope in 
 that, for your strong mind likes nothing so well as to see the 
 reluctant will brought into subjection. But no such tiling. 
 
 O tJ O 
 
 He could still be humble, dutiful, and affectionate ; but he 
 could not say that he had been in the wrong, or that he 
 could rightly have done anything other than what he did. 
 Look back again to the other letter, the last which we read, 
 addressed, I think, to the Earl of Essex. " It was a great 
 grief to him, joined with marvel, that her Majesty should 
 retain an hard conceit, &c. &c. It might please her gracious 
 Majesty to think what might be his end in those speeches 
 if it were not duty, and duty alone." (Still not a word about 
 being sorry that he had made them ; he is only sorry that 
 she should take them so ill.) " And whereas popularity had 
 been objected, he mused what care he should take to please 
 many, who took a course of life to deal with few." (He had 
 nothing to look for from that quarter; his hopes were all 
 from the Queen.) " Her Majesty's particular favour to- 
 wards him had been such that he esteemed no worldly tiling 
 above the comfort to enjoy it, except it were the conscience 
 to deserve it." (What then would he give for it ? lie 
 knew the price well enough.) " He was not so simple but ho 
 knew the common beaten way to please." But will he do 
 as he is bid ? By no means ; the condition is too hard 
 for him. " If the not seconding some particular person's 
 opinion shall be presumption, and to differ upon the manner 
 shall be to impeach the end, it shall teach him " what ? to
 
 64 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 know better hereafter ? to trust her judgment rather than 
 his own ? to advise nothing- but what she wishes ? Not at 
 all. " It shall teach his devotion not to exceed wishes, and 
 those in silence." And this is the nearest approach to sub- 
 mission that he can bring himself to make. He must still 
 irish to serve her ; but not being able to serve her on such 
 conditions, he can do no more than wish. Nay, he cannot 
 even admit that her jealousy is reasonable ; but must still 
 maintain that she is doing injustice to him and injury to 
 herself. " It may be her Majesty hath discouraged as good 
 a heart as ever looked to her service, and as void of self-love." 
 Still the jealousy of the Queen was not mitigated ; for a 
 year and a half later we find the same cause of offence still 
 uppermost. Burghley, indeed, and Robert Cecil, having 
 known Bacon since he was a boy, and being convinced there- 
 fore that his explanation was sincere, and that his opposition 
 had been that of a free counsellor, not of an antagonist, appear 
 to have been satisfied and to have wished the Queen to advance 
 him but she still objected (June 1595) that same "speech 
 in parliament." So here he had one opportunity more of 
 endeavouring to explain his conduct away if he had wished to 
 do so. But still we have the old story he had nothing to 
 apologise for. " My hope is, that whereas your Lordship told 
 me her 31ajesty was somewhat gravelled upon the offence she 
 took at my speech in parliament, your Lordship's favourable 
 and good word (who hath assured me that for your own part 
 you construed that 1 spake to the best) will be as a good tide 
 to remove her from that shelf. And it is not unknown to 
 your Lordship that I was the first of the ordinary sort of the 
 Lower House that spake for the subsidy ; and that which I 
 after spake in difference was but in circumstance of time and 
 manner; which methiuks should be no great matter, sinco 
 there is variety allowed in counsel as a discord in music to 
 make it more perfect." * Still, you see, it is in the spirit of 
 justification, not of apology, that he writes. Not a hint that 
 he would do differently another time upon a similar occasion. 
 
 * Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, vol. i. p. 'M'2.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A RE VIE WEB. 65 
 
 He cannot admit that be was himself in the wrong ; his 
 anxiety is that the Queen may be brought to understand 
 that he was right. And this, so far as I can learn, is the 
 last we hear of the matter. 
 
 Now let any man, setting aside any preconceptions he 
 may have formed as to Bacon's character, and all modern 
 notions of the indignity of treating queens with respect, 
 endeavour to interpret naturally these words and actions, 
 and then say whether they indicate anything but simplicity, 
 sincerity, and integrity. Had he been the selfish, crafty, 
 time-serving man that he is now commonly taken for, is it 
 not clear that at each successive step throughout this whole 
 action he would have taken a different course ? 
 
 First, on the question of the conference, lie would not 
 have divided the House against his own party. 
 
 Secondly, he woiild at least have taken occasion to 
 retract his opinion when he saw a disposition in the whole 
 House to retract. 
 
 Thirdly, on the question of supply (which was the next 
 stage in the business) he would have supported his party, 
 instead of again opposing them. 
 
 Fourthly, when he found that the Queen (instead of 
 thanking her stars that she had so able and so honest a man 
 on her side) resented such independence and withdrew her 
 favour, he would have tried to put it to the account of any 
 motive rather than that of imperative duty which left him 
 no other choice, and to give her assurance that hereafter he 
 would be better advised and understand his duties dif- 
 ferently. 
 
 Upon each and all of which occasions he took a course 
 so directly opposite to that which would naturally have 
 been taken by a time-serving politician, that one might 
 better cite the story as an instance of a man knowing and 
 deliberately sacrificing what he knew to be his private 
 interest to what he conceived to be his public duty. This 
 however would be going further than I mean to go myself. 
 I think it possible enough that in this case he thought his 
 
 VOL. 1. F
 
 66 EVEX1XGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 interest and his duty compatible. Out of his great reverence 
 for the character of the Queen, he may well have given her 
 credit for understanding her own interest better than she 
 seems to have done, and valuing a man all the more highly 
 for such independence. His precept addressed more than 
 twenty years after to Buckingham was, " Rather make able 
 and honest men yours than advance those that are otherwise 
 because they are yours ; " and he may have hoped that the 
 Queen would act upon this principle. Be it so. Be it that 
 he thought the reputation of honesty a better means of 
 rising than sycophancy. All I contend is, that it was by 
 honesty and not by sycophancy that he was seeking to rise. 
 
 Where does your story come from ? It must be u 
 friend's statement, 
 
 B. 
 
 By no means. The facts all come from D'Ewes's Journals, 
 who was anything but an admirer of Bacon. But he was 
 not thinking of Bacon's character at all when he made the 
 collection. lie was merely gathering together all the 
 records he could find of the proceedings in parliament 
 during the reign of Elizabeth. His opinion of Bacon's 
 character is worth nothing, for he was but a boy at the 
 time of his full, and when a man was no great conjuror ; 
 and probably neither had any means nor took any pains to 
 understand what sort of person Bacon really was. He would 
 naturally believe what the Puritan party said of him, who 
 would of course think the worst of a disgraced royalist. 
 But, as a collector, I believe there is no reason to doubt his 
 fidelity, any more than his dulneys and pmsiness, which 
 no man can doubt. 
 
 1 should like to read it again. It seems to suggest an 
 entirely new view of Bacon's character, and of his relation 
 to the powers that were. And accustomed as one is to liv
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EEV1EWL1L G7 
 
 rules of modern parliamentary tactics, it is difficult at first 
 to take it in. 
 
 B. 
 
 Take it home with you, and if you can find any other 
 meaning in it, or solution of it, I shall be glad to hear it. 
 Even if it should appear that he was all this while trying to 
 second and to ingratiate himself with the government (which 
 seems to me quite impossible), I should not on that account 
 think the worse of him. There was never occasion when 
 opposition for the purpose of obstruction could have been 
 less justifiable : never time when a man who " loved his 
 country more than his fortune " might more reasonably have 
 desired to be in the favour and service of the Crown. But 
 this is a virtue of which now-a-days the very tradition 
 appears to be lost among men. We have many a man who 
 is ready enough to sacrifice his fortunes to his credit or 
 his party, but no man who will (except in crises of great 
 danger) sacrifice either his party or his credit to the public 
 interests. 
 
 A. 
 
 I do not know that I can go the whole length of that 
 proposition with you. But it is too late to dispute about 
 it now ; and besides it would lead us astray from our present 
 business. I can well believe for my own part that a genuine 
 patriotism might have found more to do under Queen 
 Elizabeth than against her. If other sovereigns had been 
 like her, we should have believed in divine right still. I 
 will take your paper home with me.
 
 EVENING THE THIRD. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, I have read your story carefully, and I confess that 
 Bacon's conduct does look very unlike that of a man seeking 
 his own ends ; and of that we have so many instances among 
 us now-a-days, that I feel as if I knew its face well. That 
 it is very like the conduct of a man whose uppermost wish is 
 the general good of the State, is not so easy to affirm, the 
 examples are so few of that virtue. But it is very like what 
 
 one would imagine it to be. 
 
 B. 
 
 Suppose him to have believed in loth, both the Queen 
 and the Constitution ; to have believed that the common 
 good was to be looked for from the combined and harmonious 
 operation of the three powers, not from the ascendency of 
 this or that ; that their business was (especially at that time 
 of danger, internal and external), not to be struggling to 
 carry points against each other, but each to bear itself so 
 that the common good of all might be carried in common ; 
 and surely there could be no difficulty in believing this ; for 
 whatever matters of dispute there might be between them, 
 they were all for Protestantism as against Popery, and for 
 England as against Spain ; suppose him to have believed 
 this, and we may surely account both for his speeches and 
 his apologies on this occasion, without considering the one 
 as an unguarded " burst of patriotism," a bid for " popularity
 
 70 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 with the multitude," or the other as a servile desertion of 
 his post, a sale of his conscience for court-favour. Never 
 was there a position in which a true patriot could do better 
 service than that of mediator between two such parties as 
 the Crown and the Commons in those days ; never was there 
 a man so fitted by nature, by rank, by talents, by principles, 
 and by wishes, to do best service in such a position, as 
 Francis Bacon. It was the very part which through his 
 whole career he was striving to play ; the only office, I 
 think, into which he endeavoured on all occasions to tltru^t 
 himself. It was the Queen's weakness, her pride of will, 
 that prevented her from understanding or accepting such 
 services rightly. It was Bacon's virtue a virtue at once 
 characteristic and honourable in the first place not to 
 suppose the existence of such weakness in her ; and in the 
 next place, when he could not but see it, to do what he 
 could to save her from the bad effects of it. But let us have 
 some more. We shall never get through, if wo stay to dis- 
 cuss at this length. 
 
 We left off, I think, at the "abject apology;" which was 
 the reviewer's expression for an offer to explain anything 
 that had been misreported or misunderstood. 
 
 A. 
 
 "The lesson was not thrown away. Bacon never ofieiideil in 
 the same manner again." 
 
 B. 
 
 Perhaps not. But what of that? Did a similar occasion 
 ever arise again ? Did the Lords ever propose again to 
 confer with the Commons for the purpose of dictating to 
 them the amount of supply which they should vote ? Was 
 an amount of supply ever proposed again in the House 
 of Commons which he thought unnecessary or unwise ? 
 Larger supplies were voted afterwards I know. But, as they 
 passed without difficulty, I conclude that according to the 
 General sense of the House thev were not lamer than the 
 
 r? ^ 
 
 occasion demanded, or the people could conveniently bear. It
 
 EVENINGS WJTTT A REVIEWED. 71 
 
 was no part surely of his duty to oppose a measure which he 
 approved, merely for the sake of showing that he durst 
 offend the Queen. To make good a charge of servility it is 
 surely necessary to show that he did something which was 
 bad for the State, or omitted to do something which the 
 good of the State required. I am not prepared positively to 
 deny that there are any grounds for such a charge, but I 
 never heard of any ; and I am sure it is the reviewer's 
 business to state them. 
 
 A. 
 
 It is a business however which he does not undertake ; 
 for we are at the end of the paragraph ; and the next, I see, 
 opens a new subject. 
 
 B. 
 
 Then I say that the charges in the former part of that 
 paragraph are proved to be groundless ; and that the last is 
 no charge at all ; for it implies 110 fault. Now for the new 
 subject. 
 
 A, 
 
 " He was now satisfied that he had little to hope from the 
 patronage of those powerful kinsmen whom he had solicited 
 during twelve years with such meek pertinacity; and he began 
 to look towards a different quarter. Among the courtiers of 
 Elizabeth had lately appeared 
 
 Stop, stop, stop. Now you shall see how this carelessness 
 as to small facts panders to serious misrepresentations ; and 
 how circumstanceSj true in themselves, by being artificially 
 arranged in a false order of succession, can be made to tell a 
 false tale. But tell me first what is the tale which these 
 sentences tell ijou. I would not take advantage of a careless 
 expression. What do they seem to you to imply? 
 
 A. 
 
 It is plain enough, is it not ? The reviewer is going to 
 explain the origin of Bacon's attachment to the Earl of
 
 1 2 ErEXlXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 Essex. He had applied himself, lie tells us, to Burghley, as 
 the most powerful man in whom he had any interest, as long 
 as he hoped to get anything from him. Having now' fallen 
 under his displeasure by this opposition in parliament, he 
 could hope for no more ; and therefore applied himself to 
 his young rival. 
 
 B. 
 
 Just so. That no doubt was the impression which he 
 intended to convey. What should you say if Bacon's at- 
 tachment to Essex had commenced two or three years 
 before ; had commenced at a time when he had least reason 
 to despair of favour from Burghley ; at (or not long after) 
 the time when he obtained through him the reversion of the 
 Clerkship of the Star Chamber; and near about the time 
 which Macaulay himself assigns (though I believe wrongly) 
 as the date of his appointment as Queen's Counsel ? 
 
 I could only say that he is mistaken as to his facts, and 
 that his inference therefore falls to the ground. 
 
 B. 
 
 Well then, we do happen to know that Bacon had 
 attached himself to Essex, had in a singular manner 
 devoted himself to the service of Essex, some time before 
 February 1501-2. The date of the grant of the Clerkship 
 was (as you remember) October 1-389. His appointment as 
 Queen's Counsel was (according to the reviewer) in 15!)0. 
 The present occasion was in the spring of 1503. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then this point drops like- the rest. And I suppose we 
 may pass the next two pages, which relate to the character 
 of the Court factions, and have nothing to do with Bacon.
 
 EV3XIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. To 
 
 B. 
 
 Pass this, if you will. But I had something more to say 
 upon the last sentence. What was it that he had been 
 doing during the last twelve years ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Soliciting his powerful kinsmen with meek pertinacity. 
 
 Ay. I only wanted to remind you that there are but 
 five letters extant written to his powerful kinsmen during 
 those twelve years. Two of them were written in 1580 
 (which we have read) one a modest application to Lady 
 Burghley to stand his friend ; the other an equally modest 
 recommendation of himself to Lord Burghley. The third, 
 written about a month later, was a letter of thanks, not of 
 solicitation. The fourth was in 1586, the " patient and 
 serene " answer to the " testy refusal " and the lecture on 
 vanity, which we have also read. A fifth was written in 
 1591, in which he speaks of his " vast contemplative ends " 
 and his " moderate civil ends ; " aspires only to serve her 
 Majesty " in some middle place," which may enable him to 
 devote the rest of his time to those studies ; and (if this 
 may not be) talks of " selling his inheritance and purchasing 
 some lease of quick revenue," &c., and turning book-maker. 
 Letters of solicitation therefore in these twelve years we 
 know of only three ; to which add one other application 
 of the kind, either by word or by letter, which we know 
 passed but know no more about it. More may have passed ; 
 probably did. But these are all we hear of; all that remain 
 for evidence of this course of solicitation pursued " during 
 twelve years with such meek pertinacity." 
 
 A. 
 
 I do not feel bound to defend that expression. In the 
 next page I see it stated, that " Eobert Cecil sickened with 
 fear and envy as he contemplated the rising fame and in-
 
 <4 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEW I'. It. 
 
 fluence of Essex." Is there any ground for this imputation 
 besides the fact that they were rivals ? I have often 
 observed that among contemporaries feelings of this kind 
 are imputed as a matter of course to persons whose interests 
 clash, without any evidence whatever ; and I suppose 
 historians do the same. 
 
 13. 
 
 Robert Cecil and Essex were rivals for the Queen's 
 favour, and each wished to keep the other down. For fear 
 and envy, I do not suppose there was much to choose 
 between them. Essex, though open and declared, was not 
 candid or generous, in his enmities. Robert Cecil, though 
 somewhat given to secret scheming and undermining, has 
 not been charged (so far as I know) with any act of palpable 
 injustice towards Essex. Essex would not have lost an 
 opportunity to overbear Robert Cecil ; Robert Cecil would 
 no doubt have used occasions to undermine Essex. But for 
 my own part I never infer anything whatever from these 
 sweeping imputations of feelings and motives without evi- 
 dence ; unless perhaps that the writer himself would 
 under such circumstances have felt so. And in this par- 
 ticular case I take them to be merely devices of rhetoric 
 a point of art in composition. 
 
 But it is of no consequence. Pass on to the bottom of 
 the next page, in which he draws an estimate of Essex's 
 character. For that is important for the light it gives to 
 what follows. 
 
 A. 
 
 "Nothing in the public conduct of Essex entitles him to 
 esteem ; and the pity with which we regard his early and 
 terrible end is diminished by the consideration that he put 
 to hazard the lives and fortunes of his most attached friends, 
 and endeavoured to throw Ilie whole country into confusion for 
 objects purely personal." 
 
 15, 
 
 Yes. 1 want you especially to remark and remember 
 that sentence. I was going to say that in this (for once)
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 75 
 
 the fact is not overstated. But the word "endeavoured" is 
 too strong. It implies a worse intention than Essex can be 
 justly charged with. He would have been glad, and I dare 
 say did hope, to accomplish his ends without throwing the 
 country into confusion. But say he was prepared to do it, 
 or did not shrink from doing it, which is strictly true, 
 and the case is bad enough. It is of prime importance to 
 bear this in mind when we come to judge of Bacon's con- 
 duct towards him ; which is commonly judged as if the 
 question had merely been between his friend and his interest, 
 and not at all between a bad cause and a good one. But 
 of that presently. Only remember the reviewer's own 
 judgment here pronounced upon Essex's cause. 
 
 A. 
 
 It is a damning judgment upon his cause. But if the 
 man had so much good in him, I do not see why it should 
 diminish our pity for him. 
 
 B. 
 
 Nor I. Pity him as much as you will. Pity him for 
 ever and all the more because his cause ivas so bad. But 
 the question is not of pitying him, but of the propriety of 
 excusing or defending him. The reviewer seems to think 
 that though he is the less to be pitied now, he ought not 
 the less to have been defended then. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Still it is impossible not to be deeply interested for a man 
 so brave, high-spirited, and generous; for a man who, while ho 
 conducted himself towards his sovereign with a boldness which 
 Avas then found in no other subject " 
 
 B. 
 
 There the secret comes out ! He was not (in the 
 reviewer's opinion) a good patriot ; not even a good friend ; 
 his objects were purely personal, and for such objects he 
 was ready to sacrifice both friends and country. But he 
 had the magnanimity to treat the Queen with boldness.
 
 70 E VEXING S WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 And what kind of boldness? The boldness of a faithful 
 counsellor? Xo. He was never checked for that. But 
 with the boldness of a man who could not endure to be 
 reproved or slighted, or to see another man more powerful 
 or more favoured than himself. As if there were any virtue 
 in boldness where the ends are not virtuous which a man 
 seeks to carry by it ! But this is our reviewer's morality. 
 To be overbearing and violent in the pursuit of personal 
 power and wealth is honourable and interesting. To be 
 meek, submissive, and affectionate, in going without them, 
 is " abject," and " borders on meanness." 
 
 A. 
 
 Xo, no. You are unjust to Macaulay there. What he 
 admires in Essex is his conduct towards his inferiors. 
 
 " - for a man who, "while he conducted himself towards his 
 sovereign with a boldness which was then found in no other 
 subject, conducted himself towards his dependents with a 
 delicacy such as lias rarely been found in any other patron. 
 Unlike the vulgar herd of benefactors, lie desired to inspire 
 not gratitude but affection. IIu tried to make those whom, he 
 befriended feel towards him as towards an equal. His mind 
 ardent, susceptible, naturally disposed to admiration of all that 
 is great and beautiful was fascinated by the genius and 
 accomplishments of Bacon. A close friendship was soon form< d 
 between them ; a friendship destined to have a dark, a mourn- 
 ful, a shameful end." 
 
 B. 
 
 Setting aside the epithet " shameful " to be discussed 
 when we come to the particulars of the case, I subscribe to 
 the rest of this. Essex's bearing towards his dependents 
 deserves all the admiration which the reviewer bestows upon 
 it. It was very noble and beautiful ; and the only exception 
 I have to take to it is this: Though he wished to treat his 
 dependents as friends, yet he wished his friends to le de- 
 pendent. 1 wisli it could be .shown that he ever patronixcd 
 genius or virtue which was not enlisted in his own service. 
 
 However, 1 am far from wishing to depreciate Essex's
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIE WEB. 77 
 
 many noble qualities. Indeed I think more highly of him 
 than Macaulay does. For I believe that he did love his 
 country, and would have clone great things for it and for 
 mankind, if he had had calm weather and his own way. He 
 was only not great enough, or wise enough, or virtuous 
 enough, to be content with serving where he could not com- 
 mand. When his ambition and his duty clashed, he forgot 
 his duty. But though I admit that in this instance the 
 reviewer shows a sense of his good qualities, it is not the less 
 clear to me that he admires him also (if not still more) for 
 his faults. 
 
 A. 
 
 It does look rather like it. 
 
 "In 1594 the office of Attorney-General became vacant, and 
 Bacon hoped to obtain it." 
 
 B. 
 
 Say rather that early in February 1503, immediately 
 before the parliament business, the Mastership of the Rolls 
 became vacant, and was generally expected to be bestowed 
 upon Sir Thomas Egerton, who was then Attorney-General. 
 Bacon's friends hoped in that case that he would be made 
 Attorney-General. 
 
 A. 
 
 '" Essex made his friend's cause his own ; sued, expostu- 
 lated, promised, threatened, but all in vain. It is probable 
 that the dislike felt by the Cecils for Bacon had been increased 
 by the connexion he had lately formed with the Earl." 
 
 B. 
 
 It is likely enough that, if not his connexion with Essex 
 which was no new matter yet the manner in which Essex 
 took up his cause may have inclined the Cecils against him. 
 For as to any previous dislike of him, as here assumed, there 
 is no evidence of any such matter. It is not even certain 
 that in the first instance they opposed the appointment. I 
 found in the British Museum a letter from Sir Thomas Cecil
 
 78 Ll'jL'XlXGS WITH A HEV1EWER. 
 
 to Burghley, Sir Thomas was his eldest sou, recommend- 
 ing Bacon for the place of Attorney in terms which rather 
 exclude than imply any notion that the suit would be dis- 
 tasteful. And Sir Robert Cecil intimated to him, as early 
 as 16th April 1503, his " good opinion, good affection, and 
 readiness " to deal for him, in some cause which can hardly 
 have been any but this. And though I find no proof that 
 Burghley himself ever encouraged his suit for the Attorncij- 
 sliip, yet for the Solicitorvliip he certainly did ; and to en- 
 deavour to make a man of thirty-two Solicitor-General, can 
 hardly be called an unfriendly oflice. And as for his op- 
 posing or not encouraging his pretensions to the higher 
 office, we must remember that the manner in which Essex 
 took up the cause somewhat altered the nature of it ; making 
 the question to be, not whether Bacon or Coke should be 
 Attorney, but whether Burghley or Essex should be the 
 greater man. As Essex handled it, the appointment if made 
 must have been taken for his act. And it is possible enough 
 that Burghley was jealous of such an addition as this must 
 have been to Essex's greatness. All men would have been 
 for following the man whose influence at Court was great 
 enough to procure such an appointment for so young a 
 person as Bacon. 
 
 A. 
 
 ;i Jiobcrt was then on the point of being made Secretary of 
 State. lie happened one day to be in. the same coach with 
 Essex, and a remarkable conversation tuk place between them. 
 'My Lord,' said Sir Ilobert, 'the Oueen has determined to 
 appoint an Attorney-General without more delay. 1 pray your 
 Lordship to tell me whom yon will favour.' ' 1 wonder ;it yi>ur 
 question,' replied the Earl. ' Yuu cannot hut know that reso- 
 lutely against all the world J stand for your cousin, Francis 
 Bacon.' ' Good Lord! ' cried Cecil, unaMe to bridle his temper; 
 ' I wonder your Lordship should spend your strength upon so 
 unlikely a matter. Can you name one precedent of so raw a 
 youth promoted to so great a place? ' This objection came with 
 a. singularly bad grace' from a man who, though younger than 
 Bacon, was in daily expectation of being made Secretary of 
 State. The blot was too obvious to be misled b\- Kssex, wh
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 79 
 
 seldom forebore to speak his mind. 'I have made no search,' 
 said he, ' for precedents of young men who have filled the office 
 of Attorney -General. But I could name to you, Sir Robert, a 
 younger man than Francis, less learned and equally inex- 
 perienced, who is suing and striving with all his might for an 
 office of far greater weight.' Sir Robert had nothing to say but 
 that he thought his own abilities equal to the place he hoped to 
 obtain; and that his father's long services deserved such a mark 
 of gratitude from the Queen ; as if his abilities were compar- 
 able to his cousin's, or as if Sir Nicholas Bacon had done no 
 service to the State." 
 
 B. 
 
 There again a small piece of injustice done in passing 
 to Cecil. It is true that he pleaded his own competency for 
 the place (and there is no doubt that he was competent), 
 and his father's long services (which were in one respect at 
 least distinguished above those of Sir Nicholas, inasmuch as 
 they had lasted fifteen years longer), but this was neither 
 all nor the principal part of what he had to say in favour of 
 his pretensions, and as distinguishing his case from Bacon's. 
 The main points which he urged, according to the report 
 from which the narrative is drawn (which is the report of an 
 opponent, coming as it does from Essex himself through a 
 friend of the Bacons, and follower of the Earl), were the 
 school he had studied in, the great wisdom and learning of his 
 schoolmaster, and the pains and observations he daily passed in 
 that school. He had in fact from his earliest youth been in 
 special training under his father's eye for this very place ; 
 his capacity for it had been actually tried and proved ; and 
 his whole mind was devoted to the business and duties of it. 
 No such points could be alleged in favour of Bacon. Bacon 
 had not had the advantage of any special training for 
 Attorney-General, or of any such experienced schoolmaster. 
 He had not had opportunities either of practising or of 
 proving his qualifications for it. His head was known to be 
 full of other things. His qualifications as a lawyer were held 
 cheap by the most learned lawyer of the time, and were 
 indeed fairly questionable. The general opinion was (accord-
 
 80 iTT^YAvas WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 ing to the reviewer himself) that they were superficial. 
 Now if this had been true (and it was very natural that 
 Cecil should believe it, though I do not), there would really 
 have been no analogy between the two cases. Bacon's case 
 would have come nearer to Cecil's if Sir Nicholas had been 
 Attorney-General for the twelve years preceding, and he had 
 been Sir Nicholas's devil. 
 
 I am still carping at small things, you see. But it is the 
 small contributions that make the great sums. Well ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " Cecil then hinted, that if Bacon would Le satisfied with 
 the Solicitorship, that might be of easier digestion to the Queen. 
 ' Digest ine no digestions,' said the generous and ardent Earl : 
 ' the Attorney ship for Francis is what I must have. And in 
 that I will spend all my might, power, authority and amity ; and 
 with tooth and nail procure the .same for him against whomso- 
 ever. And whosoever getteth this office out of my hands for 
 any other, before he have it, it shall cost him the coming by. 
 And this be you assured of, Sir liobert, for now I will fully 
 declare myself. As for my own part, Sir ]{obert, I think 
 strange both of my Lord Treasurer and you that can have the 
 mind to seek the preference of a .stranger before so near a kins- 
 man ; for if you weigh in a balance the parts every way of his 
 competitor and him, only excepting five poor years of admitting 
 to a house of eouit before Francis, you shall find in all other 
 respects no comparison whatever between them.' " 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes. Remember that though 1 do not think it strange 
 that the Cecils should have thought Coke's claims on the 
 Attorneyship higher than Bacon's, and though I can easily 
 believe that it would have been more prudent in him to 
 waive those claims and aspire only to the Solicitorship (and 
 if so the Cecils were in fact his better friends,) yet I am far 
 from thinking that his obligations to Essex were the less on 
 that account. That Essex did in fact stand in the way of 
 liis fortunes, while- he was injudiciously endeavouring to 
 help them on, J am fully persuaded. But his gratitude 
 was due for the endeavour, not for the issue ; and Bacon
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 81 
 
 himself never dreamed of making any deduction on account 
 of the ill-success. But why not allow Essex the credit of 
 superior sagacity in discerning and estimating Bacon's 
 claims, as well as of eagerness in pressing them ? The 
 more inexcusable you make out the Cecils to be in not 
 taking up his cause, the less praise to Essex for taking it 
 up so warmly. 
 
 A. 
 
 " When the office of Attorney-General was filled up " 
 By the by, who after all was appointed ? 
 
 B. 
 
 No less a man than Edward Coke. He became Attorney- 
 General on the 10th of April 1594. 
 
 A. 
 
 Had he any particular connexions with the Cecils? 
 
 B. 
 
 Not that I ever heard of. I do not even know that the 
 Cecils favoured him. I fancy the Queen chose him, as 
 being the most distinguished lawyer of his time ; which 1 
 believe he was even then. He was in his forty-third year ; 
 was at the time Solicitor-General ; had been Speaker of the 
 House of Commons ; and had in that capacity done some 
 u'ood court-service bv giving the subsidy-bill a lift through 
 
 ~ >/ * ti 
 
 the " subtle putting of the question," by which according 
 - to Sir Simonds D'Ewes another division was avoided ; a 
 service likely enough to be remembered and to present 
 itself to the Queen's mind in contrast with the part taken 
 by Bacon upon the earlier stages of the same bill. Another 
 motive probably was the wish to show Essex that he was not 
 master. And a third, perhaps, that she could not quite de- 
 pend upon Bacon for going her way ; his conduct in the last 
 parliament being still fresh in her memory. The appoint- 
 ment was a very natural one ; why go so far out of the way 
 to prove that everybody acted unnaturally ? It was natural 
 VOL. i. G
 
 82 EI'X1NUS WITH A 1LE VIE \YEli. 
 
 and laudable in Essex to desire the advancement of Bacon ; 
 but there was no romantic generosity in it. He was under 
 great obligations to Bacon, though not for money. Bacon 
 was his ablest, honestest, most industrious, and most affec- 
 tionate counsellor; and was daily spending in his service 
 hours more precious than landed estates. By advancing 
 him he was not going to lose him, but to strengthen him 
 for his own help. In fact it would have been very strange 
 in Essex if he had not done what he could for him. The 
 more than common generosity apparent in the manner of 
 doing it, was only h : s way ; it belonged to the natural 
 impetuosity and intemperance of his character. On the 
 other hand, that Burghley should think the Solicitorship a 
 point high enough for him to aim at in the first instance 
 and more likely to be attained, cannot surely be taken as a 
 proof that he desired to keep him down. And if the Queen 
 did choose for her Attorney-General the man who was popu- 
 larly reputed the deepest and soundest lawyer among the 
 candidates, why should we infer that she was governed by 
 some malignant influence? Well? "When the office of 
 Attorney-General was filled up 
 
 A. 
 
 " When the office of Attorney-General was filled up, the 
 Earl pressed the Queen to make Bacon her Solicitor-General ; 
 and on this occasion the oL.l Lord Treasurer professed himself 
 not unfavourable to his nephew's pretensions." 
 
 B. 
 
 " Professed himself not unfavourable! " Surely he both 
 professed himself to be, and was, favourable. On the 27th 
 of August lijlK] he wrote to Bacon "I have attempted to 
 place you. But her Majesty hath required the Lord Keeper 
 to give to her the names of divers la\\ vers to be preferred, 
 wherewith he made me acquainted ; and I did name you as 
 a meet man ; whom his Lordship allowed in way of friend- 
 ship for your father's sake ; but he made scruple to equal 
 you with certain whom he named," &c. "But I icill
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 83 
 
 the remembrance of you to her Majesty, and implore my Lord 
 of Essex's help" Robert Cecil wrote the same day "To 
 satisfy your request of making my Lord know how recom- 
 mended your desires are to me, I have spoken with his 
 Lordship, who answercth he hath clone and will do his best." 
 Such was his profession. Is there any reason to doubt the 
 sincerity of it ? Quite the contrary. That he did recom- 
 mend him to the Queen we have the most unquestionable 
 evidence, the Queen's own words upon Essex's relation. 
 " She said (28th March 1594) none thought you fit for the 
 place but mij Lord Treasurer and myself. Marry, the 
 others must some of them say so before us for fear or 
 flattery." And again (18th May 1594), "She answered that 
 the greatness of your friends, as of my Lord Treasurer and 
 myself, made men give a more favourable testimony than 
 else they would do, thinking thereby they pleased us." And in 
 the many letters written by Bacon himself during his suit 
 for this office, there is not a syllable to be found which 
 implies any doubt of Burghley's good-will. The difficulty 
 here clearly lay with the Queen herself. And she certainly 
 did use Bacon ill on this occasion. 
 
 A. 
 
 She was a frugal Queen. She knew that she was sure of 
 his services, whether she advanced him or not. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes. And I admire him for it, but not her. She should 
 have known better than to keep such a mind as his waiting 
 upon fortune. There are very few minds that would not 
 have been ruined by it. 
 
 A. 
 
 "But after a contest which lasted more than a year and a 
 half, and in which Essex, to use liis own words, 'spent all his 
 power, might, authority, and amity,' the place was given to 
 another. Essex felt the disappointment keenly, Imt found 
 consolation in the most munificent and delicate liberality, lie 
 presented Bacon with an estate, worth near 2000, situated at
 
 84 YEX1XG$ WITH A HEVIEWEU. 
 
 Twickenham ; and this, as Bacon owned many years after, 
 1 with so kind and noble circumstances as the manner was more 
 than the matter.' " 
 
 13. 
 
 True : whatever Essex did was dune nobly, lie was a 
 thorough gentleman. For the thing itself, however. I 
 must confess it appears to me to have been made more of 
 than it deserves. During the last five or six years, Bacon 
 and his brother had been performing for Essex a kind of 
 services for which a thousand a year would not, now-a-days, 
 be thought very high pay ; and for which he had as yet 
 received, in money or money's worth, nothing whatever. 
 Such services were in those days paid for by great men not 
 in salaries but in patronage. They used their influence to 
 get their adherents good places. This Essex had indeed 
 most faithfully endeavoured to do for Bacon ; who com- 
 plained of nothing, asked for nothing, and perhaps wished 
 for nothing. But he had not succeeded. On the contrary 
 he himself believed (and whether he believed it or not it 
 was certainly a fact) that he had stood in the way of Bacon's 
 fortunes. Bacon lost the Solicitorship Iccause Essex urged his 
 claims so intemperately. In such a case, what more natural 
 than to feel that he owed him something ? All this time 
 the bounty of the Queen had been showered most plentifully 
 upon himself. How much he had received up to this exact 
 date I cannot say ; but only five years after he was reckoned 
 to have had from the Queen (besides the fees of his ofiices 
 and the disposition of great sums in her armies) not less 
 than 300,000, " in pure gift for his only use." Xow if he 
 believed that Bacon's services had deserved so well of the 
 State that not to reward him with a lucrative office like that 
 of Attorney-General was a great injustice ; if he had him- 
 self received so large a share of these services; and had at 
 the same time, for his own services, received so large a 
 reward out of the State-coffers; was it anything so very 
 extraordinary that he should think Bacon had a r'ujld to 
 some share in that reward? If 1 perform, with the help of
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 85 
 
 my friend, a service for which I receive a hundred pounds 
 and he receives nothing ; and if I fail to obtain for him an 
 additional fee proportionable to his labours in the service, 
 I can at least give him a share out of mine. Out of every 
 hundred pounds Essex made Bacon a present of six shillings. 
 It may have been an unusual piece of generosity, but surely 
 it was not an extravagant one. 
 
 A. 
 
 Did Bacon himself put it on that ground ? 
 
 B. 
 
 By no means. lie never (so far as I know) asked Essex 
 for sixpence. lie, as I told you, always gave his services, 
 never bargained for them or thought of appraising them. 
 But what he had too much liberality to remember, Essex 
 had too much liberality to forget. And it is our business 
 to remember it for him. 
 
 But, before we go further, let me call your attention to 
 a circumstance which I shall have occasion to remind you 
 of hereafter. This piece of liberality on the part of Essex 
 we shall hear a good deal more of. It is the substance 
 which has been made to throw a shadow over Bacon's whole 
 character ; and is, I believe, the ground upon which the 
 popular dislike of him chiefly rests. " The man who had 
 given him an estate worth nearly 2000, how could he 
 ever after say a word against him ? " Xow for my own 
 part I meet this question by another. When a friend of 
 mine makes me a valuable present, am I to consider it as 
 a bribe to buy off my opposition, or fee to retain me as his 
 advocate in all cases hereafter, how deeply soever I may 
 disapprove of his future conduct ? He may be impeached 
 for embezzling the public money, or for selling the public 
 interests ; I may be in parliament. Am I, because I once 
 received a present from him, to defend him in parliament, 
 or even to abstain from speaking against him ? Surely no 
 man will say so. It is not necessary that I should expressly
 
 86 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 warn him before I accept the favour, that it is not to be 
 considered as pledging me to follow him, support him, or 
 shelter him, in courses which I do not approve. All friend- 
 ships and all mutual duties of friendship are (as a matter 
 of course) subject to an implied understanding to that effect. 
 If indeed I accept the favour, knowing or having reason to 
 suspect that he is about to fall into any such courses, I am 
 to be blamed for accepting it. But I am not to be excused 
 even then for countenancing him when lie docs actually fall 
 into them. I shall not mend the first fault by making the 
 
 4.' O 
 
 second. My duty to truth and the public good was prior, 
 was and is superior, to any duty I may have subsequently 
 contracted on account of a private benefit. 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly, the second duty must give way to the first. 
 But was Essex's case one of the character you describe ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Of that we will speak when we come to it. Essex had 
 not as yet done anything which could make it wrong in the 
 most virtuous man to lay himself under an obligation to 
 him. Yet Bacon does seem even then to have feared that 
 such a thing might happen. In a letter to Essex, written 
 as I conjecture upon the final decision of the Queen to make 
 Sergeant Fleming her Solicitor, whether after or before 
 Essex had given him the Twickenham estate, I cannot say ; 
 possibly on that very occasion ; I find these remarkable 
 words:- "For your Lordship, I do think myself more 
 beholden to you than to any man. And I say I reckon 
 myself as a common ; not popular, but common : and as 
 much as is lawful to le enclosed of a common, so much your 
 Lordship shall be sure to have:" clearly intimating that 
 he could not bind himself to any man for services incom- 
 patible with his public duty, 1 could quote other passages 
 in his letters to Essex, written about or soon after this time, 
 which point to the possibility of such a case arising. But 
 what I want especially to call your attention to at this point
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 87 
 
 is the express warning which Bacon gave to Essex upon the 
 occasion of this very present of the Twickenham estate, - 
 which he has fortunately recorded. 
 
 A. 
 
 Did he record it at the time, or afterwards ? 
 
 13. 
 
 Afterwards, and from recollection. And therefore some 
 people may suspect his testimony as that of a man telling 
 his own story. Therefore it was that I quoted the letter 
 first, which was written long before he had anything to 
 explain or excuse, and has been preserved by accident, 
 not by any care of his own. I think you will see that there 
 is a natural coincidence between the two, which is the best 
 evidence of the accuracy of the story, to which I want you 
 now to listen. In his " Apology," after mentioning his own 
 labours in Essex's service, he says, " And on the other hand, 
 I must and will ever acknowledge my Lord's love, trust, 
 and favour towards me; and last of all his liberality; 
 having enfeoffed me of land which I sold for 1800 to 
 Mr. Reynold Nicholas, and I think was more worth ; and 
 that at such a time and with so kind and noble circum- 
 stances, as the manner was as much as the matter ; which, 
 though it be but an idle digression, yet because I am not 
 willing to be short in commemoration of his benefits, I will 
 presume to trouble your Lordship with relating to you 
 the manner of it. After the Queen had denied me the 
 Solicitor's place, for the which his Lordship had been a 
 long and earnest suitor on my behalf, it pleased him to 
 come to me from Richmond to Twickenham Park ; and 
 brake with me and said : ' 3fr. Bacon, the Queen hatli 
 denied me yon place for you and hath placed another ; I 
 know you are the least part of your own matter ; but you 
 fare ill because you have chosen me for your mean and 
 dependence ; you have spent your time and thoughts in 
 my matters : I die (these were his very words) if I do not 
 somewhat towards your fortune : you shall not deny to
 
 88 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 accept a piece of land which I will bestow upon you.' My 
 answer, I remember, was that for my fortune it was no great 
 matter ; but his Lordship's offer made me call to mind what 
 was wont to be said when I was in France of the Duke of 
 Guise, that he was the greatest usurer in France, because 
 he had turned all his estate into obligations ; meaning that 
 he had left himself nothing, but only had bound numbers 
 of persons to him. ' Now, my Lord,' said I, ' I would not 
 have you imitate his course, nor turn your estate thus by 
 great gifts into obligations, for you will find many bad 
 debtors.' He bade me take no care for that, and pressed 
 it : w r hereupon I said, ' My Lord, I see I must be your 
 homager and hold land of your gift. But do you know the 
 manner of doing homage in the law ? Always it is with 
 a saving of his faith to the King and his other Lords. And 
 therefore, my Lord,' said I, ' I can be no more yours than 
 I was : and it must be with the ancient savings : and if I 
 grow to be a rich man, you will give me leave to give it 
 back to some of your unrewarded followers.' " 
 
 Now if he did say this of which I have myself no 
 doubt, for I have not yet been able to detect him in a single 
 inaccurate statement, and it is in perfect harmony with all 
 that we otherwise know to have passed between them I do 
 not see how it was possible to make the conditions upon 
 which the gift was accepted more clearly and expressly 
 understood, or how he could have more effectually absolved 
 himself from any supposablo obligation to follow Essex 
 where he could not follow him without sacrificing what he 
 not only held but professed to hold a prior and superior 
 duty. Whether such a dilemma actually arose or not, I am 
 not now inquiring. The particular case we will consider 
 when it comes before us ; but in the mean time we may as 
 well agree as to the principle. What say you ? 
 
 A. 
 
 What, whether the receiving of a favour from a friend 
 binds you to him for evil as well as for good? Of course
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 89 
 
 not. Is not there a story somewhere in the " Spectator " of a 
 young man whose duty it was to defend his father in a bad 
 case ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes. He blushed or burst into tears, I think, and so 
 threw the case up ; the severest thing he could have done : 
 and he is always quoted as an example for other young men 
 to follow. Well, that is a case very much in point. And if 
 you and I agree so far, I can hardly doubt that we shall 
 agree further. But for the present we may as well stop 
 here ; it being the close of one of the most tiresome chapters 
 in Bacon's actual life, and one which you must have found 
 very tiresome in the discussion. 
 
 A. 
 
 You said, I think, that he attached himself to Essex, 
 before he had any reason to doubt the favour of Burghley ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Undoubtedly. 
 
 A. 
 
 And that he warned Essex in a pointed manner of the 
 limits to which his attachment could go ; as if he feared 
 even then that he might get into mischief ? 
 
 B. 
 
 At this time, the autumn of 1595, he certainly did. Th< j 
 letter which I quoted is enough to prove that, even if you 
 doubt the truth of the narrative which I have just read. 
 How soon he began to entertain such an apprehension I 
 cannot say. Most likely it came upon him gradually, as he 
 observed the growing impetuosity, ambition, imprudence, 
 and inconstancy of Essex's character, and saw that, though 
 he listened patiently and freely to advice, he did not mend 
 by it.
 
 90 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWEU. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then when ho first knew him, he foresaw only his rising 
 influence and greatness, I suppose ; and attached himself to 
 him as the most powerful patron. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bather, I should think, as the man with whom he had 
 naturally the greatest sympathy, and whom lie thought 
 most likely, should he attain great power (which he had a 
 fair path open for), to make a great use of it. Essex was 
 then only two or three and twenty. He had all the rudi- 
 ments of a truly great character, and his faults were, or 
 seemed to be, only the faults of youth. But as a patron, as 
 an advancer of other men's fortunes, he was not at all likely 
 to supersede Burghley. He was the prime personal favourite 
 at Court, and personal favours and honours were likely to be 
 lavished upon him : but it was well known (and to nobody 
 better than to Bacon) that Elizabeth, whatever else she 
 allowed her favourites to do, never allowed them to govern 
 her, or to govern for her. Whomsoever she kept about her 
 for amusement, pleasure, or affection, she always recurred to 
 Burghley for advice. That Bacon thought his personal 
 fortunes would grow faster under Essex's patronage than 
 under Burghley's it is very hard to believe. 
 
 A. 
 
 You do not mean that in transferring himself to Essex, 
 he was consciously and deliberately making a sacrifice of 
 them ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I do not say that: though I believe he was capable of 
 such a thing. But there was no occasion for it here. He 
 was not called upon, in devoting himself to Essex, to sacri- 
 fice his interest with Burghley. He never quarrelled with 
 Burghley : and though he could not but know that in at- 
 taching himself so affectionately to a vnun<r and formidable 
 
 / O
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 01 
 
 rival lie was not likely to improve his relations with him, he 
 never considered himself as detached from him. All I say 
 is, that if Bacon's sole object of ambition had been the 
 advancement of his own personal fortunes, he would have 
 had the wit to stick to Burghley. But on the other hand, 
 for that which really was the object of his ambition, for 
 the realization of his great visions of reform in Philosophy, 
 in Letters, in Church, in State, Essex, when he first 
 appeared in court, must have seemed like an instrument 
 sent from heaven. With a heart for all that was great, 
 noble, and generous ; an ear open to all freest and faithfullest 
 counsel ; an understanding to apprehend and appreciate all 
 wisdom ; an imagination great enough to entertain new 
 hopes for the human race ; without any shadow of bigotry 
 or narrowness ; without any fault as yet apparent except a 
 chivalrous impetuosity of character, the very grace of 
 youth, and the very element out of which, when tempered 
 by time and experience, all moral greatness and all extra- 
 ordinary and enterprising virtue derive their vital energy ; 
 he must have seemed in the eyes of Bacon like the Hope 
 of the World. Burghley was but the experienced pilot 
 who thoroughly understood the navigation of the narrow 
 seas ; Essex was, or seemed to be, a commissioned genius 
 for the discovery of new regions. What Burghley had in 
 him was known, and no more could be expected from him. 
 It must have seemed impossible to say what might not bo 
 expected of Essex. The proffered friendship and confidence 
 of such a inarj, what could Bacon do but embrace it as 
 frankly as it was offered ? Such a friend and counsellor 
 seemed to be the one thing which such a spirit stood in need 
 of. If Essex seemed like a man expressly made to realise 
 the hopes of a new world ; so Bacon may seem to have been 
 expressly made for the guardian genius of such a man as 
 Essex. 
 
 Well, it sounds all very fine. And I cannot oppose to 
 your doctrine anything better than the inertia of a sus-
 
 \)2 ' EVENINGS WITH A EEVIEWES. 
 
 pended judgment. Macaulay had it all his own way before ; 
 now you have it all your own way. So my only chance is to 
 be resolutely sceptical. 
 
 B. 
 
 Be so by all means as long as you can. I shall have you 
 
 /*/*! 
 
 on my side presently. In the mean time I ask neither credit 
 nor favour. Your ear and your understanding are all I 
 stipulate for. 
 
 A. 
 
 They will both be at your service to-morrow. Just now 
 they are both inclined to sleep.
 
 EVENING THE FOURTH. 
 
 A. 
 
 As we seem to have come to a landing-place, we had 
 better perhaps, before we go further, look back a little and 
 see where we are. 
 
 We left off, I think, in the autumn of 1595 ; Bacon being 
 in his thirty-fifth year ; rising in reputation every way ; a 
 Bencher of Gray's Inn for the last nine years, 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, and a Reader too. He was appointed Header in 
 1588 ; and during the last three or four years he had dis- 
 tinguished himself as a Pleader in two or three important 
 causes 
 
 A. 
 
 Highly recommended to the Queen by Burghley, Essex, 
 and Sir Thomas Egerton, and by the general opinion of the 
 Bar, as a fit candidate for one of the most important places 
 in his profession ; by the Queen herself trusted, employed, 
 and distinguished ; knight of the shire for Middlesex and 
 eminent as a speaker in Parliament ; but still very much 
 embarrassed in his circumstances ; as yet without any 
 lucrative office ; and just relieved by a final disappointment 
 from a most wearisome suit, in which he has been tempted 
 on by continual delusive encouragement for two years and 
 a half
 
 94 VEXIXGS WITH A 1U1V1EWEU. 
 
 B. 
 
 A suit (von may add) which lie lias boon prevented by an 
 express prohibition from the Queen herself from forsaking 
 nearly a year ago, and settling himself to more congenial 
 pursuits upon a scanty independence. For it is clear that 
 this was his deliberate intention in January 1501-5, as 
 imparted not only to the Earl of Essex but to his own 
 brother, in a letter which is evidently confidential. 
 
 A. 
 
 And ho is still on good terms with Burghley, and re- 
 ceiving great favours from Essex, and repaying them with 
 services of the most important character, services (you 
 say) undertaken as much with a vie\v to the public; good 
 as from interest or aflection ; and not extravagantly re- 
 warded by a piece of land worth more than 1800. 
 
 Certainly. Without at all undervaluing Essex's gene- 
 rosity, I hold that it left Bacon (especially as accompanied 
 with that express and prophetic warning) perfectly free to 
 do whatever he believed his public duty required. 
 
 Anything else ? 
 
 i;. 
 
 You cannot understand his position fully, without taking 
 into account his views and feelings with regard to Politics 
 and Philosophy; the interests of his country and the in- 
 terests of his kind. .Because (however strange it may seem 
 now-a-days that a man should devote himself to the public 
 service from any other motive than private interest) 1 am 
 convinced that if you could have seen into his mind duriii"- 
 thoo years, you would have found that in the secret aspira- 
 tions of his heart these things were to those but as the
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 95 
 
 means to the end ; the advancement of his private fortune 
 and name, the means ; his end, the advancement of his 
 kind among the creatures and his country among the 
 nations. 
 
 For in the first place with regard to his country, you are 
 to remember that both Church and State were still among 
 the breakers ; the Protestant religion exposed to the attacks 
 of a formidable league from without, under the disadvantage 
 
 o * o 
 
 of dissensions within ; the civil government beginning to 
 shako under the rising spirit of discontent and innovation, 
 which in less than fifty years after did actually overthrow 
 it; each in danger from whatever endangered the other; 
 and that too with the present prospect of a struggle for 
 ascendency among the court factions during Elizabeth's life, 
 (for Burghley could not live long,) and a disputed suc- 
 cession and struggle for the crown itself upon her death, 
 which could not now be far off; and if a man would be 
 ready to take the command in case of danger, he must be 
 prepared for it (you know) by rank as well as by ability : 
 And in the next place with regard to the advancement 
 of the human race among the creatures, you must not 
 forget that the " Instauration " which Bacon looked forward 
 to, was anything rather than a matter of talk and specu- 
 lation that might be delivered as well as conceived in a 
 private man's study. The Temporis Part us Maxinms the 
 design with which he had been labouring from his youth 
 was a tiling, as even then he conceived it, not to bo brought 
 about by the labours of a single man, much less of a needy, 
 obscure, and friendless man ; but one that required the 
 world for an audience, nations for fellow-labourers, princes 
 for patrons and paymasters. For this, as for all purposes 
 of honourable ambition but especially for this, which from 
 first to last was his great ambition of all, civil greatness, 
 the power of speaking from a far-seen and commanding 
 position, was an important, almost an indispensable, con- 
 dition. And it fortunately happens that fragments of his 
 actual labours during these years have been preserved 
 (though for the most part not by his own care) sufficient
 
 OG XVEXIXGS WITH A HEVJEWEIL 
 
 to show that in these things ho was no idle dreamer or 
 wisher, but an assiduous labourer and a diligent watcher 
 for opportunities to give affairs an impulse in the right 
 direction. 
 
 For his great enterprise upon the kingdoms of Nature, 
 an enterprise for no less an object than the recovery to Man 
 of what he believed to be his lost birthright, it was neces- 
 sary not only to conceive the plan of operations but to 
 muster the forces. And accordingly we find him at the age 
 of twenty-four composing the Temporis Part us ^laximns ; 
 a composition of which (though it be lost, or rather absorbed 
 in the works of his maturer age) we know thus much, that 
 it was a rudiment or first sketch of the great design. And 
 not many years after we find him looking about for means 
 to set the work on foot. " I have taken " (he writes to 
 Burghley in 1591) "all knowledge to be my province. 
 And if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the 
 one with frivolous disputations, confutations and verbosities, 
 the other with auricular traditions, and blind experiments 
 and impostures, hath committed so many spoils ; I hope 
 I should brinsz in industrious observations, grounded con- 
 
 O 3 O 
 
 elusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries ; the 
 best state of that province. This, whether it be curiosity, 
 or vain-glory, or nature, or, if one take it favourably, 
 philantliropia, is so fixed in me as it cannot be removed. 
 And I do easily see that place of any reasonable counte- 
 nance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a 
 man's own, which is the thing I greatly affect." And in- 
 deed what other chance had he of obtaining the requisite 
 co-operation? For who was young Francis Bacon that ho 
 should undertake to set right the world ? Long after, when 
 he had made himself known through all Europe as the 
 ablest man living, the popular impression with regard to 
 his philosophical speculations was only that he had "a 
 feather in his head." So his designs for the good of man- 
 kind were not a pretence or a dream, but a thing which he 
 was really about. 
 
 Then for the services which he could in those davs
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 97 
 
 render to the State, they must have been for the most 
 part done in Parliament, the records of which are scanty, 
 imperfect, and inaccurate ; or in private advices and me- 
 morials, of which few have been preserved ; or in personal 
 conferences with the Queen, of which we know nothing but 
 that she was in the habit of consulting him. Some foot- 
 prints, however, remain from which we may gather the 
 spirit in which he worked, the manner in which he watched 
 for and used opportunities, and the general character of 
 the policy which he advocated and would have carried into 
 operation had he had the power to direct. 
 
 The great political problem of the time was to keep the 
 several orders of the State in harmonious co-operation with 
 each other ; the nation at unity with itself ; to reconcile the 
 authority of the Crown with the liberty of the subject. And 
 accordingly we find him always acting not as a partisan but 
 as a mediator ; always forward in advocating a course which 
 should prevent any too curious inquiry into the exact limits 
 of the power of either party ; persuading the Commons on 
 the one hand to abstain from anything which should seem 
 
 / o 
 
 to pretend a limitation of the regal prerogative ; the Crown 
 on the other from anything which should provoke the 
 
 / o J. 
 
 Commons to try the extent of their privileges. Were there 
 grievances ? Turning to the Commons he said, Petition 
 for the redress of them as a favour, do not demand it as a 
 right. Turning to the Crown he said, Eemove the griev- 
 ance, and the question of the right will not be raised. 
 Were reforms called for ? Let the Crown itself be the 
 reformer. Take away the strength of the popular party 
 by doing their work for them. Re-compile the laws. Re- 
 move abuses. Do justice. Reward merit. Advance honesty 
 and ability. 
 
 Another difficult problem of the time was how to deal 
 with the then formidable body of Roman Catholics. And 
 on this point (if I am right in ascribing to Bacon a tract 
 which has been very improbably ascribed to Burghley) we 
 are fortunate in having a record of his sentiments at a very 
 early period. This tract was written at a time when the 
 
 VOL. I. II
 
 98 E\'EN1XGS WITH A HEV1E\\'E11. 
 
 life of the Queen was in continual danger from the plots of 
 that party. And what was his advice ? This, in sum : 
 Remove as much as possible all reasonable occasions of 
 discontent : Take away their weapons of offence ; but avoid 
 troubling their fortunes or their consciences so long as their 
 consciences do not require them to trouble the State : llelax 
 the rigour of the oath ; let them swear that they will resist 
 a foreign invader ; do not ask them whether the Pope lias 
 a right to invade ; it is enough if they are true subjects in 
 practice, do not insist upon points merely theoretical : Let 
 no man have the credit of martyrdom or of suffering for 
 conscience-sake : Seek to diminish their numbers by setting 
 on foot a better system of education, and by encouraging 
 zealous and persuasive preachers. 
 
 A third difficulty, closely connected with the last, was 
 how to counteract the impression produced upon the dis- 
 contented party both at home and abroad, by the many 
 libels and false statements which were in circulation, charg- 
 ing the Government with oppression and injustice. In 
 what manner he proposed to deal with these, we know from 
 his " Observations on a Libel published in 1592," and from 
 Walsingham's " Letter to Critoy," which was drawn up and 
 probably suggested by him. His method was simply to 
 set forth in semi-official style, plain, unvarnished, historical 
 statements of the course which had really been pursued, 
 with the grounds of it; confronting the falsehood with the 
 truth; a service for which in all cases his pen appears to 
 have been ready: and I am not aware that in any of his 
 many writings of this kind, a single false statement has as 
 yet been detected. 
 
 A fourth problem of the time, which he appears to have 
 had deeply at heart, was the reconcilement of Church con- 
 troversies. And upon this we have an exposition of his 
 views at large about the year 1589 ; in which he marches 
 up so directly to the seat of the disorder, points out the 
 sources, mischiefs, and remedies of all party dissension, and 
 urges the duty of mutual justice, tenderness, public spirit, 
 self-review, and self-reformation on either aide, with a
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 09 
 
 reason so unanswerable and in a spirit so modest, earnest, 
 serious, and persuasive, that if every man were to read it 
 through before he took up his pen or opened his mouth 
 upon a party question of any description, I believe the face 
 of Christendom would visibly change for the better. And 
 iii this no one can pretend to say that he had any personal 
 interest, in the vulgar sense of the word ; for it was out of 
 the line of his own profession, therefore could not lead to 
 the advancement of his private fortunes ; he was not called 
 upon to say a word about it either way ; and what he did 
 say was (as he well knew) not likely to ingratiate him 
 either with the Bishops or the Puritans, to promote either 
 his favour with the Court or his popularity with the multi- 
 tude : only he trusted that it " might find a correspondency 
 in their minds which were not embarked in partiality, and 
 which loved the whole better than a part ; wherefore he was 
 not out of hope that it might do good ; at the least ho 
 should not repent himself of the meditation." 
 
 But perhaps of all the particular reforms then under 
 consideration, that which he had most at heart was a reform 
 in the state of the Law. And in this also we have proof 
 that he was a diligent labourer according to his means and 
 opportunities. At the opening of the Parliament which met 
 in February 1592-3, the Lord Keeper had declared, as from 
 the Queen, that " it was not called for the making of new 
 laws or statutes ; for that there was already a sufficient num- 
 ber both of ecclesiastical and temporal : and so many were 
 there, that rather than burthen the subject with more to 
 their grievance, it were fitting an abridgment were made of 
 those there were already" Of this declaration (though it 
 may seem to have been intended rather to discourage the 
 Commons from meddling than to intimate any real design of 
 the kind) Bacon immediately took advantage to enlarge 
 upon the importance of such a proceeding. Nothing is 
 preserved of his speech but the first few sentences, and they 
 are inaccurately reported. But from the tenor of these it is 
 easy to see that his aim was to present the subject in the 
 same light in which all through his life he continued, as
 
 100 EVEX1SGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 opportunities offered, to urge it upon the attention of the 
 legislature ; the same in which thirty years after he pressed 
 it upon the King ; proposing in the leisure of his fallen 
 fortunes to undertake the task himself, and only laying it 
 aside because he could not, in those deserted days, obtain 
 the countenance and assistance requisite for the completion 
 of it. An abridgment and digest of the Law, however, 
 must necessarily have been the work of many hands, and he 
 could at this time do no more than urge the undertaking 
 and offer his own help. This he did, not only in the speech 
 to which I have alluded, but shortly afterwards in a letter to 
 the Queen herself (8th of January 1590-7), in which he 
 says: "But I am an unworthy witness to your 3lajesty of 
 an higher intention and project, botli by that which was 
 published by your Chancellor in full Parliament in the 35th 
 year of your happy reign, and much more by that I have 
 been vouchsafed to understand from your Majesty, importing 
 a purpose for these many years infused in your Majesty's 
 sacred breast, to enter into a general amendment of the 
 state of your laws and to reduce them to more brevity and 
 certainty, that the great hollowness and unsafety in the 
 assurances of lands may be strengthened; the snaring 
 penalties that lie upon many subjects removed ; the execu- 
 tion of many profitable laws revived ; the judge better 
 directed in his sentence, the counsellor better warranted in 
 his counsel ; the student cased in his reading ; the con- 
 tentious suitor that secketh but vexation disarmed, and the 
 honest suitor that seeketh but to obtain his right relieved; 
 which purpose and intention, as it did strike me with 
 great admiration when I heard it, so it must be acknow- 
 ledged to be one of the most chosen works, of highest merit 
 and beneficence towards the subject, that ever entered into 
 the mind of any King And though there be rare pre- 
 cedents of it in Government, as it cometh to pass in tilings 
 so excellent, there being no precedent full in view but that 
 of Justinian, yet I must say as Cicero said to Ca\sar, Nil 
 vulgare te diynum videri potent ; and as it is no doubt a 
 precious seed sown in your .Majesty's heart by the hand of
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 101 
 
 God's Divine Majesty, so I hope in the maturity of your 
 Majesty's own times it will come up and bear fruit." But 
 though towards a work of this nature he could not of himself 
 do more than urge the undertaking of it, something towards 
 the improvement of the Law he could do without help. 
 And it was on this occasion that he composed that specimen 
 of a collection of " Maxims of Law," i.e. " the rules and 
 grounds dispersed through the body of the laws," which was 
 printed after his death. This is in fact an essay towards 
 that very " Treatise de Regulis Juris" w 7 hich twenty years 
 after he pointed out as a desideratum, a thing "the most 
 important to the health and good institutions of any laws" 
 which he was himself then going on with, and which he 
 hoped, when completed, (which however it never was,) would 
 make it a question with posterity whether he or Sir Edward 
 Coke were the greater lawyer. For what reason, or by what 
 mischance, a work of which he thought so highly, both as to 
 its object and its execution, was not more carefully preserved 
 among his papers and bequeathed to the care of a competent 
 editor, I cannot guess. It was not published till four or five 
 years after his death, and was then sent into the world with- 
 out so much as a publisher's preface to say how the printer 
 came by the manuscript, or in what condition it was left. 
 It may be that what we have is more than that which he 
 presented to Elizabeth in 1590 ; it may be all that he ever 
 completed of it, and in the shape in which he ultimately left 
 it. From a passage in the preface to the paper as originally 
 drawn up, it would seem that the expositions of the "Maxims" 
 were then written in Law-French, which they are not in the 
 tract as we have it ; and he says himself in 1616 that it was 
 a work in which he had himself travelled "at first more 
 cursorily since more diligently." So it may be that the 
 publisher had it in its latest shape. One cannot tell. But 
 for our present argument the question is not material. 
 Anyhow, the " letter dedicatory " and the preface remain as 
 a sufficient proof that at this time he was actually labouring 
 in this field. He had collected three hundred maxims, and 
 had set forth a few of them in such form and with such ex-
 
 102 ErEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 positions as m'ght serve for a sample of the work which he 
 meditated and recommended. It is possible that the opinions 
 of those persons to whom the sample was submitted dis- 
 couraged him from proceeding at that time : for I suppose 
 lawyers were always lawyers : the Queen may have asked 
 her Attorney-General what he thought of it. And even the 
 worth of it as it stands, and the value of the design, our 
 modern authorities may possibly hold cheap. All I wish 
 you to bear in mind at present is, that in this as in all other 
 departments he was working hard to supply by his own 
 industry whatever he thought his country stood most in 
 need of. 
 
 How far he succeeded in furthering these various views 
 and objects, I cannot say. But if he failed, it was only for 
 want of that vantage-ground of power and reputation to 
 which he aspired. Whatever he went out of his path to do 
 or to advise tended that way ; and nothing that he did 
 tended any other way. Therefore when he professes to de- 
 sire advancement that he may be able to do his country 
 service, you cannot treat it as a mere colour and pretence on 
 his part ; nor is it a gratuitous and groundless assumption 
 on mine when I say that this was the primary motive of his 
 ambition. I do not say that he had not other motives, 
 besides, supplementary and collateral. To be able to pay 
 his dfbts without sacrificing his leisure or selling his in- 
 heritance, was one motive. To have the pleasure of seeing 
 his talents and industry bear their proper fruit was another. 
 And so on. Every advantage which his course led to was 
 in some sense a motive, that is, he foresaw it and wished 
 for it. But when I see that a man cannot serve his country 
 without rank and power, and that what rank and power ho 
 has he does use for the good of his country, I give him 
 credit for desiring the rank in order that he may do the 
 good. 
 
 A. 
 
 But where do you find all this? for the reviewer says 
 nothing about it.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 103 
 
 B. 
 
 You will find it ill the Parliamentary Journals, and the 
 tracts which I have mentioned ; scanty and imperfect 
 records, I grant; where the intention and the purport must 
 sometimes be gathered by inference and presumption. But 
 the foot-prints (as I call them), though few and scattered, 
 lie all in one direction. Xot one that I can find or hear of 
 points any other way. Therefore I presume that was the 
 direction in which lie was going. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, at any rate one cannot reasonably quarrel with a 
 man for desiring to rise in his profession, so long as he uses 
 no unfair means ; or for seeking place and power so long as 
 he makes no ill use of them. 
 
 But now let us see what more the reviewer has to say. 
 
 " It was soon after these events that Bacon first appeared 
 before the public as a writer. Early in 1597 he published a 
 small volume of Essays, which was afterwards enlarged by 
 successive editions to many times its original bulk. This little 
 work was, as it well deserved to be, exceedingly popular. It 
 was reprinted in a few months. It was translated into Latin, 
 French and Italian ; and it seems at once to have established 
 the literary reputation of its author." 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes ; it was popular in England from the first, and may 
 possibly have "established his literary reputation; " though 
 in an a^e when there were no reviews and no circulating 
 
 O O 
 
 libraries, it was not so easy to say whose literary reputation 
 was established, and whose not. The translations were not 
 made till long after his reputation had been established on 
 quite other grounds. The earliest was the French, in 1018, 
 long after the publication of the '''Advancement of Learning," 
 the " Wisdom of the Ancients," and the second edition of the 
 " Essays " themselves ; after he had become celebrated both 
 in Parliament and in the Courts and in the Star Chamber 
 as the greatest orator of his time ; after lie had been succes-
 
 104 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 sively Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, Privy Councillor, 
 Lord Keeper, and Lord Chancellor ; after the " Cogitata et 
 Visa" and other rudiments of the Instauratio Magna had 
 been, though not published, yet circulated privately among 
 the learned men both in England and abroad. The trans- 
 lation into Italian was published in the year following ; and 
 the translation into Latin (which had been prepared under 
 his own direction a year or tsvo before his death) was not 
 published during his life. So that you see even in a trifle 
 like this, your friend cannot state the case with real fairness; 
 but must still be putting distant things together in order to 
 produce a false show of vigour. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, never mind all that. No doubt the " Essays " con- 
 tributed to increase Bacon's reputation. 
 
 " But though Bacon's reputation rose, his fortunes were still 
 depressed; lie was in great pecuniary difficulties; and on ono 
 occasion was arrested in the street at the suit of a goldsmith fur 
 a debt of 300/., and was carried to a sponging-house in Colenian 
 Street." 
 
 B. 
 
 True. And it will be as well to remember this, if the 
 question should arise whether advancement in his profession 
 Avas an object of real importance to him or not. Even a 
 philosopher, when he is in debt, must be allowed to work 
 for money. This, by the way, was in 1598. 
 
 A. 
 
 "The kindness of Essex was in the mean time indefatigable. 
 In 1596 he sailed on his memorable expedition to the coast of 
 Spain. At the very moment of his embarkation lie wrote to 
 several of his friends, commending to them during his own 
 absence the interests of Bacon." 
 
 B. 
 
 True again. This was in contemplation of a vacancy in 
 the Mastership of the liolls, Sir Thomas Egerton, who then
 
 EVENINGS- WITH A REVIEWER. 105 
 
 held it, having been newly advanced to be Lord Keeper. 
 Bacon's friends hoped to procure this office for him ; and a 
 great pity it was that they did not succeed. But Egertou 
 continued to hold both. Bacon, it is to be observed, did not 
 make any application for it on his own behalf. 
 
 A. 
 
 Is it known that he did not, or merely not known that 
 he did ? 
 
 B. 
 
 As far as a negative can be proved in such a case, I think 
 one may say it is known that he did not. 
 
 A. 
 
 And why not ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I suppose he thought that, as his circumstances and 
 qualifications were known to all the parties concerned, it 
 would be offered to him if he were thought fit to hold it. 
 He had nothing to say for himself except what they all 
 knew. 
 
 A. 
 
 " He returned after performing the most brilliant military 
 exploit that was achieved "by English arms during the long 
 interval which elapsed between the battle of Agincourt and that 
 of Blenheim. His valour, his talents, his humane and generous 
 disposition had made him the idol of his countrymen, and had 
 extorted praise even from the enemies whom he had conquered. 
 He had always been proud and headstrong, and his splendid 
 success seems to have rendered his faults more offensive than 
 ever. But to his friend Francis he was still the same. Bacon 
 had some thoughts of making his fortune by marriage ; and 
 had begun to pay court to a widow of the name of Hatton. 
 The eccentric manners and violent temper of this woman made 
 her a disgrace and torment to her connexions. But Bacon was 
 not aware of her faults, or was disposed to overlook them for 
 the sake of her ample fortune. Essex pleaded his friend's 
 cause with his usual ardour. The letters which the Earl ad-
 
 10G EVENIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 dressed to Lady Hatton and her mother are still extant, and are 
 highly honourable to him. ' If (he wrote) she were my sister or 
 my daughter, I protest I would as confidently resolve to further 
 it, as I now persuade you.' And again, ' Jf my faith Lo any- 
 thing, I protest, if I had one as near me as she is to you, I had 
 rather match her with him than with men of far greater titles.' 
 The suit, happily for Bacon, was unsuccessful. The Lady was 
 indeed kind to him in more ways than one. She rejected him, 
 and she accepted his enemy. She married that narrow-minded, 
 Lad-hearted pedant, Sir Edward Coke, and did her Lest to 
 make him as miserable as he deserved to Le." 
 
 Have you any objection to any of this ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Ko. I never interfere with matrimonial arrangements, or 
 with quarrels between man and wife. Sir Edward Coke and 
 Lady Hatton were a rough, wrangling couple. But one does 
 not know what either of them might have turned out bad 
 
 o 
 
 they been differently matched. Each of them required a 
 mate with good temper for two. Lady Hatton was a woman 
 of talent, and I believe of beauty ; and might for anything 
 one can tell have been no bad wife for Bacon, whose charac- 
 teristic weakness it was to be an over-indulgent master, that 
 could never find it in his heart to be strict or angry with a 
 servant. If lie could have kept her temper in order for her, 
 she would have kept liis household and finances in order for 
 him. But this is an idle speculation. There is no doubt 
 that Essex's letters on this occasion to her father and mother 
 (for there is none addressed to herself) were in the highest 
 degree honourable both to himself and his friend. 
 
 A. 
 
 " The fortunes of Essex had HOAV reached their height and 
 began to decline, lie possessed indeed all the qualities that 
 raise men to greatness rapidly; but he had neither the virtues 
 nor the vices which enable men to retain greatness long. Jlis 
 frankness, his keen sensibility to insult and injustice, were by 
 no means agreeable to a sovereign naturally impatient of oppo- 
 sition, and accustomed during forty years to the most extra-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 107 
 
 vngant flattery and the most abject submission. The daring 
 and contemptuous manner in which he bade defiance to his 
 enemies excited their deadly hatred. His administration in 
 Ireland was unfortunate, and in many respects highly blamable. 
 Though his brilliant courage and his impetuous activity fitted 
 him admirably for such, enterprises as that of Cadiz, he did 
 not possess the caution, patience, and resolution necessary for 
 the conduct of a protracted war, in which difficulties were to 
 be gradually surmounted, in which much discomfort was to be 
 endured, and in which few splendid exploits could bo achieved. 
 For the civil duties of his high place he was still less qualified. 
 Though eloquent and accomplished, he was in no sense a states- 
 man. The multitude, indeed, still continued to regard even his 
 faults with fondness. But the Court had ceased to give him 
 credit even for the merit which he really possessed. The person 
 on whom during the decline of his influence 
 
 B. 
 
 Wait a moment. For though much of this is true, and 
 
 o * 
 
 none of it directly false, yet it is put together so skilfully 
 shall I say, or unskilfully ? that I am convinced it would 
 convey a wrong impression as to the occasion and process of 
 Essex's fall. The last words especially " during the de- 
 cline of his influence " do not properly describe his case. 
 His influence did not decline, but fell flat. When he went 
 out to Ireland, his influence was at its height. He had 
 stipulated for larger powers than had ever been given to 
 any one in such a case ; and all he stipulated for had been 
 granted. And though the continual delay from month to 
 month of the enterprise for which he was specially sent 
 out must no doubt have diminished the Queen's confidence 
 (she is said to have exclaimed in anger that "she was 
 allowing him a thousand pounds a month to go a progress ' ) 
 yet his influence can hardly be said to have declined, till 
 after the termination of that enterprise in a treaty so dis- 
 advantageous that it might almost be termed a victory for 
 the rebels. For it was as late as the middle of July that 
 he had authority granted him to raise 2000 men in Ireland 
 in addition to the large force (upwards of 14,000) that had 
 been sent out with him from England. Upon the failure
 
 108 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 of the enterprise, which was in September, he received from 
 the Queen a severe reprimand and an injunction not to 
 leave his post without leave. By the end of that month 
 he was over in England in direct disobedience to that in- 
 junction, and committed to his chamber for contempt. This 
 was the end "of his influence. And the period which the 
 reviewer is going to speak of should properly be described, 
 not as the dec-line of his influence, but as the time of his 
 disgrace. Well? "The person on whom," from the time 
 when he returned in disgrace, that is to say, the end of 
 September 1599, what of this person ? 
 
 " The person on whom he chiefly depended, to whom ho 
 confided his perplexities, whose advice he solicited, whose inter- 
 cession he employed, was his friend Bacon." 
 
 B. 
 
 Stop once more. Here again our dates are all in con- 
 fusion. But this is a more serious matter. There had leen 
 a time when all this was true ; when Essex did, in the 
 many troubles and reverses which checkered his prosperity, 
 depend chiefly upon Bacon ; when he confided to him his 
 perplexities and solicited his advice; and would probably 
 have employed his intercession had he needed it. But we 
 happen to know that this kind of confidence had ceased 
 between them for nearly two years. "For some year and 
 a half before his Lordship's going into Ireland," Bacon had 
 not (as ho himself expressly declares) " been called nor 
 advised with as in former times." Shortly before his going, 
 Essex did indeed solicit his advice, but altogether neglected 
 to take it; and there are no traces of any further com- 
 munication between them until his return. Upon the nc\vs 
 of his return, sudden, against orders, and with the objects 
 of his mission all unaccomplished, Bacon desired to speak 
 with him ; and again advised him as earnestly and as wisely, 
 but as ineffectually, as before, how to bear himself in this 
 now conjuncture. Immediately after this interview followed
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 109 
 
 his restraint (first to his own chamber at Court, then to the 
 Lord Keeper's, and afterwards to his own house), which 
 lasted from the beginning of October to the latter end of 
 July following ; during which time no communication can 
 well have taken place between them ; for Essex (though he 
 seems to have been in secret communication with his dis- 
 loyal and violent advisers) did not openly converse with 
 anybody. When at length he was set at liberty Bacon once 
 more offered his services, and they were accepted. This 
 was on the 20th July 1600. From this time Bacon did 
 indeed consult with him, advise him, draw up letters for 
 him, and do his utmost to bring him again into favour with 
 the Queen. But did Essex on his part open his heart and 
 confide his perplexities to Bacon ? Far indeed from it ! 
 When he ceased (now some three years ago) to consult with 
 Bacon, he had begun to open his heart to a very different 
 set of counsellors, and to meditate designs altogether in- 
 communicable to an ear like his. What purposes he was 
 revolving when he undertook his mission into Ireland, it 
 would perhaps be rash to pronounce. But there can be no 
 doubt as to those which he had learned, if not to intend, at 
 least to entertain, before he came away. There can be no 
 doubt that, at as early a period as that, he had deliberately 
 contemplated the alternative of making his peace with the 
 Queen by force of arms, if ho could not do it by force of 
 argument. He had in fact gone so far as to communicate 
 to his two most intimate friends (the Earl of Southampton 
 and Sir Christopher Blunt) a formed intention to laud in 
 Wales with 2000 men and march up to London, gathering 
 force by the way. That particular intention he did indeed 
 by their advice abandon ; but he did not abandon the 
 general design of using force to regain favour ; and though 
 he left the companies behind, he took with him the cap- 
 tains. Daring the long interval of his restraint in free 
 custody, with continual hope of being restored to favour, it 
 is true that he did not attempt any violence. But even 
 during all that time he appears to have been engaged in 
 intrigues with a view to some such issue. He even went
 
 110 FVm~7S 117777 A 
 
 so far as to enter into negotiations with the King of Scot- 
 land for the joining of some Scotch forces with 8000 men 
 of the Irish army, to be lauded by the help of Lord 
 Moimtjoy in Wales, with the professed object of com- 
 pelling Elizabeth to nominate James as her successor ; a 
 project which was abandoned, not upon his own better con- 
 sideration, but because 3Iountjoy, after being appointed to 
 the charge in Ireland and finding what was to be done 
 there, would no longer listen to it. And thus by good luck, 
 though so much combustible matter was lying about, no 
 fire broke out while he continued under restraint. After 
 his liberation he seems indeed to have been willing to take 
 the chance of what Bacon's good offices might be able to 
 effect ; but it was only with the view of keeping both issues 
 of the game in his hands, so that either way he might be 
 a winner. For he never shut his ear to his other counsellors, 
 or abandoned the thought of using force in case he could 
 not get what he wanted without it. There is very good 
 evidence to show that he was engaged in practices for that 
 purpose as early as August 1600, which was the next month 
 after he was finally discharged from custody. At this 
 time therefore, though I admit that he solicited Bacon's 
 advice and employed his intercession, I utterly deny that 
 he trusted him, depended upon him, or confided his per- 
 plexities to him. lie never confided to him either what he 
 had done, or what he was then meditating to do. To Bacon, 
 almost as much as to the Queen, he was playing a part. 
 To Bacon he was the submissive, devout, secluded penitent, 
 desiring only restoration to the Queen's favour. To 
 Southampton, 31ountjoy, Blunt, Jhivcrs, Cuffe, he was the 
 aspiring malcontent meditating his reinstatement by some 
 act of violence. And good reason he had for his dissimu- 
 lation. Knowing Bacon as ho did and remembering the 
 constant tenor of his counsels, he must have felt that to 
 confide to him such "perplexities" as these, would lie to 
 break off all intercourse between them at once. Jle could 
 not have uttered them for shame. Bacon could not have 
 listened to them for horror.
 
 EVENIXGS WITH A HE VIEWER. Ill 
 
 A. 
 
 You are ready to produce your authorities for all these 
 statements ? 
 
 13. 
 
 Quite ready. I rely for all of them upon the evidence 
 of contemporary documents. 13ut go on now. We shall 
 probably have to discuss them more in detail presently. 
 
 A. 
 
 " The lamentable truth must be told. The friend, so loved, 
 no trusted, bore a principal part in ruining the Earl's fortunes, 
 in shedding his blood, and in blackening his memory." 
 
 B. 
 
 This also we shall have to discuss presently in detail. 
 Therefore I will let it pass now, only with an emphatic 
 contradiction of every proposition which the sentence con- 
 tains. So far from admitting- that Bacon bore a principal 
 part either in ruining the Earl's fortunes, or in shedding his 
 blood, or in blackening his memory, I deny most positively 
 that Essex suffered any one thing either in purse, person, or 
 fame, which he would not have suffered had Bacon never 
 been born, or even had he joined his party and shared his 
 guilt, 
 
 A. 
 
 This might be so, and yet Bacon might be said to have 
 borne a principal part in the proceedings Avhich had all 
 these results. 
 
 B. 
 
 As the hangman may be said to bear a principal part in 
 an execution, though if he threw his part up the execution 
 would nevertheless proceed. The qualification is surely a 
 material one; and even in that sense I should be disposed 
 to deny that Bacon bore a principal part in the ruin of 
 Essex. But go on now ; we will talk of that presently.
 
 112 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 " But let us bo just to Bacon. Wo believe that to the last, 
 lie had no wish to injure Essex. Nay, we believe that he sin- 
 cerely exerted himself to serve Essex so long as he thought he 
 could serve Essex without injuring himself." 
 
 B. 
 
 He served him much longer than that. But go on. 
 
 A. 
 
 " The advice which he gave to his noble benefactor was 
 generally most judicious. Ho did all in his power to dissuade 
 the Earl from accepting the government of Ireland. 'For,' 
 Kays he, ' I did as plainly seo his overthrow chained as it were 
 by destiny to that journey, as it is possible for a man to ground 
 a judgment upon future contingents.' The prediction was 
 accomplished. Essex returned in disgrace. Bacon, attempted 
 to mediate between his friend and the Queen ; and we believe 
 honestly employed all his address for that purpose. But the- 
 ta.sk which he had undertaken was too difficult, delicate, and 
 perilous, even for so wary and dexterous an agent. He had to 
 manage two spirits equally proud, resentful, and ungovernable. 
 At Essex House he had to calm the rage of a young hero in- 
 censed by multiplied wrongs and humiliations 
 
 13. 
 
 What wrongs? Only the loss of favour and influence, 
 and the restraint of his person (in no harsh or unusual 
 manner), consequent not upon the neglect merely of his 
 instructions and miscarriage of his undertaking, but upon 
 the abandonment of his post in direct disobedience to a 
 positive command. 
 
 A. 
 
 " And then to pass to Whitehall for the purpose of soothing 
 Ihc peevishness of a sovereign, whoso temper, never very gentle, 
 had been rendered morbidly irritable by age, by declining 
 health, and by the long habit of listening to flattery and exact- 
 ing implicit obedience. It is hard to serve two masters."
 
 EVENINGS WITH A BE VIE WEB. 113 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon hnd only one master. To serve both the Queen 
 and the Earl truly and faithfully, WHS not hard; for that 
 which would have been best for each would have been best 
 for both. It was hard only to obtain acceptance from both 
 as a true servant. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Situated as Bacon was, it was scarcely possible for him to 
 shape his course so as not to give one or both of his employers 
 reason to complain. For a time he acted as fairly as in circum- 
 stances so embarrassing could reasonably be expected." 
 
 B. 
 
 For a time ? I wish he had stated how long. 
 
 A. 
 
 " At length he found that while he was trying to prop the 
 fortunes of another, he was in danger of shaking his own." 
 
 B. 
 
 At length ? I wish he had said how soon. For there 
 can be no doubt that he saw that danger from the beginning. 
 
 'He had disobliged both the parties whom he wished tu 
 reconcile. Essex thought him wanting in zeal as a friend ; ' 
 
 B. 
 
 Did he indeed ? I never heard that before. On what 
 ground could he possibly think him wanting in zeal, unless 
 he thought it the duty of a friend to join him in his con- 
 spiracy? And though one is obliged to believe many 
 things of Essex in this unhappy business which one would 
 gladly think incredible. T still hope that one need not 
 believe this. 
 
 VOL. I. i
 
 114 EVENING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Essex thought him wanting in zeal as a friend ; Elizabeth 
 thought him wanting in duty as a subject. The Earl looked 
 upon him as a spy of the Queen 
 
 B. 
 
 Did lie ? That again is quite a new suggestion, and, so 
 far as I can discover, totally without foundation. No such 
 suspicion is hinted at anywhere in the correspondence ; and 
 indeed it seems totally incompatible with the relation which 
 at the time we arc speaking of subsisted between them. 
 The Earl knew him to be a good subject of the Queen ; 
 therefore could not confide to him his own bad thoughts and 
 purposes. But he could not fur a moment doubt the earnest- 
 ness of his desire to effect a reconciliation between the 
 Queen and him. 
 
 A. 
 
 " The Earl looked on him as a .spy of the Queen, the Queen 
 as a creature of the Earl." 
 
 B. 
 
 No, no. Not a creature. Such a thought never entered 
 her head. She thought him too devoted in his attachment. 
 Put it thus. " The Earl knew that he would be true to the 
 Queen, the Queen that he would be toivler to the Earl." 
 
 A. 
 
 "The reconciliation which he had laboured to effect appeared 
 utterly hopeless. A thousand signs, legible to eyes far less keen 
 than his, announced that the fall of his patron was at hand." 
 
 B. 
 
 I must trouble you again witli date?,. Wlicn did it first 
 become clear that Essex's fall was at hand ? I doubt whether 
 there was any time before the last fatal outbreak (\\liich 
 overthrew all at once), when Essex had it not iu his own 
 power to recover his favour with the Queen. It was only to
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 115 
 
 be what he was trying to seem, a loyal subject, really sorry 
 for what he had done ill, and really desirous of doing better. 
 To be this, and to be quiet, was all the art he needed. It is 
 true that some three months before his final outbreak, it 
 had become but too evident that he was not in a temper to 
 try this plan. And it may be that Bacon at that time 
 began to despair of effecting the reconciliation for which 
 he was still labouring. But it is certain that he did not 
 begin to despair of it earlier than October 1600. Therefore 
 if I consent to let the last sentence pass, it must be as quali- 
 fied by the addition of this date. 
 
 A. 
 
 We will date it by all means, if you are sure your date 
 is accurate. 
 
 " He shaped his course accordingly." 
 
 B. 
 
 That is to say, after he saw that the fall of his patron 
 was at hand (whose fortunes he had hitherto been trying to 
 prop), " he shaped his course accordingly " meaning that 
 he altered his course. Now I wonder in what respect he 
 altered his course in or about October 1600. 
 
 A. 
 
 " When Essex was brought before the Council to answer for 
 his conduct in Ireland, Bacon, after a faint attempt to excuse 
 himself from taking part against his friend, submitted to the 
 Queen's pleasure, and appeared at the Bar in support of the 
 charges." 
 
 B. 
 
 Hollo ! Where are we now ? Why that was at least 
 four months ago. That was on the 5th of June 1600, 
 while Essex w 7 as still in restraint, six weeks and more 
 before his liberation ; a time when, so far from thinking 
 his case desperate, Bacon thought the prospect of a recon- 
 ciliation more hopeful than ever ; a time when, so far from
 
 116 XyESlSGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 having failed in his endeavours to bring such reconciliation 
 about, he had not yet had an opportunity of commencing 
 them ; when, so far from forsaking Essex's cause, lie was 
 just going to enter upon that course of mediation which the 
 reviewer has been describing "honestly employing all 
 his address " alternately to calm the rage of the young hero 
 and soothe the peevishness of the old Queen, and getting 
 looked on for his pains by the one as a spy, by the other as 
 a creature. 
 
 A. 
 
 "Well, but he did appear in support of the charges 
 against Essex. You cannot dispute that. And what matters 
 it whether the act of treachery was committed in June or in 
 October ? 
 
 B. 
 
 If vou are sure that it was an act of treacherv, nothing 
 
 ti v ? 
 
 But if there be any doubt as to the nature of the act, it may 
 matter very much. "Why do you call it an act of treachery ? 
 Because- the reviewer tells you that it was done upon a reso- 
 lution to new-shape his course when he found that his 
 friend's fortunes were desperate and his own in clanger. 
 But if I can show to the contrary that it was done at a 
 time when he was not only most in hope of his friend's 
 fortunes, but actually using his best endeavours, at the 
 hazard of his own, to re-establish them. I suppose you will 
 allow me to doubt whether it was dune with a treacherous 
 intention. Bacon himself says that he hoped that proceed- 
 ing before the Council would be an end of the quarrel 
 between the Queen and the Earl ; that he consented to take 
 a part in it, not only because it was his duty to do so if 
 required ; but because, the better odour he kept in with the 
 Queen, the more effectually would he be able to perform 
 the office of a mediator between them; and that this ofiiee 
 he did actually set about the very next day. The reviewer 
 on the other hand supposes that lie consented to appear on 
 that occasion against the Earl, not as hoping to serve his
 
 El'EXINGS WHH A REVIFAYEE. 117 
 
 cause the better afterwards, but as having made up bis 
 mind to abandon it for desperate. Now though we cannot 
 know Bacon's motives except from himself, we do know that 
 for three months immediately following he was in fact en- 
 deavouring all he could to reinstate the Earl in the Queen's 
 favour, and was in that endeavour risking his own fortunes. 
 Which of the two will you believe ? Surely you can have 
 no hesitation in accepting the story with which all the 
 dates, and all the recorded facts otherwise ascertainable, 
 agree which is Bacon's ; and in rejecting that with which 
 they all disagree, which is Macaulay's. 
 
 A. 
 
 You are sure that it was after the proceeding before the 
 Council that Bacon's attempts at mediation were made ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Not all of them. He had been making such attempts 
 according to his opportunities all along. But that the 
 principal of them were made after, there can be no doubt. 
 The proceeding before the Council was on the 5th of June, 
 before Essex was discharged from custody. 
 
 A. 
 
 And you are sure that his endeavours at mediation 
 were sincere ? 
 
 Essex thought so ; for he employed him as an intercessor. 
 The reviewer thinks so ; for he says they were such as made 
 the Queen take him for a creature of the Earl. But the 
 best evidence is the tenor of the letters which he drew up. 
 The intention with which they were drawn up speaks for 
 itself and cannot be mistaken. There can be no doubt 
 whatever that his endeavours were sincere. Indeed what 
 else but a desire not only sincere, but anxious and eager, 
 to bring about a reconciliation, could have induced him to 
 meddle in such a matter at all ?
 
 118 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then how after all did these endeavours miscarry ? 
 When and why did Bacon turn against the Earl ? 
 
 B. 
 
 How the reconciliation came to miscarry, I am not sure 
 that Bacon himself could have told you, more than that it 
 was by no fault of his. And as for turning against the Earl, 
 the Earl, by taking a course which it was utterly im- 
 possible to defend or excuse, left him no choice. This we 
 shall come to presently. In the mean time I will trouble you 
 with one more date, which happens to be preserved and 
 throws some light on the history of Essex's miscarriage ; 
 the date, I mean, of that visible change in the Queen's 
 feelings towards Essex when his restoration to favour began 
 to seem hopeless, and Bacon's friendly intercessions in his 
 behalf began to be looked on with dislike and suspicion. 
 Bacon's own account of the matter is as fullows : " The 
 truth is, that the issue of all his dealing grew to this, that 
 the Queen, by some slackness of my Lord's, as I imagine, 
 liked him worse and worse, and grew more and more incensed 
 towards him. Then she, remembering belike the continual 
 and incessant and confident speeches and courses that I had 
 held on my Lord's side, became utterly alienated from me ; 
 and for the space of at least three months which was between 
 Michaelmas and New Year's tide following, would not so 
 much as look on me, but turned away from me with express 
 and purpose-like discountenance whensoever she saw me ; 
 and at such time as I desired to speak with her about law- 
 business, even sent me forth \\ith very slight refusals; 
 insomuch as it is most true that immediately after New 
 Year's tide 1 desired to speak with her," &c. IY.C. The dale 
 then of the decided and visible change that I speak of was 
 Michaelmas 1000. Now it so happens that from independent 
 sources we know of some things that may help to explain 
 the causes of this change. Essex had been his own master 
 since the latter end of -Julv. But to be his own master was
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 119 
 
 not enough for him. Ho could not bear to be without his 
 former power and favour. For the recovery of these, his 
 violent counsellors (to whom and not to Bacon his con- 
 fidence was now given) had urged him to take some decisive 
 step. But while his restoration in 1he natural course of 
 things (for which he continued to implore the Queen in 
 letter after letter of most dejected and passionate supplica- 
 tion) seemed probable, he put off the resolution from day 
 to day. Wearied at length with the delay, he had resolved 
 to take the issue of his suit for the renewal of his monopoly 
 of sweet wines (the lease of which was to expire at Michael- 
 mas) as an earnest of what he might expect. If it were 
 granted, he might hope for returning favour ; if rejected, he 
 would then decide upon some more vigorous course. Soon 
 after Michaelmas it was finally granted to another. And 
 before the end of the month it appears that a project for sur- 
 prising the Court and forcibly removing the principal coun- 
 sellors was if not resolved upon at least formally discussed 
 and deliberated. " It is three months or more " (said South- 
 ampton at the consultation at Drury House, 3rd February 
 1GOO-1) "since we undertook this."'' Such then being the 
 real state of Essex's mind and intentions at this time, can it 
 be wondered at that the Queen began to like both him and 
 his friend worse and worse ? And as for Bacon's " shaping 
 his course accordingly," what means had he of " shaping a 
 course" at all? He could not shape his course so as to help 
 Essex, because Essex was shaping a new course for himself, 
 which he could not oven disclose to Bacon, much less use 
 his assistance in furthering it. He could not shape his 
 course so as to mitigate the Queen's displeasure, for the 
 Queen would not listen to him. Between Michaelmas and 
 the day of Essex's insurrection, lie had only one interview 
 with her, which was in the beginning of January. On this 
 occasion he frankly expostulated with her upon her treat- 
 ment of himself; and was received (for himself) graciously ; 
 but could draw forth no word about the Earl. Then it was 
 that he at last resolved to meddle no more in the matter ; 
 * Sir F. Gorge's Confession (State Pap. Off.).
 
 120 EVEyiXQS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 and the very next month the Earl was up in arms against 
 her, and the whole face of the matter was changed. 
 
 These are all the data we have for judging of the spirit 
 in which he acted and the part he took after the Earl's case 
 began to seem hopeless ; and I should like to know what 
 pretence there is for assuming that up to this period he had 
 in any way changed his course, or had determined to save 
 himself at the expense of his friend. 
 
 Then you mean to say that Bacon's appearance before 
 the Council in support of the charges against Essex was in 
 fact a friendly proceeding ; that his motive was to clear 
 himself in the first instance of all imputation of partiality, 
 that he might afterwards plead his cause with the less 
 suspicion. 
 
 B. 
 
 I do not say that that was his only motive. There is 
 hardly an action in any man's life which can be ascribed to 
 a single motive. Who can say what his motive for dining 
 is ? to satisfy his appetite, to keep up his health and 
 strength, to gratify his palate, to do as other people do, 
 or merely to do as he has been accustomed. For not re- 
 fusing to discharge on this occasion the ordinary duties of 
 his place, Bacon had every motive but one. The single 
 consideration that might have deterred him was the fear 
 of unpopularity, of a false imputation of ingratitude. Of 
 his many concurring motives, which was the strongest, and 
 which would have given way in a conflict with the rest, it 
 is idle to inquire. '1 here was here no conflict, Whether 
 his desire to serve Essex was or was not stronger than his 
 reluctance to lose his influence with the Queen, there is no 
 doubt that he did desire to serve him, and there is as little 
 doubt that the only chance of serving him was to keep his 
 influence with the Queen. Had it been otherwise, had he 
 (for instance) been in possession of some secret which his 
 duty to the Queen required him to disclose, and the dis-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER, 121 
 
 closure of which would have ruined Essex then there 
 would have been a conflict ; and I do not pretend to say 
 what he would have done in such a case : probably he did 
 not know himself. As it was, he could not have done Essex 
 a worse service than to throw away in an idle ostentation of 
 magnanimity his opportunities of access and audience at 
 Court ; these being in fact the only handles by which he 
 could help him through^ 
 
 A. 
 
 Wellj I suppose I must let this go. For certainly upon 
 your showing I cannot say what better he could have done. 
 
 His exertions then went on (you say) all that summer ; 
 and he continued to speak in favour of Essex as long as the 
 Queen would allow him to speak at all. And there is no 
 symptom of any change either in his feelings or in his con- 
 duct towards his benefactor, until now that we are on the 
 eve of the insurrection. Let us see what the reviewer has 
 to say of that. 
 
 " But a darker scene was behind. The unhappy young 
 nobleman, made reckless by despair, ventured on a rash and 
 criminal enterprise, which rendered him liable to the highest 
 penalties of the law. What course was Bacon to take ? This 
 was one of those conjunctures which show what men are. To 
 a high-minded man, wealth, power, Court-favour, even personal 
 safety, would have appeared of no account when opposed to 
 friendship, gratitude and honour. Such a man would have 
 stood by the side of Essex at the trial, would have spent ' all 
 his power, might, amity, and authority' in soliciting a mitigation 
 of the sentence, would have been a daily visitor at the cell, 
 would have received the last injunctions, and the last embrace 
 upon the scaii'old, would have employed all the powers of his 
 intellect to guard from insult the fame of his generous though 
 erring friend. An ordinary man would neither have incurred 
 the danger of succouring Essex nor the disgrace of assailing 
 him. Bacon did not even preserve neutrality. He appeared 
 as counsel for the prosecution. In that situation he did not 
 confine him.self to what would have been amply sufficient to 
 procure a verdict. lie employed all his wit, his rhetoric and 
 his learning not to ensure a conviction, for the circumstances
 
 122 EVEXIXGS WITTI A REVIEWER. 
 
 of the case were such that a conviction was inevitable bnt to 
 deprive the unhappy prisoner of all those excuses, which, 
 though legally of no value, yet tended to diminish the moral 
 guilt of the crime ; and which therefore, though they could not 
 justify the peers in pronouncing an acquittal, might incline the 
 Queen to grant a pardun." 
 
 B. 
 
 I lot you go on through this tissue of loose misrepre- 
 sentation, because I hoped every moment to hear something 
 about the real nature of Essex's crime ; and how it was rigid 
 (not how it was " high-minded," but how it was rigid} that 
 it should be dealt with according to justice and policy. 
 The law against treason was made, I suppose, not merely 
 to gratify vindictive sovereigns with the death of their 
 enemies, but for the good of the commonwealth, for the 
 protection of the State against violence. A true patriotism 
 enjoins us surely not only to keep the law ourselves, but to 
 assist in carrying the laws into execution. And though 
 this is a duty from which those who are suspected of a bias 
 in favour of the offender are commonly relieved, yet that 
 is not because it is not their duty, but because they cannot 
 be trusted to do their clutv. How can you tell what a hi^h- 
 
 * J 
 
 minded man, standing in Bacon's position with regard to 
 Essex, would have dune, until you know what it was that 
 Essex had dune? Suppose he had been engaged in a 
 gunpowder plot ; would a high-minded man have thrown 
 up his of'iice rather than assist in the examination and 
 prosecution? Suppose he had poisoned his friend; would 
 a high-minded man have stood by his side at the trial, and 
 spent all his strength in soliciting a mitigation of the 
 sentence ? It is true that Essex's offence was not so black 
 as either of these ; but it was something much worse than 
 the reviewer would give you to understand. From his way 
 of talking you would suppose it was a mere burst of im- 
 patience under circumstances of extreme provocation. 
 "The unhappy young nobleman, made reckless by despair, 
 ventured on a rash and criminal enterprise." \Yliy was 
 Essex unhappy? He had liberty, leisure, the society of
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 123 
 
 his friends, tho love of his countrymen, all the accomplish- 
 ments of mind and body, and all the tastes which give 
 sweetness and dignity to private life ; and if he wanted 
 wealth, it was only because he had been so wasteful. Why 
 unhappy ? Simply because he was no longer a Court- 
 favourite. " Made reckless by despair ! " Despair of what ? 
 Not of life, liberty, fortune, reputation : all these were safe 
 in his own hands. His despair was only of being restored 
 to his former greatness at Court." A rash and criminal 
 enterprise ! " Eash enough, no doubt ; and criminal enough. 
 But was that all ? Surely it deserved some worse epithets 
 than these. Rash as it was, it was not entitled to any of 
 the excuses of rashness. It was an enterprise long pre- 
 meditated ; not undertaken in heat, on the sudden ; an 
 enterprise which, after cooling in his mind for a whole year, 
 had been revived three months before upon no greater 
 occasion than the loss of his monopoly, and during those 
 three months had been diligently thought on, discussed, and 
 prepared. Then as for its criminality and its " rendering 
 him liable to the highest penalties of the law," surely that 
 is very little to say of an enterprise which the reviewer 
 himself described just now as "an endeavour to throw the 
 whole country into confusion for objects purely personal," 
 and which was in fact very likely to lead to a civil war. 
 Think of the popularity of Essex and his interest with 
 military men ; think of the power, the resolution, the vigi- 
 lant policy of Elizabeth, and the zealous and affectionate 
 loyalty which she had always at command ; think of the 
 discontented body of Catholics at home and abroad ; and 
 then imagine the issue of an attempt to master her person 
 and force her to change the Government ! It is true that 
 popular opinion has made very light of this rebellion ; but 
 that is owing merely to the characteristic levity and 
 thoughtlessness of popular opinion, which never takes due 
 account of dangers escaped. AVe think Essex's insurrection 
 a small matter, because it was so suddenly and effectually 
 extinguished ; just as we think little of a spark when wo 
 have trod it out, which might have set the house on fire.
 
 124 EVEXISGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 But had Essex been a few hours sooner in striking, or the 
 Court a few hours later in preparing, the whole country 
 would have probably been in a flame. 
 
 And now let us consider how Bacon stood. For no 
 less a crime than this, Essex was to be tried before his 
 peers. To Bacon's part, as one of the Queen's Learned 
 Counsel, it fell in the ordinary course of things to set forth 
 a portion of the case against him. It was as grave, as 
 impartial, as temperate, as truly judicial a proceeding, as 
 the records of that time contain. What pretence could he 
 allege for refusing to take his part in it ? We are agreed 
 (you and I, at least) that his obligations to Essex were not 
 such as to make it his duty to defend him in a bad cause. 
 His obligation to the Crown did unquestionably (so long as 
 he held that office) bind him to assist in the prosecution of 
 all offences against the State. Upon what pretext could 
 he decline ? He could not say that it was an offence which 
 ought not to be proceeded against. He could not say that 
 the proposed proceeding was in any way unjust, unfair, or 
 harsh. He could not say that E<sex, if guilty, ought not 
 to be declared guilty. Did he think there were palliating 
 circumstances in the case ? He could not deny that the 
 proper time for bringing them forward was at the trial. 
 Did he think those circumstances were such as might 
 properly induce a pardon ? He could not deny that it was 
 after the trial, not before, that that question ought to be 
 considered. Clearly, the first thing to be done was to dis- 
 cover the truth ; and what he had to do was no more than 
 to set forth truly that portion of the case \\hich was assigned 
 to him. 
 
 A. 
 
 I rannot think that there was any occasion for him to 
 meddle with the matter at all. He might easily have got 
 excused : at any rate he might have asked to be excused. 
 
 B. 
 
 Upon what ground should he have asked ?
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 125 
 
 A. 
 
 As from a proceeding which involved the life of his 
 benefactor, and in which his help could not possibly be 
 needed. There must have been plenty of people to pursue 
 the case against Essex. 
 
 B. 
 
 There being no hope for his benefactor, he might have 
 left him, you think, to his enemies. Why yes, if nothing 
 had been wanted but to get up a case against Essex, there 
 were others no doubt who were willing and competent to 
 make the worst of that. But the legal conviction of Essex 
 was but a small and incidental part of the business which 
 lay upon the Government. Care was to be taken for the 
 safety of the State, which was threatened with a danger of 
 which no one could guess the extent or imminence. It is 
 all very well for us, after everything has been found out, to 
 say there was no danger at all ; but if you want to under- 
 stand Bacon's position, you must imagine the aspect which 
 the affair presented on Sunday evening the 8th of February 
 1600-1. Imagine an enterprise so aspiring and audacious 
 suddenly bursting forth without any note of warning or 
 preparation ; an enterprise in which more than a hundred 
 noblemen or gentlemen of birth and character were en- 
 gaged; in which the authorities of the city, if not actually 
 implicated, were at least so dealt with and appealed to by 
 the insurgents that it was plain they were by them sup- 
 posed to be ready to join ; -what could such a tiling mean ? 
 what had been the beginning of it, what was to be the end ? 
 how far had it spread ? what secret mines were ready to 
 burst under their feet ? what secret treason was there in 
 the heart of the Court upon which the conspirators relied 
 for aid ? These are the questions which must have agitated 
 the Council ; for who could have supposed that it would 
 turn out to be a piece of mere madness, without plan, 
 bottom, or hope ? Not the conviction of the traitor, but 
 the discovery of the treason, was the first thing needful :
 
 12G EVENINGS WITH A EE VIEWER. 
 
 not the punishment of the incendiary, but the extinction of 
 the fire. 
 
 It was on Wednesday the llth of February, while the 
 whole affair was an inexplicable and alarming mystery, that 
 Bacon, along with the rest of that small body of practised 
 and confidential servants whom Elizabeth kept about her, 
 received a commission from the Council to examine wit- 
 nesses with a view to the discovery of the plot.* Upon 
 what pretence should he have declined to act ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Were there not plenty of examiners without him ? He 
 was not Attorney or Solicitor ; though one of the Learned 
 Counsel, he was the least and lowest among them. 
 
 B. 
 
 He was the least in official rank ; but in investigations 
 of this kind he was, with one or two exceptions, the most 
 practised hand among them ; probably without any excep- 
 tion whatever the most skilful and sagacious. At any rate 
 he could not have excused himself on account of the super- 
 fluity of examiners ; for the very letter from the Council 
 which contained the commission contained likewise a direc- 
 tion to the commissioners to divide themselves (on account 
 of the number of examinations to be taken) into parties of 
 not more than three. It was not a time therefore when the 
 best hand could be conveniently spared. The object of the 
 inquiry was to discover the truth. Upon what pretence, 
 I repeat, could Bacon have asked to be excused? It 
 was a service which came strictly within the duty of his 
 place. And though I do not mean that a man ought to 
 consider the duties of his place as absolutely overruling all 
 other considerations, though I admit that there may be 
 cases in whiHi lie ought t<> resign his place rather than 
 perform the duties of it, yet I cannot think that he is at 
 liberty to do so without a very strong reason, especially if 
 the season bo one of emergency and danger, in which all 
 * cu tin; Letter; Add 1 . MSS. (Brit. MUP.) No. 121'J7.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 127 
 
 bauds are wanted. It is in truth this point of emergency 
 and danger which lies in the way of a true understanding of 
 this question. Living as we do in such profound security, 
 the Crown as safe from all traitorous attempts (and for the 
 same reason) as a beggar is safe from robbers, we cannot 
 think of treason as dangerous. If a man shoots at the 
 Queen, we think it right that he should be whipped or sent 
 to Bedlam, but we feel that there is no hurry ; justice may 
 proceed as leisurely as she likes ; it is but the act of a fool 
 or a madman, and the only question is, as to the best way of 
 preventing the example from spreading. Now you must 
 really endeavour to remember that it was not so in Queen 
 Elizabeth's time. Upon the continuance of her life and 
 authority great things depended. The temptation to assail 
 them, and the danger of assault, were great in proportion. 
 Conspiracies against her life were things of annual occur- 
 rence. For protection against them she relied not so much 
 on her military guard as on the vigilance of her councillors 
 and lawyers in detecting the treasons and bringing the 
 traitors to justice. And no doubt their loyal zeal was kept 
 by such services in a state of continual excitement, so that 
 hesitation to act was as much out of the question with them 
 as with a soldier. Now suppose Bacon instead of being a 
 law-officer had been an officer of the guard; and when 
 Essex was coming in strength down Ludgate-hill had been 
 ordered to charge. "Would you have had him say " No, 
 he is my benefactor ; ho gave me a piece of land ; you have 
 plenty of people to fight him ; I resign my commission, and 
 will be only a looker-on " ? 
 
 A. 
 
 "Why no. A soldier could not have said so. 
 
 B. 
 
 Of course he could not. Nor would any true soldier 
 have paused to ask himself which side he must take, or 
 whether he might stand neutral. Now I say that iu tur-
 
 128 VEX1XGS WITH A HE VIEW EK. 
 
 bulent times, which teemed with conspiracies open and 
 secret ; being nevertheless times of peace, when the Law 
 was the weapon by which they were to be met; times too 
 when the divine right of kings was universally believed in, 
 and loyalty was felt as a religious obligation ; a sworn law- 
 officer of the Crown must have felt his charge to be as 
 definite, as imperative, as paramount, as that of a soldier 
 upon duty. An order to examine witnesses or to prepare 
 an indictment was to the one what an order to charge was 
 to the other. Xot to be with the Crown in such a case 
 would have been to be against it. Nay, setting all that aside, 
 I doubt whether even as a friend of Essex who would not 
 willingly believe him guilty of the worst, Bacon would 
 naturally have u-isJied to decline the duty. So long as 
 Essex's plans and motives were unknown, it must have been 
 possible to hope that his case was not so bad as it appeared. 
 A seasonable question to a witness might have brought out 
 a palliating circumstance, which an unfriendly examiner, 
 not looking or wishing for, would have missed. Moreover 
 the personal relations between the two Bacons and Essex 
 made it very desirable that somebody in their interest 
 should have a part in the examinations. A large part of 
 Essex's correspondence had for some years passed through 
 the hands of Anthony Bar-on, and he must inevitably have 
 fallen under suspicion of being more or less implicated in 
 the present business. His name was brought in question on 
 that ground. 
 
 A. 
 
 I do not know that I should object to Bacon's consenting 
 to take part in the examinations, so long as the object was 
 to discover the true nature of the conspiracy and make all 
 things secure. But when all that was over, when they 
 had got to the bottom of the business, when they knew 
 that there was no further danger, and nothing remained but 
 to punish the delinquents, I think he might have with- 
 drawn himself. They might surely have got some one else 
 to discharge hi* piirt of the pending npiinst Essex's life.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 129 
 
 B. 
 
 Not so easily perhaps as you think. How long do you 
 suppose it was before the mystery was all cleared up ? Are 
 you aware that they did not get to the bottom of it till the 
 tenth day ? For ten days the examinations had been going 
 on incessantly with very unsatisfactory results, when at last 
 some of the principal conspirators were induced to confess 
 the truth. It is true that their confessions, taken separately 
 yet agreeing in all material points, made the case clear 
 enough. But as the trial came on the next day, there was 
 not so much time as you suppose to cram a new man for 
 Bacon's part. And I still think that even then it would 
 have been difficult for him to find a reasonable pretext for 
 begging off. Nay, I must be allowed to doubt whether 
 (even then, even as a friend) he should have wished it. 
 For though it be true that the confessions had now made 
 the case against Essex so clear that there could be hardly 
 any doubt of his guilt ; yet you are to remember that 
 nobody as yet knew what Essex had to say for himself, or 
 what line of defence he would adopt. It was not only 
 necessary, with a view to a just conclusion of the trial, that 
 the counsel for the prosecution should be perfect masters 
 of the case ; but for the interest of Essex himself (who 
 though he could not have escaped a verdict of guilty, might 
 nevertheless by his demeanour have deserved mercy), it was 
 most desirable that the prosecution should not be left 
 entirely in the hands of the most illiberal and merciless and 
 passionate of all prosecutors Edward Coke. A tender, 
 temperate, and skilful speaker, though his office were to 
 urge the charge home, might nevertheless have done much 
 to temper and soften it, and moderate the behaviour of the 
 prisoner. If Bacon had not cared about his duty at all, 
 if his entire sympathy had been with Essex, and his sole 
 object to befriend him as far as his case admitted, I do not 
 think he could have wished to be released from his share in 
 the prosecution. Not that I believe that ivas his motive. 
 I believe he was a true soldier, prepared to defend his posi- 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 EVEXIXQS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 tion against whomsoever, friend or enemy. But I have no 
 doubt that he wished Essex to come as handsomely out of 
 the scrape as he could, consistently with truth and justice ; 
 and on both accounts, both as a lover of justice and as a 
 lover of Essex, he must have wished to have the oppor- 
 tunity of speaking. As for standing by the side of tho 
 prisoner at the trial and soliciting a mitigation of the sen- 
 tence, visiting his cell, and all that, it is a mere idle nourish. 
 And I wonder that the reviewer had not too much respect 
 for his own reputation as a historian to indulge in it. Ho 
 knows perfectly well that Bacon would not have been per- 
 mitted to hold any communication with the prisoner, or to 
 open his mouth in his behalf. 
 
 Yes, that is all foolish enough. And upon your showing 
 I do not know that his consenting to take his part in the 
 prosecution can be justly objected to. But what do you say 
 to the manner in which ho did it? You do not mean 1<> 
 say that his duty to the Crown required him to make the 
 case worse than it was ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Undoubtedly not. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then how do you justify him in urging the case beyond 
 what was necessary to ensure a conviction, and pleading 
 away excuses which diminished the moral guilt of the 
 crime ? 
 
 B. 
 
 That he pleaded away any true excuses, 1 deny. The 
 excuses against which he argued were false ; and were 
 moreover such, that to have admitted them must have 
 involved an admission that the crime had not been com- 
 mitted. But of this presently. 
 
 As for pressing the case further than might have been 
 to ensure a conviction, if you moon thnt li f>
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EE VIE WEIL 131 
 
 should have been contented with making out just enough 
 to bring the offence within the law of treason, just enough 
 to avoid the chance of an acquittal, and should have kept 
 clear of all those points which indicated the real nature 
 and magnitude of it ; I must say that I cannot conceive 
 a more preposterous position. I can conceive a man dis- 
 liking the office of assisting in the prosecution of a friend ; 
 I can conceive him thinking it his duty to decline it. But, 
 once undertaken, he is surely bound to discharge it (to use 
 Bacon's own words) " honestly and without prevarication." 
 And what kind of honesty would it be in a public prosecutor 
 of a public offence to blink all the circumstances of aggra- 
 vation ? Not a man who followed Essex on that day but 
 was, according to the letter of the law, guilty of treason ; 
 but was every man as guilty as he ? or was it fit that, in a 
 proceeding upon so grave a matter in the highest court of 
 justice, no distinction should be made between the leader 
 and the follower, or between a crime of malice and a crime 
 of madness ? But let us go on, for as yet we have had 
 nothing but general assertion. I want to know what these 
 extenuating circumstances were these excuses tending to 
 diminish the moral guilt of the crime of the benefit of 
 which Bacon laboured to deprive the prisoner. 
 
 A. 
 
 (i The Earl urged as a palliation of his frantic acts that he 
 was surrounded by powerful and inveterate enemies, that they 
 had ruined his fortunes, that they sought his life, and that their 
 persecutions had cliiven him to despair. This was true, and 
 Bacon well knew it to be true. But lie affected to treat it as 
 an idle pretence. He compared Essex to Pisistratus, who by 
 pretending to be in imminent danger of his life, and by ex- 
 hibiting self-inflicted wounds, succeeded in establishing tyranny 
 at Athens. This was too nruch for the prisoner to bear. He 
 interrupted his ungrateful friend, by calling upon him to quit 
 the part of an 'advocate to come forward as a witness and tell 
 the Lords whether in old times lie, Francis Bacon, had not, 
 under his own hand, repeatedly asserted the truth of what lie 
 now represented as idle pretexts. Tt is painful to go on with 
 this lamentable storv."
 
 132 EVENINGS WITH A HEVlEWEli. 
 
 B. 
 
 Then let us pause awhile, and see if we cannot obtain a 
 little relief by telling it more truly ; for a more monstrous 
 misrepresentation I never heard. 
 
 In the first place, Essex pleaded the persecutions of his 
 enemies, not in palliation of a frantic action, but in justifi- 
 cation of a deliberate action which ho came prepared to 
 avow and defend. Had he acknowledged his guilt and 
 excused it as a short madness brought on by despair of the 
 Queen's favour (for this after all was the only kind of 
 persecution which ho was suffering), the whole trial would 
 probably have taken a different turn ; and Bacon would 
 undoubtedly have made a very different speech from that 
 which he did make.* But he took the opposite course. 
 He boldly pleaded not guilty ; came prepared to justify 
 the whole action as an act of self-defence against a plot 
 laid by his private enemies to assassinate him. And this 
 ground (in the opening of the case, when he thought the 
 Government knew of nothing beyond the armed assembly 
 and tumult) he did actually and explicitly take up. It is 
 true that when he found that they had ferreted out the 
 whole story that they knew all the particulars of the 
 previous preparations and consultations, and how (many 
 days before) the expediency of raising a party in the city 
 had been talked over, the project of seizing the Tower 
 formally discussed, and a plan for surprising and mastering 
 the Court considered in detail and all but. matured ; and 
 moreover when the Karl of Southampton, standing by his 
 side at the bar and answering on the sudden to these 
 unexpected charges, had by his answer virtually admitted 
 the facts; --it is true, I say, that he then shifted his posi- 
 tion, and (being compelled in his extremity to put another 
 colour upon his proeeedings) pretended, or admitted, (call 
 it which you will) that he had a further object, which was 
 
 * "I diil not. export thai, matter of iTrfitirr wmiM li;ivo lx>on pleaded Iliis 
 rluy ; and thcrefuru 1 must alter vuj ffn-crli fnun tlml I i,i(<:nrle<l" lie/n>rt "f 
 II," Trial.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 133 
 
 to force his way to the Queen and induce her to remove his 
 enemies from her councils. But his mention of these 
 " enemies " in the first instance was distinctly as of persons 
 from whom he stood in fear of a personal attack ; and his 
 motive for mentioning them was to account for the armed 
 assembly on Sunday morning at Essex House, and for 
 locking up the Lord Keeper, Lord Chief Justice, and other 
 officers sent from the Council to command them to lay 
 down their arms. It was indeed the pretence which he had 
 devised and meditated from the beginning, and which he 
 always intended to rest upon. For a day or two before the 
 insurrection, he had industriously scattered about the city 
 and elsewhere, rumours of a pretended plot against his life. 
 On the morning of the insurrection he declared to the Lord 
 Keeper, as accounting for the concourse of so many armed 
 friends, that his life was sought, that lie should have been 
 murdered in his bed, that he and his friends were assembled 
 there to defend their lives. When he went into the city to 
 seek help there, he repeated the same story with some vari- 
 ations to the people in the streets. L T pon his trial he again 
 alleged the same apprehension in justification of his pro- 
 ceeding on that day. " Having had certain advertisement 
 (he said) on Saturday at night that my private enemies were 
 in arms against me, and the same news being seconded on 
 Sunday morning by persons worthy the believing, I resolved 
 to stand upon my guard." And again " As for locking up 
 the Lords sent from the Council, it was done in charity and 
 without disloyalty, and intended only to safeguard them 
 lest they should have taken hurt : for when the people in 
 the streets shouted with a great and sudden outcry, they 
 said, ' We shall all be slain ' at which time I and my 
 friends thought our enemies had leen come to leset the house" 
 You see therefore that Essex's plea was not that the per- 
 secutions of his enemies had " driven him to despair " but 
 that they had driven him to take up arms in defence of his 
 life. And this was the plea against which Bacon's answer- 
 was directed. And so much for the first principal proposition 
 in the last paragraph.
 
 134 EVEXINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 In the second place, the reviewer tells us that the plea 
 " was true, and Bacon well knew it to be true ; " both which 
 assertions I flatly contradict. It was false ; and Essex well 
 knew it to be false. There were no enemies of the kind. 
 Enemies who sought his life (the only kind of enemies in 
 question) there were certainly none. Rivals there Avere no 
 doubt, who were doing what they could to keep his fortunes 
 down ; but the worst they could do was to keep him out of 
 Court, and the worst of his despair was but a farewell to 
 Court-favour. 
 
 But though Essex's plea was totally false, it was necessary 
 that it should be answered. For had he been able to make 
 it good ; had he been able to show that his original design 
 in gathering a number of armed men at Essex House was no 
 more than to resist an attack by armed enemies, which ho 
 really apprehended ; and that the rest of the action followed 
 upon this, one thing drawing on another in the hurry and 
 distraction of the time; it would have amounted not only to 
 a palliation, but very nearly to a justification. At any rate it 
 would have discharged him of all imputation of a treasonable 
 intention. It seems also to have been aline of defence which 
 the Government had not anticipated : and in the desultory 
 progress of the trial (during which, in consequence of the 
 prisoners being allowed to make their remarks upon the 
 several points of the charge and evidence as it proceeded, 
 the argument was continually shifting from one thing to 
 another), there was some danger of its being left unanswered. 
 And therefore it was that Bac-m (whose eye was always upon 
 tin, 1 material points of the case in hand; rising in his turn 
 and " altering his speech from that he had intended," re- 
 called this point of the defence, and showed how ill it hung 
 together, and what a mere pretence it was, and an artifice as 
 old as the days of J'isistratus. The illustration was certainly 
 fair and apt, and what harm there was in quoting it, 1 con- 
 fess I cannot see. The comparison was not in any way 
 degrading. It was not as if he had compared him to Xero 
 or Catiline, or any of the infamous characters of history. 
 And so much for the second principal proposition in the 
 paragraph.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 13"> 
 
 In the third place, the reviewer gives us to understand 
 that Bacon had himself " in old times, under his own hand, 
 repeatedly asserted the truth of what he now represented as 
 idle pretexts ; " which again I deny. Bacon had never 
 asserted any such thing as that Essex had any enemies 
 against whom it was necessary that he should stand upon 
 armed guard ; or that there was any machination against 
 him which could be resisted by force. " Under his own 
 hand " (if by that be meant in Ids own person], Bacon had 
 said nothing about the existence of enemies of any kind. 
 It was only in a letter drawn up by him in Essex's name, 
 and which was to be taken for Essex's own composition, that 
 he had (not " repeatedly " but once ; not " in old times " but 
 lately ; not " under his own hand " but under Essex's ;) 
 attributed the depression of his fortunes to the power of 
 certain persons about the Queen, who, having access to her 
 ear, abused it with false information. To say that this 
 amounted to an admission on the part of Bacon that the 
 story about the plot against Essex's life was true, is merely 
 absurd. It does not even prove that the depression of his 
 fortunes was believed by Bacon to be the work of Court 
 enemies. It only proves that he could think of nothing so 
 likely to make the Queen restore him to favour as the 
 suo-o'estion that his exclusion from favour was not her own 
 
 Oo 
 
 doing, but the work of others who were abusing her. Any- 
 how, the matter was totally irrelevant. The letter was a 
 dramatic work ; a device got up between Bacon and Essex 
 for the purpose of working upon the Queen's humour. And 
 this public reference to it was no less idle, considered as an 
 argument upon the point in question, than unjustifiable con- 
 sidered as a violation of confidence. If there be anything 
 lamentable in the story, it is the light in which it exhibits 
 such a man as Essex ; who did still worse things of the same 
 kind afterwards, in bearing witness (and unfortunately not 
 always true witness) against his friends. One can only ac- 
 count for them as the random plunges of a drowning man 
 catching at straws.
 
 13G EWNINQS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, now that you have contradicted every proposition 
 in the paragraph we last read, I suppose you are satisfied. 
 I want to hear the reviewer out before I make up my mind. 
 He goes on 
 
 "Bacon returned a shuffling answer to the Earl's ques- 
 tion." 
 
 B. 
 
 " Shuffling " is an epithet ; and from epithets we agreed, 
 I think, that the reviewer was to be interdicted. Bacon's 
 answer was " Since you have stirred up this matter, my 
 Lord, I dare warrant you that for anything these letters 
 contain I shall not blush in the clearest light. For I did 
 but perform the part of an honest man, and ever laboured to 
 have done you good, if it might have been. For what 
 I intended for your good was wished from the heart." 
 Essex had no more to say. 
 
 A. 
 
 " And as if the allusion to Pisistratus were not sufficiently 
 offensive, made another allusion still more unjustifiable. He 
 compared Essex to Henry Duke of Guise, and the rash attempt 
 in the city to the day of the barricades at Paris. Why Bacon 
 had recourse to such a topic it is difficult to say. It was quite 
 unnecessary for the purpose of obtaining a verdict. It was 
 quite certain to produce a strong impression on the mind of the 
 haughty and jealous princess ou whose pleasure the Earl's fate 
 depended. 
 
 B. 
 
 And whose fate perhaps, and the fate of the whole 
 kingdom, depended upon the issue of this proceeding against 
 the Earl. 
 
 A. 
 
 " The faintest allusion to the degrading tutelage in which 
 the last Valois was held by the House of Lorraine, was sufficient 
 to harden her heart against a man who in rank, in military
 
 El'ENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 137 
 
 reputation, in popularity among the citizens of the capital, bore 
 some resemblance to the Captain of the League." 
 
 B. 
 
 Here again, the reviewer seems to be talking as if the 
 object of a criminal trial were to obtain a bare verdict, not 
 to discover the offence ; and moreover as if a public prose- 
 cutor in a court of justice ought to be thinking, not of his 
 business, which is to " show the face of Truth to the face of 
 Justice," but of the means of working on his sovereign's 
 humour. Elizabeth, you may depend upon it, knew all 
 about the day of the barricades without being reminded of 
 it by Bacon. It was as superfluous to remind her of the 
 true nature of this business as it would have been vain to 
 attempt to conceal it from her. But there ivas a party 
 whom it was not superfluous to remind of these things, 
 who were but too likely to overlook them, and to whom it 
 was of great national importance to present them in a just 
 light ; I mean the public at large. Whatever might be 
 the result of the trial, whatever punishment might be 
 awarded to the offenders, it was most important that the 
 justice of it should be made out to the satisfaction riot only 
 of the judges, but of the people. Substantiated as the 
 charge against Essex was fully substantiated in every 
 point we know that the people did in fact murmur against 
 the sentence. How much more and how much more dan- 
 gerously would they have murmured, if the case had been 
 left by the counsel for the prosecution only half made out ! 
 How unjust would it have been, not only to the State, the 
 safety of which depended upon the right dealing with it, 
 but to the prisoner himself! Such an attempt by so 
 popular a man as Essex was really a very serious thing. 
 The advantage of a few hours might (as I said before) have 
 turned it into the first stroke of a civil war. The punish- 
 ment of it was a momentous question of state ; and the 
 question was what it really deserved, therefore what it really 
 was ; not whether a capital sentence was justified by the 
 bare letter of the law, but whether the execution of that
 
 138 E TUNINGS WITH A EE VIEWER. 
 
 sentence was demanded by justice and State policy. For 
 this purpose, to present the case in its true colours was 
 surely the imperative duty of all persons charged with the 
 prosecution. To let the Queen and the people believe that 
 Essex's real object was only to defend himself against assas- 
 sination, would have been most unjust to them. To explain 
 to the Queen privately, or to the people extra-judicially, 
 the falsehood and frivolity of that plea, without having 
 publicly challenged it at the bar, would have been ruost 
 unjust to him. The first would have betrayed the State in 
 concealing the truth ; the second would have betrayed 
 Essex in cheating him of his opportunity of defence. 
 
 Now as to this fresh allusion which the reviewer says 
 was "more unjustifiable " than the other this topic which 
 he " cannot understand why Bacon had recourse to " ; take 
 it as it comes in the course of the trial, and surely nothing- 
 is more natural and pertinent. Essex's first story was that 
 he was merely acting in self-defence against private enemies 
 from whom he had reason to apprehend an attack. In 
 answer to this it was shown that there was no ground for 
 any such apprehension, and that it was in fact a mere pre- 
 text like that of Pisistratus. But this excuse, even if true, 
 would have accounted only for the muster of friends and 
 the restraint of the councillors. How was he to account for 
 his projected attempt upon the Court and for his endeavour 
 to raise help in the city ? To this question he replied that 
 his object was only to secure access to the Queen that he 
 might " unfold to her his griefs against his private enemies." 
 Bacon answered, "Grant that you meant only to go as a 
 suppliant, shall petitions be presented by armed peti- 
 tioners ? This must needs bring loss of liberty to the Prince. 
 Neither is it any point of law (as my Lord of Southampton 
 would have it believed) that condemns them of treason, but 
 it is apparent in common sense. To take secret counsel, to 
 execute it, to run together in numbers, armed with weapons, 
 what can be the excuse? AYarncd by the Lord Keeper 
 by a herald and yet persist ; will any simple man take 
 this to be less than treason?" Upon this Essex argued
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 139 
 
 that " if he had purposed anything against others than those 
 his private enemies, he would not have stirred with so 
 slender a company." " Whereunto Mr. Bacon answered " 
 (continues the Eeport), " It was not the company you carried 
 with you, but the assistance you hoped for in the city, 
 which you trusted unto. The Duke of Guise thrust himself 
 into Paris on the day of the barricades, in his doublet and 
 hose, attended only with eight gentlemen, and found that 
 help in the city which (thanks be to God) you failed of 
 here. And what followed ? The King was forced to put 
 himself into a pilgrim's weeds, and in that disguise to steal 
 away and scape their fury. Even such was my Lord's con- 
 fidence too ; and his pretence the same ; an all-hail and a 
 kiss to the city ; but the end was treason, as hath been 
 sufficiently proved." 
 
 This is all the passage. Can you see anything strange 
 in the introduction of such a topic ? Surely it was neces- 
 sary to meet Essex's argument, which was in fact a very 
 plausible one. For if he could have proved that his 
 purpose was merely to present himself to the Queen in 
 forma supplicantis, without any force to back him I do 
 not say without meaning to use force, for his meaning would 
 have been no guarantee for his actions ; he could not him- 
 self know what he would have been led to do when he once 
 found himself in that position but if lie could have shown 
 that he had taken no measures nor made any endeavour to 
 provide himself with force more than for his personal pro- 
 tection then, although the act might still perhaps have 
 been treason in law, yet the aspect of his offence, politically 
 as well as morally considered, would have been totally 
 altered. Now the fact that he went into the ,city with a 
 slender company, armed only with pistols, rapiers, and 
 daggers, seemed to keep this story in countenance. Tt was 
 necessary to reconcile that fact with the more criminal 
 intention imputed to him, or the case against him would 
 have been left incomplete in a material part. And the 
 example of the Duke of Guise was so directly in point and 
 lay so obviously in the way, that one does not see how Bacon
 
 140 EVEyisos WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 could have passed it by. And none of the reports of the 
 trial represent him as having wandered into any declama- 
 tions or aggravations in the matter. He appears to have 
 confined himself strictly and exactly to what was material. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then you really believe that Essex's ends Avere lona 
 fide treasonable ; that he went out into the city in the hope 
 of gathering a force there strong enough to make head 
 against the Government ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I do not see how any one who has read the confessions 
 and depositions can have a doubt of it. It may be true 
 that Essex's ultimate objects (so far as he himself knew 
 them) were limited to what we should now-a-days call a 
 change of ministry. But his immediate object was to make 
 himself by force of arms master of the then established and 
 lawful Government. How can you doubt this, when you 
 know that the preparatory conferences had turned upon the 
 means not only of surprising the Court, but of gaining pos- 
 session of the Tower and of raising a party in the city ? 
 He did, I dare say, mean to assume the attitude of a sup- 
 pliant ; but being well aware that his supplication would 
 not be freely granted, he meant to provide against that 
 accident by coming with a power strong enough if necessary 
 to enforce it. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then I confess that in these circumstances it would not 
 have been easy for Bacon to say less than he did. For I 
 quite agree with you that, having undertaken the part of a 
 counsel for the prosecution, it was his duty to make the 
 charge out in all its parts, so far at least as he believed it to 
 be true. 
 
 15. 
 
 And I would not hold him justified in going an inch 
 further. But I have yet to learn that he ever did urge an 
 unjust charge against anybody.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIE WEB. 141 
 
 A. 
 
 We shall see. I agree to acquit him of censure for all 
 that he has done up to this time, so far as by the reviewer's 
 help and yours I know what it was. But I see many more 
 charges coming in the remaining part of this paragraph, 
 which we are not yet nearly through. 
 
 B. 
 
 Out with them then. It would be an agreeable variety 
 to meet with something not grossly inaccurate. 
 
 A. 
 
 " The Earl was convicted. Bacon made no effort to save 
 him; though the Queen's feelings were such that he might have 
 pleaded his friend's cause, possibly with success, certainly with- 
 out any serious danger to himself." 
 
 B. 
 
 That is all mere guessing. For first, how does the 
 reviewer know what the state of the Queen's feelings was ? 
 Secondly, how does he know that Bacon had any oppor- 
 tunity of pleading his benefactor's cause ? Thirdly, how 
 does he know that if he had any such opportunity, he did 
 not use it for the purpose of working upon her feelings in 
 his favour ? What he did, and what he had the means of 
 doing, could be known only to two persons himself and the 
 Queen. The Queen has told nothing of what passed between 
 them. Bacon has told something. What he tells us is of 
 course to be taken with caution, being his own story told in 
 his own defence when nobody could contradict him. But 
 when a man is charged with a grave offence, it is usual at 
 least to hear what he has to say in answer, and to give him 
 the benefit of his explanation so far as it goes, and so long- 
 as there is no evidence to throw discredit upon it. Xow 
 Bacon expressly says, " For the time which passed, I mean 
 between the arraignment and my Lord's suffering, I well 
 remember that I was but once with the Queen ; at what 
 time, though 1 durst not deal directly for him as tilings then
 
 142 j- \-J-MXUS WITH A REV IE WEI:. 
 
 stood, yet generally I did both 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 ; and not only 
 so, but I took hardiness to extenuate, not the fact, for that 
 I durst not, but the danger ; telling her that if some base 
 or cruel-minded persons had entered into such an action, it 
 might have caused much blood and combustion ; but it 
 appeared well they were such as knew not how to play the 
 malefactors ; and some other words which I now omit." 
 And in another place he distinctly says, that after the Earl's 
 " last fatal impatience, there was not time to work for him" 
 All this is told under the most solemn asseveration that a 
 man can make of its truth ; nor has a shadow of evidence ever 
 been produced to contradict it, or any part of it. "What 
 business then has this reviewer, I do not say to doubt it, 
 but to assert, as an undisputed fact, the exact contrary ? 
 Who can now say what was the most judicious way of deal- 
 ing with Eli/abeth in such a matter ? "Who can sav what 
 
 o 
 
 obstacles there may have been to dealing directly for the 
 Earl, '"'as things then stood ? " One obstacle suggests itself 
 at once. The disclosures to which the trial led were every 
 day altering the aspect of Essex's offence. He was con- 
 victed on the 19th of February. He began to make his 
 own confessions on the 20th. And considering that in 
 these confessions he accused many persons of being privy 
 to the conspiracy uho had not been suspected before; and 
 among them persons no less important than Lord Mountjoy, 
 commander of the army in Ireland, and Sir Henry .Neville, 
 our ambassador in France, it must have been growing daily 
 more doubtful how far it had spread and what was the 
 bottom of it. His practices witli the King of Scotland came 
 to light about the same time, and there Bacon himself must 
 have been under some suspicion ; for the greater part of 
 Essex's correspondence with Scotland passed through the 
 hands of Anfhony Bacon, though it would seem that he 
 was not made privy to this part of it. Easy therefore it is 
 to imagine thnt an attempt by n man in Karon's position to
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 143 
 
 " deal directly for Essex as things then stood," would have 
 been absurd and impertinent, and would have done more 
 harm than good. 
 
 But this is mere guessing. All I am concerned to make 
 out at present is that the reviewer has no shadow of right 
 to say that Bacon, even at this conjuncture, omitted any 
 opportunity of befriending Essex so far as it was possible to 
 befriend him without violating a prior and superior duty. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well ; but here's more. 
 
 "The unhappy nobleman was executed. His fate excited 
 strong, perhaps uni'easonable, feelings of compassion and in- 
 dignation." 
 
 B. 
 
 Perhaps unreasonable J Certainly most unreasonable. 
 
 A. 
 
 " The Queen was received by the citizens of London with 
 gloomy looks and faint acclamations. She thought it expedient 
 to publish a vindication of her late proceedings. The faithless 
 friend who had assisted in taking the Earl's life was now em- 
 ploye! to murder the Earl's fame." 
 
 B. 
 
 As for (i assisting in taking the Earl's life," you remember 
 that we acquitted Bacon of any fault in taking the part he 
 did at the trial. And now be on your guard against ad- 
 mitting such an expression as "murdering the Earl's fame." 
 One might think the writer had taken his pattern of his- 
 torical composition from the speeches of counsel in crim. 
 con. cases. Five lines back it was but a " vindication " of 
 proceedings which had been " perhaps unreasonably " con- 
 demned. Now it is a murder of the fame of the person 
 proceeded against. If the sentence was not a murder of 
 the man, why should we suppose that the vindication of 
 that sentence must be a murder of his fame ? 
 
 A. 
 
 That would depend upon the fidelity with which it ws.-, 
 drawn up.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 True. Then suspend your opinion till the reviewer 
 produces some proof of want of fidelity. Assertions he will 
 produce in plenty ; but he seems to think it superfluous 
 even to pretend to bring proofs. 
 
 A. 
 
 " The Queen had seen some of Bacon's writings and had been 
 pleased with them. lie was accordingly selected to write a 
 ' Declaration of the Practices and Treasons attempted and com- 
 mitted by Eobert Eaii of Essex;' which was printed by 
 authority. In the succeeding reign Bacon had not a word to 
 say in defence of this performance 
 
 B. 
 
 Not a word to say in defence of it ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " a performance abounding in expressions which no generous 
 enemy would have employed respecting a man who had so 
 dearly expiated his offences. His only excuse was that lie 
 wrote it by command, that he considered himself as a mere 
 secretary, that lie had particular instructions as to the way 
 he was to treat every part of the subject, and that in fact he 
 Lad furnished only the arrangement and the style." 
 
 B. 
 
 Do you happen to have read this Declaration? 
 
 A. 
 
 No ; 1 think not. 
 
 B. 
 
 Then I can only offer you my own opinion. 1 have read it 
 carefully many times over, and have endeavoured to examine 
 and weigh the authority for every statement in it. And I 
 must aver that the further 1 have proceeded in this examina- 
 tion, the more 1 have been convinced that it is a statement 
 judicially and historically accurate; and though it is true- 
 that there is here and then; an expression \\hich a friend
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 145 
 
 writing in his own person and character would hardly have 
 used, I doubt whether there is even an expression in it, to 
 the introduction of which in an official declaration pro- 
 fessedly proceeding from " authority " any reasonable ex- 
 ception could be taken. This however is a point with 
 which I am not properly concerned. My business is with 
 Bacon's part in the transaction, not with that of Elizabeth 
 and her councillors. And here again I must say, that our 
 reviewer has either strangely overlooked, or still more 
 strangely omitted, that part of Bacon's exculpation which 
 is more material than all the rest. You had better hear it 
 all together in Bacon's own words : " It is very true also 
 
 that her Majesty commanded me to pen that book 
 
 which was published for the better satisfaction of the world ; 
 which I did ; but so as never secretary had more particular 
 or express directions and instructions in every point how to 
 guide my hand in it : " so far the reviewer goes ; giving 
 the substance with (for him) tolerable accuracy. But there 
 he leaves off, as if that were all ; as if Bacon, having been 
 told beforehand what he was to do, had gone and done it, 
 and this were it ; as if therefore he had deliberately con- 
 sented beforehand to the introduction of every expression 
 which the printed paper contains. But, by his leave, 
 Bacon's excuse is not half done yet ; we have not even got 
 to a full stop : " And not only so " (he goes on), " but cifter 
 I had made a first draught thereof, and propounded it to 
 certain principal councillors by her Majesty's command, it 
 was perused, weighed, censured, altered, and made almost a 
 new writing, according to " What ? my own suggestions ? 
 Ko; but according to "their Lordsliips 1 letter considera- 
 tion"- Xow surely this is a very material part of the case. 
 For though he were to be held personally answerable for 
 every word in his own first draught, on the ground that if 
 he disapproved of the plan proposed he ought not to ha\ e 
 consented to draw it at all, (and even that would be rather 
 hard measure,) he is not at any rate to be held answerable 
 for the alterations which the Council thought fit to make in 
 a paper which was to be published by their authority and 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 El'ENlNGS WITH A EEVIEWEIl. 
 
 as their own manifesto. But here is still more : Did not 
 the reviewer say just now that Bacon had not a word to say 
 in defence of this performance ? Listen to this : " Wherein 
 their Lordships and myself both were as religious and 
 curious of truth as desirous of satisfaction." Surely to say 
 of a composition that it was drawn up with a religious 
 adherence to truth is to say a word in defence of it." And 
 myself indeed gave only words and form of style in pur- 
 suing their direction." Xay, we are not done yet. Here 
 are yet more alterations, and those precisely of the kind 
 which are most pertinent to tho present argument. " And 
 after it had passed their allowance, it was again exactly 
 perused by the Queen herself, and some alterations made 
 again by her appointment; nay, and after it was set to 
 print, the Queen, who, as your Lordship knoweth, as she 
 was excellent in great matters, so she was exquisite in small, 
 and noted that I could not forget my ancient respect to my 
 Lord of Essex, in terming him ever my Lord of Essex, rny 
 Lord of Essex, almost in every page of the book, which she 
 thought not fit, but would have it Essex or the late Earl of 
 Essex ; whereupon of force it was printed de novo, and the 
 first copies suppressed by her peremptory commandment." 
 
 Now, you know, when a Queen's counsel refuses to do 
 what a Queen commands, he must do it at some particular 
 time and for some assignable reason. Can you suggest at 
 what particular stage of this transaction Bacon could have 
 objected to undertake the proposed task, or what pretence 
 he could have put forward ? Essex had been tried, con- 
 demned, and executed. That the execution was unjust no 
 man could say who know the particulars of the crime. Yet 
 the people, being ignorant of those- particulars or deaf to 
 them, were agitated by unreasonable feelings of compassion 
 and indignation. The Queen, naturally anxious to relieve 
 her Government of this unjust odium, determined to put 
 forth a declaration of the facts of the case from the be- 
 ginning ; and for this purpose applied in the man who, of 
 all the men in her dominions, could tell a story most truly, 
 most concisely, and most perspicuously. Him she instructed
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 147 
 
 in what manner she wished the subject to be handled ; that 
 is, she told him (so at least I conjecture) that it was not 
 to be merely a narrative of the insurrection and the trial ; 
 for though this included the specific act of treason for 
 which Essex suffered, it did not include all or nearly all the 
 matters which the Queen had to take into consideration in 
 order to determine whether or not it were a fit case for 
 mercy ; but that it was to contain an exposition of all the 
 precedent practices which had now come to light, and which 
 proved Essex to be a man whose life was dangerous to the 
 State. This task the Queen commanded Bacon to execute. 
 Upon what pretence could he possibly decline ? He was 
 not called upon to justify a case which he believed to be a 
 bad one ; however sorry he might be for Essex, he could not 
 but believe that both sentence and execution were just and 
 inevitable. He was not asked to assist in a needless and 
 superfluous attack upon the memory of a dead man ; he 
 could not but believe that to relieve the Government from 
 a popular imputation of unjust severity executed upon a 
 popular idol, was necessary for the security of the State 
 and the peace of the nation. He was not called upon to 
 say a word that he believed to be untrue, or to countenance 
 an imputation which he believed to be unjust. Part of the 
 very scheme of the proposed declaration was to print as an 
 appendix the very words of the evidence from which the 
 statements in the narrative part were drawn. Well, he 
 undertook the task, as what else could he do ? He prepared 
 a draught and laid it before the Council. 
 
 A. 
 
 That draught, as originally prepared by himself, I sup- 
 pose has not been preserved. 
 
 B. 
 
 No. If it had, we should have been able in some degree 
 to judge, from its tone and manner, of the spirit in which 
 he worked. But all we know about it is that the shape in 
 which he drew it was very different from the shape in which
 
 148 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 we have it ; and so far as we know anything of the par- 
 ticulars of the alterations, we know that the effect of them 
 was to make the tone of the writing more cold and severe 
 towards the memory of Essex than it was originally. There- 
 fore unless we believe that the whole transaction was dis- 
 creditable, and such as a man of honour and delicacy should 
 rather have thrown up his office than engage in, we are 
 really without any means of judging of the propriety or 
 impropriety of Bacon's part in it ; for we do not know 
 what his part was. When the paper was once laid before 
 those principal councillors and submitted to their censures 
 and alterations, it ceased to be his ; he had no further com- 
 mand over it. He eould not say to the Lord Keeper, or 
 the Archbishop, or the Secretary of State, or the Attorney- 
 General, " I cannot consent to this or that omission or 
 addition ; the passage must stand as I wrote it, or I will 
 withdraw the paper altogether." The paper was not his to 
 withdraw. He might as well be held responsible for the 
 alterations which the Queen made after it was printed, as 
 for those which the councillors made after it was laid before 
 them. Nor could he reasonably have claimed a right to 
 object to the introduction of alterations. The declaration 
 was to be printed by authority, not of Bacon, but of the 
 Queen and her councillors ; the responsibility being theirs, 
 it was fitting that the work should be theirs also. 
 
 At the same time you are to remember that I say this, 
 only that Bacon may have to bear no blame but what 
 belongs to him. I am far from thinking that, had lie been 
 personally responsible for every syllable in the Declaration 
 as it stands, the blame would have been much. There are 
 a few harsh and stern expressions which it would not have 
 become him to use, in his o\vn person, and which even in a 
 State paper he would naturally have wished to avoid. But 
 it is the manner only of the expression, not the mutter, that 
 can be objected to. It was to" be a judicial statement, and 
 I doubt whether there is a single phrase in it which would 
 have misbecome a judge in passing sentence.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 149 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, all this I can only listen to and wonder at ; being 
 matter of moral taste which does not admit of direct proof 
 or disproof. I must confess that your story taken by itself 
 would seeni the more credible, because there is nothing 
 monstrous in it. But while it removes one kind of difficulty 
 it creates another. For if your account of the matter be 
 true, what am I to make of the reviewer's ? What motive 
 could he have for misrepresenting it so grossly ? Or if the 
 misrepresentation was unintentional, how could he fall into 
 such a series of mistakes ? 
 
 B. 
 
 We had better put off that question to another night. 
 The author of this review is reputed to have read an immense 
 number of books ; and if you ask how he found time to 
 read so many, you will be told (I believe) that he had the 
 faculty of reading not by sentences, but by pages. Now I 
 can myself, in one sense, read a book by pages ; that is, 
 I can see by a glance at each page whether there is any- 
 thing in it ivhich I want to find. I fancy he ran through 
 this Declaration in that way, seeing only what he wanted 
 to find.
 
 EVENING THE FIFTH. 
 
 A. 
 
 I have been looking forward ; and I see that the reviewer 
 goes on to vindicate at large his views of Bacon's conduct 
 towards Essex, and lays it on thicker and thicker. There- 
 fore we will hear him out first, before we sit in judgment 
 upon him ; for he has a great deal more to say. 
 
 B. 
 
 Grant him his own historical facts and his own prin- 
 ciples of moral judgment, and he may go on vindicating his 
 own views for ever. But I join issue with him on both. 
 
 First, I deny that a present, even a present of money, 
 made to me as an acknowledgment for honest services, binds 
 me either to take part with, or not to take part against, 
 the giver, when he takes to dishonest courses. This is a 
 question of principle. And upon this it seems that I am at 
 issue with the reviewer. 
 
 Secondly, I deny that Bacon ceased to stand by Essex 
 until Essex had ceased to deal sincerely with him. Thirdly, 
 I deny that he took any part against him, so long as it was 
 possible to befriend him without violating a superior duty. 
 Fourthly, I deny that even then he took any stronger part 
 against him than the strict duty of his place required. And 
 finally, I deny that even if he had thrown all obligations to 
 his country overboard, and had thought of nothing but his 
 obligations to his friend, he could have done him any good
 
 152 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 whatever. He might have sinned with him and perished 
 with him ; or without sinning (further than by defending 
 the wrong cause instead of the right), he might have sacri- 
 ficed his fortunes for him ; but lie could not have saved him. 
 These are all questions of fact, and on these also I am 
 at issue with the reviewer. If he can show that I am wrong 
 on any one of these points, I shall be willing to admit that 
 he has done something to vindicate his position. But you 
 will find that he will only (as you say) "lay it on thicker 
 and thicker" that is, will repeat his former mis-statements 
 with greater emphasis and grosser exaggeration. But we 
 shall see. 
 
 A. 
 
 I see he addresses himself to answer Mr. Montagu's 
 arguments, which I suppose are not the same as yours. 
 
 B. 
 
 No ; I do not undertake to make common cause with 
 Mr. Montagu. There are many of his arguments that may 
 be easily triumphed over. But whatever Macaulay has to 
 say, let us hear it. It will at any rate supply some fresh 
 texts, and some fresh illustrations of his way of writing 
 history. 
 
 A. 
 
 " We regret to say that the whole conduct of Bacon through 
 (he course of these transactions appears to Mr. Montagu not 
 merely excusable, but deserving of high admiration. The 
 integrity and benevolence of tins gentleman arc so well known 
 that our readers will probably be at a loss to conceive by what 
 steps lie can have arrived at so extraordinary a conclusion ; and 
 we arc half afraid that they will suspect us of practising some 
 artifice upon them when we report the principal arguments 
 which he employs. 
 
 " In order to get rid of the charge of ingratitude, Mr. Mon- 
 tagu attempts to show that Bacon lay under greater obligations 
 to the Queen than to Essex."
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 153 
 
 B. 
 
 Here we come to the question of principle. Please to 
 watch carefully the use of the word " obligation." 
 
 " What these obligations were it is not easy to discover. 
 The situation of Queen's Counsel, and a remote reversion, were 
 surely favours very far below Bacon's personal and hereditary 
 claims. They were favours which had not cost the Queen a 
 groat, nor had they put a groat into Bacon's purse." 
 
 B. 
 
 Mark that ! 
 
 A. 
 
 " It was necessary to rest Elizabeth's claims to gratitude on 
 some other ground ; and this Mr. Montagu felt." 
 
 B. 
 
 Claims to gratitude! We were speaking of obligation. 
 Gratitude is only one kind of obligation. The question is 
 of duty, service, fidelity. These are obligations which may 
 hold good where there is no question of gratitude. But 
 go on. 
 
 A. 
 
 " ' What perhaps was her greatest kindness,' says he, ' instead 
 of having hastily advanced Bacon, she had, with a continuance 
 of her friendship, made him bear the yoke in his youth. Such 
 were his obligations to Elizabeth.' " 
 
 B. 
 
 A suggestion, with which I have nothing to do. It is 
 hardly worth while to inquire whether it is fairly stated. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Such indeed they were. Being the son of one of her oldest 
 and most faithful ministers ; being himself the ablest and most 
 accomplished young man of his time, he had been condemned 
 by her to drudgery, to obscurity, to poverty."
 
 154 EVENING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 That is, she had not raised Jam aloue tJte necessity of 
 working for Ids livelihood. The rest is gross rhetoric. 
 Above obscurity she had raised him. For she had distin- 
 guished him by unusual access, employed him in the busi- 
 ness of the Learned Counsel, and used him in State affairs. 
 What next ? 
 
 A. 
 
 "She had depreciated his acquirements." 
 
 That is, she had shared what the reviewer himself admits 
 to have been " the general opinion " with regard to his 
 acquirements as a lawyer. She had said, " He had a great 
 wit, and an excellent gift of speech, and much other good 
 learning; but in law thought he could rather show to the 
 uttermost of his knowledge, than that he was deep." Well? 
 
 A. 
 
 " She had checked him iu the most imperious manner, when 
 in Parliament he ventured to act an independent part." 
 
 Not him more than others. 
 
 A. 
 
 " She had refused to him the professional advancement to 
 which lie had a just claim." 
 
 B. 
 
 Nay, hardly a claim. She had preferred Coke before 
 him to be Attorney-General; and Fleming to be Solicitor- 
 General. They were both of older standing. Coke was 
 nine years his elder, and had a much higher professional 
 reputation. Fleming was, according to Jxicon himself, "an 
 able man." " If 1 see her Majesty (he said) settle her 
 choice upon an able man, such an one as ^^r. Serycant lltrn- 
 iny, I will make no means to alter it." More ?
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. If) 5 
 
 A. 
 
 " To her it was owing that while younger men not superior 
 to him in extraction, and far inferior to him in every kind of 
 personal merit were filling the highest offices of the State, 
 adding manor to manor, reai'ing palace after palace, " 
 
 B, 
 
 It is a pity to strip that sentence of its feathers ; but it 
 must be done. Head instead (meo periculo), "While his 
 cousin Eobert Cecil had been for two years Secretary of 
 State." The manors and palaces, I think, came after. 
 
 A. 
 
 " he was lying at a spunging-house for a debt of three 
 hundred pounds." 
 
 B. 
 
 That was a pity, certainly. Yet I cannot think that 
 even that injury was enough to cancel his duty as a subject 
 to the State. lie, at least, conld not have pleaded it as a 
 valid excuse. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Assuredly if Bacon owed gratitude to Elizabeth, he owed 
 none to Essex. If the Queen really was his best friend, the 
 Earl was his worst enemy. We wonder that Mr. Montagu did 
 not press his argument a little further. He might have main- 
 tained that Bacon was fully justified in revenging himself upon 
 a man who had attempted to rescue his youth from the salutary 
 yoke imposed upon it by the Queen ; who had wished to ad- 
 vance him hastily ; who, not content with attempting to inflict 
 the Attorney-Generalship upon him, had been so cruel as to 
 present him with a landed estate." 
 
 B. 
 
 All this gaiety is aimed at Mr. Montagu, whom it is not 
 my business to shield. As far however as the matter itself, 
 apart from Mr. Montagu's way of handling it, is concerned, 
 I need only say that the argument at best only goes to 
 show that Bacon did not ou;e gratitude to the Queen, that
 
 156 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 is, lie ought not to have felt gratitude. But the fact is 
 that, whether he ought or not, he did feel it ; and felt it 
 deeply. Whatever may have been the nature of the 
 obligations conferred by her, there can be no doubt as to 
 the nature of the emotion with which they had inspired 
 him : an earnest, grateful, affectionate, disinterested de- 
 votion ; an ambition, not to be paid for serving, but to 
 serve ; a sentiment of reverence and duty, which neglect 
 and injustice could never shake ; which the fear of obloquy 
 could never make him betray ; which the pursuit of fortune 
 could never make him forget ; which Death could not 
 cancel, for it attached itself to her memory when it could 
 no longer avail herself. However base and unworthy of a 
 father of philosophy the reviewer may hold such a feeling 
 to be, even he can hardly doubt the sincerity of it. It 
 lives to this day in the words which flowed fresh from his 
 heart at various times and in various circumstances, in 
 times when he felt most elated by the gracious acceptance 
 of his services ; in times when he felt most depressed by 
 the ill requital of them ; in times when he had everything 
 to hope from her favour ; in times when he had nothing 
 to hope ; in times when all men were emulous to flatter 
 her ; in times when it was thought by many men that the 
 most acceptable way of flattering her successor was by 
 disparaging her. 
 
 But do you not see that the reviewer is speaking all this 
 time of gratitude and obligation as if they were merely 
 matters for a money bargain ? So much money you have 
 had from me ; so much zeal and fidelity I expect from you. 
 How, says he, could Bacon lie under greater obligations to 
 the Queen than to Essex, when the 'Queen had not put 
 a groat into his purse, and Essex had given him laud? 
 You might as well ask how a man can lie under greater 
 obligations to his religion or his conscience than to his 
 patron, when his religion and conscience have always stood 
 in the way of his fortunes, and his patron has offered him 
 large bribes to betray them. If the reviewer really thinks 
 that the laws of duty are like the laws of an auction ; that
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 157 
 
 there are no " obligations " that a man can lie under, but 
 such as may be bought up by a higher bidder ; if he thinks 
 that offices of friendship and loyalty belong as a matter of 
 course to the party that pays the largest fee ; only let him 
 say so. We shall then know how to argue with him ; if we 
 think it worth while to argue with him at all. Yet even on 
 this ground he might, if it were necessary, be met. Bacon 
 could have alleged as an excuse that he was already retained 
 on the Queen's side, and was not permitted by the etiquette 
 of his profession to transfer himself for a double fee to the 
 other party. His duty to the Queen and State was inde- 
 feasible ; any subsequent engagement incompatible with it 
 was ipso facto void. 
 
 A. 
 
 The reviewer may reply that in that case he should not 
 have taken the fee. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes ; and I may reply again that the fee was not given 
 for any such object, or at any rate was not taken with any 
 such understanding. Bacon, at the time he took it, ex- 
 pressly said, " I can be no more yours than I was." But 
 if I speak of it as a fee, it is only that I may bring it within 
 the compass of the reviewer's argument. It was not in fact 
 any fee for services to come, but a fair and honourable 
 acknowledgment (though by no means an extravagant one) 
 of services past. The simple and sufficient explanation of 
 the unpopularity which Bacon incurred on account of his 
 conduct to Essex, of the " solitude and want of comfort " 
 in which his course involved him, is most shortly ex- 
 pressed in his own words addressed to the Queen in 
 December 1599 (the time when he was threatened with 
 assassination) " which I judge to be (he says) because 
 I take Duty too exactly and not according to the dreys of this 
 age." I am afraid the ages have not mended us in this 
 respect. We seem to be deeper than ever in these dregs.
 
 158 EVEXISGS WITH A KE VIE WE 11. 
 
 A. 
 
 You need not press this further on my account. For 
 assuming that you are correct in saying that he took no 
 further part against Essex than the duty of his place re- 
 
 1 o / i 
 
 quired, I quite agree with you that there is no just ground 
 for censure ; especially as he had attached himself to the 
 Queen's service before he saw Essex's face. And this point 
 being settled, the next appears superfluous. But we may 
 as well have it. 
 
 "Again, we can hardly think Mr. Montagu serious when ho 
 tells us that Bacon was bound for the sake of the public, not to 
 destroy his own hopes of advancement ; and that he took part 
 against Essex from a wish to obtain power which, might enable 
 him to be useful to his country. We really do not know how 
 to refute such arguments except by stating them. Nothing is 
 impossible which does not involve a contradiction. It is barely 
 possible that Bacon's motives for acting as he did on this 
 occasion may have been gratitude to the Queen for keeping him 
 poor, and a desire to benefit his fellow-creatures in some high 
 situation. And there is a possibility that Bonner may have 
 been a good Protestant, who being convinced that the blood of 
 martyrs is the seed of the Church, heroically went through all 
 the drudgery and infamy of persecution that he might inspire 
 the English people with an intense and lasting hatred of 
 Popery. 
 
 B. 
 
 To make that an analogous case, we must suppose Mr. 
 Montagu to have argued that Bacon's object in taking part 
 against Essex was to inspire the people- with a hatred of the 
 Government; which is not Mr. Montagu's argument. 
 
 A. 
 
 " There is a possibility that Jeffreys may have been an ardent 
 lover of liberty, and that he may have beheaded Algernon 
 Sydney and burned Elizabeth (Jaunt, onlv in order to produce a 
 reaction which might, lead to a limitation of the prerogative. "- 
 
 \oiir last remark applies still more exactly to this case. 
 " There is a possibility that Thurtell may have killed
 
 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. If) 9 
 
 Weare only in order to give the youth of England an impres- 
 sive warning against gaming and bad company. There is a 
 possibility that Fauntleroy may have forged powers of attorney 
 only in order that his fate might turn the attention of the 
 public to the defects of the penal law." 
 
 B. 
 
 Here lie should have cited (if he wanted a case truly 
 analogous), not Thurtell and Fauntleroy, but some one 
 among the counsel for the prosecution who had formerly 
 received money from them : and told us that it was 
 " barely possible " that these counsel might have taken their 
 part in the prosecution in the hope of advancing in their 
 profession, and so serving their country or their party in 
 parliament. I suppose most people would agree that such 
 a thing was not only " possible " but probable. 
 
 " These things, we say, are possible ; but they are so ex- 
 travagantly improbable, that a man who should act on such a 
 supposition would be fit only for St. Luke's. And we do not 
 see why suppositions upon which no man would act in ordinary 
 life should be admitted into history. 
 
 It is odd. I swallowed all this without straining when 
 I read the article first. I must confess now that it appears 
 intolerable trifling with a serious subject. You will of 
 course answer that all these pretended analogies are cases 
 in which notorious crimes are supposed to be committed 
 upon a pretence merely absurd and extravagant : whereas 
 in Bacon's case the act itself was no crime, and at any rate 
 lay in the direct road to the supposed object. 
 
 B. 
 
 Unquestionably I should say that. For since we are 
 debating possibilities, it is surely possible that Bacon, 
 knowing the Queen's cause to be a good one and Essex's 
 cause to be a very bad one, may have thought it no crime 
 to stand by the good cause even if he should die the day 
 after. And setting aside the question of duty altogether,
 
 WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 it is quite certain that by throwing up his office on such 
 an occasion he would have greatly diminished his oppor- 
 tunities of doing service to his country. So that assuming 
 the motive to be a possible one in itself, there is no ab- 
 surdity in supposing that it had its influence here. If it 
 impelled him to do anything, it must have impelled him 
 to do what he did. But I should say much more than 
 this. I should say that this glimpse into the reviewer's 
 breast through the window which he here inadvertently 
 opens, presents a spectacle which is to me almost awful ; 
 and a spectacle of no good omen for mankind. Here is a 
 young aspirant for political power and distinction in the 
 year of grace 1837 who sets it down as " extravagantly 
 improbable " that a man should wish for power in order to 
 benefit his fellow-creatures. 
 
 A. 
 
 Hardly that, perhaps. He thinks it extravagant to 
 suppose that this was Bacon s motive. 
 
 B. 
 
 That point I may have a word to say upon presently. 
 But I will not consent to qualify what I said just now. I 
 maintain that his argument implies an opinion (I sav, 
 " his argument implies the opinion ; " for I do not under- 
 take to say that he thinks as he talks, in any true sense of 
 the verb "to thii;k ; ") his argument, I say, implies an 
 opinion, independently of Bacon's case, that the supposition 
 itself is extravagant. Grant him for a moment that Bacon's 
 conduct was indefensible in itself, a sacrifice of the duty 
 of gratitude to the desire of power. Still the prospect of 
 power was before him, and through that power lay his 
 chance of doing good. AYhy is it extravagant to suppose 
 that in desiring the power he desired the ability to do good 
 which it must confer? To say that a man who i.s capable 
 of doing a base action in order to obtain a commanding 
 position, is not capable of desiring that position in order 
 that he may do great and good actions, is to contradict all
 
 EVENIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 101 
 
 daily as well as all historical experience. My only hope 
 is that the reviewer did not think about the matter ; that 
 the words embody no opinion of his whatever, and express 
 nothing more than the pride and pleasure which he feels in 
 turning a good sentence. 
 
 A. 
 
 That is the true reading of them, I dare say. But here 
 is more. 
 
 " Mr. Montagu's notion that Bacon desired power only in 
 order to do good to mankind, appears somewhat strange to us, 
 when we consider how Bacon afterwards used power, and how 
 he lost it." 
 
 B. 
 
 " How Bacon afterwards used power " is a question on 
 which very much may be said, and on which the reviewer 
 will give us very little light. The use which he had 
 endeavoured hitherto to make of the little power he had, 
 I have already spoken of. And I think it would puzzle 
 the reviewer himself to explain away the appearances which 
 it exhibits of a desire to do good. The uses to which he 
 directed his influence in later life I shall probably have to 
 employ some evening in explaining ; for the present 1 shall 
 content myself with denying altogether the relevancy of 
 the question. Suppose it true that Bacon after attaining 
 to power did no good with it, what then ? Does it follow 
 that he intended none ? Whether he was honest enough 
 to do noble things or not, surely he was capable of desiring 
 -to do them. It is possible enough that a man who in his 
 silent meditations and resolutions was always intending the 
 largest benefits to mankind, might be perpetually turned 
 aside from his purposes by the fears or flatteries of the 
 time. But that a man who had the heart to dedicate him- 
 self from his earliest years to the service of mankind in the 
 highest and largest sense, to devote his whole leisure to 
 the building up of a work which was to bring (as he at least 
 believed) infinite benefit to mankind through all their 
 generations, but to himself no present reward except the 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 EVENINGS WITH A RE VIE WEE. 
 
 consciousness of that service, that such a man should in 
 his daily dealings with the world have been incapable not 
 only of noble actions, but even of noble ivishcs, should 
 have given up that heart to objects purely sordid and selfish, 
 is it not a monstrous and incredible supposition ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Quite incredible ; but unfortunately too much in keep- 
 ing with the reviewer's doctrine of " extravagant improba- 
 bility," upon which I thought just now you were too severe. 
 But wait ; we are corning to particulars. 
 
 " Surely 'the service which he rendered to mankind by 
 taking Lady Wharton's broad pieces, and Sir John Kennedy's 
 cabinet, " 
 
 B. 
 
 those being the only services he ever rendered to man- 
 kind. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes ; I see. 
 
 " was not of such vast importance as to sanctify all the means 
 that might conduce to that end." 
 
 Monstrous ! to think that this man was one of my 
 historical authorities ! 
 
 " If the case were fairly stated, it would, we much fear, stand 
 thus : Bacon was a servile advocate that he might be a corrupt 
 judge." 
 
 B. 
 
 Fairly ! As if it could be fairly presumed that in 
 endeavouring to rise in his profession he was only specu- 
 lating on becoming Chancellor and receiving the profits of 
 corruption ! 
 
 A. 
 
 Say no more. I wonder if the reviewer was a reader of 
 books that he might be a writer of slanders. 
 Now we come to a new point. 
 
 " Mr. Montagu conceives that none but the ignorant and 
 unreflecting can think P>aeon censurable for anything that he 
 did as counsel for the Crown ; and maintains that no advocate 
 can justifiably use any discretion as to the party for whom he 
 appears."
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 163 
 
 B. 
 
 The validity of that argument must depend upon the 
 meaning which we attach to the word " discretion ; " the use 
 of which in what follows I beg you to watch narrowly. 
 
 A. 
 
 There may be some difficulty perhaps in deciding what 
 kind of discretion is permitted in particular cases ; but none 
 surely as to the general principle. The end of the whole 
 proceeding is to do justice ; and the means is to know the 
 truth. The business of the counsel for the prosecution is 
 to set forth the evidence against the defendant ; that is, the 
 evidence which tends to show that he is guilty of the crime 
 imputed to him. His discretion is to be exercised in setting 
 forth that evidence fairly ; in such a manner (I mean) that 
 it shall have upon the minds of the judges its true and 
 proper value, that it shall weigh with them for exactly so 
 much, and only so much, as it would weigh in the judgment 
 of a just and understanding man, balancing in his own mind 
 the arguments for and against. He is not to attempt to 
 strike the balance himself ; because that would be to assume 
 the office of Judge ; which (besides that it is not his office) 
 cannot be exercised until the other side has been heard. 
 He is only to take care that all the true weights and that 
 no false ones are put into the scale of which he has the 
 charge. This surely is the principle upon which it is his 
 duty to act. And I thought it had been (as a principle) 
 'universally recognized. For even the monstrous practices 
 of our modern Courts of Law are justified (or I should 
 rather" say, an attempt is made to justify them) on the 
 plea that they do, in fact and upon the whole, tend to pro- 
 duce this result. So many false weights must be put in on 
 one side to balance so many false weights on the other. 
 
 B. 
 
 I agree with you entirely. You could not have described 
 more exactly the extent and the limit of the discretion
 
 in 4 ErExixGS WITH A EEVIEWEK. 
 
 with which I conceive the counsel for the Crown were in 
 those times charged. It was their duty to present to the 
 judges in its true light, all the evidence against the prisoner. 
 I am curious to hear in what respect the reviewer can 
 maintain that Bacon in this instance either exceeded or fell 
 short of it. 
 
 A. 
 
 " "We will not at present inquire whether the doctrine which 
 is held on this subject l>y English lawyers be or be not agree- 
 able to reason and morality: whether it be right that a man 
 should, with a wig on his head and a band round his neck, do 
 for a guinea what, without those appendages, he would think it 
 wicked and infamous to do for an empire : whether it be right 
 that, not merely believing but knowing a statement to be true, 
 he should do all that can be done by sophistry, by rhetoric, by 
 solemn asseveration, by indignant exclamation, by gesture, by 
 play of features, by terrifying one honest witness, by perplexing 
 another, to cause a jury to thinl; that .statement false. It is not 
 necessary on the present occasion to decide these questions. The 
 professional rules, be they good or bad, are rules to which many 
 AVISO and virtuous men have conformed and are daily conforming. 
 If therefore Bacon did no more than these rules required of him, 
 we shall readily admit that he was blameless." 
 
 B. 
 
 Will you indeed ? If he did half as much as is here 
 implied, /should hold him unpardonable. 
 
 However, I have no objection to make to all this. Only 
 I want you to mark and remember it with reference to an 
 argument which we shall meet further on. Here are practices 
 which in the year 18U7 the reviewer admits to be not only 
 general, but conformed to daily by many wise and virtuous 
 men ; and yet this is the description he gives of them. I 
 shall want to refer to it hereafter, as showing in a good 
 modern illustration that a practice which is not only im- 
 moral, but. is thus publicly denounced as immoral, which is 
 not only indefensible, but undefended, may continue never- 
 theless to prevail and to be countenanced by the universal 
 Jicspectability of England. If any occasion should arise
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 1G5 
 
 presenting this practice in an odious and unpopular light, 
 especially if in the person of an eminent and unpopular 
 man, I am convinced that the excuse which the reviewer 
 here makes for it would be of no avail for him whatever ; 
 he and his excuse would be swept away in a flood of popular 
 indignation. But this, as I said, has reference to a period 
 which is yet a long way before us. Well ; and what did 
 Bacon do more than professional rules required of him ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " But we conceive that his conduct was not justifiable 
 according to any professional rules that now exist, or that ever 
 existed in England. It has always been held that in criminal 
 cases, in which the prisoner was denied the help of counsel, and 
 above all in capital cases, the advocate for the prosecution was 
 both entitled and bound to exercise a discretion." 
 
 B. 
 
 A discretion, undoubtedly. But what kind of discretion? 
 within what limits ? Was he bound, or was lie entitled 
 even, to become the advocate of any accused party from 
 whom he happened to have received in former times a 
 present in money or in land ? For to let the prisoner go 
 away with the benefit of an excuse which he, the counsel 
 for the prosecution, knew and could prove to be false, what 
 were it but to become his advocate ? No ; he was bound 
 to use his discretion in rejecting all unfair arguments against 
 the prisoner, in presenting the evidence to the jury with 
 such explanation, qualification, or reservation as might be 
 necessary to prevent its having undue weight with them ; 
 presenting it, in short, so as not to deceive them. But he 
 was not at liberty to use it in concealing important facts, or 
 in allowing a false colour to be put on the case the other way. 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly ; but let us hear him out. 
 
 " It is true that after the Revolution, when the Parliament 
 began to make inquisition for the innocent blood which hud 
 been shed by the last btuarts, a feeble attempt was made to
 
 1G6 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 defend the lawyers who had been accomplices in the murder of 
 Sir Thomas Armstrong, on the ground that they had only acted 
 professionally. The wretched sophism was silenced by the 
 execrations of the House of Commons. ' Things will never be 
 well done,' said Mr. Foley, ' till some of that profession be made 
 examples.' ' We have a new sort of monsters in the world,' said 
 the younger Hampden, ' haranguing a man to death. These I 
 call bloodhounds. Sawyer is very criminal and guilty of this 
 murder.' ' I speak to discharge my conscience,' said Mr. Gar- 
 roway : ' I will not have the blood of this man at my door. 
 Sawyer demanded judgment against him and execution. I 
 believe him guilty of the death of this man.' ' If the profession 
 of the law,' said the elder Hampden, ' gives a man authority to 
 murder at this rate, it is the interest of all men to rise and 
 exterminate that profession.' Nor was this language held only 
 by unlearned country gentlemen. Sir William Williams, one of 
 the ablest and most unscrupulous lawyers of his age, took the 
 same view of the case. He had not hesitated, he said, to take 
 part in the prosecution of the Bishops, because they were allowed 
 counsel. But he maintained that where the prisoner was not 
 allowed counsel, the counsel for the Crown was bound to exercise 
 a discretion ; and that every lawyer who neglected this dis- 
 tinction was a betrayer of the law." 
 
 B. 
 
 There again. A discretion. Still I ask what kind of 
 discretion ? Not surely to make, or allow any one to make, 
 a bad cause seem a good one. In a trial for murder, for 
 instance, is a prosecutor bound, in the exercise of this "dis- 
 cretion," to sink all facts which prove malice and cold 
 blood ; and to leave lago the benefit of all Othello's 
 excuses? If not in a case of murder, why in a case of 
 treason ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Wait one moment more. 
 
 "But it is unnecessary to eite aulhority. ](, is known to 
 everybody who has ever looked into u ('oiiri of Quarter Sessions, 
 (hat lawyers do exercise a discretion in criminal cas. s ; and ii, 
 is plain to overy man of common sen^e that, it they did not
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EE VIE WEE. 167 
 
 exercise this discretion they would be a more hateful body of men 
 than those bravoes who used to hire out their stilettoes in Italy." 
 
 Now fire away, for we are at the end of the paragraph. 
 
 B. 
 
 I have discharged myself already. I have nothing to 
 say of the historical example, because I know nothing of 
 the case. Only I protest in general against an appeal to 
 the " execrations of the House of Commons " by way of 
 settling any question either of justice or of fact. The 
 House of Commons is at best a mob of gentlemen assembled 
 to discuss matters which they have neither been trained to 
 understand nor chosen for their aptness to understand. 
 When they begin to " execrate," you may safely conclude 
 that they are in no humour either to judge or to give 
 evidence. However, I am not concerned to dispute their 
 sentence on this occasion. They were unquestionably right 
 in rejecting the plea (if this was the plea which they did 
 reject) that an advocate in a criminal case has a right to 
 resort to the tricks of advocacy for the sake of obtaining 
 a sentence against the prisoner. Any advocate who con- 
 ducted his pleading against Sir Thomas Armstrong as 
 unfairly as the reviewer has in this article conducted his 
 pleading against Bacon, was (I admit) guilty of his blood, 
 and well deserved the execrations both of the lawyers and 
 of the country gentlemen. Now for the proof that Bacon 
 brought himself within the range of this censure. 
 
 A. 
 
 I once read that debate upon the case of Sir Thomas 
 Armstrong. But I think the word " discretion " was not 
 used in it from beginning to end ; and (between ourselves) 
 it is a case not at all in point. The charge against Sir 
 .Robert Sawyer was not that he conducted the prosecution 
 against Sir Thomas ; but that he demanded execution of 
 judgment in the face of a demand put forward by the 
 prisoner (which he knew to be just) for arrest of judgment. 
 Sir Thomas had a right of appeal from the judgment of
 
 108 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 that Court. When the Court refused to acknowledge it, 
 he demanded that the statute under which he claimed the 
 right should be read ; upon which Sawyer, the Attorney- 
 General, only answered, " Your statute will do you no 
 good ; " and without hearing it read, proceeded to demand 
 execution ; thus making himself a party (as it was argued, 
 and I suppose justly) to an act which he knew to be illegal. 
 Instead of demanding execution of judgment, it "\vas his 
 duty to advise the Court to suspend judgment. By taking 
 the opposite course he became a party to the illegal exe- 
 cution ; therefore an accomplice in the murder. For tliis, 
 not for pressing against him the evidence such as it was, 
 he was expelled from the House by a large majority. 
 
 B. 
 
 Then the decision of the House in that case would have 
 applied to Sir Edward Coke at the trial of Sir Walter 
 lialeigh in 1GU3 ; if it be true (for that is a clause never 
 to be omitted in such matters) that, believing it to bo 
 illegal to condemn a man upon the evidence of one witness, 
 he did what he could to get that plea overruled : and if 
 by any accident an execrating House of Commons had seen 
 his conduct in that light, he might have found it no easy 
 matter to defend himself against a charge of murder. But 
 in the trial of Essex nothing of this kind occurred. It lias 
 not even been asserted that anything was done contrary to 
 law, either by judges or by counsel. But let us hear how 
 the reviewer attempts to apply his principles to the case. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Bacon appeared against a man Avlio was indeed guilty of a 
 great o dunce, but who had been his benefactor und friend. " 
 
 B. 
 
 Most true : but not in any suit of his own, nor in any 
 unjust cause. 
 
 A. 
 JS T o. We have already discussed that point and acquitted
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 1G9 
 
 Bacon. He certainly had no ground for refusing' to appear 
 in his place against Essex. 
 
 " He did more than this. Nay, he did more than a person 
 who had never seen Essex would have been justified in doing. 
 He employed all the art of an advocate to make the prisoner's 
 conduct appear more inexcusable and more dangerous to the 
 State than it really had been." 
 
 B. 
 
 That is the general charge over again ; which in the 
 absence of all particulars I can only meet as before by a 
 general contradiction. I assert confidently that he did 
 nothing of the kind. 
 
 A. 
 
 " All that professional duty could in any case have required 
 of him would have been to conduct the cause so as to ensure a 
 conviction." 
 
 B. 
 
 There we have over again Macaulay's doctrine as to 
 the duty of the counsel for prosecution, upon which, as 
 before, I join issue with him. To make out the case 
 sufficiently to ensure a conviction, was not enough. It was 
 necessary to make out the case so as to show what it was. 
 
 A. 
 
 " But from the nature of the circumstances, there could not 
 be the smallest duubt that the Earl would be found guilty. The 
 character of the crime was unequivocal." 
 
 B. 
 
 That again I take leave to deny. That the crime 
 amounted to treason in law, was indeed unquestionable. 
 But treason in what degree? of what character? What 
 animus did it imply ? Was it an act of self-defence, as 
 Essex pretended ? Was he urged into it by great pro- 
 vocation, as the reviewer pretends ? by fear, by strong 
 temptation? Was it done in hot blood or in cold blood? 
 Was lie under any delusion ? How far (in short) did it
 
 170 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 imply a disloyal will in him, and danger in its consequences 
 to the State? How idle to talk of "the character of the 
 crime being unequivocal " while ail these questions re- 
 mained doubtful ! 
 
 A. 
 
 Idle indeed ! 
 
 " It had been committed recently in broad daylight in 
 the streets of the capital in the presence of thousands." 
 
 B. 
 
 What was " it " ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " If ever there was an occasion on which an advocate had 
 no temptation to resort to extraneous topics for the purpose of 
 blinding the judgment and inflaming the passions of a tribunal, 
 this was that occasion." 
 
 B. 
 
 Blinding the judgment and inflaming the passions! I 
 suppose it is too much to ask for an instance in which he 
 either did or attempted to do either the one or the other. 
 
 Our reviewer is not prolific of " instances " in this article. 
 But such as they are, they are coming: 
 
 "Why then resort to arguments which, while they could add 
 nothing to the .strength of the case considered in a legal point 
 of view " 
 
 B. 
 
 It was a question of state as well as of law: not to add 
 that, even "in a legal point of view," there is a diffeivm-o 
 botwcen a crime provoked and a crime unprovoked. Well ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " tended to aggravate the moral guilt of the fatal enterprise; 
 and to excite fear and apprehension in that ijuartur from which 
 alone the Earl could now hope for mercy.'"
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 171 
 
 B. 
 
 Nay, the " moral guilt " was surely an essential point to 
 ascertain. Was he or was he not a dangerous man ? So far 
 from exaggerating his guilt beyond what it really was, 
 Bacon's speech conveys no notion of its real magnitude. 
 And as for " exciting fear and apprehension " in Elizabeth, 
 I would ask this simple question : was there, or was there 
 not, before Bacon opened his mouth, any danger of her 
 feeling less apprehension than the case justified ? If there 
 was, then I say it was the part of a faithful servant to awaken 
 her apprehensions. If there was not, then I say it was the 
 part of a faithful servant to justify publicly to the prisoner's 
 face the apprehensions which she in private justly enter- 
 tained. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Why remind the audience of the arts of the ancient 
 tyrants ? " 
 
 B. 
 
 Because Essex had endeavoured by arts resembling 
 those of one of those " ancient tyrants," (if you choose to 
 call him so,) to impose upon the people. Bacon (by the 
 way) avoided the word " tyrant " for the same reason, I 
 suppose, that the reviewer introduces it ; it makes the 
 parallel sound harsher than it really is. The precaution is 
 characteristic of thorn both. Bacon knew that the word 
 " tyrant " had grown odious since the time of Pisistratus ; 
 therefore, though Pisistratus ivas a tyrant in the ancient 
 sense, he did not call him so, lest the term should convey 
 a false impression. The reviewer, on the contrary, feels 
 that to a modern reader, a charge of practising " the artifice 
 of Pisistratus " will not seem to contain any very horrible 
 imputation, whereas a charge of practising "the arts of 
 the ancient tyrants " will be at once understood as a gross 
 calumny and insult. Therefore, though Pisistratus
 
 172 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 Stop ; I sec \\hat you are going to say; but Jo not say 
 it. Keep your temper. Your case is growing quite strong 
 enough without wandering i'r< >ni the text. 
 
 " Why deny what everybody knew to be the truth, that a 
 powerful faction at Court had long sought to effect the ruin of 
 the prisoner? " 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon did not deny that. He denied only that there 
 was any such plot against him as made it necessary for him 
 to take up arms in defence of his life. And this he denied, 
 because many persons believed it on the credit of Essex's 
 declaration to be true, though Essex himself knew very well 
 that it was false. 
 
 A. 
 
 "Why above all institute a parallel between the un- 
 happy culprit and the most wicked and successful rebel of the 
 age?" 
 
 B. 
 
 The most wicked, I suppose, because the most successful. 
 Bacon, however, docs not seem to have thought him par- 
 ticularly wicked, except in so far as ambition was a 
 wickedness. He mentions him honourably in the ''Ad- 
 vancement of Learning " as " that nolle prince, Henry Duke 
 of Guise, howsoever transported with ambition." Had 
 Essex been as successful, there might perhaps have grown 
 a question which was the most wicked. But tin's is not to 
 the purpose. It was not between the culprits but between 
 the enterprises that Bacon instituted a comparison. He 
 confined himself strictly to the argument respecting the 
 (Tanfjar of Essex's attempt. From the actual issue of a 
 similar enterprise which had succeeded, miirht be understood 
 the possible issue of that which had not succeeded.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 1 < 3' 
 
 A. 
 
 "Was it absolutely impossible to do all that professional duty 
 required, without reminding a jealous sovereign of the League, 
 of the Barricades, and of all the humiliations which a too power- 
 ful subject had heaped on Henry the Third ? " 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon dwelt upon none of these things. He confined 
 himself strictly to the substantial and material points of 
 resemblance which the two cases presented. But I would 
 meet the last question more directly. I would answer 
 boldly, that without showing that the prisoner had done 
 something more than take necessary precautions against 
 assassination, (lie having been in fact engaged in an 
 unprovoked, a long-premeditated, a deliberate attempt to 
 master the Queen by force of arms,) it was absolutely 
 impossible to do all that professional duty required. We 
 have read the whole passage to which the reviewer refers, 
 so you can judge for yourself whether I understate the 
 intention and effect of Bacon's argument. 
 
 A. 
 
 I remember, and I am clearly with you on that point. 
 Now, we come to the Declaration of Treasons again. 
 
 B. 
 
 Ay : let us see what new shape that has taken since 
 we last parted from it. 
 
 A. 
 
 " But if we admit the plea which Mr. Montagu urges in 
 defence of what Bacon did as an advocate, what shall we say of 
 the ' Declaration of the Treasons of Robert Earl of Essex ' ? 
 Here at least there was no pretence of professional obligation." 
 
 B. 
 
 Put a query to that. It was not an obligation under 
 which he lay as a lawyer. But Bacon's profession was to be
 
 174 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 a true subject and servant to the Queen and State. If it 
 were for the good of the State that he should draw up a 
 Declaration of Essex's treasons, he did lie under a pro- 
 fessional obligation to do it. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Evon those who may think it the duty of a lawyer to 
 hang, draw, and quarter hid benefactors, for a proper considera- 
 tion " 
 
 B. 
 
 As Bacon hung, drew, and quartered Essex. I am 
 afraid we are beginning to "blind the judgment and inflame 
 the passions" of our readers. We must substitute for this 
 " Those who think it the duty of a Crown lawyer to assist 
 in the prosecution of a traitor, even though that traitor be 
 his benefactor " Well ? 
 
 "will hardly say that it is his duty to write abusive pamphlets 
 against them after they are in their graves." 
 
 B. 
 
 Ah ! There we have it. First it was a " vindication " 
 of a proceeding which had been " perhaps unreasonably " 
 condemned. Next it was a " murder of the fame " of the 
 person proceeded against. Now it is an "abusive pamphlet." 
 And all this without a single instance quoted of false state- 
 ment, unfair insinuation, or even exaggerated censure ! You 
 say you have not read this Declaration. You cannot there- 
 fore appreciate the true character of this last expression. I 
 do hope that the reviewer has not read it himself. In spite 
 of all that has gone before, I will still hope that if he had 
 read this Declaration, he would not have described it for 
 the information of those who have not read it, as an 
 " abusive pamphlet," gratuitously written for the purpose 
 of defaming a dead benefactor. Only remember the occa- 
 sion which called for it. A popular idol and a dangerous 
 rebel, a man who (to use the reviewer's own words) has 
 "endeavoured to throw the whole count rv into confusion
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 175 
 
 for objects purely personal " is executed for most just and 
 .urgent cause. After his execution fresh matter comes out 
 which proves that his case was even worse than it had 
 appeared to be, his execution therefore still more amply 
 justified. Meanwhile rumours and pamphlets are actively 
 circulated among tho people, giving false accounts of the 
 causes of his execution false accounts of the act for which 
 he had been condemned ; awakening dangerous disaffection 
 to the Government at a time when it seemed to be on the 
 point of being assailed by three dangers coming upon it at 
 once foreign levy, domestic malice, and the present prospect 
 of a disputed succession. In such a case, who that had a 
 spark of patriotism in him could shrink from assisting in an 
 endeavour to place the conduct of the Government in its 
 true light, by drawing up an account judicially and his- 
 torically accurate of the real grounds of the late proceed- 
 ing ? In speaking of such a case, who but the fool in the 
 Proverbs that scatters firebrands and says he is in sport, 
 could describe such an account written for such an object as 
 an " abusive pamphlet " ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly if your statement of the case be correct, 
 Macaulay's best excuse must be that he misunderstood it. 
 But he has more to say yet. Perhaps he will come to 
 particulars after all. Let us hear him out. 
 
 " Bacon excused himself b} 7 saying that he was not answer- 
 able for the matter of the book, and that he furnished only tlio 
 language." 
 
 B. 
 
 Pardon me. That excuse related to the manner rather 
 than to the matter. The matter he excused by declaring 
 that it was drawn up with a religious adherence to truth. 
 
 A. 
 
 I remember. 
 
 " But why did he endow such purposes with ^vonls ? "
 
 17G EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 Because he believed the purposes to be just and for the 
 
 good of the state. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Could no hack-writer, without virtue or shame, be found 
 to exaggerate the errors, already so dearly expiated, ol a gentle 
 and noble spirit ? " 
 
 B. 
 
 I deny the exaggerations. And if I content myself 
 with a general denial, it is only because the reviewer has 
 not given so much as a hint of the particular exaggerations 
 to which he alludes. And I much doubt whether he was 
 oven thinking of anything in particular. He has long 
 ceased to look at the original, and is finishing the picture 
 after his own fancy. 
 
 A. 
 
 "Every age produces those links between the man and the 
 baboon. Every age is fertile of Concanens, of Gildons, of 
 Anthony Pasquiiis. I>ut was it for Bacon so to prostitute his 
 intellect ? Could he not feel that while he rounded and pointed 
 some period dictated by the envy of Cecil 
 
 B. 
 
 Which of the periods does he mean ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " or gave a plausible form to some slander invented by the 
 dastardly malignity of Cobhatn 
 
 15. 
 
 AVhat slander ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Nay, don't ask me. Torhaps he thought himself on- 
 titled to infer from I Eicon's own excuse that the I hrhiration
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 177 
 
 contained such things. In eagerly disclaiming all re- 
 sponsibility for the matter of the alterations made by the 
 Council, he may be supposed to admit that it was (in some 
 respects at least) such as he could not justify. 
 
 B. 
 
 How can he be supposed to admit that the alterations 
 contained slanders, when he expressly says that in framing 
 them " their Lordships were as religious and curious of 
 truth as desirous of satisfaction ? " Prove that the altera- 
 tions contained anything slanderous, or anything dictated 
 by envy (the charge of envy against Cecil is itself I 
 believe a slander) and I will admit that in saying that 
 Bacon was not justified. For the slander itself he might 
 not be to blame ; but if he knew that slanderous matter had 
 been inserted, I will admit that he ought not to have 
 answered for the veracity of the insertors. But remember 
 that we have no hint of such proof as yet. Well, what 
 could he not feel ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Could he not feel " that lie was not merely sinning against 
 his friend's honour and his own ? Could lie not feel that 
 letters, eloquence, philosophy, were all degraded in his de- 
 gradation ? " 
 
 B. 
 
 Is that all ? The substance then of all this is, that 
 Bacon, being commanded to draw up a true report of Essex's 
 case (for in the absence of all proof that it contains a single 
 lie, and in the presence of his express declaration that truth 
 was the object of all the parties concerned in drawing it up 
 I must still assume that it was to be a true report), ought 
 to have declined the task, and discharged it, because for- 
 sooth Essex \vas his friend, upon some " hack-writer without 
 virtue or shame." As if a " hack-writer without virtue or 
 shame " were a fit person to draw up an historical document ; 
 or as if it were a friend's part to consign one's fame to such 
 hands ! 
 
 VOL. I. >i
 
 ITS KVEXTFGfi WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 A. 
 
 Of course the reviewer must be understood as saying 
 this on the assumption (an unjust one, I dare say ; certainly 
 an unsupported one) that the object of the document was 
 merely to slander and defame the character of Essex. Had 
 it been so, I do think it would have been Bacon's duty to 
 refuse to soil his own hands with it, even at the risk of its 
 falling into worse. But assume the cas^ to have been (as 
 I suppose it was) one in which the vindication of the 
 Government required, not perhaps a slanderous or unjust, 
 but a harsh and severe construction of the sufferer's con- 
 duct ; was it a friend's part to undertake it ? Suppose 
 you were yourself called on to perform a task which could 
 not be performed properly without putting your friend's 
 character in the worst light, would you not feel disposed 
 to decline it, as a task which would better become some one 
 who was not his friend ? 
 
 B. 
 
 If I did, would my friend have any reason to thank me ? 
 I will put you a fair case. Your best friend and benefactor 
 shall do something for which he deserves to be hanged ; 
 yet he shall not be a bad man, but generous, gentle, noble, 
 beloved ; he shall also " dearly expiate his offences " by 
 being hanged as he deserves. "Well ; for some reason or 
 other (I will not even insist upon its being a good reason), 
 it shall be determined by the party that ran him down - 
 (for to avoid preconceptions, it shall be the act of a party, 
 not of a King or Queen; neither will we say which party; 
 nay, it shall be the whole House of Commons, if you like)- 
 it shall be determined, I say, by this party to publish in 
 vindication of their proceedings a statement of the case, - 
 an account of the acts for which they impeached him, and 
 for which he suffered. I will not even suppose that such 
 a vindication is. in voiir opinion, called for. 1 release you 
 from all considerations of 2>uUt'n dutv in the case ; you shall 
 think only of your friend and his reputation. All I stipu- 
 late for is, that you believe the prosecution and the sentence
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 179 
 
 to have been just. And now comes the point. This party, 
 knowing that he was your friend and benefactor, yet 
 knowing you to be a man of sense, justice, and veracity, 
 propose that you should draw up this statement. There is 
 no want of persons who can do it ; there are plenty of 
 " hack-writers without virtue or shame " belonging to the 
 party, whose pens are sharp enough, and who will be only 
 too glad of an opportunity to write themselves and their 
 party up by writing your friend down. Written by some- 
 body it is to be. And, in short, if you will not undertake 
 it, the reviewer will. Now what will you do ? 
 
 A. 
 
 M-m-m-m ! To leave one's friend's fame in this re- 
 viewer's hands when one might take it out of them, would 
 be a serious responsibility. But then on the other hand 
 Tell me honestly, what would you do yourself? 
 
 B. 
 
 You know the rule. What would you have your friend 
 do for you in such a case ? But every man can answer best 
 for himself ; and for me, I can only say that if I should be 
 that unhappy friend of yours, I hope you will not hesitate. 
 If my character as well as my body becomes public 
 property, let it be dissected handsomely and scientifically ; 
 not thrown like offal to a bear. 
 
 A. 
 
 I suppose you are right. I suppose in refusing such an 
 office in such circumstances, a man would after all be acting 
 out of regard to his own reputation, not to his friend's. We 
 dare not be true for fear of being thought false. Yes ; I 
 give up. 
 
 B. 
 
 And remember that the case I put is one specially dis- 
 charged of all considerations except that of regard to your 
 friend's memory. Bacon's case was different. He had to
 
 ISO T-rEXTXGS WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 consider his duty not only to the memory of Essex, but to 
 his country ; which had in fact an older as well as a stronger 
 claim upon him ; for he was an English subject, before he 
 was the friend of Essex. 
 
 You see therefore that, upon my view of the matter, 
 everything is plain and natural. There is nothing strange 
 to account for. According to Bacon's scale of duties, the 
 degrees were, first, your God ; next, your King and 
 country ; then your friend ; last yourself. For a long time 
 all these duties drew in a line. Essex, when they first be- 
 came acquainted, seemed the likeliest instrument for the 
 service of religion and the state. While he \\as moving in 
 that direction, Bacon strengthened him for the service with 
 the full force of his own counsel and industry. When ho 
 began to look aside from the path, Bacon laboured to keep 
 him in it. When he swerved, Bacon laboured to win him 
 back. When he got fatally astray, Bacon laboured to arrest 
 his course and to keep him quiet, if he could not keep him 
 right. When this too was hopeless, and his fortunes became 
 dangerously involved, Bacon still laboured to save them from 
 becoming desperate. When at last he turned quite round 
 and was coming headlong in a direction exactly opposite to 
 that along which they had both begun, and one still con- 
 tinued, to travel, Bacon withstood him to the face. When 
 the act of so withstanding him raised against the Govern- 
 ment discontent and disaffection, Bacon stood forward to take 
 his own share of the odium, and would not (for fear of what 
 men might say) shrink from justifying the cause which he 
 knew to be just. 
 
 So far the question had still been between his friend and 
 his country ; never, except collaterally and by accident, be- 
 tween his friend and himself. But one trial more remained. 
 Upon the accession of a new King, supposed favourable to 
 Essex, the stream of popular indignation, no longer setting 
 against the state, was left to spend itself upon individuals. 
 Among these Bacon was most conspicuous. 31ost ignorantly 
 and unjustly was lie accused of having taken [tart against 
 the friend whom he had been doing all he could to serve ; of
 
 EVENING S WITH A REVIEWER. 181 
 
 having been faithless to his private, when he had only been 
 true (and because he had been true) to his public obligations; 
 of having calumniated his benefactor for the sake of defend- 
 ing public injustice, when he had in fact been only defending 
 public justice against popular calumny. Most ignorantly 
 were these charges made; for they were made at a time when 
 nothing could be known of what he had really been doing ; 
 upon the credit only of such vain rumours as fly abroad 
 when rumours are most vain rumours bred out of that 
 " pity in the common people, which if it run in a strong 
 stream doth ever cast up scandal and envy." Most unjustly 
 were they made; for those who made them were in a humour 
 to disbelieve everything that told against Essex, and to be- 
 lieve anything that told against those who were reputed to 
 have been his enemies. Now therefore, at last, the struggle 
 for Bacon was solely between regard for his own reputation 
 and tenderness for the memory of his friend. The inculpa- 
 tion of Essex could now serve no public object ; yet without 
 it, his own exculpation (as you may judge from my answer 
 to this invective) could not be made complete. The heavier 
 we make the fault of Essex, the lighter we must of necessity 
 make the charge against Bacon. Yet about the faults of 
 
 o o 
 
 Essex, Bacon is from this time forth tenderly and nobly 
 silent. Not a word more of censure passes his lips. He 
 vindicates himself from the charge of ingratitude to his 
 friend by showing that he had laboured from first to last to 
 serve him ; that he had given him counsel, which if he had 
 followed in his best fortunes, they would never have de- 
 clined ; if in his worst, they might still have been recovered; 
 that he had not desisted from interfering in his behalf until 
 interference became not only dangerous but useless. In 
 commemorating his virtues and acknowledging his benefits, 
 he is large and warm. But in justification of the trial, the 
 sentence, and the execution, he says scarcely a word. And 
 why ? Certainly not because he had nothing to say ; he 
 might have said at least all that I have said in his behalf; 
 but because he would not, out of regard for his own reputa- 
 tion and credit, keep alive for one day more the memory of
 
 182 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 his benefactor's guilt. To any one who has generosity 
 enough in himself to sympathize with generosity in another, 
 and who remembers the circumstances under which it was 
 written, Bacon's " Apology," in its unstudied simplicity and 
 subdued earnestness, is one of the most affecting compo- 
 sitions that can be. Its sincerity can be doubted only, I 
 think, by the insincere. The very style bears witness to it, 
 faltering, hurrying, breaking, as a man's voice falters 
 when it speaks out of too full a heart. To me at least, there 
 is something in the reserve with which he touches upon the 
 hist act of Essex's tragedy, inexpressibly affecting. The 
 earlier movements of disloyalty, and especially the prepara- 
 tions which were making for the insurrection three months 
 before it took place, are not alluded to, or lightly hinted at, 
 as " some slackness " in his demeanour towards the Queen. 
 The insurrection itself is only a "fatal impatience." The 
 8th of February is " the day of my Lord of Essex his mis- 
 fortune." That most ungenerous and unjustifiable attack 
 upon himself at the trial (on the subject of the letters) is 
 only a thing " which it pleased my Lord very strangely to 
 mention at the bar." These are the strongest expressions of 
 censure which the paper contains. And in fact, so tenderly 
 has he dealt with his friend's crime, that this very 
 "Apology" has had the effect of depriving him in the popular 
 iudgment of the benefit of his best excuse. 1 suppose this 
 may have been in his thoughts when lie said that he " must 
 reserve much which made for him. upon many respects of 
 duty, which he esteemed above his credit." ]>ut however 
 that may be. it is certain that his chariness in throwing 
 blame on Essex has helped mankind to forget how much 
 Essex was to blame. And yet it was a reserve which one 
 can perfectly understand and approve ; for even at this 
 day one would be sorry to bring to light the faults of a 
 character so noble, if this review ha<! not made it necessary 
 in order to vindicate one so much nobler. 
 
 J5ut you have had mv rending of the story. Wo are 
 now to hear one of our reviewer's recapitulations one of his 
 masterpieces of composition Ihe greatest amount of false, 
 effect conveyed in the smallest number <>l words.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 183 
 
 A. 
 
 " The real explanation of all this is perfectly obvious, and 
 nothing but a partiality amounting to a ruling passion could 
 cause anybody to miss it. The moral qualities of Bacon were 
 not of a high order. We do not say that he was a bad man. 
 He was not inhuman or tyrannical. He bore with meekness 
 his high civil honours, and the far higher honours gained by 
 his intellect. He was very seldom, if ever, provoked into treat- 
 ing any person with malignity arid insolence. No man more 
 readily held up the left cheek to those who had smitten the 
 right. No man was more expert at the soft answer which 
 turneth away wrath. He was never accused of intemperance 
 in his pleasures. His even temper, his flowing courtesy, the 
 general respectability of his demeanour, made a favourable 
 impression 011 those who saw him in situations which do not 
 severely try the principles. His faults were we write it with 
 pain coldness of heart and meanness of spirit." 
 
 B. 
 
 To that proposition I shall only ask you to suspend your 
 assent, until you come to some instance in proof of it. To 
 any one familiar with Bacon's writings, I would confidently 
 protest against it as utterly untenable. There was never yet 
 cold heart which could utter words so feeling and so touch- 
 ing ; never yet mean spirit the natural movements of which 
 were at once so simple and so majestic. But it is useless 
 to debate where we are not agreed either upon principle or 
 facts. Bacon's faults were coldness of heart and meanness 
 of spirit ! And the reviewer writes it with pain ! ! -Well ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " He seems to have been incapable of feeling strong affection, 
 of facing great dangers, of making great sacrifices." 
 
 B. 
 
 I wait to hear of the particular dangers and the par- 
 ticular sacrifices from which lie shrank. Hitherto he has 
 not met with anything that lias either deterred or seduced 
 him from doin:r \\liat he conceived to be his dutv.
 
 184 EVE 'XING S WITH A 7? E 'VIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 You do not moan that moral courage was one of his con- 
 spicuous virtues, do you ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I don't know. He was not often in situations where 
 moral courage was conspicuously required. A man who is 
 not quarrelsome may be brave enough, but has rarely occa- 
 sion to prove it. But I cannot at present recal any instance 
 in which he showed a want of courage. And as for making 
 great sacrifices, I rather think his whole life was a sacrifice 
 of objects which most people would have thought great, 
 though they may not have seemed great to him. 
 
 A. 
 
 How do you mean ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I mean that, he passed the greater part of his life in 
 subordinate positions, above which he might no doubt have 
 risen, if he had bi-en willing to use the moans which other 
 men much inferior to himself were using daily with success. 
 
 A. 
 
 "His desires were set on tilings below.'' 
 
 B. 
 
 Tut two notes of admiration to that, Bacon's desires set 
 on things below ! ! 
 
 A. 
 "Wealth, precedence, titles, patronage, the mace, the seals, 
 
 the coronet, large houses, fair gardens, rieh manors, massy 
 services of plate, gay hangings, curious cabinets, had as great, 
 attractions tor him as for any of the courtiers who dropped 
 on their kncrs in the dirt when Kli/aheth passed l>v, and then 
 h (stoned home to write to th,. King- ,,f Scots that her (Jracc 
 seined to ],. l.rcakiii"- fast."
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 185 
 
 B. 
 
 Indeed ! If so, lie was, for a man of his talents, the most 
 unsuccessful courtier on record, and for a man of his activity, 
 the idlest. But you are so familiar by this time with the 
 trick of the reviewer's style, that I need hardly draw your 
 attention to the construction of this last sentence. The 
 kind of composition is not difficult. If I had a bill for 
 upholstery before me, I could easily But that would 
 draw me into personalities ; and the case needs no illustra- 
 tion. You see the trick of it. It is only to enumerate each 
 good thing 1 with a sounding name that a man has ever been 
 in possession of, to add a plural termination, and then to 
 assume that because he had them while he lived, they were 
 the things he lived for, and the thing is done. Now only 
 look at this formidable array of objects, which are represented 
 as having such peculiar " attractions " for Bacon ; not merely 
 as having attractions for him ; (attractions no doubt they 
 had, being things for the most part of real value ; all con- 
 tributory, though not all essential, to the substantial powers, 
 dignities, comforts, or elegances of life ;) but as having " as 
 great, attractions ; " only think of that ; having for Francis 
 Bacon " as great attractions," " as for any of the courtiers," 
 &c. Look through the list once more, and te]l me which of 
 them he went out of his way for. They all lay in the direct 
 line of that career which he entered upon merely for the 
 sake of an honest livelihood in his nineteenth summer. And 
 for the manner of pursuing them the only difference in 
 this respect between him and other diligent and successful 
 lawyers was, that he was longer in gaining wealth and freer 
 in throwing it away. He spent too much of it in laying out 
 " fair gardens," and too little in buying " rich manors." It 
 is true that for some thirteen or fourteen years in the latter 
 part of his life he had a large income ; but he was all the 
 time working hard for it in the sweat of his brow. No man 
 is blamed for taking the gifts which his industry earns or 
 his fortune brings. But when it is laid to his charge that 
 they have peculiar attractions for him, it is but reasonable
 
 186 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 to ask for some instances of their attractive force. What 
 did he do, which but for them he would have left undone; or 
 what leave undone, which but for them he would have done ? 
 
 A. 
 
 That is a question which Macaulay seems very well 
 prepared to answer : 
 
 " For these objects," (lie goes on,) " he had stooped to every- 
 thing and endured everything'." 
 
 B. 
 
 I have yet to learn that he had stooped to a single 
 unworthy action. But tell us of something which he had 
 endured or to which he had stooped. Everything means 
 nothing. 
 
 A. 
 
 " For these he had sued in the humblest manner, and when 
 unjustly and ungraciously repulsed, he bad thanked those who 
 had repulsed him, and had begun to sue again." 
 
 B. 
 
 Av ; I thought we should catch him out when he con- 
 
 J ' O 
 
 descended to particulars. Do you recognize our old friend 
 under this new disguise ? 
 
 A. 
 
 You do not mean that he alludes to the old application 
 to Burghley to be called within the Bar, when he was live- 
 and-twenty ? 
 
 B. 
 
 To be sure he docs. The " testy refusal " and the 
 " patience and serenity bordering on meanness." I tohl 
 you we should have some large descriptions of Bacon's 
 habitual demeanour drawn from that passage. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then we may .strike out that, without more words. Let 
 us trv the next.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 187 
 
 "For these objects, as soon as he found that the smallest 
 show of independence in Parliament was oifensive to the Queen, 
 he had abased himself to the dust before her, and implored for- 
 giveness in terms better suited to a convicted thief than to a 
 knight of the shire." 
 
 B. 
 
 Number two. Do you remember the " abject apology " 
 and the debate on the money bill, which we discussed at 
 large at our third sitting ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Very well. Strike out number two. 
 
 " For these he joined, and for these he forsook Lord Essex." 
 
 B. 
 
 For these he joined? 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes ; that is the word. You know the reviewer repre- 
 sented him as joining Essex because he despaired of ad- 
 vancement through Burghley. I remember you showed 
 that the dates were incompatible with that supposition. 
 I agree to strike out number three. 
 
 " He continued to plead his patron's cause with the Queen 
 as long as he thought that by pleading that cause he could serve 
 himself." 
 
 That is a new insinuation. His advocacy of Essex's 
 cause during his disgrace had credit, according to tin; 
 reviewer's own former statement, at least for disinterested- 
 ness as far as it went. 
 
 " Xay, he went further ; for his feelings, though not warm, 
 were kind; he pleaded that cause so long us he thought that 
 he could plead it without injury to himself." 
 
 B. 
 
 Longer than that ; as long in fact as he could plead it 
 with anv advantage to Essex.
 
 188 EVENIXGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes. 
 
 " Bu 
 
 long to liis ruin, 
 
 " But when it became evident that Essex was going head 
 
 B. 
 
 Say rather (for the words are the reviewer's own), " was 
 endeavouring to throw the whole country iuto confusion for 
 objects purely personal." 
 
 A. 
 
 " Bacon "began to tremble for his own fortiines." 
 
 B. 
 
 And why not for the fortunes of the country ? 
 
 A. 
 
 " What he had to fear would not indeed have been very 
 alarming to a man of lofty character It was not death. It 
 was not imprisonment. It was the loss of Court-favour. It 
 was the being left behind by others in the career of ambition. 
 It was the having leisure to finish the Instauraiio Magnet. The 
 Queen looked coldly upon him. The courtiers began to consider 
 him as a marked man. He determined to change his line of 
 conduct, and to proceed in a new course, with so much vigour 
 as to make up for lost time." 
 
 B. 
 
 Here again we have the old story repeated ; still, as 
 before, without any reference whatever to the nature of the 
 cause. As if an "endeavour to throw the whole country 
 into confusion," were not a thing dangerous to the best 
 interests of the country, a thing which it was the duty 
 of every man who loved his country to take part against. 
 .It is said too as if Bacon had clumyi'd his course. He did 
 not change an inch. It was Essex that changed. 
 
 A. 
 
 True. When Essex tools the wrong side, Bacon con- 
 tinued to stand by Ilio right. That point. I think you
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 180 
 
 have clearly made out. Therefore we may strike out number 
 four. 
 
 " When once he had determined to act against his friend, 
 knowing himself to be suspected, he acted with more /eal than 
 would have been necessary or justifiable if he had been em- 
 ployed against a stranger." 
 
 B. 
 
 Number five. You agreed, I think, to acquit him of 
 that charge. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes. He seems to have done nothing but what was 
 necessary to make out the case fully and fairly. By all 
 means let us keep one place in the land sacred to the 
 discovery of Truth. Out with number five. 
 
 " He exerted his professional talents to shed the Earl's 
 blood, " 
 
 B. 
 
 Only to show that he had done more than defend himself 
 against assassination. 
 
 A. 
 
 " and his literary talents to blacken the Earl's memory." 
 
 B. 
 
 Only to state truly what he had done. Out therefore 
 must go number six and seven. Is there any more ? 
 
 A. 
 
 No. I must confess that paragraph is effectually plucked. 
 It would be no bad deed to set up the skeleton as a scare- 
 crow. But stay, here is still the tail left. 
 
 " It is certain that his conduct excited at the time great 
 and general disapprobation." 
 
 B. 
 
 That I dare say is true. But what is it to the purpose, 
 unless we know who the disapproves were, what the value
 
 190 EYEXiyOfi WITH A PEVIKWEll. 
 
 of their judgment, and what their means of knowing ? The 
 conduct of Bacon has excited since July 1837 great and 
 general disapprobation ; because this article has been since 
 that time generally read and greatly admired, and not at all 
 inquired into. Having shown you how baseless the asser- 
 tions and how worthless the judgments of the writer are, I 
 need scarcely remind you that the general disapprobation of 
 the British public for the last seven or eight years cannot 
 be pleaded as evidence, because it rests entirely upon a 
 false foundation. In the same way I decline to admit as 
 evidence the general disapprobation of the year 1601, until 
 I know whether those who 'disapproved had either the means 
 of knowing or the faculty of judging. Let some one man 
 be named who, living in those times and knowing what 
 Bacon's conduct had really been, condemned it. When I 
 can Mear of su.ch a man, I will do my best to ascertain the 
 value of his opinion. But hitherto I have not heard any 
 such so much as named. Of one such man w-ho thought it 
 quite right, 1 have heard ; and that was Bacon himself. 
 
 A. 
 
 The challenge I think is but fair. As far however as I 
 am concerned, it is unnecessary. Popular censures in such 
 cases are never worth a straw as evidence in courts of 
 morality. 
 
 ""NVhile Elizabeth lived, indeed, this disapprobation, though 
 deeply full, was not loudly expressed." 
 
 B. 
 
 Was it ever more loudly expressed, during Bacon's life- 
 time, than it \\as in the reign of Eli/ab^ th? As far as my 
 informal ion goes, the time when it was most loud and 
 violent was at the elo.se of ]."M); at the time when lie was 
 actually doing all lie could to serve Kssex, and offending 
 the Queen by interceding for him. It was then that he was 
 threatened with assassination.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 191 
 
 A. 
 
 What part of his conduct was it then that excited so 
 much disapprobation ? 
 
 B. 
 
 No part of his conduct ; but a false rumour that had 
 gone abroad, which said that he had been advising the 
 Queen to bring Essex's case into the Star-Chamber ; a pro- 
 ceeding from which he had in fact been using all his 
 influence in vain to dissuade her. AYhy should we suppose 
 that the disapprobation which was expressed afterwards 
 rested on any better grounds ? 
 
 A. 
 
 It will be the reviewer's business to show that. In the 
 mean time I suppose we may as well shut up for to-night ; 
 for I see he is going to tell us of a great change at hand. 
 
 B. 
 
 Very well. Ilemember that we have now accompanied 
 Bacon up to his fortieth year ; and that you have not as yet 
 been able to sustain any one of Macaulay's charges against 
 him. I may still claim for him the benefit of general good 
 character.
 
 EVENING THE SIXTH. 
 
 A. 
 
 Before we go on with our article, I want you to satisfy 
 me on one point which I forgot to mention at our last sitting. 
 If I recollect it right, it goes against your account of the 
 part which Bacon took and the spirit in which he acted 
 with regard to the " Declaration of Treasons." You said 
 that part of the scheme was to print as an appendix the very 
 words of the confessions and depositions upon which the 
 statements in the narrative part rested. Now I am sure I 
 have heard of the discovery not long ago of some manu- 
 script, from which it appeared, on the evidence of Bacon's 
 own handwriting, that he had himself garUed these con- 
 fessions and depositions, for the purpose of strengthening 
 the case against Essex. I am sure " garbled " was the word. 
 
 B. 
 
 Oh yes. I can tell you all about that. And I am glad 
 you have reminded me of it ; for the story is instructive in 
 many ways. 
 
 Mr. David Jardine published in the " Library of Enter- 
 taining Knowledge " an account of some criminal trials, 
 including that of Essex and Southampton. He appears to 
 have bestowed some pains upon them, and to have wished to 
 execute his task in a fair and judicial spirit. Among other 
 things, he searched, or employed somebody to search, the 
 State Paper Office ; and there he found many of the depo- 
 sitions which were read at the trial, in their original con- 
 dition, with Sir Edward Coke's memoranda and directions as 
 VOL. i. o
 
 19-1 EVES1XGS WITH A REVIEW Eli. 
 
 to what parts should be read, still legible in the margin. 
 In several places, however, he observed in another hand, 
 which he says is Bacon's, the letters om. written ; and upon 
 looking at the printed " Declaration " for the passages so 
 marked, he found that they were all omitted. Upon this he 
 concludes that the passages in question, though they had 
 been read and proved in Court, were struck out after the 
 trial by Bacon himself, to suit the purposes of the Declara- 
 tion ; and then sets himself to guess what those purposes 
 might be. His conclusion is that the passages were omitted 
 because they tended to soften the case against Essex, and to 
 contradict or qualify in some of its material features the 
 story of the transaction which the Government thought fit 
 to circulate. And he represents it as " a flagrant instance 
 of partiality," and a " garbling of the depositions," of which 
 Bacon is thus proved to have been personally guilty. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes ; that is what I was thinking of. What do you say 
 to it? 
 
 B. 
 
 I might ask first to see the passages. One thing however 
 I may say at once without seeing them. Even taking 31 r. 
 Jardine's own view of the effect and intention of the omis- 
 sions in question, still since we know that material altera- 
 tions were made in Bacon's draught by " certain principal 
 councillors," and that he "only gave style and form of 
 words in pursuing their Lordships' direction," it by no 
 means follows, because the directions to omit were written 
 by him, that he is answerable for the act of omission, lie 
 was attending " certain principal councillors" with his pen 
 in his hand. One of them may have said to him, " We had 
 better not print that passage; mark it for omission." Upon 
 what pretence could he, in the preparation of a State docu- 
 ment, not one word of \\hich he had a right to publish with- 
 out authority from the Council, have objected to the striking- 
 out of 'passages which the Council thought it expedient to
 
 El'EXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 105 
 
 suppress? If this was the real history of the transaction 
 (and it is quite as likely as any other), it is clear that he 
 was no more responsible for the act than the goose-quill 
 which he guided. 
 
 Moreover, to any one who looks carefully at the papers 
 in question, it will appear very doubtful whether these 
 marks of omission were originally made with any reference 
 to the proposed " Declaration." For though it is true that 
 none of the passages so marked for omission are inserted in 
 the appendix to the Declaration, yet it is also true that 
 several passages which are not so marked are nevertheless 
 omitted in the appendix to the Declaration ; and that 
 similar marks are found in other papers of which no part is 
 printed there. And when we remember how many persons, 
 each of whom had borne a different share in the rebellion, - 
 whose several cases therefore required each a separate proof, 
 were to be tried upon the evidence contained in these 
 same confessions and depositions, we may easily suppose that 
 these marks were made with a view, not to the general 
 Declaration, but to the preparation of the cases against 
 some of these several delinquents ; the object of the omis- 
 sions being to clear the evidence in those cases of irrelevant 
 matter. 
 
 These are guesses ; I mention them only to show how 
 questionable such imputations are ; and how far the mere 
 turning over of papers which nobody else has turned over, 
 is from entitling a man to be received as an authority upon 
 the matters to which they relate. In the case before us, 
 however, there is fortunately no occasion to encounter one 
 guess by another, or to rest anything upon questionable pre- 
 sumptions. For it happens that whoever was responsible 
 for the act of writing these om.'s, and whatever the object 
 may have been, the act itself was perfectly harmless. 3Ir. 
 Jardine's statement of the effect of the omissions is, upon the 
 very face of the paper itself, manifestly and absurdly wrong ; 
 and therefore his speculation upon the intention may be 
 safely dismissed. Would you believe that the very facts 
 which he gathers from these suppressed passages, and for
 
 190 EVEXIXGS WITH A 
 
 the purpose of concealing -which he supposes the passages 
 to have been suppressed, are told as distinctly as possible in 
 the narrative itself? that the story which he charges the 
 Government with circulating is not the story told in this 
 their own especial manifesto, and that the story to conceal 
 which he charges them with garbling the evidence, is? 
 11 In Gorge's deposition," says he 
 
 A. 
 
 Stay ; who was Gorge ? You forget that I know none of 
 the particulars of the evidence. 
 
 B. 
 
 Let me see then, where shall I begin ? You know (or 
 if you don't, you are now to know) that five days before 
 the insurrection there was a meeting of some of the prin- 
 cipal conspirators at Drury House, where Sir Charles Davers 
 lodged. Essex was not present himself ; but it was con- 
 vened by his direction for the express purpose of deliberating 
 upon certain definite projects ; and the better to assist the 
 deliberation, a schedule was provided of the names of the 
 friends on whom lie principally relied ; of whom there were 
 one hundred and twenty. What those projects were, and 
 what passed at this consultation, it was at the time a matter 
 of much consequence to ascertain ; and it is still a matter 
 upon which it behoves every one to inform himself who would 
 form a judgment on Essex's case. Upon this point Eliza- 
 beth's ministers contrived to extract from three of the persons 
 present very ample confessions; and Sir Eerdiuando Gorge's 
 was the first. The three projects discussed were the seizing 
 of the Tower, the surprising of the Court, and the stirring of 
 the City. Now 31 r. Jardine's notion is that, the Govern- 
 ment wished to have it believed that the insurrection in the 
 city was planned and resolved upon at that consultation; and 
 that that part of Sir Ecrdinando's deposition which goes to 
 prove the contrary, was struck out of the extracts appended 
 to the "Declaration of 'Treasons," on that account. .But you 
 shall have his own words:
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 197 
 
 " In Gorge's deposition, after stating that ' the projects at 
 Drury House were, whether they should stir in London first, or 
 surprise the Court and Tower at the same instant,' the original 
 goes on to state, that ' the most resolved to attempt the Court 
 and Tower.' Can any man doubt "(he proceeds) "that these 
 latter words were omitted by Bacon because they contradicted 
 the story published by the Government, not only to the people 
 of England by the preachers and other means, but to all the 
 world by the despatches of the foreign ambassadors, namely, 
 that the insurrection in the city was planned and determined on 
 at Drury House ? So also in the passage which immediately 
 follows, the words ' they thought ' and ' began to ' must have 
 been struck out because they seemed to denote, not a settled 
 design, but merely a vague proposal." 
 
 A. 
 
 "What was the passage in which those words occurred ? 
 
 B. 
 
 " I prayed them first to set down the manner how tliey thought 
 it might be done. Then Sir John Davis took ink and paper, 
 and began to assign to divers principal men their several places." 
 
 A. 
 
 "What was ho speaking o f? the insurrection in the 
 city ? 
 
 B. 
 No ; the surprising of the Court. 
 
 A. 
 
 Was that all that was suppressed ? 
 
 B. 
 
 No. The whole concluding part of the deposition was 
 omitted ; from which it appears that Gorge was against the 
 attempting of the Court or Tower ; and recommended rather 
 that the stirring of Essex's friends in the city should be 
 tried first : 
 
 " which recommendation was so evil liked of, that they brake 
 up, and resolved of nothing; but referred all to my Lord of 
 Essex himself."
 
 108 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well. And what was the version of the story which tho 
 preachers and foreign ambassadors had published to the 
 world ? 
 
 B. 
 
 "Why even in the directions given to them I have not 
 been able to find any such statement as Mr. Jardine charges 
 the Government with. But what have these to do with the 
 matter? They were of an earlier date than the Declaration; 
 and Bacon had nothing to do with them. The first question 
 surely is, what is the version of the story given in the body 
 of the Declaration itself, the story in attestation of which 
 these "garbled" depositions are appealed to? You shall 
 have it in its own words : 
 
 " For the action itself, there was proposition made of two 
 principal articles; the one of possessing the Tower of London, 
 the other of surprising her Majesty's person and five Court ; in 
 which also deliberation was had what course to hold with tho 
 city, either towards the effecting of the surprise or after it was 
 effected." 
 
 So far at least you will admit that there is no misrepre- 
 sentation of the facts, nor any insinuation that the insurrec- 
 tion in the city was planned and determined on at that 
 consultation. He then states the reasons for which the first 
 of the two principal articles the possessing of the Tower- 
 was " by the opinion of all rejected ; " and proceeds : 
 
 "But the latter which was ihe ancient plot, as was Avell 
 known to Southampton, Avas by the general opinion of them all 
 insisted and rested upon." 
 
 The story therefore plainly is, that \\hat "was planned 
 and determined on" was not the insurrection in the city, but 
 the surprise of the Court. And he afterwards explains that 
 the resolutions were "to be reported to llssox, who ever kept 
 in himself the binding and deciding voice."
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 199 
 
 A. 
 
 But did he not say that there was also some deliberation 
 about the course to be taken with the city ? What became 
 of that? 
 
 B. 
 
 \ es ; as if to prevent the possibility of any misconcep- 
 tion on that head, he adds, after detailing the manner in 
 which they proposed to manage the surprise of the Court, 
 (and adds it in a paragraph professedly parenthetical) : 
 
 " There passed a speccli also in this conspiracy of possessing 
 the city of London, "which Essex himself in his own particular 
 and secret inclination had ever a special mind unto." 
 
 But instead of saying that the " speech " ended in any 
 resolution, he merely suggests the probable grounds and 
 motives of Essex's opinion, and quits the subject with " But 
 to return : these were the resolutions " and so on. If there- 
 fore the suppressed passages seemed to denote (as Mr. Jar- 
 dine says), " not a settled design, but merely a vague pro- 
 posal," I do not know how the true import of them could be 
 more accurately conveyed. 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly it would seem that Mr. Jardine had not read 
 that part of the Declaration. But if the story which Bacon 
 tells agrees with the passages thus omitted from the depo- 
 sitions, what reason could there be for striking them out ? 
 
 B. 
 
 There may have been twenty good reasons which we can- 
 not now know of. Many eminent and honourable persons 
 
 v J. 
 
 were implicated either personally or through their friends, 
 many important interests were affected and many angry and 
 dangerous feelings irritated, by that conspiracy. Of the 
 persons who had been actually engaged in the rebellion, there 
 were only a few against whom it was thought necessary to 
 proceed with severity. Those whose lives were to be spared, 
 it was desirable also to spare in their reputation, and not
 
 200 JE VEXING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 needlessly to exhibit them to the public as engaged in an 
 undertaking which was in all ways so discreditable. Mr. Jar- 
 dine has restored a few of the omitted passages (why he did 
 not either restore them all when he was about it, or explain his 
 reason for not restoring them all, why, at the very least, he 
 has not warned us of the fact that others are omitted besides 
 those which he has restored, I cannot guess ; but so it is) 
 and these he has distinguished by italics ; and in almost 
 every one of these some motive of the kind is immediately 
 visible. In that- which we have just been speaking of, 
 Southampton is* represented not only as taking a leading 
 part in the consultation, but as declaring that he had been 
 engaged in the undertaking for more than three months ; a 
 fact which has been allowed to sleep ever since the trial, 
 until Mr. Jardine thus disinterred it. And Sir Ferdinando 
 Gorge himself (who was already an object of popular odium 
 from an unjust imputation of treachery) admits, what could 
 not have been gathered from the narrative, that he person- 
 ally advised the stirring of the city. Xow both South- 
 ampton and Gorge were marked for pardon. 
 
 Again : references are made in the body of the paper to 
 a declaration made by Sir Henry Neville, who was in fact 
 implicated slightly, and had been accused by Essex of being 
 further implicated than he really was, and this declaration 
 is not printed. Xow we happen to know that it was \vith- 
 hold by his own particular desire. A letter of his to Cecil, 
 or a memorandum of the contents of a letter, to that effect is 
 still extant. His declaration itself, all written in his own 
 hand, may be still seen at the State Paper Oi'fice ; and there 
 is nothing in it that mends Essex's case. 
 
 Again : in the Earl of llutland's confession there were 
 clauses stating that the " Earl of Southampton had shown 
 himself discontented long before;" * that (about six weeks 
 before) he had sent one of the Earl of liutland's servants 
 "into France, for saddles, pistols, and other things ; " that 
 " Sir John Hcijdon cried out divers times, 'For the Queen, 
 
 * Mr. .Turdinc prints this first sentence in italics (as being omitted in the 
 Dwilaration), but for SOIMU nnexplftim d reason says nothing about the rest.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 201 
 
 for the Queen ! ' ' and that Essex had, on the morning of 
 the insurrection, told the Earl of Rutland " and other his 
 company, that The Earl of Sussex would be with them pre- 
 sently." These passages are all omitted in the appendix to 
 the Declaration (no marks of om., by the way, in the MS.) 
 why ? Out of consideration, no doubt, for the reputation 
 of the persons whom they implicate : namely, of the Earl of 
 Southampton ; a very young man, who had been misled and 
 was sorry for what he had done, and whose offences it was 
 not necessary to bring again upon the stage, as they were not 
 to be further punished ; of Sir John Heydon, whose name 
 does not appear at all, I think, in the report of the proceed- 
 ings ; and of the Earl of Sussex, whose name was probably 
 used by Essex merely for countenance, and without any 
 authority. 
 
 Again : a portion of the examination of Edward Bushell 
 appears to have been read at the trial, which represents 
 Essex as having said, that " if a certain black purse he had 
 about his neck were found, it should appear how he was be- 
 trayed in the city." This does not appear amon-g the evi- 
 dence appended to the Declaration ; for it would have been 
 understood as referring to Sheriff Smith, who had been 
 falsely represented as a favourer of the conspiracy. 
 
 Again : an examination of Lord Monteagle is omitted 
 entirely ; I suppose because it brings him needlessly on 
 the stage as implicated in the attempt to stir the city. 
 
 Again : Sir Walter Raleigh's deposition represents Sir 
 Eerdinaudo Gorge as recommending him (on the morning 
 of the insurrection) to get back to the Court with speed, for 
 " the Earl of Essex had put himself into a strong guard at 
 Essex House, and you are like to have a lloody day of it." 
 This deposition, though a rather important one, is not given, 
 out of consideration no doubt for Sir Ferdinando. 
 
 Again : the entire examination of Henry Widdrington, 
 though it tells strongly against Essex, is omitted ; I do 
 not know why, unless it be because Essex in his reply urged 
 good reasons to take off the weight of his testimony. 
 
 Again: a sentence is omitted from Sir Christopher
 
 202 E]'EXIXOS Ti'/77/ A KE'.'IEWEl!. 
 
 rlunt's confession, in which, being asked whether it were 
 against the Queens forces that they meant to secure the Earl 
 by aid of the city, he says, " That must have been judged 
 afterwards ; for the forces might le suck as came l>\j direction 
 of such of his enemies" [the Earl's enemies] "as might have 
 had authority to command in the Queens name, and would hare 
 done that without the Queens privity; " an admission which 
 (though Mr. Jardine says that it " qualifies the preceding 
 statement ") does in fact make the case worse for Essex. 
 For it clearly admits that the defence contemplated was not 
 (as Essex pretended) against private enemies, but against 
 the Queen s forces ; the only question being whether their 
 lawful commander might not be exceeding his commission ; 
 an absurd distinction, under plea of which (if it were 
 allowed) any rebel might take up arms against any con- 
 stituted authority. Why then was it omitted ? As pointing 
 (I fancy) at Raleigh, who was then Captain of the Guard ; 
 and conveying an insinuation which, though quite false and 
 groundless, was likely enough to be believed by the people 
 and to inflame their hatred against him ; the rather, too, 
 because Sir Christopher Blunt had asked of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, forgiveness " for the wrong he had done him," [viz. 
 shooting at him on the river.] "and for Ids particular ill 
 intent towards him ; " and they had exchanged forgiveness 
 just before his death. The omission of such an insinuation 
 as this may have been prompted as much by consideration 
 for what Sir Christopher would have wished, as for what was 
 duo to Kaleigh. 
 
 These of course are only guesses; and there are one or 
 two other (unimportant) omissions the causes of which I 
 cannot even guess. J>ut this I may say in general : I have 
 carefully examined all these suppressed passages; both the 
 single sentences which 31 r. -lardino has restored and dis- 
 tinguished by italics; and the other single sentences which 
 he has (in his hurry 1 suppose) overlooked altogether; and 
 the entire depositions, the suppression of which he has not 
 noticed ; and I have found nothing in anv of them which
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 203 
 
 tends to extenuate the offence of Essex, or to contradict the 
 story of the Declaration ; but something in almost every one 
 of them which tends to inculpate (either needlessly or un- 
 justly) somebody else. Whether therefore the act of sup- 
 pressing them be attributable to the Council, or to the 
 Queen, or to Bacon himself, is a question which I am not 
 concerned to settle. Whoever did it, it was certainly harm- 
 less, for it tended in no degree to pervert the truth ; and, as 
 far as one can guess, it was suggested by a feeling of just 
 and considerate mercy. But whatever the motives may have 
 been, they have long since expired. And when I come 
 myself to edit this Declaration, I shall think it right (not 
 only for the sake of showing that they are not inconsistent 
 with it, but really for the sake of better illustrating and 
 confirming it) to print within brackets all the passages thus 
 omitted, in their proper places.* 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, if this be all that is meant by that black word 
 " garbling" one need not be much moved by it. 
 
 B. 
 
 No. And I may as well warn you that this is the sense 
 in whicli Mr. Jardine commonly uses the word. Tell him 
 that a word has been left out or altered, he does not stop to 
 ask whether it alters the sense or not, but sets it down at 
 once as " garbling." According to which use of the word, 
 the garbling of State-papers has with us become a recognized 
 and authorized practice. When a member of parliament 
 moves for the production of an official correspondence, he 
 moves not for copies, but for copies or extracts. Now an 
 " extract of a despatch " is, in our modern official phrase- 
 ology, exactly what Mr. Jardino would call a " garbled " 
 despatch. It is understood to be a copy with no words 
 inserted which are not in the original, but with as many 
 omitted as the Government think expedient. Neither are 
 the places where omissions occur indicated by marks of 
 
 * Thi.-j has been done in the " Letters and Life," Vol. ii., p. 292-3S5.
 
 204 E}'I-:XfXGS WITH A KEVTEWER. 
 
 omission (which I think they ought always to be), but the 
 faith of the Government is supposed to be discharged if 
 words are not omitted in such a manner as to pervert the 
 meaning of the sentence. 
 
 A. 
 
 The Government being themselves the judges. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes ; there is no help for that. But this is from our 
 business. Do you agree to acquit Bacon of Mr. Jardine's 
 charge ? 
 
 Willingly. I will bear witness that he has borne a good 
 character hitherto to the best of my knowledge. 
 
 Let me see, where did we leave off? Oh, page 31. Do 
 you know that we are not yet half through the first division 
 of the article ? 
 
 "But a great change was at hand. The health of the Queen 
 had long been decaying, and the operation of age and disease 
 Avas now assisted by acute mental suffering. The pitiable 
 melancholy of her last days has generally been ascribed to her 
 fond regret for Essex. But we are disposed to attribute her 
 dejection partly to physical causes, and partly to the conduct 
 of her courtiers and ministers. They did all in their power 
 to conceal from her the intrigues which they "were carrying on 
 at the Court of Scotland. But her keen sagacity was not to be 
 so deceived. She did not know the whole. But she knew that 
 she was surrounded by men who were impatient for that new 
 world which was to begin at her death 
 
 B. 
 
 Were they indeed? Her people: might perhaps be im- 
 patient fur a new world, as people always do look forward 
 with hope and pleasure to a change ; but surely not her 
 ministers. By all politicians the greatest apprehensions were 
 entertained of trouble and confusion likely to arise at her 
 death. No successor d< 'dared. Many rival interests both 
 at home and abroad watching their opportunity. No man
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEWER, 205 
 
 knowing what the other thought. Much worth the striking 
 for by many who were out of office ; much therefore to be 
 lost by those who were in. If they were impatient, it could 
 only be as men are impatient to be relieved from anxiety, 
 as men over whom a danger impends are impatient to have 
 the crisis over, one way or another. If it had been possible 
 to make Elizabeth immortal, the men > by whom she was 
 surrounded " would have done it at the cost of half their 
 substance. 
 
 A. 
 
 " who had never been attached to her by affection " 
 
 B. 
 
 What ! Elizabeth's ministers never attached to her by 
 affection ! 
 
 A. 
 
 " and who were now very slightly attached to her by interest." 
 
 B. 
 
 If so, it could only be because their interest in her had 
 so short a time to run. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Prostration and flattery could not conceal from her the 
 cruel truth, that those whom she had trusted and promoted had 
 never loved her, and were fast ceasing to fear her. Unable to 
 avenge herself, and too proud to complain, she suffered sorrow 
 and resentment to prey on her heart, till after a long career of 
 power, prosperity, and glory, she died sick and weary of tho 
 world," 
 
 B. 
 
 All which will, I suppose, be set down in the next 
 history of England as part of the narrative. As yet wo 
 have the advantage of knowing that it is only what the 
 reviewer is " inclined " to suppose. And surely it is a most 
 idle and extravagant display of originality. What Prince
 
 206 EVEXISGS WITH A ItEVIEWEH. 
 
 was ever served for love, if not Elizabeth ? What Prince's 
 death was ever deprecated, if hers was not ? What colour 
 is there for such a notion, more than the Larc fact that her 
 ministers had been secretly negotiating with James ? And 
 yet how did that argue any want of affection for her? The 
 motive for those negotiations was obvious and natural ; the 
 
 o 
 
 occasion in mot urgent. It had been part of her policy, a 
 weakness if you will, to forbid during her life all speech of 
 a successor. But die she must ; and a successor must be 
 thought of. Since she would not allow any arrangements 
 to be made for her, it was merely necessary that they should 
 make arrangements for themselves. It is true that every- 
 thing did in fact come round peaceably and prosperously, 
 and without any difficulty. But that it did so was a matter 
 of astonishment to the whole nation. 
 
 A. 
 
 I dare siy you are right. But let us got on with our 
 proper business. 
 
 "James mounted the throne; and Bacon employed all his 
 address to obtain for himself a share of the favour of his new 
 master. This Avas no difficult tusk. The faults of James both 
 as a man and as a Prince were numerous: but insensibility to 
 the claims of learning and genius Avas not among them, lie 
 was indeed made up of two men, a witty, well-read scholar, 
 who "wrote, disputed and harangued, and a nervous drivelling 
 idiot, who aeted. If he had been a (.'anon of Christ Church or 
 a Prebendary of "Westminster, it is not improbable that he 
 would Ir.ive left a highly respectable name to posterity, that 
 lie would have distinguished himself among the translators of 
 the Bible, and among the Divines who attended the Synod of 
 ])ort, that lie would have been regarded l>v the literary Av<>rld 
 as no contemptible rival of Yossius and ('asauLon. ]>ut fortune 
 placed him iu a situation in Avhich his weakness covered him 
 with disgrace, and in Avhich his accomplishments brought him 
 no honour. Jn a college much eccentricity and childishness 
 would have been readily pardoned in so learned a man. 1'ul 
 fill that learning could do for him on ihe throne was to make 
 people think him a pedant as well as a fool.''
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 207 
 
 B. 
 
 I suppose you will not think it worth while to stop and 
 examine this character of James. But if I let it pass, you 
 are not therefore to set me down as assenting even to the 
 accuracy of it as far as it goes ; much less to the complete- 
 ness of it. It is true that James's character was ill-fitted 
 to deal with the critical times on which he fell. But it is 
 not at all true that his actions (except possibly iu the few 
 last years of his reign) were those of a drivelling idiot. It 
 is not even true that, at the time, they were generally 
 thought so. His popular reputation as a pedant and a fool 
 is of much later growth. His subjects never doubted his 
 wisdom ; and though they did not fear him, they never 
 despised him. The truth is, that he was remarkable not 
 only among kings, but among men, for the absence of all 
 affectation and reserve, and was sadly wanting in the great 
 gift of holding his tongue ; and (as mankind always measure 
 a man's ability by his success) when we look back upon his 
 reign and see that the broad result was failure, we infer that 
 he was a fool ; when we remember how quick he was in 
 learning and how much he knew, we add learning to folly 
 and call him pedant ; and being prepossessed with this 
 idea of his character, we find in the perpetual droppings 
 of that fertile brain and loose tongue, abundant and amusing 
 illustrations of it. But I must confess, for niy own part, 
 that the more I become acquainted with him, the more I 
 feel not only a great personal kindness for him, but a con- 
 viction that, as a governor, he was both wiso and patriotic ; 
 wiso in his views, patriotic in his desires and purposes. 
 But then he had three great failings ; so great, that they 
 were sufficient of themselves to make his whole life a failure. 
 He could not command or reserve his affections ; he could 
 not disappoint his inclinations ; and he could not hold his 
 tongue. The first made him continually submit his own 
 judgment to the will of his favourites ; the second kept 
 him in continual poverty ; the third, by provoking him 
 to measure his own sinirle wit against a whole House of
 
 208 ETEyixas WITH A HEVJEWEK. 
 
 Commons, and thereby to set his reputation upon the hazard 
 of the vote of a popular assembly, lost him all majesty in 
 the eyes of his people. But if he had not talked so much, 
 I question whether, even now, his acts would have been 
 thought foolish. 
 
 However it is premature to discuss the character of his 
 reign at the very entrance of it. There is at least no doubt 
 of this, that he ascended the throne amid general acclama- 
 tions of joy, with great reputation, and full of promise. 
 Had he been blown up on the 5th of November, 1605, it 
 would have been universally lamented as the blasting of 
 one of the fairest hopes that a nation was ever flattered with 
 in the personal character of a King. 
 
 A. 
 
 I fancy I shall want some further satisfaction on these 
 points before I have done. But we will go on now r with 
 Bacon. 
 
 " Bacon was favourably received at Court, and soon found 
 that his chance of promotion was not diminished by the death 
 of the Queen. lie was solicitous to be knighted, for two 
 reasons, which are somewhat amusing. The King had already 
 dubbed half London, and Bacon found himself the only untitled 
 person in his mess at Gray's Inn. This was not very agreeable 
 to him. lie had also 'found an alderman's daughter, a hand- 
 some maiden, to his liking.' On both these grounds lie begged 
 liis cousin Ifobert Cecil, 'if it might please his good Lordship,' 
 to use his interest in his behalf. The application was successful. 
 Bacon was one of three hundred gentlemen, Avho on the Coro- 
 nation-day received the honour, if it is to be so called, of 
 knighthood. The handsome maiden, the daughter of Alderman. 
 Barnham, soon after consented to become Sir Francis's Lady." 
 
 B. 
 
 This would be too trilling a matter to stop for, were it 
 not told witli a kind of contemptuous chuckle, as if an 
 absurd prido in vain and conventional distinctions, and a 
 sycophantic habit of plastering great persons witli their 
 titles, had been characteristic of the man. And such tones
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 209 
 
 and gestures (as one may call them) of style produce more 
 effect than you would think. Every reader who is not 
 continually on his guard will naturally fall into such a 
 sympathy with his writer, as to receive impressions almost 
 unconsciously from indirect and impalpable insinuations of 
 this kind. They take him at unawares, and bespeak his 
 judgment without its own consent. In this instance I beg 
 leave to protest against any such insinuation. I utterly 
 deny that an undue value for titular distinctions was at all 
 characteristic of Bacon, that he desired them for himself 
 further than as they were the ordinary decorations and the 
 recognized stamp of honour and rank ; or that he obtruded 
 them upon others more than the manners of the time 
 required. But this you will say is my partiality. Then let 
 us apply the test, which I think you will admit has never 
 failed me yet. Let us have the matter in Bacon's own 
 words, not in the reviewer's version of them. The words, 
 I should premise, occur at the close of a rather long letter 
 full of other matters, a letter not written for the purpose 
 of asking Cecil's interest in obtaining a knighthood for him, 
 but in answer to some communication from Cecil himself, 
 who had at this time been taking a very friendly interest 
 in Bacon's fortunes, had been lending him money, and 
 assisting to extricate him from some " disgrace " (the par- 
 ticulars of which we do not know, but probably some arrest 
 for debt while employed in the King's service, like that 
 affair of the goldsmith four or five years before), and had 
 (as I guess, though I cannot positively affirm) offered to use 
 his interest in getting him knighted. I should also tell you 
 that BaC'<n, far from being absorbed at this time in the 
 pursuit of vanities, was diligently occupied in clearing his 
 estate from embarrassments by the sale of his lands, with 
 the professed intention of withdrawing from State-business 
 and sitting down to his profession and his studies. The 
 death of the Queen had set him free so far as old attach- 
 ment and obligation were concerned ; the death of his 
 brother (two years before) had left him what remained of 
 his paternal estate, which was not large, and was much 
 VOL. r. P
 
 210 E VEXING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 encumbered with debt. This therefore was the time to 
 recover himself from pecuniary embarrassments, to place 
 his finances upon a sound footing, and to new-shape his 
 course for the future. 
 
 It was in these circumstances that he wrote to Cecil 
 (after speaking of some money-matter then pressing) in 
 these words : 
 
 " For my estate, because your Lordship hath care of it, it is 
 thus : I shall be able, with selling the skirts of my living in 
 Hertfordshire, to preserve the body ; and to leave myself, being 
 clearly out of debt, and having some money in my pocket, 
 5)007. land per annum, with a fair house and the ground well- 
 timbered. This is now my labour. 
 
 "For my purpose or course, I desire to meddle as little as 
 I can in the King's causes, his Majesty now abounding in 
 counsel; and to follow my private thrift and practice, and to 
 marry with some convenient advancement. For as for any 
 ambition, I do assure your Honour mine is quenched. In the 
 Queen's, my excellent mistress's, time, the quorum was small ; 
 l:er service was a kind of freehold; and it was a more solemn 
 time. All those points agreed with my nature and judgment. 
 My ambition now I shall only put upon my pen, whereby 
 I shall be able to maintain memory and merit of the times 
 succeeding." 
 
 I may mention, by the way, that Bacon had received no 
 rebuff that we know of; and it was but two mouths since 
 the King's arrival in London ; so there had been no time 
 for the grapes to grow sour. And now for the knight- 
 hood : 
 
 "Lastly, for this divulged and almost prostituted title of 
 knighthood, I could, without charge, by your Honour's mean, 
 be content to have it ; both because of this late disgrace, and 
 1 ec'iuse I have three new knights in my mess in Gray's Inn 
 commons; and because I have, found out an alderman's daughter, 
 a handsome maiden, to my liking. So as if your Honour will 
 find the time, I will come to the Court from Gurhaiubury upon 
 any warning." 
 
 And again, about a fortnight after, (and also at the close 
 of a letter about other business.) In- writes: 
 
 "For my knighthood, I wish the manner mighi be such as
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 211 
 
 might grace me, since the matter will not : I mean, that I 
 might not be merely gregarious in a troop. The Coronation is 
 at hand. It may please your Lordship to let me hear from you 
 speedily." 
 
 A. 
 
 Are these letters some of your own recent discoveries ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Oh no. They were first printed by Birch about eighty 
 years since, and are in all the editions of the works. They 
 were found among Cecil's papers at Hatfield. The reviewer 
 knew it all ; and it was in fact all he knew. And now, what 
 is there in it to chuckle at ? Knighthood, uubought, and 
 bestowed with judgment and selection upon worthy objects 
 (as till then it had always been), was in those times a very 
 honourable distinction ; not less honourable, I fancy, than 
 the Order of the Bath is now. True, it was soon to lose this 
 dignity by being made venal and promiscuous. But it had 
 not lost it yet ; and even if it had begun already to fade, 
 what then ? It may be a slight not to receive what it may 
 be no great honour to receive. Lord Cecil asks Bacon 
 (surely a fit object) whether he would not like to be 
 knighted. Bacon answers, Yes, provided it be " without 
 charge," that is, given, not bought ; and " by your Honour's 
 mean," that is, given, not upon his own application, but 
 upon the recommendation of a principal Counsellor : and 
 provided also that it be conferred in such a manner as to 
 give it a character of selectness and distinction. An honour 
 of this kind, proceeding from the fountain of honour, was 
 at that time a thing of substance, not vain show. It was 
 looked upon, not by lackeys only, but by all the world, 
 as the outward sign of inward worth, conferred by thoso 
 who could best judge of that worth as an evidence to those 
 who could not. " Sir Francis Bacon " was in the year 1003 
 to " Master Francis Bacon " just what in the year 18-14 
 " Lord Metcalfe " was to <: Sir Charles Metcalfe " : the 
 " Sir " in the first case, as the ' Lord ' in the second, being 
 simply a mark of distinction for services well-done,
 
 212 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 And as for the other point by which the reviewer seems 
 " somewhat amuseLl," I need hardly remind yon, that " it 
 may please your Lordship," meant no more then than " my 
 dear Lord " means now. It was the ordinary phrase with 
 which every letter addressed to a Lord, or even to an 
 ambassador, by a person of inferior rank, began ; no matter 
 how near or how distant the acquaintance. Bacon never 
 wrote to his mother but he began, " it may please your good 
 Ladyship." The thing was a matter of course. But, as 
 introduced here, it contributes not the less to the general 
 effect, and I suppose to the general purpose of the passage, 
 namely that of holding up Bacon to contempt, as a man 
 with the soul of a courtier and the tongue of a sycophant. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes, you were right to stop for this. And between 
 ourselves, these smaller kinds of misrepresentation are what 
 I like worse than all the rest. "When a man inveighs against 
 another (however unjustly) as guilty of a great crime, it is 
 often a just hatred of the crime that misleads him. He 
 sees the crime in the criminal, and is in fact inveighing 
 against it. I never yet met with a very honest man who 
 could be really just to a man charged with dishonesty. 
 Your very honest man is so shocked at the notion of 
 apologizing for dishonesty, that he overleaps the previous 
 question, whether the dishonest thing has been reallv done, 
 or whether the culprit before him be really the man who 
 did it. But in matters of this kind, in which at the very 
 Avorst there is nothing to put the moral sense in a passion, 
 that a man should be always exaggerating, miscolouring, 
 and traducing, it seems to argue a tone of feeling habitu- 
 ally un . . . . However, wo must not both take part against 
 the reviewer, or wo shall be falling into the honest man's 
 error ourselves. You may depend upon my taking uu 
 impression from the last paragraph. 
 
 " The death of Kli/.al>eth, though on ilir whole it inmroA'ed 
 Bacon's pros] ice's, was in one respect an unfortunate event for 
 him. The ncAV Kinir hail alwavs felt kindly towards Lord Essex,
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 213 
 
 who had been zealous for the Scotch succession ; and as soon as he 
 came to the throne began to show favour to the house of Deve- 
 reux, and to those who had stood by that house in its adversity. 
 Everybody was now at liberty to speak out respecting those 
 lamentable events in which Bacon had borne so large a share." 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, to speak out : but to speak out what ? lies or 
 truth ? There were some important parts of the truth with 
 regard to Essex, which, after James's accession, it must have 
 been very awkward to meddle with. 
 
 " Elizabeth was scarcely cold, when the public feeling began 
 t i manifest itself by marks of respect to Lord Southampton. 
 I 1 hat accomplished nobleman, who will be remembered to the 
 latest ages as the generous and di>cerning patron of Shake- 
 speare, was held in honour by his contemporaries chiefly on 
 account of the devoted affection which he had borne to Essex. 
 He had been tried and convicted together with his friend; but 
 the Queen had spared his life, and at the time of her death he 
 was still a prisoner. A crowd of visitors hastened to the Tower 
 to congratulate him upon his approaching deliverance. With 
 that crowd Bacon could not venture to mingle. The multitude 
 loudly condemned him; and his own conscience told him that 
 the multitude had but too much reason." 
 
 B. 
 
 That can be only as the reviewer guesses, upon his own 
 assumption that the multitude were in the right. Bacon 
 himself never for a moment admitted this ; but, on the 
 contrary, expressly declared " that for any action of his 
 towards the Earl of Essex, there was nothing that passed 
 him in his lifetime which came to his remembrance with 
 more clearness and less check of conscience." Beware there- 
 fore how you take an impression from this passage that 
 Bacon's own conscience can be cited as one of the witnesses 
 against him. 
 
 A. 
 
 Oh yes, I understand all that. The reviewer tells the 
 story according to his own reading of it. But he is going, I
 
 214 ETENIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 think, to tell us something new in confirmation of this 
 assumption. 
 
 " lie excused himself to Southampton by letter, in terms 
 which, if he had, as Mr. Montagu conceives, done only what as 
 a subject and an advocate he was bound to do, must be considered 
 as shamefully servile. He owns his fear that his attendance 
 would give offence, and that his professions of regard would 
 obtain no credit. ' Yet,' says he, ' it is as true as a thing that 
 God knoweth, that this great change hath wrought in me no 
 other change towards your Lordship than this, that 1 may safely 
 be that to you now which I was truly before.' " 
 
 I move that this letter be produced. There is nothing 
 so likely to detect a man who has done anything wrong, as 
 a comparison of the excuses he makes to different people on 
 the same occasion. His case must be very good, or his 
 honesty very great, if he is not betrayed into some incon- 
 sistency. But first let me hear how his case did really stand 
 with Southampton. For I do not remember that ho lias 
 been charged with having done Southampton any ill office, 
 beyond maintaining at the trial that the offence for which he 
 was arraigned was apparent treason. And since (whatever 
 may be thought of his obligations to Essex) lie certainly 
 stood under no such obligation to Southampton as could 
 have made it his duty to quarrel with the Queen rather than 
 appear against liini on such an occasion, 1 do not so well 
 see what it was that he had to excuse. Mas he been sup- 
 posed to have taken any part against Southampton ajltr the 
 trial ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Not that 1 ever heard of. And since it is not pretended 
 that the arraignment was in itself unjust, since not a single 
 harsh word lias been reported as uttered by him personally 
 against Southampton, since the name of Southampton is in 
 the Declaration of Treasons handled as tenderly and lightly 
 as possible, it seems to be quite clear that lie had nothing 
 to excuse. l'or myself at least, 1 have little douU that 
 Bacon had not only done nothing against him except what 
 as a subject he was bound to do; hut that he had shared
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 215 
 
 the anxiety which was felt, not by the public alone, but 
 also by the Queen's ministers (at least by two of them, 
 Nottingham and Cecil), for his preservation. There is a 
 letter from Cecil to Sir George Carew, in which, after detail- 
 ing- the particulars of the conspiracy and the trial, he 
 proceeds : 
 
 " It remaineth now that I let you know what is like to be- 
 come of the poor young Earl of Southampton, who merely for 
 the love of the Earl hath been drawn into this action ; who in 
 respect that most of the conspiracies were at Drury House, where 
 he was always chief, and where Sir Charles Davers lay, those 
 that would deal for him (of which number I protest to God I am 
 one as far as I dare) are much disadvantaged of arguments to 
 save him. And yet when I consider how penitent he is, and 
 how merciful the Queen is, and that never in thought or deed 
 but in this conspiracy he offended, as I cannot write in despair, 
 so I dare not flatter myself with hope." 
 
 And Nottingham, sending to Lord Mountjoy a few clays 
 later an account of Essex's confession, adds in a postscript : 
 
 " There hath been execiited, the Earl of Essex, Sir Charles 
 Davers, Sir Christopher Blunt, Sir Gilly Mericke, and Cuffe. And 
 I trust they shall be all. For the Earl of Southampton, though 
 he be condemned, yet I hope well for his life; for Mr. Secretary 
 and myself use all our wits and puwer for it." 
 
 This seems to be conclusive as to the feeling of these two 
 ministers ; why should we suppose that Bacon took a different 
 part? What part he actually took after the trial is not 
 known except from his own account, and from the general 
 handling of the subject in the " Declaration." But so far as 
 that evidence goes, it goes to show that he did (as from his 
 character and position one would have anticipated) work in 
 the same spirit with Cecil and Nottingham. And though he 
 does not in the " Apology " mention Southampton's name, 
 there is a passage in which I always fancy that the allusion 
 must be to Southampton. Having said that after Essex's 
 last "folal impatience," "there was not time to work for 
 him" he goes on: "though the same my affection when it 
 could not work upon the subject proper, went to the next, 
 with no ill effect towards some others who I think do rather
 
 EVENING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 not Jcnoiv it than not acknowledge it." Now the Apology was 
 written some time after the liberation of Southampton (the 
 date of the writing is not known, but it was printed in 1GO-1) ; 
 we have only to suppose therefore that this letter of Bacon's 
 met with a cold reception, and the allusion fits the case 
 exactly, and is very characteristic of the man. 
 
 However, I do not want to rest anything- upon a guess. 
 Bacon, as you say, had nothing to excuse in his conduct to 
 Southampton. He had never wished him ill; never done 
 him any ill office, but the contrary. He was now glad of his 
 approaching liberation. Still, knowing that his conduct had 
 been much misrepresented, and loudly though unjustly con- 
 demned, by Essex's and Southampton's friends, lie could not 
 reasonably expect to find Southampton himself untinctured 
 with the same prejudice. In such a case, what was the 
 course which a mind of true delicacy would naturally take ? 
 He might easily commit an error in either of two different 
 ways. "Was Southampton disposed to take a true view of 
 his case, and to be friends? To stand aloof would in that 
 case have seemed churlish and unfriendly, and might bo 
 supposed to argue an ashamed conscience. Did South- 
 ampton (on the contrary) regard him as the ungrateful and 
 ungenerous enemy of his friend and himself? In that case, 
 to present himself would at the best have seemed indelicate 
 and unfeeling ; at the worst it would have shown like an act 
 of vulgar and shameless sycophancy. What could he do 
 then better than write, to excuse his new-attendance and ex- 
 plain the reasons of it ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes, but let us have the letter. Let me hear the tone in 
 which a man asks pardon, and 1 will tell you whether lie lias 
 been doing anything to ask pardon for. All you say may be 
 true, and yet the letter may be 'shamefully servile," and all 
 the more servile because all you say / true. 
 
 B. 
 
 Here then the letter is, word lor word. Your mind is 
 in an excellent frame for judging ; \\hieh i.- \\hat I Canted.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 217 
 
 I should really like to know what fault can be found with 
 it ; or how it could be improved. 
 
 " It may please your Lordship, -I would have been very 
 glad to have presented my humble service to your Lordship by 
 my attendance, if I could have foreseen that it should not have 
 been unpleasing unto you. And therefore because I would, 
 commit no error, I choose to write ; assuring your Lordship 
 (how credible soever it may seem to you at fir^t), yet it is 
 as true as a thing that God knoweth, that this great change 
 hath wrought in me no other change towards your Lordship 
 than this, that I may safely be now that which I was truly 
 before. And so, craving no other pardon than for troubling 
 you with this letter, I do riot now begin but continue to be 
 your Lordship's most humble and much devoted Servant, 
 FR. BACON." 
 
 There is the whole letter. Must you pronounce it 
 "shamefully servile " ? 
 
 A. 
 
 On the contrary, a model of manliness and delicacy well 
 mixed. What kind of spirit is the reviewer possessed with 
 that he cannot get through a single paragraph without some 
 monstrous error either of fact, of judgment, or of feeling ? 
 
 B. 
 
 'No worse spirit, I dare say, than vanity. Much desire 
 of feeling and displaying his own power ; little desire of 
 doing justice or of understanding the truth. But let us 
 have some more. 
 
 A. 
 
 " How Southampton received these apologies we arc not in- 
 formed." 
 
 B. 
 
 There he goes again! What apologies., I should like to 
 know. He did not say that he was sorry for anything he 
 had done. He asked pardon for nothing but for troubling 
 him with the letter.
 
 218 EVEXiyos WITH A 
 
 Yes, yes. It is all of a piece. 
 
 " But it is certain that the general opinion was pronounced 
 against Bacon in a manner not to be misunderstood. ' 
 
 B. 
 
 True ; the general opinion of people who did not know 
 what he had done. 
 
 "Soon after his marriage lie put forth a cleft-nee of his 
 conduct, in the form of a letter to the Earl of Devon. This 
 tract seems to us only to prove the exceeding badness of a cause 
 for which such talents could do so little." 
 
 B. 
 
 Ay, there it is. "Could do so little!" But since this 
 is the only notice which the reviewer deigns to take of that 
 composition ; simply dismissing- it as a tiling which has not 
 altered his opinion (a feat to which I well believe Bacon's 
 talents were unequal), without explaining either what the 
 tvnour of the defence is, or what the points are in which it 
 fails, it is impossible to answer him otherwise than by 
 saying generally that to me, on the contrary, it seems to 
 prove the exceeding goodness of a cause, which a simple 
 statement, without any special pleading whatever, was 
 sufficient to vindicate. ]Iow much such a statement could 
 ' >1o " for the cause, you must have seen from the fact that 
 it Iris supplied me with the means of convicting the reviewer 
 of (I think) some half-dozen material misstatements. AVhy 
 it was not pitched in a bolder key, and made so complete as 
 to answer by anticipation such an attack as this, and set the 
 whole question at rest for ever, is intelligible enough to 
 anyone who understands Bacon's character. He could not 
 have done it without bringing the worst of Essex's case airain 
 upon the stage, when it could have served no purpose higher 
 than that of vindicating his own reputation. To show i<-luit 
 the Apology ' did lor the case/ 1 would be to go through the
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 219 
 
 whole story again. But it may be as well to remind you of 
 the general purpose and spirit of it, The imputation which 
 Bacon sustained "in common speech," was that he had 
 been " false and ungrateful " to Essex. The grounds of this 
 imputation were of two kinds ; the part which he had actually 
 taken against Essex in public ; and the part which he was 
 supposed to have taken against him in private. Upon the 
 first he touches briefly and generally, not entering into any 
 argument, but simply appealing to the "true rules and 
 habits of duties and moralities," as " they which shall decide 
 the matter." 
 
 " Wherein (lie says) my defence ncedeth to be but simple 
 and brief; namely, that whatsoever I did concerning that 
 action and proceeding was done in my duty and service to the 
 Queen and the State ; in which I would not show myself false- 
 hearted nor fainthearted for any man's sake living. For every 
 honest man that hath his heart well plan led will forsake Lis 
 King rather than forsake his God, and forsake his friend rather 
 than forsake his King, and yet will forsake any earthly com- 
 modity, yea, and his own life in some cases, rather than forsake 
 his friend. I hope the world hath not forgotten these degrees ; 
 else the heathen saying amicus usque ad aras shall judge them." 
 
 And this is the whole of his defence upon the first point. 
 What he had done was known. He had nothing to explain ; 
 and he could not, for the reason I have mentioned, enter 
 into a more particular application of the principle to the 
 case. And indeed, if the principle be admitted, I hardly 
 see how the objection can be sustained, or what further 
 justification was needed. And it was a principle (you are to 
 remember) which did not in those days need to be further 
 enforced ; being well recognized, and scarcely disputed by 
 anybody. In our times it is true that the notion of forsaking 
 a friend rather than forsaking a Itiny seems extravagant ; 
 because the king is no longer the real governor and chief 
 magistrate of the country ; and the observance owing to him 
 from his subjects is a matter of form and ceremony rather 
 than of substance. The State has in fact very little interest 
 in him. If however I say that a man should forsake his
 
 220 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 friend rather than forsake his party (which comes a little 
 nearer to the case, though not quite up to it), I think many 
 people would at once assent, though I am not clear that I 
 should assent myself. But if I say that a man should forsake 
 his friend rather than forsake his country, meaning the true 
 interests and legitimate authorities of the State, I suppose 
 the proposition will hardly be disputed by anybody. Xow 
 in Bacon's time, when the theory of a responsible ministry 
 had not yet been developed, this is what " the King " really 
 was. I conceive therefore that if we do but substitute the 
 thing for the name, we shall all agree that he lias laid down 
 his principles of duty truly ; and that, if we do but substitute 
 the facts as they were for the facts as the reviewer tells them, 
 we must all agree that he did not misapply them. At all 
 events, whether we adopt the principle or not, there can be 
 no doubt that Bacon believed it to be the true one. There- 
 fore, if he must be condemned, let him be condemned for 
 believing it, not for acting upou it. 
 
 A. 
 
 This then, you say, is his defence of what he did in 
 public at the trial. How did he meet the other part of the 
 charge? 
 
 B. 
 
 The other part of the charge he meets by a simple narra- 
 tive, from which it appears that the imputation was wholly 
 without foundation. The charge was that he had acted 
 (i.yainst his friend. The answer is that he had acted for 
 him. Admit the fact to be made good, and I do not know 
 what more the greatest talents could "do for a case," or 
 wish to do for it. 
 
 But to make out <( case was not his object. His object 
 was to present the case as it truly was. The judgment upon 
 it he left to friends and enemies. 
 
 "And this, my Lord," (ho concludes) "to my furthest re- 
 membrance is all that passed wherein I liad part; which I liave 
 ht-t down as in/ill' as I could in the very woids and r-pct'ches 1hat
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 221 
 
 w.^re user!, not because they are worthy the repetilion 1 mean 
 those of ray own, but to the end your Lordship may lively and 
 plainly discern between tlie face of truth and a smooth tale." 
 
 If lie had told a smooth talo instead of presenting the 
 face of truth, the reviewer would have thought the cause not 
 so bad ; because then his talents would have " done some- 
 thing for it." 
 
 But, seriously, can it be shown that the truth is in any 
 single feature either distorted or miscoloured ? I have not 
 yet heard of any attempt to do so. And if not, was he not 
 justified in adding, 
 
 " Wherein. I report myself to your honourable judgment, 
 whether you do not see the traces of an honest man; and had I 
 been as well believed either by tlio Queen or by my Lord as I 
 was well heard by them both, both my Lord had been fortunate 
 and so had myself iu his fortune." 
 
 Whether the reviewer disbelieves Bacon's account of 
 what he did,- or, believing it, does not see in it " the traces 
 of an honest man," he does not inform us. Therefore I do 
 not know how to meet him more directly than by saying 
 that, until I hear of some argument for the one or the other, 
 I shall hold my present opinion, that in the whole of his 
 relation to Essex, Bacon acted quite rightly. 
 
 A. 
 
 And as I cannot invent any argument myself for either, 
 I must hold you justified in doing so. 
 
 " It is not probable that Bacon's defence had much effect 
 upon his contemporaries." 
 
 B. 
 
 And pray why not ? Is it a thing so improbable in 
 itself, that the defence of a man who has been condemned 
 unheard should produce an effect iu his favour? or is there 
 any evidence that his unpopularity continued afterwards 
 undiminished ? The old slander was indeed revived after 
 his fall, when any slander against the character of a dis-
 
 222 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 graced royalist was sure to find plenty of believers, and when 
 there was no one to contradict it. But by what contemporary 
 of name and repute was his conduct to Essex censured after 
 the appearance of the " Apology " ? He was frequently in 
 places where he was most likely to hear of it ; exposed 
 continually to the whispers of the Court and the invectives 
 of the House of Commons. Surely if the condemnation had 
 been general, he would have been now and then taunted 
 with it by his enemies or his antagonists. Yet I do not 
 think I have met anywhere with so much as an allusion, 
 from which one might infer that such a charge had been so 
 much as whispered during the twelve or thirteen years that 
 followed the printing of the "Apology." Of course thv 
 reviewer will not favour us with an instance. 
 
 A. 
 
 Rather the contrary. He seems to admit that tho 
 censure, if not withdrawn, was forgotten. 
 
 " But the unfavourable impression which his conduct had 
 made appears to Lave been gradually effaced. Indeed it must 
 be some very peculiar cause that can make a man like him long- 
 unpopular. His talents secured him from contempt ; his temper 
 and his manners from hatred. There is scarcely any story so 
 black that it may not be got over by a man of great abilities, 
 whose abilities are united Avilh caution, good-humour, patience, 
 and affability ; who pays daily sacrifices to Xenusis; who is a 
 delightful companion, a serviceable though not an ardent friend, 
 and a dangerous yet a placable enemy." 
 
 Tli- drift of all which is apparently to account for the 
 fact that he was not so unpopular with those who knew him 
 as he ought to have been. 31 y version of the story does not 
 stand in need of any such explanations. J5ut I am glad 
 of this admission of the fact ; because it shows that 
 Macaulay's reading could supply no expression or anecdote 
 which his ingenuity could distort into a semblance' of proof
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 223 
 
 that anybody condemned Bacon's conduct after ho had once 
 heard it explained. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Waller in the next age was an eminent instance of this. 
 Indeed, Waller had much more than may at first sight appear in 
 common with Bacon. To the higher intellectual qualities of the 
 great English philosopher, -to the geniiis which has made an 
 immortal epoch in the history of science, Waller had indeed no 
 pretensions. But the mind of Waller, so far as it extended, 
 coincided with that of Bacon ; and might, so to speak, have been 
 cut out of that of Bacon. In the qualities which make a man 
 an object of interest and veneration to posterity, there was no 
 comparison between them. But in the qualities by which chiefly 
 a man is known to his contemporaries, there was a striking 
 similarity. Considered as men of the world, as courtiers, as 
 politicians, as associates, as allies, as enemies, they had nearly 
 the same merits and the same defects. They were not malig- 
 nant. They were not tyrannical. But they wanted warmth of 
 affection and elevation of sentiment. There were many things 
 which they loved better than virtue, and which they feared 
 more than guilt. Yet after they had stooped to acts of which 
 it is impossible to read the account in the most partial narrative, 
 without strong disapprobation and contempt " 
 
 B. 
 
 The most partial narratives ! I know nothing about that. 
 When I speak of Bacon's conduct it is not as reported in a 
 partial narrative, but in a true one. And I still wait to hear 
 of some one act of his of which we cannot read without dis- 
 approbation and contempt. 
 
 A. 
 
 " the public still continued to regard them with a feeling not 
 easily to be distinguished from esteem. The hyperbole of JulL t 
 seemed to be verified with respect to them ' Upon their brows 
 shame was ashamed to sit.' Everybody seemed as desirous to 
 throw a veil over their misconduct as if it had been his own. 
 Clarendon, who felt and had reason to feel strong personal dis- 
 like towards Waller, speaks of him thus : ' There needs no 
 more to be said to extol the excellence and power of his wit and 
 pleasantness of his conversation, than that it wus of magnitude
 
 224 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 enough to cover a world of very great faults, that is, so to 
 cover them that they were not taken notice of to his reproach, 
 viz. a narrowness in his nature to the lowest degree, an abject- 
 ness and want of courage to support him in any virtuous under- 
 taking, an insinuation and servile fla'tery to the height the 
 vainest and most imperious nature Cjuld Le contented \vith. . . . 
 It had power to reconcile him to those whom lie had most 
 offended and provoked, and continued to his age with that rare 
 felicity that his company was acceptable where his spirit was 
 odious, and be was at least pitied where be was most detested.' 
 Much of this, with some softening, might, we fear, be applied to 
 Bacon." 
 
 B. 
 
 Wait a moment. Whether all or any of this be true of 
 Waller I do not pretend to say; for I know nothing about 
 him. If it is, I need hardly observe that the parallel is 
 absurd. But \vliat I want to say is, that the respect which 
 Bacon's character commanded during his life was quite dif- 
 ferent in kind from that which Clarendon describes. Where 
 is the evidence that any human being who despised Bacon, 
 liked him ? Of those who detested him, which pitied him? 
 It is common enough for a man to be popular and agreeable 
 who is at the same time despised ; nor does it argue any ex- 
 traordinary power of pleasing. A man will always be 
 popular in that sense who can make time pass agreeably. 
 And this he can do all the better for not being too much 
 respected. The poorer kind of men, who will always be the 
 greater number, do not like a man whom they have to look 
 up to, whose greatness or goodness makes them sensible of 
 their own mediocrity or unworthiness. But the impression 
 which Bacon is described as producing upon those who con- 
 versed with him was not that of pity, or good-nature, or 
 merely social kindness, but of "an awful reference." That 
 is the phrase used by Osborne (a writer whose fault is a 
 tendency to depreciate and detract), and he ascribes the 
 impression not only to his reputation for universal know- 
 ledge, but to that '"' majest ical carriage \\hieh he \\as kiioun 
 to own." Ben .Jonsnn again---(a still brtter witness,, fur !;<
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIE WEE. 225 
 
 knew him well in both his fortunes, and was by nature an 
 extremely fine observer) tells us, not that he liked him 
 for the "pleasantness of his conversation," but that he 
 "reverenced" him ; and for what? "for the greatness which 
 was only proper to himself," a greatness which place and 
 honours could not enhance, and a " virtue " which made it 
 impossible to condole with him on his misfortunes, because 
 they seemed only like "accidents," which served to make 
 the virtue manifest, but could not harm it. Is this the 
 description of a man whose " company was acceptable where 
 his spirit was odious ; " whose manners procured pity from 
 those by whom his character was " detested " ? Surely no 
 two pictures can be more unlike. Indeed, in the case of 
 Bacon, it would probably be found (if the witnesses could 
 still be called up) that those who thought ill of him and 
 those to whom his company was acceptable were two distinct 
 sets of persons. By those who knew him he was "reverenced" 
 for his greatness and goodness ; by those who did not know 
 him, or could not understand him, he may (for anything I 
 know) have been thought ill of and disliked. But I have 
 yet to learn that his character was ever ill-spoken of by a 
 man of a great spirit who had had opportunities of knowing 
 him. Aubrey tells us (and Ids information was derived 
 chiefly from two persons who knew Bacon well, Ilobbes 
 and Sir John Danvers), that " all who were great and good 
 loved and honoured him." If so, it cannot possibly have 
 been for such qualities as Clarendon ascribes to Waller. For 
 what qualities it was, no one can be at a loss to understand 
 who is acquainted with his writings; especially those which 
 are most familiar, unstudied, and unreserved. 
 
 A. 
 
 No ; if so. And yet indeed why not? It is a friend's 
 account, to be sure. But a friend's is at least as likely 
 to be true as an enemy's. And Sir John Danvers, I think, 
 was one of the friends of his adversity. Well. 
 
 "The influence of Waller's talents, manners, and accom- 
 plishments died with him ; and the world has pronounced an 
 unbiassed sentence upon his character." 
 
 VOL. I. 4
 
 220 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 That is to say, Clarendon has written down his own 
 opinion of his character in a readable book ; and " the 
 world," knowing nothing whatever about the matter, has 
 just taken it for granted. If Clarendon had pronounced 
 him a martyr, the world would have believed that just as 
 readily. 
 
 A. 
 
 " A few flowing lines are not bribe sufficient to pervert the 
 judgment of posterity. But the influence of Bacon is felt 
 and will long be felt over the whole of the civilized world. 
 Leniently as he was treated by his contemporaries 
 
 B. 
 
 Leniently ! That must refer then' to this period which 
 we have been speaking of, wheh as*yet he hadMone nothing 
 wrong. It surely cannot be said that Tie was treated 
 leniently at the time of his fall, or after it. 
 
 " Leniently as he w r as treated by his contemporaries, pos- 
 terity has treated him more leniently still." 
 
 B. 
 
 Posterity treated him leniently ! Why, what is the 
 popular opinion of him which is now current ? How comes 
 it that in contending that he was not a cold-hearted, mean- 
 spirited, selfish, perfidious, and servile sycophant, I feel 
 that I am maintaining what will seem to half the world a 
 preposterous paradox? It is true that a few individual 
 writers here and there have treated him with respect, 
 possibly with lenity. But have their views been adopted 
 into the popular opinion? If you want to know how 
 posterity has treated Bacon, look into any of the anonymous 
 notices of his life prefixed to the popular editions of his 
 works. Look into our modern Encyclopaedias, Biographical 
 Dictionaries, British Plutarchs, or British Nepur,rs. Look
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 227 
 
 into our histories of England.* Look at the first thought 
 which occurs to a respectable and dispassionate man like 
 Mr. Jardine, upon discovering that Bacon had struck a 
 sentence out of a deposition. AVhat (thinks he) could his 
 object be ? Some bad one of course ! And so prepossessed 
 is he with this notion, that he sets down the first bad one 
 he can think of, without even turning to the book which 
 lay before him, to see whether such an object was com- 
 patible with the rest of the story ! Surely the judgment 
 of posterity upon Bacon's moral character is as harsh and 
 rigorous as it well can be, the greatest of intellects united 
 with the smallest of hearts. If there be anything wearing 
 the appearance of lenity and indulgence, it is only a ten- 
 dency in the better sort of natures (arising out of a secret 
 aversion from the contemplation of so monstrous and re- 
 volting a combination) to keep the two parts of his cha- 
 racter separate, and not to let their minds dwell at all upon 
 the moral part. It is not that they see it with indulgent 
 eyes ; they turn their eyes away and try to forget it 
 altogether. 
 
 A. 
 
 That is true enough. I cannot say that I have myself 
 been in the habit of judging Bacon leniently. And cer- 
 tainly people in general are ready to believe the worst of 
 him ; as may appear (among other things) by the appetite 
 with which they have swallowed this article. 
 
 " Turn where we may, tlie trophies of that mighty intellect 
 are full in view. \Ye are judging Manlius in sight of the 
 Capitol." 
 
 B. 
 
 And we pronounce him the meanest of mankind. 
 
 A. 
 
 True. I wonder whether it occurred to the reviewer, 
 while he was declaiming against the scandal of blackening 
 
 * This was written ill October, 1815. Of lute, a considerable change nmy 
 be observed.
 
 228 El'EXISGS WITH A REVIEW Ell. 
 
 the fame of benefactors and writing abusive pamphlets 
 against them when they are dead, to consider what he was 
 doing himself all the time. I suppose not. 
 
 But we had better break off here. For the next para- 
 graph relates apparently to the progress of his books and 
 studies. 
 
 B. 
 
 Very well. Only remember that Bacon is now in his 
 forty-third year ; that he has been placed in many situa- 
 tions which try the character severely ; and that you have 
 been compelled to own that, in every one of these, he has 
 acquitted himself with fidelity, witli sincerity, with dis- 
 interestedness, and with honour. The worst that can be 
 said of him is, that he was desirous of advancement in his 
 profession ; that he endeavoured to obtain such advance- 
 ment by pre-eminently deserving it ; and that in a conflict 
 between two duties, he preferred the course which he knew 
 to be right before that which he knew would be popular. 
 Neither can it be said that, if we know nothing worse of 
 him, it is only because we know so little. There are very 
 few men of whose private affairs and proceedings so much 
 is known that was never intended to see the light. 
 
 Now I do not want to bespeak your judgment upon what 
 is coming. But I want you to remember that in cases of 
 doubtful interpretation, the presumption is not with you or 
 me, whatever it may be with the reviewer, against him. If 
 the reviewer thinks himself entitled, from the fact that 
 Bacon did afterwards abuse power, to infer that from the 
 beginning he desired power only for the sake of abusing it, 
 much metre may you and J, from the fact that he has 
 actually behaved well for forty-three years, infer that he is 
 likely to behave well hereafter. 
 
 A. 
 
 I don't know, lie has not yet been tried with prosperity. 
 But of course there is always a presumption in favour of a 
 man who has hitherto borne a good character. And to this 
 I agree that Bacon is fully entitled.
 
 EVENING THE SEVENTH. 
 
 A. 
 
 Shall we go on at once with the review, or have you 
 anything to say by way of preparation ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Let me see. We are on the threshold of a new world. 
 Yes, I think I shall have a good deal to say before we go 
 much further. But let us see what Macaulay makes of it 
 first. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Under the reign of James, Bacon grew rapidly iu fortune 
 and favour. In 1004 he was appointed King's Counsel with 
 a fee of 40 a-year, and a pension of 00 a-year was settled 
 upon him. In 1007 he became Solicitor-General, and in 1012 
 Attorney-General. He continued to distinguish himself in 
 Parliament, particularly by his exertions in favour of one 
 excellent measure on which the King's heart was set, the 
 union of England and Scotland. It was not difficult fur such 
 an intellect to discover many irresistible arguments in favour 
 of such a scheme. He conducted the great cause of the Po*/- 
 nati in the Exchequer Chamber. And the decision of the 
 Judges, a decision the legality of which may be questioned, 
 but the beneficial effects of which must be acknowledged, -was 
 in a great measure attributed to his dexterous management. 
 While actively engaged in the House of Commons and in the 
 Courts of Law, he stiil found leisure for letters and philosophy. 
 The noble treatise on the Advancement of Learning, which at 
 a later period was augmented into the D? Angmentis, appeared
 
 230 EVEXIXOfi WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 in 1(105. The 'Wisdom of the Ancients,' a work which if it 
 had proceeded from any other writer, would have been con- 
 sidered a master-piece of wit and learning, but which adds little 
 to the fame of Bacon, was printed in 1609. In the mean time 
 the Noium Organum was slowly proceeding. Several distin- 
 guished men of learning had been permitted to see sketches 
 or detached portions of that extraordinary book ; and though 
 they were not generally disposed to admit the soundness of the 
 author's views, they spoke with the greatest admiration of his 
 genius. Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the most magnifi- 
 cent of English libraries, was among those stubborn conserva- 
 tives who considered the hopes with which Bacon looked 
 forward to the future destinies of the human race as utterly 
 chimerical ; and who regarded with distrust and aversion the 
 innovating spirit of the new schismatics in Philosophy. Yet 
 even Bodley, after perusing the Cogitata et Visa, one of the 
 most precious of those scattered leaves out of which the great 
 oracular volume was afterwards made up, acknowledged that 
 in ' those very parts and in all proposals and plots of that book 
 Bacon showed himself a master-workman,' and that ' it could 
 not be gainsaid but all the treatise over did abound with choice 
 conceits of the present state of learning and with worthy con- 
 templations of the means to procure it.' In 1612 a new edition 
 of the Essays appeared, with additions surpassing the original 
 Collection both in bulk and quality. Xor did these pursuits 
 distract Bacon's attention from a work the most arduous, the 
 most glorious, and the most useful, that even his mighty powers 
 could have achieved, ' the reducing and recompiling ' (to use 
 his own phrase) of the Laws of England. 
 
 "Unhappily he was at that very time employed in pervert- 
 ing those laws to the worat purposes of tyranny. "When Oliver 
 St. John 
 
 B. 
 
 Stay, that will do. That was ten years and more further 
 on ; aud I want to know a great deal more about the positions 
 he has occupied in the mean time; what opportunities he 
 has had of working- out the great purposes of his life as he 
 originally laid them down, and how he has used them. 
 
 He entered upon life, you remember, now about twenty 
 years since, under the attraction of two principal objects, 
 with a view to which lie endeavoured to shape his course.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 231 
 
 The first, as that which first revealed itself to his opening 
 imagination, and for which he felt more peculiarly adapted 
 by nature, was the advancement of the fortunes of the 
 human race by extending the bounds of human knowledge, 
 clearing it from error, and directing it to right ends. The 
 other was the advancement of the fortunes of his country by 
 faithful service of the State. 
 
 To these two objects he was, during the whole of Eliza- 
 beth's reign, very true and constant. But he had little 
 external furtherance for either ; none at all for the first ; 
 but little for the second. Elizabeth was above fifty years 
 old, and her hands were so full of the immediate cares of 
 state, that even if she had had genius she had scarcely 
 leisure to set about legislating for the human race. Burghley 
 does not seem to have had any aspirations of the kind in 
 him. Essex might have done something, being young, 
 capable, aspiring, and imaginative ; but not being proof 
 against the intoxicating effects of precocious greatness, his 
 ambition soon fell away to vulgar and personal ends ; and 
 Bacon was left to carry on that enterprize by himself 
 without assistance, encouragement, or sympathy. For his 
 other object he was not altogether without external advan- 
 tages ; for his service was used. But it was service without 
 means, place, or authority to give it effect. Such as it was, 
 he made the most of it by giving the best direction he 
 could to such matters as he had to deal with. But the 
 price he had to pay was a heavy one; for being without 
 either lucrative office or independent fortune, he could not 
 hold on in that career without plying his private practice 
 at the Bar ; and this (as he said) " drank too much time," 
 which he wanted for better things. For some years he was 
 trained on, as it were, by a single thread, which he was more 
 than once on the point of breaking. What he wanted to 
 do, when he found that his Court-service instead of yielding 
 him the means of working out the great purposes of his 
 life, was consuming his life in work of no permanent value, 
 was to shake himself free at once, turn his fortune into an 
 annuity, and for a while to go abroad.
 
 232 EVENIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 Was not that a feint, think you, to quicken the Queen's 
 movements? 
 
 B. 
 
 No, I think not. I should have thought that possible, 
 but for a confidential letter to his brother (not preserved by 
 himself), in which he says, " And to be plain with you " 
 [this was in January, 1594-5, when he was just thirty-four] 
 " I mean even to make the best of those small things I 
 have, with as much expedition as may be without loss, and 
 so sing a mass of requiem I hope abroad. For I know her 
 Majesty's nature that slie neither careth though the ivhole 
 surname of the Bacons travelled, nor of the Cecils neither." In 
 this however he was mistaken ; for when a rumour of his 
 intention reached the Queen's ear, she was offended, and 
 showed a dislike to it, which (with him) was as much as a 
 prohibition. And I am half inclined to think for there 
 are some other things that countenance the supposition 
 that it was at this time, and not in 1588 as has been asserted, 
 that by way of keeping him in her service she began to 
 employ him in the- business of her Learned Counsel. This, 
 I suppose, fixed him ; and he sat down quietly to make 
 the best he could of that career. All hope of the Solicitor- 
 ship seemed for the present at an end. And he betook 
 himself (as I gather from some loose papers in his hand- 
 writing which are preserved in the British Museum) vigo- 
 rously to his private studies. Among these papers I find 
 the rudiments of that little treatise upon the "Colours of 
 (iood and Lvil," which was printed with his Essays in 1597, 
 and afterwards incorporated into the DC. Angmentis. Traces 
 are there too of the " Mcditationes Sacrtu" which formed 
 part of the same volume. And several sheets of notes, which 
 look like hints of essays towards the supply of some of the 
 desiderata afterwards pointed out in the "Advancement of 
 Learning," bear witness to tin; activity with which his 
 studies were now setting in the direction of his great work. 
 The "Maxims of Law." too, must have been composed about
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 233 
 
 this time. And he appears to have had a design of writing 
 a History of England from the beginning of Henry the 
 Eighth's reign ; a commencement of which (unquestionably 
 of his composition and written during Elizabeth's reign) is 
 to be found in the Cabala.* 
 
 Nor did he remit his diligence in matters of State, but 
 worked according to his opportunities. He presented the 
 Queen with a discourse (a fragment of which is preserved) 
 on the best means of defeating the conspiracies against her 
 life, which were perpetually hatching among the fugitives 
 abroad ; was active iu collecting and examining evidence 
 against detected conspirators at home, and in drawing up for 
 public satisfaction statements of the cases prosecuted ; as 
 those (for instance) of Dr. Lopez and of Edmund Squire, 
 which are preserved ; the first published after his death by 
 Dr. llawley; the other printed by authority at the time, 
 and afterwards republished in Carleton's " Thankful Ee- 
 membrance," where I lighted upon it for the first time not 
 many months ago. It does not bear his name indeed, nor 
 has it ever been ascribed to him so far as I know ; but if 
 I were to find the rough draught of it in his own hand- 
 writing, I could hardly be more certain that it is his. He 
 continued also to give the Earl of Essex his best advice and 
 assistance in all affairs political and personal as long as it 
 was desired. And in Parliament he was more busy and 
 important than ever. 
 
 A. 
 
 No more opposition to money-bills, I suppose ? 
 
 13. 
 
 No more occasions that I can hear of, which would have 
 justified opposition. The supplies that were wanted, were 
 wanted for purposes strictly national, and the Upper House 
 did not again interfere with the privilege of the Lower. No 
 doubt he was strong on the Queen's side in both her last 
 Parliaments ; but I do not find that he was at all the less on 
 the side of the people than he had been in 1593. 
 * See "Works," v<>l. vi. p. 17.
 
 234 EVEXIXOfi WITH A JiEVIF.WF.lt. 
 
 A. 
 
 Is there not some charge against him for defending 
 monopolies ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Some idle writer- (Lord Campbell, I think, in the 
 biographical romance which he calls a life of Bacon) has 
 said that in the Parliament of 1601 he "took a very dis- 
 creditable part " in the discussions about monopolies. But 
 it is only one instance more of the carelessness with which 
 such epithets are used. It is true that he opposed a bill 
 which had for its object the abolition of monopolies ; but he 
 did not say a word in vindication of the monopolies them- 
 selves, or in deprecation of any constitutional course for 
 getting rid of them. The case is not a bad illustration of 
 his principles and policy in dealing with such questions ; 
 and I may as well tell you what it was. 
 
 These monopolies, you know, were licenses granted by 
 the Crown to individuals for the sole importing or sole 
 selling of certain articles : very bad things no doubt, except 
 where granted, as our modern patents are, only to inventors, 
 in order to secure them a reasonable interest in the fruits of 
 their own labour and ingenuity. But in those days, when 
 the voting of supplies by the Commons was not a matter 
 of course, when the ordinary expenses of Government were 
 expected to be supported by the fixed revenue of the Crown, 
 and when those expenses (owing not only to the troubles 
 of the times, but to the rapid growth of the nation in 
 numbers, wealth, and commercial enterprise) were increasing 
 much more rapidly than that revenue, they were a valuable 
 and very tempting resource. They enabled the Queen to 
 reward servants, whose claims would otherwise have drawn 
 hard upon the privy purse, in a very economical manner; 
 (economical for herself, I mean, not for the public ;) for 
 1 take it most of these patentees had to pay something 
 for their privilege, and were thus made at once thankful and 
 profitable. Accordingly these monopolies grew fast, as ill
 
 ETEN7NOS WITH A EEVJF.WER. 
 
 weeds will, and began to be felt as a great grievance. Some 
 stir had been made about them in the preceding Parliament 
 of 1597, and the Queen had promised to inquire into the 
 subject and remove such as were found to be abusive. But 
 though some steps had been actually taken with that view, 
 the troubles of Ireland and the insurrection of the Earl of 
 Essex had suspended or diverted them, so that when the new 
 Parliament met in the autumn of 1601, nothing had in fact 
 been accomplished. Meanwhile the complaints of the 
 people had grown more loud and clamorous, and the recep- 
 tion of the Queen by the Commons when she opened 
 Parliament in person, and " very few said ' God save your 
 Majesty,' " seems to show that the representatives shared 
 the general discontent. Share it at any rate they did. 
 And before the subsidy bill had reached a third reading, 
 the question of monopolies was formally brought forward 
 in the House. But it was brought forward in the shape, not 
 of a petition, but of a " Bill for the explanation of the Com- 
 mon Law in certain cases of letters patent." Of this bill 
 nothing remains except the title : but the object of it (as 
 may be clearly enough inferred from the turn of the debate) 
 was to declare these patents illegal by the Common Law. 
 Now since they had been granted in virtue of a prerogative 
 which was at that time confidently assumed, asserted, and 
 exercised as indisputably belonging to the Crown, which, 
 though not perhaps wholly undisputed was freely allowed 
 by a large body of respectable opinion, and which had not 
 yet been disallowed by any authority that could claim to be 
 decisive, it was now no longer the monopolies, but the pre- 
 rogative itself that was in question. Therefore to say that 
 those who opposed the bill on that ground were defending 
 monopolies, is as absurd as to say that the Commons them- 
 selves, when they demanded the release of a member ar- 
 rested for debt, were conspiring to defraud his creditor. 
 The arrest of a debtor, though by a process strictly legal, 
 became in that case a breach of privilege ; the taking away 
 of patents by act of parliament became in this case an 
 invasion of prerogative. The passage of such a bill could
 
 23 G EVEXIXGfi WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 only have issued in that kind of collision between the Com- 
 mons and the Crown which was especially to be deprecated, 
 and, whichever way it ended, must have created a precedent 
 full of uncertain and dangerous consequences. This bill 
 therefore Bacon did no doubt strenuously oppose. But did 
 he defend the monopolies at which it was aimed ? ])id he 
 maintain that the prerogative had in this instance been 
 rightly used? Did he say that the House ought not to 
 meddle ? Far from it. ' This is no stranger (he said, 
 pointing to the bill) in this place; but a stranger in this 
 vestment. The usual course has been to proceed by peti- 
 tion." Nay, he went further ; for he gave his decided and 
 emphatic support to a motion not only for petitioning the 
 Queen to revoke such patents as were grievous, but for 
 following it up immediately by a second petition for leave 
 to pass a law making these patents to be " hereafter of no 
 more force than they were by the Common Law without the 
 strength of her prerogative;" which motion, it seems, was 
 assented to. In what respect then was the part he took 
 discreditable? Is not this the course which at this very 
 day (given an analogous case) any discreet reformer would 
 follow ? For example : One prerogative still remains to 
 the Crown, the power of choosing its ministers. Suppose 
 the Queen to choose for her prime minister some odious 
 man; and suppose that in order to get rid of him, a bill 
 were introduced in the Commons declaring the appointment 
 void :~ what would you do if you were a member ? 
 
 A. 
 
 I should be for an address to the Queen, praying her to 
 remove him. 
 
 B. 
 
 Of course you would. That is, you would do exactly 
 what Bacon did on this occasion. But you would do it, let 
 me tell you, at the peril of your reputation with the next 
 ages for patriotism. For some hundred vears or so hereafter, 
 when this remnant of the royal prerogative shall have been 
 shorn away like the rest, and a direct voice in the appoint-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EE VIE WEE. 237 
 
 rneiit of the minister shall be one of the constitutional 
 privileges of the House of Commons, if your speech on 
 the supposed question should cross the path of some con- 
 stitutional gentleman 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, never mind my reputation for patriotism. I do 
 not mean to be famous enough to be worth gibbeting a 
 hundred years hence. But tell me about the monopolies. 
 Did the Commons get leave to pass their law. 
 
 JB. 
 
 No, the Queen knew better than to let it come to that. 
 While the House was still hot in the debate (of which she 
 of course knew nothing), it so happened that she was 
 touched with gratitude for their forwardness with the subsidy 
 bill, which had luckily had precedence ; whereupon sending 
 for the Speaker to tell the House how sensible she was of 
 their affection, she took occasion by the way to inform him 
 that complaints having reached her from various quarters of 
 abused and oppressive patents (which indeed her officers had 
 been ordered many months before to investigate, but had 
 been interrupted by well-known accidents of State), she had 
 now taken effectual steps for redress of all such grievances ; 
 that some should be immediately revoked, and all should be 
 suspended until their validity were tried by the course of 
 Common Law. The Speaker delivered the message to the 
 House. Sir Kobert Cecil followed it up by a speech full of 
 wit and graceful raillery in the manner, but of substantial 
 satisfaction in the matter ; concluding with an intimation 
 that the Queen would receive no thanks for the promise 
 until it were effectually performed. The House was over- 
 come with delight ; insisted on sending a message of thanks 
 immediately ; prayed that all might have access to deliver 
 it ; was received with that grace and majesty which was 
 indeed a prerogative inseparable, if not from the Crown, at 
 least from Queen Elizabeth; and was dismissed with a speech 
 which, if Shakespeare had but turned it into blank verse, we
 
 238 ErzxixGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 should all know by heart. And so the clouds severed and 
 dispersed, leaving her and her faith/ul Commons to part in 
 a general sunshine. If this result were in any measure 
 owing to Bacon, I do not see why it should be mentioned to 
 his discredit. 
 
 A. 
 
 Xor I. And this, I think, was her last Parliament. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, she died about fifteen months after. But Bacon 
 found one more opportunity before she died of doing, or 
 trying to do, the State a service. Within a week or two 
 after the dissolution of the Parliament came news that the 
 Spanish forces in Ireland had been utterly defeated at 
 Kinsale, and had left the country. This seemed to Bacon a 
 critical juncture, and an opportunity which, if lost, might 
 be lost for ever. And therefore, though it did not concern 
 him otherwise than as everything concerned him in which 
 the well-being of the State was interested, he made an effort 
 to put the right handle of it into Sir Robert Cecil's hand, 
 who had now the chief sway of affairs. His suggestions were 
 conveyed in that little paper, entitled " Considerations 
 touching the Queen's service in Ireland," which has been 
 preserved, and the interest of which is far from obsolete. 
 His object was to urge the importance of seizing the 
 occasion of that decisive victory for a change of policy, for 
 an endeavour to make it believed and felt that the end of 
 the Government was not simply to subdue, but to civilize. 
 .Rebellion had been effectually chastised. Now was the 
 time, first by a liberal proclamation of grace and pardon, 
 then by active measures for establishing justice and order ; 
 as by sending a peaceable commission ad res inspiciendas et 
 componendas ; by appointing governors and judges with 
 power to administer justice, summarily so as to -save delays 
 and costs, and yet as nearly as might be according to the 
 laws of England ; by removing all particular causes of com- 
 plaint ; by treating the English residents and the native 
 Irish indifferently, a,- if they were one people; by cuiintc-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 239 
 
 nancing the Irish nobility both in Ireland and in England ; 
 by tolerating ("for a time, not definite ") the exercise of the 
 Ivoman Catholic religion, and trusting for the advancement 
 of Protestantism to the sending over of zealous and per- 
 suasive preachers and the education of the youth ; by re- 
 pressing as much as possible all barbarous customs and laws'; 
 by a more careful selection of undertakers for the English 
 plantations there, and more effectual measures for keeping 
 the settlements together and in a condition for self-defence ; 
 in short, by undertaking in all their branches the true 
 offices of protection and government, to enter upon a course 
 for the recovery of the hearts of the people. 
 
 The care of this business Bacon recommended to Cecil, 
 in the summer (as I take it) of 1602, as the most 
 honourable and meritorious action, " without ventosity or 
 popularity, that the riches of any occasion or the tide of any 
 opportunity could possibly minister or offer ; " with what 
 effect I do not know. This was rather less than a year be- 
 fore the death of Elizabeth, and rather more than a year 
 after the death of his brother Anthony ; when (as I have 
 already said) he was busily employed in paying his own and 
 his brother's debts, and clearing his estate from the em- 
 barrassments which during that long term of unrequited 
 service had been growing upon him. And so ends the old 
 world and begins the new. 
 
 Upon the accession of James we find him standing on the 
 watch, ready to lend any help which that new and anxious 
 crisis might call for. But everything came round quietly 
 and prosperously. The King had no dangers to combat, no 
 great alterations to make, and counsellors only too many. 
 And Bacon found that in the ordinary business and routine 
 of government, his help was not wanted. 
 
 At this point therefore he was free to readjust his 
 position according to the occasions and exigencies of the 
 time ; which presented some new aspects. His two principal 
 ends, the service of his country and the service of his kind, 
 had still their old hold upon him; as strongly as when he
 
 240 EVEXINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 took his original direction twenty-three years before. But 
 his outward conditions were changed in two main features. 
 On the one hand, instead of nineteen he was now forty-two 
 years old ; and though competency of fortune, civil station, 
 and relief from time-absorbing drudgery, were not less im- 
 portant than before to the furtherance of his work, yet he 
 could not so well afford to waste more years in waiting for 
 them. His day was far spent ; it was time to make the best 
 of such means as he had without further delay, and to set 
 about it. On the other hand, the character of the new King 
 seemed to promise more sympathy with that work than he 
 had hitherto found in high places, and thereby encouraged 
 him to prompt exertion. He might well hope that a word 
 well-spoken in that auspicious season, the spring-time of a 
 monarch still in the prime of life, devoted to peace, sym- 
 pathising largely with the interests of mankind, and 
 eminent even among learned men in a learned age for pro- 
 ficiency in all kinds of learning, would turn James's am- 
 bition into this direction, and give him a king for a fellow- 
 labourer. Under this impression no doubt it was that he 
 now made it his aim to " meddle as little as might be in the 
 King's causes,"- to engage himself in public business no 
 further than his professional and parliamentary duties re- 
 quired, and (by way of giving an early foretaste and an- 
 nouncement of what he was about) a little to change the 
 course and order of his work, and bring it forward in a shape 
 more popular and rather less complete than that which he 
 had originally contemplated, and in which he still intended 
 that it should ultimately stand. The ''Advancement of 
 Learning," which was published in 1005, less than three 
 years after James's accession, was begun, as I conjecture (for 
 I cannot positively affirm it), about tins time. 
 
 A. 
 
 "What makes you think so? 
 
 B. 
 
 Several reasons concur; but perhap.s the one \\hieh 
 comes nearest to a proof is this. In sending a copy of the
 
 WITH A REVIEWER. 241 
 
 " Advancement " to his friend Tobie Matthew, he says, " I 
 have now taught that child to go, at the swaddling whereof 
 you were." And it appears from the same letter that 
 Matthew had seen the first book only, not the second. 
 Now Tobie Matthew sat in the Parliament of 1604, and 
 was employed on so many committees together with Bacon, 
 that they must have met nearly every day. But in the 
 beginning of the following April he left England, and did 
 not return till after the work was published. These cir- 
 cumstances therefore would exactly suit my conjecture. 
 Bacon's incessant occupation during the whole of 1604 
 sufficiently accounts for his not having finished more than 
 the first book that year ; while his comparative leisure 
 during the spring, summer, and autumn of 1G05 might very 
 well enable him to finish the rest before winter. Moreover 
 from the statement in the " Novum Organum " sixteen 
 years after, that the first part of the '' Instauratio " (which 
 is the part handled in the " Advancement ") was still 
 wanting, it is clear that the English treatise did not form 
 part of the original design, but was a kind of interloper. 
 And upon the whole I am persuaded that he hurried it into 
 the world in its present shape that he might lose no time 
 in awakening James's interest in the subject, and if possible 
 obtaining his co-operation ; which if he had succeeded in 
 doing, I do not know why a greater movement for the 
 recovery of man's dominion over nature than the world has 
 yet seen, a more successful enterprise than the world has 
 yet learned to believe possible, should not have begun 
 200 years ago. But (not to wander into a speculation of 
 this kind, which indeed I am not qualified to handle) it 
 will hardly be denied that this deviation from his general 
 plan (if deviation it was) was a judicious one ; and that this 
 treatise forms of itself (even if he had had nothing else to 
 show) a sufficient and indeed a splendid account of his 
 employment during those three years. And yet so far was 
 this from being the case, so many and so important were 
 his other labours during those years, that they might 
 fairly claim to have the same thing said of them ; for had 
 there been no " Advancement of Learning " to boot, they 
 VOL. i. n
 
 242 EVENINGS WITH A HEVIEWET!. 
 
 would have made up by themselves an ample account of 
 work well done or endeavours well aimed. 
 
 For if you believe with me that he lived under the con- 
 stant attraction of two distinct purposes, distinct though 
 not discordant,- you must believe that throughout his life 
 they were perpetually crossing one another ; and never more 
 so than at this opening of a new reign, which was far too 
 critical and too favourable a time to be let pass without an 
 attempt to set many other tilings in the right way besides 
 the study of Nature. The union of the two kingdoms : the 
 pacification of church controversies ; the right direction of 
 affairs in Ireland ; the harmonious adjustment of the rela- 
 tion between the Crown and the Commons ; were matters 
 now of urgent consideration, which, if they lost the advantage 
 of this tide, might be (as in fact they for the most part were) 
 stranded for generations. And upon a careful examination 
 of their history, I suspect it would appear that if any of 
 them were not taken up at the right time and by the right 
 handle, it was not Bacon's fault. 
 
 A. 
 
 I am afraid I must trouble you for particulars. 
 
 B. 
 
 By all means, if you do not grudge the time. 
 
 First then for the Union. Bacon's observation upon his 
 first interview with the King was, that he seemed to be 
 "hastening to a mixture of both kingdoms and nations 
 faster perhaps than policy would conveniently bear." And 
 the iirst thing with which he greeted the King at his 
 entrance (using with a discreet boldness the privilege of a 
 scholar, for he had not then the privilege of speaking in 
 any other capacity) \\as, a " I5ri<.-f Discourse of the happy 
 Union betueen Fngland and (Scotland.'' This paper was 
 written indeed (as he says himself) " scholastically and 
 specillatively, not actively or politicly, as he hold it lit for 
 him at that time," when the Jung's desire had not yet been 
 declared, and he had not himself been used or trusted in
 
 WITH A REVIEWER. 243 
 
 the service. It is however aimed nearly enough at the 
 particular case to suggest the principles which ought to 
 govern the attempt, and the cautions to be observed in 
 entering upon it ; especially in these two main points : 1st, 
 that the object to be sought was not simply the putting the 
 two kingdoms together, but the making the two into one, 
 the true mingling and uniting of them under a new form ; 
 and 2ndly, that perfect mixture can only take place under 
 two conditions ; it must be left to time and nature, for 
 hurrying would but hinder and disturb it ; and the greater 
 must draw the less, or the union would not be permanent. 
 And by way of historical examples, he holds up the Roman 
 unions, particularly the union between the Romans and the 
 Sabiues, as the examples to imitate ; and the union of 
 Arragon with Castile and of Judah with Israel as the 
 examples to avoid. 
 
 A. 
 
 Suggestions of that kind would be valuable enough, I 
 dare say; but you are surely not going to hold up the 
 proceedings with regard to the Union in James's reign as 
 a specimen of successful statesmanship ? 
 
 B. 
 
 No; nor am I going to inquire how far these suggestions 
 were attended to, or how far the tardy accomplishment of 
 the Union was owing to some such error in the first inten- 
 tion as this discourse was meant to preclude. Such an 
 inquiry would be interesting, but it would hold us too long, 
 and to say the truth, I am not well enough read in the 
 actual history of the Union between England and Scotland 
 to attempt it. I mention the thing at present only as 
 showing how constantly Bacon's eye was fixed upon the 
 largest interests of the times, and how the services which 
 he went out of his way to perform or to offer were always for 
 ends truly public and patriotic. In this instance his offer 
 was as well accepted as it was well intended ; for in all the 
 proceedings which took place on this subject in the Ilousn
 
 244 FVFXTXrfS WITH A PEYJF.WEfi. 
 
 of Commons, in all their conferences with the Lords and 
 audiences of the King, he appears to have been by common 
 consent elected as the chief speaker. In the selection of 
 Commissioners to treat of a Union and prepare a measure 
 for the next Parliament, the choice of the Commons fell 
 upon him first of all the Commoners ; and in the labours of 
 that Commission he appears to have sustained a principal 
 (if not the principal) part. And if you like to know how 
 far this was from being a mere exercise of the speculative 
 understanding, as the reviewer seems to consider it, the 
 mere " discovery of many irresistible arguments in favour 
 of such a scheme," you must first read Bacon's own 
 analysis (in the paper which he drew up for the King 
 immediately after the close of the session) of the questions 
 which had to be considered and the difficulties which had 
 to be overcome ; you must then try and imagine to yourself 
 what kind of task it really was, to devise, prepare, mature, 
 and propose an arrangement for such a union between 
 England and Scotland as should unite the hearts and 
 affections of the two people, to propose it, I say, in such 
 a manner that it should have any chance of passing the 
 judgments and prejudices of a Parliament of Englishmen 
 on one side and a Parliament of Scotchmen on the other ; 
 you must next run your eye through the Journals of our 
 own House of Commons, observing the sort of obstructions 
 through which it had actually to make its way ; the number 
 of meetings of the Committee of the House of Commons, of 
 reports from the Committee of the House of ( 'ominous, of 
 debates upon the report from the Committee of the House 
 of Commons ; of messages from the Lords desiring con- 
 ference, of debates whether they should confer, wl at points 
 they should confer about, what instructions they should 
 give;- of conferences, of reports of conferences, Arc., cvc., 
 from " Sir Francis liacon's report (loth April, 1(!()4) of the 
 thirteen objections against the Union in name." to his 
 "finishing of a very long report" (2nd 3Iarch, If!(M>-7) 
 too long to be got through in one day -"of the conference 
 \\ith the Lords on the point of general naturalization; " at
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 245 
 
 which time, by the way, his health had suffered so much 
 from his work that he was forced to " pray the House that 
 at other times they would use some other and not oppress 
 him with their favours ; " and finally you must bear in 
 mind, that besides the business of working such a measure 
 as this through the Houses of Parliament (a task which 
 indeed proved after all too hard to be accomplished), the 
 preliminary task of guiding the labours of the Commis- 
 sioners to a successful termination (itself no easy one), 
 which was accomplished with remarkable unanimity and 
 despatch by the close of the year 1604, rested principally 
 upon his industry and address. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, but what was the use of it all ? No great matter 
 came of it. 
 
 B. 
 
 True. But we are considering, not the results of his life 
 to other people, I could give a fair account of them too, 
 but the life itself as illustrative of his character and pur- 
 poses. The fig-tree was cursed because it bore no fruit, not 
 because men threw the fruit away. If you would form to 
 yourself a true image of the man and his life, you must not 
 pass such a work as this over as if it were nothing, merely 
 because nothing came of it, but must endeavour to let the 
 labour and the endeavour have their due impression and 
 importance. Not however that I claim for him any special 
 and peculiar merit on account of this service, beyond that 
 of diligence, judgment, and an eye to the larger interests of 
 the State. I do not say that there was any extraordinary 
 virtue in doing what he ought to do on this occasion ; I 
 only say that it teas what he ought to do, a worthy object 
 well aimed at and strenuously endeavoured after ; something 
 much more than making a brilliant speech in the House of 
 Commons; and in that respect of a piece with the rest 
 of his life, according to my view of it, so far as we have 
 gone.
 
 240 L'VEXIXGS WITH A EEVIEWEti. 
 
 A. 
 
 Nobody finds any fault with him for this that I know of. 
 But you are to remember that if it was good pubHc service, 
 it was good court-service too. There must have been pro- 
 spect of a vacancy in the Solicitorship, and it was a good 
 road to that. 
 
 B. 
 
 No doubt, no doubt. There must have been a prospect, 
 more or less remote, when he began ; nay, before he got 
 half-through, there was an actual vacancy. But if that was 
 what his service aimed at, he was disappointed. His bio- 
 graphers do not mention it ; but it is true that on the 28th 
 of October (the day before the Commissioners of the Union 
 began their labours) Sir Thomas Fleming, the then Solicitor, 
 was advanced to the office of Chief Baron, and the vacant 
 Solicitorship was bestowed on Serjeant Dodderidge. 
 
 A. 
 
 And what did Bacon say t<> that? 
 
 B. 
 
 I never heard that he said anything. Not a word, I 
 think, is on record from which it can be inferred that ho 
 either asked for the place for himself, (lie was probably too 
 intent upon his business to be attending to his fortunes,) 
 or uttered a syllable of complaint upon being passed over. 
 And from the records which remain of the course he was 
 pursuing both before and after, no one, I am sure, would 
 guess that anything had occurred between to discontent 
 him. Secretly disappointed he may very well have been. 
 Tie was no\v ten years older than when the world had voted 
 him worthy of a higher place; and the labours and dis- 
 tinctions of the last session must have both tested his ability 
 and raised his reputation to the height. To judge from the 
 continual recurrence of his name in the Journals as selected 
 for all the most delicate and important services, lie must
 
 EVENINGS WJ Til A REVIEWER. 247 
 
 have been generally recognized as the foremost man in the 
 House of Commons. He was forty -four years old ; and 
 though his debts were now cleared off, his income, as we 
 have seen, was still a very narrow one for a man in his 
 position, with objects so vast and pretensions so undeniable. 
 Disappointed, therefore, I dare say he was. But according 
 to his estimate of life and its duties, no private disappoint- 
 ment could be a worthy motive to him for slackening his 
 endeavours to promote what he conceived to be a great 
 public object. You will find therefore that whatever he 
 may have felt, he continued to act as if nothing had hap- 
 pened. 
 
 But all this is from our present purpose. I tell you that 
 I cite his conduct in this matter of the Union, not as 
 evincing any extraordinary virtue ; it involved no sacrifice 
 except of health and leisure, and it was, as you suggest, the 
 road to preferment, though it was not undertaken upon any 
 bargain for preferment, and though it did not at present 
 lead to any ; I cite it only as showing that he still continued 
 constant to the greater interests of his country, not to be 
 wearied in pursuing them, and though I will not say not 
 looking for a reward (which he might surely do without 
 blame)- yet not to be turned aside, slackened, or disgusted, 
 when the natural reward did not come. And what more do 
 you ask of a man ? It is not in going unrewarded that the 
 virtue consists, but in going rigid whether rewarded or not. 
 
 I have not half done yet. The union of the king- 
 doms was only one of the great interests which were now 
 calling upon him for help. The next was the state of the 
 Church, which had now a fre,?h chance of being recovered 
 from its distractions and restored to a sounder condition. 
 And upon this subject also he addressed a discourse to the 
 King on his first coming in, which (like almost all his 
 writings), though addressed to the immediate exigencies of 
 his day, is scarcely less applicable to our own. 
 
 A. 
 
 Which side was he on ?
 
 248 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 On the side of true religion and good government, which, 
 included the interests of all sides, therefore flattered the 
 prejudices of none. It may seem strange, perhaps, that he 
 should intermeddle at all in these religious differences, 
 seeing that they were out of his province, and that the part 
 he took was so little fitted to ingratiate him with either 
 party. But the circumstances under which he entered life 
 must naturally have led him to take a deep interest in the 
 subject. From his earliest youth he must have heard a 
 great deal of the rising body of Nonconformists. Cam- 
 bridge, during his residence there, was agitated by the 
 controversy between them and the High-Churchmen. When 
 he returned from France he found them rising rapidly into 
 imp stance. They had among them many of the most 
 diligent, zealous, pious, and learned members of the Church, 
 and had obtained a strong interest in the House of Com- 
 mons. The abuses they complained of were many of them 
 real and grave, the removal of which would have been a 
 great public benefit. The rest wore for the most part 
 matters of outward form and ceremony, not worth quarreling 
 about ; yet the cause of a quarrel which was fast leading to 
 a serious rupture. The Parliament in which lie first sat, 
 being then only twenty-four years old, was much occupied 
 with a petition for the reformation of abuses in Church 
 government (famous as the " sixteen-i'old petition"), in 
 which tin. 1 Commons wanted the Lords to join, and which 
 led to a great deal of discussion. The particulars of the 
 debates we do not know, and lie was too young a member 
 probably to take any active part in them, but he was on that 
 account all the more likely to be an attentive and anxious 
 listener. There he must have heard the particulars of these 
 abuses amply set forth and vehemently disputed. Ho must 
 have heard of parishes served by ministers unlearned and 
 incompetent, or not served at all; of men of the greatest 
 learning and the purest lives suspended from their ministry 
 for objecting to war a surplice, <>r for refusing to subscribe
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 240 
 
 articles newly devised, not imposed by the statutes of the 
 realm, not touching any vital or essential points of doctrine ; 
 of the gravest functions of the Bishops delegated to 
 officials and commissaries ; of ministers compelled to 
 answer on oath to any questions which the Bishops might 
 think fit to ask, either out of their own vague suspicions or 
 out of the suggestions of common rumour ; of excommuni- 
 cation abused into an ordinary instrument for enforcing 
 slight points of discipline or exacting fees ; of the sup- 
 pression by authority of those conferences and exercises 
 among the clergy which were best fitted to instruct and 
 practise them in the duties of their calling; of non-residents 
 and pluralists ; and much else of the kind. He must also 
 have heard measures for the redress of these detects and 
 abuses proposed and argued in no immoderate or unreason- 
 able spirit ; must have seen the grounds upon which the 
 authorities resisted them ; must have formed his own opinion 
 upon the merits of the controversy and the issue to which it 
 was inevitably leading. What that issue must be it was not 
 difficult to foretell. The principal demands of the main 
 body of reformers were as yet indeed moderate and just and 
 involved no violent alteration; but the extremes were already 
 beginning to assail the very constitution of the Church, and 
 to erect within it a government by synods, that is to say, 
 a government essentially deniocratical ivithin a government 
 essentially monarchical; a most perilous proceeding, because 
 as the two could never have gone at the same pace, one 
 must before long have overthrown the other ; and it must 
 have been clear enough to such a judgment as his, that 
 unless the Church could distinguish and detach the moderate 
 from the immoderate, they would be continually drawing 
 closer together and making a common cause of it. All this 
 he must have seen upon his first entrance into public life. 
 It is not strange therefore if to his watching and under- 
 standing eyes these Church controversies seemed (as the 
 events of the next century proved that they indeed were) 
 the gravest and most critical question of the times. It was 
 in fact the infancy of thf memorable st rustle between tin,'
 
 250 ErxyTXQS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 High Church, and the Puritans ; and upon the wise handling 
 of it at this time hung the question whether the nation 
 should proceed peaceably through stages of progressive 
 reform or be shaken to its centre by a stru^irle between the 
 
 / C? o 
 
 opposing principles. 
 
 The authorities of the Church, seeing no further than 
 authorities commonly do, saw nothing in the Puritans ex- 
 cept a turbulent faction, which was to be suppressed in its 
 beginnings ; on that old English principle, which though 
 continually compelled to shift its ground, could never yet 
 in England be taught to understand its error, and had nut 
 then been taught even to understand its helplessness, that 
 concession would only embolden them to make further 
 demands. But Bacon knew better. His own mother was a 
 Puritan, sympathising with the cause from the bottom of 
 her noble old soul ; and well he must have known that, 
 however poor and narrow the creed, there burned at the 
 centre of that cause a lire of authentic faith, which an 
 attempt to suppress by denying it vent might raise into a 
 conflagration, but could never put out. The one chance for 
 the Church was to understand this herself, and to understand 
 it in time; and thereupon to seek, by casting out all that was 
 evil in herself, to assimilate and draw into her system all that 
 was good in them ; a course which, had it been commenced 
 soon enough and judiciously followed out, would probably 
 have converted the stream that not many years after burst 
 in upon her like a torrent and flooded all her chambers, into 
 a source of continual supply, health, and refreshment. 
 
 If these were Bacon's views in 108-1, the events of the 
 years immediately following must have strongly confirmed 
 them. The resolution of the Government to alter nothing- 
 was followed by fiercer agitations, bolder demands, more 
 settled disaffection, and a breach growing ovorv dav wider. 
 It was then (about the year ]."hS!;; that he stepped out of his 
 way to volunteer that advice upon this subject which 1 have 
 already mentioned, and if possible to turn the thoughts of 
 the contending parties into the proper channel. 
 
 ; ' Ye an- lnvtlireii," lie said; " why strive ye? ..... Our
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 251 
 
 controversies we all know and confess are not of the highest 
 nature ; they do not touch the high mysteries of the faith or 
 
 the great parts of the worship of God "We contend about 
 
 ceremonies and things indifferent ; about the extern policy and 
 government of the Church ; in which kind if we would "but 
 remember that the ancient and true bonds of unity are one faith, 
 one baptism, and not one ceremony, one policy ; if we would but 
 observe the league that is penned by our Saviour, He that is net 
 ayainst us is with us ; if we could but comprehend that saying, 
 Differentiae rituum commendant unltatem doctrine, the diversities 
 of ceremonies do set forth the unity of doctrine ; and that 
 Habet lieligio quae sunf seternitatis, habet quse sunt temporis, 
 Religion hath parts which belong to eternity, and parts which 
 pertain to time ; and if we did but know the virtue of silence 
 and slowness to speak, commended by St. James ; our con- 
 troversies would of themselves close up and grow together." 
 
 He implored both parties, but especially the Church 
 party as being then the stronger, to consider how far they 
 had been carried away iu the heat of controversy from their 
 first position, and how many things there were unsound and 
 untenable in their case as it now stood. 
 
 " Again, to my Lords the Bishops I say that it is hard for 
 them to avoid blame in the opinion of an indifferent person, in 
 standing so precisely upon altering nothing. Leges no vis leyibiis 
 non recreates acetcunt, Laws not refreshed with new laws wax 
 sour. Qui mala non permutat in bonis non perscverat, Without 
 changing the ill a man cannot continue the good. To take away 
 many abuses supplanteth not good orders but establisheth them. 
 Morosa moris retentio res turbnle/nta cst seque ac noritas, A conten- 
 tious retaining of custom is a turbulent thing as well as inno- 
 vation. A good husbandman is ever pruning in his vineyard ; not 
 unseasonably, not unskilfully, but lightly he ever findeth some- 
 what to do. We have heard of no offers from the Bishops of bills 
 in Parliament, which no doubt, proceeding from them to whom 
 it properly belongeth, would have everywhere received accep- 
 tation. Their own constitutions and orders have reformed little. 
 Is nothing amiss ? Can any man defend the use of excommu- 
 nication as a base process to lacquey up and down for fees, 
 it being a precursory judgment of the latter day ? Is there no 
 mean to train and nurse up ministers (for the yield of the L T ni- 
 ver.-itics will not serve though they were never so well governed)
 
 252 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 to train them, I say, not to preach, (for that every man con- 
 fidently adventureth to do,) biit to preach soundly and to handle 
 the Scriptures with wisdom and judgment ? . . . . Other things 
 might be spoken of. I pray God to inspire the Bishops with 
 fervent love and care of his people, and that they may not 
 so much urge things in controversy as things out of controversy, 
 which all men confess to be gracious and good." 
 
 This and much more in the same strain he had pressed 
 upon the attention of the Church at that time ; fifteen years 
 before the time we are now speaking of. But the city was 
 not yet in such jeopardy as to bethink itself of the poor 
 wise man who by his wisdom might have delivered it. The 
 poor man's wisdom was despised and his words were not 
 heard. 
 
 A new reign offered a new chance. " The first impres- 
 sion coutinueth long, and when men's minds are most in 
 expectation and suspense, then are they best wrought and 
 managed." Now was the time, or never. Another stroke 
 of the clock and the time would never be. And now once 
 more lie tried the chance of his words. After rapidly run- 
 ning over some of the principal arguments, which he had 
 formerly urged more at large, in favour of a reformation 
 within the Church (for in all Bacon's proposals and ideas 
 of reform there is a latent condition that the reform shall 
 be from within), he proceeds to recommend certain particular 
 points for consideration. The substance of his recommenda- 
 tions I cannot give in much smaller compass than the work 
 itself. Like all his writings on business, it is all substance. 
 But I should like to give you some notion of the scope, at 
 least, and tendency of them ; because [ think it will convince 
 you that a man who saw the question in that light must 
 have been really anxious to see things put in that train; 
 must have felt it a kind of duty to do what he could himself 
 to that end ; and (how much soever he may have been 
 longing, as 1 have no doubt he was. to be at his Xovum 
 Organurn and his experiments) could not have felt justified 
 in indulging the inclination, and sitting down 1o show the 
 next ages how fhev might improve their fortunes, \\hile
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 he saw the most precious part of the inheritance which they 
 were to derive from the present age going to the dogs before 
 his eyes. A true apprehension of this will make a most 
 important difference in your estimate of his character, and 
 will reconcile many seeming inconsistencies by showing that 
 they were in fact only the natural branches and develop- 
 ments of one consistent purpose. Do not lightly believe 
 that the hours which he spent in efforts to serve the State 
 were hours of weakness in which the temptations of vulgar 
 ambition triumphed over his better nature and wiser judg- 
 ment. The time employed by a prime minister in ordering 
 the affairs of his family you do not consider it mis-spent 
 because it might have been employed in improving the 
 public fortunes. Why should you suppose that the days 
 which a philosopher devotes to the immediate concerns of 
 his own generation are misemployed, because the interests 
 of one generation are small compared with those of the 
 human race ? It may sound very heroical to sit apart and 
 despise what the rest of mankind are fighting for ; but it 
 is not really so. It is only your amateur iiero who is above 
 the business of his day ; your true hero sets his hand to 
 the work. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well, well ; let me first hear what he did for his own 
 generation, and then we will consider whether it was worthy 
 of him. 
 
 R 
 
 What he did, or what he tried to do. A man who 
 would do all he can must aim at much that he can not. 
 
 Well, tins paper (which is entitled "Certain Considera- 
 tions touching the better Pacification and Edification of the 
 Church of England ") is not so much a treatise as a memorial 
 of business ; a collection of the several points which re- 
 quired consideration with a view to practical reform : small 
 points therefore as w< 11 as great; and taken in the order 
 best suited for that purpose ; consequently not the best for
 
 254 ETEXJXGS WITH A KEY] EWE It. 
 
 ours. For what concerns us, it will be better to break the 
 matter into different divisions. 
 
 Now I gather from it that the troubles and dangers of 
 the Church in that day grow in Bacon's opinion from defects 
 in four principal departments : from defects in the constitu- 
 tion of its government ; from want of adequate resources ; 
 from imperfect or injudicious methods of providing for its 
 greater and more essential objects ; and from needless strict- 
 ness and pertinacity in insisting upon points indifferent or 
 not essential. 
 
 For the first : the Bishops were in the habit of exercising 
 their authority alone ; whereas he conceived that according 
 to the primitive and true constitution of the Church, the 
 Dean and Chapter were the Bishop's council ; and that the 
 Bishop ought, in all his more important functions, to act 
 with their advice, as a king with the advice of his privy 
 council ; a change which would have gone far to satisfy 
 one important clause in the Petition of 1584 ; with this great 
 advantage over the suggestion of the petitioners, that it 
 would have fitted better into the existing framework of the 
 constitution, and might have been introduced at once, silently 
 and without disturbance. 
 
 They were also in the habit of exercising their authority 
 ly deputy ; which (as in an office of trust and confidence) he 
 considered unallowable ; thinking that in all causes that 
 " required a spiritual science and discretion in respect of 
 their nature or of the scandal," (tithe and testamentary 
 causes he set apart as being in their nature temporal) no 
 audience should be given but by the Bishop himself in 
 council. 
 
 Moreover, the forms of ecclesiastical proceeding gave 
 the Bishops a larger power in examining parties upon their 
 oath than was allowed bv the Common Law; and this 
 (which had been abused into a great practical grievance 
 and a kind of Protestant Inquisition) lie thought ought to 
 be limited. 
 
 These, together with some plan not explained in detail, 
 for adding strength to the general Council of the Clergy,
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 255 
 
 were the principal reforms which he wished iu what may bo 
 called the Constitution of the Church ; -reforms which seem 
 simple and obvious enough, but which would have had 
 practical consequences perhaps more important than any 
 man can guess. 
 
 For the second point. The insufficiency of the resources 
 of the Church he speaks of as a thing generally felt and 
 admitted : 
 
 " That the case of this Church de facto" (he says) "is such 
 that there is a want in the Churcli patrimony, is confessed. 
 For the principal places, namely the Bishops' livings, are in 
 some particulars insufficient, and therefore enforced to Le sup- 
 plied by toleration of Commendams, things in themselves unfit 
 and ever held of no good repute. But as for the benefices and 
 pastors' places, it is too manifest that very many of them, are 
 very weak and penurious." 
 
 The cause of this insufficiency was the number of impro- 
 priatious (to the value, he says, of more than ten subsidies) 
 given away from the Church in Henry the Eighth's time, 
 and so given away that it was utterly impossible for the 
 Church to claim them back again. The remedy, he hints, 
 but without entering into particulars, was to be looked for 
 from Parliament. For as he holds Henry the Eighth's 
 Parliaments responsible for the deficiency, so he holds all 
 succeeding Parliaments bound in some sort to make it good, 
 and to restore the patrimony of the Church to a competency. 
 
 Thirdly, with regard to the internal regulations of the 
 Church, the cardinal defect (and one which was also urged 
 in the Petition of 158-1) was the want of a good system for 
 training up competent preachers and excluding incompetent 
 ones. The first he proposes to remedy, in accordance with 
 the prayer of that petition, by a revival of the disused 
 exercise of " prophesying." 
 
 A. 
 
 What might that be? The defect still flourishes, and 
 we are still in want of the revival, or the discovery, of some- 
 thing to correct it. I should like to hear Bacon's ideas on 
 that point.
 
 25G El'ESJXGS WITH A liEYIEWEll. 
 
 B. 
 
 Well, the explanation is not long. You shall have it in 
 his own words. It would be desirable (he says) to revive 
 
 " that good exercise which was practised in the Church for 
 some years and afterwards put down (by order indeed from the 
 Church, in respect of some abuses thereof inconvenient fur those 
 times, and yet against the advice and opinion of one of the 
 greatest and gravest prelates of this land) " 
 
 This was Archbishop Grindel, whose expostulations about 
 it to Queen Elizabeth you may see in Fuller's " Church 
 History. 
 
 "and was commonly called prophesying; which was this, 
 that the ministers within a precinct did meet upon a week-day 
 in some principal town, where there was some ancient grave 
 minister that was president, and an auditory admitted of gentle- 
 men or other persons of leisure ; then every minister successively, 
 beginning with the youngest, did handle one and the same piece 
 of Scripture, spending severally some quarter of an hour or 
 better, and in the whole some two hours; and so the exercise 
 being begun and concluded with prayer, and the president 
 giving a text for the next meeting, the assembly was dissolved. 
 And this was, as I take it, a fortnight's exercise ; which was in 
 mine opinion the best way to frame and train up preachers to 
 handle the word of God as it ought to be handled that hath been 
 practised. For we see orators have their declamations, lawyers 
 have their moots, logicians their sophisms, and every practice 
 of science hath an erudition and initiation before men come to 
 the life; only preaching, which is the worthiest, and wherein 
 it is most danger to do amiss, wanteth an introduction and is 
 ventured and rushed upon at the fir.^t. But unto this exeieise of 
 prophecy I would wish these two additions : the one, that after 
 this exercise, which is in some sort public, there were immediately 
 a private meeting of the same ministi rs, whore they might 
 brotherly admonish the one the oilier, and especially the elder 
 sort the youngiT. of anything that had passed in the conference 
 in matter or manner unsound or uncomely; and, in a word, 
 might mutually use such advice, instruction, comfort, or en- 
 couragement, as occasion might minister (for public repre- 
 hension were to bo debarred). The other addition that 1 mean 
 is, that the same exercises were used in the Universities lor
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 257 
 
 young divines before they presumed to preach, as well as in 
 the country for ministers. For they have in some colleges an 
 exercise called a Common-place, which can in no degree be 
 so profitable, being but the speech of one man at one time." 
 
 There you have Bacon's proposition for educating 
 preachers in their business. What do you say to it ? Might 
 the Church, think you, still profit by the hint ? 
 
 A. 
 
 That is a question not easily answered on the sudden. 
 If you look to the progress of opinion, you would say No ; 
 for opinion seems to run the other way. Lawyers have 
 given up their moots ; orators their declamations ; logicians 
 and their sophisms are alike obsolete ; only the names and 
 forms remain (or did remain in my time) at the Universities ; 
 empty ceremonial observances which do not even affect to 
 be of any use. And yet, on the other hand, if you look to 
 the fruits, you would hardly say that the change in this 
 respect has worked well. Nay, it would seem too that the 
 want is practically felt by those who wish to learn, though 
 not recognized by those who have to teach : witness in all 
 places of education the springing up of debating-societies, 
 which are nothing but schools for practice, only without the 
 schoolmaster. 
 
 But we shall never get this review despatched if we stop 
 to reform the Church by the way. I see what you mean. 
 And I grant that the object Bacon had in view was great, 
 and the occasion pressing ; for preaching was not so harm- 
 less a thing then as it is now, and the times had not so much 
 leisure to wait upon the leisure of the Bishops. Well, and 
 how did he propose to exclude incompetent preachers ? 
 
 B. 
 
 That was simple enough ; only by taking better care to 
 ascertain the competency of those that were admitted ; 
 making ordination a more careful and solemn matter .-that 
 is, by taking order (it is best to use his own words) for 
 
 " a more exact probation and examination of ministers ; 
 namely, that the Bishops do not ordain alone, but by advice; 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 and then that ancient holy order of the Church might be re- 
 vived, by which the Bishop did ordain ministers but at four 
 set times of the year, which were called Qitatuor Tempnra, 
 which are now called Ember icecJis ; it being thought fit to 
 accompany so high an action with general fasting and prayer 
 and sermons, and all holy exercises ; and the names likewise of 
 those that were to be ordained were published some days before 
 their ordination, to the end exceptions might be taken if just 
 cause were." 
 
 A suggestion to this effect also, or something like it, was 
 contained in the Petition of 1584. 
 
 A. 
 
 That of the Quatuor Tempera was of course meant for 
 times when fasting had still some meaning in it. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes ; translate it into the language and spirit of our own, 
 and it will be I do not very well know what but whatever 
 outward observances are best fitted to impress upon the 
 occasion a character of gravity, solemnity, and sanctity. 
 
 A. 
 
 The Bishops might give four dinners. 
 
 B. 
 
 Hush ! The business we are talking of was high earnest 
 in its own day. 
 
 It appears also that besides the parishes which were 
 served by preachers not properly qualified, there were many 
 that bad not the benefit of any preacher at all. For remedy 
 of this evil, he would have had an end put to non-residence, 
 and some arrangement made (until the number of preachers 
 could be sufficiently increased) cither for such a permutation 
 of benefices as might enable eacli preacher to attend more 
 than one 1 parish, or for the appointment of some preachers 
 " with a more general charge to supply and serve by turn 
 parishes unfurnished."
 
 E VEX ING S WITH A REVIEWER. 259 
 
 Then, in addition to these deficiencies, there were some 
 particular abuses (as especially that of excommunication) 
 which brought the Church into disrepute ; and some stum- 
 bling-blocks to nice consciences that were needlessly insisted 
 on ; as especially the cap and surplice, which being objected 
 to by the dissentient party as superstitious, the Church must 
 needs enforce by articles of subscription ! grave matters 
 both in the year 1 603, however worn out of date now ; the 
 one fallen from a living judgment to a dead letter ; the other 
 from a point of conscience to a point of foppery, which the 
 authorities of the Church cannot do better than leave to find 
 its own way to the limbo of vanity ; but questions then of 
 most serious import, pregnant with all distraction, com- 
 motion, and civil war. 
 
 A. 
 
 The difficulty there, I suppose, was not in devising the 
 remedy, but in persuading the authorities to apply it. There 
 could be no difficulty in putting a stop to the abuse of 
 excommunication, or in ceasing to quarrel with ministers 
 otherwise pious and competent on account of the cap and 
 surplice. 
 
 B. 
 
 Just so. Excommunication, as the greatest of earthly 
 judgments, he would have had strictly confined to the greatest 
 causes, and would have had proceed under the gravest forms; 
 some ordinary process being allowed to the Ecclesiastical 
 Courts for dealing with offences of lesser degree. And as 
 for the cap and surplice, he would have had them treated as 
 matters indifferent, which had nothing to do with the unity 
 of the Church, but only with uniformity ; therefore as ques- 
 tions of policy, not of religion. He would have had them 
 tolerated, not by connivance, but authority ; and the sub- 
 scription reserved for its proper office, which was to " bind 
 in the unity of the Faith," not to enforce points of outward 
 government. 
 
 His remarks upon the Ritual, which was the fourth point,
 
 2 GO EVENINGS WITH A EEVIEWEE. 
 
 are scarcely worth dwelling upon. Our modern Prayer-book 
 might almost have sat for his sketch of the Liturgy as it 
 should be. And the parts which he points out as objection- 
 able have either been altered or become so familiar that the 
 objection is obsolete. At the time they were all points (no 
 doubt) which nice consciences or superstitious apprehensions 
 started at ; as in fact they would do at this day if they were 
 new questions ; and his policy was to remove all things to 
 which that objection applied, so long as they were in them- 
 selves indifferent. Some good people, for instance, were 
 scandalized at the word priest ; then why not use minister, 
 at which no one was scandalized? Others objected to the 
 form of general absolution ; why retain it, being, as it was, 
 " both unnecessary and improper " ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Does he say, or can you tell me, how that form of general 
 absolution ever came there ? I have always wondered what 
 was the use of it, especially as forbidden to be read by 
 anybody but a priest. For I could never make out that it 
 was anything more than the assertion of a fact, which would 
 be just as much a fact if announced by the deacon as by the 
 priest, or by the clerk as by the deacon. It is right, no 
 doubt, on account of its solemnity, that it should be read by 
 the highest functionary present ; just as the blessing is ; but 
 when no priest is there, why the deacon should not be 
 allowed to read it, I never could understand. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon's opinion is, that it was "allowed at the first in a 
 kind of spirit wd discretion; because the Church thought the 
 people could not be suddenly weaned from the conceit of 
 assailing, to which they had been so long accustomed." 
 
 A. 
 
 A real rag then of the scarlet woman? \Yhnt a noise 
 there would be about it if it wore a new thin f)- now !
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 201 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes ; but pray do not wake it, being so happily asleep 
 as it is ! 
 
 Well then the practice of the Church in those days 
 seems to have caused some misgivings as to the meaning 
 and purpose of the Confirmation Service ; as if it were 
 meant for a Confirmation of the previous Baptism ; an idea 
 shocking to the Puritans, and indeed not intentionally 
 countenanced by the Bishops. Upon this point he suggests 
 that there was no difference, but only a misunderstanding ; 
 the accidental alterations of time and circumstance having 
 made it seem like a " subsequent to Baptism," when it was 
 in fact only " an inducement to the Communion ; " and 
 the misunderstanding seems to have been set right at the 
 time. 
 
 A. 
 
 Was he right in that ? I think our modern authorities, 
 Palmer in his Origines Liturgicte, Bingham in his Chris- 
 tian Antiquities, and Jeremy Taylor in his Worthy Com- 
 municant, are all against him. 
 
 B. 
 
 I cannot pretend to decide that question myself. But I 
 doubt whether there be any of our modern authorities that 
 know more of the matter than Bacon did. I fancy the 
 . Hampton Court people were all with him. 
 
 A real abuse (which also appears to have been set right) 
 was the practice of private baptism by women and lay 
 persons. And he makes two criticisms upon the Marriage 
 Service, of little importance in themselves, but worth 
 mentioning, as illustrative, the one of his own taste, the 
 other of the progress of the age in refinement and con- 
 ventional delicacy. If the question were a modern one, 
 I think we should all agree with him on both ; viz. first, 
 that the putting on of the ring is "a ceremony not grave; 
 specially to be made (as the words make it) an essential
 
 2G2 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 
 
 part of the action ; " and secondly, that " some of the other 
 words are noted in common speech to be not so decent and 
 fit." 
 
 These however (as I said) are matters of small interest 
 for us now. If they were new they would raise great dis- 
 putes ; but they are above two hundred years old, we are 
 all used to them, and they do very well. No judicious man 
 would care to disturb them. What I wish you to remark 
 and bear in mind is, the general purpose and principal 
 features of this paper ; as showing the spirit in which Bacon 
 worked on all occasions when he went out of his way to take 
 a part. My own impression is that it was not only well 
 meant, but well aimed ; and that if his advice had been 
 followed, the succeeding centuries would have had quite a 
 different history. For as in differences between neighbours, 
 the question whether two families shall be friends or 
 enemies for years to come, depends upon the temper of the 
 first answer; so in the larger theatres of the world, the 
 entertainment of the first motion for reform decides whether 
 there shall be peace or war half a century after. 
 
 A. 
 
 And what did your friend the King say to these sugges- 
 tions ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Judging from Fuller's account of the Hampton Court 
 conference, I think ho was disposed to adopt some of the 
 smaller ones ; but being still, as it were, in the honeymoon 
 of his new reign, and overflowing with kindness towards 
 episcopacy, lie allowed himself to be easily overruled by the 
 Bishops, and upon the whole, one may say that they were 
 thrown away. This was indeed .James's own special pro- 
 vince, and he managed it after his own fashion, which as in 
 most other things was rather well-meant than effectual. 
 The Bishops had their way in the end, and the agitations 
 went on. It was not however till after James's death that 
 the Church began to go with full, career in the opposite 
 direction ; and you know what was lh<- end of that, In tin-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 263 
 
 mean time the credit which Bacon retained with the Church 
 reform party in the House of Commons may be taken as a 
 strong argument in favour of the policy which he recom- 
 mended. In the conference which was held between the 
 two Houses in 1606 concerning ecclesiastical grievances, 
 the setting forth of the first head, which related to the 
 silenced ministers, was intrusted to him ; so also was the 
 report ; and these were parts far too important to be as- 
 signed to any one who was supposed to be lukewarm in the 
 cause. Nor do I find that he ever declined from his 
 original opinion ; to the justice of which, indeed, the events 
 which followed must have been daily bearing witness. But 
 that was after. At present I want to keep within the first 
 year or two of James's reign, while most of these questions 
 of state were in a manner new. 
 
 A. 
 
 You mean when they were reopened upon a clear stage. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes ; while they were res Integra, as they say. 
 
 Well. The opportunity of applying effectual remedies 
 to this, the main seat of the disorder under which the State 
 laboured, was, as I say, lost. That Hampton Court con- 
 ference (an ill-advised measure, which I will answer for it 
 Bacon never advised or hoped any good from), was rather 
 calculated to drive the disease inwards. There was no hope 
 for the present of a cure ; and it was all the more necessary 
 to keep the patient free from other complaints and from 
 accidents of weather If the divisions of the Church were 
 not to be healed, divisions in State might yet be avoided. 
 The King and the Puritan clergy had parted with mutual 
 dissatisfaction. But the King and Parliament might still 
 meet on good terms and proceed harmoniously. Not with- 
 out wary steering, though ; for there were some dangerous 
 rocks in the way. Parliament met on the 19th of March, 
 1G03-4 ; and in the very first week behold breakers ahead ! 
 The election of Sir Francis Goodwin for Buckinghamshire
 
 264 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 (which finds a conspicuous place in all histories as an 
 important landmark in the constitution) threw the Commons 
 at once in collision with the Court of Chancery, the House 
 of Lords, and the King himself. And the management of 
 the matter is well worth considering, as an example from 
 which the Commons might have learned how to carry all 
 their other points of constitutional privilege at once most 
 rapidly, most effectually, and with least disturbance. 
 
 A. 
 
 I hope you are going to explain particulars, for I re- 
 member no more of the matter than that it ended in a 
 recognition of the right of the House to judge of returns to 
 its own writs. 
 
 B. 
 
 All the particulars which are necessary to make what I 
 am going to say intelligible, are easily told : 
 
 In the Proclamation for calling the new Parliament, a 
 clause had been inserted forbidding the election of outlaws. 
 Sir Francis Goodwin, who had been outlawed, was elected 
 for Buckinghamshire ; but the return being refused by the 
 Clerk of the Crown on the strength of that clause, a new writ 
 was issued from the Chancery, and Sir John Fortescue, a 
 privy councillor, was elected instead. This was before Par- 
 liament met. Immediately upon its meeting the case was 
 brought before the House of Commons ; upon a full conside- 
 ration of the question, it was resolved that Sir Francis had 
 been duly elected ; the Clerk of the Crown was ordered to 
 file the first return ; and Sir Francis took the oaths and his 
 seat. In the debate which ended in this resolution Bacon 
 took a prominent part, but no record remains of what ho 
 said ; nor do we know even which side he took, only that we 
 may infer from the subsequent proceedings that he was not 
 dissentient. This was on Friday, March 2'Jrd; and thus far 
 they were at issue only with the Court of Chancery, upon the 
 question of jurisdiction, to which of them it belonged to 
 judge of the validity of the return.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 2G5 
 
 But on the following Tuesday the Lords desired a con- 
 ference upon the subject. This the Commons declined ; as 
 conceiving that it did not stand with the honour or order of 
 the House to give account of any of their proceedings. So 
 now they were at issue with the Lords. But this was not 
 the worst ; for the same day came another message, signify- 
 ing that the King, having been made acquainted with the 
 matter, and finding himself touched in honour, desired that 
 there might be a conference on. it between the two Houses. 
 So now they were fairly in collision with all three ; the 
 Chancery whose judgment they had reversed, the Lords 
 with whom they had refused to confer, and the King who 
 had taken part with the Lords. Upon this, they moved for 
 access to the King himself, which was granted the next 
 morning ; when the Speaker, attended by a select committee, 
 explained to him their whole proceeding and the grounds of 
 it ; heard his answer to the several points (for new as the 
 question was to him he argued it himself, and argued it they 
 say with great ability), and received his charge ; which was 
 that they should first resolve among themselves, then confer 
 with the Judges, and report to the Council. 
 
 And now came the real difficulty. For they were now 
 engaged in a direct dispute with the King himself, not 
 merely upon the question of conferring with the Lords, but 
 upon the entire constitutional question and each several 
 point of it. And now what shall they do ? 
 
 A. 
 
 I suppose there is no doubt that the King was in the 
 wrong ? 
 
 B. 
 
 There is no doubt now ; because the doubt which then 
 was (a considerable one, seeing that all the Judges were on 
 the King's side ; and as we all assume that whenever he 
 differed from them there was nothing to be said for him, wo 
 ought to suppose that there was something to be said for 
 him when he agreed with them) that doubt, I say, was then 
 set at rest. But this is not the difficulty which I mean. I
 
 2G6 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 know very well that to modern patriotism the difficulty 
 seems small enough; the Commons had only to insist, the 
 King and the Judges had only to give way. But in the year 
 IGOi this was an arrangement not so easily effected. All 
 things are done in England by precedent, and there was no 
 precedent exactly in point. When Queen Elizabeth got 
 into a contest with the Commons which seemed likely to 
 prove a tough one, her way was to give them a rough 
 reprimand and send them about their business, taking good 
 care howerer that by the time they met again the cause of 
 contention should have disappeared. In that way the 
 Commons had carried many points against the Crown ; but 
 none, I think, unless in times of disorder and danger by 
 persisting in a course of flat opposition. Here Prerogative 
 and Privilege (which had not yet settled which was master 
 by a stand-up fight) found themselves suddenly face to face 
 in a narrow passage. Either one must stand aside to let the 
 other pass, or each must be content with half the causeway. 
 Upon one point the Commons seem to have been at once and 
 unanimously resolved, to stand fast by the principle that 
 they were judges of their own returns, sole and unaccount- 
 able. No one talked of a compromise on that point. 13ut 
 upon the question how they should proceed in asserting it, 
 opinions were much divided. And here it was that Bacon 
 became, as I take it, an important actor in the matter. His 
 advice was, so far as it can be gathered from the notes of 
 his speech that remain in the Journals, not to enter into a 
 contest with the King upon the particular case ; but to turn 
 the dispute upon the general principle and improve the 
 occasion so as to get that ascertained and settled for the 
 future. The King had desired that they would argue the 
 question before the Judges; consent to do so; and in the 
 meantime "consider and resolve of the material questions 
 which will fall out in the debate of it." 
 
 This advice was not exactly followed by the House ; was 
 indeed in one very material point overruled ; for they 
 resolved not to confer \\ith the Judges, but to address them- 
 -;elvos directly to the King ; a resolution by no means
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 2C>7 
 
 judicious, if we may judge by the event ; since they were 
 forced before a week was over to abandon it. With this ex- 
 ception however they acted firmly and wisely. A committee 
 was appointed to consider the King's objections and to frame 
 an answer in writing. On the 3rd of April the answer (in 
 the drawing up of which Bacon as I suspect from its 
 correspondence with what remains of his speech had a 
 principal hand) was reported, and a select committee was 
 appointed to take it up to the Lords ; Bacon being spokes- 
 man, with a commission to read it to them, and desire their 
 co-operation for the King's satisfaction ; but not to amplify, 
 explain, or debate any question that might arise upon the 
 perusal. So the answer (which was in the form of a petition 
 to the King) was read, and there the matter ended for that 
 day. 
 
 The next day the inconvenience of thus proceeding with- 
 out previous conference with the Judges was made manifest. 
 The King sent for the Speaker, told him that he had received 
 the petition, that he had heard his Judges and Counsel in 
 the matter, that he was now distracted in judgment, and that 
 for his further satisfaction he " commanded as an absolute 
 King " that they would appoint a select committee to confer 
 with the Judges in presence of the Council ; the Council 
 being present not as umpires to determine, but as witnesses 
 to report. 
 
 Here was a new dilemma. For the question of conferring 
 with the Judges had been twice raised in the House and 
 absolutely resolved in the negative. Out of this there was 
 no way but back again. And the same member who had 
 before been most vehement not only against conference, but 
 apparently against compromise of any kind, was now fore- 
 most to retreat. "The Prince's command," said Yelverton 
 (for it was he, not Bacon, that broke silence) "is like a 
 thunderbolt. His command upon our allegiance is like the 
 roaring of a lion. We must obey ; the only question is 
 how." Another suggested that the King should be petitioned 
 to be himself present at the conference, to hear, judge, and 
 moderate the cause in person. And a select committee was
 
 268 EVENIXQS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 thereupon appointed to confer with the Judges in presence 
 of the King and Council, with commission to fortify and 
 explain their written answers, but not to enter into any new 
 argument. 
 
 This was too delicate a matter to be entrusted to any 
 hand but the best they had, and Bacon was accordingly 
 selected to conduct the conference. He spoke for the 
 Commons ; the King presiding and speaking for himself. 
 The notes which remain of what passed arc so few and dis- 
 connected, that one can hardly gather from them what form 
 the discussion took ; much less the particular arguments 
 urged on either side. Nor is this of much consequence, 
 except that one would be curious to know how Bacon con- 
 trived to steer clear of a disputation ; which seemed almost 
 inevitable, and could hardly have had a peaceable termina- 
 tion. If in order to avoid it, he was compelled a little to 
 exceed his commission by entertaining the question of a 
 compromise, which there is some reason to suspect, it was 
 a wise liberty, and the Commons were not disposed to quarrel 
 with him on that account ; for upon hearing his report of 
 what had passed, they agreed to a proposal, (in which Sir 
 Francis Goodwin expressly acquiesced, and which it was 
 understood would satisfy the King,) that loth returns should 
 be set aside and a new writ issued. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then in fact the Commons gave way ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Upon the particular case both Commons and King gave 
 way ; that is, each was content \\ith half the way, and so 
 the quarrel ended. But upon the principle the Commons 
 stood out, and carried their point : their right to judge of 
 such returns was never afterwards questioned. And thus by 
 that small immaterial concession, (the proposal of which 
 by Bacon, had it been resisted by the Commons and led to 
 a dissolution or to an endless quarrel, would no doubt have 
 been branded by our popular historians and biographers, as
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 269 
 
 base, servile, and unconstitutional,) they did in fact obtain 
 quietly, orderly, effectually, and at once, the recognition for 
 ever of a most important constitutional privilege. By giving 
 way to the King for the moment they had their own way 
 ever after. 
 
 I know that all this is a tiresome recapitulation of by- 
 gone matters which no longer concern us. I know that the 
 House of Commons does not want to be told how to make 
 good its privileges against Queen Victoria. But though the 
 question does not concern us directly, it concerns us in- 
 directly through those with whom we are concerned. This 
 question of privilege was not bygone when Bacon had to 
 deal with it, but new-come ; with an army of similar ques- 
 tions in its rear not yet come ; and if you want to under- 
 stand his life, you must endeavour to see it as it seemed to 
 him. I said the management of it was worth considering, 
 because it is in fact the best example I have met with of his 
 method of effecting what I called the harmonious adjustment 
 of the relation between the Crown and the Commons ; of 
 the rival pretensions of Prerogative and Privilege ; which 
 was the perpetually recurring problem of his times. The 
 best example, I say, out of very many of the kind. And 
 why the best? Because in this instance his advice was 
 allowed, though not exactly (which would have made it 
 better still), yet substantially and ultimately, to prevail. 
 As it was, that first refusal to confer with the Judges (which 
 was against his advice) had nearly shipwrecked all. And 
 had the high privilege party been a little stronger, or had 
 the management of the matter been entrusted to a man who 
 
 O 
 
 had less courage with his discretion, less discretion with his 
 courage, or less address with both, it could hardly have 
 escaped miscarriage in one or other of the houses, either in 
 the conference itself or in the debate upon the report of the 
 conference. The difference was now happily accommodated ; 
 and I do believe that if the Commons had only been wise 
 enough to act always in the same spirit, there was scarcely 
 one of the differences that arose between them and the King 
 which might not have been accommodated as satisfactorily,
 
 270 EVENING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 the King yielding to them upon the point of substance, 
 they to him upon the point of credit and honour. Eccle- 
 siastical grievances, impositions, monopolies, everything, 
 might have been adjusted almost as they would, if they 
 could only have been content to let him feel that in so 
 adjusting them he was using his prerogative and not 
 abandoning it. So, at least, I am persuaded that Bacon 
 thought; and the result in the present case must have 
 encouraged him to believe not only that it could be done, 
 but that if he could keep his credit with both parties, he 
 was the man who could do it. Xow I say that this was an 
 object of such paramount and pressing importance, that a 
 man who foresaw the opposite issues to which the diverging 
 paths (between which they had now or never to choose) 
 must conduct the nation, and who at the same time felt that 
 he could himself do something to keep them in the path 
 which led to liberty through order and peace such a man, 
 I say, must have been wanting in public spirit and masculine 
 virtue, if either out of preference for a quiet life, or in- 
 tolerance of human folly, or a fastidious self-respect, he 
 could be content to stand aloof and see them take the wrong 
 turn. I do not quarrel with Socrates or Plato, because I do 
 not know what opportunities they had ; but commend me to 
 Pericles and Demosthenes. The complexion that bears wind 
 and weather is the complexion for a man, be he citizen or be 
 he subject. 
 
 A. 
 
 You said that this was one example out of many. 
 
 13. 
 
 I might almost have said that it was a sample of all. 
 But there was no "Hansard" in those days; and the records 
 of the proceedings in Parliament are so scanty and imperfect 
 that I cannot reduce them into a narrative without making 
 larger guesses than I should like to be responsible for. To 
 recount all the eases however in whieh there is good evidence 
 that Bacon's services were found available during this session 
 for keeping those uneasy neighbours. Privilege and Pie-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 271 
 
 relative, from coining into rough collision, would hold mo 
 till to-morrow. If you will look through the Commons' 
 Journals you will find that, notwithstanding his daily occu- 
 pation in the great business of the Union, as soon as any 
 other business becomes critical or difficult the management 
 of it generally falls upon him. 
 
 A. 
 
 Was there not yes, I am sure I remember something 
 about another question of Privilege, which gave a great deal 
 of trouble about that time. 
 
 B. 
 
 The case of Sir Thomas Shirley. Yes, a very important 
 privilege (I am not so sure that it was a very desirable one) 
 was made good in that case too after much difficulty. But 
 the case was not so critical. For the quarrel was not with 
 the King, the Lords, or the Courts, but only with tho 
 Warden of the Fleet ; and though it seemed more likely to 
 lead at the time to open violence, the consequences would 
 not have been so dangerous. However as Bacon took, at 
 one stage of it, an unusually prominent part (for he was 
 allowed to speak three times on the same question), we may 
 as well tell the story. 
 
 On the day of the King's solemn entry into London, Sir 
 Thomas Shirley, attending by command and being a 
 member of parliament, was arrested at the suit of a gold- 
 smith named Syrnpson, and sent to the Fleet. This Symp- 
 son is an old acquaintance," a man much noted for stout- 
 ness and extremities upon his purse," the same who five or 
 six years before arrested Bacon when he was (like Falstaft') 
 " upon hasty employment in the Queen's affairs." Indeed 
 it seems that this man had a pleasure in arresting his debtors, 
 not so much when he could most easily catch them, as when 
 the arrest would be most inconvenient to them and the dis- 
 grace most public. On that occasion, though he might 
 have arrested Bacon any day in London, he chose to do it 
 when he was engaged in the investigation of a newly-detected
 
 272 EVENING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 conspiracy to poison the Queen, and was returning from the 
 Tower. And on this occasion he had certainly obtained his 
 writ of execution against Sir Thomas Shirley six weeks 
 before ; and it was supposed (how truly I do not knoAv) that 
 the serving of it had been forborne until this solemn day by 
 special understanding between him and the sergeant. At 
 any rate we must suppose that there was something unusual 
 in the proceeding, because both Sympson and the sergeant 
 were committed to prison for it by the Lord Chancellor. 
 However the dispute did not turn upon that point. Sir 
 Thomas was a member, and the detention of a member from 
 the House was a breach of privilege. For this, as a con- 
 tempt, they forth witli committed Sympson and the sergeant 
 to the Tower, and ordered a warrant to be issued for pro- 
 ducing the body of Sir Thomas. But before they proceeded 
 further, (because they would not have the privilege abused 
 for the avoidance of just debts,) a bill was brought in for 
 securing to Sympson his interest in the debt and saving the 
 Warden of the Fleet harmless. Bacon was indeed of opinion 
 that Sympson's interest in the debt would be good as the law 
 stood ; but other eminent lawyers were of another opinion, 
 and the point appearing to be doubtful, they resolved to 
 settle it by passing a special act for the purpose. This bill 
 was passed through both Houses ; and they were on the point 
 of moving the King to promise his assent to it, when it was 
 suggested that such a proceeding would be " some impeach- 
 ment to the privilege of the House." And sure enough it 
 would. By going so far out of their way to ensure the 
 Warden, before they demanded the release of their member, 
 they would seem to admit by implication that they could 
 not legally demand him without such assurance. The 
 caution was approved, and a writ of J talc-as corpus was 
 awarded for the bringing of Sir Thomas's body into the 
 House the next day. But the Warden refused to givo him 
 up until the act for his security should have actually re- 
 ceived the; royal assent. Upon this they committed him to 
 the Tower, and ag;iin sent the Sergeant-at-arms for Sir 
 Thomas's body. But the \Yardcn's wife, who had all the
 
 EVEN IN as WITH A EE VIEWER. 273 
 
 keys, would do nothing without her husband's authority ; 
 and the Sergeant, though armed with habeas corpus and 
 mace, could make no impression upon her. Meantime the 
 King had intimated his intention to assent to the bill, and 
 next day the Sergeant was sent again, armed as before, and 
 (privately informing her of the King's promise) again 
 demanded Sir Thomas ; but she would act on no authority 
 but her husband's. He took her by the arm, but she 
 screamed. To go further was beyond his commission, and 
 so all three Sergeant, Jialcas corpus, and mace carne back 
 empty as before. Upon this, the Warden himself was 
 brought to the bar ; was formally acquainted with the 
 King's promise ; was reasoned with ; being found inexorable, 
 was ordered into closer confinement in a dungeon signifi- 
 cantly called "Little Ease;" $ and Avhen this produced 
 no effect, some members were sent to see whether the order 
 had been really complied with. They found (it seems) 
 that he had not been made uneasy enough ; and upon their 
 report to that effect a most distracted debate followed. One 
 would have the Lieutenant of the Tower fined 1000Z. for not 
 executing the order. Another would have the Warden him- 
 self fined 100/. a day until he relented. A third was for 
 an act of parliament disabling him from all offices, &c. A 
 fourth would have the Lessee of the Fleet sent for, and get 
 at their member that way. A fifth proposed that six 
 members of the House should go with the Sergeant and 
 deliver Sir Thomas by force. A sixth would have the 
 House rise and strike work until they had power to execute 
 their privileges. And so the House seemed to be at a non- 
 plus, every man giving an opinion, and no two opinions 
 alike. All this time I do not find that Bacon had taken 
 any part whatever in the matter since he gave his opinion 
 upon the legal point, as before mentioned ; I do not know 
 why, for he was on the Committee of Privileges to which it 
 
 * " A fourth kind of torture was a cell called ' Little Ease.' It was of so 
 small dimensions and so constructed that the prisoner could neither stand, 
 walk, sit, nor lie in it at full length. lie was compelled to draw himself up 
 in a squatting posture, and so remain during several days.'' Lingard, vol. 
 viii. p. 522. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 had from the first been referred ; perhaps his hands were too 
 full of other business ; perhaps lie abstained from delicacy, 
 as being liable to a suspicion of personal bias on account of 
 his own former complaint against Sympson in a case so 
 nearly resembling the present ; which is more likely ; but, 
 for whatever reason, it is certain that (with the above- 
 mentioned exception) his name does not appear as connected 
 with it till now. Xow however the case was growing critical, 
 and he not only spoke, but spoke, as I have said, three 
 times. His advice was not to send any of their members 
 to assist the Sergeant in delivering Sir Thomas by force, 
 for being judges they could not be ministers, but to 
 petition the King to appoint some persons for that purpose. 
 And the debate ended in a resolution that the Sergeant- 
 should be sent again with a new writ, that the Warden 
 should be carried to the door of the Fleet, that the writ 
 should there be delivered to him with commandment from 
 the House to obey it ; the Vice-Chamberlain being at the 
 same time privately instructed to go to the King and 
 humbly desire that lie would be pleased (as from himself) 
 to command the Warden upon his allegiance to set Sir 
 Thomas free. This measure at last succeeded ; they got 
 their member, and established their privilege; and the 
 Warden and other prisoners were in duo time, after making 
 due submission, released; our friend Sympson having to pay 
 all the costs. 
 
 A. 
 
 Hut 1 hope they passed the Act all the same, to secure 
 Sympson his debt and to save the Warden harmless. 
 
 13. 
 
 O yes. they never had any scruple on that point. Jt was 
 only for tin- sake of making good the point of privilege that 
 they proceeded without it. With lhat however Hacon had 
 nothing to do. It was not till the Commons seemed to bo 
 in imminent dang'T of getting into a s'-rape. in attempting 
 to vindicate their right which was ch-arlv constitutional l>y
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 275 
 
 means which were clearly not constitutional, that he inter- 
 fered in the business at all. In this case, as in the other, 1 
 believe the privilege was never afterwards called in question. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then the House seems to have done tolerably well for 
 itself this session. But how for the country ? I do not 
 hear of any great matters accomplished in the way of reform. 
 
 B. 
 
 Xo ; but some very great matters weighed anchor, and 
 by skilful piloting passed in safety through some hidden 
 shoals and rocks. The tender question of grievances, espe- 
 cially in matter of wardships, purveyors, trade, and ecclesi- 
 astical discipline, was opened, and so opened as to be 
 graciously entertained ; and though it is true that they, were 
 dropped and that nothing was effectually done in them, yet 
 at the end of the session they were by no means where they 
 were at the beginning. Both parties had had an oppor- 
 tunity of surveying their ground, and each understood 
 better how the other was to be dealt with. A good entrance 
 is half-way through, and this no doubt they felt. Accord- 
 ingly the first movements in this delicate matter (which was 
 opened in the first week of the session) appear to have been 
 entrusted to the hands of Bacon ; for I find that the first 
 proceedings of their own committee were reported by him 
 to the House ; so was the first conference on the subject 
 with the Lords ; and the first petition to the King f which 
 related to the grievance of purveyors was presented by him 
 with an introductory speech, a true report of which for- 
 tunately remains to .show how he discharged services of this 
 
 / O 
 
 kind. The several heads of grievance were afterwards pro- 
 ceeded with separately and committed to several hands. 
 And they seem to have been proceeding prosperously 
 enough, at least not to have met with any decided obstruc- 
 tion, until other accidents intervened which wore out the 
 time and patience requisite for carrying them through, and 
 they were by general consent postponed to another session.
 
 2TG L'l'EXlXGS WITH A 11EV1EWEK. 
 
 A. 
 
 What kind of accidents ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Many kinds. One obstruction after another in the settle- 
 ment of the Union ; a complaint against a yeoman of the 
 guard for refusing the Commons admittance to hear the 
 King's speech at the opening of Parliament, which was only 
 satisfied by his speaking it over again for the special benefit 
 of the Lower House ; the dispute about the Goodwin case ; 
 the troubles and delays about the Shirley case ; the press- 
 ing of Church matters, which the King had settled to his 
 own satisfaction at the Hampton Court conference just 
 before, and which brought the Commons into direct dis- 
 agreement with the Bishops ; some disappointment in the 
 troublesome matter of supplies ; all these had gradually 
 worn out the scanty measure of patience with which nature 
 had armed James, and provoked him to make a speech 
 of remonstrance, which hurt the feelings of his faithful 
 Commons and provoked them in their turn to draw up an 
 address of " satisfaction," as they called it which (being in 
 fact a strong and decided justification of their conduct 
 point by point) must have acted, had it been presented, like 
 the stroking of a sore. Meanwhile matters were made worse 
 by the appearance of a pamphlet in which they were severely 
 taxed for meddling with causes they had no business with ; 
 and which, turning out to be the production of a bishop, 
 brought them into collision with the House of Lords. Then 
 the Lords themselves got into a dispute with them upon 
 some point in a money-bill. And the year was already 
 drawing towards the end of June, so that it was no fit time 
 for pressing the subject of grievances; and if they could 
 contrive to part friends, it was as much as could be hoped. 
 
 A. 
 
 And had ]>acon to accommodate all these differences as 
 well as the others ?
 
 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEW EH. 277 
 
 B. 
 
 In almost all of them his name becomes conspicuous in 
 the Journals as they become critical and require delicate 
 handling. The first two or three communications with the 
 Lords about the Bishop's pamphlet were managed by Sir 
 Henry Hobart ; but the last conference, in which the Bishop 
 received his censure and made his submission and the 
 quarrel was effectually made up, was managed by Bacon. 
 Jn the conference which ended in the adjustment of the 
 difference about the money-bill, it was Bacon who was chief 
 actor and relator. And with regard to the " Address of 
 Satisfaction " to the King, though it may be true as Hume 
 asserts (apparently upon a misunderstanding of the title as 
 given in Petyt, where he found it) that he had a principal 
 hand in drawing it up, yet it is distinctly stated in the 
 Journals that he spoke against the presenting of it. 
 
 And so on the 7th of July the King and his first parlia- 
 ment parted on reasonably good terms, each knowing more 
 of the other than they had done, though both had still 
 a good deal to learn. The country gentlemen went to their 
 counties, the King to hunt, and Bacon to his study, to take 
 a survey and a measure of all the questions which would fall 
 under the consideration of the Union Commissioners, who 
 were to meet in October ; a business which must have 
 found him plenty of work for the rest of that year. This 
 commission was referred to by Bacon long after in his Essays 
 as a " grave and orderly assembly," in which " matters were 
 propounded one day and not spoken upon till the next;" 
 and in an introductory paragraph which he had prepared at 
 the time to open the Commissioners' report with, he repre- 
 sented it as so blest with the spirit of unity, that " though 
 there was never in any consultation greater plainness and 
 liberty of speech, argument and debate, replying, contra- 
 dicting, recalling anything spoken where cause was, ex- 
 pounding any matter ambiguous or mistaken, and all other 
 points of free and friendly interlocution and conference, 
 without cavillations, advantages, or ovcrtakings," yet there
 
 2<8 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 did not happen from their meeting to their breaking up 
 either any altercation in their debates or any variety in their 
 resolutions, but " the whole passed with a unanimity and 
 uniformity of consent." This, in a case where thirty English- 
 men and thirty Scotchmen were met to make a bargain, was 
 a good deal to say ; and though it seems to have been pre- 
 mature, since one of the Commissioners refused at the last 
 moment to sign the report, and the proposed introduction 
 was therefore withdrawn, I have no doubt that it represents 
 fairly the general character of the consultations. They con- 
 cluded their work on the 4th of December ; from which time 
 till the 5th of November following Bacon had nothing that 
 I know of (except the business of his profession) to prevent 
 him from pushing on the " Advancement of Learning," of 
 which he had not yet finished more than the first book, and 
 which I suppose him to be all this time extremely anxious 
 to bring out as soon as possible, while the King's heart was 
 still beating under the impulse and agitation of his new 
 fortune, his imagination awake, his habits unfixed, his di- 
 rection not yet taken ; well knowing that if the royal fancy 
 should once set in towards other objects, he would not easily 
 find leisure for a work so great and so new as it was the 
 object of the " Advancement " to put him upon. 
 
 A. 
 
 Suppose then we leave him to his studies for to-night ; 
 for it grows late, and we cannot leave him better employed.
 
 EVENING THE EIGHTH, 
 
 A. 
 
 We left Bacon busy with the second book of the " Ad- 
 vancement of Learning ; " hurrying it forward, you say, in 
 the hope of awakening the King's interest in the argument, 
 and preoccupying his mind with an ambition to become the 
 great Instaurator of Philosophy. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes. I can hardly doubt that he had some such dream 
 in his head when he resolved to press it forward so fast as to 
 have it out by the end of the year. He had published no 
 part of it before ; and though his interest and industry 
 about it never cooled or slept, he published no more of it 
 for sixteen years after : so that his general plan must have 
 been to allow it the full period of gestation. But on this 
 occasion he was certainly in a hurry. There is a kind of 
 disproportion in the parts of the work itself which indicates 
 a somewhat premature birth. The first book, if you observe 
 it, which he himself " accounted but as a page to the 
 latter," and which in reference to the main and permanent 
 object is of least importance, is nevertheless very full and 
 elaborate ; while the second is in many parts professedly 
 unfinished. And accordingly we find that when he after- 
 wards corrected and enlarged it into the " De Augmentis," 
 (which is the cornpletest in itself of all his philosophical 
 works), he added nothing to the first book, but rather
 
 280 El'ESIXGS WITH A BE VIE WES. 
 
 curtailed it ; whereas he expanded the second into eight, 
 making it more than twice as long as it was. And even 
 then it did not exactly fit into the place reserved for it ; 
 but in offering it for the first part of the " Instauratio," he 
 was obliged to guard it with a kind of apology. All this 
 indicates not only some haste in the first instance, but also 
 some departure, with an eye (we may suppose) to some 
 immediate and temporary object, from the prefigured course. 
 And this would be well enough accounted for on my sup- 
 position. "When he began the '' Advancement," he was 
 thinking, as we have seen, to '' meddle as little as he could 
 with the King's causes," and to " put his ambition wholly 
 upon his pen." He commenced therefore according to the 
 measure of the subject which he had taken in his mind ; 
 and his immediate aim being to awaken the King's interest 
 in it, he dwelt the more copiously upon the dignity and 
 merit of the undertaking, which is the theme of the first 
 book. But before he could advance further he found him- 
 self involved in more business than ever; and foresaw, no 
 doubt, that from that time forth his intervals of leisure were 
 not likely to come often or last long. Such an interval, 
 however, did occur in the vacation of 1005, and it is then 
 that I suppose him to have resolved to make the most of it 
 by getting done what he could in so limited a time. 
 
 A. 
 
 He was not long (I take it) in finding that the King was 
 not likely to be of much use to him. 
 
 I!. 
 
 Probably not. The King does not seem to have had any 
 better ideas on that subject than the rest of the world. I do 
 not know that he ever took any serious interest in natural 
 philosophy ; and his brains were busy with a hundred other 
 things. However that could not be helped. The chance 
 was worth trying at any rate; for much would have been 
 gained by a hit, not much lost bv a miss. 
 
 But all this is only a speculation of my own, upon which
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 281 
 
 I do not care to insist. If you think it strained, you can 
 leave it, and invent something of your own instead. This 
 will at all events remain true, that we left Bacon busy with 
 the "Advancement" in the beginning of 1605; and that 
 (except for his letter to the Lord Chancellor recommending 
 the appointment of some fit person to write a History of 
 England, which is indeed only a leaf taken out of the 
 " Advancement " for immediate use,) we hear no more of 
 him till the end of that year, when we find him sending 
 copies of the book to his friends. And now we must leave 
 it to make what impression it may upon the King's fancy, 
 and follow Bacon into less congenial occupations. 
 
 If it did not make a good impression, it was not for want 
 of unction. Dedications, you will say, are privileged ; or 
 you must admit that he stretched a point there. 
 
 B. 
 
 I should rather say that dedications are compliments. 
 They are meant to please, and they are restrained from 
 censure. Therefore they are, in their nature and of neces- 
 sity, partial ; they present the good, and not the bad. But 
 I do not myself allow that their privilege extends further. 
 I do not allow that a man ought, even in a dedication, to 
 say that he thinks what he does not think; but what he 
 thinks li'dl he may speak out ; what he thinks ill he may 
 keep to himself. Is there any harm in that ? Is it not 
 the very thing which, under the name of yood -manners, is 
 universally practised throughout civilized society? When 
 you meet with a man who tells everybody all that he 
 dislikes in them as well as all that he likes, what do you call 
 him, as soon as his back is turned ? 
 
 A. 
 
 A bear. But you do not mean to say that Bacon really 
 thought all the irood he said of the Kinr in that dedication?
 
 282 xrxxixGS WITH A KF.I'IEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 Why not ? Wliat did he say that was not true ? 
 
 A. 
 
 It was not true that James was a wise man. 
 
 13. 
 
 Many men have had a great reputation for wisdom and 
 much less to show for it. But Bacon did not say that he 
 was a wise man. lie said that he was a man of very large 
 capacity, very faithful memory, very swift apprehension, 
 very penetrating judgment, and great powers of elocution. 
 Was he not ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Oh, but he says far more than that. He says he was the 
 wisest man that ever was in Christendom. 
 
 B. 
 
 I beg your pardon. The most learned man. Nay, not 
 even the most learned man ; only the most learned " of 
 kings or temporal monarchs." 
 
 A. 
 
 And the greatest divine. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, among kings. Can you name any king that excelled 
 him in learning, human or divine? But don't you see that 
 a man might possess all these gifts, natural and acquired, 
 and yet be very far from a wise king, in the sense in which 
 you use the word when you deny that -James was wise ? 
 Many of our wisest and most learned men at this day would 
 attribute every one of these qualities to Coleridge ; Do 
 Quincey calls him. the largest and most spacious intellect 
 since Aristotle ; and yet Coleridge would have made a very 
 indifferent king. 
 
 Besides, when you speak of .James's character, you are
 
 El'EXIXGS WITH A HE VIEW Kit. 283 
 
 thinking of the history of his whole reign. Remember that 
 when Bacon wrote that dedication, James had not been 
 three years on the throne. His defects had not had time to 
 show themselves. Set aside all that happened after the 
 year 1G05, and then tell me what are the mental and moral 
 qualities in him of which you have any evidence -even the 
 questionable evidence of libellers and satirists. You have 
 evidence that he was a great scholar, a man of deep and 
 various reading, of ready wit, of remarkably quick apprehen- 
 sion ; a very good writer and speaker ; with views decidedly 
 large and liberal, a strong sense of justice, a great desire to 
 please everybody, and a heart as transparent as if it had 
 been the crystal which he said he wished it was, Add, by 
 way of drawback, certain high notions of the royal preroga- 
 tive, an irritable temper, and a good deal of that self-import- 
 ance which a man cannot easily be without who was never 
 less than a king ; and I really believe you have all of his 
 character that, if Guy Fawkes had blown him up, would have 
 come down to us. AVhy then should I plead the privilege 
 of dedications ? You cannot doubt that James was a very 
 tit person to dedicate such a work to, even if you do not be- 
 lieve (as I do) that it was actually composed then and in that 
 shape because he v:as so fit. And you surely would not have 
 hud Bacon take that occasion to tell him in the face of the 
 world that his tongue was too large for his mouth, that he 
 shuflled in his walk, or that he was too fond of talking. 
 And as for those graver defects which prevented him from 
 taking rank with the truly great governors, I do not see how 
 Bacon could have told him of them if he would. They had 
 not been publicly displayed, and there is no reason to sup- 
 pose that either Bacon or any one else as yet suspected 
 them ; moreover, if you will consult what records remain of 
 the opinion of the people of that time, (I do not mean what 
 people said to him in dedications or of him in public, but 
 what they said of him privately in their communications 
 with one another,) you will find that Bacon ascribes no 
 more merits to him than were generally believed to be 
 his due.
 
 284 El'EXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 I will do that sonic 1 other time. I did not mean to 
 charge the flattery upon Bacon as any fault. I suppose 
 there is flattery wherever there are what we call manners ; 
 and I do not know why it is worse to flatter a king than 
 a neighbour ; except that in one case you are supposed to 
 do it for reward, and in the other from humanity . 
 
 B. 
 
 "Whereas you do it in both cases alike, because it is 
 agreeable to be agreeable. 
 
 "Well, now for the less congenial occupations. One of 
 these, I suppose, was the prosecution of Guy Fawkes. 
 
 B. 
 
 I do not know. Bacon had to attend the indictments in 
 January, (though he did not take any part in the proceed- 
 ings,) and he was most likely employed in the previous 
 examinations, which are stated to have occupied the Govern- 
 ment for six months. But I have not yet ascertained any 
 of the particulars. In a letter to his friend Tobie Mathew 
 who was then abroad, he encloses a "Relation" "which 
 carries (lie says) the truth of that which is public." This 
 may very likely have been an account of the discovery of 
 the plot ; but as I have not met with any traces of it or 
 any other allusions to it, I can say no more. Only if vou 
 happen to take up Mr. Jardine's history of the plot, and 
 find there something more about 'garbling" and about 
 Bacon's method in drawing up narratives of state matters 
 for public satisfaction, remember our last interview with him 
 and be easy. There was a " Discourse of the manner of the 
 Discovery of the Powder Treason," published by authority at 
 the time, for the verv desirable object of satisfying the 
 curiosity and quieting the alarm of the public during the 
 interval (necessarily a long one) between the apprehension
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 285 
 
 of the traitors and their trial. This discourse was currently 
 ascribed to the King himself ; and Mr. Jardine has two ideas 
 of his own about it : first, that it is a false narrative, and 
 secondly, that it was probably drawn up by Bacon. Now 
 that it was a correct narrative any one may satisfy himself 
 by comparing it with Mr. Jardine's own statement, from 
 which it does not appear that it contains any one material 
 inaccuracy. And that it was not written by Bacon, any one 
 familiar with Bacon's style may satisfy himself by reading 
 the first three pages. It may very likely have been founded 
 upon some narrative of his. But the dressing is evidently 
 the King's own workmanship ; and it was afterwards pub- 
 lished as his in an authorized edition of his works. Into 
 which works, by the way, if you would take the trouble to 
 look for an hour or two, I think you would find reason 
 to modify your contempt for King James and his reputed 
 wisdom. If you could put into the heads of those who 
 laugh at him a little of his wit, they would not laugh quite 
 so loud. 
 
 A. 
 
 My dear fellow, you really must not ask me to begin the 
 study of King James's learned garrulities. I once tried one 
 of his speeches. 
 
 B. 
 
 Very well ; then I shall only ask you not to assume that 
 he was a fool until you have succeeded in reading one 
 through. You know II nine thought his speech on the 
 Union very nearly as good as Bacon's. 
 
 A. 
 
 Be it so then. The terms I admit are fair, we will make 
 peace upon them. What next ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Next comes James's second parliament, or rather the 
 second session of his first parliament. -Yet stay. Since I 
 have avowed an opinion which most people will think ab-
 
 286 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 surd, namely that Bacon was ill-fitted to work his fortunes 
 up through a Court, I may as well tell you first that in 
 the autumn of this year another opportunity had occurred 
 for advancing him to the Solicitorship (the second, remem- 
 ber, since James's accession), and no advantage had been 
 taken of it. In August, 1G05, Sir Edmund Anderson, Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas, died. This was a convenient 
 opportunity for advancing Sir Edward Coke to that oflice, 
 and so making room for Bacon either as Attorney, if Dod- 
 deridge were not advanced, or as Solicitor if he were. "Why 
 this was not done I do not know ; but Coke remained where 
 he was, and on the 2Gth of August, Sir Francis Gawdy be- 
 came Chief Justice. Moreover, since Bacon has the popular 
 reputation of a mere sycophant and mendicant in his pursuit 
 of place, I may add that I find no traces of any application 
 whatever in his own behalf, either on this occasion or the 
 last. The only allusion I find to this second disappointment 
 (if disappointment it was) is in the letter to Tobie Mathew 
 which I quoted just now, and it is in those words; "The 
 death of the late great judge concerned not me, because the 
 other was not removed." You may remember also that, on 
 a previous occasion in Queen Elizabeth's time, when both 
 Essex and Egorton wanted to have him made Master of the 
 Rolls, he declined to make any application for himself. All 
 which you may reconcile as you best can with the character 
 of an unblushing beggar for promotion. My o\\n belief is 
 that his experience in IDIX], -J, and o. had sickened him of 
 the character of a suitor; and it is a fact that those new re- 
 peated experiences of the consequence of not canvassing, ;md 
 of the fallacy of the ground on which, at James's accession, 
 he had augured better for his own fortunes, namely that 
 " the canvassing world was gone and the deserving world 
 was come," these experiences, 1 say. (and this was not tin- 
 last of them,) never tempted him to resume that character; 
 further than by an occasional letter to his cousin the Karl of 
 (Salisbury, to his old and constant friend the Lord Chan- 
 cellor, and latterly to the King himself; in remembrance of 
 his services and of such assurances as thev had themselves
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 287 
 
 of their own accord held out to him. For what Lord Camp- 
 bell says about the " deep resentment " which he expressed 
 on being passed over, though it is stated as a fact, is a mere 
 invention ; a touch of what Lord Campbell felt to be nature, 
 introduced to give what he considered life to his narrative. 
 A few months after, there seems .to have been a general ex- 
 pectation that room would be made for advancing Coke to 
 the Chief-Justiceship, by making Gawdy a Baron. And it 
 may have been on this occasion that Bacon reminded Salis- 
 bury that " in case Mr. Solicitor rose, he should be glad at 
 last to be Solicitor," but that he should make no further 
 suit. No change however was made till June, when Gawdy 
 died ; and then Coke did succeed him. Still no preferment 
 for Bacon. Another new man, Sergeant Hobart, came in 
 above him as Attorney ; and though the King had promised 
 that he should not be forgotten, and an arrari cement was 
 
 " O 
 
 soon after suggested by the Lord Chancellor to make room 
 for him in the Solicitorship by promoting Dodderidge to the 
 rank of King's sergeant, yet he was allowed to remain as he 
 was, with nothing but his fee of 40 and his pension of 00 
 for a full twelvemonth after. You see therefore that rapid 
 as his rising sounds when the several steps are huddled to- 
 gether in a flowing sentence, he had in fact much more 
 reason to complain of James than ever he bad of Elizabeth, 
 for " refusing him the professional advancement to which he 
 had a just claim ; " much more reason to suspect some un- 
 friendly influence in high quarters, and to think himself 
 (all circumstances considered) a much-neglected man. All 
 which things I should hardly have thought it worth while to 
 mention, but that they are at once so unlike the man as lie 
 is commonly painted and so characteristic of the man as lie 
 really was : nor do I mention them now to claim for him 
 any merit of magnanimity in holding on his course of duty 
 all the same, but merely to discharge him from the popular 
 imputation of being, in his civil and personal character, a 
 mere follower of his own fortunes. You may possibly be 
 able to reconcile the facts with that imputation, but I can- 
 not guess how. Was it that he did not understand the arts
 
 288 EVENINGS WITH A EEVIEWER. 
 
 of rising ? or was it that ho was too scrupulous to use them ? 
 or was it that advancement was not his principal object ? or 
 what was it ? 
 
 A. 
 
 How do you know that he did not write other canvassing 
 letters, or make personal canvasses, which you are not aware 
 of? 
 
 B. 
 
 Nay, if you appeal to unknown possibilities of that kind, 
 how do you know that anybody is not a villain ? It is the 
 business of those who make the charge to produce the evi- 
 dence. I have much reason to think that I know all the 
 evidence to that effect which is known. And I only wish 
 you could tell me of any place where such letters or such 
 records are likely to be found. I am confident that they 
 will accord with my view of his character, and not with the 
 popular one. 
 
 A. 
 
 "Well, I certainly cannot help you to any myself. And 
 I must confess that after reading the chapter in the "Ad- 
 vancement " on the art of raising a man's own fortunes, it is 
 hard to think that he did not understand the theory; and 
 after seeing how well he kept his standing in the favour of 
 so many opposing parties, it is as hard to think that he 
 wanted address to practise it. It does seem to follow there- 
 fore either that he was unwilling to use the necessary means, 
 or that he had other ends in view. However, I do not feel 
 bound to decide the question at present. Therefore move 
 on. You have a good deal to explain yet. 
 
 15. 
 
 By all means. Only remember that lie is now in his 
 forty-sixth year, and still bears a good character. 
 
 I am not aware that any charge lias been brought against 
 him for anything that he did during the parliament which 
 met on the 21st of January, lGU5-(>, unless J must except his
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 289 
 
 marrying the alderman's daughter, an act which has not 
 escaped injurious remarks. Indeed I do not find that any- 
 thing occurred in it to try him. It was upon the whole a 
 loyal parliament. The Gunpowder Plot had effectually 
 awakened the sympathy of the Commons. The bill of At- 
 tainders passed with general consent. The Union was in 
 abeyance. Grievances were handled tenderly, and supplies 
 were voted liberally. Bacon's services were used in the 
 same way as before ; and when the parliament was prorogued 
 on the 26th of 3Iay, he seems to have stood as well as ever 
 in the favour both of the Commons and the King. 
 
 Of his employment during the following vacation I 
 cannot give any particular account. The wedding tour was 
 not, I believe, at that time an English institution. If it was, 
 it had to wait on this occasion for the prorogation ; for the 
 wedding itself had taken place on the 10th of 3 Fay. in the 
 thick of the Parliamentary business, and at a rather critical 
 time, when it was to be contrived that an answer should be 
 obtained to the petition of grievances before the Subsidy 
 Bill was finally passed. The duties of the honeymoon nviy 
 have employed part of the vacation, and if you will look 
 through the " Opuscula " and the " Impetus Philosophic! " 
 (most of which were probably written between 1606 and 
 1612), you will find enough in them to account for the rest. 
 The " Cogitata et Visa " we know was in circulation among 
 his friends before the end of 1607. As for his marriage, and 
 for any criticisms which the charity of modern biographers 
 and reviewers may have made upon his choice of a wife and 
 "his motives in choosing her, you are to understand that all 
 we know of the matter is this : that in his forty-sixth year 
 he married a handsome young woman with a good fortune,* 
 whose father was an alderman, and her mother (I believe) a 
 shrew ; that he lived with her for twenty years without any 
 disagreement or scandal that we know of; that a few months 
 before his death (when reputation, fortune, health, everv- 
 
 * It appears from a manuscript preserved in Tenison's Library, that lie 
 had about 220 a year with her, and was to have about ,110 a year more 
 upon her mother's death. 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 EVEXTNGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 thing in short but his heart, his hope, his genius, and a few 
 faithful friends, hud forsaken him) ho made or desired to 
 make for her out of the wreck of his fortunes a special and 
 honourable provision ; but afterwards " for just and great 
 causes," the nature of which he does not specify, retracted it 
 and " left her to her right only ; " and that she not long 
 after his death married her gentleman-usher, (who, scandal 
 says, was no better for the bargain,) lived for twenty-four 
 years longer, and was buried at Ey worth in Bedfordshire on 
 the 29th of June, 1650. If any one chooses upon these 
 grounds to assume that his marriage was a mercenary and 
 disgraceful act, I cannot help it. 1 can throw no further 
 light either upon his motives in choosing her, or upon the 
 occasion of his displeasure. I know well enough what to 
 think of the judgment and moral taste of those who under- 
 take upon these data to condemn him ; but to determine the 
 merits of a domestic disagreement two hundred years old, 
 of which I know no particulars whatever, is beyond me. 
 
 A. 
 
 I shall not press that point. 
 
 B. 
 
 Well then. On the 10th of November, 1GOS, parliament 
 met again, and continued with one or two short intermissions 
 till July. It was a very busy session, though it produced 
 very little. The main and almost the only subject which 
 occupied it was the Union ; and the object of the Govern- 
 ment was to carry a measure, or rather a scries of measures, 
 founded upon the report of the commissioners. That report 
 (or instrument, as it was called) had been completed, as you 
 may remember, in December HUM; and had it been adopted 
 and acted upon, would have laid a broad foundation for a 
 .solid and permanent Union between England and Scotland. 
 It would have provided, first, for the abolition of all traces 
 of hostility between the two countries; secondly, for the 
 introduction of such a const-lit between their several laws as 
 would have prevented the course of justice from being broken 
 in its passage from one to the other ; thirdly, for complete
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 291 
 
 freedom of internal trade ; fourthly, in matters of foreign 
 commerce, for an equal participation by both in all advan- 
 tages enjoyed by either ; fifthly, for a free admission of the 
 post nati (that is, of all Scottish subjects born since the 
 King's accession) to all rights and privileges of English 
 subjects without reserve ; sixthly, for an admission of the 
 ante nati (that is, of all Scottish subjects born before the 
 King's accession) to the like privileges; excepting only 
 offices of the Crown, of judicature, or of parliament. In 
 short, (leaving their several laws and forms of constitution 
 for the present unaltered,) it would have abolished at once 
 and for ever all traces of hostility, all marks of separation 
 and distinction, and whatever else either impeded intercourse 
 or rendered it unequal. And no doubt if such a foundation 
 had been timely laid, all the rest would have followed in 
 due season. 
 
 In practically carrying out these objects, there were of 
 course many just doubts and substantial difficulties to be en- 
 countered. But the worst difficulty of all was an imvard 
 jealousy which got into the heads of the popular party in 
 the House of Commons, lest the Scotch should have the best 
 of the bargain ; which jealousy, working in the brains of 
 lawyers, begot such a brood of objections and obstructions, 
 that they could not agree upon so much as a general measure 
 for naturalizing even the post nati. This was the subject of 
 that Conference between the Lords and Commons, in the 
 reporting of which (on the 2nd and 3rd of March, 1006-7) 
 Bacon's health, as I told you, broke down ; after which for 
 about a month I do not find his name mentioned in the 
 Journals. The business fell into other hands, and drafted 
 
 OO 
 
 on with little progress, until (just before the Easter recess) 
 some one either out of unwise zeal, or (as the King seems to 
 have thought) out of mischief, endeavoured to put it in a 
 new track, by substituting for the easy and simple measure 
 of a general naturalization, a project at once premature and 
 hopeless for a perfect Union. Upon the first suggestion of 
 this, Bacon again took part in the debate ; and in that 
 " speech oil the motion for Union of Laws " of which he has
 
 202 FVEXTXGS WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 himself preserved a report, endeavoured to guide the ques- 
 tion off that shoal. His endeavour, however, was not 
 successful. The project for a perfect Union was revived 
 after the recess ; and after wasting much time and breath, 
 was at length by common consent abandoned. The measure 
 for general naturalization sank with it; and an act for the 
 abolition of hostile laws that is, of the laws which had 
 been expressly made for a state of hostility between the two 
 nations was all that could be saved from the wreck. And 
 so ended the labour of those eight months. 
 
 A. 
 
 Bacon being still unpreferred ? 
 
 B. 
 
 No. He was made Solicitor-General at last, just before 
 the parliament was prorogued ; being half-way through his 
 forty-seventh year. 
 
 A. 
 
 Had he to pay anything for it? 
 
 B. 
 
 No ; he never in all his life, so far as I can discover, 
 either paid or offered to pay anything for any office. Indeed 
 I do not think that he was ever even suspected of either 
 buying promotion for himself or selling it to others. And 
 this is a fact which ought not to be forgotten ; for this buy- 
 ing of offices, judicial offices too, became afterwards whether 
 it was at this lime or not. I do not know but it became 
 afterwards very common, and indeed, in my judgment, the 
 greatest of all the abuses of the times. 
 
 And now we come to another interval of comparative 
 leisure lor him. For parliament did not meet airain for some 
 two years and a half; and though his place and his profes- 
 sion must have consumed much of his time, he does not seem 
 to have occupied himself otherwise in public affairs. Salis- 
 bury had the management of everything; and though he 
 treated JJacon (for anything that appears) in a frank and
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 293 
 
 friendly manner, he was evidently unwilling to use him out 
 of the circle of his office. Which is a strange thing. For 
 Salisbury had no easy sailing of it. He could not have 
 doubted Bacon's ability to help ; he would certainly have 
 found him willing to lend both his best advice and his best 
 industry ; he could hardly have feared to be overshadowed 
 by him, for Bacon had never shown any disposition to thrust 
 people out of their places, or to use their help in order to 
 step over their heads. He may indeed have feared that he 
 would draw men's eyes a\\ay from himself, and for that 
 reason may have wished to keep him in a subordinate 
 position ; for that " he loved to have the eyes of all Israel a 
 little too much on himself" was Bacon's own censure of 
 him, and no doubt a just one. And yet I am myself inclined 
 to ascribe it rather to a consciousness in Salisbury of certain 
 radical and fundamental differences between them, both as to 
 ends and methods of proceeding. That Bacon did deeply 
 disapprove of Salisbury's whole course of policy during the 
 last two or three years of his life, we know ; and, whether he 
 expressed it or not at the time, Salisbury no doubt felt that 
 it must be so. Indeed there is a remarkable passage in one 
 of Bacon's letters to him, written several years before, from 
 which we may infer not only that he had long observed 
 certain cardinal defects in his statesmanship, but also that 
 he had not been used to make any secret of his observation. 
 You remember that paper of ad vice about Irish affairs in the 
 beginning of 1602, of which I gave you an account at our 
 last sitting. You remember that he recommended the 
 subject to him as one by which he might do great good and 
 gain great honour. But I think I did not mention the 
 particular points in which he conceived that Salisbury might 
 raise his reputation as a statesman by it. The expressions 
 are worth quoting, for they contain by implication the best 
 judgment upon his character as a minister which I have met 
 with : 
 
 " If you enter into the matter (says Bacon) according to the 
 vivacity of your own spirit . . . you shall make the Queen's 
 felicity complete, which now as it is is incomparable; and for
 
 204 EVE XING 3 WITH A EEl'TEWEK. 
 
 yourself you sliall show yourself as good a patriot as you are 
 thought & politic ; and make the world perceive that you have 
 not less generous ends, than dexterous delivery of yourself towards 
 your ends ; and that you have as well true arts and grounds of 
 government, as the facility and felicity of practice and negotiation ; 
 and that you are as well seen in the periods and tides of estates, us 
 in your own circle and way." 
 
 The criticism, yon see, is civilly conveyed, but it clearly 
 implies an opinion that Salisbury wanted both sounder 
 principles of government and worthier ends. Being addressed 
 to Salisbury himself (then only Sir Robert Cecil) at a time 
 when there was no other man in power or in prospect of 
 power with whom he had any interest, it cannot have been 
 meant for detraction. And being accompanied with the best 
 possible piece of advice, it may be fairly taken for what it 
 professes to be, the friendly suggestion of a kinsman, meant 
 to do good, and therefore the plainer spoken ; another 
 example of that " natural freedom and plainness " which 
 Essex had remarked as characteristic of the man. Xow 
 Salisbury (if I conceive his character truly, for it is not very 
 easy to make out) was very likely to receive such a criticism 
 without any show of offence, but was not at all likely to 
 forget it, or to admit such a critic into his counsels and con- 
 fidence. Indeed if one may trust the censures which men of 
 all kinds are said to have passed upon him after his death, 
 when they were not afraid to speak out, there is too much 
 reason to think that his ways were not such as he would 
 have liked to expose to an eye like Bacon's. "Certain it 
 is," says 3Ir. Chamberlain, (a very impartial, well-informed, 
 and clear-judging observer, writing to a private friend 
 about two months after his death,) " that they who may best 
 maintain it have not forborne to say that he juggled with 
 Religion, with the King. Queen, their children, with 
 noliilily. parliament, friends, foes, and generally with all." 
 And even if \\e reject these imputations as vague and 1111- 
 aiuhentic, there were certain main points of his later policy 
 which I'acoji so strongly disapproved that the two men could 
 never have worked harmoniously together. At anv rate the
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 2P5 
 
 fact is undeniable that Salisbury did choose for his instru- 
 ments men of a very different stamp. A large collection of 
 his papers during the reign of James is preserved in the 
 State Paper office, including several letters addressed to 
 him by Bacon. But these are all about matters falling 
 directly within the duty of Solicitor-General, such as 
 draughts of proclamations, bills in parliament, reports on 
 patents to be drawn or on petitions, &c. There are no traces 
 either there or elsewhere of any employment of him by 
 Salisbury in business of a higher nature; no confidential 
 consultations ; no memorials or advices on business of state, 
 such as he abounded with after Salisbury's death. The other 
 letters which we have belonging to the first two or three 
 years of his Solicitorship (and they are not many) relate 
 almost all to the progress of the Instauratio. We have also 
 various essays and fragments printed under the head of 
 Opuscula. Of these, (though neither the date nor the 
 order in which they were composed can be fixed I fear in 
 many cases with exactness) yet enough may be ascertained 
 as to the time when some of them were written, to show not 
 only that he was busily employed upon them at this period, 
 but also that the figure, purpose, and idea of the total work 
 were already shaped out in his mind ; and that his chief 
 anxiety was to bring it before the world iu such a manner as 
 to secure for it a favourable audience. To us who are used 
 to regard Bacon as the acknowledged leader of a philo- 
 sophical revolution, a kind of dictator for whose words the 
 world was waiting, it is curious to observe in how different 
 a position he seemed to himself to stand; what inattention, 
 incredulity, and opposition he anticipated ; what pains he 
 took to obtain access to men's ears and understandings ; 
 with what obsequious attentions * and courtly arts he 
 studied to propitiate the learned public, and to avoid rough 
 collision with the prejudices of the times, 
 
 " Yea curb and woo for leave to do them good ; "
 
 206 E VEXING S WITH A HEVIEfTEIi. 
 
 by how many handles he seems to have tried in turn to take 
 up his subject ; into how many different shapes lie had cast 
 the substance of that portion of the argument which he lived 
 to complete, before he finally fixed upon that in which we 
 have it ; what broad and deep foundations he had laid for 
 those portions which he did not live to complete, and what 
 a world of labour and time he must have sunk in them. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes, I dare say. But before you go on I wish you would 
 satisfy me on one point, upon which I have hitherto sought 
 satisfaction in vain. What after all was it that Bacon did 
 for philosophy ? In what did the wonder and in what did 
 the benefit consist ? I know that people have all agreed 
 to call him the Father of the Inductive Philosophy ; and I 
 know that the sciences made a great start about his time, 
 and have in some departments made great progress since. 
 But I could never yet hear what one thing he discovered 
 that would not have been discovered just as soon without 
 his help. It is admitted that he was not fortunate in any 
 of his attempts to apply his principles to practice. It is 
 admitted that no actual scientific discovery of importance 
 was made by him. Well, he might be the father of dis- 
 covery for all that. But among all the important scientific 
 discoveries which have been made by others since his time, 
 is there an v one that can be traced to his teaching ? traced 
 to ;my principles of scientific investigation originally laid 
 down bv him, and by no other man before him or conteni- 
 
 J v 
 
 porary with him ? I know very well that he did lay down 
 a great many just principles; principles which must have 
 been acted upon bv every man that ever pursued the study 
 of Xature v\ith success. !>ut what of that? It does not 
 follow that we o /' these principles to him. For 1 have no 
 doubt that 1 myself, I who cannot tell how we know that 
 the earth goes round, or why an apple falls, or why the 
 antipodes do not fall,---I have no doubt (I say) that if I sat 
 down to devise a course of investigation for the determina- 
 tion of these questions, \ should discover a great many just
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EEVIEWEE. 297 
 
 principles which Herschel and Faraday must hereafter act 
 upon, as they have done heretofore. Nay, if I should 
 succeed in setting them forth more exactly, concisely, im- 
 pressively, and memorably, than any one has yet done, they 
 might soon come to be called my principles. But if that 
 were all, I should have done little or nothing for the 
 advancement of science. I should only have been finding 
 for some of its processes a better name. I want to know 
 whether Bacon did anything more than this ; and if so, 
 what? In what did the principles laid down by him 
 essentially differ from those on which (while he was thus 
 labouring to expound them) Galileo was already acting ? 
 From all that I can hear, it seems evident that the In- 
 ductive Philosophy received its great impulse, not from 
 the great prophet of new principles, but from the great 
 discoverers of new facts ; not from Bacon, but from Galileo 
 and Kepler. And I suppose that, even with regard to those 
 very principles, if you wanted illustrations of what is 
 commonly called the Baconian method, you would find 
 some of the very best among the works of Gilbert and 
 Galileo. AVhat was it then that Bacon did which entitles 
 him to be called the lie^enerator of Philosophv ? or what 
 
 O A */ 
 
 was it that lie dreamt he was doing which made him think 
 the work so entirely his own, so immeasurably important, 
 and likely to be received with such incredulity by at least 
 one generation of mankind ? 
 
 B. 
 
 A pertinent cpuestion ; for there is no doubt that he was 
 under that impression. "Cum argnntcntum liujusmodi pne 
 maniliiis habeam (says he) quod tractandi imperitid perdere et 
 vt'luti exponere NEFAS sit," He was persuaded that the 
 argument he had in charge, 1 was of such value, that to risk 
 the loss of it by unskilful handling would be not only a 
 pity but an impiety. You wish to know, and the wish is 
 reasonable, what it was. For answer, I would refer you to 
 the philosophers; only I cannot say that their answers are 
 sat is factor v to myself. The old answer was that Bacon was
 
 298 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 the first to break down the dominion of Aristotle. This is 
 now, I think, generally given up. His opposition to Aris- 
 totle was indeed conceived in early youth, and (though he 
 was not the first to give utterance to it) I dare say it was 
 not the less his own, and, in the proper sense of the word, 
 original. But the real overthrower of Aristotle was the 
 great stir throughout the intellectual world which followed 
 the Reformation and the revival of learning. It is certain 
 that his authority had been openly defied some years 
 before the publication of Bacon's principal writings ; and 
 it could not in the nature of things have survived much 
 longer. Sit 1 John Herschel, however, while he freely admits 
 that the Aristotelian philosophy had been effectually over- 
 turned without Bacon's aid, still maintains Bacon's title to 
 be looked upon in all future ages as the great Reformer of 
 Philosophy ; not indeed that he introduced inductive reason- 
 ing, as a new and untried process ; but on account of his 
 "keen perception and his broad and spirit-stirring, almost 
 enthusiastic, announcement of its paramount importance, 
 as the alpha and omega of science, as the grand and only 
 chain for linking together of physical truths, and the 
 eventual key to every discovery and every application." 
 
 A. 
 
 That is all very fine ; bat it seems to me rather to 
 account for his having the title than to justify his claim to 
 it; rather to explain how he comes by his reputation than 
 to prove that he deserves it. Try the question upon a 
 modern case. AYe are now standing upon the threshold 
 of a new a-m in the science of History. It is easy to see 
 that the universal study of History must be begun afresh 
 upon a new method. Tales, traditions, and all that has 
 hitherto been accounted most authentic in our knowledge 
 of past times, must be set aside as doubtful ; and the whole 
 story must be spelt out anew from charters, names, inscrip- 
 tions, monuments, and such like contemporary records. 
 Xovv an eloquent man might easily make a broad and 
 spirit-stirring announcement of the paramount importance
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 299 
 
 of tins process, as the only key by which the past can bo 
 laid open to us as it really was, the grand and only chain 
 for linking historical truths and so forth. But would ho 
 thereby entitle himself to be called the great reformer of 
 History ? Surely not. Such a man might perhaps get the 
 credit, but it is Niebuhr that has done the tiling : for 
 Niebuhr was the first both to see the truth and to set the 
 example. 
 
 B. 
 
 So, I confess, it seems to me. And if I thought that 
 Bacon had aimed at no more than that, I should not think 
 that his time had been altogether well employed, or that his 
 sense of the importance of his own mission to mankind was 
 altogether justified. For surely a single great discovery 
 made by means of the inductive process would have done 
 more to persuade mankind of the paramount importance 
 of it, than the most eloquent and philosophical exposition. 
 Therefore in forsaking his experiments about gravitation, 
 light, heat, &c., in order to set forth his classification of the 
 " Prerogatives of Instances," and to lay down general 
 principles of philosophy, he would have been leaving the 
 effectual promotion of his work to secure the exaltation 
 of his name, than which nothing could be more opposite 
 both to his principles and his practice. If his ambition had 
 been only to have his picture stand as the frontispiece of 
 the new philosophy, he could not have done better indeed 
 than come forward as the most eloquent expounder of its 
 principles. But if he wanted (as undoubtedly he did above 
 all other things) to set it to work and bring it into fashion, 
 his business was to produce the most striking illustration of 
 its powers, the most striking practical proof of what it 
 could do. 
 
 Therefore if I thought, as Herschel seems to think, that 
 there was no essential or considerable difference between 
 the doctrines which Bacon preached and those which Galileo 
 practised; that Galileo was as the Niebuhr of the new 
 philosophy (according to your own illustration), and Bacon
 
 300 E VEX IX OS WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 only as your supposed eloquent man ; I should agree with 
 you that Bacon's right to be called the Reformer of Philo- 
 sophy is not made out. But when I come to look at Bacon's 
 own exposition of his views and compare them with the 
 latest and most approved account I have met with of 
 Galileo's works, I cannot but think that the difference 
 between what Galileo was doing and what Bacon wanted 
 to be done is not only essential but immense. 
 
 A. 
 
 Nay, if the difference be immense, how comes it to be 
 overlooked ? It is from no want of the wisli to claim for 
 Bacon all the credit he deserves in that line. 
 
 B. 
 
 Xo. Bather perhaps from the wish to claim too much. 
 AVe are so anxious to give him his due that we must needs 
 ascribe to him all that has been done since his time; from 
 which it seems to follow that we are practising his precepts, 
 and that the Baconian philosophy has in fact been flourish- 
 ing among us for the last 200 years. You believe this, don't 
 you ? 
 
 A. 
 
 People tell me so ; and I suppose the only doubt is 
 whether it be exclusively and originally his ; there is no 
 doubt, I fancy, that it is his. 
 
 B. 
 
 Certainly that appears to be the general opinion ; and it 
 may seem an audacious tiling in me to say that it is a mis- 
 take. But I cannot help it. It is true that a new philosophy 
 is flourishing among us which was born about Baron's time; 
 and Bacon's name (as the brightest which presided at the 
 time of its birth; has been inscribed upon it. 
 
 " IIc.-|'i ni~. that k'd 
 
 Tilt; MalTY host, MM It/ It) ightt-st -" 
 
 n<'t that Hesperus did actually 7c-<^Z the other stars ; he and 
 they \\ere moving under a common i'< !'<< . and thev \\<mld
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 301 
 
 hare moved just as fast if he had been away ; but because he 
 shone brightest, he looked as if he ]ed them. But if I am to 
 trust Herschel, I must think that it is the Galilean philo- 
 sophy that has been flourishing all these years ; and if I may 
 trust my own eyes and power of construing Latin, I must 
 think that the Baconian philosophy has yet to come. 
 
 If Bacon were to reappear among us at the next meeting 
 of the Great British Association, or say rather if he had ap- 
 peared there two or three years ago (for there seems to bo 
 something great and new going on now), I think he would 
 have shaken his head. I think he would have said, " Here 
 has been a great deal of very good diligence used by several 
 persons ; but it has not been used upon a well-laid plan. 
 These solar systems, and steam-engines, and Daguerreotypes, 
 and electric telegraphs, are so many more pledges of what 
 might be expected from an instauration of philosophy such 
 as I recommended more than 200 years ago ; why have you 
 not tried that ? You have been acting all the time like a 
 king who should attempt to conquer a country by encourag- 
 ing private adventurers to make incursions each on his own 
 account, without any system of combined movements to 
 subdue and take possession. I see that wherever you havo 
 the proper materials and plenty of them your work is excel- 
 lent ; so was Gilbert's in my time ; so was Galileo's ; nay 
 even Kepler (though his method was as unskilful as that of 
 the boy who in doing a long-division sum would first guess 
 at the quotient and then multiply it into the divisor to see 
 whether it were true ; and if it came out wrong, would make 
 another guess and multiply again ; and so on till he guessed 
 right at last ;) because he had a copious collection of 
 materials ready to his hand, and enormous perseverance 
 however perversely applied, and a religious veracity, did 
 at last hit upon one of the greatest discoveries ever made 
 bv one man. But what could Kepler have done without 
 Tycho Brahe's tables of observation ? And what might 
 Galileo not have done if he had had a large enough col- 
 lection of facts ? This therefore it is that disappoints me. 
 I do not see any sufficient collection made of materials,
 
 302 EVEX2XGS WITH A REVIEWR. 
 
 that is, of facts in nature or any effectual plan on foot 
 for making one. You are scarcely better off in that respect 
 than I was ; you have each to gather the materials upon 
 which you are to work. You cannot build houses, or weave 
 shirts, or learn languages so. If the builder had to make 
 his own bricks, the weaver to grow his own flax, the student 
 of a dead language to make his own concordance, where 
 would be your houses, your shirts, or your scholars ? And 
 by the same rule if the interpreter of Nature is to forage for 
 his facts, what progress can you expect in the art of inter- 
 pretation ? Your scholar has his dictionary provided to his 
 hand ; but your natural philosopher has still to make his 
 dictionary for himself. 
 
 " And I wonder the more at this, because this is the very 
 thing of all others which I myself pointed out as absolutely 
 necessary to be supplied, as the thing which was to be set 
 about in the first place, the thing without which no great 
 things could possibly be done in philosophy. And since 
 you have done me the honour to think so very highly of the 
 value of my precepts, I am a little surprised that you have 
 not thought it worth while in so very essential a point to 
 follow them. And to say the truth, I could wish for my 
 own reputation (if that were of any consequence) that you 
 had either honoured me a little more in that way, or not 
 honoured me quite so much in other ways. You call me 
 the Father of your Philosophy, meaning it for the- greatest 
 compliment you can pay. I thank you for the compliment, 
 but I must decline the implied responsibility. I assure you 
 this is none of mine. May I ask whether any attempt has 
 been made to collect that " Ilistoriam naturalem ft etperi- 
 mentalem quie sit in online ad condendam pliiloso}iliiam" con- 
 cerning which I did certainly give some very particular 
 directions ; which I placed as conspicuously as J could in 
 the very front and entrance of my design; of which I said 
 that all the genius and meditation and argumentation in 
 the world could not do instead of it, no not if all men's 
 wits could meet in one man's li ad; then -fore that this 
 we must have, or else the business niu.-t be for ever given
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 303 
 
 up ? * If this has been fairly tried and found impracticable 
 or ineffectual, blot me out of your books as a dreamer that 
 thought he had found out a great thing but it turned out 
 nothing. If not, I still think it would be worth your while 
 to try it." 
 
 A. 
 
 I partly comprehend your meaning ! but I should prefer 
 it in a less dramatic form. You think that the difference 
 between what Galileo did and what Bacon wanted to be 
 done, lay in this that Bacon's plan presupposed a history 
 (or dictionary as you call it) of Universal Nature, as a store- 
 house of facts to work upon ; whereas Galileo was content to 
 work upon such facts and observations as he collected for 
 himself. But surely this is only a difference in degree. 
 Both used the facts in the same way, only Bacon wanted a 
 larger collection of them. 
 
 B. 
 
 Say rather, Bacon wanted a collection large enough to 
 give him the command of all the avenues to the secrets 
 of Nature. You might as well say that there is only a 
 difference of degree between the method of the man who 
 runs his simple head against a fortress and the man who 
 raises a force strong enough to storm it, because each uses 
 the force he has in the same way, only one wants more of it 
 than the other : or between stopping all the leaks iii a 
 vessel and stopping as many as you conveniently can. The 
 truth is, that though the difference between a few and a few 
 more is only a difference of degree, the difference between 
 enough and not enough is a difference in kind. According to 
 Galileo's method, the work at best could be done but 
 partially. According to Bacon's (so at least he believed) it 
 would be done effectually and altogether. 
 
 I will put you a case by way of illustration. Two men 
 
 * Neque Ituic labori ct inquisitioni et mundanceperambulationi,ullaingenii 
 
 aut meditationis aut argumentation^ sulstitutio aut compcnxatio snffictre jiotcst , 
 non si oinnia omnium ingenia coierint. Itaijue aut hoc prorsus hubcndum aut 
 neyotium in perpetuum deserendum.
 
 304 ZVXXIXGS WITH A 
 
 (cull thorn James and John) find a manuscript in a character 
 unknown to either of them. James, Loin 12; skilled in lan- 
 guages and expert in making out riddles, observes some 
 characters similar to those of one of the lanojua^es which he 
 
 o ^. 
 
 understands ; immediately sets himself to guess what they 
 are ; and succeeds in puzzling out here a name, and there 
 a date, with plausibility. Each succeeding guess, if it Le 
 right, makes the next the easier ; and there is no knowing 
 precisely how much may Le made out in this manner, or 
 with what degree of certainty. The process is inductive, 
 and the results, so far as they go, are discoveries. John 
 seeing him thus employed comes up and says, "This is all 
 very ingenious and clever, and far more than I could do Ly 
 the same process. But you are not going the right way to 
 work. You will never Le aLle to decipher the manuscript in 
 this way. I will tell you what we must do. Here (you see) 
 are certain forms of character which continually recur. Here 
 is one that comes more than one*} in every line; here another 
 that comes once in every two or three lines; a third that 
 comes only twice or thrice in a page ; and so on. Let us 
 have a list made of these several forms, with an index show- 
 ing where and how often they occur. In the mean time 
 I will undertake, upon a consideration of the general laws 
 of language, to tell you, Ly the comparative frequency of 
 their recurrence, what parts of speech most of these are. 
 So we shall know which of them are articles, which con- 
 junctions, which relatives, whirl i auxiliaries, and so on. 
 Setting these apart, we shall Le Letter aLle to deal with 
 the nouns and verbs ; and then Ly comparing the passages 
 in uhich each occurs, we shall Le aLle, with the help of 
 your language-learning, to make out the meaning first of 
 one, then of another. As each is determined, the rest will 
 Le easier to determine; and Ly degrees we shall come to 
 know them all. .It is a slow process compared with yours, 
 and will take time and laLour and many hands. Hut when 
 it is done \\e shall Le aLle to read the \\hole Look." 
 
 Jlere I think' you have a picture in little of the difference 
 between Bacon's project for the. advancement of philosophy
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 305 
 
 and that which was carried into effect (certainly with re- 
 markable success) by the new school of inductive science 
 Avhich flourished in his time. If we want to pursue the 
 parallel further, we have only to suppose that John, after 
 completing in a masterly manner a great portion of his 
 work on the universal laws of language ; after giving par- 
 ticular directions for the collection, arrangement, and classi- 
 fication of the index ; and even doing several pages of it 
 himself by way of example ; is called away, and obliged to 
 leave the completion of the work to his successors ; and 
 that his successors (wanting diligence to finish, patience to 
 wait, or ability to execute,) immediately fall back to the 
 former method ; in which they make such progress and 
 take such pride, that they never think of following out 
 John's plan, but leave it exactly where he left it. And here 
 I think you have a true picture of the state in which the 
 matter now rests. 
 
 A. 
 
 I see. The manuscript is the volume of Nature. The 
 learned linguist and expert maker-out of puzzles is Galileo 
 or one of his school. The work on the laws of language 
 is the Novum Organum. The index is the Natural and 
 Experimental History quse sit in online ad condendam 
 Philosophiam. The making-out of the words one by one is 
 the Interpretation of Nature 
 
 13. 
 
 And the ultimate reading of the whole book is the 
 " Historia Ittuminata sive Veritas Eerum , " the " Pliilosopliia 
 Secunda ; " the sixth and last part of the " Installation ; " 
 the consummation which Bacon knew that he was not to 
 be permitted himself to see, but trusted that (if men were 
 true to themselves) the Fortune of the Human Kace would 
 one day achieve. 
 
 A. 
 
 And you think that they have not been true to them- 
 selves ? 
 
 VOL. i. x
 
 306 EVENINGS WITH A REV IE WEE. 
 
 B. 
 
 Why what nave they done with this work since he left 
 it ? There it lies to speak for itself, sticking- in the middle 
 of the Novum Organum. No attempt has been made, that 
 I can hear of, to carry it out further. People seern hardly 
 to know that it is not complete. John Mill observes that 
 Bacon's method of inductive logic is defective ; but does 
 not advert to the fact that of ten separate processes which 
 it was designed to include, the first only has been explained. 
 The other nine he had in his head, but did not live to set 
 down more of them than the names. And the particular 
 example w-hich he has left of an inductive inquiry does not 
 profess to be carried beyond the first stage of generalization, 
 the vindemiatio prima, as he calls it. 
 
 A. 
 
 It may be so ; but why have they not attempted to carry 
 his process out further ? Is it not because they have found 
 that they can get on faster witli their old tools ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Because they thinJc they can get on faster ; you cannot 
 say they have found it until they have tried. 
 
 Have they not tried Bacon's way partially, and found it 
 not so handy ? Has not Sir John Herschel, for instance, 
 tried the use of his famous classification of Instances, and 
 pronounced it " more apparent than real " ? And is it not a 
 fact that n<> single discovery of importance has been actually 
 made by proceeding according to the method recommended 
 by Bacon ? I am sure 1 have heard as much, reported upon 
 the authority of a very eminent modern writer upon these 
 subjects. 
 
 B. 
 
 So have I. And I can well believe that the use of 
 Bacon's " Prerogatives of Instances," hi tlie way tliei/ Infc
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EEVIEWER. 307 
 
 been used, is not much ; and for the reason given by Her- 
 schel, viz. because the same judgment whic^ enables you to 
 assign the Instance to its proper class, enabias you, without 
 that assignation, to recognize its proper value. Therefore 
 so long as the task of gathering his Instances as they grow 
 wild in the woods is left to the Interpreter of Nature him- 
 self, there is little use in a formal classification ; he knows 
 exactly what he wants ; what is not to his purpose he need 
 not trouble himself with ; what is to his purpose he can 
 apply to that purpose at once. And each several man of 
 genius will no doubt acquire a knack of his own by which 
 he will arrive at his results faster than by any formal 
 method. But suppose the Interpreter wants to use the help 
 of other people, to whom he cannot impart his own genius 
 or his peculiar gift of knowing at first sight what is to the 
 purpose and what is not. He wants them to assist him in 
 gathering materials. How shall he direct them in their 
 task so that their labours may be available for himself? 
 I take it, he must distribute the work among several, and 
 make it pass through several processes. One man may be 
 used to make a rough and general collection, what we call 
 an omnium gatherum. Another must be employed to re- 
 duce the confused mass into some order fit for reference. 
 A third to clear it of superfluities and rubbish. A fourth 
 must be taught to classify and arrange what remains. And 
 here I cannot but think that Bacon's arrangement of In- 
 stances according to what he calls their Prerogatives, or 
 some better arrangement of the same kind which experience 
 ought to suggest, would be found to be of great value ; 
 especially when it is proposed to make through all the 
 regions of Nature separate collections of this kind such as 
 may combine into one general collection. For though it 
 be true that as long as each man works only for himself, he 
 may trust to the usus uni ret deditus for finding out the 
 method of proceeding which best suits the trick of his own 
 mind, and each will probably pursue a different method, 
 yet when many men's labours are to be gathered into one 
 table, any collector of statistics will tell you that they must
 
 308 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIE WEB. 
 
 all work according to a common pattern. And in the 
 subject we are speaking of, which is coextensive with the 
 mind of man on one side and with the nature of things on 
 the other, that will undoubtedly be the best pattern which 
 is framed upon the justest theory of the human under- 
 standing ; for which distinction Bacon's would seem to be 
 no unlikely candidate. 
 
 However, I am here again getting out of my province. 
 It may be that Bacon's project was visionary ; or it may be 
 that it is only thought visionary, because since his death no 
 heart has been created large enough to believe it prac- 
 ticable. The philosophers must settle that among them- 
 selves. But be the cause what it will, it is clear to me on 
 the one hand that the thing has not been seriously at- 
 tempted ; and on the other, that Bacon was fully satisfied 
 that nothing of worth could be hoped for without it ; there- 
 fore that we have no right to impute to him either the 
 credit of all that has been done by the new philosophy, or 
 the discredit of all that has been left undone. 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly not ; if you are right as to the fact. But I 
 still think there must be some mistake. How is it possible 
 that among so many distinguished men who have studied 
 Bacon's philosophy with so much reverence, such a largo 
 feature can have been overlooked ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I cannot pretend to explain that. But an appeal to 
 one's own eyes is always lawful. Here is one passage which 
 is enough by itself to settle the question. If you are not 
 satisfied with it, I can quote half-a-dozen more to the same 
 effect: " Illwl interim quod swpe diximus dlam hoc loco 
 prsecipue repetendum cst 
 
 A. 
 
 Translate ; if you would have me follow.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 " I must repeat here again what I have so often said ; that 
 though all the wits of all the ages should meet in one, though 
 the whole human race should make Philosophy their sole busi- 
 ness ; though the whole earth were nothing but colleges and 
 academies and schools of learned men ; yet without such a 
 natural and experimental history as I am going to describe, no 
 progress worthy of the human race in Philosophy and the 
 Sciences could possibly be made : whereas if such a history 
 were once provided and well-ordered, with the addition of such 
 auxiliary and light-giving experiments as the course of Inter- 
 pretation would itself suggest, the investigation of Nature and 
 of all sciences would be the work only of a few years. Either 
 this must be done, therefore, or the business must be abandoned. 
 For in this way, and in this way only, can the foundation be laid 
 of a true and active Philosophy." 
 
 A. 
 
 Where does lie say that ? 
 
 B. 
 
 In the Preface to what lie calls the " Parasceue ad His- 
 toriam naturdlem et experimenialem" which is in fact nothing 
 more than a description of the sort of history which he 
 wanted, such a history as a true Philosophy might be built 
 upon, with directions to be observed in collecting it. He 
 published it (somewhat out of its proper place) in the same 
 volume with the Novum Organum, in order that, if possible, 
 men might be set about the work at once ; of such primary 
 importance did he hold it to be. If you distrust my trans- 
 lation, take it in his own English. In presenting the Novum 
 Organum to the King, after explaining the nature and 
 objects of the work and his reason for publishing it in an 
 imperfect shape, he adds, '' There is another reason for my 
 so doing ; which is to try whether I can get help in one 
 intended part of this work, namely the compiling of a 
 natural and experimental history, wliicli must le the main 
 foundation of a true and active philosophy" And ' again
 
 310 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 about a week after, in reply to the King's gracious acknow- 
 ledgment of the book, " This comfortable beginning 
 makes me hope further that your Majesty will be aiding to 
 me in setting men on work for the collecting of a natural 
 
 O o 
 
 and experimental history, which is lasts tot-ins negotii" And 
 this was no after-thought, but an essential feature of his 
 
 O 7 
 
 design as he had conceived it at least sixteen years before. 
 There is extant a description of this proposed history, which 
 appears to have been written as early as 160-i ; and though 
 the only copy that I know of is in an imperfect and muti- 
 lated manuscript, enough remains to show that in all its 
 material features it agreed exactly with the description set 
 forth in the Parasceue. 
 
 Now you know I am not going to discuss the merit of his 
 plan. It may (as I said) have been all a delusion. But 
 grant it a delusion, still it was a delusion under which he 
 was actually labouring. If every man of science that ever 
 lived had considered it and pronounced it puerile and ridi- 
 culous, still their unanimous verdict could not, in the face 
 of his own repeated and earnest declarations, persuade me 
 that it was not an essential part of Bacon's scheme ; that it 
 was not (in his perfect and rooted judgment) the one key 
 to the cipher in which the fortunes of the human race are 
 locked up, the one thing tcith which all might be done; 
 u i it J tout which nothing. And this is all that is necessary for 
 our present business. For we are not discussing his philoso- 
 phical capacity, but his personal character and purposes as 
 illustrated by the tenour of his life. 
 
 Going back therefore to where we left him, you will be 
 pleased to remember that when the prorogation of parlia- 
 ment in July, 1G07, and the indisposition of Salisbury to 
 use his abilities in matters above his office, left him with 
 another interval before him of comparative leisure, he was 
 brimful of this great idea, and really believed that in the 
 argument of which he found himself by some odd accident 
 the solitary and single-handed champion, were contained 
 the hopes of the human race for the recovery of their lost 
 dominion over nature and the final conquest of all the
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 311 
 
 necessities and miseries of mortality. And if you will like- 
 wise remember that it was not as a man might entertain 
 such a speculation in these faded times when astonishment 
 itself has become an every-day matter of idle curiosity, 
 that it was no curious speculation but a real and moving 
 hope, such as the promise of that great intellectual spring- 
 time, when the volume of Nature was opened (one may say) 
 for the first time and the world was waiting in expectation 
 of the issue, might well awaken in the soberest mind, if 
 you will remember this, you may partly conceive how 
 solemn a thing such an idea was, falling into such a mind. 
 
 To this argument, accordingly, all the leisure which his 
 professional and official duties allowed him, appears at this 
 time to have been devoted. At least among his unprofes- 
 sional w r orks that have come down to us, I think there are 
 only two (not bearing directly upon it) which seem to have 
 been composed at this period. 
 
 A. 
 
 Which are they ? 
 
 B. 
 
 The paper on the Plantation in Ireland, and the Latin 
 memorial of the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 A. 
 
 I thought the paper on Ireland had been earlier. 
 
 B. 
 
 The title does indeed state that it was presented to the 
 King in 1606. That however (in the shape in which \\o 
 have it) it cannot have been ; for it alludes to the death of 
 Chief Justice Popham, which did not happen till June 1607. 
 The date (for the original manuscript had none) has been 
 added, I think indeed by Bacon himself, but probably 
 several years afterwards, when it was easy to make a mis- 
 take of a year or tw r o. And that there was some doubt 
 about the exact time is clear, for 1605 had been written
 
 312 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 first. But the true date may be determined with tolerable 
 precision to be the 1st January, 1607-8.* And the paper 
 was written (I suppose) in reference to certain measures 
 taken by the Government upon the flight of Tyrone from 
 Ireland, which took place in the preceding autumn. In 
 a letter to Sir John Davies of the 23rd October 1607, 
 Bacon says in allusion to that event, " I see manifestly the 
 beginning of better or worse. But methinketh it is first 
 a tender of the better, and worse followeth but upon refusal 
 or default." And the time being critical, the object of the 
 paper (which was presented to the King for a new year's 
 gift) was to guide the project right while the stage was yet 
 clear. The scheme of colonization, in furtherance of which 
 it was drawn up, was the most successful measure, I believe, 
 in the whole course of the policy of England towards Ire- 
 land ; and the principles laid down in it must (making 
 allowance for altered circumstances) be still our guides if we 
 hope to do any good in that region. 
 
 The memorial of the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth w r as 
 written in 1608 ; partly to discharge his debt of reverence 
 to the memory of his old mistress, partly as an important 
 contribution to the history of the times, which no one else 
 was so well qualified to supply. It is short, and touches 
 only some principal points ; yet it ought in my opinion not 
 only to find a place in every history of that reign, but to be 
 laid as a foundation for the study of it, being the deliberate 
 testimony of the man who of all others best understood the 
 times he was writing of, given at a period when there was 
 no inducement whatever to flatter them. The importance 
 which he himself attached to it may be inferred from the 
 fact that in one of his wills he specially directed that it 
 should be published. And undoubtedly the report of such 
 a man concerning the affairs of the days in which he lived, 
 
 * Mr. Gardiner (Ni*tnj of EiKjlunil, i. 5.11) dates it a year later, 1008-9. 
 Rightly. Allusion is made in the paper to the project as "digested already 
 for the Count;/ of Tyrom ." Now on the 12th of December lb'08 a scheme for 
 the settlement of the County of Tyrone was submitted to the Government 
 by the Commissioners, and on the 9l.h of January 1G08-9 for the other five 
 counties. So New Year's Day 1008 9 would suit.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 313 
 
 ought to be received by the historian as the weightiest 
 evidence that can be had. For there you have the two 
 great requisites in their greatest perfection, the eye that 
 can see what is material, and the pen that can set it down 
 correctly. 
 
 The rest of his leisure seems to have been devoted en- 
 tirely to his great work (for the " Wisdom of the Ancients," 
 if not strictly a part of it, is made up of its surplus materials) 
 until at the next meeting of parliament Salisbury's un- 
 happy device of the " Great Contract " set the King and the 
 Commons together by the ears, and put the relation between 
 them so completely out of tune, that how to set that right 
 became the great problem of state in which all others 
 merged, and for the solution of which every man who had 
 any interest in the State must have felt bound to contribute 
 his best endeavours. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then this is too large a chapter to enter upon to-night. 
 But are you aware of the rock you are running on ? You 
 are trying to make out for Bacon so magnificent a mission 
 in the philosophical department, magnificent according to 
 his own idea and belief, that it must be a strong case which 
 will justify him in turning aside to pursue objects incom- 
 patible with the effectual prosecution of it. 
 
 B. 
 
 I am quite aware of that. And as it happens, I do really 
 think he would not have turned aside for a light one. But 
 you speak as if I were bound to prove that he never made a 
 mistake. Did I ever undertake to do that? Surely not. 
 The best man that ever lived, if he had to make the journey 
 over again, would in many places take a different road. I 
 am quite content that, if you see occasion, you should regret 
 the course he took as a misfortune, or even censure it as an 
 error. We know that he regretted it himself. That he re- 
 pented it (which is so commonly assumed) is not so clear. 
 But what if he did ? Human life must always be in some
 
 314 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 measure a came of chance. The wisest choice will often 
 
 O 
 
 turn out the unluckiest ; and however we may wish, after the 
 event is known, that we had made some other, still if it was 
 the wisest it was the right choice to make, let it turn out as 
 unluckily as it will. Whether Bacon's choice on this occa- 
 sion was the wisest or not, I am not prepared to say. But I 
 do say and I expect you to agree with me that the occa- 
 sion was one in which a man who had the public good at 
 heart might easily doubt which choice to make. I am in a 
 hurry to keep an important appointment ; but if I meet by 
 the way with a man who has fallen among thieves, I must 
 stop to bind up his wounds, even though by the breach 
 of the appointment some better man loses more than the 
 wounded man gains by my surgery. And if I should say 
 afterwards (as I very likely may) that I am sorry I did not 
 keep the appointment, I hope no one will understand me as 
 deliberately wishing that I had left the man to bleed to death. 
 Bacon was in a hurry to finish the " Instauratio Magna." 
 But he fell in by the way with a great accident which called 
 for present help. A breach was opened between the King 
 and the Commons, which was destined to grow every year 
 wider and wider, till it led to a civil war, which issued in 
 the violent subversion, first of the old government, then of 
 the new, to make way for a third worse than either. It is 
 surely possible to conceive that to one who foresaw in the 
 distance some such possible issue, the first opening of that 
 breach may have seemed like an accident which called all 
 hands to the rescue. 
 
 But we will talk further of that when we come to it. In 
 the mean time it is well that you should know what about 
 this time was Bacon's own idea of his vocation in the world. 
 I have given you my notion of the principles upon which he 
 was acting and the ends at which he was aiming, as I have 
 been able to collect them from the traces which remain of 
 his actual course. I \vill now give you his own as he had 
 himself recorded it, somewhere about this time. I say had 
 recorded, because the record is contained in an old paper 
 which he had laid by long before he gave his great work to
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 315 
 
 the world ; and which no doubt represents his feelings at the 
 time when it was written. The exact date I cannot tell. It 
 was found among his papers, and was published many years 
 after his death with no explanation beyond the title. It bears 
 evidence however in itself that it was written about the 
 middle of his life, before he had attained any success in his 
 civil career, and probably at the time when he meant his 
 great work to be comprised in three books, under the title 
 of Temporis Parties Mascuhis, sive de Interpretatione Naturse. 
 It is headed " De Interpretatione Naturte Prooemium" and if 
 he had completed the work in that form and at that time, 
 would I suppose have stood as the introduction. I translate 
 freely, as far as the expression is concerned ; but only that I 
 may give the true meaning and effect the more exactly. 
 
 DE INTERIOR ETATI ONE ISUTUR.E, 
 PROOEMIUM. 
 
 " Conceiving that I was born to be of use to mankind, 
 and that the care of the Common Weal is a kind of common 
 property, which like the air and the water belongs to every- 
 body, I set myself to consider in what way mankind might 
 be most effectually served, and what I was myself best fitted 
 by nature to do. 
 
 " And upon the first point I concluded that of all the 
 benefits that can be conferred upon the human race, the 
 greatest is the discovery of new arts, endowments, and com- 
 modities for the benefit of man's life. For I saw that among 
 the rude people in the primitive times, the authors of rude 
 inventions and discoveries were consecrated arid numbered 
 among the gods. And it was plain that the good effects 
 wrought by founders of cities, law-givers, fathers of the 
 people, extirpers of tyrants, and heroes of that class, extend 
 but over narrow spaces and last but for short times ; whereas 
 the work of the Inventor, though a thing of less pomp and 
 show, is felt everywhere and lasts for ever. But above all? 
 if instead of striking out some particular invention, how- 
 ever useful a man could kindle a light in Nature herself, 
 a light that should in its very rising touch and illuminate
 
 316 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 all the border-regions that confine upon the circle of our 
 present knowledge ; and so spreading further and further 
 should presently disclose and bring into sight all that is 
 most hidden and secret in the world ; that man (I thought) 
 would be the benefactor indeed of the human race, the pro- 
 pagator of man's empire over the universe, the champion of 
 liberty, the conqueror and rooter out of necessities. 
 
 " Then, turning to myself, I found that I was fitted for 
 nothing so well as for the study of Truth ; as having a mind 
 nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of 
 things (which is the greatest point), and at the same time 
 steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differ- 
 ences ; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience 
 to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness 
 to think again, carefulness to dispose and set in order ; and 
 as being a man that neither affects the new, nor admires the 
 old, and hates every kind of imposture. So that I thought 
 my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with 
 Truth. 
 
 " And yet because my birth and education had seasoned 
 me in business of State ; and because opinions (so young as 
 I was) would sometimes stagger me ; and because I thought 
 that a man's own country has some special claims upon him 
 more than the rest of the world ; and because I hoped that 
 if I rose to any place of honour in the State I should have 
 a larger command of ability and industry to help me in my 
 work ; for these reasons I both applied myself to acquire 
 the arts of civil life, and commended my services, so far as 
 in modesty and honesty I might, to the favour of my 
 powerful friends. In which also 1. had another motive ; 
 for I felt that those things I have spoken of (be they great 
 or small) reach no further than the condition and culture of 
 this mortal life; and J was not without hope (the condition 
 of Religion being at that time not very prosperous) that if 
 I came to hold office in the State, I might get something 
 done too for the good of men's souls. 
 
 " When I found however that my xeal was mistaken for 
 ambition; and that my life had already reached the turning-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 317 
 
 point ; and when my breaking health reminded me how ill I 
 could afford to be so slow ; and when I reflected moreover 
 that in leaving undone the good which I could do by myself 
 alone, and applying myself to that which could not be done 
 without the consent and help of others, I was by no means 
 discharging the duty which lay upon me, I put all those 
 thoughts aside, and (in pursuance of my old determination) 
 betook myself wholly to this work. Nor am I discouraged 
 from it, because I see signs in the times of the decline and 
 overthrow of that knowledge and erudition which is now in 
 use. For though I do not apprehend any more barbarian 
 incursions (unless possibly the Spanish empire should first 
 recover strength to crush other nations by arms, and then 
 sink under its own weight), yet the civil wars which may be 
 expected, I think, (judging from certain fashions that have 
 come in of late,) to spread over many countries, together 
 with the malignity of sects, and those compendious artifices 
 and devices that have crept into the place of solid erudition, 
 seem, to portend for literature and the sciences a tempest 
 no less fatal ; and one against which the Printing-office will 
 be no effectual security. And no doubt but that fair- 
 weather learning which is nursed by leisure and blossoms 
 under reward and praise, which cannot stand out against the 
 violence of opinion, and is liable to be abused by artifices 
 and quackery, will sink under such impediments as these. 
 Far otherwise is it with that Knowledge whose dignity is 
 maintained by works of utility and power. For the wrongs 
 therefore which the times may threaten, I am not afraid of 
 them ; and for the wrongs which men may offer, I am not 
 concerned. For if any one charge me with seeking to be wise 
 overmuch, I answer simply that modesty and civil respect 
 are for civil matters ; in contemplations nothing is to be re- 
 spected but Truth. If any one call on me for works, and that 
 presently, I tell him frankly, without any varnish at all, that 
 for me, a man not old, of weak health, my hands full of civil 
 business, entering without guide or light upon an argument 
 of all others the most obscure, I hold it enough to have 
 
 ' O 
 
 constructed the machine, though I may not succeed in setting
 
 318 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIE WEE. 
 
 it to work. Nay I will admit further that it would be 
 an error in me to make the attempt ; for that the Interpre- 
 tation of Nature, rightly conducted, ought, in the first steps 
 of the ascent, until a certain stage of Generals be reached, to 
 be kept clear of all application to works. And this has been 
 in fact the error of all those who have heretofore ventured 
 themselves at all upon the waves of experience, that, being 
 either too weak of purpose or too eager for display, they 
 have all at the outset sought prematurely for works, as 
 proofs and pledges of their progress, and upon that rock 
 have been wrecked and cast away. If again any one ask 
 me, not indeed for actual works, yet for definite promises 
 and forecasts of the works that are to be, I would have him, 
 know that the knowledge which we now possess will not 
 teach a man even what to ivish. Lastly (though this be a 
 matter of less moment) if any of our politicians, that use 
 to value everything according to persons or precedents, 
 must needs interpose his judgment in a thing of this nature, 
 I would but remind him how (according to the old fable) 
 the lame man that kept the course beat the swift man who 
 left it ; and that there is no thought to be taken about pre- 
 cedents, for the thing is without precedent. 
 
 " Now for my plan of publication, it is this. Those 
 parts of the work which have it for their object to find out 
 and bring into correspondence such minds as are prepared 
 and disposed for the argument, and to purge the floors of 
 men's understandings, I wish to be published to the world 
 and circulate from mouth to mouth ; the rest I would have 
 passed from hand to hand witli selection and judgment. 
 Not but that I know it is an old trick of impostors to keep a 
 few of their follies back from the public which are indeed no 
 better than those which they put forward; but in this case 
 it is no imposture at all, but a sound foresight, which tells 
 me that the formula itself of Interpretation, and the dis- 
 coveries made by the same, will thrive better if committed 
 to the charge of some fit and selected minds, and kept 
 private. 
 
 " However, the risk' is none of mine. In so far as the
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 319 
 
 issue depends upon others, it is indifferent to me, I am not 
 hunting for fame ; I have no ambition (heresiarch-wise) to 
 found a sect ; and to look for any private gain from such an 
 undertaking as this, would be as ridiculous as base. Enough 
 for me the consciousness of well-deserving, and those real 
 and effectual results with which Fortune itself cannot inter- 
 fere." 
 
 A. 
 
 What a magnificent overture ! Why did he suppress it, 
 I wonder? 
 
 B. 
 
 You know the case had changed before he published the 
 " Novurn Organum." He had re-engaged himself in politics, 
 was no longer wholly betaken to this work. But indeed 
 he rather altered than suppressed it. The substance of the 
 more material part of it is to be found in the first book of 
 the "Novum Organum." It is distributed through several 
 different aphorisms, and brought out more fully and per- 
 fectly. But I think it is all there, except the autobiogra- 
 phical part, and the prophecy of civil wars ; both of which 
 are interesting, though I dare say he was quite right to 
 leave them out. The latter seems decisively to disprove 
 the assertion, commonly (though I think negligently) made, 
 that he had no foresight of the danger with which the 
 Government was threatened from the progress of popular 
 opinion. And the former is, I believe, the only piece of 
 autobiography in which he ever indulged. In the preface 
 to the " Novum Organum " he leaves it with a simple " De 
 ndbis ipsis silemus" 
 
 A. 
 
 Which I like still better. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, the silence is great ; but we should not have known 
 how great, without knowing as we do from this, how much 
 lay beneath it, what it was that he did not think it neces- 
 sary to say.
 
 320 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 The interval of repose, then, carries him to the end of 
 his forty-ninth year. I shall be curious to hear what it was 
 that brought him back into the turmoil. The reviewer 
 gives us no light upon the subject. 
 
 B. 
 
 No. lie must wait a little longer till we come up with 
 him.
 
 EVENING THE NINTH. 
 
 B. 
 
 I undertook to explain the nature of the emergency 
 which interrupted Bacon in the prosecution of his great 
 work, and called him back to the service of the State. And 
 if you will be content with a general explanation, I do not 
 know that I need be long about it. But if you look for 
 details and authorities 
 
 A. 
 
 never mind the details. Make me understand gene- 
 rally what was the matter. I can ask for particulars after- 
 wards if I like. 
 
 B. 
 
 The matter was the disease for which Falstaff could find 
 no remedy, the consumption of the purse ; an awkward 
 disease in itself for a Kino;, and one which was fast breeding 
 
 Q* O 
 
 others of a more dangerous character. King James, to say 
 the worst of him, could not easily deny himself any pleasure ; 
 and unfortunately one of his chief pleasures was to give to 
 those whom he liked whatever they wished to have ; in 
 consequence of which he soon had much less than nothing- 
 left of his own. He had reigned with this infirmity for six 
 
 O / 
 
 years, when his Lord Treasurer, the old Earl of Dorset, 
 died ; leaving the Exchequer in a miserable condition. 
 The ordinary expenditure exceeded the ordinary income 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 by 81,000?. a-year ; besides which there was a debt of 
 1,300,0007. ; and this at a time when the regular revenue 
 of the Crown was expected to meet all its ordinary occasions 
 without any assistance from parliament. 
 
 Salisbury was made Lord Treasurer, and lost no time in 
 setting his brains to deal with the difficulty ; and if diligence, 
 subtlety, activity, and finesse, had been enough for the task, 
 perhaps there was no man more likely to succeed. But he 
 had here a new case to deal with, and the event showed that 
 he did not thoroughly understand it. It may be doubted 
 indeed whether, when he began, he understood it at all. 
 For though he succeeded in reducing the debt by 900,000?. 
 and in considerably increasing the ordinary revenue, yet the 
 amendment was but partial, and it was effected chiefly by 
 measures which stood directly in the way of the only remedy 
 that could be really effectual and satisfactory. He had 
 not been long in office, however, before he did understand 
 thus much, that that remedy must come from parliament ; 
 and that, since the precedents of parliament showed no 
 instance of a supply at all adequate to the emergency, some 
 new occasion must be created that should lie out of the 
 region of precedents. Xay, he probably saw likewise that 
 it would be necessary to place the Crown and the Commons 
 permanently in a new relation to each other, so far as 
 revenue was concerned. Such a necessity was certainly 
 coming on fast. As the wealth and population of the 
 kingdom grew, the expenses of Government could not but 
 increase ; yet the Crown revenues were not increasing in 
 anything like that proportion ; and in the mean time the 
 value of the old parliamentary contribution, the "one 
 subsidy and two fifteens," was rapidly diminishing. The 
 subsidy was indeed at this time less by at least a third than 
 it had been in the beginning of Queen Eli/abeth's reign. 
 
 A. 
 
 How do you mean ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I mean that three subsidies in James's time did not 
 bring as many pounds into the Exchequer as two did iii'ty
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 323 
 
 years before. I cannot tell you why ; but so it was. And 
 therefore it may well be doubted whether the Government, 
 even with the strictest economy in the husbandry as well as 
 in the distribution of its means, could have gone on much 
 longer upon the old system. But however that may be, 
 there could be no doult that the immediate necessity with 
 which Salisbury had to deal, made some extraordinary 
 course absolutely indispensable ; and the very ticklish 
 terms upon which Prerogative and Privilege then stood 
 made the choice of that course extremely difficult and 
 hazardous. 
 
 A. 
 
 I can easily believe that : an admission of the truth 
 being, I suppose, hardly practicable. 
 
 B. 
 
 An exposure of the truth naked being at least very 
 undesirable. "Where it is the fashion to wear clothes, you 
 know, Innocence herself must go drest, or she will be mis- 
 taken for something quite different. But in this case the 
 danger was not so much in letting the truth be known (if 
 it had been possible to know it fully), as in letting the 
 questions be agitated through which it was to be ap- 
 proached. The boundary-line between the power of the 
 Crown and the power of the Commons had not yet been 
 laid down. 
 
 A. 
 
 Was not yet correctly understood, you mean. 
 
 B. 
 
 No ; that is just what I do not mean. I mean what I 
 say, that it had not yet been laid down. I mean that 
 there u'as no boundary-line. And it is important to keep 
 this distinction in mind; because modern writers are too 
 apt to talk as if the principles of the constitution liad 
 always been there and always been the same ; only had not 
 always been properly understood ; as if this thing might be
 
 324 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 spoken of as in itself constitutional, and that thing as in 
 itself unconstitutional, without reference to the time of 
 which you speak. Whereas in fact not merely the know- 
 ledge of the constitution but the constitution itself was 
 growing ; growing, and changing as it grew ; nor is there 
 any period of its growth in which a different combination 
 of accidents might not have made it grow in a different way. 
 Is it constitutional, for instance, that Privy-Councillors 
 should sit and vote in the House of Commons ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes ; beyond all question. 
 
 B. 
 
 Beyond all question now, I grant. The accidents have 
 so settled it. But in the year 1G14 that very point was so 
 far from being beyond question, that it was actually under 
 discussion and within an inch of being settled the other 
 way. That the Attorney-General should sit and vote in 
 the Commons was actually decided to be unconstitutional. 
 Of course I do not mean that decisions of such questions 
 are merely capricious. They are meant to be decided 
 according to reason. But reasons turn chiefly upon pre- 
 cedents ; and precedents are for the most part determined 
 by accident. 
 
 This, however, is all a digression ; and for our present 
 purpose it is not necessary that we should agree on the 
 point. It will at any rate be admitted that many con- 
 stitutional questions were as yet undetermined. Xow in 
 the case before us, the question which remained to bo de- 
 termined was this how far, according to the- laws and 
 usages of the laud, was the King dependent upon the House 
 of Commons for means to carry on the Government ? That 
 lie could not carry it on comfortably or prosperously with- 
 out their help, was plain enough: but could lie carry it on 
 at all ? Now tell me : Do you think it was desirable, as 
 things then stood, to push such a question, or allow it to 
 be pushed, to a definite issue ? And before you answer,
 
 EVENINGS WITH A RE VIE WEE. 325 
 
 remember what practical inferences must have been imme- 
 diately drawn from it, and what momentous consequences 
 were involved in them, especially if the answer were " No." 
 
 A. 
 
 If the King could not carry on the Government con- 
 stitutionally without assistance from the House of Commons, 
 it followed (you would say) that the Commons had con- 
 stitutionally a veto, such as it has now, upon all the pro- 
 ceedings of the Government ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Precisely. Do this, or we stop the supplies. 
 
 A. 
 
 It would have been a revolution, no doubt ; and a re- 
 volution (I do think) far too great to come safely upon the 
 nation, if it came suddenly. Even coming as it did after 
 the civil war, (for the civil war itself may be considered, 
 I suppose, rather as the answer to the question than as a 
 consequence involved in the answer) great preparations 
 wore found necessary for the entertainment of it. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes. The art of packing and corrupting the House of 
 Commons, which had been scarcely thought of in James's 
 time, and was then reckoned unconstitutional, had to be 
 studied and brought into fashion. And if it had been 
 studied less diligently or practised with less success, we 
 hardly know now whether the State could have borne 
 without some great disorder the full recognition of the 
 dependence of the Crown upon the Commons. And in 
 prospect, it must of course have looked more alarming than 
 we can guess from our retrospect. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well : the problem then was, to induce the Commons to 
 supply the King's necessities without tempting them to in-
 
 326 EVENTXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 quire too curiously into the extremity of his case, or to ask 
 what would happen to him or to them if they left him 
 unsupplied. Yes. I see the difficulty of it. It was such 
 a case as two wise men acting solely for themselves and 
 upon their own judgment might have found hard to adjust, 
 and for two such parties as a legitimate King and a popular 
 House of Commons to settle it between them, must have 
 been a very formidable enterprise. And yet I think great 
 use might have been made of the occasion by a man of real 
 ability. 
 
 B. 
 
 Ay ; if a man could have been found who had sense 
 and courage enough to understand the whole case and all 
 its possible issues ; who had public spirit enough to sym- 
 pathize with both parties and desire their common good ; 
 who had enough of the confidence of both to be listened to 
 on either side with respect and without suspicion ; who had 
 address enough to keep them both from treading too near 
 the dangerous places ; such a man might have turned the 
 difficulty to an excellent account, and have brought out of it 
 a result greatly to the advantage of all. He might have 
 rendered a service to his country as nearly immortal as 
 anything in this world can be. But unfortunately Salisbury 
 was not such a man. That he did not fully understand the 
 case is unquestionable ; for he had it in his own hands and 
 it signally failed. And one would almost think (as I said 
 
 ~ *' 
 
 just now) that when he first took it up he did not under- 
 stand it at all. At least if he had been deliberately looking 
 out for an obstacle to throw in the way, I hardly know what 
 he could have found more effectual than his first measure. 
 
 A. 
 
 What might that be ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I dare say you know that the question of Impositions had 
 already been agitated in the .House of Commons : the ques- 
 tion (I mean) whether the King had a right by his preroga-
 
 EVENINGS WTTII A REVIEWER. 327 
 
 tive to impose duties without the sanction of parliament upon 
 goods exported and imported. It was true that a case which 
 turned upon that question had been recently argued in the 
 Court of Exchequer, and the Judges had decided that the 
 King had such a right. But it was also true that in the last 
 parliament that very decision had been complained of and 
 controverted ; and it was quite plain that it had by no means 
 set the question at rest. It was just one of those stretches of 
 prerogative of which the Commons were most jealous ; per- 
 haps with most reason. Yet the very first thing Salisbury 
 did, after he was made Lord Treasurer, was to stretch this 
 very power further than it had ever been stretched before ; 
 to lay on at one clap, by the sole virtue of this disputed 
 right, duties to the amount of G0,000/. a year. Whether it 
 was done in inconsiderate haste, as the readiest shift to 
 make the ordinary receipts equal to the ordinary expenditure 
 and stop the accumulation of debt ; or whether he had some 
 further reach in it, as thinking perhaps to enhance the 
 value of a prerogative which he meant to sell, or by in- 
 creasing the burden to make the Commons more eager to 
 bargain for the removal of it, I cannot say. But so it was. 
 And a very mischievous measure it proved. 
 
 A. 
 
 I dare say it was only to enhance the value of his own 
 services in the King's eyes, and so establish himself in his 
 new seat. 
 
 B. 
 
 Well, that may be. It is the simplest explanation, and 
 very likely the true one. And now you mention it, I re- 
 member something which rather confirms it. There is a 
 curious paper in the British Museum drawn up by Sir 
 Julius Ca3sar, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 It contains a journal record of Salisbury's services during 
 the first two months of his Treasurership ; and seems to have 
 been drawn up (in perfect good faith, I do not doubt) for 
 the express purpose of magnifying to the King the merits of
 
 328 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 his now Lord Treasurer. The particular business of the 
 Impositions is thus recorded : 
 
 " Oil Saturday the 11 tli of Juno, the Lord Treasurer, attended 
 by the Chancellor and the Barons of the Exchequer, went to the 
 Custom House, and there in the assembly of the chief merchants 
 of England, assembled from all the principal parts of the land, 
 did make an excellent speech to prove that Impositions might 
 lawfully bo imposed by sovereign kings and princes on all 
 merchandises issuing out or coming into their ports ; that no 
 King, living or dead, doth or ever did deserve better for the con- 
 tinuance of that privilege than our sovereign King James, who 
 in his excellent virtues, natural, moral, and political, surmounteth 
 all other kings living or dead ; that his present necessities 
 occasioned for the use of the public, especially for Ireland, con- 
 trary to his own will and the admirable sweetness of his own. 
 natural inclination, have occasioned him to use this lawful and 
 just means of profit; which speech he had no sooner knit up 
 with a particular repetition of Impositions now seeming burden- 
 some and ordered by his Majesty for the case of his subjects to 
 be lightened, and likewise most things of necessary important 
 use to the poor to be excepted from any imposition, than every 
 man, after some little contradiction, assented to this general im- 
 position now established ; which will prove the most gainful to 
 the King of any one day's work done by any one Lord Treasurer 
 since the time of King Edward III." 
 
 The whole journal of Salisbury's services during these 
 two months is summed up iii these words : 
 
 " He hath moreover, to the King's great honour, lessened the 
 Impositions upon the commodities of currants, sugars, and to- 
 bacco; and hath, to the King's great profit and the benefit of his 
 posterity, increased his revenue by new Impositions general 
 upon other merchandises to the value of (iO,OOOZ. a year; and 
 likewise hath raised a like benefit of 10,000?. a year increase 
 upon ale-houses licensed. 
 
 "So that, besides his other continual employments both in 
 this high place and other his important and great places, he 
 hath in the space of two months and twenty days directed and 
 signed 2884 letters, and gotten to the King in money 37,455?. 
 and in yearly revenues 71,100/. ; which I dare confidently affirm 
 was never done by any Lord Treasurer of England in two years. 
 (.* oil's name be glorified for it, and honoured bo our gracious
 
 WITH A REVIEWER. 320 
 
 Sovereign, who made the choice of so diligent and gracious a 
 servant : and recommended be that servant who hath the con- 
 science to discharge his duty to so gracious a Sovereign, whose 
 long experienced judgment can rightly deem of men's deserts, 
 and wisely distinguish between truth and falsehood." 
 
 So the good Sir Julius ; Salisbury himself (wo may 
 suppose) not being unwilling that all this fuss should be 
 made about him. His uppermost object, I dare say, was to 
 make the King feel that lie could not spare so diligent and 
 so profitable a servant. It was his best defence against the 
 rising influence of Carr, and the machinations of his Court 
 enemies. But we are wandering again. 
 
 All this was done. But all this was not nearly enough. 
 The Crown still laboured under a debt of 400,000?. and a 
 large annual deficiency. The next step therefore was to 
 think of some benefit to the people, in return for which 
 (being conditionally offered) the Commons might be induced 
 to vote a supply adequate to the wants of the Government. 
 And certainly the scheme which Salisbury devised with this 
 view was a large and imposing, and (had it been wisely 
 digested and prudently carried) might have proved a very 
 happy one. The revenue of the Crown was in those days 
 drawn from many sources besides its patrimonial property ; 
 chiefly from certain tenures and privileges, such as Ward- 
 ships, Knights'-service, Purveyance, and others, the par- 
 ticular nature of whicli I cannot undertake to explain : 
 remnants of the feudal system, which the times were fast 
 outgrowing ; privileges which had come to be burdensome 
 to the people in a degree much greater, I fancy, than they 
 were valuable to the crown ; and what was worse, (the 
 system and occasions out of which they originally grew 
 being forgotten,) had come to be looked upon and felt as 
 grievances. Yet that these rights did belong to the Crown 
 and formed a regular and legitimate source of revenue was 
 
 o o 
 
 not disputed. Here therefore were all the essential elements 
 of a just and advantageous arrangement for both parties. 
 A fixed revenue of equal amount derived from taxation 
 would have been better for the Kins:. .And even a con-
 
 330 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 siderably larger revenue so supplied would have been much 
 better for the people. There remained only the old difficulty, 
 incident to all the bargains that are made under the sun, 
 the difficulty of inducing the contracting parties to deal 
 frankly and openly, with just and reasonable desires on both 
 sides ; instead of higgling and trying above all things to 
 overreach one another, or (which is almost as bad) taking 
 care above all things not to bo overreached. It must be ad- 
 mitted, however, that this difficulty was in the particular 
 case unusually great. The Commons, jealous, ambitious, 
 conscious of their advantage, many, and full of lawyers ; 
 the King, irritable, impatient, loose-tongued, conscious of 
 his disadvantage and struggling to face it out, his heart 
 full of anxiety about his estate, his mouth full of prerogative 
 and divine right ; how were two such parties to come to 
 an understanding on such a subject? Everything would of 
 course depend upon the discreet opening and conducting of 
 it by those ministers who stood between the two and had 
 influence with both. And here again it must be admitted 
 that Salisbury, with all his experience, dexterity, and 
 practised diplomatism, made great mistakes ; so great as to 
 give some colour to the suspicion that he had some other end 
 in view, and did not sincerely wish the negotiation to 
 succeed according to the professed design. Such was 
 certainly Bacon's impression ; though I cannot find that he 
 had any definite conjecture as to what the real end was. 
 
 A. 
 
 Stop ; you are going a little too fast for me. AYhat kind 
 of mistakes did he make ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I will tell you as well as I can. But our accounts of the 
 progress of the business and the causes which broke it off 
 are so imperfect that much must be left to conjecture ; and 
 I must confess that the best conjectures which I have 
 myself been able to make; leave much unexplained and un- 
 accounted for. But there are two principal features in his
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 331 
 
 management of the negotiation concerning which there is no 
 doubt; and I think we may safely (especially after the 
 event) pronounce them great mistakes. 
 
 In the first place, whatever might be the causes in which 
 the proposition originated, the proposed arrangement both 
 professed to be and was for the good of the State. It was to 
 establish the necessary powers and revenues of the Crown 
 upon a foundation less inconvenient and obnoxious to the 
 people. Now in such a case what would you have set forth 
 as the ostensible motives and inducements to the measure ? 
 
 A. 
 
 The benefits which it promised, of course. 
 
 B. 
 
 Exactly so. The necessities and embarrassments of the 
 Crown should have been kept out of sight ; and the substan- 
 tial benefits of the measure, as a thing good for the common- 
 wealth, should have been boldly relied upon as the only and 
 sufficient recommendation of it. But what did Salisbury 
 do ? He began by a public and official proclamation of the 
 King's pecuniary distress, the amount of his debts, the in- 
 sufficiency of his ordinary income to meet his ordinary ex- 
 penditure, and his utter inability to extricate himself from 
 his embarrassments without a very liberal supply from the 
 benevolence of the people. As if a man, going to borrow 
 money of a Jew, were to begin (by way of inducing him to a 
 reasonable bargain) with saying, " Here is a schedule of my 
 debts ; my creditors are impatient and unrelenting ; there- 
 fore you see I am entirely at your mercy." Surely this was 
 to tell the Commons in so many words that they had the 
 King at a disadvantage and might make what terms they 
 pleased. For they need be in no hurry. They were in no 
 extremity. On the contrary, they were flourishing in a 
 wealthy peace. The burdens they suffered could hardly be 
 called oppressions. The cry of grievances was not the cry 
 which is sometimes wrung from a people by burdens in- 
 creased till they become intolerable ; rather that of a people
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 whose burdens are just heavy enough to irritate, but not 
 heavy enough to oppress. And of these they were in fact 
 rapidly relieving themselves, and rapidly winning the game. 
 It was the exultation of success, not the agony of despair, 
 that made James's parliaments difficult to manage. They 
 kicked because they had waxed fat. 
 
 Well, the foundation being thus ill-laid, and the distresses 
 of the Crown being officially proclaimed and thrown into the 
 House of Commons to be examined and discussed, then 
 came the second great mistake. By way of remedy the 
 Commons were invited to provide for the King both a pre- 
 sent supply sufficient to relieve him from his present 
 necessities (for which G00,000/. was asked), and a permanent 
 income for the future, sufficient for the annual expenditure 
 of government (which was laid at 200,000^. a year) ; and by 
 way of retribution for this provision, it was intimated that 
 the King was ready to hear and redress all their grievances. 
 
 A. 
 
 Including Wardships, Purveyance, &c., I suppose ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Why yes, I suppose the design was to include them. It 
 could hardly have been hoped that the arrangement would 
 proceed otherwise. But they were as yet kept in the back- 
 ground. The redress of grievances was held out in the 
 beginning as a sufficient retribution. The sacrifice by the 
 Crown of a portion of its legitimate revenue was not spoken 
 of; and when it came to be proposed afterwards was treated 
 as a matter for a separate bargain, worth another 100,000?. 
 a year. However, though Salisbury would not show his 
 whole budget at first, I cannot doubt that he was from the 
 first prepared to fall back upon these as the bargain pro- 
 ceeded, and meant them in fact to form the substantial part 
 of the retribution. 
 
 A. 
 
 Of course he would not throw away his whole "bag of 
 equivalents " until he had felt his footing. But where was
 
 WITH A EE VIEWER. 333 
 
 his mistake? I thought you admitted just now that such a 
 change would be good for both parties. 
 
 B. 
 
 No doubt, it was better that the King should receive his 
 50,000?. a year (or whatever the sum might be) from a well- 
 ordered tax or duty than from the Court of Wards ; I do not 
 find fault with that. But do you think the Commons were 
 so dull as not to see, that if they both paid off the King's 
 debts and assigned him a permanent income large enough to 
 enable him to carry on the government without an occasional 
 subsidy from them, the tables would be turned and they 
 would be thenceforward at his mercy ? Give him money 
 enough, and what need would he have to call any more par- 
 liaments? or what should hinder him from calling them 
 only to do his work, and dissolving them the moment they 
 began to do any work for themselves ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes, I see. It must indeed have been a large concession 
 that would have made it their interest to give up that hold 
 upon him. 
 
 B. 
 
 Would any conceivable concession have been large 
 enough ? Would it not have been fatal to the popular 
 element in the constitution? Even the best-devised laws 
 for securing the liberties of the people could not have been 
 trusted when that check was taken away. Take away the 
 fear of parliaments, and the lawyers would have made the 
 laws mean just what they liked. 
 
 " Certainly," said Bacon, writing to the King two or three 
 years after, " when I heard the overtures last parliament carried 
 in such a strange figure and idea, as if your Majesty should no 
 more (for matter of profit) have needed your subjects' help ; nor 
 your subjects in that kind should no more have needed your 
 graces and benignity ; methought, besides the difficulty (in next 
 degree to an impossibility) it was animalis sapientia, and almost 
 contrary to the very frame of a monarchy and those original
 
 334 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWEE. 
 
 obligations which it is God's will should intercede between King 
 and people." 
 
 It is very doubtful to me whether any true friend to the 
 entire constitution could have wished for the consummation 
 of such an arrangement. It was very certain that the 
 Commons (being, as a body, true friends only to their own 
 half of the constitution) would be stimulated by such a 
 proposal to rake up every possible grievance that might be 
 thrown as an additional weight into their own scale, and to 
 stir every disputed question which, being decided in their 
 favour, would disparage the value of the concessions which 
 the King was prepared to make. And what could a negotia- 
 tion so commenced be expected to lead to but turbulent and 
 irritating litigation while it lasted, and in the end to a fruit- 
 less breaking-off with mutual dissatisfaction ? 
 
 With regard to the details of the actual proceeding we 
 have a good deal of scattered information, partly in the 
 fragmentary notes preserved in the Commons' Journals (too 
 fragmentary to be understood), partly in general reports of 
 the progress of the session sent from one friend to another 
 and preserved in collections of contemporary correspondence; 
 but hardly sufficient to ground a faithful narrative upon. 
 Enough remains however to prove beyond doubt that the 
 proceeding was full of offence and irritation, and that tho 
 end was utter failure, which left the relation between King 
 and Commons in a worse condition than ever, and all chance 
 of a satisfactory adjustment thenceforward greatly di- 
 minished. 
 
 The first thing was a general raking-up of grievances ; a 
 thing which of itself could hardly end pleasantly : for they 
 were sure to light upon some which could not be redressed, 
 and these would but smart the more for being probed. But 
 it was impossible for them to get through the list of 
 grievances without falling upon the question of Impositions. 
 Salisbury's much-vaunted day's work made this inevitable. 
 The valuation of the concessions offered by the King could 
 not proceed a step until it was determined whether so im- 
 portant and indefinite a power as that of setting duties upon
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 335 
 
 imports and exports at his own will, were his to concede or 
 not. The very entrance upon the question, as might have 
 been expected, bred trouble. Angry speeches passed between 
 the Upper and Lower House. The King with characteristic 
 precipitation forbade the Commons to discuss his right, and, 
 upon their remonstrance, with characteristic facility with- 
 drew his objection but not till thoughts had been suggested 
 and words spoken which were like sparks in the neighbour- 
 hood of gunpowder. The discussion ended, as might also 
 have been anticipated, in a vote that the King had no such 
 right ; and though they abstained from a formal resolution 
 to that effect, which would have been a direct censure upon 
 the judgment in the Court of Exchequer, they yet took care 
 to introduce it in the petition of grievances in such a 
 manner as distinctly to imply a denial of the King's right ; 
 whence it followed that his consent to pass an act depriving 
 him of this power for the future, (and to this he did after- 
 wards consent,) which would have been received as a great 
 boon had it come before that discussion, now went for 
 nothing. Then came searching inquiries into all the other 
 points of prerogative and the proper value of them ; and 
 then all the higgling incident to a bargain in which neither 
 party knew how much the other was prepared to give. And 
 in this also it must be added as another proof of Salisbury's 
 mismanagement, that the huckster-spirit was more glaringly 
 displayed on his side than on the other. 
 
 Nevertheless the time was certainly favourable. There 
 appears to have been an eager desire to conclude an arrange- 
 ment upon the proposed basis, and great hope that it would 
 be effected. Intelligent men who were by no means blind 
 to the difficulties of the case did certainly expect that it 
 would end at last in some great beneficial arrangement for 
 the commonwealth : and at one time it seemed upon the 
 very point of adjustment : for by the latter end of July the 
 Commons had formally agreed to assure to the Crown, in 
 consideration of certain specified concessions, an annual 
 revenue of 200,000?. ; while the King, on his side, had 
 intimated his willingness to make the concessions and accept
 
 336 EVENINGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 
 
 the money. In short, they had agreed on the substance of 
 the bargain ; and it only remained to give and take effectual 
 securities on either side for the due performance. In this 
 no doubt there were many difficulties still to be encountered. 
 But this preliminary agreement (to which the Commons 
 had been brought at last and reluctantly by a sudden inti- 
 mation that if they did not agree at once the negotiation 
 would be broken off altogether) was thought a good enough 
 resting-place for the time : whereupon they were prorogued 
 for three months, with an understanding that at their next 
 meeting they should take up the business where it had been 
 left off. 
 
 A. 
 
 A fixed revenue of 200,000?. a year, assured to the Crown 
 for ever, and not requiring any renewed sanction from par- 
 liament, I suppose. But stay that was only for the support. 
 "What became of the proposal for a present supply ? 
 
 B. 
 
 True: for which Salisbury had asked G00,000/. Why, 
 for the present, little or nothing. They had voted one 
 subsidy and one fifteenth ; the smallest contribution ever 
 voted, I believe ; not above a fifth part of the demand. 
 However that was of no great consequence, considering the 
 time. It would have been hardly reasonable to expect a full 
 contribution until the rest of the bargain was concluded. 
 To vote that would have boon to give up their present 
 advantage. Many accidents might frustrate the bargain 
 yet ; and after all (though but a few days before the close 
 of the session they seemed "like to part on the lovingest 
 terms that ever any subjects of England did rise from par- 
 liament "_) tlioir final leave-taking was not auspicious. The 
 greater part of the petition of grievances had hitherto re- 
 mained unanswered. The answer was reserved until the 
 day of prorogation, and when it camo was very far from 
 satisfactory. So they were sent into the country to meditate 
 for three months upon what they had done and what they 
 were to do, in no very good humour.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 337 
 
 A. 
 
 And how did it all end ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Ask me in what it ended, and I can tell you easily 
 enough : in nothing at all, but mutual disappointment and 
 vexation. Hoiv it ended, is a question which (strange to 
 say) nobody can answer. Most of our historians impute the 
 change to the House of Commons. When they met again 
 (it is said) they were out of love with the project ; and 
 instead of setting themselves to conclude the arrangement 
 which they had agreed upon, took to the exhibition of fresh 
 grievances or the ripping up of old grievances anew. And 
 certain it is that within a month of their meeting they were 
 in full cry upon that scent, and in very bad humour. That 
 they were in that disposition when they met I should think 
 probable, not so much from any evidence that I can find 
 of the fact, as from the nature of the case. Three months 
 spent in talking over their bargain with their constituents 
 or with one another would naturally tend to diminish their 
 satisfaction with it. All opinions would concur in exagge- 
 rating the sacrifice they had agreed to make, and in under- 
 valuing the retributions for which they had stipulated. I 
 should have been contented therefore with this explanation 
 of the commencement of the breach, if it were not for some 
 expressions dropped by Bacon, (and in letters to the King, 
 to whom he would not offer an unlikely story,) which would 
 seem to ascribe the breaking-off of the contract to Salisbury 
 himself. In a letter written not long after Salisbury's death, 
 the object of which was to persuade the King to call 
 a parliament, and to show that the failure of the last need 
 not cause him to despair of good from another, he concludes 
 his examination of the grounds upon which he builds better 
 hopes for the future with these remarkable words : " Lastly, 
 I cannot excuse him that is gone of an artificial animating 
 of the negative,- which infusion or influence now ceasing, 
 I have better hope : " clearly charging Salisbury with 
 VOL. i. z
 
 338 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 having secretly encouraged the opposition. And again in 
 another letter written with the same object a few years later, 
 (when after a second trial of a parliament and a second 
 failure, he yet wanted to encourage the King to try once 
 more,) I find the following passage in allusion to Salisbury's 
 Great Contract. He is endeavouring to account for the 
 " dryuess " (as he calls it) of the last two parliaments, and 
 to show that it arose from accidents and mismanagement, 
 not from the natural disposition and constitution of the 
 Lower House. Former parliaments, he shows, had been 
 liberal : 
 
 "But in the succeeding parliament in septimo, when that the 
 Lord Treasurer that last was, had out of his own vast and 
 glorious ways to poor and petty ends, set a-foot the Great 
 Contract, like the Tower of Babylon, building an imagination 
 as if the King should never after need his people more, nor the 
 people the King ; but that the land should be no more like the 
 land of promise watered with the dew of heaven, which some- 
 times was drawn from the earth and sometimes fell back upon 
 the earth a^ain ; but like the land of Egypt watered by certain 
 streams and cuts of Lis own devising ; and afterwards, either 
 out of variety, or having met with somewhat that he looked 
 not for, or otherwise Laving made use of the opinion, in tlie 
 end undid tlie lal/y that lie had made, then grew the change," 
 and tio on. 
 
 Now is it not clear from this that Bacon thought the 
 break in g-off of the Contract was Salisbury's own doing ? 
 
 A. 
 
 It would seem so. But what could have been Salisbury's 
 motive ? It is surely a most unaccountable proceeding. 
 
 B. 
 
 A man so much given to finesse as Salisbury may have 
 served, or hoped to serve, some end by it which we cannot 
 guess at now. In endeavouring to account for his mis- 
 management of this business, I have several times stopped 
 to consider whether he was not trying to lead the Commons 
 into a trap; hoping to draw from them in the first glow of
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 339 
 
 their expectations a large present supply ; and meaning 
 when that was secured to take some occasion for breaking 
 off the contract. When he found that they were too wary for 
 him, he may have thought it his policy to bring about a 
 breach and yet not to appear himself as the author of it, and 
 for that purpose may have thrown secret obstructions in the 
 M ay. However it is hardly fair to fix so grave an imputation 
 upon him without some corroborative evidence ; and I have 
 not met with any, unless the general charge of having 
 "juggled" with parliament, with the King, and with every- 
 body, (which we know from Mr. Chamberlain was so freely 
 urged against him immediately after his death,) may bo 
 considered as a corroboration. Only I think Bacon would 
 hardly have expressed such an opinion to the King, who 
 must have known whether there was any truth in it, unless 
 he had believed it to be true. And I do not know who was 
 so little likely to be deceived in such a matter. 
 
 A. 
 
 To a person who did not know whether there was any 
 truth in it, you think he might possibly have expressed 
 such an opinion whether he believed it or not ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Excuse me. JT do not think so ; but you do. Because 
 of the hardness of your heart, I am obliged to make this 
 concession. If I were to assume that Bacon never said a 
 thing which he did not believe to be true, you would charge 
 me with begging the question. When we have followed 
 him to the end of his career, I may perhaps ask you what 
 thine; he ever said that he did not believe ; for it is a tiling 
 
 (5 ' CJ 
 
 I have yet to learn ; but so long as his character is the 
 subject of controversy, we must not treat his veracity as 
 above suspicion. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then it seems you have no decisive judgment to pro- 
 nounce upon Salisbury's motives in this great matter.
 
 340 ErzyixGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 None that I am perfectly satisfied with. And indeed 
 why should we trouble ourselves to clear them up? Our 
 business is not with the motives or management, but only 
 with the issue ; and about that there is no doubt. "What- 
 ever or whoever may have been to blame for the miscarriage 
 of the negotiation, there is no doubt that it was a disastrous 
 business ; a disaster hardly to be retrieved ; for success 
 was never more important and failure was never more 
 complete. Of the terms upon which, after all this talk 
 and expectation, the King and his people parted, here is 
 a lively and authentic picture. On the '25th of November 
 1610, about six weeks after the last meeting of the parlia- 
 ment, Sir Thomas Lake wrote to Salisbury from the Court 
 at Royston : 
 
 " That the King Lath received by Sir Eoger Aston a copy of 
 the order set down against the next meeting of the House ; 
 which his Majesty doth collect into three points. 1st. To give 
 reasons why they should yield to no supply. 2nd. To examine 
 the answers to the grievances, and wherein they were not 
 satisfactory. And 3rdly, to consider what further immunities 
 and easements are to bo demanded for the people. His Majesty 
 doth also perceive, both by my Lord of Montgomery and by Sir 
 lioger Aston, that you would wish his Majesty and your Lord- 
 ships might have a meeting to consult of his a Hairs in parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 " To both these his Majesty willeth this to be written : 
 " That he maketh no doubt that the cause of your late advi.-e 
 to adjourn the House was for that you foiesaw that they would 
 do worse on Saturday than they had done on Friday ; and how 
 you arc now assured that when they meet again on Thursday 
 they will not bo in the same mood, his Majesty would be glad 
 to know. For he asMirelh himself that if your Lordships 
 thought the Hou>e would follow the same humour, you would 
 not advise their meeting. His Highness \visheth your Lordship 
 to call to mind that he hath now had patience with this 
 assembly these seven years, and from them received more 
 disgraces, censures, and ignominies, than ever prince did en- 
 dure. He followed your Lordships' advice.s in having patience,
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EE VIEWER. 341 
 
 hoping for better issue. He cannot have asinine patience ; ho 
 is not made of that metal that is ever to be held in suspense 
 and to receive nothing but stripes ; neither doth he conceive 
 that your Lordships are so insensible of these indignities, as 
 that you can advise any longer endurance. For his part, he is 
 resolved, though now at their next meeting they would give 
 him supply, were it never so large, and sauce it with such 
 taunts and disgraces as have been uttered of him and of those 
 that appertain to him (which by consequence redound to him- 
 self), nay though it were another kingdom, he will not 
 accept it. 
 
 " Therefore, touching the other point of his meeting with 
 your Lordships, either by his coming nearer to you or by any 
 of your coming to him, his Highness thus answereth. That no 
 man should be more willing to take pains than he, when there 
 is hope of good to come by it. But as things now stand in 
 appearance, for him to put either himself or you to the labour 
 of an unpleasant journey without likelihood of comfort ; but on 
 the contrary when you meet together to find the pains of your 
 bodies aggravated with vexation of spirit, or to part irresolute 
 as at the la.st conference you did, his Majesty doth not see 
 to what end such a meeting should be. But for aught he seeth 
 in his own understanding, he taketh no other subject of con- 
 sultation to be left, than how the parliament may end quietty, 
 and he and his subjects part with fairest shows ; which ho 
 conceiveth must begin with some new adjournment until 
 Candlemas term or the cnl thereof in respect of the nearness 
 of Christmas. And in the mean time your Lordships and he 
 may advise both how to dissolve it in the best fashion, and fall 
 to consultation about his affairs. 
 
 ******* 
 
 " Another subject of this despatch is to let your Lordships 
 know that his Highness findcth the speeches uttered (whereof 
 3 our Lordships sent him a breviate, sent in a letter to me) 
 were so scandalous, reproachful, and intolerable, as his Highness 
 doth require your Lordships every one for his part to gather 
 particular notes and information of the words used and of the 
 authors who spake them ; for that his Highness doth conceive 
 that some of them reach very near to the point of treason ; or 
 are at least so scandalous (as his Majesty is informed) that he 
 thinketh he shall have just ground to cull the speakers to 
 account for them."
 
 3-1:2 EVE3IXGS WITH A HE VIEWER. 
 
 One of these speakers was Wentwortli, son of Peter 
 Wentworth who used to trouble Elizabeth in the same way ; 
 and it occurred to James that he might take a leaf out of 
 Elizabeth's book. For I find him about a week after send- 
 ing to the Council to know what evidence she had when she 
 punished " this Wentworth's father," and adding, with 
 better logic than policy, that "seeing the Lower House 
 were so quick and eager in producing every day new liberties 
 and privileges for themselves, he saw no reason but he 
 ought to be as careful to keep the forms and customs which 
 his progenitors had used in matters falling between the 
 Lower House and them." Fortunately he seems to have 
 been content with his logical advantage ; for he was easily 
 persuaded to desist from the prosecution. 
 
 In such fashion, then, and in such temper on both sides, 
 did the King and his parliament part. So ended Salisbury's 
 project for reconciling their interests and removing all 
 causes of collision for ever. Instead of (JOO,OOU/. gift, by 
 which he had hoped to put the King at ease for the present, 
 he had got only aljout 120, OOO/. Instead of a permanent 
 independent yearly support of 200,000?. he had got nothing. 
 But that was not the worst, nor nearly the worst. Had that 
 been all, it would have been a simple failure, leaving things 
 only as bad as they were before. But it did in fact leave 
 the discontents of the Commons aggravated and exasperated 
 by discussion and disappointment, and the King's finances 
 worse embarrassed than ever; because the notoriety of his 
 necessities and the utter failure of this great effort to relieve 
 them, from which so much had been expected, left him not 
 only without money, but without credit. So that the terms 
 on which they parted, though displeasing alike to both, 
 were infinitely to the disadvantage of the King. The 
 Commons had lost nothing; nothing at least that touched 
 their particular pockets or feelings (for of the general evils 
 of a distracted government they came in of course for their 
 share). In spite of their unredressed grievances, they 
 could make money, build houses, l'<rd themselves, clothe
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 313 
 
 themselves, marry and give in marriage, as merrily as ever. 
 But the King could not borrow 100,0002. of the aldermen, 
 to pay his most pressing debts. 
 
 A. 
 
 Poor old King! It was a hard case, I admit, for a 
 divine-right monarch to digest. But I dare say it was his 
 own fault. 
 
 B. 
 
 In part perhaps it was. A man whose tongue lay so 
 very near his heart as James's did, can hardly be supposed to 
 have managed such a case with perfect judgment. But the 
 question for us is not who was to blame for the disaster, but 
 in what condition that disaster did actually leave the king- 
 dom. Was it not a case of real national embarrassment ? a 
 case to justify anxiety and alarm? a case which, as I said, 
 called all hands to the rescue ? And if there was a man 
 standing by who had watched the progress, who understood 
 the causes, foresaw the dangers, and thought he knew the most 
 likely remedies of that disease, is it necessary to suppose 
 that in offering his services for that end he was only moved 
 by vulgar ambition, and was basely misemploying his talents 
 and his time ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Why do you ask me that ? I beg you will not confound 
 me with those people to whom the more vulgar motive seems 
 always the more probable. There are such people, I know 
 people who have so little experience in themselves of un- 
 seliish motives that they hardly believe in the existence of 
 them, or at any rate think no explanation of an action so 
 incredible as that it sprung from the predominance of an 
 unselfish desire. Tell lawyer Scout that perhaps parson 
 Adams is thinking of his duty and not of his fee, he will 
 receive the suggestion with a smile of superior incredulity ; 
 and there are doubtless more eminent members of the same 
 honourable profession who have a good deal of lawyer Scout 
 in them. But you cannot have less respect for them than I
 
 34-t FVEXINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 have. And therefore let us leave them to their own natural 
 enjoyments. And tell me what had Bacon (for of course he 
 is the man you are hinting at) been doing all this time? 
 What part had he taken in these negotiations while they 
 were going on ? 
 
 B. 
 
 The same part, so far as his path can be traced, in which 
 he has always appeared hitherto; the part of a mediator 
 and composer of the waters. But the notes which survive 
 of the proceedings are so scanty, and it is so difficult to 
 know what was merely formal and what was important, that 
 the most careful conclusions one can draw from them must 
 after all rest upon a very doubtful foundation. With the 
 original suggestion and proposition of the measure, I cannot 
 find that he had anything whatever to do. But after the 
 opening of the negotiation (which was taken up at first with 
 great good will, and the preliminaries conducted on the 
 part of the Commons with much moderation and good 
 temper), his name appears in all the principal proceedings. 
 In the nice point of obtaining the King's leave to treat of a 
 composition for Wardships and Tenures (the first in which 
 there was any danger of a split), the management of the 
 proposition appears to have been entirely left to him, and to 
 have been perfectly successful. His manner of doing that 
 we know, for we have a report of his speech preserved by 
 himself. Again, in preparing the schedule of grievances 
 (also a very tender point) he seems to have taken a pro- 
 minent part, and with the lull confidence and approbation 
 of the House, until they fell foul of that dangerous question 
 of Impositions. Of the jar which that produced, the frag- 
 ments of the debates bear distinct evidence. And as Bacon 
 differed from the majority of the Commons on the point of 
 law, it must have been impossible for him to take a leading 
 part with them where that question was involved. And 
 accordingly he appears after this chiefly as a dissuader of 
 rash counsels; interfering on one occasion 1o moderate the 
 language of an answer to a message from the Lords; on
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 3-15 
 
 another to dissuade them from making a needless difficulty 
 about receiving messages from the King or Council through 
 their Speaker ; on a third, to deprecate a proposition for 
 flatly refusing all supply until they should first hear the 
 King's answer to all their grievances ; in all which attempts 
 he seems to have been successful. Whether he took any part 
 in their petition to the King for liberty to discuss his right 
 to impose duties without consent of parliament, or, as it 
 may rather be called, their remonstrance against being for- 
 bidden to discuss it,- I cannot discover ; but after leave was 
 obtained, he spoke in defence of the King's right. After 
 the grievances were collected, ho was one of a sub-committee 
 appointed to sort them and prepare some inducement or 
 preamble to the petition. And when the petition was ready, 
 he was selected " as their mouth and messenger " to present 
 it to the King. 
 
 A. 
 
 Was that after the debate 011 the right of imposing, or 
 before ? 
 
 B. 
 A few days after. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then the part he took in favour of moderation and in 
 defence of the King's prerogative did not lose him the con- 
 fidence of the House of Commons ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Clearly not. 
 
 A. 
 
 Then why should it lose him mine? But how did he 
 steer through the next session ; which from your account 
 must have been a trying one ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Of that we know nothing whatever. The Journals of 
 that session are lost; and though there is a tolerably full 
 account of it in one of (he Cotton M8S., it is confined to the
 
 346 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 things done and the questions resolved ; it gives no par- 
 ticulars of the debates and mentions no names.* As for 
 Bacon, his name is not mentioned anywhere in the accounts 
 of this session that I know of, except once in a private 
 letter. And that tells us nothing except that he was one 
 of some ten or twelve leading members of the Lower House 
 whom the King sent for one day, in a very irregular 
 manner, to expostulate with them about their proceedings. 
 It was just after the Contract had upon their refusal (as 
 it would seem) to vote any further supply, been broken 
 off, and when they came, James bluntly asked them whether 
 they believed that he was in w;;nt or not ; to which question, 
 says the narrator, " when Sir Francis Bacon had begun to 
 answer in a more extravagant style than his Majesty did 
 delight to hear, he picked out Sir Henry Neville, and 
 commanded him to answer according to his conscience," &c. 
 This is all we hear concerning Bacon during this last 
 session; and it would not have been worth mentioning, wen* 
 it not that the modern meaning of tlie word " extravagant " 
 might lead a modern reader into a mistake. " Extravagant " 
 meant nothing more than indirect. It was obviously un- 
 desirable, as things then stood, that such a question should 
 ]>e directly answered ; and Bacon would no doubt have 
 contrived to throw some veil over the nakedness of it, if he 
 had been allowed to go on. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes; I see no harm in that. But now for the drift of 
 all this. You think, 1 snjipn.se, that it' Bacon had been 
 Lord Treasurer the business would have been better niau- 
 aired ? 
 
 o 
 
 * This was written before Mr. Gardiner's discovery of the notes of the 
 debates in that si S.MOII ; which show, I think, dearly that the linal br, ach 
 w-is the ohoier ami act of the Government, though tliry leave us si ill in 
 doiilptas to the motives. J'<>r a full account of tno whole negotiation, written 
 v.ith the help of those notes, see " Letters and Life of JJaOon," vol. iv. <-h. 
 ."> and (i. The aceount written here, when I had only the printed journals 
 for my authority, is not (I think) substuntiiilly inaccurate, though very 
 imperfect.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 3-17 
 
 B. 
 
 I have little doubt of that. At any rate he tliouglit he 
 could have done better, and would certainly have done 
 differently. What mistakes he might have made in other 
 ways, or what difficulties he might have found in the King's 
 humours, it is of course impossible to say. But in general 
 you will find that the measures and methods of proceeding 
 which turned out unfortunate were not those which he 
 advised. This, however, is not the point I was driving at. 
 I have no reason to suppose that he had anything to do with 
 the measures we have been speaking of either as persuader 
 or dissuader. No opportunity had been given him for 
 interfering either way. Nor had he been induced to change 
 his course in consequence of them. The meeting of parlia- 
 ment called him away from his studies ; the dissolution sent 
 him back to them. The change which I undertook to 
 account for did not take place till after Salisbury's death, 
 about a year and a half later. 
 
 A. 
 
 But, stay ; how did the Government get on in the 
 meantime ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Very badly. The emptiness of the Exchequer, the 
 shifts and perplexities of the Lord Treasurer, became the 
 common talk of the town. Ambassadors were told that they 
 must wait for their salaries. Pensioners were forced to turn 
 duns. The Paul's- walkers entertained themselves with 
 wondering how Salisbury would scrape together money 
 enough to provide the usual Chri>trnas festivities. 
 
 A. 
 
 And what did Salisbury himself propose to do next ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Salisbury appears to have been nearly at the end of his 
 devices ; or, if he had any left, they do not seem to have
 
 348 ETENINOS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 succeeded any better. For at his death the ordinary annual 
 expenditure exceeded the ordinary annual revenue by 
 ll>0,OOOZ. ; and the debt had increased from 400,0007. to 
 
 500,000?. 
 
 A. 
 
 And during that period (a year and a half I think you 
 said) Bacon had nothing to do with business of state ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Nothing beyond what fell to him as Solicitor-General. 
 Indeed while Salisbury lived he had no opening. Not but 
 that he would have gladly lent his services ; indeed, he made 
 offer of them ; but Salisbury for some reason or other 
 neglected to use them. So that he was still spending his 
 L isure in carrying forward the " Instauratio," in writing 
 more essays, and in collecting and correcting his miscel- 
 laneous papers and speeches and law arguments. 
 
 A. 
 
 Did he not try to make up to Sir Robert Carr ? 
 
 B. 
 
 If he did, all traces of the application are strangely 
 obliterated. But indeed, while Salisbury lived and con- 
 tinued at the head of affairs, it was not much that he could 
 have done. The only chance of retrieving the King's affairs 
 was by such a change of policy as could hardly have been 
 accomplished without a change of persons. It was necessary 
 that the King should appear in an entirely different cha- 
 racter to his subjects, and that his subjects should feel 
 tliat the new character was his own, and that the one in 
 which he had last appeared was not his own. The death 
 of Salisbury happened opportunely and was the critical 
 Moment. If James could but have been persuaded, and 
 been able, to seize that moment for an entire change in his 
 own wavs, if he could from that moment have laid his 
 f- irmor character aside ;md shown himself a new man, he 
 jjiic-ht, I think. h;i\e succeeded. It \\oiild have been 
 
 O " '
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 349 
 
 thought that his true nature had been obscured till then by 
 his minister, and appeared now in its natural lustre. Nor is 
 it impossible that a successful experiment of that kind might 
 really and permanently have changed him. For certainly 
 he would have felt more comfortable and more at home as 
 a man of the people than as a high-monarchy man. A 
 different creed would have agreed better with his real 
 feelings ; for all his anti-popular opinions seem to have 
 been doctrine, and doctrine only ; while his untaught sym- 
 pathies and natural impulses were always with the people 
 and human nature. You have seen a man whom accident 
 has made a dignitary, when nature meant him for a good 
 fellow ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes, and generally found him trying to supply his want 
 of natural dignity by superfluous starch ; and losing all the 
 love due to his good nature without procuring any of tho 
 respect due to his office. 
 
 B. 
 
 Well, that was just James's case. And I cannot help 
 thinking that if he had once tried the experiment of 
 wearing his prerogative a little more carelessly, he would 
 have found it so much more comfortable and becoming, that 
 he would have continued the fashion. 
 
 But if this was to be done, it must be done suddenly. 
 Opportuni maynis conatibus traiisitus rerum. It is in times 
 of change that new impressions may be wrought in so as to 
 last; let them once settle, and the new will never incorporate 
 with the old. 
 
 Now therefore was the time. And now once more was 
 Bacon tempted to step out of his course. Hitherto the very 
 few, and (as I must still maintain) the very modest, applica- 
 tions which he had made to the King in Ids own behalf, had 
 been merely for ordinary advancement in the regular course 
 
 / */ o 
 
 of his profession. But upon Salisbury's death, it could nt 
 but occur to him, as it must surely occur to everybody who 
 now looks carefully into the state of those times, that the
 
 350 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 King might have much more important use of him as a 
 Councillor of State than merely as a State lawyer. He was 
 a modest man, it is true ; but in times of emergency modest 
 men become sensible of their worth ; and it is not to be 
 supposed that Francis Bacon, armed as he was with all the 
 outward as well as all the inward accomplishments of a 
 statesman, could have looked on for above thirty years (he 
 was now fifty-two) at the doings of other men, and have seen 
 so many mistakes made and paid for, without feeling that he 
 could do better. For my own part, I believe that at this 
 crisis James had one thing to do, and that was to make 
 Bacon his prime minister and do whatever he advised. 
 Bacon should have been to him what Burleigh was to Queen 
 Elizabeth ; and then the whole subsequent history of Fug- 
 land would have been quite different. How say you ? Shall 
 we conclude that in such circumstances he was to blame for 
 wishing that the King would try him ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly not for wishing. 
 
 B. 
 For asking, then ? 
 
 A. 
 
 That depends upon the manner of the asking. The 
 motive, I agree, we have no right to call in question. And 
 to tell you a secret (let no man hear us)- indifference to 
 power is not in my opinion a virtue, or a sign of virtue, in a 
 man. Not to care about fjlonj is a greatness; but not to 
 wish for poircr, or to shrink from using all honourable means 
 to attain it, is an argument, 1 fear, either of selfishness or of 
 pusillanimity or of conscious incapacity. 
 
 B. 
 
 Well, -then, for the manner of the asking. Be so good as 
 to read these two letters. The first was written within a 
 week after Salisbury's death. The second has no date: but 
 evidently refers to the same occasion, and was probably
 
 El'ENINOS WITH A EE VIEWER. 351 
 
 written about the same time. I want you to read them all 
 through ; both because I would have you judge for yourself, 
 and not depend upon my report, which may be suspected of 
 partiality ; and because it is the fashion to refer to such 
 letters as these, without quoting them, or at most quoting 
 a few isolated expressions, in evidence of what Coleridge 
 (who should have known better, only that I dare say he 
 knew nothing about it) calls the " courtly alas the servile, 
 prostitute, and mendicant ambition " of Bacon's later life. 
 
 A. 
 
 Is this it ? Vol. vi. p. 52. " To the King, immediately 
 after the Lord Treasurer's death ; 31st of May, 1612." 
 Dues this come out of Bacon's own collection ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Out of the collection of drafts and copies which ho 
 kept for himself. Not out of that which he made to be pre- 
 served. 
 
 A. 
 
 " It may please your excellent Majesty, 
 
 "I cannot but endeavour to merit, considering your prevent- 
 ing graces ; which is the occasion of these few lines. 
 
 " Your Majesty hath lost a great subject and a great servant. 
 But if I should praise him in propriety, I should say that he 
 was a fit man to keep things from growing worse, but no very 
 fit man to reduce things to be much better. For be loved to 
 have the eyes of all Israel a little too much iipon himself, and to 
 have all business still under the hammer and like clay in the 
 hands of the potter, to mould it as lie thought good; so that he 
 was more in operations than in opere. And though lie had fine 
 passages of action, yet the real conclusions came slowly on. So 
 that altliOTtgh your Majesty hath, grave councillors and worthy 
 persons left, yet you do as it were turn a leaf, wherein if your 
 Majesty shall give a frame and constitution to matters before 
 you place the persons, in my simple judgment it were not amiss. 
 But the greater matter find most instant for the present is the 
 consideration of a parliament, for two eifects ; the one for the 
 supply of your estate; the other for the better knitting of the 
 heaits of your subjects unto your Majesty, according to your
 
 352 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 infinite merit ; for both which, parliaments have been and are 
 the ancient and honourable remedy. 
 
 " Now because I take myself to have a little skill in that 
 region, as one that ever affected that your Majesty might in all 
 your causes not only prevail, but prevail with satisfaction of the 
 inner man ; and though no man can say but I was a perfect and 
 peremptory royalist, yet every man makes me believe that I was 
 never one hour out of credit with the Lower House; my desire 
 is to know whether your Majesty will give me leave to meditate 
 and propound to you some preparative remembrances touching 
 the future parliament. 
 
 " Your Majesty may truly perceive that, though I cannot 
 challenge to myself either invention, or judgment, or elocution, 
 or method, or any of those powers, yet my offering is care and 
 observance: and as my good old mistress was wont to call m>; 
 her watch-candle, because it pleased her to say I did continually 
 burn (and yet she suffered me to waste almost to nothing), so I 
 must much more owe the like duty to your Majesty by whom 
 my fortunes have been settled and raised. And so craving- 
 pardon, I rest 
 
 " Your Majesty's most humble servant devote, 
 
 " F. B." 
 
 Well, I must say this fits very well into your account of 
 the matter. And I sec nothing that can be found fault with. 
 The disclaimer of pretensions is rather large ; but that is 
 only manners : a kind of polite way of putting them forward, 
 and I think not altogether insincere. Such disclaimers are 
 often suggested by a genuine emotion, even when they can- 
 not be sanctioned by the deliberate judgment. And no one 
 can deny that the object of the letter is constitutional. But 
 there is no application for place or power here. lie merely 
 asks leave to offer some advice. 
 
 B. 
 
 No. But now read the next. " To the King," p. 51. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Jt may please your excellent Majesty, 
 " My principal (Mid being to do yur Majesty's service, 1 
 crave leave to make at this time to your Majesty this must
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 353 
 
 humble oblation of myself. I may truly say with the Psalm, 
 Multum incolafuit anima mea; for my life hath been conversant in 
 things wherein I take little pleasure. Your Majesty may have 
 heard somewhat that my father was an honest man, and some- 
 what you may have seen of myself, though not to make any true 
 judgment by, because hitherto I have had only potestatem verbo- 
 rum ; nor that neither. I was three of my yonng years bred 
 with an ambassador in France ; and since, I have been an old 
 truant in the school-house of your Council-chamber, though on 
 the second form ; yet longer than any that now sitteth hath 
 been on the head form. If your Majesty find any aptness in me, 
 or if you find any scarcity in others, whereby you may think it 
 fit for your service to remove me to business of state, although 
 I have a fair way before me for profit (and by your Majesty's 
 grace and favour for honour of advancement), and that in a 
 course less exposed to the blasts of fortune, yet now that he is 
 gone quo vivente virtu tibus certissimum exitium, I will be ready as a 
 chessman to be wherever your Majesty's royal hand shall set me. 
 Your Majest} T will bear me witness that I have not suddenly 
 opened myself thus far : I have looked on upon others ; I see 
 the exceptions ; 1 see the distractions; and I fear Tacitus will 
 be a prophet, magis alii homines quam alii mores. I know mine 
 own heart ; and I know not whether God that hath touched my 
 heart with the affection may not touch your royal heart to discern 
 it. Howsoever I shall at least go on honestly in mine ordinary 
 course and supply the rest in prayers for you, remaining," ic. 
 
 B. 
 
 This is from, the rough draft in his own handwriting. 
 
 And now I have said nearly all I have to say in answer 
 to your questions at our last sitting. You now know what 
 the case was which drew him aside from the prosecution of 
 his great work, and made him desire once more to " meddle 
 in the King's causes." I undertook to convince yon, not 
 that the course he took was the wisest he could have chosen, 
 but that the occasion was one in which a man who had the 
 public good at heart might easily doubt which course to 
 choose. Are you convinced ? 
 VOL. i. 2 A
 
 354 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 I suppose I am. At least I do not see clearly why not. 
 But before I go, tell me what was the result of this step of 
 his. Did the King make any use of him after all ? 
 
 B. 
 
 A good deal of use ; but (unluckily, as I think, for the 
 King himself) not the right use. He gave him employment 
 and audience, but not authority. Perhaps indeed he could 
 not have given him that without using a sterner resolution 
 than he had ever shown himself master of, without be- 
 coming in fact a different man ; an experiment which it was 
 late to try. 
 
 However we had better leave this for another time. The 
 occasion opened new opportunities, and may therefore open 
 a new chapter. You are content for the present to admit 
 that in re-engaging himself in business of state, Bacon may 
 have been actuated by other motives than vulgar and venal 
 ambition ? 
 
 A. 
 
 I am content. 
 
 B. 
 
 He is now fifty-two years old. Has he done anything as 
 yet inconsistent with the character of an honest man and a 
 good patriot ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Not that I know of. But I am taking his case entirely 
 upon your showing. 
 
 B. 
 
 True ; but that is only because his accusers are silent. 
 In all the points upon which Macaulay founds anything 
 like a definite charge, you have had the benefit of his own 
 statement. The previous charges you admitted were not 
 made good ; during the last ten years no charge is made. 
 Still therefore I claim for Bacon the benefit of general good
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 355 
 
 character ; and if I find him hereafter doing anything which 
 may be traced with as much plausibility to a good motive 
 as to a bad one, I may still, if I like, suppose him to have 
 been actuated by the good motive. 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly, until it appears that good motives were less 
 familiar to him. 
 
 B. 
 
 Which has not appeared yet. 
 
 A. 
 
 Not upon your showing. And certainly I have nothing 
 to show against you. 
 
 B. 
 
 Then you admit that, so far as we have gone, any one 
 who had rather believe that Bacon was an honest man than 
 a rascal, may, without violence to his own instincts or to 
 historical probability, indulge his inclination ? 
 
 Yes. 
 
 Then suppose we stop here for the present. For to those 
 who would as soon believe him a rascal as an honest man, I 
 have nothing to say. I know there are such men ; plenty of 
 them. There is not a more universal attribute of low minds 
 than a disposition to be pleased when anything occurs to 
 damage the character of an eminently great or good man. 
 A discovery that \Yilberforce had been seen drunk, or the 
 Duke of AYellington running away, would at this moment be 
 received with delight by thousands. But as these are per- 
 sons whom I do not wish to be on the same side with, I 
 shall take no pains to convert them. If all men who would 
 be glad to think that Bacon was in the main a virtuous man 
 can be brought to think so, I shall be quite contented ; 
 provided always that they are brought to think to by fair
 
 356 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 means and upon just grounds. For I am far from wishing 
 either to believe myself, or to persuade any one else to 
 believe, that he was what he was not; or to pay idolatrous 
 honour to intellectual power, by representing it as incom- 
 patible with moral weaknesses or depravities with which it 
 is not incompatible. I should no more think of pleading 
 the intellectual gilts for which Bacon has credit with all 
 men, as an argument that he had no faults, than of urging 
 the beauty of Cleopatra as a presumption that she was 
 chaste. We know very well that the highest intellectual 
 powers, as well as the most perfect corporal beauty, are often 
 joined with moral deformity. And though we may wish it 
 were not so, yet as long as it is so, no true man can wish to 
 think that it is not. But there is a certain form of beauty 
 in the human countenance which I do believe to be incom- 
 patible with deformity of mind ; and where there is an 
 apparent exception, I shall always be glad to see it removed. 
 In like manner there are certain forms and manifestations 
 of intellectual greatness which I believe to be unattainable 
 without moral goodness ; and where a case is quoted in 
 which the greatness seems to be there and the goodness 
 seems not to be there, I cannot but wish to find that there 
 is some mistake. And this I think we ought all to feel in 
 the case of Bacon. 
 
 A. 
 
 No doubt the moral character of the man will more or 
 less modify and guide the working of his intellectual faculty. 
 Therefore whatever reveals to us the one, must reveal some- 
 thing of the other, if we can read the signs rightly. But I 
 doubt whether the distinction is of much practical use ; for 
 those who cannot see any traces of goodness in a man's way 
 of living will hardly recognize them in his way of thinking ; 
 and such men will deny that Bacon's intellect has that 
 character which you ascribe to it. However I think you 
 will find most people prone enough to think men good whom 
 they feel to be great. The fault lies generally on that side. 
 It is only the disbelievers in goodness and greatness who
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 357 
 
 rejoice when the characters of good and great men are 
 damaged. They are impatient of men's reputation for 
 virtues ; not of the virtues themselves ; for in them they do 
 not believe. At any rate I can answer for myself in the 
 case of Bacon. I would certainly much rather believe him 
 an honest man than a rascal. 
 
 I
 
 EVENING THE TENTH. 
 
 A. 
 
 Now I suppose we may go on with Macaulay again. 
 
 B. 
 
 I forget where we left him. Bead the last sentence over 
 again. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Unhappily he was at that very time employed in per- 
 verting those laws to the vilest purposes of tyranny. When 
 Oliver St. John was brought before the Star Chamber for main- 
 taining that the King had no right to levy benevolences " 
 
 B. 
 
 Oh no ! we are not ready for that yet. I cannot consent 
 to skip the addle parliament. It was a very important 
 feature in James's reign ; a great fact ; and has a great deal 
 to do with Bacon. 
 
 A. 
 
 The addle parliament ! 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes. The parliament which met in the beginning of 
 April 1614, and was abruptly dissolved in June without 
 passing a single act. It makes but a slight figure in our 
 histories ; I suppose on that account. But though it did 
 nothing, it signified very much, as all great failures do.
 
 360 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 That failure, with all the circumstances of it, must have 
 entered as a most material element into all James's subse- 
 quent calculations ; and must by no means be forgotten by 
 us if we would pretend to understand and judge his sub- 
 sequent conduct. But we had better take up the subject 
 where we left off. 
 
 A. 
 That was with the death of Salisbury. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes. The King had " as it were turned a leaf." He had 
 to choose a new prime minister, which in this case was 
 almost as much as forming a new administration. Whom 
 had he to choose from ? He had in his council the Lord 
 Chancellor ; a man bred under Elizabeth, but now nearly 
 worn out, chiefly occupied with the business of his court, 
 and never much of a politician. He had the Earl of 
 Northampton ; a man in high repute for learning and 
 talent, especially as a writer (being indeed a great artist 
 with his pen according to the fashionable taste of the day) ; 
 but unpopular from a suspected leaning to Popery ; and not 
 a man of any real judgment or ability (so far as I can make 
 him out), nor patriotic in his ends, nor scrupulous in his 
 methods of pursuing them. He had Robert Carr, now Lord 
 Rochester ; an inexperienced and uninstructed youth, given 
 to pleasure, greedy of gain, intoxicated by his sudden eleva- 
 tion, disliked by the people because he was a Scotchman 
 and getting all good things, and having an interest in the 
 King's affections which gave him an influence over his 
 counsels greater probably than the King was aware of. The 
 rest were either instruments, or cyphers, or quiet people who 
 minded only their own business, and did not affect to inter- 
 fere with the management of the state. By far the best 
 head in James's council was his own. And a very sufficient 
 head it would have been if it had been steadily applied to 
 its work. If it had been enough to have sound opinions as 
 to the best method of proceeding in each conjuncture, he 
 would have made (as I believe) a very politic King. But
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 361 
 
 he was far too easy a master both to himself and to those 
 about him. He was for ever excusing himself from follow- 
 ing his own judgment, from doing what he would have 
 advised any one else to do in the same situation, when 
 it was opposed by his favourites or disagreeable to himself ; 
 and on that account, in such times as lie had fallen upon, 
 with a debt of 500,0007., an annual deficiency of 160,0007., 
 and a House of Commons newly awakened to a sense as well 
 of his necessities as of their own powers, and determined to 
 make the most of their advantage, he was no fit man to be 
 his own prime minister. 
 
 And Bacon ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon was still only Solicitor-General. It is true that 
 he became now a more important person, because the King 
 encouraged him to offer advice on the greater matters of 
 State, listened freely to him, and was I think generally 
 disposed to act upon his suggestions. I say disposed to act ; 
 for between the disposition to do a thing and the doing of 
 it, there was unfortunately in James's case a great gap. 
 And Bacon was not in a position to do more than give the 
 suggestion ; he was not near enough to watch and guide the 
 working of it in the King's mind, or to control the execu- 
 tion. jSTow no man can fairly be held answerable for the 
 fruit even of his own counsels, unless he have opportunity 
 both to answer objections and object to alterations, and also 
 to criticise final determinations ; a privilege which Bacon 
 certainly had not now, and can hardly be said to have had 
 afterwards when he was at his highest ; for the iinal deter- 
 minations were always taken by James himself: often when 
 he was far away from his council ; not unfrequently without 
 inviting any second communication or leaving room for any 
 remonstrance. It must often therefore have been in the 
 power of a subtle or a favourite courtier to defeat the policy 
 of the council ; and Bacon, you are to remember, was of the 
 council ; not of the court.
 
 362 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 A. 
 
 When he was Lord Chancellor he must have had liberty 
 of access as often as he wished. 
 
 B. 
 
 Why, yes. I suppose the King was always ready to 
 receive a communication from him, and generally to see 
 him if he desired it. But the King spent very little of his 
 time in London ; much of it a good way off. And at any 
 rate Bacon was not living in the Court; he could not be 
 near the King at his meals and recreations ; and those are 
 the seasons when the influence of a courtier can be most 
 effectually used. 
 
 But where was I ? Oh, as to the influence of the cour- 
 tiers, I met the other day with a little thing which rather 
 confirms what I just said, and seems to show that the 
 inconvenience of this Court influence had already been per- 
 ceived and felt. In the autumn of 1C 12, not long after 
 Salisbury's death, Bacon published an enlarged edition of 
 his essays. Of these essays there is a fair transcript in the 
 hand of one of his secretaries (evidently made before they 
 were published) which contains a sentence that you will not 
 find in the printed copy. It is in the Essay on Counsel, 
 where, after speaking of the true use of counsel to Kings, 
 he notices the inconveniences which have been found in it. 
 " For which inconveniences (he adds) the doctrine of Italy 
 and the practice of France in some kings' times have intro- 
 duced cabinet councils, a remedy worse than the disease." 
 There the printed copy stops. But the 31S. goes on (be 
 interested, for not a soul knows this besides ourselves) the 
 MS., I s;iy, goes on thus: "which hath turned Metis 
 the wife into Metis the mistress; that is, councils of state 
 to which princes are married, to councils of gracious per- 
 sons, recommended chiefly by flattery or affection." It is 
 easy to guess why he struck that sentence out.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 363 
 
 A. 
 
 He was thinking of Rochester, I suppose ? 
 
 B. 
 
 No doubt : the application would have been too obvious 
 and personal. 
 
 A. 
 
 It should be put in again now ; for it explains the mean- 
 ing of that sentence, which I never understood before ; the 
 cabinet council being in our days precisely such a council 
 of estate as he did not mean. 
 
 B. 
 
 Precisely that kind of council from which, by the word 
 "cabinet," he meant to distinguish it. Yes, I think it 
 should be reinstated ; within brackets. But whither are we 
 wandering ? We left James labouring under his debt and 
 deficiency ; with a very difficult and delicate task before 
 him, and a very indifferent body of confidential advisers to 
 help him in the execution of it. We left Bacon putting 
 himself a little more forward than belonged strictly to his 
 place, for the purpose of recommending the King to lose no 
 time in calling another parliament, and offering all the help 
 which he could render. Unfortunately, upon this vital 
 question of calling a parliament there were divisions in the 
 council. The Earl of Northampton, who from his age, his 
 rank, his reputation, his abilities, and especially from his 
 influence with Rochester (an influence natural enough in 
 itself and greatly increased by Rochester's interest in his 
 niece, for that unhappy business was already on foot), was 
 now become one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, 
 is known to have been strongly against it. Rochester him- 
 self cannot be supposed to have had many ideas of his own 
 on so difficult a subject. The King had ideas enough, and 
 probably very good ones. But with a council so constituted 
 he had very imperfect opportunities of knowing the truth, 
 and with so fresh a recollection of recent disappointments
 
 36-4 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 and disgusts, would naturally incline to the opinion of those 
 who promised to set his affairs straight without risking an 
 appeal to that troublesome assembly. In such circum- 
 stances, one cannot wonder that he resolved not to try a 
 parliament, or at least put off the resolution to try one, till 
 all other methods of rectifying his estate should be put in 
 force. It happened that his case could ill bear any such 
 delay. Delay itself was bad, and perhaps the manner in 
 which the interval was employed made it still worse. But 
 kings and councillors have often made mistakes for which 
 there was less excuse. 
 
 Well : so it was to be. The consideration of a parlia- 
 ment was suspended for the present ; and the council were 
 set hard at work to find all possible means of abating the 
 expenditure and improving the revenue. Upon this they 
 were assiduously employed for the first year ; Northampton 
 taking the lead in council, and Bacon being among the 
 most active of the sub-commissioners appointed to assist. 
 We need not trouble ourselves with the details ; but the 
 sum total of their year's work (as I find by a memorandum 
 of Sir Julius Caesar's, dated 18th March 1612-13) was an 
 increase of the ordinary revenue by abatements and im- 
 provements amounting in all to 35.7767., and a collection 
 (from the coming in of debts, from fines, forfeitures, the sale 
 of land and of baronetcies, and other extraordinary items) 
 of 309,6817. 
 
 A. 
 
 And that to supply an annual deficiency of 160,001)7. (T 
 think you said) ; upon what total of revenue? 
 
 B. 
 
 Under -150,0007. ; which was the total, according to 
 Hume, in 1617. 
 
 A. 
 
 To supply an annual deliriency then c<|ual to more than 
 a third of the total revenue, and to pay off a debt of 
 500,000?. Xo prospect of a cure, then ; only a mitigation 
 of the painful symptoms.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 And no very considerable mitigation. The leak let in 
 about four quarts while the pump threw out one. One good 
 effect however this report must have had. It must have 
 made it clear that, at whatever risk, a parliament must be 
 tried ; for though it might still be deprecated by some of 
 the councillors and courtiers whose fortunes fared no worse 
 but perhaps better for the distresses of the State, and who 
 thought that the vessel would float long enough for them, 
 yet the manifest hopelessness of remedy from any other 
 quarter must have carried the question against them ; and 
 accordingly it was determined some time in the course of 
 this year (the precise date of the final resolution I have not 
 been able to ascertain, but it was as late as July) that a 
 parliament should be summoned with as little delay as 
 possible. The result of this step was indeed (as the council 
 had reported to the King the year before) " very uncertain ; " 
 probably more uncertain now than it was then. Never was 
 there a measure of State which required more boldness and 
 yet more delicacy in the handling ; and perhaps never a 
 council of State less favourably constituted for handling it 
 well ; for it was as easy to go wrong through too great an 
 anxiety to further it as through too much obstinacy in 
 opposing it : too much faith and too little might bo equally 
 fatal. On one side there was Northampton, who had so little 
 hope from a parliament, that he seems to have been not only 
 against its being tried, but desirous that it should miscarry. 
 On the other side were a party of parliament men, who out 
 of confidence in their own experience and influence with the 
 Lower House were rash enough to undertake the manage- 
 ment of it, and to engage that if the King would follow their 
 advice, his business should be carried to his satisfaction. 
 At the head of these was Sir Henry Neville, an able and 
 public-spirited man, with large and just views as to the state 
 of the times, with sympathies well balanced between the 
 people and the Crown, earnest for the redress of grievances, 
 yet hoping to be made Secretary of State, and possessing,
 
 366 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 it would seem, much influence over Rochester, which was 
 the best opening for influence over the King. Several 
 memorials and advices of his are extant, which refer to this 
 period ; and it cannot be doubted, I think, that his ends 
 were wise and patriotic. But the case was new and difficult, 
 and the event proved that he did not thoroughly understand 
 his ground. He knew the harbour which was to be steered 
 for, and in which it would be good for all parties, and satis- 
 factory to all parties, to arrive ; but he had not thoroughly 
 fathomed the depths and shallows of popular judgment in 
 such an assembly as the Lower House had now become. 
 The sands at the bottom were rapidly and secretly shifting, 
 and the currents at the top were shifting with them. It 
 was not either ancient experience or recent experience that 
 could tell a man where the safe course now lay ; but only 
 the combination of experiences both old and new with that 
 prophetic sagacity which is derived from a profound insight 
 into the nature of man, and is reserved for original genius of 
 the highest order. It was no great blame therefore to him 
 and his associates if they ran the vessel aground ; nor any 
 great blame to James that he took them for his pilots. But 
 I think he had the choice of a better. 
 
 That Bacon, had he been prime minister, could have 
 carried the business through successfully, it is of course im- 
 possible to say. But I have evidence to prove that, though 
 aiming at the very same ends (for I do not know that he would 
 
 o *> \ 
 
 have objected to any one of the measures which Sir Henry 
 Xevillc proposed to carry), he would have proceeded in a 
 different manner; and that too from an apprehension of 
 danger in the very quarter where the event proved that it 
 really lay. We have seen how strongly he disapproved of 
 the contract-policy which was pursued with the last parlia- 
 ment, and how strongly he advised that no time should be 
 lost in calling another. And you would like to know what 
 course he would have had the King take with it in order to 
 recover the ground which lie had lost ?
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 367 
 
 A. 
 
 I should like very much indeed to know that. It ought 
 to be worth all the speculations of all the historians put 
 together. If we had a Bacon among us now to write the 
 history of those times, it would supersede all others ; and 
 yet he could not know nearly so much about them as the 
 real Bacon did then. But it must be what he really did 
 advise ; not what you suppose he would. 
 
 B. 
 
 Surely. Though for want of evidence I am sometimes 
 obliged to guess at his views, I hope I always report them 
 as guesses. I report nothing as his but what I have 
 historical evidence for. In the present case you shall have 
 his own words, which may still be seen under his own hand. 
 
 Here is a letter addressed to the King, at what exact 
 date I do not know ; but sometime between September 1612 
 and December 1613 ; most likely in the spring or summer 
 of 1613. But for our present purpose it is not material to 
 fix the exact date ; it is enough to know that it was written 
 while the question of calling a parliament was still under 
 consideration. You may as well read it through, for it has 
 never been printed. 
 
 A. 
 
 How comes that ? Has it been inaccessible till lately ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Not at all. The original is among the Cotton manu- 
 scripts in the British Museum ; and there is a copy in the 
 Lansdowne collection ; both of which are entered in the 
 general index under Bacon's name. 
 
 A. 
 
 " It may please your excellent Majesty, 
 
 " Before your Majesty resolve with your Council concerning 
 a parliament, mine incessant care and infinite desire that your 
 Majesty's affairs may go well hath made me in the case of Elihu,
 
 368 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 who though ho was the inferior amongst Job's counsellors, yet 
 saith of himself that he was like a vessel of new wine, that 
 could not but burst forth in uttering his opinion. 
 
 " And this which I shall write I humbly pray your Majesty 
 may be to yourself in private. Xot that I shall ever say that in 
 your Majesty's ear which I will be either ashamed or afraid to 
 speak openly ; but because perhaps it might be said to me after 
 the manner of the censure of Themistucles, ' Sir, your words 
 require a city ; ' so to me : ' You forerun : your words require a 
 greater place.' Yet because the opportunity of your Majesty's 
 most urgent occasion flieth away. I take myself sufficiently war- 
 ranted by the place I hold, joined with your Majesty's particular 
 trust and favour, to write these lines to your Majesty in private." 
 
 B. 
 
 You see therefore that this letter has a peculiar value, as 
 containing Bacon's own private and original opinion. What 
 a man writes or speaks concerning matters in which a reso- 
 lution lias been already taken by others or in concert with 
 them, does not necessarily indicate Ins own personal opinion. 
 He may be only making the best of a course which has been 
 chosen against bis judgment and advice. But where a man 
 goes out of his way to offer his opinion in private upon 
 matters which are still under consultation, and that too with 
 a view to influence the decision, there we may be sure we 
 have his own genuine views. There is nothing to restrain 
 him from recommending exactly what he thinks best. 
 
 O i/ 
 
 A. 
 
 Very true. And I see also how unjust it is to hold 
 Bacon responsible for the measures of the Government, 
 when he could not so much as offer an opinion about them 
 without an apology and a request that it should not be 
 divulged. The "place be held" was still Solicitor-General, 
 was it not ? 
 
 B. 
 
 I think so. Jle became Attorney-General in October; 
 and J should guess that this was written earlier; but I 
 cannot be sure. You observe also how stronu'lv he is im-
 
 WITH A KEVIEWEJi. 3G9 
 
 pressed with the critical character of the time ; the urgency 
 of the occasion, and the opportunity flying away. One 
 might indeed, without this evidence, have given him credit 
 for that motive. You see, however, that it is no comment 
 of mine, but a fact. 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly. Well, let us see what his views are. 
 
 " The matter of parliament is a great problem of estate, and 
 deserveth apprehensions and doubts. But yet I pray your 
 Majesty remember that saying, Qui timide rogat docet negare. 
 For I am still of that opinion (which I touched in general in 
 my former letter to your Majesty), that above all things your 
 Majesty should not descend below yourself; and that those 
 tragical arguments and (as the schoolmen call them) ultimitios 
 of persuasions which were used last parliament should for ever 
 be abolished ; and that your Majesty should proceed with 3 T onr 
 parliament in a more familial', but yet a more princely 
 manner." 
 
 B. 
 
 Mark that paragraph well, for it is the groundwork of 
 the whole advice. The " former letter " I suppose to be one 
 dated 18th September, 1612, in which Bacon urges the 
 King not to let " these cogitations of want any ways trouble 
 or vex his mind," nor be tempted, " in respect of the hasty 
 freeing of his estate, to any means or degree of means which 
 carrieth not a symmetry with his majesty and greatness ; " 
 and goes on to pass a severe censure upon that ostentatious 
 display of his necessities and those shifts to relieve them, oi 
 which Salisbury was the author. At all hazards and in 
 spite of all inconveniences to preserve before the world the 
 face of confidence and majesty was Bacon's constant advice, 
 both now and afterwards when it was much more difficult to 
 do. The tone of his counsel reminds one of that inspiring 
 speech of Faulconbridge to King John 
 
 "But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad? 
 Let not the world see fear and sad mistrust 
 Govern the motion of a kingly eye. 
 Be great in act as you have been in thought. 
 VOL. i. '2 n
 
 370 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 So shall inferior eyes, 
 
 That borrow their behaviours from the great, 
 Grow great by your example," &c., &c. 
 
 The worst of it was that James had now not only to preserve 
 this appearance, but to recover it. And how was that to be 
 done? 
 
 A. 
 Let us see. 
 
 " All therefore which I shall say shall be reduced to two 
 heads. 
 
 " First, that the good or evil effect likely to ensue of a 
 parliament resteth much upon the course which your 
 Majesty shall be pleased to hold with your parliament; 
 and that a parliament simply in itself is not to bo 
 doubted. 
 
 " Secondly, what is the course which I would advise wcro 
 held as safest from inconvenience and most effectual 
 and likely to prevail. 
 
 "In both which parts your Majesty will give me leave to 
 write not curiously, but briefly; for I desire that what I write 
 in this argument may be niliil minus quam verba. 
 " For the first my reasons are : 
 
 1. I do not find .since the last parliament any new action of 
 estate amongst your Majesty's proceedings that lias been harsh 
 or distasteful : and therefore seeing the old grievances (having 
 been long broached) cannot but wax dead and flat, and that 
 there has been no new matter either to rub up and revive the 
 old or to give other cause of discontentment, I think the case 
 much amended to your Majesty's advantage. It is true there 
 have been Privy Seals, but it is as true they were never so 
 gently either rated or pressed. And besides, Privy Seals he 
 ever thought rather an attractive than a repercussivo to 
 subsidies." 
 
 B. 
 
 I do not know exactly how the law stood with regard to 
 Privy Seals, or what, was the limit of the King's power to 
 borrow money in that way. But a privy seal was in fact an 
 order served upon ;m individual to advance a specified sum 
 of money to the King upon condition of repayment within a 
 specified time, which order he was bound either by law or
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER, 371 
 
 custom to obey. I suppose it was a relic of the ancient 
 arbitrary authority of the Crown, not yet formally taken 
 away. The issue of Privy Seals was an indication that the 
 exchequer wanted replenishing ; and it was thought better 
 to replenish it by subsidies, that is, by a common tax 
 which fell equally upon all, than to force the Crown to use 
 those arbitrary powers which it still retained and the burden 
 of which fell chiefly upon the rich ; the rich having the 
 power of taxation in their hands, and being very willing to 
 relieve themselves at the expense of the people, however 
 chary they might be of relieving the King. 
 
 A. 
 
 " 2. The justice upon my Lord Sanquir hath done your 
 Majesty a great deal of right ; showing that your Majesty is 
 fixed in that resolution, 
 
 Tros Tyriusqiie mild nullo discrimine agetur, 
 
 'which certainly hath rectified the spleen-side, howsoever it Lc 
 with the liver." 
 
 B. 
 
 Lord Sanquir was a Scotch nobleman, whose eye had 
 been put out by a fencer five years before. In revenge 
 (which he had cherished all that time) he procured a man 
 to murder him. Great pains were immediately taken to 
 apprehend him and procure evidence. Upon his trial he 
 confessed his guilt, and was hanged. The hanging of a 
 Scotchman, and a Scotch nobleman, especially as his dc - 
 meanour at his trial moved general pity, was an instance 
 of impartiality for which the English public would hardly 
 have given James credit, so jealous as they were of his 
 over-partiality to his countrymen. Well ? 
 
 A. 
 
 "3. Let it not offend your Majesty if I say the Earls of Salis- 
 bury and Uunl-ar have taken a great deal of envy from you and 
 carried it into the other world, and left unto your Majesty M 
 just diversion of many discontents. 
 
 "4. That opposition which was the last parliament to your
 
 372 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 Majesty's business, as much as was not ex puris naturalibus but 
 out of party, I conceive to l>e now much weaker than it wa.s, 
 and that party almost dissolved. Yelverton is won ; Sandes is 
 fallen off; Crew and Hyde stand to l>e Serjeants; Brocke is 
 dead ; Nevell hath his hopes ; Barkley I think will ho respective ; 
 Martin hath money in his purse ; Dudley Digges and ] lolys are 
 yours. Besides, they cannot hut find more and more the vanity 
 of that popular course ; specially your Majesty having carried 
 yourself with that princely temper towards them, as not to 
 persecute or disgrace them, nor yet to use or advance them. 
 
 " 5. It was no marvel the last parliament, men being pos- 
 sessed with a bargain, if it bred in them an indisposition to 
 give; both because the breaking left a kind of discontent, and 
 besides Bargain and Gift are antitheta, as the Apostle speaketh 
 of Grace and Works; and howsoever they distinguished Supplv 
 and Support in words, yet they commixed in men's hearts, and 
 the entertaining of the thoughts of the one did cross and was a 
 disturbance and impediment to the other. 
 
 " 0. Lastly, I cannot excuse him that is gone of an artificial 
 animating of the Negative; which infusion or influence now 
 ceasing 1 have better hope." 
 
 B. 
 
 Mark again the Inst paragraph Imt one, as containing 
 another essential feature of Bacon's policy. It was not 
 merely the loss of majesty in his people's eyes (which could 
 not but follow when he began to dispute, about bargains 
 with them) that was to be deprecated. If it had been the 
 readiest way to disembarrass the exchequer, the disembar- 
 rassment would indeed have; been ill purchased at that price. 
 But it was not the way. On the contrary, by setting them 
 on to make specific bargains, you put them further off from 
 making those contributions which were really wanted. To 
 conclude such a bargain as would have made the Crown and 
 the people independent of each other for the future, was a 
 thin"' not to be wished even if it. had been practicable. And 
 
 o 
 
 by once teaching them to look for a yield pro qno in that 
 matter; bv teaching them to expect in return for each vote 
 of supply some, particular boon from the Crown of cor- 
 responding value; you led them away from the considera-
 
 EVENINGS WITH A BEVIEWEE. 373 
 
 tion of their true function, which was to furnish the govern- 
 ment with the means of governing well ; so to maintain the 
 Crown that the Crown might be able to maintain the people. 
 For certainly the duties which the King owed to his subjects 
 were not of a nature to be appraised and reduced to a value 
 in money. What they were worth was not what they might 
 be sold for, but what it might cost to get them done. There- 
 fore however it might be desirable to bestow largely upon 
 the people particular boons of pecuniary or other relief, the 
 better to quicken their affection and strengthen their con- 
 fidence, yet to offer these by way of equivalents for sub- 
 sidies was utterly wrong, and tended to defeat its own pur- 
 pose. When Queen Elizabeth consented to revoke a long 
 list of monopoly licenses, did she ask for another subsidy in 
 consideration of the value given away ? No ; she let them 
 drop from her hand like a thing taken up by mistake which 
 did not belong to her. And when the Commons insisted 
 upon coming to thank her, did she tell them how grateful 
 they ought to be, and how large a supply they ought to 
 vote ? No ; she told them it was herself that should have 
 thanked them for having informed her of the error. Their 
 subsidies she valued as the measure of their affection and as 
 the means of better discharging the duties she owed them : 
 for she desired to reign no longer than she might reign with 
 their loves, to live no longer than she might see their 
 prosperity. 
 
 " And as I am that person " (she went on) " that still yet 
 under God hath delivered you, so I trust by the almighty power 
 of God that I shall still be his instrument to preserve you from 
 envy, peril, dishonour, shame, tyranny, and oppression, partly 
 by means of your intended helps, which we take very acceptably 
 because it manifesteth the largeness of your love and loyalties 
 Tinto your Sovereign. Of myself I must say this ; I was never 
 any greedy, scraping grasper, nor a strait fast-holding Prince, 
 nor yet a waster. My heart was never set on worldly goods, but 
 only for my subjects' good. What you do bestow on me I will 
 not hoard it up, but receive it to bestow on you again. Yea, 
 mine own properties I count yours, to be expended for your 
 good. Therefore render unto them from me, I beseech you. Mr.
 
 374 E VEXING S WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 Speaker, such thanks as you imagine my heart yieldeth but my 
 tongue cannot express." 
 
 That was no doubt the style in which Bacon would have 
 had it done, if James had been equal to the part. 
 
 But I wanted you to remark that passage in the letter, 
 the rather because this point was not attended to ; and the 
 not attending to it was a chief cause of the miscarriage of 
 the business. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well ; so much for the grounds upon which he hopes for 
 better success with a new parliament ; or rather does not 
 despair of good from it. Now we come to his second 
 division. 
 
 "For the course I wish to be held, I most humbly beseech 
 your Majesty to pardon the liberty and simplicity which I shall 
 use. I shall distribute that which I am to say into four pro- 
 positions. The first is 
 
 " 1. That your Majesty do for this parliament put off the 
 person of a merchant or contractor, and vest upon the person of 
 a King. Certainly when I heard the overtures last parliament 
 carried in such a .strange figure and idea as if your Majesty 
 should no more (for matter of profit) have needed your subjects' 
 help ; nor your subjects in that kind should no more have needed 
 your graces and benignity, methought, besides the difficulty (in 
 next degree to an impossibility), it was animalis sa^iciitia, and 
 almost contrary to the very frame of a monarchy, and those 
 original obligations which it is God's Avill should intercede 
 between King and subjects." 
 
 Surely I have seen that before. I thought you said none 
 of this was in print. 
 
 B. 
 
 I quoted it at our last meeting. But never mind ; it will 
 bear a second reading. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes; it seems to come out of the depths. 
 
 "Besides as things now stand, your Majesty hath received 
 infinite prejudice by the COHM ijuencc of the new J ns! riiel imi;- 
 for the ( 'oiirt of \\aids. For i,nw it !> almost mude pul>li<
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 375 
 
 that the profits of the Wards being husbanded to the best 
 advantage (which is utterly untrue) yet amountetli to a small 
 matter; and so the substance of your bargain extremely dis- 
 valued." 
 
 B. 
 
 The Wardships, you remember, formed a principal item 
 in the Great Contract. The improvement in consequence of 
 the new Instructions appears to have been very considerable 
 compared with the total revenue from that source ; but the 
 total was not much. For, if I may trust a schedule entitled 
 " improvements," in Sir Julius Cresar's handwriting;, the 
 actual increase in the revenue from Wardships in the year 
 after Salisbury's death was 20,000/. But in the general 
 tables of receipts for the two or three years following-, the 
 total annual revenue from them is set down as only 25,000^. 
 Now Salisbury, in 1010, had asked 100,000^. of annual sup- 
 port for giving them up. 
 
 A. 
 
 " 2. My second proposition is that your Majesty make this 
 parliament but as a coup d'essai/, and accordingly that your 
 Majesty proportion your demands and expectation. For as 
 tilings were managed last parliament, we are in that case, optima 
 disciplina mala dediscere. Until your Majesty have tuned your 
 instrument you will have no harmony. J, for my part, think it 
 a thing inestimable for your Majesty's safety and service, that 
 you once part with your parliament with love and reverence. 
 The proportions I will not now descend into ; but if the 
 payments may be quickened, there is much gotten." 
 
 B. 
 
 There, again, is a principal point which was not provided 
 for. If the King would recover his proper position and 
 dignity in the eyes of his people, it was necessary to avoid 
 not only the appearance of solicitude while the business was 
 going on, but of disappointment in case it went ill. We 
 agreed, I think, the other night, that too sudden a discovery 
 of the growing dependence of the Crown upon the Commons 
 would have been dangerous to the State. The tendency in 
 that direction was indeed inevitable. It is probably no ex-
 
 376 EVESISOS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 aggeratiun to say that the Crown was already dependent 
 upon the Commons ; that is, they had it in their power to 
 withhold from the King- the means of carrying on the govern- 
 ment, and thereby to bring him to their own terms ; not in- 
 deed absolutely or at once ; but if they chose to persevere 
 in refusing supplies until the conditions they demanded were 
 complied with, to those conditions he must have come at 
 last. But though this was the fact, it was a fact not yet 
 declared ; and most desirable it was that for the present it 
 should be disguised from popular observation. It was fit 
 therefore that the King should act as if that assistance were 
 not necessary to him which the Commons might con- 
 stitutionally refuse. He must in fact be prepared to do 
 without it, and let it be seen that he was so prepared. 
 Bacon saw that to produce this impression was now the 
 King's first object ; a sine qua non ; that if he succeeded in 
 that it would be enough, though he succeeded in nothing 
 else; and therefore that his true policy was to carry matters 
 so that the hope of contribution might not seem to be a 
 principal motive for calling the parliament, nor any dis- 
 appointment in that respect a motive for proroguing it ; but 
 to treat it as a thing comparatively immaterial, which was 
 not essential to his purposes and did not affect his proceed- 
 ings. How he proposed to effect this you will see presently. 
 But what I want you to remark here is the importance \\lii-h 
 he attaches to the partiny between the King and his par- 
 liament. That the King should "once part with his par- 
 liament with love and reverence" he holds a thing of 
 "inestimable importance to his safety and service;" and 
 therefore urges him so to proportion his expectations as at 
 all events not to be put out by failure; a piece of advice 
 which whether the King approved or not 1 do not knou ; 
 but certainly he did not succeed in acting upon it. 
 
 I hope you arc- sure all this time tluit the King' 
 \\as a good one ; or else
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 377 
 
 B. 
 
 I think the King's cause, so far as Bacon tried to further 
 it, was good. I think it was good that the framework of 
 the constitution should be kept up, and repairs and reforms 
 introduced gradually from within, ly authority, not against 
 it. What might have been done by a king of ideal wisdom 
 and magnanimity, I do not undertake to say. Such a king 
 might possibly have found means to lay his power quietly 
 down, to make over his revenue to the disposal of parliament, 
 and resign his own functions in trust to a body of constitu- 
 tional advisers holding their office during the pleasure of the 
 House of Commons. The experiment would have been 
 hazardous, and I doubt whether history has an instance that 
 can be pronounced successful of sovereign power voluntarily 
 abdicated before its time. To the largest experiment of that 
 kind that I know of in modern times, certainly the most 
 praised, we owe the constitution of the United States of 
 America as it now is ; but I do not think the issue can be 
 pleaded in favour of it. And is it not true that the greatest 
 reforming governors have all taken a different course ? But 
 whatever an ideal king might have done, it is clear enough 
 that no such thing could have been got out of King James. 
 And whether Bacon was right or wrong, there can be no 
 doubt that his heart's wish was (and he thought it the wish 
 of a true patriot) that the King should not give away his 
 power from himself, but keep it and use it for the good of 
 his people. If he is to be censured on this point, he must be 
 censured for thinking so, not for acting as if he thought so. 
 
 A. 
 
 I think indeed he was much given to standing upon the 
 old ways. 
 
 B. 
 
 Yes, till he could see which way to go. But no man 
 knew botter that he must go on. But have we not stood 
 long enough ourselves ? Suppose you go on.
 
 378 El'ENINGS WITH A HE\'IE\\'EU. 
 
 A. 
 
 " And if it "be said that his Majesty's occasions will not endure 
 these proceedings gradathn ; yes, surely. Nay I am of opinion 
 that what is done for his Majesty's good as well by the improve- 
 ment of his own as by the aid of his people, it must be done per 
 gradus and not per saltum ; for it is the soaking rain and not the 
 tempe.st that relic veth the ground. 
 
 " 3. My third proposition is that this parliament may be a 
 little reduced to the more ancient form (for I account it but a 
 form) which was to voice the parliament to be for some other 
 business of estate and not merely for money ; but that to come 
 in upon the bye, whatsoever the truth be. And let it not bo 
 said that this is but dancing in a net, considering the King's 
 wants have been made so notorious ; for I mean it not in point 
 of dissimulation but in point of majesty and honour; that the 
 people may have somewhat else to talk of and not wholly of the 
 King's estate ; and that parliament-men may not be wholly 
 possessed with those thoughts; and that if the king should have 
 occasion to break up his parliament suddenly, there may be 
 some more civil colour to do it. AY hat shall be the cause of 
 estate given forth ad popnlnm ', whether the opening or increase 
 of trade (wherein I meet with the objection of Impositions, but 
 A et I conceive it maybe to accommodate), or whether the planta- 
 tion of Ireland, or the reducement and recompiling of laws, 
 throwing in some bye-matters (as Sutton's esiate, or the like) 
 ii may be left for further consideration. But I am settled in 
 this, that somewhat be published besides the money matter; and 
 that in this form there is much advantage." 
 
 What will the moral historian say to all this ? 
 
 B. 
 
 The moral historian may possibly be shocked ; but it' lie 
 gets through the next week without doing something quite 
 ;js shocking himself, I will undertake to say that lie lias but 
 little; to do in the world, and that none of the practical 
 interests of society will lure the worse for losing him. Some 
 d!' these expedients may possibly not exactly square with liis 
 maxims, lint for my own part 1 think (lie cause of morality 
 is ill served by the laying down of moral maxims which no 
 man of sense or virtue can seriously resolve to act upon.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 379 
 
 Many things must be kept secret in all civilized societies ; 
 and without some degree of dissimulation (which if you 
 anatomise you will always find to include some falsehood) 
 i.o secret can be kept. On the other hand, I do not think 
 the cause of morality well served by attempting to define in 
 words the exact boundaries between the lawful and the un- 
 lawful. Human language is not subtle enough or flexible 
 enough to do it. The human heart duly exercised and 
 awakened by a sense of responsibility, and bent earnestly on 
 good ends, is the only judge. Ask any member of any 
 government, I might say any father of any family, whether 
 some of the best actions of his life, actions in which he 
 was least influenced by any selfish motive, in which he sees 
 least to repent, of which he can least truly say that he would 
 do otherwise if they were to do again, ask him whether 
 they did not involve some dissimulation ; the keeping up of 
 some false appearance for the sake of disguising the truth. 
 But do not ask him to dissect them and call all the parts by 
 their right names. Let that be dissembled too. As for the 
 little points of dissimulation which Bacon here sanctions and 
 recommends, I do not ask you to remember the difference 
 of the times in which he lived. Take our own times as 
 they are. Can any man, who thinks what he says and says 
 what he thinks, maintain that at this day a prime minister 
 ought to enter upon his office with a resolution to lay bare 
 to public view all the secret motives and purposes of the 
 government ; to give nothing forth ad popuhun beyond or 
 beside his real intentions ? 
 
 A. 
 
 I am afraid he would not be prime minister long. How- 
 over I grant that in the case before us the insincerity is of a 
 very mitigated kind ; and may perhaps be called reserve 
 rather than dissimulation ; and under that name I will let it 
 pass. It is in truth rather the profession than the thing, 
 that even the moral historian would start at. But here is 
 more of it. 
 
 " Lastly, as I wish all princely and kind courses he-Id with
 
 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 his Majesty's parliament, so nevertheless it is good to take away 
 as much as is possible' all occasions to make subjects proud, or to 
 think your Majesty's wants are remediless except by parliament. 
 And therefore I could wish it were given out that there are 
 means found in his Majesty's estate to help himself (which I 
 partly think is true), but that, because it is not the work of a 
 day, his Majesty must be beholding to his subjects; but as to 
 facilitate and speed the recovery of himself rather than of an 
 absolute necessity." 
 
 B. 
 
 Observe that he wishes " it were given out ; " he dues 
 nut wish the King himself to go and proclaim it. 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes. 
 
 " Also that thf>re bo no brignes or canvasses, whereof I hear 
 too much ; for certainly howsoever men may seek to value their 
 services in that kind, it will but increase animosities and 
 op] odtions ; and besides will make whatever shall be done to bo 
 in evil conceit with your people in general afterwards." 
 
 B. 
 
 Once more take notice of that. That is another most 
 important point in which Bacon's advice was not attended 
 to. There was a great deal of canvassing, and (what made 
 it worse) with no great success. On the 3rd of March, 
 1G13-14, Mr. Chamberlain writes to Sir Dudley Carleton : 
 " Here is much justling for places in parliament, and letters 
 ily from great personages extraordinarily ; wherein methinks 
 they do the King no great service, seeing the world is apt 
 to censure it as a kind of packing." And in his next letter 
 (a fortnight alter) lie tells him that "letters and countenance 
 were not found so powerful as was imagined even in the 
 meaner boroughs." AVhat the consequences were in the 
 parliament itself we shall see presently. 
 
 A. 
 
 Here is but one sentence more: 
 
 "Thus have 1 wet down to you)' M'tjrsl.y my simple opinion,
 
 EVEXIXGS WITH A REVIEWER. 381 
 
 wherein I make myself believe that I see a fair way through 
 the present business, and a dimidium tutius to the main. But I 
 submit all to your Majesty's high wisdom, most humbly de- 
 siring- pardon, and praying the Highest to direct you for tho 
 best. 
 
 " Your Majesty's most humble servant, 
 
 " FH. BACON." 
 
 B. 
 
 Well, here you have, as I conceive, a piece of genuine 
 Baconian advice ; from which you may safely draw inferences 
 as to the policy he would have pursued had lie been in a 
 place of authority. There is another paper of his in the 
 same place, entitled " Incidents of a Parliament ; " consist- 
 ing of questions for consideration what course may be 
 taken to accomplish this and avoid that ; but as the ques- 
 tions are only proposed and not answered ; and as the letter 
 you have just read seems to contain all the fruit which his 
 meditations had then yielded ; at least all the definite 
 advice which he was then prepared to ground upon them ; 
 they add little to our knowledge of what he would have 
 had done. They show rather what difficulties lay in the 
 way, than how he was prepared to meet them. But in tho 
 foregoing letter we have enough for our purpose. We see 
 here at any rate the principal things which he thought 
 should be avoided: as 1st, all appearance of necessity,-^ if 
 the King were constrained to call a parliament by tho 
 pressure of his own wants, and not for the general good c-i 
 the kingdom. 2ndly, all appearance of diffidence, as if he 
 had any doubt of their good-will to supply him with all 
 that was needful for his affairs ; or of dependence, as if lie 
 relied upon their help and could not do without it. 3rdly, 
 all appearance of solicit tide, as if money were the giv .t 
 matter, and if that failed all failed. 4thly, all appearance 
 of bargaining; weighing gift against gift, value to bo 
 bestowed in concessions against value to be received in 
 subsidies, othly, all canvassing to form a party in ti.e 
 House; everything (to take the words of the paper of 
 "Incidents"; " which might have the rihow, or the scandal.
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWF.R. 
 
 or tlie nature, of the packing or briguing of a parliament." 
 Gthly, all risk of an unkind or undignified parting. And 
 7thly (which I may add on the authority of the same paper, 
 though it is only hinted at in the letter by the way), all 
 secret interference by great persons with the proceedings of 
 the House. The words are, " What course may bo taken 
 to let men perceive that a guard and eye is had by his 
 Majesty that there be no infusions, as were last parlia- 
 ment, from great persons ; but that all proceedings be 
 truly free." 
 
 A. 
 
 And what said the King to all this advice ? 
 
 13. 
 
 What ho said I do not know. All I know is that he did 
 not act upon it. Sir Henry Neville and his party, whose 
 purposes (to do them justice) appear to have been truly 
 patriotic, and whose policy was at least very plausible, and 
 being much less bold than Bacon's probably seemed much 
 safer, succeeded in carrying the matter their own way. 
 Those were the celebrated "Undertakers." They were em- 
 phatically the King's party ; and undertook, if he would 
 make such concessions as they recommended, that his busi- 
 ness should pass to his satisfaction. And here by the way 
 we have a proof (if it were needed) of the decision and 
 confidence of Bacon's foresight in this matter. For such 
 being their professed object and their service being accepted, 
 an ordinary man in his place (or indeed he himself had ho 
 been the sort of man he is taken for) would naturally have 
 joined them. Yet he certainly did not. I have another 
 letter here, written not long before the; parliament met, 
 which proves 1 think decisively that he disapproved of their 
 policy and expected no good from it. It would seem that 
 the King had been consulting him upon the subject; and 
 the tenoiir of his advice may be gathered from this Irtti-r. 
 evidently written by \va\ of reminder. 
 
 "I inns' liimilily |>r;iy your Majesty," lie s;iys, "i<> receive
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 383 
 
 into your royal remembrance that one point whereof yon spake 
 unto me ; which was this, To put this case to those gentlemen 
 who profess to do }*ou service in parliament and desire (as 
 they say) but to have some matter whereupon to work : ' If 
 your Majesty be resolved not to buy or sell this parliament, but 
 to perform the part of a king and not of a merchant or con- 
 tractor, what they can devise or propound for the satisfaction 
 of yonr people? ' 
 
 " Of this three uses may be made. 
 
 " First, if they fall upon an answer as to say that the parlia- 
 ment is now so in taste with matters of substance and profit, 
 as it is vain to think to draw them on but by some offer of that 
 nature ; then for my part I shall little esteem their service, if 
 they confess themselves to be but brokers for bargains. 
 
 " Secondly, if they do devise and propound anything that is 
 fit, then that it be followed and pursued, because they are 
 likest to be in love with their own child and to nourish it. 
 
 " Thirdly, if they show good will to devise some such thing, 
 but that their invention proveth barren in that their proposi- 
 tions be not such but that better may be found ; then that they 
 may be holpen by some better proposition from your Majesty 
 whereupon to work. 
 
 ' This, becaTiso time runneth, I beseech your Majesty may 
 be put to them by some such mean as your Majesty is pleased 
 to use, as soon as may be." 
 
 A. 
 
 Where does this come from ? 
 
 B. 
 
 From the same volume as the last : one of the Cotton 
 col lection. It is the original, all fairly written in his own 
 hand. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well I admit this as conclusive evidence that lie is nd: 
 answerable for the errors of the Undertakers, whatever thry 
 may Lave been. And what was the issue of it all ? 
 
 B. 
 
 For a full answer to that question we must plunge again 
 into the Journals of the Commons and the volumes of con-
 
 384 EVENTNGS WITH A 
 
 temporary correspondence ; and it will make too long a 
 story for to-night. But if yon will be content with Bacon's 
 own report of the matter, I can give yon that in a moderate 
 compass. And it is as well perhaps that while his views 
 beforehand of what ought to be done and what ought not 
 to be done, and of what was to be hoped and feared, are still 
 fresh in your memory, yon should hear also his own account 
 of what was done and what was the consequence of it. It 
 is contained in a paper which has never been noticed (so far 
 as I know), but which may be seen in the Inner Temple 
 Library. It is addressed to the King ; relates to matters 
 concerning which the King must have been perfectly well- 
 informed ; and was written not more than a year and a half 
 after they took place. It can hardly be supposed therefore 
 to contain any intentional misrepresentation ; and if it docs 
 contain a true representation of things as they appeared to 
 Bacon, it has a historical value infinitely above that of any 
 other account which can be had of that period. 
 
 The object of the paper, I should tell you, is to persuade 
 the King not to be discouraged by the ill-success of tin's 
 parliament from calling another; to show what were the 
 true causes of the failure, and by what precautions a similar 
 result may be guarded against another time. The only 
 part which concerns us at present is that which explains the 
 causes of the failure. 
 
 After speaking in the same spirit as before, but more 
 explicitly and earnestly, of the ill-success of the Great Con- 
 tract in the parliament of 1010, in damping "the generous 
 disposition of free giving unto the King, and the politic 
 arguments of persuading it upon reason of state," he pro- 
 ceeds 
 
 " Then in the last assembly of parliament after four years' 
 intermission, when the realm had paused from subsidies a good 
 while, and when it h;id been time to forget 1 lie-so byways ami 
 to have reduced things <o ancient course, the ml her for that Ihe 
 leader of those ways was gone to another world, -then did en- 
 lain gentlemen (whom I love and pri/" in particular, bill nover- 
 Iheless I "will never spare in tliisj being but merely empirics
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 385 
 
 of parliament, and those whose wisdoms reached but to that 
 they had observed last, not well seen in the rules of estate and 
 the pulses of people's hearts, and out of zeal perhaps to do 
 well overvaluing their strength, revive again those former 
 errors of merchandising, and add a far greater error of new. 
 
 " For first, it being given out and professed that the end and 
 cause of calling a parliament was to pay the King's debts and 
 supply his wants " 
 
 The very thing, you remember, which Bacon had espe- 
 cially dissuaded. 
 
 " which of itself did great hurt by putting upon the King 
 the person of a mendicant, and was contrary to the honour- 
 able form of all former parliaments (wherein were the cause 
 of want never so manifest it was never acknowledged by the 
 State, but fell in upon the bye), they straightways fell into 
 the old track of gathering together certain heads of donatives 
 and graces, whereby they thought fit to invite the parlia- 
 ment to an ample gift ; which being propounded, I cannot 
 forget that his Majesty seemed to be in heart and in his own 
 opinion against it ; wherein he showed his great wisdom and 
 foresight; and nevertheless being persuaded unto it, he did 
 likewise as much as the wit of man could devise help it, in 
 carrying it in the best form by disclaiming all merchan- 
 dising and making it but a mutuality and interchange of 
 love; the parliament having in contemplation the case of the 
 King, and the King having in contemplation the case of the 
 people, and not as in contract, either party looking to his own 
 advantage 
 
 This by the way (if the accounts we have of the King's 
 speech do it justice) is a version of his words much im- 
 proved by the reporter. It was the colour which Bacon 
 himself put upon thorn in the House of Commons, and 
 coming from him as a member of the House, the effect is 
 very good. In the King's mouth it did not tell quite so 
 well ; and I am ready to admit that Bacon stretched a point 
 in saying that the King took the most effectual course 
 " which the wit of man could devise " to remove the impu- 
 tation of bargaining, by the manner in which he disclaimed 
 it. If he had made the King's speech for him, I think hig 
 VOL. i. 2 c
 
 386 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 own wit would have devised some better turn. It is true 
 the King was trying to act upon Bacon's advice, but he 
 showed a singular want of tact in the attempt. Bacon had 
 advised him to " put off the person of a merchant and con- 
 tractor and rest upon the person of a king ; " the King, 
 with a simplicity which makes one love him, went and 
 assured the House of Commons that he had done so, and 
 that his offered graces were to be taken as springing from 
 love, and not as if he meant to trade with them like a mer- 
 chant. Never was such an instance of a man turning his 
 wit the seamy side without. It was as if King John, when 
 Faulconbridge implored him not to betray his fears before 
 his people, had gone to his army and begged them not to 
 suppose he was afraid. Therefore I cannot but think that 
 Bacon did know of a man whose wit could have devised a 
 better remedy for the error. 
 
 A. 
 
 He should have said " as much as your Majesty's wit 
 could devise," then. But that would have been disrespectful. 
 I shall not quarrel with him for that little piece of polite- 
 ness. Well ? 
 
 B. 
 
 " But yet it was not possible so to overcome or disguise the 
 nature of things, but that it full into the. old way. For though 
 it were not matter of mere contract as in the former parliament, 
 yet it was a kind of valued gift, which made men take weights 
 and measures into their hands, and those not the truest; so 
 that in the end those graces came to be despised and to be 
 termed Venrfo'ia instead of Jjcnijifia, and that cedars were cut 
 down and shrubs given to browse upon, and such other unfit 
 speeches: "Which error was likewise accumulated with another 
 circumstance which likewise did great hurt ; in that they w T ere 
 all offered, and not first desired and sued for ; contrary like- 
 wise to his Majesty's own opinion, who ever thought that offer 
 would be vilified and that it is appetite that makes sweetness. 
 
 "But the second error (as 1 saidj was the greater; which 
 was that, through indiscretion, or vain-glory, or what it was, it 
 was voiced abroad and carried as a thing notorious, insomuch 
 as people (who are evermore godfathers to such things) gave it
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 387 
 
 the name of Undertaking or Undertakers, that certain persons 
 had undertaken to value themselves with the King "by the ser- 
 vice of preparing and inducing a parliament to pay his debts 
 and supply his wants 
 
 You remember how lie had warned the King that 
 brigues and canvasses would only increase animosities and 
 opposition. 
 
 " which did stir up a kind of indignation even in those that 
 were very well and honestly affected, that a house of parlia- 
 ment should become the shadows and followers of a few, and 
 that thereby they should at once lose money, liberty, and thanks. 
 But then this was taken hold of also and exasperated by all 
 such as under this fair pretext were glad and took boldness to 
 cover and convey their own secret averseness towards the King's 
 business and other their private drifts. 
 
 " Upon this grew also divers branches of inconvenience ; as 
 first that there was great suing, standing, and striving about 
 elections and places ; which joined with this general noise of 
 undertaking and likewise with the opposition thereunto made 
 by others, made the wisest and ablest persons of the kingdom 
 not willing to be of the House ; as loth to offer themselves to 
 opposition and fearing lest it might be a turbulent and factious 
 parliament, and therefore choosing rather to sit quiet at home. 
 And these are the persons in whose hands the King's business 
 ever prospereth best, as being most interested in the State and 
 most respective in their opposing. 
 
 " Upon the same ground it came to pass that three parts of 
 the House were such as had never been of any former parlia- 
 ment, and many of them young men and not of any great estate 
 or quality ; and they are wonderfully mistaken in their prin- 
 ciple who think that such men will give most because they have 
 least : for such are ever more forward to oppose upon bravery, 
 than the gentlemen of the country or wealthy merchants are 
 upon dryness. And besides, that greenness of the House leeseth 
 the modesty and gravity by which great matters have passage 
 and turneth it into a kind of sport or exercise ; which also is 
 a thing most pernicious (if it be truly looked into) unto the 
 liberty of a parliament ; for howsoever they may ruffle once or 
 twdce, yet if they leese their gravity and dignity they will 
 grow in contempt both towards the King and towards the 
 people abroad.
 
 388 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWED. 
 
 " Another inconvenience was by the said occasion that those 
 gentlemen and their friends and associates (who to do them 
 right were of the best voices of the House and the best able to 
 persuade if they stood clear and unprejudged) were by this 
 means turned unprofitable and of no credit in the House ; so 
 that every one of them could have done more in the parliament 
 before than all together could do this parliament. 
 
 " There was also another shrewd dependence of this last 
 inconvenience ; which was that the same persons, finding that 
 they had lost the House, were forced to regain reputation and to 
 ingratiate themselves (as they term it) with the House by being 
 forward and running violent courses in causes of popularity, as 
 in the matter of Impositions and other pretended grievances, 
 wherein the King's power or profit were interested : and so 
 upon the matter but to beg credit one day to spend it another ; 
 wherein they found themselves only able to row with the 
 stream, but had no arms or power to row against it. But in 
 the meantime this bred a spirit of boldness and immoderate 
 liberty to oppose in the King's causes ; and the King himself 
 was fain to pass over divers things which it had been fit to stop 
 at the beginning, upon expectation that the end would make 
 amends for all. 
 
 " Another inconvenience which followed was the manifest 
 distraction which reigned in the House between the Undertakers 
 and the Anti-undertakers ; which made the House more troubled 
 with their appeals the one against the other than with anything 
 else ; and made them also look rather upon the persons one of 
 another how they Avero bided, than regard the matter they 
 spake ; crossing the matter for the person's sake ; which did cut 
 off all means of persuasion and cunsent. 
 
 " But that which was of all others most pernicious, this dis- 
 traction had entered into the King's house and council and 
 among.it his great men ; insomuch as my Lord Privy Seal"- 
 
 That was the Earl of Northampton. 
 
 "who had discounselled the parliament and hated the persons 
 almost of the Undertakers, what for the glory of his opinion 
 and what for the; blasting of their services, declared himself 
 in that manner as he M-t up a kind of flag unto all those that 
 opposed the Undertakers and would frustrate the success of the 
 parliament. 
 
 " Lastly, contrary to all custom of parliament and to the 
 stirring of infinite animosity and distaste, the King's business
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 389 
 
 was urged to be put to a point at the very first : and this was 
 done that the weakness of the Undertakers, whose strength was 
 more in noise than in strength,* might not be perceived before 
 the King's turn was served ; which point of time being tin- 
 pleasing to every man and therefore soon overruled, made the 
 House to find their strength ; which stumbling at the threshold 
 was never after recovered. 
 
 " This then being a true description of the last parliament, 
 I see no reason why it should cast a fear for the holding of 
 another, no more than the opening of a body dead of a disease 
 ought to fear a man in health ; but it may warn him somewhat 
 to observe in the regiment of his health. 
 
 " Of this that hath been said there is a double use ; the one 
 for the removing of too much apprehension or discouragement 
 concerning the calling of a parliament; the other because the 
 notation of those errors carrieth in itself by rule of contrary 
 a kind of direction or platform what course is now to be held. 
 For I do not think there can be a more true or compendious 
 advice how to carry things concerning a future parliament than 
 this to do just contrary to that was last done." 
 
 He then proceeds to give his " affirmative counsel " for 
 the future parliament ; which is exactly in the same spirit 
 with the advice that he had previously given for the last, 
 which we have just seen ; only more large and elaborate 
 and earnest, and entering further into detail. I have some- 
 thing to say about that too when its turn conies ; but for 
 the present we may as well stop here. The next thing will 
 be to inquire from independent authorities what part be 
 actually took in this " addle parliament," and now far it was 
 consistent with his principles and views expressed both 
 before and after, as they are expounded in the letters we 
 have read to-night. Our information on that point is in 
 truth very imperfect ; but it is better to bring forward all we 
 have, that we may see how the footmarks lie, and that we 
 may leave as few blank leaves as possible for the moral histo- 
 rian or the popular biographer to fill up from his own fancy. 
 
 A. 
 
 How far have we advanced now ? 
 
 * So in MS.
 
 390 EVENIXCIS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 Iu point of time, not far to-night : for Bacon is only 
 about a year and a half older than he was when we began ; 
 being just turned fifty-three. But in our knowledge of him 
 and of his life, as it seemed to lie before him looking for- 
 ward into the uncertain future, we have made, I conceive, a 
 considerable step. 
 
 We have seen how clearly he perceived that the times 
 were out of joint, and how strong an opinion he had as to 
 the proper method of proceeding to reduce the dislocation, 
 and the fatal consequence of delay in adopting it. The 
 result of each succeeding attempt to set it right by a dif- 
 ferent treatment only proved more and more that he was 
 correct. His influence with the King, though far from 
 paramount, was nevertheless increasing. The events of this 
 year cannot but have tended to improve it still further. 
 The policy of the King, with all its errors, was surely not so 
 hopelessly depraved that an honest man was bound to for- 
 sake his cause : and it has not yet appeared that in any 
 single instance Bacon attempted to gain influence with him 
 by encouraging him in his errors : on the contrary it is clear 
 almost to demonstration that he used his influence so far as 
 it would go to correct or modify them, or to ward off the 
 consequences. His patriotism, it is true, was not like that 
 of the extreme popular party of his day, which seems to be 
 regarded by the liberal writers of our own as the only pos- 
 sible form of patriotism. It did not consist in an endeavour 
 to defeat the King and strip him of his prerogatives. J)oes 
 it follow that it was false or insincere ? Does it follow even 
 that it was mistaken ? Surely no thinking man can say so. 
 "What was the end which Bacon most desired to bring 
 about? A reconciliation between tin,' King and the Com- 
 mons: not that the Commons should prevail against the 
 King: but that the King and Commons should prevail 
 together against dangers and disorders within and without, 
 and proceed harmoniously in the great operations of good 
 government. His end therefore you must allow was good. 
 Then as to the means. Jluic did he propose to effect this
 
 EVENINGS WITH A EEVIEWER. 391 
 
 reconciliation ? for there were many ways in which it might 
 have been attempted. By helping the King to prevail 
 against the Commons ? No : but by showing him how to 
 prevail with them ; by guiding him into such a course of 
 policy as should command their confidence and consent. 
 So far you must allow his means to be good also. Once 
 more then, as to the means of the means. How did he 
 propose to command that confidence and consent ? By in- 
 triguing, and forming parties, and overbearing their de- 
 liberations, and silencing dissentients ? for those are the 
 unpatriotic arts. The very contrary. One of the principal 
 points which he insisted on as essential was this that there 
 should be no interference either with the elections in the 
 country or with the proceedings in the House, but that " all 
 proceedings should be truly free." Or if it be too much to 
 say that he was against all interference with elections, for 
 it is true that he would have had measures taken if possible 
 to bring in fit men and keep out unfit, yet he expressly 
 stipulated that those measures should be such as to satisfy 
 two conditions : first, they were to be " lonis artilus, with- 
 out labouring or packing ; " secondly, they were to have for 
 their end the procuring of a really good House. 
 
 A. 
 
 Ay ; but what was his notion of a really good House ? 
 Your constitutional critic will say that he meant a House 
 with a majority on the King's side. 
 
 B. 
 
 I expected that ; but the constitutional critic will be 
 mistaken. Bacon no doubt expected, as one of the incidents 
 of a good House, that it would have a majority on the 
 King's side; just as a man who believes that his cause is 
 just believes that a good judge will decide it in his favour. 
 But ask him what he means by a good judge, ho will say, 
 a man of learning, integrity, judgment, and impartiality. 
 Suppose in like manner we ask Bacon what ho means by 
 " a really good House of Commons." Here is his answer :
 
 392 EVENINGS WITH A EEVIEWER. 
 
 " I wish by all means that the House may be compounded 
 not of young men, but of the greatest gentlemen of quality of 
 their country ; and ancient parliament men ; and the principal 
 and gravest lawyers, sergeants, and readers; and the chiefest 
 merchants ; and likewise travellers and statesmen ; and in a 
 word, that it be a sufficient House worthy to consult with in the 
 great causes of the Commonwealth." 
 
 Have you any objection to that ? 
 
 A. 
 
 No ; the cause that prospers in such a House should be 
 a good one. Certainly if it asks no more favour than a fail- 
 hearing in a House so composed, it must at least think 
 itself a good one. 
 
 B. 
 
 Then you admit that the end which Bacon wished to 
 bring about was good ; and that the means by which he 
 proposed to bring it about, and the means of obtaining those 
 means, were fair and constitutional ? 
 
 A. 
 
 It should seem so.- 
 
 B. 
 
 Then you have no objection to make to the manner in 
 which, and the purposes for which, he used what influence be 
 had with the King ? 
 
 A. 
 
 None at present. 
 
 B. 
 
 If then you find him endeavouring to maintain and im- 
 prove that influence, will it shock or surprise you ? Shall 
 you be at a loss for his motive ? Or will you be content to 
 suppose that his wish to improve his influence with the 
 King may have arisen naturally out of a natural wish to 
 serve his country ? 1 do not ask whether that was his only 
 motive. Sugar tasted sweet to him as to other men. But 
 suppose he did feel such a wish,- that he had some care for 
 the prosperity of King and kingdom, was not that motive 
 sufficient ?
 
 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 393 
 
 A. 
 
 I confess I think it was. 
 
 B. 
 
 And do you not think we may go a step further yet ? 
 You admit that, upon that motive alone, he might naturally 
 endeavour to advance in the King's favour. Could he, 
 think you, supposing that motive strong, have not en- 
 deavoured to do so ? Such being the state of things, such 
 his views, such his position, if you should find him not 
 endeavouring to improve his influence with the King, should 
 you not infer that his wish to serve his country was not 
 strong ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Stay, stay. That is too much at once. I must first 
 know how he used his influence afterwards, when he had 
 succeeded in improving it. If not in a patriotic spirit 
 
 B. 
 
 Excuse me. That does not affect the present question. 
 When we come to that, you shall judge it freely. What I 
 ask you now you can answer now. I ask you whether a 
 man in Bacon's position, fully persuaded that if he had but 
 more influence with the King he could be of material service 
 in extricating the country from a dangerous embarrassment, 
 and yet wilfully neglecting to improve that influence, 
 whether such a man could be supposed to care much 
 whether the country were extricated or not. Translate the 
 case into our own times. A man thinks he knows how Ire- 
 land may be saved. He thinks too that he might himself 
 be a material instrument for doing it if he were to put him- 
 self forward. He does not put himself forward. What may 
 I infer ? 
 
 A. 
 
 That he cares more for his own quiet than for the sal- 
 vation of Ireland, I suppose.
 
 394 EVENINGS WITH A REVIEWER. 
 
 B. 
 
 Of course. Well then if Bacon had not put himself for- 
 ward ? 
 
 A. 
 
 Yes, but you assume that he thought that by putting 
 himself forward he could extricate the country ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Assume ! You cannot expect a demonstration of the 
 secret thoughts of a man who has been dead two hundred 
 years. Yet you can hardly call it an assumption either. 
 You must at least admit that if he did not think so, he acted 
 most unaccountably ; and that if he did think so, he must 
 have acted just as he did. 
 
 A. 
 
 Certainly I must admit that he had no motive for giving 
 the advice he did, except a conviction that it was sound. 
 For he seems to have been in a very small minority. 
 
 B. 
 
 A minority of one, so far as I can discover. 
 
 A. 
 
 Well then I admit that whatever other motives he may 
 have had, that motive was sufficient of itself. Having such 
 a motive, he is not only excused for wishing to keep and im- 
 prove his influence with the King (not that I have ever said 
 he needed any excuse), but he could not well have done 
 otherwise. I hope that will content you. 
 
 B. 
 
 Perfectly. 
 
 END OF VOLUME I.
 
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 $EG 2 2 "954. 
 
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 117 1957