SIR FRANCIS BACON FRANCIS BACON, Viscount St. Alban's, and Lord High Chancellor of England, was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, and of Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, tutor to King Edward the Sixth. This lady was a good wife and mother, as well as an excellent classical scholar; and her son, doubtless, experienced in his childhood the happy effects of maternal education. While he was yet a boy, the signs of genius for which he was in after-life distinguished, began to show themselves. He answered questions which were put to him with a ripeness above his years, and with such gravity, that Queen Elizabeth would often call him her young lord keeper. While the children, his companions, were diverting themselves near his father's house in St. James's Park, he went alone to the brick conduit to ascertain the cause of a singular echo; and in his twelfth year he was meditating upon the laws of the imagination.

At thirteen he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which Dr. Whitgift, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, was then master; and he soon attracted attention, both for his high talents and for his dislike of the dry and barren course then followed in the University, the philosophy of Aristotle; real knowledge being in his view "not a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort, or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit and sale; but a rich store-house for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man's estate*.”

At sixteen, he was sent to Paris under the care of Sir Amias Paulet, the English Ambassador at that court, by whom, soon after his arrival, he was fortu. nate enough to be intrusted with an important mission to the queen. His manner of executing it tended to raise his reputation, and on the death of his father, which occurred when Bacon was twenty, he returned to England from the French provinces, possessed of the "golden opinions of all sorts of people," but dependent on his own exertions in a profession for his support. Politics he would have preferred, and he even sounded his uncle, the wary Lord Burleigh, towards securing some place under the crown, but in vain. To the sure profession of the law, therefore, he determined to devote himself, and was admitted a student of Gray's Inn, instead of venturing on the uncertain sea of politics. Such a mind as Bacon's cannot be supposed to have confined its researches within the narrow and perplexed study of precedents and authorities: it extended itself to the whole circle of science, by exploring the principles of universal justice, the laws of law. During this legal and philosophical course, while making his way to the highest point which a lay subject could reach, and meditating on his immortal work, the Novum Organum, he found time for relaxation, gained the affections of the whole society of which he was a member, assisted in their festivities, and beautified their spacious garden t.

When he was only twenty-six, he became a bencher, and at thirty was sworn Queen's Counsel learned extraordinary, an honour which till then had never Montagu's valuable edition of Bacon's Works, to which we are indebted for materials for this paper.

The apartments in which Lord Bacon resided are said to be at No. 1, Gray's Inn Square, on the north side, one pair of stairs. In the books in the steward's office, there are many of his autographs, being his admission, when a bencher, of the different students. He always delighted in gardens, thinking them conducive to the purest of human pleasures; and as Chancellor, he had the pleasure of signing the patent for converting Lincoln's Inn Fields into walks, extending almost to the wall where his faithful friend Ben Jonson had, when a boy, worked as a bricklayer.

been conferred on any member of the profession. But disappointment was in store. Though related to Lord Burleigh, his intimacy was with the rival peer, Devereux, Earl of Essex; and when the office of Solicitor-General became vacant, he owed his rejection to the hostility of the heartless Burleigh. Essex, mortified almost as deeply as his friend, generously undertook the care of Bacon's future fortunes, and gave him an estate in the village of Twickenham. This friendship grew somewhat cold on Essex's appointment as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Bacon having endeavoured to dissuade him from that unhappy enterprise. When misfortunes gathered thickly round the head of the rash and ill-fated Essex, Bacon continued to serve and watch over him with almost parental anxiety; but he was at length compelled, as counsel for the crown, to denounce him as a traitor.

At thirty-seven Bacon put forth his first publication, a volume of Essays, Religious Meditations, &c. In 1603 he was knighted; a doubtful honour coming from King James, who had ascended the throne, but pleasing to our philosopher, as it gratified a handsome maiden, the daughter of Alderman Barnham, "whom he had found out to his liking," and whom he afterwards married. His next great work was the Advancement of Learning, which professes to be a survey of the then existing knowledge, and a designation of the parts of science which were unexplored. Meanwhile he laboured to better the condition of Ireland, advocated the union of England and Scotland, and assisted in measures for the improvement of the church. His influence was soon increased by his appointment to the office of Solicitor-General, and subsequently of Attorney-General.

In March, 1616-17, in his fifty-seventh year, Sir Francis Bacon was made lord chancellor of England, a place combining four great qualifications, those of a lawyer, a judge, a statesman, and the patron of preferment; and, in 1618, he became baron of Verulam. The title was taken from Old Verulam, in Hertfordshire, near his noble residence at Gorhambury, where he lived in great splendour united with study. The king bestowed on him the lucrative farm of the Alienation-office, and made him viscount St. Alban's; and the greatest of English philosophers was at the height of his accumulated honours when he celebrated his sixtieth birth-day, surrounded by his admirers and friends, one among them, "not least in love," Ben Jonson, who composed a poem in honour of the day.

We now turn to the reverse of the picture, and find him falling rapidly from his proud eminence, and becoming an object of bitter triumph to his enemies. In 1620, committees had been appointed to inquire into abuses; and in one of these, touching courts of justice, two suitors in chancery charged Bacon with bribery and corruption in his judicial character, he having, as it was alleged, received money to secure their success, in which, however, they had after all failed. But it appears, that the custom of the chancellor's receiving presents, though an abuse, had prevailed from the earliest times; that the gifts in question had been made openly in the presence of witnesses; that, moreover, his judgment could not have been biassed, as he had decided against the donors. In addition to these points of defence, he might have called upon the House of Commons for protection against calumny, at a time when the excited people wished for some victim, as a tribute to public opinion, and a sacrifice for public wrongs. The popular complaint was loud upon the rapacious exactions of the favourites of the king, especially of George Villiers, marquis of Buckingham, who, under pretence of

granting patents, which were made out for even the common necessaries of life, grasped at large and shameful fees. Bacon, however, treated the charge of these disappointed suitors with contempt; until increased daily by fresh accusations, amounting altogether to twenty-three, the attack could no longer be disregarded. From the pinnacle on which he stood, he could see the storm gathering round him; and though he had considered himself much beloved in both Houses of Parliament, he felt that he had secret enemies, and

FRANCIS BACON, LORD VERULAM AND ST. ALBAN'S,

began to fear that he had false friends. He resolved, therefore, to meet his accusers; but his health, always delicate, gave way, and, instead of being able to attend in person, he was obliged to address his Peers in writing, requesting them to suspend their opinion for the present, to give him time for procuring evidence in his defence, &c., to which they readily agreed. After this, he had an interview with King James, when he said, "The law of nature teaches me to speak in my own defence: with respect to the charge of bribery, I am as innocent as one born upon St. Innocents' Day; I never had bribe or reward in my eye or thought, when pronouncing sentence

or order."

Subsequently, the king, who had resolved to leave Bacon to his fate, rather than risk Buckingham, gave him his advice that he should submit himself to the House of Peers, and that upon his princely word he would then restore him again, if they should not be sensible of his merits. How little this command accorded with the chancellor's desire to defend

himself, may be gathered from his affecting and ominous remonstrance to James:-"I see my approaching ruin; there is no hope of mercy in a multitude; those who strike at your chancellor will strike at your crown; I am the first, I wish I may be the last sacrifice." He accordingly submitted, and couched his confession in a form which he thus acknowledged as his own:-" It is my act, my hand, my heart; I beseech your lordships be merciful unto a broken reed!" The king did not interpose, and the lords adjudged upon this humbled nobleman, a fine of 40,000l., imprisonment in the Tower during his majesty's pleasure, and disqualification for ever for place or employment in the state or commonwealth. Thus fell from the height of worldly prosperity Francis, lord chancellor of Great Britain.

In his letter to the king from the Tower, he says; "For the briberies and gifts wherewith I am charged, when the book of hearts shall be opened, I hope I shall not be found to have the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart, in a depraved habit of taking rewards to pervert justice; howsoever I may be frail, and partake of the abuse of the times." In his will are found these remarkable words; "For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and the next ages." After two days' imprisonment, he was liberated; in the September following, the king signed a warrant for the release of the parliamentary fine, and in October the pardon was sealed. Bacon then retired to Gorhambury, and gave up his mind to those literary labours from which the world has derived such important benefits. His lordship was summoned to parliament in the succeeding reign, in 1625, but was prevented by his infirmities from taking his seat as a peer. During this year he published a new edition of his essays, his apophthegms, and a translation of a few of the Psalms of David into English verse, which he dedicated to his friend, the learned and religious George Herbert. This was the last exercise, in the time of illness, of his mighty mind.

The immediate cause of his death deserves to be stated. In the spring of 1626, says Aubrey, his strength and spirits revived, and he returned to Gray's Inn, from whence, on the 2nd of April, going into the country with Dr. Witherborne, the king's physician, it occurred to him as he approached Highgate, the snow lying on the ground, that he would ascertain whether flesh might not be preserved in snow as well as in salt, and he resolved immediately to try the experiment. They alighted out of the coach, and went into a poor woman's house at the bottom of Highgate hill, bought a hen, and stuffed the body with snow, my lord helping to do it himself. The snow chilled him, and he immediately became so extremely ill that he could not return to Gray's Inn, but was taken to the Earl of Arundel's house at Highgate, where he was put into a warm bed; but it was damp, and had not been slept in for a year before. He died on the 9th of April, 1626, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. He was buried, by his own desire, in St. Michael's church, near St. Alban's, in the same grave with his mother. Sir Thomas Meautys, his faithful friend and secretary, who "loved and admired him in life, and honoured him when dead," erected a noble monument, which cannot be viewed without the deepest interest. Meautys lies near him, as is shown by the inscription on a neighbouring stone, which, however, is partly concealed by a pew.

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who derive only collateral and indirect advantage from a particular branch of trade, they did not afford to it that strenuous encouragement which it demanded, and which the ignorance, inertness, and poverty of the inhabitants rendered absolutely necessary. The superintendence of the fisheries has now passed chiefly into the hands of the proprietor of the island. His interest is more immediately identified with those who gain their living by this mode of employment, and the increased prosperity of this branch of economy may be anticipated. The failure of kelp has directed his attention, as well as that of other island and coast proprietors, beneficially to the fisheries. He has launched the first cod-smack furnished by Lewis, and supplied the London market with a cargo of fresh fish. The natives of Lewis, though the island is well adapted to the prosecution of the herring and whale fisheries, have confined their fishing to their own coasts. An obstacle to participation in the deep sea-fisheries affects alike the Western Isles and Orkneys, and that is the superior advantage enjoyed by the English or Dutch in being able to control the market to which the fish are destined, and in being formed into companies to combine operations. The observations on the character of the fishermen of Lewis will apply to those of South Uist and Benbicula, whilst those of Barra, a rock which leaves them without any other resources, and furnishes no pretexts for idleness, are celebrated for enterprise and success; carrying on an extensive ling-fishery, solely by their own exertions, and conveying their fish to the Clyde markets through the Crinan Canal. The laird of Coll found much difficulty in inducing the fishermen of that island to avail themselves of a vessel employed for the express purpose of carrying their fish to market, which left their whole time applicable to fishing.

The coast of Lewis is frequented by whales. A short time ago sixty of these fish were driven into the harbour of Stornaway. A scene ensued, of which an animating description was given to me by an eye-witness. All the boats in the harbour darted on their prey, and the crews showed the utmost activity, boldness, and enterprise in driving them ashore and killing them, whilst the bellowing of the wounded animals drowned in its horrible din the clamour of the destroyers. The average length of the fish was about twenty feet. One of them brought forth a cub during the fray; the young animal immediately dashed ashore and was taken; it measured six feet. This was considered by no means a numerous shoal.

There is but one sheep-farm in Lewis. The principal produ ce of the island are cattle, small in size, and very illshape d, black and brown in colour, but yielding excellent beef. The proprietor has directed much of his attention to the increase of the cultivation of the soil, which is confined chiefly to the strips of land along the coasts of the sea and shores of lakes. The produce consists of barley, bear, the black oat, and a little wheat, and chiefly potatoes. Lewis has been long considered, comparatively speaking, a grain island. A peat-moss, recently reclaimed near Stornaway, now yields a rich and productive soil; and there is little doubt, that the arable resources of the island will be materially augmented, and that its wealth and population will increase. The harvest usually commences in August, and seldom fails, as the winter rains, which set in in September, are commonly preceded by a few days of hot weather, accompanied with strong drying winds. After this season the curse of St. Swithin rages with remorseless fury. The island suffered much formerly from occasional dearths. Such an event occurred some years ago, during the residence of two of my friends in this island on a shooting excursion. On returning from a good day's sport, they were informed that the last measure of grain which the island afforded had been consumed, and were strongly advised to take ship immediately for a more fortunate region, counsel which they did not neglect.

The proprietor of Lewis is adopting the change of system which the times have rendered necessary, in removing that class of tacksmen corresponding with the middle-men of Ireland. Under the ancient Highland system, the land was rented of the principal proprietors under a long, and often perpetually-renewed hereditary lease by tenants, whose birth, consanguinity, wealth, influence, or achievements, constituted them a second class of gentry; and by them underlet to cottars and small renters, who regarded them as their landlords. This method was beneficial in securing, by a well-graduated subordination of rank, property, and authority, a virtual substitute for the control

of national law and the artificial subdivisions of society. The principal proprietor received in the military and other services of his tenants compensation for the privilege which they virtually enjoyed of participating the income arising from his estate. Both good and evil resulted from the system. It tended generally to promote through every class of the community, from the superior landlord to the inferior tenant, reciprocal good-will; whilst the education of the intermediate tenants, their constant residence among their subordinate dependants, and attention to their wants and conduct, contributed to diffuse comfort, morality, and self-respect, through every degree of the community. On the other hand, it was liable to the usual abuse, grinding rents, and, as the old patriarchal feeling declined, oppression of the tenantry, as may be seen in many parts of the Highlands and Islands. Doubtless, these consequences might have been partly checked by the timely prevention and imperative stipulations of the landlord: but they too inveterately adhere to the system to be eradicated, except with the root from which they spring. They have augmented, moreover, proportionably to the increasing difficulties by which agriculture is burdened. And the consideration of these at once brings us to that inevitable and summary view of the question, which, setting aside the option between conflicting disadvantages, compels us to regard the necessity of the course to be pursued,

Rent being a certain surplusage of profit which land affords above the ordinary rate of profit realized in other branches of trade, it is obvious, that though, where the price of agricultural produce is much higher than that of other produce, the surplusage might be sufficient for two sets of landlords, the superior and the middle-man, its depreciation would render such subdivision impracticable: and this is precisely the situation of the landlords. The landlord, therefore, must change the system, whatever may be his reluctance to sever ancient ties.

No general plan for the distribution of property can be laid down in the Highlands and Islands, where the local subdivisions and value of land vary so materially. But one general principle might be adopted wherever it may be found practicable, of letting the land in large portions, so as to secure a respectable yeomanry, essential to agricultural, as well as to moral purposes, in regions which must be necessarily in a great measure destitute of the personal attention of the landlord. Where the portion of arable land is very limited or detached, or the plough can be scarcely brought to bear upon it, it might be consigned to tenants of an inferior class. The labourers, according to the admirable system now gradually pervading England, might rent small portions of land, just sufficient to occupy their leisure hours, and to supply them with a certain amount of provisions and comfort, without rendering them independent of the landlord's employment: and the entire system should be placed under the constant supervision of a landlord, or of a suitable representative. The benefits of it are already apparent wherever it has been introduced, in promoting the improvement of agriculture, as well as of the habits of the people. The sheepfarming will come more properly under consideration hereafter, as also the fisheries,-a vast field of enterprise and opulence, closely interwoven with the change in question.

The great importance of a well-arranged system would be nowhere more manifest than in that chain of islands, of which Lewis is the most northern. Formerly, and at no distant period, the great proprietors to whom it belonged, Macneills, Macdonalds, Macleods, or Mackenzies, resided each upon his own island, a monarch whose right there was none to dispute. Now, through transfers of property, or the attraction of towns and parts of the country more congenial to modern habits, the Long Island has been deserted by all its landlords, excepting the temporary residence of the proprietor of Lewis, at Stornaway. The best substitute for their personal superintendence, would be the system recommended. Whilst the extension of steam-navigation will facilitate the efforts of those landlords disposed to visit their estates, and render the southern markets more accessible to their produce.

Near the Butt of Lewis exists a small colony of Danes, retaining the characteristics of the race from which they sprung, fair complexions, blue eyes, and matted hair; but their language has entirely merged in the Gaelic. There is no proof but that they may have settled on the island, the communication with Denmark being easy, at a period subsequent to that of the long-continued sway of the Scandi