that Bacon thought it worth while to address some words of expostulation to Coke himself. It is true that this letter, as printed in the Resuscitatio,' contains the words "my master's service," which would imply that it was written after the accession of King James. But in the manuscript collection in the British Museum (Add. 5503), which I take to be a better authority than Rawley's copies (see Vol. I. p. 233, note 1), the word is clearly written Mris; and in the Remains, where the letter in question was first published, it is printed "Mrs." And therefore the same reason which led Birch to date it some time between March, 1603, and June, 1606,—that is, between the accession of James and the promotion of Coke to the Bench,requires us to date it between November, 1595, and March, 1603,that is, between the appointment of Fleming as solicitor, and the death of Elizabeth; during which period, though other occasions may have occurred to provoke it, this is the only one which we know did occur. This therefore is undoubtedly its proper place in this collection, and if we suppose it to have been written on the 29th or 30th of April, 1601, we shall not be far wrong.

A LETTER OF EXPOSTULATION TO THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, SIR EDWARD COKE

Mr. Attorney,

I thought best, once for all, to let you know in plainness what I find of you, and what you shall find of me. You take to yourself a liberty to disgrace and disable my law, my experience, my discretion. What it pleaseth3 you, I pray, think of me: I am one that knows both mine own wants and other men's; and it may be, perchance, that mine mend, and others stand at a stay. And surely I may not endure in public place to be wronged, without repelling the same to my best advantage to right myself. You are great, and therefore have the more enviers, which would be glad to have you paid at another's cost. Since the time I missed the Solicitor's place (the rather I think by your means) I cannot expect that you and I shall ever serve as Attorney and Solicitor together: but either to serve with another upon your remove, or to step into some other course; so as I am more free than ever I was from any occasion of unworthy conforming myself to you, more than general good manners or your particular good usage shall provoke. And if you had not

1 Addl. MSS. 5503, fo. 36.

2 So Res. The MS. has with.

3 So R. The MS. reads "my discretion; what it please you. I praye thinke of mee, that I am that know," etc.

been shortsighted in your own fortune (as I think) you might have had more use of me. But that tide is passed. I write not this to show my friends what a brave letter I have written1 to Mr. Attorney; I have none of those humours. But that I have written is to a good end, that is to the more decent carriage of my mistress' service, and to our particular better understanding one of another. This letter, if it shall be answered by you in deed, and not in word, I suppose it will not be worse for us both. Else it is but a few lines lost, which for a much smaller matter I would have adventured. So this being but to yourself, I for myself rest.

Bacon had many grave objections, no doubt, to Coke's way of doing his business, and on a fit occasion would have been ready to state them; but there is no reason for thinking that he ever provoked this kind of treatment by speaking of him either publicly or privately with disrespect. Among the greatest admirers of Coke in modern times there is none who has not admitted more to his disadvantage, both morally and intellectually, (out of his own particular domain) than Bacon ever alleged or insinuated, and within that domain Bacon never questioned his preeminence; although he hoped, in the course of time, to do something in it himself that would raise the question with posterity. In the meantime the tone in which he ordinarily spoke of him as a lawyer may be inferred from a joke preserved in Dr. Rawley's common-place book; which being too light to have a section to itself, I insert here; though a little before its true date. In January 1602-3, the Queen made eleven new sergeants-at-law, the last being one Barker, "for whose preferment (says Chamberlain) the world finds no other reason but that he is Mr. Attorney's brotherin-law." "Nay, if he be Mr. Attorney's brother in law, he may well be a sergeant," said Bacon, who, according to Rawley's story, was standing by.5

2.

2 end om. MS.

3 but om. Resusc.

It was about this time that Bacon lost his brother. "Anthony Bacon," says Chamberlain to Carleton, writing on the 27th of May, 1601, "died not long since, but so far in debt that I think his brother 1 wrote MS., writ Remains. Chamberlain's Letters, temp. Eliz. (Camb. Soc.), p. 177. 5 Lambeth MSS. 1034. Rawley writes "Lo. Coke" instead of "Mr. Attorney:" not knowing the date. But there can be no doubt that this was the time. Rawley's story begins, "When Sergeant Barker was made Sergeant, my Lo. said there were 11 Biters and one Barker." Chamberlain's ends, "or else (as one said) that among so many biters there should be one barker:" which sounds like the truer

version.

is little the better by him." He had been suffering so long and so severely from gout and stone that his early death requires no other explanation, though the shock of mind which he must have felt from the last proceedings of the Earl of Essex, and the disclosures consequent upon them, would no doubt hasten the natural work of disease.

This is not the place for an enquiry into his life and character, which would indeed involve a review of great part of the foreign policy of England during the last twenty years of the sixteenth century; for he was so entirely a man of business that to understand his life it would be necessary to understand the business first. But being one of the very few persons who have looked into the voluminous collection of his correspondence preserved at Lambeth, having examined much of it carefully and turned over the leaves of all, and come from the perusal with a tolerably clear impression of his personal character, though that was not the immediate object of my enquiry,I may as well record it here: the rather because under Dr. Birch's treatment the touches which disclose temper, humour, and character are mostly lost in the process of translation from the first person into the third, and from the living language of passion into the proprieties of historical narrative. But the correspondence in its original shape is fresh and lively, contains letters from both parties, and ranges over fifteen or sixteen years. It is of the most various and miscellaneous kind: and though the collection (never perhaps complete) has suffered from the hand of time while it lay packed out of the way in bundles, it has evidently suffered nothing from the hand of selection. Everything seems to have been kept that was not lost or mislaid. Letters from his mother with directions that they should be burned immediately for fear his men should see them; letters from his steward, with details of receipt and payment; letters from intelligencers abroad full of political secrets; letters from pressing creditors, from wary purchasers, from Popish fugitives, and Protestant preachers; from attached patron, great acquaintance, familiar friends, kinsmen more or less familiar, grateful dependants, lawyers, statesmen, doctors, money-lenders;-together with his own rough drafts, written to dictation;-all appear to have been preserved and docketed, and are now bound up together, not indeed in perfect order,-for the arranger has not attended to the division of the civil year-but in such order that with a little trouble they may be read consecutively. On the authority of this correspondence, in which it would be hard for any salient feature of the character to hide itself, Anthony Bacon may be confidently described as a grave, assiduous, energetic, religious man, with decided opinions, quick feelings, warm attach

ments, and remarkable power of attaching others; a gentleman of high strain, open handed and generous beyond his means; but sensitive and irritable; a little too apt to suspect, feel, and resent an injury; a little too hasty to speak of it; and occasionally, I dare say, driven by the perplexities of pecuniary embarrassment into unreasonableness and injustice; but generally fair, tolerant, and liberal.

How far he was justly charged with extravagance it is not so easy to judge. He spent more than his income; but he spent it in public service, and though I dare say he spent it freely, there is no evidence to show that it was either unworthily spent or unwisely. The acquaintance of many people, and of great people, was of real importance to a man who aspired to supply England with intelligence from France; but it was necessarily expensive. The art of setting many instruments in motion, and gathering the fruits of many men's industry, was an art of great value; but it could not be carried on without liberal rewards. And though it may be truly said that if expenses were incurred in the service of the government, the government ought to have repaid him; it may be as truly answered that that was not the fashion in Elizabeth's days. Besides, his capacity for service had first to be proved. He may have hoped that when the value and the cost of his work should be known the loss would be in some way made good, his future services accepted at their worth, and his fortunes established. But his business at present was to show what he could do, and a determination to keep his expenditure within his income may have been a determination to forego important opportunities. In a letter to his brother written in the fifth year of his residence abroad, which would be in 1584 or 1585, after speaking of a sum of £500 which he had sent for, and "which I know," he adds, "will give occasion to my mother and you of marvel, perhaps of suspicion," and after directing him to send certain jewels, he goes on to say, "How I mean to employ them you shall understand hereafter, and neither you nor any able to dislike, no more than the rest of mine expenses; if you knew as well as myself, as by God's grace one day you shall, the times, places, manner, and end of their spending." And that the business in which he was engaged was really of public importance, and therefore worth risks. and sacrifices, appears from the terms in which his services were acknowledged by the man who was of all others in the best position to appreciate them. The following letter from Sir Francis Walsingham was written about the same time as the letter to Francis Bacon just quoted, and refers, if not to the same services, at least to services of the same kind:

1 From a letter-book of A. B.'s belonging to Mr. E. Cole.

Sir,

I received your last of the 12th of February, and have not failed to acquaint her Majesty with the contents thereof; who very graciously accepteth that your so dutiful remembrance of her service, affirming that the great care and diligence you have performed in that behalf showeth whose son you are as also that her Highness is right glad to find by so good and kindly experience that she hath a gentleman of your quality so towardly and able to do her service. And for that her Majesty is given to understand that during the term of your travel hitherto you have often fallen sick, and are still subject to great indispositions, she hath willed me to signify unto you that she would have you for the time you are yet to remain abroad to have a more earnest care to preserve your health; which her Highness doth especially charge you to do chiefly when you remove from place to place, and that if not for your own safety, yet for her own sake.

Touching the matter by you advertised, her Majesty conceiveth thereby your ripeness of judgment, and (the particularities concurring with the soundest advertisements she receiveth nearer hand) findeth that you have had better intelligence in that corner than hath been received from any others in those parts; whereby it is seen that your credit is good with the evil affected of that nation remaining there. And therefore, notwithstanding you remove to Paris, I shall heartily pray you by all the best means you may devise to continue your intelligence with the parties with whom it seemeth you can prevail; very much the rather for that the same may greatly import her Majesty's service.

For myself I must pray you to hold me excused, if hitherto I have not often written unto you; which I assure you hath happened through the uncertainty of your being, occasioned as I hear by your long and often sickness. And, lastly, for that I perceive how that your friends do generally hold an opinion of your weak nature and indisposition, unfit to abide the hardness you should find by travelling into other remote parts, besides many other reasons they have imparted unto you, persuading your return, for mine own part, as one that for so many good respects wish you so well as I do, I cannot but friendly advise you, after you have remained there some time, to think on your repair home with as convenient speed as you may, as well in respect of your outward estate of health and otherwise, as also for the particular comfort myself among other your good friends should receive now after so many years of your absence to see and enjoy you in your own country. And so with hearty remembrance of you, I commit you to the Lord from my house in London, the first of March, 1584.

Your assured loving friend,

FRA. WALSINGHAM.1

It appears plainly from this that Walsingham, though he con

1 From the same letter-book: p. 59. A copy, in the hand (as I suppose) of A. B.'s amanuensis.