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which I have not been this long time, nor could, I think, have beeń now, without such a great noise as this; which yet is in aura leni. I have written this to you in haste; my end being no more than to write, and thereby to make you know that I will ever continue the same, and still be sure to wish you as heartily well as to myself.

The next is from Bacon's own collection, and is addressed to his cousin Robert Kempe-the "good Robin," I presume, with whom we are already acquainted.'

To MR. ROBERT KEMPE, UPON THE DEATH OF QUEEN

Mr. Kempe,

ELIZABETH.2

This alteration is so great, as you mought justly conceive some coldness of my affection towards you if you should hear nothing from me, I living in this place. It is in vain to tell you with what wonderful still and calm this wheel is turned round; which whether it be a remnant of her felicity that is gone, or a fruit of his reputation that is coming, I will not determine: but I cannot but divide myself between her memory and his name. Yet we account it but a fair morn before sunrising, before his Majesty's presence: though for my part I see not whence any weather should arise. The Papists are contained with fear enough, and hope too much. The French is thought to turn his practice upon procuring some disturbance in Scotland, where crowns may do wonders. But this day is so welcome to the nation, and the time so short, as I do not fear the effect. My lord of Southampton expecteth release by the next dispatch, and is already much visited and much well-wished. There is continual posting by men of good quality towards the King; the rather, I think, because this spring time is but a kind of sport. It is hoped that as the State here hath performed the part of good attorneys to deliver the King quiet possession of his kingdom, so the King will redeliver them quiet possession of their places; rather filling places void, than removing men placed. So, etc.

Of Bacon's personal know little or nothing.

1 See Vol. I. pp. 261, 269.

relations with the Earl of Southampton we The intimate connexion of both with the 3 For: Res.

Add. MSS. 5503, fo. 22 b.

Earl of Essex must, no doubt, have brought them together; but no letters had passed between them that I know of, nor has any record been preserved of any other communication. In drawing up the "Declaration of Treasons," Bacon had mentioned his name as slightly as it was possible to do without misrepresenting the case in one of its most material features; and there is some reason to believe that he had used his private influence with the Queen after the trial, as Cecil and Nottingham had certainly done,' to mitigate her displeasure. Yet considering the circumstances under which they had last seen each other, it was too much to expect that Southampton (who did not know what had passed since) was prepared to regard him as a friend; and there were two ways in which Bacon might easily commit an error. Others were visiting him with congratulations upon. his approaching liberation. It was natural that he should do the same; for there can be no doubt that he was really glad of it; and if Southampton was disposed to take a true view of the case and to be friends, it would seem churlish and unfriendly to stand aloof. But if, on the contrary, he saw the case with the eyes of his former associates, and regarded Bacon as the ungrateful and ungenerous enemy of his friend and himself, then it would seem indelicate and unfeeling to intrude on him. He thought it best therefore to begin with a letter, excusing his non-attendance and explaining the reasons of it. The letter which he wrote is preserved in his own collection and runs thus ::

A LETTER TO THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, UPON THE KING'S COMING IN.2

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 first) yet it is as true as a thing that God knoweth, that this great change hath wrought in me no other change

"Was it anybody else," wrote the Earl of Northumberland to James, in the secret correspondence, speaking of Cecil, "that saved Southampton ?" Correspondence, etc., Camd. Soc. p. 68. "Those that would deal for him," writes Cecil to Sir G. Carew, " (of which number I protest to God I am one as far as I dare) are much disadvantaged of arguments to save him."

"For the Earl of Southampton," writes Nottingham to Montjoy, "though he be condemned, yet I hope well for his life for Mr. Secretary and myself use all our wits and power for it."

* Add. MSS. 5503, fo. 23, b.

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 not now begin, but continue to be

Your Lordship's humble and much devoted

Southampton was released from the Tower on the 10th of April; which determines within a few days the date of the last letter. Of the reception which it met with, I find no account anywhere.

Meanwhile the news which Bacon received from his friends in the Scotch Court appears to have been favourable: sufficiently so, at least, to encourage him to seek a personal interview with the King. I cannot find the exact date, but it will be seen from the next letter that, before the King arrived in London, he had gone to meet him, carrying a despatch from the Earl of Northumberland; and that he had been admitted to his presence. The copy of this letter in the British Museum MS. is in the same hand as the rest of the volume, but is distinguished from the others by having a few corrections and interlineations in another hand, which I believe to be Bacon's own; though I cannot speak with perfect confidence. His handwriting varied very much-according, I suppose, to pens, attitudes, moods, and times-and a few words inserted here and there are often difficult to identify. But it is certainly not the hand of the transcriber; the alterations are of a kind which it is not likely that anybody else would have made (no alteration being apparently required by the sense or grammar); and it is likely enough, considering his subsequent relations with James, that he may have looked back some time in his later life with great curiosity and interest to this fresh record of his first impressions of him, and made the corrections either from memory or taste, or from a better copy of the original which may have accidentally turned up. They are not at all material in substance, but are just such changes as he would naturally have made in writing a fair copy from a first draught. The text represents the letter as corrected the notes as it stood in the original transcript.

A LETTER TO THE EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND AFTER HE HAD BEEN WITH THE KING.1

It may please your good Lordship,

I would not have lost this journey, and yet I have not that for which I went. For I have had no

1 Add. MSS. 5503, fo. 24.

private conference to

2 that I went for.

any purpose with the King; and no more hath almost any other English. For the speech his Majesty admitteth with some noblemen is rather matter of grace than of business. With the Attorney he spake, being urged by the Treasurer of Scotland, but yet no more than needs must. After I had received his Majesty's first welcome, I was promised private access; but yet, not knowing what matter of service your Lordship's letter might carrys (for I saw it not) and well knowing that primeness in advertisement is much, I chose rather to deliver it to Sir Thomas Erskins, than to cool it in my hands, upon expectation of access. Your Lordship shall find a prince the farthest from the appearance of vain-glory9 that may be, and rather like a prince of the ancient form than of the latter time. His speech is swift and cursory, and in the full dialect of his country; and in point1o of business, short; in point" of discourse large. He affecteth popularity by gracing such as he hath heard to be popular, and not by any fashions of his own. He is thought somewhat general in his favours, and his virtue of access is rather because he is much abroad and in press, than that he giveth easy audience about serious things.12 He hasteneth to a mixture of both kingdoms and nations, faster perhaps than policy will conveniently13 bear. I told your Lordship once before, that (methought) his Majesty rather asked counsel of the time past than of the time to come. But it is early yet to ground any settled opinion. For the particularities I refer to conference, having in these generals gone further in so tender an argument than I would have done, were not both the reader and the bearer assured.14

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JAMES's arrival in England brought no immediate prospect of improvement in Bacon's fortunes. Nor was it likely that it should. "Every new King," James thought, "ought at least to let a year and a day pass before he made any innovation;" and he naturally left the administration of affairs in the hands in which he found it. He made two or three new councillors; gave the Mastership of the Rolls, which was still vacant, to Edward Bruce, Abbot of Kinloss; removed Sir Walter Ralegh (probably not without what seemed the best advice) from the Captaincy of the Guard, putting in his place Sir Thomas Erskine (his own Captain of the Guard), but giving him at the same time a considerable pecuniary compensation; placed two or three of his Scotch friends immediately about his person; but made no more changes of importance.

Bacon was for the present to "continue to be of the Learned Counsel in such manner as before he was to the Queen."3 But though this seemed like leaving his position unchanged, the practical effect was to give him a prospect of more leisure. For his place among the Learned Counsel being an irregular one without any ordinary duties belonging to it as of course, his employment depended upon the pleasure of those who had the laying out of the business. In this the Queen herself had been used to take a part, and by her direction he had in this irregular way been continually employed for many years. It would not be so now. James, to whom the business and the persons were alike new, would naturally leave such arrangements, at least for a while, to Coke, who was not at all likely to want Bacon's help; nor is there any reason to think that Cecil, who kept the lead in council, and soon left the Earl of 2 Gardiner, i. 64.

1 Sully. 3 Warrant to the Lord Keeper, 21 April, 1603.-Egerton Papers (Camd. Soc.),

p. 368.

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