some cases it might throw useful light upon them; but for the mos part they would in all likelihood prove to be matters of forgotten business, important to those who had to deal with it, but not to us, and of which it would be impossible now to recover the history completely enough to make them really intelligible. I propose, therefore, to leave that labour to some fresher student working in a smaller field, and direct my own attention chiefly to those suggestions which Bacon followed up and worked upon, and which we shall meet again hereafter. In printing these notes the only alteration which I have introduced is in the punctuation; the effect of which, as it stands in the manuscript, would in many places be misrepresented by an exact copy in regular type. The many variations of which handwriting admits as to space between words, space left at the end of lines, size of letters, care or carelessness in forming them, and the like, supply the place of punctuation, and are lost in typography, which must represent them by such means as it has; and therefore where I have observed that the division of sentences or clauses obviously intended by the manuscript would not be inferred from the printed line, I have introduced points. Even this liberty, however, I have used sparingly; and in other respects I have not intentionally altered a letter. The reading is, of course, in many places difficult and doubtful; but having taken the further precaution of obtaining from Mr. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, of the British Museum, a minute and careful collation of the printed slips with the original MS., I trust it will be found to be as correct a copy as the case admits of. Many of the notes have a line drawn across them, in preparation apparently for a new collection of transportata. Where this is the case I have mentioned it in the foot-notes, but the text is meant to represent the MS. as it originally stood; and no word is omitted which does not appear to have been intended to be erased at the time of writing. I ought, however, to mention that some words, chiefly such as begin with i or a, are printed with a small initial letter, though they appear to be written with a capital. There are in fact so many such words which are so distinguished without any apparent reason, that I think Bacon cannot have meant them for capitals, but meant only to make the small letter in the form usually appropriated to capitals. COMENTARIUS SOLUTUS SIVE PANDECTA, SIVE ANCILLA MEMORIE HABET LIBROS DUOS: 1. Comentariu transportatore ex Comentario vetere. 2. Commentariu novum et currentem. Lib. 1. sive Comentarius transportatore consistit ex diario. et schedulis. TRANSPORTATA EX COMENTARIO VETERE [f. 2.] To make a stock of 2000' allwaies in readyness for bargaines and occasions. To sett my self in credite for borowing upon any great disbur semts; Swynerton; S Ric. Mullineux; my sister Periam; Antropos; Jh. Howell per Champners; Sr. M. Hickes. To the same purpose to have surties ready. my bro. Nathan. / my brother Ed. / my Cos. Cook./Ed. Jones: / He. Fleetwood/ Faldoe. / Rob. Kemp. Hedly. To sett on foote and mainteyn acces wth his M. D. of the Chap. / May. / Jh. Murry /. Swynerton. Sir John Swinnerton, Kn', a London alderman: as I gather from another mention of him [p. 95], where his name appears as creditor for £250. He was one of the sheriffs of London at the time of James's entrance, was knighted at Whitehall, 26th July, 1603, sate for Grinsted in the next Parliament, and was afterwards Lord Mayor. See Nicholls, i. 215. Sir Ric. Mullineux. Sir Richard Molineux, member for co. Lancaster in James's first Parliament, and one of the first eighteen baronets created in 1611. His name stands second on the list. See Nicholls, ii. 422. My sister Periam. Widow of Chief Justice Periam, who died in 1604: one of Bacon's half-sisters. Jh. Howell. There was a Sir John Howell knighted 7th July, 1619. See Nicholls, iii. 555. Sir M. Hickes. Sir Michael Hickes, with whom we are already acquainted, as one of Bacon's familiar resources in his money difficulties. These two notes are crossed out in the MS. My bro. Nathan.: my brother Ed. Nathanael Bacon of Stiffkey, Norfolk; and Edward, of Shrubland Hall, Suffolk; second and third sons of Sir Nicholas by his first marriage. My cos. Cook, Probably Sir William Cook, one of the Giddy Hall (Bacon's mother's) family, who married (see Vol. II. p. 369) Joyce Lucy, only surviving issue of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlescote, by his first marriage, and heiress of Hynam in Gloucestershire. He died in 1618. See Rudder, p. 342. Ed. Jones, He. Fleetwood. Both these names are crossed out. The first may perhaps be the "Edward Jones" in whose favour the letter, Vol. II. p. 371, was written. Rob. Kemp. Probably his cousin Robert Kemp; concerning whom, see Vol. I. p. 261, 269. D. of the Chap. Dean of the Chapel. Dr. James Montague, formerly Master of Sidney College, Cambridge, went with the University to meet the King on his way to London, took his fancy, and was made Dean of the Royal Chapel, afterwards Dean of Worcester, now lately (April 1608) Bishop of Bath and Wells, and in 1616, Bishop of Winchester. (See Collins.) He was editor of the King's Works, published in 1616. May. Humphrey May, I presume; groom of the Privy Chamber; who had a grant (26th Nov. 1607) of the reversion of the Clerkship of the Starchamber, after Mill and Bacon; was knighted in January, 1612-13; and became afterwards Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and a man of considerable importance. See Forster's 'Life of Sir John Eliot.' Jh. Murry. John Murray of the King's Bedchamber. See Vol. IV. ch. i. These three were men personally familiar with the King, by whose help Bacon hoped to obtain opportunities of conversation with him. Keeping a cowrs of accesse in the begynnyng of every term and vacac. with a memoriall, the one being a tyme of execution, the other of præparacion./ To attend some tyme his repasts and to fall into a cowrse of famil, discowrs. To fynd means to wynne a conc. not op". but private of being affect. and ass. to the Sco. and fitt to suc. Sa. in his manage in yt. kynd: / L. Dunbar / D. of Lenox and Daubiny/Secret. Affect. and ass, to the Sco. The last word is not very clearly written; but I think I cannot be mistaken in supposing it to be short for "Scotch." Bacon's zeal in favour of the Union with Scotland, had indeed been manifested so publicly that it neither required confirmation nor admitted of concealment. But zeal for the Union did not necessarily imply affection for the Scotch; too great a display of which would not have been conducive to influence in the House of Commons. With the King, and those about him, it would of course be a strong recommendation; and as Salisbury, who had been for many years doing valuable service as a secret favourer of his claims, and confidential adviser and manager of the intercourse between the two countries, had now a world of new business in another department thrust upon him, it was likely that some one else would be wanted to help in this. It was an office which would have suited Bacon well, enabled him to promote the Union, and brought him into personal communication with the King. And nothing was more likely to recommend him for it than the creation of an impression-the "winning of a conceit, not open but private,"—of his "being affectionate and assured to the Scotch, and fit to succeed Salisbury in his manage in that kind." The names which follow are all the names of Scotchmen connected with the Government or the Court, through whom such an impression might be created and established; and the rest of the paragraph appears to consist of notes of the works or services by which he hoped to approve it. L. Dunbar. Sir George Home, High Treasurer of Scotland, 5th Sept. 1601; Chancellor of the Exchequer in England (see Cal. S. P. Dom. James I. 7th Oct.) 1603; Privy Councillor, and Lord Home of Berwick, 7th July, 1604; Earl of Dunbar, 3rd July, 1605; High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1606 and 1608; Keeper of the Privy Purse, 27th Nov. 1608; Knight of the Garter, 20th May, 1609; High Commissioner to the General Assembly at Glasgow, 8th July, 1610; died 29th Jan. 1611 (Nicholls, i. 248). According to David Hume, he was the King's declared favourite as long as he lived, "and one of the wisest and most virtuous, though the least powerful, of all those whom he ever honoured with that distinction." This name is crossed out in the MS. D. of Lenox. Lodowick Stuart, Duke of Lenox, grandson to John, Lord D'Aubigny, whose younger brother was the King's grandfather; High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland in 1607. Nicholls, i. 36. Daubiny. Esme Stuart, Lord D'Aubigny, younger brother of the Duke of Lenox, a large recipient of the King's bounty. Secret. and Elvingst. his brother. Sir James Elphinston, third son of Robert third Lord Elphinston. Lord of Session, 1588; Commissioner of the Treasury, 1595; Secretary of State 1598; Lord Balmerinoch, 20th Feb. 1603-4, (continuing, however, to be called "Lord Elphinston" in England. See 'Court and Times of James I,' vol. i. p. 78); Commissioner for the Union 1604; President of the Court of Session, 1st March, 1605. He is said to have stood so high in the King's opinion at this time that he was thought of for English Secretary of State; but being called in question not long after for having surreptitiously obtained the King's signature to a letter to the Pope, and confessing the fact, he was found guilty of high treason. The sentence was not executed; and after a short imprisonment he was allowed to go to his own house, where he lived in retirement. Nicholls, i. 108; State Trials, ii. p. 722; S. P. Dom. Jas. I. 10th March, 1609. His elder brother Alexander, the fourth Lord Elphinston, was Lord Treasurer of Scotland, and was also one of the Commissioners for the Union (see Journals of H. of C. p. 319) :—a circumstance which would make Bacon personally known to both of them. |