is a burden, an eye-sore, a scandal, and a seed of peril and tumult in a state. But chiefly it were to be wished such a beneficence towards the relief of poor were so bestowed, as not only the mere and naked poor should be sustained, but also that the honest person which hath hard means to live, upon whom the poor are now charged, should be in some sort eased: for that were a work generally acceptable to the kingdom, if the public hand of alms might spare the private hand of tax and therefore of all other employments of that kind I commend most houses of relief and correction which are mixt hospitals, where the impotent person is relieved, and the sturdy beggar buckled to work, and the unable person also not maintained to be idle, which is ever joined with drunkenness and impurity, but is sorted with such work as he can manage and perform, and where the uses are not distinguished, as in other hospitals, whereof some are for aged and impotent, and some for children, and some for correction of vagabonds, but are general and promiscuous, that may take off poor of every sort from the country as the country breeds them. And thus the poor themselves shall find the provision, and other good people the sweetness of the abatement of the tax. Now if it be objected that houses of correction in all places have not done the good expected (as it cannot be denied but in most places they have done much good), it must be remembered that there is a great difference between that which is done by the distracted government of justices of peace, and that which may be done by a settled ordinance, subject to a regular visitation, as this may be; and besides the want hath been commonly in houses of correction of a competent and certain stock for the materials of the labor, which in this case may be likewise supplied.

Concerning the advancement of Learning, I do subscribe to the opinion of one of the wisest and greatest

men of your kingdom: That for grammar schools there are already too many, and therefore no providence to add where there is excess. For the great number of schools which are in your Highness realm, doth cause a want and doth cause likewise an overflow, both of them inconvenient, and one of them dangerous. For by means thereof they find want in the country and towns, both of servants for husbandry, and apprentices for trade; and on the other side there being more scholars bred than the state can prefer and employ, and the active part of that life not bearing a proportion to the preparative, it must needs fall out that many persons will be bred unfit for other vocations, and unprofitable for that in which they are brought up; which fills the realm full of indigent, idle, and wanton people, which are but mate

ria rerum novarum.

Therefore, in this point, I wish Mr. Sutton's intention were exalted a degree, that that which he meant for teachers of children, your Majesty should make for teachers of men. Wherein it hath been my ancient opinion and observation, that in the universities of this realm (which I take to be of the best endowed universities of Europe) there is nothing more wanting towards the flourishing state of learning than the honorable and plentiful salaries of readers in arts and professions. In which point, as your Majesty's bounty already hath made a beginning, so this occasion is offered of God to make a proceeding. Surely readers in the chair are as the Parents in sciences, and deserve to enjoy a condition not inferior to their children that embrace the practical part; else no man will sit longer in the chair than till he can walk to a better preferment: and it will come to pass as Virgil says,

Ut patrum invalidi referant jejunia nati.

For if the principal readers through the meanness of their entertainment be but men of superficial learning, and

that they shall take their place but in passage, it will make the mass of sciences want the chief and solid dimension, which is depth; and to become but pretty and compendious habits of practice. Therefore I could wish that in both the universities, the lectures as well of the three professions, Divinity, Law, and Physic, as of the three heads of science, Philosophy, arts of speech, and the Mathematics, were raised in their pensions unto £100 per annum apiece. Which though it be not near so great as they are in some other places, where the greatness of the reward doth whistle for the ablest men out of all foreign parts to supply the chair, yet it may be a portion to content a worthy and able man, if he be likewise contemplative in nature, as those spirits are that are fittest for lectures. Thus may learning in your kingdom be advanced to a further height; learning (I say) which under your Majesty, the most learned of kings, may claim some degree of elevation.

Concerning propagation of Religion, I shall in few words set before your Majesty three propositions; none of them devices of mine own, otherwise than that I ever approved them; two of which have been in agitation of speech and the third acted.

The first a college for controversies, whereby we shall not still proceed single, but shall as it were double our files, which certainly will be found in the encounter.

The second a receipt for (I like not the word Seminary in respect of the vain vows and implicit obedience and other things tending to the perturbation of states involved in that term) converts to the reformed religion, either of youth or otherwise. For I doubt not but there are in Spain, Italy, and other countries of the Papists, many whose hearts are touched with a sense of those corruptions and an acknowledgment of a better way; which grace is many times smothered and choked through a wordly consideration of necessity; men not knowing

where to have succor and refuge. This likewise I hold a work of great piety and a work of great consequence, that we also may be wise in our generation, and that the watchful and silent night may be used as well for sowing of good seed as of tares.

The third is, the imitation of a memorable and religious act of Queen Elizabeth; who, finding a part of Lancashire to be extremely backward in religion, and the benefices swallowed up in impropriations, did by decree in the Duchy erect four stipends of £100 per annum apiece, for preachers well chosen to help the harvest, which have done a great deal of good in the parts where they have labored; neither do there want other corners in the realm that would require for a time the like extraordinary help.

Thus have I briefly delivered unto your Majesty my opinion touching the employment of this charity; whereby that mass of wealth, that was in the owner little better than a stack or heap of muck, may be spread over your kingdom to many fruitful purposes, your Majesty planting and watering, and God giving the increase.

The legal question was tried afterward in 1613 before all the Judges in the Exchequer; and Bacon appeared as counsel for the pretended heir. But that was only in the ordinary practice of his profession and judgment being given in favor of the will, the advice (whatever the King thought of it) of course fell to the ground, there being no opportunity to act upon it.

THE consultation about the King's affairs which was to succeed the dissolution of the last Parliament had not thus far brought forth much fruit. Neither the raising of the price of gold pieces, nor the erection of the new order of Baronets, can have afforded any material relief to the Exchequer; for the first did not involve a fresh coinage, and the fruits of the other were appropriated to the colonization of Ulster. Privy seals and loans from the City were merely borrowings for the present at the expense of the future: and the total result of Salisbury's financial administration appears to have been the halving of the debt at the cost of almost doubling the deficiency. He died on the 24th of May, after a few months' illness, leaving the debt £500,000 and the ordinary annual expenditure in excess of the ordinary annual revenue by £160,000.

Bacon felt that the occasion was a critical one. It was plain that everything had been going wrong of late. But Salisbury had had so much to do with everything, that his death, which though not sudden had been preceded by no retirement from business or transfer of power to other hands, left a large space clear for a thorough re-arrangement. The place of Secretary as well as Treasurer was now vacant; and there was no man (with the exception perhaps of Coke on the Bench) whose personal qualities, combined with his position, gave him' an overruling power even in his own department. But this