monly in love) I added that judges sometimes might make a suit to be spared for their opinion, till they had spoken with their brethren; but if the King upon his own princely judgment, for reason of estate, should think it fit to have it otherwise, and should so demand it, there was no declining: nay that it touched upon a violation of their oath, which was to counsel the King; without distinction whether it were jointly or severally. Hereupon, I put him the case of the privy council, as if your Majesty should be pleased to command any of them to deliver their opinion apart and in private; whether it were a good answer, to deny it otherwise than if it were propounded at the table. To this he said that the cases were not like; because this concerned life; to which I replied, that questions of estate might concern thousands of lives, and many things more precious than the life of a particular, as war and peace and the like.

To conclude, his Lordship, tanquam exitum quærens, desired me for the time to leave with him the papers, without pressing him to consent to deliver a private opinion, till he had perused them; I said I would, and the more willingly, because I thought his Lordship, upon due consideration of the papers, would find the case to be so clear a case of treason, as he would make no difficulty to deliver his opinion in private; and so I was persuaded of the rest of the Judges of the King's Bench; who likewise (as I partly understood) made no scruple to deliver their opinion in private. Whereunto he said (which I noted well) that his brethren were wise men, and that they might make a shew as if they would give an opinion as was required; but the end would be, that it would come to this; they would say they doubted of it, and so pray advice with the rest. But to this I answered, that I was sorry to hear him say so much; lest if it came so to pass, some that loved him not might make a construction, that that which he had foretold, he had wrought. Thus your Majesty seeth that as Salomon saith Gressus nolentis tanquam in sepi spinarum. It catcheth upon every thing.

The latter meeting is yet of more importance. For then coming armed with divers precedents, I thought to set in, with the best strength I could. And said, that before I descended to the record, I would break the case to him thus:

That it was true we were to proceed upon the ancient statute

of 25° of king Edward the third, because other temporary statutes were gone. And therefore it must be laid in the indictment, Imaginatus est et compassavit mortem et finalem destructionem domini regis. Then must the particular treasons follow in this manner, viz: Et quod ad perimplendum nefandum propositum suum prædictum composuit et conscripsit quendam detestabilem et venenosum libellum sive scriptum in quo inter alia proditoria continetur, etc., and then the principal passages of treason taken forth of the papers are to be entered in hæc verba ; and with a conclusion in the end, ad intentionem quod ligeus populus et veri subditi domini regis cordialem suum amorem à domino rege retraherent, et ipsum dominum regem relinquerent et guerram et insurrectionem contra eum levarent et facerent, etc. (I have in this form followed the ancient stile of the indictments for brevity sake, though when we come to the business itself, we shall enlarge it according to the use of the later times.) This I represented to him (being a thing he is well acquainted with) that he might perceive the platform of that was intended, without any mistaking or obscurity. But then I fell to the matter itself to lock him in as much as I could,1 viz:

That there be four means or manners, whereby the death of the king is compassed and imagined.

The first by some particular fact or plot.

The second by disabling his title; as by affirming that he is not lawful king, or that another ought to be king, or that he is an usurper, or a bastard, or the like.

The third by subjecting his title; as either to pope or people; and thereby making him of an absolute king a conditional king. The fourth, by disabling his regiment, and making him appear to be incapable or indign to reign.

These things I relate to your Majesty in sum as is fit: which when I opened to my Lord, I did insist a little more upon, with more efficacy and edge and authority of law and record than I can now express.2

Then I placed Peacham's treason within the last division, agreeable to divers precedents, whereof I had the records ready;

1 So in the Lambeth copy.

The copy in Add. MSS. 5503, and another in Lansd. MSS. 238, give " and to lock him in as much as I could, said."

2 In Add. MSS. 19,402, f. 89, the last sheet of the original letter is preserved : which begins here, and the rest is corrected from it. It agrees exactly with the Lambeth copy.

and concluded, that your Majesty's safety and life and authority was thus by law inscansed and quartered; and that it was in vain to fortify on three of the sides, and to leave you open on the fourth.

It is true he heard me in a grave fashion, more than accustomed, and took a pen and took notes of my divisions; and when he read the precedents and records, would say, this you mean falleth within your first, or your second, &c., division.

In the end I expressly demanded his opinion, as that whereto both he and I was enjoined. But he desired me to leave the precedents with him, that he mought advise upon them. I told him, the rest of my fellows would dispatch their part, and I should be behind with mine; which I persuaded myself your Majesty would impute rather to his backwardness than my negligence. He said, as soon as I should understand that the rest were ready, he would not be long after with his opinion or

answer.

For St. Johns, your Majesty knoweth the day draweth on; and my Lord Chancellor's recovery the season and his age promiseth not to be hasty. I spake with him on Sunday, at what time I found him in bed, but his spirits strong and not spent or wearied, and spake wholly of your business leading me from one matter to another, and wished and seemed to hope, that he mought attend the day for St. Johns, and it were (as he said) to be his last work to conclude his services, and express his affection, towards your Majesty. I presumed to say to him, that I knew your Majesty would be exceeding desirous of his being present that day, so as that it mought be without prejudice to his continuance; but that otherwise your Majesty esteemed a servant more than a service, specially such a servant. Surely in my opinion your Majesty were better put off the day than want his presence, considering the cause of the putting off is so notorious, and then the capital and the criminal may come together

the next term.

I have not been unprofitable in helping to discover and examine within these few days a late Patent by surreption obtained from your Majesty, of the greatest forest of England, worth 30,000l. under colour of a defective title for a matter of 4007. The person must be named, because the patent must be questioned; it is a great person, my lord of Shrewsbury; or rather,

as I think, a greater than he, which is my lady of Shrewsbury. But I humbly pray your Majesty to know this first from my Lord Treasurer, who methinketh groweth even studious in your business. God preserve your Majesty.

Your Majesty's most humble

and devoted subject and servant,
FR. BACON.

The rather in regard to Mr. Murray's absence, I humbly pray your Majesty to bave a little regard to this letter.

31 Januar. 1614.

St. John was a gentleman of Marlborough, who being applied to for a contribution to the voluntary oblation (which, in spite of Bacon's caution,1 could not help being called the "Benevolence") had replied in a style for which it was thought fit to call him to account in the Star Chamber. He had been apprehended and committed to prison about the beginning of the year, and the case was to have come on for hearing in Hilary Term, but upon the consideration suggested by Bacon in this letter, was put off till the term following. Ellesmere was so seriously ill, that it was doubtful whether he would be able to attend in the Star Chamber on the day appointed; and as the part which Coke had taken in Council concerning the Benevolence made it doubtful what view he might take of the case, it was thought that the Lord Chancellor's help, about whose opinion there was no doubt, could not be well spared. Bacon had seen him two days before, and had begun a letter to the King on the state of his health, which seems to have been delayed by an accident, and (more matter turning up in the interval) to have been entirely rewritten in the form which we have just seen. The beginning of the unfinished letter remains however among the papers at Lambeth, and appears to be, not a draught, but a fair copy in his own hand; very fair, as far as it goes; but ending abruptly in the middle of a line at the bottom of the first page; on the other side of which are some lines crossed out; as if he had written so far, and found on turning over that he had been writing on a pre-occupied sheet. However that may be, his report of the Lord Chancellor's condition is substantially (almost verbally) the same as that in the penultimate paragraph of the letter last given, and was meant probably to introduce the same suggestion with which that paragraph ends. It was printed by Rawley in the Resuscitatio, and is to be found in the manuscript

1 See above, p. 81.

collection of letters in the British Museum (Additional MSS. 5503), but is here taken from the original at Lambeth.

TO THE KING, REPORTING THE STATE OF LORD CHANCELLOR ELLESMERE'S HEALTH.1

It may please your excellent Majesty,

Because I know your Majesty would be glad to hear how it is with my Lord Chancellor; and that it pleased him out of his ancient and great love to me, which many times in sickness appeareth most, to admit me to a great deal of speech with him this afternoon, which during these three days he hath scarcely done to any, I thought it mought be pleasing to your Majesty to certify you how I found him. I found him in bed, but his spirits fresh and good, speaking stoutly, and without being spent or weary, and both willing and beginning of himself to speak, but wholly of your Majesty's business, wherein I cannot forget to relate this particular; That he wished that his sentencing of St. Johns at the day appointed mought be his last work, to conclude his services and express his affection towards your Majesty. I told him I knew your Majesty would be very desirous of his presence that day, so it mought be without prejudice to his continuance, but otherwise your Majesty esteemed a servant more than a service, specially such a servant. Not to trouble your Majesty, though good spirits in sickness be uncertain kalendars, yet I have very good comfort of him, and I hope by that day

Here the letter breaks off in the middle of the line. On the other side are the following words, with a line drawn through them :

For that which is done for Peacham, it is in effect the same which I wrote to your Majesty by my former letter, save that we made report this day of as much to my Lords, which Mr. Secretary will relate to your Majesty.

The King acted upon Bacon's suggestion, and sent word to Ellesmere not to exert himself to attend in the Star Chamber on the day appointed for St. John's cause, which appears to have been Friday, the 10th of February. Whereupon counsel was taken, and it was settled that it should be put off till the next term; as we learn from the following letter.

1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 10.