nor if it be contrary, it derogateth nothing. But yet it subjecteth the majesty of justice to popular and vulgar talk and opinion. My Lords, these are great and dangerous offences. do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us. you shall hear the examinations themselves. Upon shall have occasion to note some particular things. For if we which I 3. This was all that Bacon had to do with the trials of the commoners implicated in the murder of Overbury; which took place in Guildhall, and were entirely managed by Coke in every stage from examination to sentence. And even for the purpose of this proceeding in the Star Chamber it appears that it was from Coke that he derived all his information. It was not till the beginning of the next year, when things were at length ready for the indictment of the Somersets, that he was called into council upon the case. In the meantime he had a civil case in hand, which was appointed to come on in a few days, but for which, as it involved a constitutional question of some importance between the King and the Judges, he did not think the time favourable. Three or four years before, Mr. John Murray, of his Majesty's bedchamber, whom I have already mentioned as a great absorber of the royal bounties, had procured a new patent office for one John Michell. It gave him the sole making of writs of supersedeas quia improvide emanavit in the Common Pleas, and thereby interfered with the profits hitherto taken by the Prothonotary: who after considerable delay "brought an assise to be restored to the possession of the ancient fees belonging to his office, and so raised the question of the legality of the new patent. Bacon conceived that this was a question in which the King had an interest, and which according to the "ancient and evercontinued law of the Crown was to be tried "before the King himself as he is represented in Chancery." And this was the point which now stood for decision. When the assise was brought in the King's Bench (which was in 13o Jac I.), he had endeavoured to stop the proceeding by a writ de non procedendo ad assisam Rege inconsulto; the validity of which being disputed, counsel had been heard on both sides in Trinity Term, and a further hearing appointed for the 20th of November. This, as it happened, fell in the very heat of the excitement about the trial of the murderers of Overbury; which 1 "Innovations introduced into the laws and government." was inconvenient, and made Bacon wish it postponed; as we see by the second paragraph of the following letter. The " cause prosecuted by Lord Hunsdon" (which is the subject of the first paragraph) was a suit in Chancery, in behalf of the King and Lord Hunsdon as his farmer for a certain manor, claimed as forfeited to the Crown, against the Countess Dowager of Arundel and Lord William Howard. "This cause," says Hobart, who along with Coke was called to assist the Lord Chancellor in the hearing of it, "hung long and had many hearings and briefs delivered, and after long consideration was this term with uniform consent of the Lord Chancellor, us the Judges, and Master of the Rolls, decreed for the King." TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.2 It may please your excellent Majesty, I received this very day, in the forenoon, your Majesty's several directions touching your cause prosecuted by my L. Hunsden as your farmer. Your first direction was by Sir Cr. Parkins, that the day appointed for the judicial sentence should hold and if my L. Ch. Justice upon my repair to him should let me know that he could not be present, then my L. Chancellor should proceed, calling to him my Lord Hubbard, except he should be excepted to; and then some other judge by consent. For the latter part of this your direction; I suppose there would have been no difficulty in admitting my L. Hubbard; for after he had assisted at so many hearings, it would have been too late to except to him. But then your Majesty's second and later direction (which was delivered unto me from the Earl of Arundel, as by word of mouth, but so as he had set down a remembrance thereof in writing freshly after the signification of his pleasure,) was to this effect: that before any proceeding in the Chancery, there should be a conference had between my L. Chancellor, my L. Chf. justice, and myself, how your Majesty's interest mought be secured. This later direction I acquainted my L. Chancellor with; and finding an impossibility, that this conference should be had before to-morrow, my L. thought good that the day be put over; taking no occasion thereof other than this, that in a cause of so great weight it was fit for him to confer with his assistants, before he gave any decree or final order. 1 Sir H. Hobart's Reports, p. 109. 2 Balfour MSS. After such time as I have conferred with my Lords according to your commandment, I will give your Majesty account with speed of the conclusion of that conference. Furder I think fit to let your Majesty know that in my opinion I hold not it a very fit time to proceed in the business of the Rege inconsulto, which is appointed for Monday. I did think these greater causes would have comen to period or pause sooner: but now they are in the height; and to have so great a matter as this of the Rege inconsulto handled when men do aliud agere, I think it no proper time. Besides, your Majesty in your great wisdom knoweth, that this business of Mr. Murray's is somewhat against the stream of the Judges' inclination: and it is no part of a skilful mariner to sail or row against a tide, when the tide is at strongest. If your Majesty be pleased to write to my Lord Cook that you would have the business of the Rege inconsulto receive a hearing, when he should be animo sedato et libero, and not in the midst of his assiduous and incessant cares and industries in other practices, I think your Majesty shall do your service right. Howsoever, I will be provided against the day. Thus praying to God for your happy preservation, whereof God giveth you so many great pledges, I rest, Your Majesty's most humble and devoted subject and servant, 17 Nov. 1615. FR. BACON. In accordance with this advice the King wrote to Coke the next day from Newmarket, wishing him to appoint some time for hearing the great cause of Rege inconsulto, when it might be heard sedato animo. It was adjourned accordingly to the next term, when we shall hear of it further. 4. How and when Bacon first became acquainted with Sir George Villiers would be well worth knowing; but there is no record of it to be found. It was in the autumn of 1614 that Villiers first attracted the King's notice. On the 23rd of April in the next year he was knighted and made a gentleman of the bedchamber, and re1 S. P. Dom. James I., vol. lxxxiii. no. 44. VOL. V. ceived a pension of £1000. In the following January we find Bacon corresponding with him in the style of a familiar acquaintance. But when and in what circumstances they were introduced to each other we have no means of knowing. In such a relation, acquaintance would ripen fast. A very young man, modest and unassuming as yet, of a sweet countenance, and with gracious open and easy manners, rising suddenly into so distinguished a position, might naturally either seek or be sought by Bacon, whose age and eminence would entitle him, and whose taste and disposition would lead him, to be at once familiar. Five or six years after, when Villiers had suffered a course of advancement rapid and unexpected enough to turn any man's head, we have evidence from a quarter quite unprejudiced of the charm which still hung about the outside of him. At a tilt given in honour of the French ambassador on the 8th of January, 1620-1, Simonds D'Ewes, then a boy of eighteen, had a long look at him; and the record of his impression set down in later life shows that neither time nor experience, nor the bitter political hostility of the party to which he belonged, had been able to efface the pleasing image which it left in his memory. "After this, most of the tilters, except the Prince, went up to the French Lords in a larger upper room of the house, standing at the lower end of the tilt-yard; and I crowding in after them, and seeing the Marquis of Buckingham discoursing with two or three French Monsieurs, I joined them, and most earnestly viewed him for about half an hour's space at the least; which I had opportunity the more easily to accomplish, because he stood all the time he talked bareheaded. I saw everything in him full of delicacy and handsome features; yea his hands and face seemed to me especially effeminate and curious. It is possible he seemed the more accomplished, because the French monsieurs that had invested him were very swarthy hardfavoured men. That he was afterwards an instrument of much mischief both at home and abroad, is so evident upon record as no man can deny; yet this I do suppose proceeded rather from some Jesuitical incendiaries about him, than from his own nature, which his very countenance promised to be affable and gentle."' There is no better testimony of our good opinion of a man than an inclination to think that whatever we do not like in him is the fault of somebody else—especially when we do not know whose; and we may judge how attractive a person Villiers must have been in the days of his first rising, when as yet he had not offended or disappointed anybody, from the fact that after all the offence he had given 1 'Autobiography of Sir Simond D'Ewes,' vol. i. p. 166. to the Puritans, so formal and orthodox a Puritan as D'Ewes could retain so agreeable an impression of him. I doubt whether any favourite of any sovereign seemed more likely to become a universal favourite than George Villiers when he first appeared in Court. The first communication that has been preserved between him and Bacon is merely a compliment. But it supplies us with a date of some importance,—the date of Bacon's first appearance (the first that we know of) upon the commission for the indictment of Somerset. It shews also incidentally that he had already had something to do with another business, of which we shall hear more a little further on. A valuable patent office, held at present by Sir John Roper, had been granted in reversion to Somerset jointly with Lord Harington. Harington dying without issue, his share in the reversion was purchased from his executors by Somerset. The profits of the office were derived from fees paid for the enrolment of Pleas in the Court of King's Bench, and the propriety of disposing of them in this way was so far doubtful that it was thought prudent to keep the real holders out of sight by making out the patent in the names of other persons, who by a private and separate arrangement covenanted to pay the proceeds to the great men, reserving to themselves a twelfth part for "execution." Though the grant of the reversion of the office upon this condition to two lawyers, Heath and Whitelocke, had been confirmed by Coke as Chief Justice of the King's Bench, it seems that he had taken some objection to the proceeding on grounds either of law or policy; and that some difficulty was apprehended at his hands whenever the office itself should become vacant again. It was not yet vacant: but a rumour of the death of Sir John Roper gave rise to the conversation reported in the following letter; which proves that there had been some dispute about the disposal of the office, though it does not help to explain the grounds. But whatever may have been the point of Coke's objection, if it involved a questioning of the King's right to dispose of the place (as I suppose it did), it would be Bacon's business as Attorney-General to defend it, and so they would necessarily come into collision. The King's intention to bestow the patent upon Villiers as soon as it came into his hands again was probably no secret. 1 Whitelocke, Lib. Famel. p. 47. 2 Ibid. p. 59. |