whole body of those magistrates may be contained in better awe; and it may be this will light upon no unfit subject of a person that is rude and that no man cares for.

Thirdly, if there be no one so much in fault (which I cannot yet affirm either way, and there must be a just ground, God forbid else), yet I should think that the very presumption of going so far in so high a cause deserveth to have that done which was done in this very case upon the indictment of Serjeant Heale in Queen Elizabeth's time; that the Judges should answer it upon their knees before your Majesty or your Council, and receive a sharp admonition: at which time also my Lord Wray, being then Chief Justice, slipt the collar and was forborne.

Fourthly, for the persons themselves, Glanville and Allen, which are base fellows and turbulent, I think there will be discovered and proved against them (besides the preferring of the bills) such combinations and contemptuous speeches and behaviour, as there will be good ground to call them, and perhaps some of their petty counsellors at law, into the Star-chamber.

In all this which I have said your Majesty may be pleased to observe, that I do not engage you much in the main point of the jurisdiction, for which I have a great deal of reason, which I now forbear. But two things I wish to be done: The one, that your Majesty take this occasion to redouble unto all your Judges your ancient and true charge and rule, that you will endure no innovating the point of jurisdiction, but will have every court impaled within their own precedents, and not assume to themselves new powers upon conceits and inventions of law; The other, that in these high causes that touch upon State and Monarchy, your Majesty give them strait charge, that upon any occasions intervenient hereafter, they do not make the vulgar party to their contestations by public handling them, before they have consulted with your Majesty, to whom the reglement of those things only appertaineth.

To conclude, I am not without hope that your Majesty managing this business according to your great wisdom, unto which I acknowledge myself not to be worthy to be card-holder or a candle-holder, will make profit of this accident as a thing of God's sending.

Lastly, I may not forget to represent to your Majesty, that there is no thinking of arraignments until these things be some

what accommodate, and some outward and superficial reconciliation at least made between my Lord Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice; for this accident is a banquet to all Somerset's friends. But this is a thing that falleth out naturally of itself, in respect of the Judges going circuit, and my Lord Chancellor's infirmity with hope of recovery. And although this protraction of time may breed some doubt of mutability, yet I have lately, learned out of an excellent letter of a certain king, That the sun sheweth sometimes watry to our eyes, but when the cloud is gone the sun is as before. God ever preserve your Majesty. Your Majesty's most humble subject

and most bounden servant,

21 Feb. 1615.

FR. BACON.

Your Majesty's commandment speaketh for pardon of so long a letter, which yet I wish may have a short continuance and be punished with fire.

We shall see presently in what way this question was disposed of so as to secure the advantages which Bacon expected to reap from it. The case is remarkable as one in which Coke was in the wrong and posterity has not taken his part.

9.

The postscript to the last letter (which is taken from the original manuscript, though it has not been printed before) shows that Bacon was beginning to feel a little uneasy in his new position of confidential adviser of the King in matters properly belonging to the Council Table, without having a seat there. It is easy to understand that the position was both invidious and disadvantageous;-invidious, because he had to give opinions privately which affected the interests of others; disadvantageous, because he could not appear in person to maintain them. The proper and natural remedy was to make him a Privy Councillor. He had already spoken to Villiers on the subiect, and represented to him how materially he would be strengthened thereby for his present course of service. But the apparent prospect of an immediate vacancy in the Chancellorship had suspended the project for the time; because if Bacon succeeded, the thing would come of itself. Now Ellesmere's unexpected recovery, promising to keep him in his present place for an indefinite period,

raised it into importance again and made it desirable to have the other measure despatched without further delay. He accordingly renewed his motion to Villiers in the following letter.

A LETTER TO SIR GEORGE VILLIERS, TOUCHING A MOTION TO SWEAR HIM COUNCILLOR.1 FEBRUARY 21, 1615.

Sir,

My Lord Chancellor's health growing with the days, and his resignation being an incertainty, I would be glad you went on with my first motion, my swearing privy counsellor. This I desire not so much to make myself more sure of the other, and to put it past competition (for herein I rest wholly upon the King and your excellent self), but because I find hourly that I need this strength in his Majesty's service, both for my better warrant and satisfaction of my conscience that I deal not in things above my vocation, and for my better countenance and prevailing where his Majesty's service is under any pretext opposed, I would it were despatched. I remember a greater matter than this was despatched by a letter from Royston, which was the placing of the Archbishop that now is; and I imagine the King did it of purpose, that the act mought appear to be his

own.

My Lord Chancellor told me yesterday in plain terms, that if the King would ask his opinion touching the person that he would commend to succeed him upon death or disability, he would name me for the fittest man. You may advise whether use may not be made of this offer.

I sent a pretty while since a paper to Mr. John Murray, which was indeed a little remembrance of some things past, concerning my honest and faithful services to his Majesty; not by way of boasting (from which I am far), but as tokens of my studying his service uprightly and carefully. If you be pleased to call for the paper, which is with Mr. John Murray, and to find a fit time that his Majesty may cast an eye upon it, I think it will do no hurt; and I have written to Mr. Murray to deliver the paper if you call for it. God keep you in all happiness.

Your truest servant.

1 Add. MSS. 5503, no. 52, f. 45.

Of the paper concerning his own services here referred to, which would have been of great use to a biographer, I have not met with any traces; nor do we hear any more of it. But it is clear that at this time the value of his services was well understood by the King, and that Villiers (whose influence was increasing daily) was taking a lively and unselfish interest in his fortunes,-an interest founded apparently on genuine respect and admiration, and not expecting to be paid for in any kind of unworthy compliance. Nor had there been any time when the duties of his place were more according to his mind. In the contention between the Common Law and the Prerogative, which was the most important business then in hand,— and in which his conduct, whether excusable or not, is now commonly assumed to stand so much in need of excuse,—there can be no doubt, I think, that the side which was assigned to him by his office (for I suppose that even now an attorney-general is not expected to oppose the government which he serves) was the side which he believed to be right, and on which (had office and the hope of office and the wish for office been all alike out of the question) he would have ranged himself, simply as a disinterested statesman and patriot. Nor was the vindication of public justice in the case of the murder of Overbury a cause less after his own heart. As the case stood now it presented many difficulties, but the end which he had to aim at was the same which, for the good of the country and without consideration of any personal interest of his own, he wished to see attained. Assuming that his attachment to the Crown (which was his party) was of the same complexion as the attachment of a modern conservative to the conservative party, or a modern liberal to the liberal party, I do not find that in pursuing the best path towards the Chancellorship he was at this time called upon to take any step which his judgment did not approve or his conscience sanction.

The next letter brings us back to the proceedings of the new Company for dyeing and dressing cloth; and the two which follow explain themselves.

A LETTER OF ADVICE TO THE KING, UPON THE BREACH WITH THE NEW COMPANY.1

It may please your most excellent Majesty,

Your Privy Council have wisely and truly discerned of the orders and demand of the new company, that they are unlawful and unjust; and themselves have now acknowledged the work 1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 29. Fair copy, corrected in Bacon's hand. Add. MSS. 5503, f. 70.

impossible without them, by their petition in writing now registered in the council book. So as this conclusion is (of their own making) become peremptory and final to themselves, and the impossibility being confessed, the practice and abuse is reserved to the judgment the state shall make of it.

This breach then of this great contract is wholly on their part, which could not have been if your Majesty had broken upon the patent; for the patent was your Majesty's act, the orders are their act; and in the former case they had not been liable to further question; now they are.

There resteth two things to be considered: The one, if they (like Proteus when he is hard held) shall yet again vary their shape; and shall quit their orders convinced of injustice, and lay their imposition only upon the trade of whites, whether your Majesty shall further expect. The other, if your Majesty dissolve them upon this breach on their part, what is further to be done for the setting of the trade again in joint, and for your own honour and profit. In both which points I will not presume to give opinion, but only to break the business for your Majesty's better judgment.

For the first, I am sorry the occasion was given (by my Lord Coke's speech at this time of the commitment of some of them) that they should seek omnem movere lapidem to help themselves. Better it had been, if (as my Lord Fenton said to me that morning very judiciously and with a great deal of foresight) that for that time they should have had a bridge made for them to be gone. But my Lord Coke floweth according to his own tides, and not according to the tides of business. The thing which my Lord Coke said was good, and too little; but at this time it was too much.

But that is past. Howsoever, (if they should go back and seek again to entertain your Majesty with new orders or offers, as is said to be intended,) your Majesty hath ready two answers of repulse, if it please your Majesty to use them.

The one, that this is now the fourth time that they have mainly broken with your Majesty, and contradicted themselves. First, they undertook to dye and dress all the cloths of the realm; soon after, they wound themselves into the trade of whites, and came down to the proportion contracted.1

1 Add. MS. 5503 has "came down to the proper cloths from which they were to be barred."

VOL. V.

S