legal proceeding, but for me to pray that her confession may be recorded, and judgment thereupon. But because your Lordships the Peers are met, and that this day and to-morrow are the days that crown all the former justice; and that in these great cases it hath been ever the manner to respect honour and satisfaction, as well as the ordinary parts and forms of justice; the occasion itself admonisheth me to give your Lordships and the hearers this contentment, as to make declaration of the proceedings of this excellent work of the King's justice, from the beginning to the end.1 It may please your Grace, my lord High Steward of England: this is now the second time, within the space of thirteen years reign of our happy sovereign, that this high tribunal-seat (ordained for the trial of Peers) hath been opened and erected, and that with a rare event, supplied and exercised by one and the same person, which is a great honour to you, my Lord Steward. In all this mean time the King hath reigned in his white robe, not sprinkled with any one drop of the blood of any of his nobles of this kingdom. Nay, such have been the depths of his mercy, as even those noblemen's bloods, (against whom the proceeding was at Winchester,) Cobham and Grey, were attainted and corrupted, but not spilt or taken away; but that they remained rather spectacles of justice in their continual imprisonment, than monuments of justice in the memory of their suffering. It is true that the objects of his justice then and now were very differing. For then it was the revenge of an offence against his own person and crown, and upon persons that were malcontents, and contraries to the state and government. But now it 1 To guard against accidents, Bacon had set down a frame of what he would say in case the Countess pleaded not guilty. The manuscript, corrected by himself and docketed "The parfite charge of the Lady in case of not guilty," is preserved at Lambeth. The following is the opening. "You have heard the indictment against this lady well opened; and likewise the point in law that might make some doubt declared and solved; wherein certainly the policy of the law of England is much to be esteemed, which requireth and respecteth form in the indictment, and substance in the proof. "This scruple it may be hath moved this lady to plead not guilty, though for the proof I shall not need much more than her own confession, which she hath formerly made, free and voluntary, and therein given glory to God and Justice. And certainly confession, as it is the strongest foundation for justice, so it is a kind of corner-stone, whereupon justice and mercy may meet. "The proofs which I shall read in the end for the ground of your verdict and sentence will be very short, as much as may serve to satisfy your honours and consciences for the conviction of this lady, without wasting of time in a case clear and confessed, or ripping up guiltiness against one that hath prostrated herself by confession, or preventing and deflowering to-morrow's evidence; and therefore the oc is the revenge of the blood and death of a particular subject, and the cry of a prisoner; it is upon persons that were highly in his favour; whereby his Majesty to his great honour hath shewed to the world (as if it were written in a sun-beam) that he is truly the lieutenant of him with whom there is no respect of persons; that his affections royal are above his affections private; that his favours and nearness about him are not like Popish Sanctuaries, to privilege malefactors; and that his being the best master in the world doth not let him from being the best King in the world. His people (on the other side) may say to themselves, I will lie down in peace, for God and the King and the Law protect me against great and small. It may be a discipline also to great men, specially such as are swoln in their fortunes from small beginnings, that the King is as well able to level mountains as to fill valleys, if such be their desert. But to come to the present case: The great frame of justice (my Lords) in this present action, hath a Vault, and it hath a Stage; a Vault wherein these works of darkness were contrived; and a Stage, with steps, by which they were brought to light. For the former of these, I will not lead your Lordships into it, because I will engrieve nothing against a penitent, neither will I open any thing against him that is absent. The one I will give to the laws of humanity, and the other to the laws of justice: for I shall always serve my master with a good and sincere conscience, and I know that he accepteth best. Therefore I will reserve that till to-morrow, and hold myself to that which I called the stage or theatre, whereunto indeed it may be fitly compared for that things were first contained within the invisible judgments of God, as within a curtain, and after came forth, and were acted most worthily by the King, and right well by his ministers.1 casion itself doth admonish me to spend this day rather in declaration than in evidence, giving God and the King the honour, and your Lordships and the hearers the contentment, to set before you the proceeding of this excellent work of the King's justice from the beginning to the end; and so to conclude with the reading the confessions and proofs. "My Lords, this is now the second time," etc. In the body of the speech (which begins at the top of page 300, and does not appear to have been altered at all) I have used this manuscript for my text; the original paper from which Tenison took the copy in the Baconiana' not being to be found. 1 Instead of this paragraph the other speech has "For the former of these, though it was first in act, yet it is last in proof; and therefore I will bring this work of justice first to the period of this day, and then go on with this day's work." Sir Thomas Overbury was murdered by poison the 15th of September, 1613. 11 Reg. This foul and cruel murder did for a time cry secretly in the ears of God; but God gave no answer to it otherwise than that voice (which sometimes he useth) which is vox populi, the speech of the people. For there went then a murmur that Overbury was poisoned; and yet this same submiss and soft voice God, the speech of the vulgar people, was not without a counter-tenor or counter-blast of the devil, (who is the common author both of murder and slander); for it was given out that Overbury was dead of a foul disease; and his body, which they had made corpus Judaicum with their poisons, so as it had no whole part, must be said to be leprosed with vice, and so his name poisoned as well as his body; for as to dissoluteness, I never heard the gentleman noted with it; his faults were of insolency, turbulency, and the like of that kind, the other part of the soul, not the voluptuous.3 Mean time there was some industry used (of which I will not now speak) to lull asleep those that were the revengers of the blood, the father and the brother of the murdered; and in these terms things stood by the space almost of two years; during which time God did so blind the two great procurers, and dazzle them with their own greatness, and bind and nail fast the actors and instruments with security upon their protection, as neither the one looked about them, nor the other stirred or fled, nor were conveyed away, but remained here still as under a privy arrest of God's judgments; insomuch as Franklin, that should have been sent over to the Palsgrave with good store of money, was by God's providence and the accident of a marriage of his diverted and stayed. But about the beginning of the progress the last summer, God's judgments began to come out of their depths. And as the revealing of murders is commonly such as a man [may] say," à Domino hoc factum est; it is God's work, and it is marvellous in our eyes: so in this particular it was most admirable; for it came forth first by a compliment, a matter of courtesy. My Lord of Shrewsbury, that is now with God, recommended to a counsellor of state (of special trust by his place) the late lieu 1 the same submiss and low: B. 2 have not: B. 3 The words after "kind" (which are not in the 'Baconiana ') are added in the MS. in Bacon's hand. B. omits "own." 5 The MS. omits "may;" B. reads “said.” tenant Helwisse, only for acquaintance, as an honest and worthy gentleman, and desired him to know him, and to be acquainted with him. That counsellor answered him civilly, That my Lord did him a favour, and that he should embrace it willingly; but he must let his Lordship know, that there did lie a heavy imputation upon that gentleman, Helwisse; for that Sir Thomas Overbury, his prisoner, was thought to have comen to a violent and untimely death. When this speech was reported back by my Lord of Shrewsbury to Helwisse, perculit illico animum, he was stricken with it: and being a politic man, and of likelihood doubting that the matter would break forth at one time or other, and that others might have the start of him, and thinking to make his own case by his own tale, resolved with himself upon this occasion to discover unto my Lord of Shrewsbury and that counsellor, that there was an attempt (whereunto he was privy) to have poisoned Overbury by the hands of his under-keeper Weston; but that he checked it and put it by, and dissuaded it, and related so much to him indeed:1 but then he left it thus, that it was but an attempt or3 untimely birth, never executed; and as if his own fault had been no more but that he was honest in forbidding, but fearful of revealing, and impeaching or accusing great persons and so with this fine point thought to save himself. But that great counsellor of estate, wisely considering that by the lieutenant's own tale it could not be simply a permission or weakness; for that Weston was never displaced by the lieutenant notwithstanding that attempt; and coupling the sequel by the beginning, thought it matter fit to be brought before his Majesty, by whose appointment Helwisse set down the like declaration in writing. Upon this ground the King playeth Salomon's part, Gloria Dei celare rem, et gloria regis investigare rem; and sets down certain papers of his own hand, which I mought term to be claves justitiæ, keys of justice; and may serve both for a precedent for Princes to imitate, and for a direction for Judges to follow and his Majesty carried the balance with a constant and steady hand, evenly, and without prejudice, whether it were a true accusation of the one part, or a practice and factious de 1 This clause is not in the 'Baconiana.' 3 as an attempt or an: B. 2 The MS. omits "it." vice' of the other which writing, because I am not able to express according to the worth thereof, I will desire your Lordship anon to hear read. This excellent foundation of justice being laid by his Majesty's own hand, it was referred unto some counsellors to examine further; who gained some degrees of light from Weston, but yet left it unperfect. After it was referred to Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, as a person best practised in legal examinations; who took a great deal of indefatigable pains in it without intermission, having (as I have heard him say) taken at least three hundred examinations in this business. But these things were not done in a corner, I need not speak of them. It is true that my lord Chief Justice, in the dawning and opening of the light, finding the matter touched upon these great persons, very discreetly became suitor to the King to have greater persons than his own rank joined with him; whereupon your Lordship, my Lord Steward of England, to whom the King commonly resorteth in arduis, and my Lord Steward of the King's house, and my Lord Zouch, were joined with him. Neither wanted there (this while) practice to suppress testimony, to deface writings, to weaken the King's resolution, to slander the justice, and the like. Nay, when it came to the first solemn act of justice, which was the arraignment of Weston, he had his lesson to stand mute, which had arrested the whole wheel of justice; but this dumb devil, by the means of some discreet divines and the potent charm of justice together, was cast out; neither did this poisonous adder stop his ear to those charms, but relented and yielded to his trial. Then follows the proceedings of justice against the other offenders, Turner, Helwisse, Franklin. But all these being but the organs and instruments of this fact, the actors and not the authors, justice could not have been crowned without this last act against these great persons; else Weston's censure or prediction might have been verified, when he said he hoped the small flies should not be caught and the 1 scandal: B. 3 This clause is omitted in B. 2 Lordships: B. Meaning, I suppose, the Chief Justice. See above, p. 219. 5 Then followed the other: B. |
