set on things which no man ought to suffer to be necessary to his happiness, on things which can often be obtained only by the sacrifice of integrity and honor."

Sir Edward Coke, long the rival of Bacon, being earnestly engaged, with a view to improve his fortunes, in securing to Sir John Villiers, a brother of the Duke of Buckingham, an alliance with a wealthy heiress, Bacon set himsel with all his energy to oppose Sir Edward's scheme, lest his rival should thereby come again into court favor; but unwisely, in one of his communications, indulged in sarcasms against Buckingham. This enraged both the favorite and the king, so that Bacon was led to understand that his possession of the Great Seal depended upon the favor of Buckingham: upon which he made an humble and most cringing acknowledgment for proceeding as he had against the proposed marriage, without consulting the wishes of the king.

The reconciliation of Buckingham to Lord Bacon involved on the part of the latter an abjectness of submission in outward form also, which it is hard to credit. The gratitude expressed by the Lord Chancellor for such reconciliation in the following sycophantic letter, excites one's astonishment and pity:-"My ever best Lord, none better than yourself. Your lordship's pen, or rather pencil, hath pourtrayed towards me such magnanimity and nobleness, and true kindness, as methinketh I see the image of some ancient virtue, and not any thing of these times. It is the lines of my life, and not the lines of my letter, that must express my thankfulness; wherein, if I fail, then God fail me and make me as miserable as I think myself at this time happy by this reviver, through his majesty's singular clemency, and your incomparable love and favor."

According to Mr Devey: "The breach was not repaired without making the Lord Keeper sensible of the bondage into which he had fallen. Buckingham had a host of needy relatives to provide for. The king's finances were never in a flourishing state, and to satisfy their clamors and supply his own extravagances, he fell upon the old device of patents and monopolies. These were certain charters granted under

the great seal, enabling a few individuals to retain the manufacture of particular articles of trade in their own hands, and arming them with exorbitant powers to break open and ransack any house in which they suspected an illicit manufactory to be carried on. In Elizabeth's reign, such powers had been extensively exercised, but the enormities to which they led raised such an outcry in the nation as alarmed the queen, and compelled her to revoke the charters. Since that time Bacon had manifested some respect for the feelings of the people, and even declaimed against this mode of plundering them in his "Advice" to Buckingham. He now found it necessary to stultify his own lessons, and that at the command of his pupil. As fast as the ingenuity of the favorite could devise patents, Bacon hurried them under the great seal of England, and a band of monopolists was armed with warrants to rob the public, in consideration of handing. over to Buckingham a share of the pillage. The people's sense of justice was outraged by an attempt to pass off plated copper wire for silver lace at more than the ordinary price, and an outcry was immediately raised against Sir John Villiers, Sir Giles Monpesson-supposed to be the original of Messenger's Sir Giles Overreach-and Sir Francis Monpesson-his Justice Greedy-who were the principals in this nefarious transaction. James referred the case to the decision of his Chancellor, who, after a decent delay, pronounced the patent to be decidedly beneficial, on the ground of affording employment to the poor."

The account which Dr. Fischer gives of this and subsequent transactions, will be read with interest. He says:— "The circumstances amid which Bacon lived as a powerful and likewise complaisant tool, caused his natural venality to take the grossest form of bribery, and to be heightened to actual crime. There was nothing in his moral disposition that he could oppose to such pernicious agencies. He subjected himself and his high position as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, to the power and influence of a courtier. Because Buckingham exercised the strongest influence over the king, so was his influence irresistible to

Bacon. It was impossible to renounce the support of the influential courtier, and as little could Bacon guide the inconsiderate man by his own superior views. He therefore yielded to him, and became an accomplice in the wrongful acts by which Buckingham enriched himself, allowing him to grant patents for hard cash and sell monopolies, which did manifest injury to the country. What was still worse, he tolerated the interference of the royal favorite in his own judicial acts, and the decisions which he subscribed often emanated from Buckingham. Bacon knew well enough that corruption of the legal tribunals is one of the worst evils that can befal a state; nevertheless he allowed the Crown and its officers to interfere in suits, and to secure the favor of the judges for itself or its clients; he actually did that which, with his own correct views, he never should have permitted; he allowed himself to be bribed, and sold his decisions. By these illegal means he is said to have gained a rich booty; his enemies estimated his spoils at 100,000 pounds. This rapacity did not arise from grovelling avarice, but from a reckless love of magnificence. Bacon, as far as his own person was concerned, was moderate and abstemious; but he liked to keep up a magnificent establishment and make a brilliant figure in society. Luxury offered fascinations which he could not resist; his vast expenditure exceeded his means, and thus he loaded himself with a weight of debt which he could lighten only by means of unlawful and unjustifiable gains. Here Bacon and his fortunes appear in a truly pitiful light, namely, with the stamp of mere vulgar recklessness upon them. It appears that he always had a taste for immoderate luxury."

"The fate of Bacon came upon him as the Nemesis of some hero of antiquity. It allowed him to rise to the highest pinnacle of felicity, that it might thence strike him down with rapid and terrific blows. In a few moments the proud edifice of his fortune, the edifice which he had carefully constructed with the toil of years, lay before him a disgraceful ruin. Under James I. he had, by favor of that monarch, mounted the highest steps of the State ladder. [These have been

already noticed.] His vacations he devoted to a Tusculan leisure at Gorhambury, where he occupied himself with literary labors and gardening. Here he kept up a scientific intercourse with several persons, including Thomas Hobbes, whose vocation it was to carry out the Baconian philosophy, and whom Mr. Macauley terms the "most vigorous of human intellects." When on the summit of his political career, he was further elevated, with great ceremony on the part of the Court, to the dignities of Baron of Verulam and Viscount St. Alban. He held the highest state office in England; and the publication of his chef-d'œuvre, the "Novum Organum," in 1620, stamped him as the first philosophical writer of Europe. This was the moment when Bacon stood upon the culminating point of power and felicity, and was justly respected and admired by the whole world."

"Three days after his investment with the title of Viscount St. Alban had taken place with all solemnity, a new Parliament assembled. The public grievances were discussed-the selfish and mischievous grants of monopolies and patents, and, above all, the abuses in the law courts. The House of Commons elected a Committee to investigate these abuses. On the 15th of March, 1621, the President of the Committee reported that the person against whom the charges were brought was no less a person than the Lord Chancellor himself," a man," he added, "so endued with all parts of nature and art, that I will say no more of him, being not able to say enough." The prosecution was carried on; the cases of bribery became more and more numerous; the articles of the charge were twenty-three in number. A copy of them was sent to Bacon, that he might defend himself; and at last, all evasion being impossible, he sent to the House of Lords a written answer, which opened thus:-"Upon advised consideration of the charge, descending into my own conscience, and calling my memory to account so far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defence, and put myself upon the grace and mercy of your lordships." Overwhelmed with shame, the unhappy man shut himself up in his room, and

when a deputation of the lords waited upon him, he besought them "to be merciful to a broken reed." His confession of guilt was dictated not so much by contrition as by policy, for the King, who could not save him, advised him to declare himself guilty. He was sentenced to imprisonment during the King's pleasure, to a fine of 40,000 pounds, with the additional punishment that he was to be "forever incapable of any office, place, or employment in the state or commonwealth; and never to sit in Parliament, nor come within the range of the Court." The sentence was more severe than the judges, who felt both admiration and pity for the offender; indeed it was only carried into execution so far as form required. After an imprisonment of no more than two days he was liberated by the King, the other penalties were also remitted, and he might have even resumed his seat in the House of Lords in the next session of Parliament. However, he did not again make his appearance in public life, but passed the remainder of his days in solitary devotion to science among the woods of Gorhambury."

The more full and particular account that follows of what was said and done by Bacon previous to the passing of sentence upon him, is exceedingly interesting, as illustrating the artful, sycophantic and pliant character of the man, in this trying emergency :-" He first sent in to the House of Lords his submission and confession in general terms. He said 'it came from a wasted spirit and oppressed mind, from the midst of a state of as great affliction as a mortal man might endure, honor being above life. Still (he continued) he found gladness in some things; first, that hereafter the greatness of a judge or magistrate shall be no protection to him against guiltiness, which is the beginning of a golden work; the next, that after this example it is like that judges will fly from any thing in the likeness of corruption, though it were at a great distance, as from a serpent-which tends to the purging of the courts of justice, and reducing them to their true honor and splendor. And in these two points (said he) God is my witness, though it be my fortune to be the anvil upon which these two effects are broken and wrought, I take