The Lord-Treasurer Burghley having married his aunt by the mother's side, Bacon frequently applied to him for some post under the government, with a view, as he declares, “to procure the greater assistance to his capacity and industry in perfecting his philosophical designs." But his importunity never obtained him any thing, except the reversion of the office of Register to the Star-Chamber, then reckoned worth 1,600l. per ann., which did not fall to him till nearly twenty years afterward.* Thinking therefore, probably, that he was neglectd by his uncle, he attached himself strongly to the Earl of Essex: and hence when that nobleman, a little before his fall, warmly solicited for Bacon the solicitor-generalship, his cousin Sir Robert Cecil successfully opposed his appointment, by representing him to the Queen as a man of mere speculation, and more likely to distract her affairs than to serve her usefully and with judgement. This, however, appears to have been an † This made him say, "It was like another man's ground buttalling upon his house, which might mend his prospect but did not fill his barn." In gratitude, however, for this reversion, he published in 1592 (his first political work) "Certain Observations upon a Libel entitled A Declaration of the true Causes of the great Troubles,' in which he warmly vindicates at once the Lord Treasurer and his own father in particular, and occasionally the rest of Elizabeth's ministry. + Cecil's conversation with Essex, upon this subject, is preserved by Dr. Birch in his Memoirs of the Reign of Elizabeth. The Earl, subsequently, generously made him a present of Twickenham Park and it's Garden of Paradise, whither by his friend's indulgence he had frequently before resorted as a retreat, calculated both for study and for the restoration of his health: a donation so considerable, that Bacon himself, who speaks of this singularly noble act of friendship with warm expressions of affection and gratitude, acknowledged he sold it VOL. II. 2 F unfounded calumny. Most of his works on law were printed, though not published, in this reign. In 1596, he finished his Maxims of the Law,' constituting the first part of mon Law of England.' His second Treatise was entitled, The Use of the Law for Preservation of our Persons, Goods, and good Name, according to his Elements of the com afterward, even at an under-price, for no less a sum than 18007.! Nor was he the only brother benefited by the generosity of Essex. That nobleman "had accommodated Master Antony Bacon in partition of his house, and had assigned him a noble entertainment. This was a gentleman of impotent feet, but a nimble head, and through his hand ran all the intelligences from Scotland; who being of a provident nature (contrary to his brother, the Lord Viscount St. Alban's) and well knowing the advantage of a dangerous secret, would many times cunningly let fall some words, as if he could much amend his fortunes under the Cecilians' (to whom he was near of alliance, and in blood also) and who had made, as he was not unwilling should be believed, some great proffers to win him away: which once or twice he pressed so far, and with such tokens and signs of apparent discontent, to my Lord Henry Howard, afterward Earl of Northampton (who was of the party, and stood himself in much umbrage with the Queen) that he flies presently to my Lord of Essex, with whom he was commonly primæ admissionis by his bed-side in the morning, and tells him that unless that gentleman were presently satisfied with some round sum, all would be vented.' "This took the Earl at that time ill-provided, as indeed oftentimes his coffers were low; whereupon he was fain suddenly to give him Essex House, which the good old Lady Walsingham did afterward disengage out of her own store with 2,500l.; and before he had distilled 1,5001., at another time, by the same skill. So as we may rate this one secret (as it was finely carried) at 4,000l. in present money, beside at the least 1,000l. of annual pension to a private and bed-rid gentleman! What would he have gotten, if he could have gone about his business?" (Reliq. Wotton. pp. 14, 15.) the Laws and Customs of this Land,' a work of great value to students. In 1597, his Essays' were published. About the close of the following year, he drew up his History of the AlienationOffice.' As a farther compliment indeed to his distinguished legal attainments, the Society of Gray'sInn in 1600 chose him double reader, which office he discharged with his usual ability. His pecuniary embarrassments, being increased by this failure of his expectations, had a bad effect upon his constitution, which of itself delicate, had already been greatly impaired by his nightly lucubrations. The disappointment indeed, it is said, so much affected his health, that he had once resolved to hide his chagrin in some foreign country; but, fortunately for his own, the remonstrances of his friends prevailed against this rash determination. For some time afterward, however, he laid aside all thoughts of public life, and applied himself wholly to works of literature and philosophy. It was not long, before the intimacy of Bacon and Essex degenerated into cool civility. Bacon undertook to give advice to a vain, ambitious, and impetuous nobleman, and resented the neglect of it: on the other hand, Essex grew sour and reserved to a friend, who importuned him with remonstrances against his misconduct. At length, when the latter was brought to his trial for high-treason, Bacon, in his quality of counsel-extraordinary to the Queen, pleaded against him! This conduct receives a miserable palliation from the reflexion, that he was obliged to act against him officially, or to dismiss all hopes of future preferment. It was not, unfor tunately, in Bacon's character to hesitate upon such an alternative. But there is a charge against him of a deeper dye, which will not admit even of such a wretched excuse. We must remember, that an admirable judge of human nature has pronounced him, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind; and that only as a philosopher do we deem him one of the most splendid ornaments of his country. After the death of Essex, the sarcasms of the people upon the court-party, and even upon the Queen herself, were so severe, that the administration thought it necessary to vindicate their conduct in an appeal to the public. This odious task they artfully assigned to Bacon; and he impiously descended to prostitute his abilities in destroying the surviving fame of his benefactor, who with all his faults was still the general darling. His pamphlet, entitled A Declaration of the Treasons of Robert Earl of Essex,' was, in fact, a declaration that Francis Bacon wished upon any terms to be advanced at court. Here again, however, he was destined to encounter disappointment; and being unable to endure the loss of the public esteem, he drew up as a counter-piece, and addressed to the Earl of Devonshire, The Apology of Francis Bacon, in certain Imputations concerning the Earl of Essex.† This, * Pope. + "Of this apology" though certainly far from being satisfactory, "it is but fair," says Chalmers, "that we should give the outline: that he had given the Earl good advice, which he did being deemed a kind of recantation, he remained unprovided for, and deservedly unpopular till the following reign. So strongly indeed was his conduct execrated, that his very life was threatened, and for some time he went in daily danger of assassination. The obloquy, which he thus incurred, was not removed even by his death; and to this day a stigma justly cleaves to his name, in the writings of more than one historian, for his unparalleled ingratitude to his munificent patron and friend. To obviate the continuance of this neglect, he successfully ingratiated himself with the Scottish party; and through them his tenders of loyalty and zeal were conveyed to James, who was hardly seated on the English throne, before he conferred upon him the honour of knighthood. In 1604, he farther not follow; that upon this a coldness ensued, which kept them at a greater distance than formerly; that yet he continued to give counsel to the Earl, and laboured all he could to serve him with the Queen; that, in respect to his last unfortunate act (which was, in truth, an act of madness) he had no knowledge or notice whatever; that he did no more than he was in duty bound to do for the service of the Queen, in the way of his profession; and that the 'Declaration' was put upon him altered, after he had drawn it, both by the ministers and by the Queen herself." The 'Declaration' itself too (it ought, farther, to be observed) was drawn up with such apparent marks of tenderness for Essex's reputation, that Elizabeth, when Bacon read the paper to her, observed Old love, she saw, could not easily be forgotten.' * During the latter part of this reign, either from pique or from patriotism he frequently by his speeches in parliament, where he sat as representative for Middlesex, gave umbrage to the ministry. To her Majesty, however, he preserved a steady loyalty; and upon her decease he composed an elegant and able memorial of the happiness of her reign, equally honourable to the author and the subject, which he transmitted to Thuanus for the use of his History.' |