that his best interests, which consisted in a good | punity. Truth, the daughter of time, not of auunderstanding with his subjects, could be main- thority, is constantly warning the community in tained only by calling frequent parliaments: ad- what their interests consist, and that to protect, vice not likely to be acceptable to a monarch who not to encroach upon these interests, all governhad issued a proclamation, commanding all his ments are formed. people, from the highest to the lowest, "not to intermeddle, by pen or speech, with state concernments and secrets of empire, at home or abroad, which were not fit themes for common meetings or vulgar persons;" but, whatever their secret dissatisfaction might be, the whole body of the nation manifested so much zeal for the recovery of the palatinate, that the juncture was deemed favourable for relieving the king's pecuniary difficulties, who consented with this view to summon a parliament. This resolution was no sooner formed, than the chancellor was instructed to confer with the most proper persons as to the best means of carrying it into effect; and he accordingly availed himself of the assistance of the two chief justices, and of Serjeant Crew, who, after mature deliberation, agreed upon four points, which were immediately communicated to his majesty and to Buckingham. Different days were fixed for the meeting of this eventful parliament, which was called with a full knowledge of the king's motive for summoning them; and that, had not the expedient respecting benevolence wholly failed, this council of the nation would never have been assembled; as the king considered the Commons" daring encroachers upon his prerogative; endeavouring to make themselves greater, and their prince less, than became either." Previous to the meeting, the lord chancellor was raised to the dignity of Viscount St. Alban, by a patent which stated that the king had conferred this title because he thought nothing could adorn his government more or afford greater encouragement to virtue and public spirit, than the raising worthy persons to honour; and with this new dignity, he, on the 27th day of January, was with great ceremony invested at Theobalds, the patent being witnessed by the most illustrious peers of the realm, the Lord Carew carrying, and the Marquess of Buckingham supporting the robe of state before him, while his coronet was borne by the Lord Wentworth. The new viscount returned solemn thanks to the king for the many favours bestowed upon him. The thirtieth of January, an ominous day to the family of the Stuarts, was at last fixed for the king to meet his people, writhing as they were under the intolerable grievances by which they were oppressed; grievances which, notwithstanding the warnings and admonitions addressed to the king when he ascended the throne, had most culpably increased. Power, not only tenacious in retaining its authority, but ever prone to increase its exactions, may disregard the progress of knowledge, but it is never disregarded with im Upon the opening of parliament the king addressed the Commons. He stated his opinion of their relative duties: that he was to distribute justice and mercy; and they, without meddling with his prerogative, were by petition to acquaint him with their distresses, and were to supply his pecuniary wants. At first there appeared nothing but duty and submission on the part of the Commons. Determined, if possible, to maintain a good correspondence with their prince, they without one dissenting voice voted him two subsidies, and that too at the very beginning of the session, contrary to the maxims frequently adopted by former parliaments. They then proceeded, in a very temperate and decided manner, to the examination of their oppressions, intimating that the supply of the king's distresses and the removal of their vexations were to advance hand in hand without precedency, as twin brothers. Of their grievances the Commons loudly and justly complained. Under the pretext of granting patents, the creatures of Buckingham had rapaciously exacted large fees. These exactions can scarcely be credited. There were patents for every necessary and convenience of life; for gold and silver thread; for inns and ale-houses; for remitting the penalties of obsolete laws, and even for the price of horse-meat, starch, candles, tobacco-pipes, salt, and train-oil; and such traders as presumed to continue their business without satisfying the rapacity of the patentees, had been severely punished by vexatious prosecutions, fine, and imprisonment. The outcries of the subject were incessant. "Monopolies and briberies were beaten upon the anvil every day, almost every hour." The complaints were so numerous that not less than eighty committees to redress abuses in the church, in the courts of law, and in every department of the state, were immediately nominated. From the mass of evils under consideration, the House first directed its attention to the three great patents, of inns, of ale-houses, and of gold and silver thread. The chief actors were Sir Giles Mompesson, a man of property, and a member of the house, and Sir Francis Michell, his tool, a poor justice, who received annually £100 for issuing warrants to enforce his tyranny. The rage for punishment was not confined to Mompesson and Michell. Sir Henry Yelverton, the attorneygeneral, who had incurred the displeasure ot Buckingham, was prosecuted and severely punished, for some irregularity respecting a patent for a charter for the city of London. It appeared before a committee of the house, that the profits from these patents were shared by (H) all classes of society who were connected with | in matters of such moment, Buckingham should Buckingham. Amongst the patentees were the Lord Harrington and the Countess of Bedford. Christopher Villiers, and Sir Edward Villiers, half-brother of the lord marquis, received £1,800 annually between them; and from one single patent the king's annual profit was £10,000. These rumours reached and alarmed the king, who instantly caused a communication to be made to the lords, that the patent was sanctioned by divers of the judges for the point of law, and by divers lords for point of convenience. Reform was now the universal cry of the nation. It was one of those periodical outcries, which ever has been and ever will be heard in England, till, by admitting the gradual improvement which the progress of knowledge requires, the current, instead of being opposed, is judiciously directed. The streams which for centuries roll on, and for centuries are impeded, at last break down or rush over the barriers and carry every thing before them. When in this deluge the ark itself is in danger, the patriot endeavours to confine the torrent within its proper banks, and to resist or direct its impetuosity, while the demagogue joins in the popular clamour, visiting on individuals the faults of the times, and sacrificing, as an atonement to injured feeling, the most virtuous members of the community. apply for counsel to Williams rather than to Bacon, by whose advice he professed to be always guided: it is, however, certain that he not only communicated privately with Williams, but that he carried him to the king, whom they found closeted with the prince, in much distress and perplexity, when the dean read to his royal master a document prepared at the suggestion of Buckingham, or the fruit of his own politic brain. It is to be hoped that the fiend ambition did not so far possess him, as to recommend the greater sacrifice of Bacon, should Mompesson and Michell be deemed insufficient to allay the storm; but if ambition did influence this politic prelate, if the vision of the seals floated before him, and induced him to plot against the "gracious Duncan," he could not but foresee that the result of the inquiries would only convince the parliament that Mompesson and Michell were mere puppets moved for the profit and advantage of others, and that Buckingham, or one as highly placed, might be demanded. On the 15th of March, 1620, Sir Robert Phillips reported from the committee appointed to inquire into the abuses of courts of justice, of which he was chairman, that two petitions had been presented for corruption against the lord chancellor, by two suitors in the court of chancery, the one named Aubrey, the other Egerton. Aubrey's petition stated, "That having a suit pending before the lord chancellor, and being worn out by delays, he had been advised by his When the complaints of the people could no longer be resisted, and public inquiry became inevitable, Buckingham, insensible to all other shame, appeared fully conscious of the infamy of exposure. The honour of a gentleman and the pride of nobility slept at ease upon the money-counsel to present £100 to the chancellor, that bags extorted from the sufferers, but he and his noble colleagues endured the utmost alarm at the prospect of discovery. Conscious of his peril, disquieted, and robbed of all peace of mind, admonished "That the arrow of vengeance shot against his brother grazed himself," he consulted one of the ablest men in England, Williams, then Dean of Westminster, who, well versed in matters of state, soon saw the position in which all parties were placed. He recommended that Villiers should, without a moment's delay, be sent upon some foreign embassy; and, his guilt being less enormous or less apparent than of the other offenders, he was thus protected by the power of his brother. Villiers being safe, Williams advised compliance with the humour of the people, and suggested that in this state tempest Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir F. Michell "should be thrown overboard as wares that might be spared," quoting a wise heathen as a precedent, well knowing that his breviary contained no such doctrine: advice which was gratefully received by the marquis, who declared that, for the future, he would attend to no other counsellor. It may, at first sight, appear remarkable, that, his cause might, by more than ordinary means, be expedited, and that in consequence of this advice he had delivered the £100 to Sir George Hastings and to Mr. Jenkins, of Gray's Inn, by whom it was presented to his lordship; but notwithstanding this offering, the chancellor had decided against him.” Egerton's complaint was, that "To procure my lord's favour, he had been persuaded by Sir George Hastings and Sir Richard Young, to make some present to the chancellor; and that he accordingly delivered to Sir George and to Sir Richard £400, which was delivered by them to the chancellor as a gratuity, for that my lord, when attorney-general, had befriended him: and that, before this advice, Egerton had himself, either before or after the chancellor was intrusted with the great seal, presented to his lordship a piece of plate worth fifty guineas; but that, notwithstanding these presents, the lord chancellor, assisted by Lord Chief Justice Hobart, had decided against him. If Bacon, instead of treating the charge with contempt, and indulging in imaginations of the friendship of Buckingham and of the king, thinking, as they were, only of their own safety, had trusted to his own powerful mind, and met the accusation instantly and with vigour, he might at once, strong as the tide was against all authority, have stemmed the torrent, and satisfied the intelligent, that the fault was not in the chancellor, but the chancery. Might he not have reminded the house that, although he knew the temporary power of custom against opinion, he, in resistance of the established practice, had exerted himself to prevent any interference, even by Buckingham or the king, in the administration of justice, by which the impartiality of the judges might be, or might appear to be disturbed. of Greece; in all feudal states; in France, where the suitors always presented the judge with some offering, in conformity with their established maxim, "Non deliberetur, donec solventur species;" and in England, from time immemorial. It existed before the time of King John, and during his reign; and notwithstanding the rights secured at Runnymede, it has ever continued. It existed in the reign of Henry the Fifth; and although, during the reign of Henry the Eighth, Sir Thomas More declined to receive presents, his very power of declining proves that it was customary to offer them, and, in conformity with this practice, the usual presents were made to Lord Could he not have said that both petitions Bacon within a few hours after he had accepted contained internal and unanswerable proof that the great seal, the only pecuniary compensation, it was not the corruption of the judge, but the except a very trifling salary, to which the lord fault of the times, in which the practice ori-keeper was entitled for labours never intended to ginated? Could he not have said that the be gratuitous. presents were made openly, in the presence of witnesses? How could these offerings have influenced his judgment in favour of the donor, when, in both cases, he decided against the party by whom the presents were made? In the case of Aubrey, he, to repeat the strong expressions which had been used, made "a killing decree against him :" and, with respect to Egerton, the decision was in favour of his opponent, Rowland, who did not make any present until some weeks after the judgment was pronounced. But, not contenting himself by thus showing that the offerings were neither presented nor received as bribes, could he not have said, the petitions both state that the presents were recommended by counsel, and delivered by men of title and members of parliament? Did they then act in compliance with long established practice, or were they all bribed? Were the practitioners in this noble profession polluted by being accessory to the worst species of bribery? Why, when the charge was made, did the recorder instantly say, "If Egerton desired to congratulate him at his coming to the seal for his kindness and pains in former business, what wrong hath he done, if he hath received a present? And if there were a suit depending, who keeps a register in his heart of all causes? nay, who can, amongst such a multitude?" Could he not have said that the custom of the chancellor's receiving presents had existed from the earliest periods? that a member had reminded the house of its existence, and said, "I think the chancellor took gratuities, and the lord chancellor before, and others before him? I have, amongst the muniments of my own estate, an entry of a payment to a former chancellor of a sum for the pains he had taken in hearing our cause." This custom of judges receiving presents was not peculiar to England, but existed in the most enlightened governments; in the different states What could have been said in answer to this statement, that the presents were made openly, that the decision was against the party by whom they were made, and that they were made by the advice of counsel, and delivered by men of eminence, and sanctioned by immemorial practice in this and in all countries? Might he not have called upon the justice of the House for protection from the aspersions of two discontented suitors, who had no more cause of complaint against him than Wraynham, by whom he was slandered, or Lord Clifford, by whom he was threatened to be assassinated? Might he not have called upon the house for protection against these calumnies at a time when the excited people wished for some sacrifice, as a tribute to public opinions, an atonement for public wrongs, and a security for better times? The people are often censured for their selection of a victim, but, where they contend for a principle, they lose sight of the individual. It is this dangerous indifference that enables bad men to direct, for private ends, a popular tumult. The Jewish people demanded merely their annual privilege; it was the priests who said, "Save Barrabas." On the 17th of March the chancellor presided, for the last time, in the House of Lords. The charges which he had at first treated with indifference, were daily increasing, and could no longer be disregarded. From the pinnacle on which he stood, he could see the storm gathering round him: old complaints were revived, and new accusations industriously collected; and, though he had considered himself much beloved in both houses of parliament, he felt that he had secret enemies, and began to fear that he had false friends. He resolved, therefore, to meet his accusers; but his health, always delicate, gave way, and instead of being able to attend in person, he was obliged by writing to address the House of Peers. To the Right Honourable his very good Lords, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Upper House of Parliament assembled. My very good Lords,-I humbly pray your lordships all to make a favourable and true construction of my absence. It is no feigning or fainting, but sickness both of my heart and of my back, though joined with that comfort of mind that persuadeth me that I am not far from heaven, whereof I feel the first-fruits. And because, whether I live or die, I would be glad to preserve my honour and fame, so far as I am worthy, hearing that some complaints of base bribery are coming before your lordships, my requests unto your lordships are: which his lordship instantly acknowledged, with the expression of his intention to speak more fully at a future time. Thus resolved to defend himself, there was some communication between the chancellor and Buckingham; whether it was confined to the favourite must be left to conjecture; but it appears to have had its full effect both upon him and upon the king, who, seeing the untoward events which might yet occur from the discussions of this inquiring parliament, sent a message to the Commons, expressing his comfort that the House was careful to preserve his honour; his wish that the parliament should adjourn to the 10th of April; and his assurance that the complaints against First, that you will maintain me in your good the lord chancellor should be carefully examined opinion, without prejudice, until my cause be heard. | before a committee of six peers and twelve comSecondly, that in regard I have sequestered my moners; a proposal not very acceptable to Sir mind at this time in great part from worldly Edward Coke, who thought it might defeat the matters, thinking of my account and answers in a parliamentary proceedings which he was so anxhigher court, your lordships will give me conve-ious to prosecute. nient time, according to the course of other courts, to advise with my counsel and to make my answer; wherein, nevertheless, my counsel's part will be the least; for I shall not, by the grace of God, trick up an innocency with cavillations, but plainly and ingenuously (as your lordships know my manner is) declare what I know or remember. Thirdly, that, according to the course of justice, I may be allowed to except to the witnesses brought against me; and to move questions to your lordships for their cross-examinations; and likewise to produce my own witnesses for the discovery of the truth. And lastly, that if there be any more petitions of like nature, that your lordships would be pleased not to take any prejudice or apprehension of any number or muster of them, especially against a judge, that makes two thousand orders and decrees in a year, (not to speak of the courses that have been taken for hunting out complaints against me,) but that I may answer them according to the rules of justice, severally and respectively. These requests I hope appear to your lordships no other than just. And so thinking myself happy to have so noble peers and reverend prelates to discern of my cause; and desiring no privilege of greatness for subterfuge of guiltiness, but meaning, as I said, to deal fairly and plainly with your lordships, and to put myself upon your honours and favours, I pray God to bless your counsels and persons. And rest your lordships' humble FR. ST. ALBAN, Canc. servant, March 19, 1620. This letter, which was delivered by Buckingham, the Lords immediately answered, by assuring the chancellor "that the proceedings should be according to the right rule of justice; that it was the wish of the House that his lordship should clear his honour from the different aspersions, and praying him to provide for his defence;" a courtesy On the 20th, the Commons proceeded to the examination of witnesses, and a further complaint was preferred in the cause of Wharton and Willoughby, by the Lady Wharton, against whom the chancellor had decided. It appeared that the presents were made openly at two several times, with the knowledge and in the presence of witnesses. The cry having been raised, the lowest members of the profession, a common informer and a disgraced registrar were, with their crew, employed in hunting for charges; and, so ready was the community to listen to complaints, that it mattered not by whom they were preferred; "greatness was the mark, and accusation the game." One of his many faithful friends, Sir Thomas Meautys, rose to resist this virulence. He admonished the House of the misstatements that would be made by such accusers, men without character, under the influence of motives which could not be misunderstood. "I have known,” he said, "and observed his lordship for some years: he hath sown a good seed of justice; let not the abandoned and envious choke it with their tares." He had as much prospect of success as if he had attempted to stop the progress of a volcano. Additional charges, thus collected, and of the same nature, were preferred against him. On the 26th of March, in conformity with the advice given by Williams, sentence was passed upon Mompesson and Michell, many patents were recalled, and the king, after having addressed the House, adjourned the parliament. The king's speech abounded with that adroit flattery to the House, which he so frequently practised when he had any thing to gain or any thing to fear; he did not name the chancellor directly, and, when he glanced at the charge of bribery, while he cautioned them not to be car ried away by the impertinent discourses of those 66 who named the innocent as well as the guilty;" | instance of an offering, even to the case of he contrived to praise Buckingham, and to turn Wraynham, who had been punished for his the charge itself into a dexterous commendation scurrilous libel against the chancellor and the both of his favourite and the prince. master of the rolls. The parliament was then adjourned to the 17th of April, with the hope that, during the recess, the favourite or his master might contrive some expedient to delay or defeat investigation; and that time might mitigate the displeasure which, in both Houses, seemed strong against the chancellor. The proceedings within the House were suspended, but the chancellor's opponents, unchecked or secretly encouraged by his pretended friends, continued their exertions, actuated either by virtuous indignation at the supposition of his guilt, or by motives less pure,—the hope of gaining by his fall, or envy of the greatness which overshadowed them. The state of the chancellor's mind during this storm has been variously represented; by some of his contemporaries he is said to have been depressed by others that he was merry, and not doubting that he should be able to ride safely through the tempest. His playfulness of spirit never forsook him. When, upon the charge being first made, his servants rose as he passed through the hall, "Sit down, my friends," he said, "your rise has been my fall;" and when one of his friends said, "You must look around you," he replied, "I look above me." Playfulness in affliction is, however, only an equivocal test of cheerfulness; in a powerful mind grief rests itself in the exercise of the antagonist feelings, and, by a convulsive effort, throws off the load of despair. Of this virulence the chancellor thus complained to Buckingham: "Your lordship spoke of purgatory. I am now in it; but my mind is in a calm; for my fortune is not my felicity. I know I have clean hands and a clean heart, and I hope a clean house for friends or servants. But Job himself, or whosoever was the justest judge, by such hunting for matters against him, as hath been used against me, may for a time seem foul, especially in a time when greatness is the mark, and accusation is the game. And if this be to be a chancellor, I think if the great seal lay upon Hounslow Heath, nobody would take it up. But the king and your lordship will I hope put an end to these my straits, one way or other." And in a subsequent letter he said, "I perceive, by some speech that passed between your lordship and Mr. Meautys, that some wretched detractor hath told you, that it were strange I should be in debt; for that I could not but have received a hundred thousand pounds gifts since I had the seal, which is an abominable falsehood. Such tales as these made St. James say that the tongue is a fire, and itself fired from hell, whither when these tongues shall return, they will beg a drop of water to cool them. I praise God for it, I never took penny for any benefice or ecclesiastical living; I never took penny for releasing any thing I stopped at the seal; I never took penny for any commission, or things of that nature: I never shared with any servant for any second or inferior profit." About the same period he thus wrote to the king, in a letter which he intrusted to the discre tion of Buckingham to withhold or deliver: Difficult as it may be to discover the real state of his mind, it cannot be supposed, accustomed as he was to active life, and well aware of the intrigues of courts, that, in this moment of peril, his sagacity slumbered, or that he was so It may please your most excellent majesty,— little attentive to his own interests, as to be shel-Time hath been when I have brought unto you tered in the shades of Gorhambury, all meaner "Gemitum Columbæ" from others, now I bring things forgotten, watching the progress of some chymical experiment, or wandering with Hobbes in the mazes of metaphysics. His enemies, who were compassing his ruin, might imagine that he was thus indulging in the day-dreams of philosophy, but, so imagining, they were ignorant of his favourite doctrine, that "Learning is not like some small bird, as the lark, that can mount and sing, and please herself, and nothing else, but that she holds as well of the hawk, that can soar aloft, and at the right moment can stoop and seize upon her prey." The chancellor retired to prepare for his defence, to view the nature of the attack, and the strength of his assailants. The charges, which were at first confined to Aubrey and Egerton, were now accumulated to twenty-three in number, by raking up every VOL. I.-(12) it from myself. I fly unto your majesty with the wings of a dove, which, once within these seven days, I thought would have carried me a higher flight. When I enter into myself, I find not the materials of such a tempest as is come upon me I have been (as your majesty knoweth best) never author of any immoderate counsel, but always de sired to have things carried "suavibus modis." 1 have been no avaricious oppressor of the people. I have been no haughty, or intolerable, or hateful man in my conversation or carriage: I have inherited no hatred from my father, but am a good patriot born. Whence should this be; for these are the things that use to raise dislikes abroad. For the House of Commons, I began my credit there, and now it must be the place of the sepulture thereof. And yet this parliament, upon the message touching religion, the old love revived. (H 2) |