sequently, an infamous number of them were thus endorsed, Buckingham receiving a portion of the profits. Ultimately, the people's sense of justice was roused, and when James (himself in utter need of money) summoned a Parliament, which met Jan. 20, 1621, in order to fill his purse, the Commons, after voting the king two entire subsidies, went into a strict enquiry into the patents, which for seven years had oppressed the people. Among the monopolies were two equally grievous: one which set an annual fine on inns and alehouses throughout England; another, a patent for making gold and silver lace, which had been granted to two infamous agents of Buckingham-Mompesson and Michel. They shamefully abused their power by selling counterfeit lace for real gold and silver at the full price, and whoever presumed to sell any other was punished by fine and imprisonment. Buckingham was warned that there were secret meetings of members also to enquire into his (Buckingham's) share in these oppressions; and the duke, alarmed, persuaded the king to frustrate their plans by dissolving Parliament immediately. James would certainly have done so if Williams, dean of Westminster, had not interfered. This man, an astute politician, advised the king to "swim with the current ; to cancel by proclamation all monopolies and vexatious grants; to sacrifice inferior criminals to the public anger; and to tell the Parliament that these reforms were made at the instigation of his favourite." But the Commons had carried their search up to the prime cause of all these grievances. They sought to discover by whose influence these patents had passed the Great Seal, and either Bacon or Buckingham must be sacrificed. James did not hesitate. He had an interview with his Chancellor, as the favourite also had, and it seems that Bacon was persuaded or cajoled into becoming the scapegoat of Buckingham. Bacon could scarcely have defended himself against the charge of criminal subserviency to the favourite ; but he might have found something to extenuate his faults, as to receiving bribes perhaps, since they had been taken often, probably without his knowledge, by his servants; but the king positively forbade his speaking at all in his own defence, and ordered him not even to be present at his trial, probably fearing what he might say in his own justification. Bacon submitted to the sovereign who treated him so unworthily, and sacrificed even his honour to the exaggerated loyalty he evidently entertained for James, or perhaps to his own moral cowardice. A Committee for inspecting into the abuses of the Courts of Justice was appointed by the Commons. Some days after Sir Robert Phillips reported from it that complaints had been brought before them by two This persons against the Chancellor for bribery and corruption. report he made, not only without bitterness, but in terms of great regard and tenderness for the accused. The Lords, at a conference with the Lower House, agreed to take the subject into consideration. No sooner did the matter become public than a crowd of accusers appeared to charge the unfortunate Chancellor with bribery. Many who had courted him (probably through his servants) with gifts, and yet had received an unfavourable judgment on their case, were eager now to take their revenge on him who had, they considered, betrayed them; and they were listened to; though the mere fact of such bribes or gifts not having influenced his judgments, ought to have shown that he knew nothing of them, or did not consider them bribes. Bacon's great crime, assuredly, was his criminal subserviency to Buckingham, in having put the Great Seal to his patents and monopolies; the bribery-since it did not taint his judgments-must surely have been his followers' fault, not his own. Meantime he was confined to his bed by real or pretended illnesshe was very ill mentally, without a doubt! The Houses met again, after a recess of six weeks; and their indignation then fell wholly on the Chancellor. It was he who had sealed the patents-doubtless for a consideration !—it was he who had issued the monopolies, and who had taken bribes. They refused to receive a general confession-which was delivered for him by Charles, Prince of Wales, himself—in which he renounced all justification for himself, and sued for no other favour "but that his penitent submission might be his sentence, the loss of the seals his punishment." He was compelled to put in a particular answer to each point of his accusation. He acknowledged all, and threw himself on the mercy of his judges. He was sentenced to " pay a fine of £40,000; to be imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure; to be for ever incapable of any office, place, or employment in the Commonwealth; and never to sit again in Parliament, or come within the verge of the Court." once. The secret agreement between him and his king was manifested at He passed only one day in the Tower; then James set him free, and in three years' time granted him a full and entire remission of his sentence. Accordingly, he was summoned to the first Parliament of Charles I. The king also allowed him a pension of £1,800 a year. Thenceforward Bacon withdrew into retirement, and devoted himself to study. The first fruits of his leisure was a work suggested to him by the king who had sacrificed him-a "History of Henry VII." King James greatly preferred this memoir to the "Novum Organum," of which he said "It was like the peace of God, it passed all understanding." He vouchsafed to correct Bacon's MS. himself! and allowed him to come to London to pass it through the press. This Memoir was immediately followed by his "History of Life and Death," and another edition of his Essays. King James died in 1625. His unfortunate and ill-requited Chancellor survived him for a little more than a year. Always in feeble health from his youth, his life was finally sacrificed to an experiment. He believed that decomposition might be prevented by freezing (then an original idea), and he determined to ascertain, experimentally, if he was right. Therefore, one cold, spring morning, he drove to Highgate, alighted, bought a fowl at a neighbouring cottage, and stuffed it with snow which lay on the ground around him By the time his operation was finished he felt greatly chilled, and sought warmth and shelter at Lord Arundel's house, which was near at hand. Here he was gladly welcomed by the household, given warm cordials, &c., but was put into a damp bed! From this fatal hospitality he never recovered; and he seems to have been aware that he was in great danger, for he wrote to his absent host, comparing himself to the elder Pliny, who lost his life by too near an approach to Vesuvius, when watching a terrible eruption, but adding that his own experiment had ended "excellently well." A fever and cold on the lungs closed the career of one of the greatest of Englishmen, one week afterwards. He died on Easter morn, April 9, 1626, at the age of 66. His will contained this remarkable passage:-"My name and memory I leave to foreign nations, and to mine own countrymen after some years." Among his own countrymen his genius has been long acknowledged, and his faults little remembered. Among his followers were Boyle, Locke, Newton, and all the long list of scientific discoverers since his time. Bacon was of middle stature; his forehead spacious and open, and early impressed with the marks of age; his eyes lively and penetrating; his whole appearance pleasing. His scientific, political, and law works were numerous, and remarkable for great ability. |