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gloria in obsequio; yet I dare promise, that if I sit in that place, your business shall not make such short turns upon you, as it doth; but when a direction is once given, it shall be pursued and performed, and your majesty shall only be troubled with the true care of a king, which is, to think what you would have done in chief, and not how for the passages.

I do presume also, in respect of my father's memory, and that I have been always gracious in the lower house, I have some interest in the gentlemen of Eng land, and shall be able to do some effect in rectifying that body of parliament-men, which is cardo rerum. For let me tell your majesty, that that part of the chancellor's place, which is to judge in equity between party and party, that same regnum judiciale, which since my father's time is but too much enlarged, concerneth your majesty least, more than the acquitting of your conscience for justice: but it is the other parts, of a moderator amongst your council, of an overseer over your judges, of a planter of fit justices and governors in the country, that importeth your affairs and these times most.

your

I will add also, that I hope by my care the inventive

now commonly do exercise rather their judgments than their inventions, and the inventive part cometh from projectors and private men, which cannot be so well; in which kind my lord of Salisbury had a good method, if his ends had been upright.

Po Part of your council will be strengthened; who

Gloria in obsequio is taken from the sixth book of the Annals of Tacitus: where some persons being accused for their intimacy with Sejanus the late great favourite of the emperor Tiberius; M. Terentius, a Roman knight, did not, like others, excuse or deny the same for fear of punishment; but doth in the senate make an ingenuous confession thereof, and gives his reasons why he not only courted, but rejoiced in obtaining the friendship of Sejanus. And then addresses himself as if speaking to Tiberius, in these words; Non est nostrum æstimare, quem supra cæteros, et quibus de causis extollas: tibi summum rerum judicium dii dedere: nobis obsequii gloria relicta est. It does not become us to inquire into the person you are pleased to prefer above others, or into the reasons: to you heaven has given a consummate judgment; ' to us there remains the glory of a chearful obedience.' Stephens,

Resuscita

To conclude: if I were the man I would be, I should hope, that as your majesty hath of late won hearts by depressing, you should in this lose no hearts by advancing: for I see your people can better skill of concretum than abstractum, and that the waves of their affections flow rather after persons than things: so that acts of this nature, if this were one, do more good than twenty bills of grace. If God call my lord, the warrants and commissions which are requisite for the taking of the seal, and for the working with it, and for the reviving of warrants under his hand, which die with him, and the like, shall be in readiness. And in this, time presseth more, because it is the end of a term, and almost the beginning of the circuits; so that the seal cannot stand still: but this may be done as heretofore by commission, till your majesty hath resolved of an officer. God ever preserve your majesty.

Your majesty's most humble subject and bounden servant,

FR. BACON.

my

Lord

Feb. 12, 1615. Rawley's CXXVIII. A Letter to the KING, of Chancellor's amendment, and the difference begun between the chancery and king's bench.

tio.

It may please your excellent Majesty,

I Do find, God be thanked, a sensible amendment in my lord chancellor; I was with him yesterday in private conference about half an hour; and this day again, at such a time as he did seal, which he endured well almost the space of an hour, though the vapour of wax be offensive to him. He is free from a fever, perfect in his powers of memory and speech; and not hollow in his voice nor look; he hath no panting or labouring respiration; neither are his coughs dry or weak. But whosoever thinketh his disease is but melancholy, he maketh no true judgment of it; for it is plainly a formed and deep cough, with a pectoral surcharge; so that at times he doth almost animam agere. I forbear to advertise your majesty of the care

I took to have commissions in readiness, because Mr. Secretary Lake hath let me understand, he signified as much to your majesty: but I hope there shall be no use for them at this time. And as I am glad to advertise your majesty of the amendment of your chancellor's person, so I am sorry to accompany it with an advertisement of the sickness of your chancery court, though by the grace of God, that cure will be much easier than the other. It is true I did lately write to your majesty, that for the matter of the Habeas corpora, which was the third matter in law you had given me in charge, I did think the communion in service between my lord chancellor and my lord chief justice, in the great business of examination, would so join them as they would not square at this time; but pardon me, I humbly pray your majesty, if I have too reasonable thoughts.

And yet that which happened the last day of term, concerning certain indictments in the nature of præmunire, preferred into the king's bench, but not found; is not so much as is voiced abroad; though I must say, it is omni tempore nimium, et hoc tempore alienum: and therefore, I beseech your majesty not to give any believing ear to reports, but to receive the truth from me, that am your attorney-general, and ought to stand indifferent for jurisdictions of all courts; which account I cannot give your majesty now, because I was then absent; and some are now absent, which are properly and authentically to inform me touching that which passed. Neither let this any ways disjoint your other business, for there is a time for all things, and this very accident may be turned to good. Not that I am of opinion that that same cunning maxim of Separa et impera, which sometimes holdeth in persons, can well take place in jurisdictions; but because some good occasion by this excess may be taken to settle that which would have been more dangerous, if it had gone out by little and little. God ever preserve your majesty. Your majesty's most humble subject

Feb. 15, 1615.

and most bounden servant,
FR. BACON.

Rawley's

Resuscitatio.

CXXIX. To Sir GEORGE VILLIERS.

SIR,

I RECEIVED this morning from you two letters by the same bearer; the one written before, the other after his majesty had received my last.

In this difference between the two courts of chancery and king's bench, for so I had rather take it for this time, than between the persons of my lord chancellor and my lord chief justice, I marvel not, if rumour get way of true relation; for I know fame hath swift wings, specially that which hath black feathers: but within these two days, for sooner I cannot be ready, I will write unto his majesty both the narrative truly, and my opinion sincerely; taking much comfort that I serve such a king that hath God's property in discerning truly of mens hearts. I purpose to speak with my lord chancellor this day; and so to exhibit that cordial of his majesty's grace, as I hope that other accident will rather rouse and raise his spirit, than deject him, or incline him to relapse. Mean while I commend the wit of a mean man that said this other day, "Well, "the next term you shall have an old man come with a besom of wormwood in his hand that will sweep away all this." For it is my lord chancellor's fashion, specially towards the summer, to carry a posy of wormwood. I write this letter in haste to return your messenger with it. God keep you; and long and happily may you serve his majesty.

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Your true and affectionate servant,
FR. BACON.

Feb. 19, 1615.

Sir, I thank you for your inward letter; I have burned it as you commanded: but the fire it hath kindled in me will never be extinguished.

CXXX. To Sir Sir GEORGE VILLIERS, about Rawley's swearing him into the privy council.

SIR,

My lord chancellor's health growing with the days, and bis resignation being an uncertainty, I would be glad you went on with my first motion, my swearing privy counsellor. This I desire not so much to make myself more sure of the other, and to put it past competition, for herein I rest wholly upon the king and your excellent self, but because I find hourly that I need this strength in his majesty's service, both for my better warrant and satisfaction of my conscience, that I deal not in things above my vocation; and for my better countenance and prevailing, where his majesty's service is, under any pretext, opposed, I would it were dispatched. I remember a greater matter than this was dispatched by a letter from Royston, which was the placing of the archbishop that now is; and I imagine the king did it on purpose, that the act might appear to be his own.

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My lord chancellor told me yesterday in plain terms, that if the king would ask his opinion touching the person that he would commend to succeed him upon death or disability, he would name me for the fittest man. You may advise, whether use may not be made of this offer.

I sent a pretty while since a paper to Mr. John Murray, which was indeed a little remembrance of some things past, concerning my honest and faithful services to his majesty; not by way of boasting, from which I am far, but as tokens of my studying his service uprightly and carefully. If you be pleased to call for the paper, which is with Mr. John Murray, and to find a fit time that his majesty may cast an eye upon it, I think it will do no hurt; and I have written to Mr. Murray to deliver the paper, if you call for it, God keep you in all happiness.

Feb. 21, 1615.

Your truest servant,
FR. BACON.

Resuscita tio.

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