appear to have been "called in" immediately after the King's decision was known; and, as we have seen above, when he undertakes afterwards to advise Villiers on the subject, the King himself could not be more conservative, and more averse to the countenancing or conciliating of "sectaries," than the converted author of Certain Considerations touching the better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England.

Here then once more we have to lament the extraordinary suppleness, the portentous power of adapting his mind to the mind of others much as if he had "never known his own mind "-which made Bacon one of the most pernicious of counsellors for any man in authority who had not insight enough to perceive at once the wisdom of his advice. He had not the same courage in maintaining his moral, as in maintaining his intellectual convictions; he could "strive for the truth unto death "2 in Science, but not in Politics. None knew better than he that "it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters," and he prided himself upon understanding both, and did understand both but he deliberately sacrificed "the real part of business" in order to retain his hold on the "humours" of great persons— always in the hope of hereafter influencing the great for some good end, and always with the result of making himself their tool. And hence he met the fate ordained for those who know but will not "strive for the truth": he made himself " an underling to foolish men, and accepted the person of the mighty."

§ 15 BACON IS MADE SOLICITOR-GENERAL

"3

In the Parliament which met 19 March, 1604, Sir Francis Bacon was again returned for Ipswich and St. Albans, and at once assumed a position prominent in the House and conciliating to the new Sovereign. He spoke in favour of a proposal to compound with the King for the extinction of Purveyance, at the same time maintaining the royal rights of Preemption and Prisage, and extolling the Prerogative as being no less ancient 1 Spedding, iii. 102. 2 Ecclesiasticus, iv. 27, 28.

Essays, xxii. 8.

than the Law: "caput inter nubila conditur." Charged with a petition to the King touching the abuses of Purveyors, he recommended (27 April) the suppression of their malpractices by appeal to two examples; the one, of King Edward the Third, who in his time made ten laws against this abuse; "the second is the example of God himself who hath said and pronounced that He will not hold them guiltless that take His name in vain ; for all these great misdemeanours are committed in, and under, your Majesty's name."

Besides warmly siding with the King in the proceedings for the Union (to consider the details of which he was the first of the Commissioners appointed by the House), he also advocated in characteristic language a subsidy to the Crown: “Let not this Parliament end, like a Dutch feast, in salt meats; but like an English feast, in sweet meats;" but the doubtful reception given to the project induced the King to express his wish that it should be dropped. In the discussions of the Commissioners on the Union, Bacon played a leading part; and to him, in conjunction with the Lord Advocate of Scotland, was intrusted the task of reducing the articles to a coherent whole. The instruments were signed and sealed on 6 December, 1604; but before this time Bacon had received his first token of the favour of the new Sovereign; it did, not, however, amount to much, being no more than the gift by Patent of his office of Learned Counsel, which hitherto he had held merely on verbal warrant. At the same time he received (18 August, 1604) a pension of £60 a year for life; but this was not in the way of a salary, but expressly granted "in consideration of the good services" of his brother Anthony, the intimate and faithful friend of Essex,1 who had co-operated with the Earl in keeping up a correspondence with the Court of James, for the purpose of facilitating the Scotch succession. So far as concerns promotion, Bacon was

2

1 Rymer's Fadera, xvi. 597.

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2 Dean Church (p. 75), without mentioning the "pension" given in Anthony's name, says: Bacon, who had hitherto been an unsworn and unpaid member of the Learned Counsel, now received his office by patent, with a small salary; but I can find no record of any "salary." Even Professor Gardiner says (History, i. 165): "Bacon retained, indeed, the title of King's Counsel, and he drew the salary such as it was;' and again (b. 195): "On August 18, Bacon was 'established by Patent in the position of a King's Counsel, with which he received a pension of £60" no mention being made of the grounds on which the "pension was given.

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still neglected, and he himself appears to have expected nothing better; for two or three months afterwards, when the Solicitor's place was filled (October 1604) he did not even apply for it. In the summer of 1605, when the place of Chief Justice of Common Pleas was vacant, Bacon was again passed over; and in the trials and investigations that followed the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in November 1605, his services were not required by the Government.

The length of the interval between December 1604, and the reassembling of Parliament in November 1605, gave Bacon leisure for working at his Advancement of Learning (for a summary of which see Appendix II), and apparently induced him to alter his purpose of publishing the first book by itself. In any case the two books appeared in October 1605. Sending a copy to Sir Thomas Bodley he repeats the protestation which he had made to Cecil two years before, that he has renounced "civil causes," and devoted himself to philosophy: "I think no man may more truly say with the Psalm, Multum incola fuit anima mea' (My soul hath long dwelt with them that are enemies unto peace) than myself. For I do confess since I was of any understanding my mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done; and in absence are many errors which I do willingly acknowledge, and amongst the rest this great one that led the rest; that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than to play a part, I have led my life in civil causes, for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by the preoccupation of my mind."

When Bacon wrote thus, he had good cause for thinking that his chance of legal promotion was small. Yet, however he might write as a philosopher to a philosopher, disavowing aptitude for civil causes, there can be no doubt that afterwards he bitterly felt his non-advancement. Writing to the Lord Chancellor (July 1606) he says that his non-promotion makes him " a common gaze and a speech," and that the little reputation which by his industry he gathers is scattered and taken away by continual disgraces, every new man coming above him. Simultaneous letters to the King and Cecil prove that he had been for some time assiduously seeking and expecting office. Among other reasons for pressing his suit he alleges his desire

I

to satisfy his wife's friends; for Sir Francis Bacon was now a married man. On 10 May, 1606, being now in his forty-seventh year, he married Alice Barnham, no doubt the alderman's "handsome daughter," whom he had mentioned three years before in his letter to Cecil. In answer to a cousin's congratulations on his marriage, he replies that his fortune is improved by it, and that he has no cause to be dissatisfied: I thank God I have not taken a thorn out of my foot to put into my side; for as my state" (i.e. fortune) " is somewhat amended, so I have no other circumstance of complaint." Bacon's letters make scarcely any mention of her. The remarks in the Essays on "nuptial love" as compared with "friendly love”—“ Nuptial love maketh mankind, friendly love perfecteth it," —would not lead us to infer that Bacon's experience caused him to form a very high estimate of married life. But, passing over a goodnatured anecdote of Bacon's biographer, Rawley-which implies that Lady Bacon had a somewhat unruly tongue-we only know that after her husband's death she married his gentleman usher, and that Bacon (1625) revoked "for just and great causes" the provision he had previously made for her in his will, and left her "to her right only." 4

Bacon soon found an opportunity of again serving the King in Parliament. During the debate on Naturalization in February 1607, violent invectives were made against Scotland and Scotchmen in England, which Bacon answered (17 February) in a speech that usefully illustrates the Essay on Greatness of Kingdoms. Ridiculing the danger of overcrowding England with Scotchmen, he pointed out that England is thinly populated, Ireland fertile and desolate, and as a last resource, there is always open for a valorous and warlike nation some honourable war for the enlargement of their borders.5 After a rapid history of Naturalization, the wise liberality

1 Lady Bacon's father was Benedict Barnham, a draper of London, elected alderman of Bread Street Ward in 1591, and sheriff in the same year; her eldest sister, Elizabeth, married Mervin, Lord Audley and Earl of Castlehaven, who was executed on Tower Hill in 1631.

2 The brief commendation in a letter to Hickes (27 August, 1610, see p. 163, below), is the only exception I can remember.

3 Essays, x. 64.

"Of his domestic life," writes Professor Fowler (Francis Bacon, p. 12) hear nothing, and may therefore infer that it was peaceful, if not happy." 5 Essays, xxix. 227-37.

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of Rome in extending her franchise to foreign subjects is contrasted with the fatal jealousy of Sparta.1 He predicts that union under one Government, unless accompanied by Naturalization, will be followed by jealousies, quarrels, and ultimately by war between the two nations. England, when firmly united to Scotland, "with Ireland reduced, the sea provinces of the Low Countries contracted (?) and shipping maintained," would be one of the greatest monarchies that hath been on the earth.

A very prominent place is given in this speech to a warlike policy. After endeavouring to remove the alarm of an influx of poor Scotch immigrants by arguing, first, that the Scotch will not come without means to support themselves, secondly, that England and Ireland are not yet fully peopled, so that there is room for all, he goes on to suggest that, in the last resort, more room may easily be obtained by a foreign war.

"The third answer (Mr. Speaker) which I give, is this: I demand what is the worst effect that can follow of surcharge of people? Look into all stories, and you shall find it never other than some honourable war for the enlargement of their borders which find themselves pent upon foreign parts; which inconvenience in a valorous and warlike nation, I know not whether I should term an inconvenience or no ; for the saying is most true, though in another sense, Omne solum forti patria. . . And certainly (Mr. Speaker) and I hope I may speak it without offence, that if we did hold ourselves worthy, whensoever just cause should be given, either to recover our ancient rights, or to revenge our late wrongs, or to attain the honour of our ancestors, or to enlarge the patrimony of our posterity, we would never in this manner forget the considerations of amplitude and greatness, and fall at variance about profits and reckonings, fitter a great deal for private persons than for Parliaments and Kingdoms."

The greatness of a nation, he continues, is based on its military power; and it is not gold, but the sinews of men, that make the sinews of war; witness Persia, Macedon, Rome, the Turks, and in modern times the Swiss.

"All which examples (Mr. Speaker) do well prove Solon's opinion of the authority and mastery that iron hath over gold. And therefore, if I shall speak unto you mine own heart, methinks we should a little disdain that the nation of Spain-which, howsoever of late it hath grown to rule, yet of ancient time served many ages, first under Carthage, then under Rome, after under

1 Essays, xxix. 151.