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the present Attorney was a very different man from Hobart, and not a man to allow "credit comparate" lightly to be won at his cost. The threat of the capias utlegatum no doubt referring to Bacon's arrest for debt in September, 1598-must have been extremely galling to a man who was still not free from money difficulties, and who, throughout almost all his life, was never out of debt; and he sent the Attorney the following letter of expostulation :

"MR. ATTORNEY,

"I thought best, once for all, to let you know in plainness what I find of you, and what you shall find of me.

"You take to yourself a liberty to disgrace and disable my law, my experience, my discretion. What it pleaseth you, I pray, think of me: I am one that knows both mine own wants and other men's: and it may be perchance that mine mend, and others stand at a stay. And surely I may not endure in public place to be wronged without repelling the same to my best advantage to right myself.

"You are great and therefore have the more enemies which would be glad to have you paid at another's cost. Since the time I missed the Solicitor's place (the rather I think by your means) I cannot expect that you and I shall ever serve as Attorney and Solicitor together; but either to serve with another upon your remove, or to step into some other course; so as I am more free than ever I was from any occasion of unworthy conforming myself to you, more than general good manners or your particular good usage shall provoke. And if you had not been shortsighted in your own fortune (as I think) you might have had more use of me. But that tide is passed. I write not this to show my friends what a brave letter I have writ to Mr. Attorney; I have none of these humours. But that I have written is to a good end, that is to the more decent carriage of my Mistress' service, and to our particular better understanding one of another. This letter, if it shall be answered by you in deed and not in word, I suppose it will not be worse for us both. Else it is but a few lines lost, which for a much smaller matter I would have adventured. So this being but to yourself, I for myself rest."

The enmity thus published to the world did not end here; and through the web of Bacon's destiny and various vicissitudes, the antagonism of Coke runs like a dark thread interwoven with his most signal triumphs and his ultimate humiliation and fall.

About this time Bacon lost his brother Anthony.1 His health, 1 Chamberlain, writing on 27 May, 1601, says "Anthony Bacon died not long since."

always infirm, had perhaps received a shock from the outbreak and death of Essex, to whom he remained faithful to the last: at all events his correspondence breaks off at that point, and from that time forward we have no record of the relations between the two brothers. More impulsive, more free-spoken, more lavish and reckless of expenditure, and (we must add) more single-hearted than Francis, he had spent his fortune first in travelling, and afterwards in procuring foreign information for Essex, and in maintaining himself and (in part) his younger brother while the latter was prosecuting his suit for the Attorneyship and Solicitorship. But by this time the tide had turned, and whereas he had sold estate after estate for Francis, it is now Francis who hopes (1600) to get into his own possession the land that Anthony is forced to sell; and Anthony died, says Chamberlain, "so far in debt that I think his brother will be little the better by him." 1

In the last Parliament of the Queen, which met 17 Oct., 1601, Bacon, who had been returned both for Ipswich and St. Albans, took an active part. He opposed a Bill against Monopolies, declaring that the House must not interfere with the Prerogative, but proceed by petition. He also spoke against the Repeal of the Statute of Tillage, maintaining "that it stands not with the policy of the State that the wealth of the kingdom should be engrossed in a few pasturers' hands." 2 During the same year, in a letter to Cecil on Irish policy he ventured to advocate conciliation and toleration of the Roman Catholics, at least for a time, and the establishment of courts for the administration of justice, released from the technicalities of English law: English and Irish were to be treated as one nation. In Ireland, however, the difficulty of maintaining order-in consequence of the inability of the English exchequer to maintain there a large military force-always stared the reformer in the face; and Bacon, like the rest of his contem

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1 This quotation from Chamberlain is important, because it seems to show that there was, at all events, no known and open rupture between the brothers consequent on the fall of Essex. The suspicion of such a rupture might have been suggested by Bacon's language to the Queen: "I have just fears my brother will endeavour to put away Gorhambury, which-if your Majesty enable me by this gift-I know I shall be able to get into mine own hands." But it is quite characteristic of Bacon to use such language in order to convey to the Queen the impression that he and his Essexian brother were not on the best of terms. 2 Essays, xxix. 125.

poraries, had no better remedy to propose than the introduction of English settlers as a standing garrison, a plan which, when actually adopted, spoiled the whole scheme of reform." 1

§ 12 THE NEW REIGN

The death of Elizabeth (24 March, 1603) made a complete change in all Bacon's prospects. Several letters show the assiduity with which he endeavoured to recommend himself to the new King through those who might have influence with him. Three or four days before the Queen's death (19 March, 1603) he writes to Mr. Michael Hickes, Cecil's confidential man of business:

...

"The apprehension of this threatened judgment of God, percutiam pastorem et dispergentur oves gregis, if it work in other as it worketh in me, knitteth every man's heart more unto his true and approved friend. And as I ever used your means to cherish the truth of my inclination towards Mr. Secretary, so now again I pray, as you find time, let him know that he is the personage in this State which I love most. And this, as you may easily judge, proceedeth not out of any straits of my occasions, as mought be thought in times past, but merely out of the largeness and fullness of my affections."

To the Earl of Northumberland, the patron of Harriot the mathematician, he bases an appeal on the ground of his friendship for his brother Anthony and the studies which they pursue in common; 2 and, as in the former letter, he disavows the pressure of any necessity, begging the Earl "not to do so much disadvantage to my good mind, nor partly to your own worth, as to conceive that this commendation of my humble service proceedeth out of any straits of my occasions, but merely out of an election, and indeed the fullness of my heart." His brother Anthony is mentioned in a third letter to a Mr. David Foules, in Scotland, in which he refers (25 March) to the correspondence which Essex had kept up, through Anthony, with the Scottish Court.

1 Dictionary of National Biography, "Bacon," ii. 335.

2 Compare the Commentarius Solutus (1608), in which Bacon proposes "the setting on wo(rk) my lord) of North (umberland), and Ralegh, and therefor Haryott, themselves being already inclined to experiments."

"The occasion awaketh in me the remembrance of the constant and

mutual good offices which passed between my good brother and yourself; whereunto (as you know) I was not altogether a stranger; though the time and design (as between brethren) 1 made me more reserved. But well do I bear in mind the great opinion which my brother (whose judgment I must reverence) would often express to me, of the extraordinary sufficiency, dexterity, and temper, which he had found in you, in the business and service of the King our sovereign lord."

The truth appears to be that, although Bacon was not at this time suffering from any pecuniary " straits of his occasions," he was not quite easy as to the reception he would meet with from the King. Essex had been the King's friend, and one of James's first acts was to liberate Southampton from the imprisonment which he was undergoing in the Tower for his part in the Earl's outbreak. Cecil might retain his place as indispensable counsellor; but it was possible that the man to whom the popular indignation had, rightly or wrongly, pointed as the chief instrument in procuring the Earl's death, might be very coldly received by one who remembered Essex with gratitude.

The desire to conciliate, and the apprehension of rebuff, may both be traced in the following letter to Southampton shortly before his release (10 April), from the Tower :

"It may please your Lordship,

"I would have been very glad to have presented my humble service to your Lordship by my attendance, if I could have foreseen that it should not have been unpleasing unto you. And therefore, because I would commit no error, I choose to write ; assuring your Lordship (how credible soever it may seem to you at first) yet it is as true as a thing that God knoweth, that this great change hath wrought in me no other change towards your Lordship than this, that I may safely be now that which I was truly before. And so craving no other pardon than for troubling you with this letter, I do not now begin but continue to be,

Your Lordships humble and much devoted."

It is, perhaps, for this reason that in almost all the letters of this period, Bacon dwells upon the memory and services of his brother, and claims to have known more about Anthony's secret negotiations with Scotland than in former times he had found it safe to acknowledge. Such a reference occurred in the letter to Mr. Foules, quoted above; and a second reference occurs in the following letter (25 March) to the Abbot of Kinloss, amusingly similar to the last :

1 He means that the "reserve" was the result of an understanding between him and his brother; compare the expression in the letter to the King (p. 96), "though by design (as between brethren) dissembled."

"The present occasion awaketh in me a remembrance of the constant amity and mutual good offices which passed between my good brother deceased and your Lordship, whereunto I was less strange than in respect of the time I had reason to pretend; and withal I call to mind the great opinion which my brother (who seldom failed in judgment of persons) would often express to me of your Lordship's great wisdom and soundness both in head and heart toward the service and affairs of the King our sovereign lord."

Sir Thomas Challoner, a confirmed Essexian, introduced to the service of the Earl by Anthony Bacon, was now in Scotland; and to him also Bacon writes (28 March), in a somewhat constrained style, dispelling any dissatisfaction that Challoner may have conceived on account of some debt unpaid, and intrusting to him a letter to be delivered to the King.

"For our money matters, I am assured you conceived no insatisfaction; for you know my mind, and you know my means; which now the openness of the time, caused by this blessed consent and peace, will increase; and so our agreement, according to our time, will be observed.

"For the present, according to the Roman adage (that one cluster of grapes ripeneth best besides another) I know you hold me not unworthy whose mutual friendship you should cherish; and I for my part conceive and hope that you are likely to become an acceptable servant to the King our Master, not so much for any way made heretofore (which in my judgment will make no great difference 1) as for the stuff and sufficiency which I know to be in you, and whereof I know his Majesty may reap great service. And therefore my general request is, that according to that industrious vivacity which you use towards your friends, you will further his Majesty's good conceit and inclination towards me."

Bacon's expression that what had happened "heretofore" (meaning services performed to Essex) would "make no great difference," probably represented his hope rather than his conviction. At all events he requests the services of another correspondent to defend him from slanders. This letteraddressed (28 March) to his friend, John Davies the poet,

1 Mr. Spedding very justly explains these words as probably meaning "that his having been engaged in Essex's service would not give him any special advantage over others.

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