Memoriam Elizabethæ." - Redargutio Philosophiarum. A Letter
to Mr. Matthew, upon sending to him Part of the "Instauratio
Magna." -Bishop Andrewes and Cardinal Bellarmin. A Letter
to Bishop Andrewes upon sending his Writing, entitled "Cogitata
et Visa." - Bacon's Book on the Wisdom of the Ancients.
Probable motive for publishing it at this Time. Modern Views of
the Meaning of the old Myths. - A Letter to Mr. Matthew, upon
sending him his Book "De Sapientia Veterum." - Bacon invites
Isaac Casaubon, then in Paris, to a Correspondence. A Letter to
Casaubon

516-570

CHAPTER II.

A. D. 1610. ÆТАТ. 50.

State of the Exchequer. - Ordinary Income of the Crown insufficient
for its ordinary Outlay. - Decrease in the Value of Subsidies.
Death of the Lord Treasurer and Condition of the Treasury.
Salisbury succeeds to the Office. - His first Measures. - His De-
vice of the Great Contract. - Meeting of Parliament. - Confer-
ence between the Houses. - Bacon's Part. Contribution and
Retribution. What the King demanded, and what he offered in
Exchange. - Proceedings of the Commons against Dr. Cowell for
Unconstitutional Doctrines published in a Law Dictionary. - Sup-
pression of the Book by Proclamation. - Further Conferences con-
cerning the Great Contract. - Whether Wards and Tenures were to
be Part of the Retribution. Liberty to treat granted.- Offer
made by the Commons. Dilatory Proceeding of the Government.
-Apparent Impolicy and probable Motive of it. - Pretended Mis-
understandings. - Salisbury's new Version of the Government
Proposal. - Rejected. - Negotiations broken off. Collection of
Grievances. - Impositions. - Message from the King to the Com-
mons received through the Council. - Resolved not to receive Mes-
sages from the Council as Messages from the King, but the Reso-
lution not recorded. - The King warns the Commons not to dispute
his Power to lay Impositions upon Merchandises; though willing to
put a limit upon the Exercise of it.
Petition of Right presented,
graciously received and granted.
Assassination of Henri IV. -
Negotiation of the Great Contract resumed. Salisbury urges Ex-
pedition. - Tries to get a Grant of Subsidies at once, but without
Success. - Debate on Impositions. - Conference concerning the
Contract. - Better offer from the King. - Petition of Grievances
presented. - Bacon's Speech to the King in behalf of the Com-
mons. The King offers to consent to an Act suspending his Power
to impose for the Future without Consent of Parliament. - Dissat-
isfaction of the Commons. - Grant of one Subsidy and one Fif-
teenth. - Great Contract resumed, Terms agreed upon, and Memo-

rials exchanged. - Answer given to the remaining Grievances, and Parliament prorogued till October. - Terms of the Contract, as affecting the People, considered

CHAPTER III.

A. D. 1610-1611. ÆTAT. 50-51.

571-622

Death of Bacon's Mother. - Probable Condition of her latter Years.
-Letter to Sir Michael Hickes. - Effect of Discussion of the Great
Contract during the Recess. - Loss and Gain variously estimated;
and both Parties afraid of the Result. - Parliament meets again.

Conference between the Houses, by Invitation of the Lords. True Copy of the King's Answer to the Petition of Grievances sent for by the Commons. - A resolute and speedy Answer whether they would proceed with the Contract, required of the Commons by the King. - Debate in the House upon the Answer to be sent. - Provisions without which the Contract would not be safe for the People. - Terms demanded by the King. - Refusal of the Commons to proceed upon those Terms. - Negotiations broken off. New Device for obtaining Supplies. - The Commons invited to a Conference.

Parliament. - Advice given by Sir Henry Neville on the same Occasion. - Contrast between the two. - Death of Sir Thomas Fleming, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. - Bacon recommends Sir H. Hobart for his Successor. - Attempt to introduce Parliamentary Government into Ireland. - Creation of new Boroughs. -Election of Sir John Davies as Speaker. Refusal of the Roman Catholic Members to serve. - Reference to the King. - Commissioners appointed to investigate Complaints. - Report of the Commissioners; and orders issued thereupon. - The seceding Members consent to serve. - Coke made Chief Justice of the King's Bench: Hobart, of the Common Pleas: Bacon, Attorney General: Yelverton, Solicitor General. - Letter of Thanks to the King. Dissolution of the Marriage between the Earl of Essex and Lady Frances Howard. - Her Marriage to Rochester, created Earl of Somerset for the Occasion. - Bacon's Complimentary Offering of the "Masque of Flowers." - Probable Motive and Occasion. - Prevalence of Duels. - Proclamation against them by the King. - Bacon's Recommendation. - His Proposition for the repressing of Singular Combats or Duels

655-709

FRANCIS BACON AND HIS TIMES.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

A. D. 1560-1584. ÆТАТ. 1-24.

FRANCIS BACON was born among great events, and brought up among the persons who had to deal with them. It was on the 22d of January, 1560-1, while the young Queen of Scotland, a two-months' widow, was rejecting the terms of reconciliation with England which Elizabeth proffered, and a new Pope in the Vatican was preparing to offer the terms of reconciliation with Rome which Elizabeth rejected, - that he came crying into the world, the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and Ann, second daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, an accomplished lady, sister-in-law to the then Secretary of State, Sir William Cecil. There is no reason to suppose that he was regarded as a wonderful child. Of the first sixteen years of his life indeed nothing is known that distinguishes him from a hundred other clever and well-disposed boys. He was born at York House, his father's London residence, opening into the Strand (not yet a street) on the north, and sloping pleasantly to the Thames (not yet built out) on the south. Sometimes there, and sometimes at Gorhambury in Hertfordshire, he passed his infancy; the youngest of

eight children-six by a former marriage. In April, 1573, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, a little earlier than was then usual, being twelve years and three months old. There he resided in the same rooms with his brother Anthony (his own brother, two years older than himself), studying diligently, until Christmas, 1575; apparently with only one considerable interval (i. e. from the latter end of August, 1574, to the beginning of March), when the University was dispersed on account of the plague. On the 27th of the following June he and his brother Anthony were admitted "de societate magistrorum" of Gray's Inn; that is, I suppose, ancients; a privilege to which they were entitled as the sons of a judge. If we add that during his residence at Cambridge he was rather sickly, as appears by the frequent payments to the "potigarie" in Whitgift's accounts, and that his talents or manners had already been remarked by the courtiers, and drawn him the special notice of the Queen herself, who would often talk with him and playfully call him the young Lord Keeper, we have all that is known about him for the first fifteen years and nine months of his life.

Brief however and barren as this record appears, it may help us, when studied by the light which his subsequent history throws back upon it, to understand in what manner and in what degree the accidents of his birth and education had prepared him for the scene on which he was entering. When the temperament is quick and sensitive, the desire of knowledge strong, and the faculties so vigorous, obedient, and equably developed that they find almost all things easy, the mind will commonly fasten upon the first object of interest that presents itself, with the ardor of a first love. Now these qualities, which so eminently distinguished Bacon as a man, must have been in him from a boy; and if we would know the source of those great impulses which began to