Upon the trial of Raleigh, Coke, after denouncing him as an atheist and a traitor, reproached him, with the usual antipathy of a contracted mind to superior intellect, for being a genius and man of wit.

When Bacon presented him with a copy of his Novum Organum, he wrote with his own hand, at the top of the title-page, Edw. C. ex dono auctoris.

Auctori Consilium.

Instaurare paras veterum documenta sophorum:

Instaura Leges Justitiamq; prius.

pray think of me; I am one that knows both | tures where records and muniments are piled to mine own wants and other men's: and it may be, the exclusion of all higher or nobler matters. perchance, that mine mend, others stand at a stay. For genius he had no love: with philosophy he And surely, I may not endure in public place to had no sympathy. be wronged, without repelling the same to my best advantage to right myself. You are great, and therefore have the more enviers, 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 short-sighted 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 written to Mr. Attorney; I have none of those humours, but that I have written is to a good end: that is, to the more decent carriage of my master's 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 to your self, I for my part rest, &c.

Of Coke's bitter spirit there are so many painful instances, that unless Bacon had to complain of unfairness in other matters, the acrimony which overflowed upon all, could not be considered altogether the effect of personal rivalry. It would have been well had his morbid feelings been confined to his professional opponents; but, unmindful of the old maxim, "Let him take heed how he strikes, who strikes with a dead hand," his rancorous abuse extended to prisoners on trials for their lives, for which he was severely censured by Bacon, who told him that in his pleadings he was ever wont to insult over misery.

And over the device of the ship passing between Hercules's pillars, he wrote the two following verses:

"It deserveth not to be read in schools,

But to be freighted in the Ship of Fooles."

From professional altercations with this contracted mind, Bacon was rescued by his promotion.

Another and more important advantage attendant upon his appointment was the opportunity which it afforded him to assist in the encouragement of merit and in legal reform. Detur digniori was his constant maxim and constant practice. He knew and taught that power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring; and when appointed solicitor, he acted in obedience to his doctrines, encouraging merit, and endeavouring to discharge the duty which he owed to his profession by exertions and works for the improvement of the law.

In the midst of arduous affairs of state and professional duties, he went right onward with his great work, conferring with various scholars and philosophers, from whose communications there was any probability of his deriving advantage.

In the progress of the Novum Organum he had. at different periods, even from his youth, arranged his thoughts upon detached parts of the work, and collected them under different titles: "Temporis partus maximus," "Filum Labyrinthi," Cogitata et Visa, &c.

He now sent to the Bishop of Ely the “Cogitata et Visa." He communicated also on the subject with his friend, Mr. Mathew, who, having cautioned him that he might excite the prejudices of the churchmen, spoke freely, yet with approbation of the work. He also sent the tract to Sir Thomas Bodley, who received it with all the attachment of a collegian to Aristotle, and the schoolmen and university studies, and, with the freedom of a friend, respectfully imparted to Bacon that his plan was visionary.

Who can forget Coke's treatment of Raleigh," entitled as he was by station and attainments to the civil observances of a gentleman, and, by long imprisonment and subsequent misfortunes, to the commiseration of all men. It is true that there were some persons present at this trial, who remembered that Raleigh and Cobham had stood only a few years before, with an open satisfaction, to witness the death of Essex, against whom they had secretly conspired; but even the sense of retributive justice, though it might deaden their pity, could not lessen their disgust at the cruel and vulgar invectives of Coke, whose knowledge neither expanded his intellect, nor civilized his manners. Fierce with dark keeping, his mind resembled some of those gloomy strucVOL. I.—(8)

In the year 1609, as a relaxation from abstruse speculations, he published in Latin his interesting little work, "De Sapientia Veterum," of which he sent a copy to his friend, Mr. Mathew, saying,

My great work goeth forward, and after my shalsea court to the officers of the king's houseInanner I alter ever when I add."

hold, a new court of record was erected by letters This treatise is a species of parabolical poetry, patent, styled "Curia virgi palatii summi Regis," explained in the Advancement of Learning, and to extend the jurisdiction; and the judges nomiexpanded by an insertion in the treatise De Aug-nated by the letters patent were Sir Francis mentis Scientiarum of three of the Fables. "One Bacon, solicitor-general, and Sir James Vavause of parabolical poesy consists," he says, "in sour, then marshal of the household. In this withdrawing from common sight those things the office he delivered a learned and methodical charge dignity whereof deserves to be retired, as the to a jury upon a commission of oyer and termisecrets and mysteries of religion, policy, and phi-ner, in which he availed himself of an opportulosophy, which are therefore veiled and invested in fables and parables, and, next to sacred writ, are the most ancient of all writings; for adopted, not excogitated by the reciters, they seem to be like a thin rarefied air, which, from the traditions of more ancient nations, fell into the flutes of the Grecians."

duties, an opportunity to eradicate error accident- | he holds his peace from good things, he wounds ally presented itself. Amongst the criminal in-himself."

hope of assistance, in anger dissolved the parliament, and committed several of the members who had spoken freely of his measures.

formations filed in the Star Chamber by his pre- The exertions of Bacon and of the king's friends decessor, he found a charge against two obscure | being, however, of no avail, the king, seeing no persons for the crime of duelling. Of this opportunity he instantly availed himself, to expose the nature of these false imaginations of honour, by which, in defiance of virtue, disregard of the law, and contempt of religion, vice and ignorance raise themselves in the world upon the reputation of courage; and high-minded youth, full of towardness and hope, such as the poets call "aurora filii," sons of the morning, are deluded by this fond disguise and puppetry of honour.

This violence, instead of allaying, increased the ferment in the nation; (June, 1634;) and, unable to obtain a supply from parliament, and being extremely distressed for money, several of the nobility and clergy in and about London, made presents to the king; and letters were written to the sheriffs and justices in the different counties, and to magistrates of several corporations, informing them what had been done in the

similar bounty would be from the country.

Amongst others, a letter was sent to the mayor of Marlborough in Wiltshire, where Mr. Oliver St. John, a gentleman of an ancient family, was then residing, who wrote to the mayor on the 11th of October, 1614, representing to him that this benevolence was against law, reason, and religion, and insinuating that the king, by promot ing it, had violated his coronation oath, and that, by such means as these, King Richard the Second had given an opportunity to Henry the Fourth to deprive him of his crown; desiring, if he thought fit, that his sentiments should be communicated to the justices who were to meet respecting the benevolence.

For this letter, Mr. St. John was tried in the

The king's great object in summoning a parliament was the hope to obtain supplies; a hope which was totally defeated by a rumour that seve-metropolis, and how acceptable and seasonable ral persons, attached to the king, had entered into a confederacy, and had undertaken to secure a majority to enable him to control the house. To pacify the heat, Bacon made a powerful speech, in which he ridicules the supposition that any man can have embarked in such a wild undertaking as to control the Commons of England: to make a policy of insurance as to what ship shall come safe home into the harbour in these troubled seas; to find a new passage for the king's business, by a new and unknown point of the compass: to build forts to intimidate the house, unmindful that the only forts by which the king of England can command, is the fort of affection moving the hearts, and of reason the understandings of his people. He then implores the house not to listen to these idle rumours, existing only in the imagi-Star Chamber on the 15th of April, 1615; when, nation of some deluded enthusiast, who, like the fly upon the chariot wheel, says, "What a dust do I raise! and, being without foundation or any avowed author, are like the birds of paradise, without feet, and never lighting upon any place, but carried away by the wind whither it listeth. Let us then," he adds, "instead of yielding to these senseless reports, deliberate upon the peri-tempt; but they all agreed that the benevolence lous situation in which the government is placed: and, remembering the parable of Jotham, in the case of the trees of the forest, that when question was, whether the vine should reign over them? that might not be ;-and whether the olive should reign over them? that might not be, let us consider whether we have not accepted the bramble to reign over us. For it seems that the good vine of the king's graces, that is not so much in es-munity, at the state of the government, now teem and the good oil, whereby we should relieve the wants of the estate and crown, is laid aside; and this bramble of contention and emulation, this must reign and rule amongst us."

Having examined and exposed all the arguments, he concluded by saying; "Thus I have told you my opinion. I know it had been more safe and politic to have been silent; but it is more honest and loving to speak. When a man speaketh, he may be wounded by others; but as

the attorney-general appearing, of course, as counsel for the crown, the defendant was fined £5000, imprisoned during the king's pleasure, and ordered to make submission in writing.

So deeply were the judges impressed with the enormity of this offence, that some of the court thought the crime of a higher nature than a con

was not restrained by any statute; and the lord chancellor, who was then, as he supposed, on his death-bed, more than once expressed his anxiety that his passing sentence upon Mr. St. John might be his last act of judicial duty.

Such was the state of the law and of the opinion of justice which at that time prevailed! The dissatisfaction which existed in the com

manifested itself in various modes, and was, according to the usual efforts of power, attempted to be repressed by criminal prosecutions. Amongst others, the attorney-general was employed in the prosecution for high treason of a Mr. Peacham, a clergyman between sixty and seventy years of age; of Mr. Owen, of Godstow in Oxfordshire, a gentleman of property and respectability; and of William Talbot, an Irish barrister, for maintaining, in different modes, that, if the king were

excommunicated and deprived by the pope, it was | private; whether it were a good answer to deny lawful for any person to kill him. it, otherwise than if it were propounded at the table. To this he said, that the cases were not alike, because this concerned life. To which I

The prosecution against Peacham was for several treasonable passages in a sermon, found in his study, but never preached, and never intend-replied, that questions of estate might concern ed to be preached.

Doubts being entertained both of the fact with respect to the intention to preach, and of the law, supposing the intention to have existed, recourse was had to expedients from which, in these enlightened times, we recoil with horror.

To discover the fact, this old clergyman was put upon the rack, and was examined "before torture, in torture, between torture, and after torture," but no confession was extorted, which was instantly communicated by Bacon to the king.

thousands of lives; and many things more precious than the life of a particular; as war and peace, and the like."

By this reasoning Coke's scruples were, after a struggle, removed, and he concurred with his brethren in obedience to the commands of the king.

From the progress which knowledge has made, during the last two centuries, in the science of justice and its administration, mitigating severity, abolishing injurious restraints upon commerce, and upon civil and religious liberty, and preserving the judicial mind free, almost, from the possibility of

to censure the profession of the law at that day for practices so different from our own. Passing out of darkness into light, we may for a moment be dazzled, and forget the ignorance from which we have emerged; an evil attendant upon the progress of learning, which did not escape the observation of Bacon, by whom we are admonished, that "if knowledge, as it advances, is taken without its true corrective, it ever hath some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture whereof maketh knowledge so sovereign, is charity; of which the apostle saith, If I spake with the tongues of men and angels, and had not charity, it were hut as a tinkling cymbal.'"

To be certain of the law, the king resolved to obtain the opinions of the judges before the pro-influence, we may, without caution, feel disposed secution was commenced. For this purpose, the attorney-general was employed to confer with Sir Edward Coke, Mr. Sergeant Montague to speak with Justice Crooke, Mr. Sergeant Crew with Justice Houghton, and Mr. Solicitor with Justice Dodderidge, who were instructed by Bacon that they should presently speak with the three judges, before he could see Coke; and that they should not in any case make any doubt to the judges, as if they mistrusted they would not deliver any opinion apart, but speak resolutely to them, and only make their coming to be, to know what time they would appoint to be attended with the papers. The three judges very readily gave their opinions; but with Sir Edward Coke the task was not easy for his high and independent spirit refused to submit to these private conferences, contrary, as he said, to the custom of the realm, which requires the judges not to give opinion by fractions, but entirely and upon conference; and that this auricular taking of opinions, single and apart, was new and dangerous.

For having thus acted in obedience to the king's commands, by a compliance with error sanctioned by the practice of the profession, Bacon has, without due consideration, been censured by a most upright, intelligent judge of modern times, who has thus indirectly accused the bar as venal, and the bench as perjured.

The answer to this resistance, Bacon thus relates in a letter to the king: "I replied in civil To this excellent man posterity has been more and plain terms, that I wished his lordship, in my just; we do not brand Judge Foster with the imlove to him, to think better of it; for that this, putation of cruelty, for having passed the barbathat his lordship was pleased to put into great rous and disgraceful sentence upon persons conwords, seemed to me and my fellows, when we victed of high treason, which was not abolished spake of it amongst ourselves, a reasonable and till the reign of George the Fourth; nor do we cenfamiliar matter, for a king to consult with his sure the judges in and before the time of Elizajudges, either assembled or selected, or one by beth for not having resisted the infliction of torone. I added, that judges sometimes might make ture, sanctioned by the law, which was founded a suit to be spared for their opinion till they had upon the erroneous principle that men will speak spoken with their brethren; but if the king upon truth, when under the influence of a passion more his own princely judgment, for reason of estate, powerful than the love of truth; nor shall we should think it fit to have it otherwise, and be censured, in future times, for refusing, in exshould so demand it, there was no declining; cessive obedience to this principle, to admit the nay, that it touched upon a violation of their oath, evidence of the richest peer of the reaim, if he which was to counsel the king without dis- have the interest of sixpence in the cause; no tinction, whether it were jointly or severally. has Sir Matthew Hale been visited with the sin Thereupon I put him the case of the privy council, of having condemned and suffered to be executed, as if your majesty should be pleased to command a mother and her daughter of eleven years of age, any of them to deliver their opinion apart and in for witchcraft, under the quaint advice of Sir (F)