statute cometh, and where all doubts do arise and issue forth, and all the rest of the words are but literæ mortuæ, fulfilling words.' He then expounds the law as to raising and executing uses, and with this discussion the Reading, as published, concludes, though it appears, from his distribution of the subject in the outset, and indeed from his own words, that some part of it 'he thought good to reserve and not to publish.'

*

In the year 1600, Essex, the early friend of Bacon, and the ill-fated favourite of Elizabeth, was brought to trial, charged with the crime of high treason. His story is too well known to justify any account of it in this place, and we advert to it on the ground only of its connection with Bacon, who incurred much obloquy as counsel for the 'My life,' said he, hath been threatened, and my name libelled, which I

crown.

* Bacon's Works, vol. 13, p. 315.

count an honour; but these are the practices of those whose despairs are dangerous, but yet not so dangerous as their hopes. For my part, I have deserved better than to have my name objected to envy, or my life to a ruffian's violence; but thank God, I have the privy coat of a good conscience, and have a good while since put off any fearful care of life, or the accidents of life.'*

The truth is, the people, strongly attached to Essex, who was endowed with many noble and popular virtues, falsely imagined that Bacon had urged on the ruin of the fallen favourite; whereas, as it now appears, he

* Bacon's Works, vol. 12, pp. 169, 172.

There is shaped,' said Bacon, in a letter to lord Hen. Howard, 'a tale in London's forge that beateth apace at this time, that I should deliver opinion to the Queen in my lord of Essex's cause; first, that it was premunire, and now last that it was high treason; and this opinion to be in opposition and encounter of the lord Chief Justice's opinion and the Attorney-General's. My lord, (I thank God,) my wit serveth me not to deliver any opinion to the Queen which my sto

had struggled, directly and indirectly, to restore him to favour, until the Earl, by his desperate and treasonable acts, perilling the crown and the peace of the country, endeavoured to light up a civil war.*

This circumstance, which ought not to be overlooked in estimating the character of Bacon, is passed over with a sneer by a recent author, who hesitates not, on the ground of Bacon's alleged ingratitude, to brand him as a 'criminal.' Duly estimating such sensibility, but regretting its misdirection, we will venture, (we hope without offence,) to suggest, that it consists not either with the dignity or the truth of history, to allow the principles or prejudices of party to predominate over the mind of the historian;

mach serveth me not to maintain, one and the same conscience of duty guiding and fortifying me But the untruth of this fable God and my sovereign can witness, and there I leave it, knowing no more remedy against lies than others do against libels.'-Bacon's Works, vol. 12, p. 171.

*See Bacon's Works, vol. 12, p. 172; vol. 6, p. 245.

and that he has a far higher aim than that of amusing the vulgar reader, by playing with peers and prelates, princes and great men, as if they were mere nine-pins,-set up to be knocked down.

Although enjoying the favour or rather trust of Elizabeth, Bacon was ever a needy man; and at the death of the Queen, his affairs were much embarrassed. 'My good old mistress,' he says, in one of his letters,

* In September, 1598, about five years before the death of Elizabeth, Bacon was in so destitute a condition, that one Sympson, a goldsmith, living in Lombard Street, a man noted much for extremities and stoutness upon his purse,' arrested him whilst returning from the Tower, on the Queen's business, for a debt of three hundred pounds; and but for the intervention of Sheriff More, who gently recommended him to a handsome house in Coleman Street,' he would immediately have been carried to prison. From the letters which he wrote to the lord Keeper Egerton and sir Thomas Cecil, whilst in custody in Coleman Street, it appears that the goldsmith had treated his creditor with cruel harshness. Bacon's Works, vol. 12, pp. 275-277. Sir Michael Hickes and Mr. Henry Maynard seem to have been among Bacon's most useful friends.-Ib. pp. 476, 478, 479.

was wont to call me her watch-candle, because it pleased her to say I did continually burn; and yet she suffered me to waste almost to nothing.' '* True it is, the Queen, at the solicitation of the lord Treasurer, though with vehement opposition, had granted him the reversion of the registership of the Star-Chamber, but this, during Elizabeth's life, was 'unto me,' said

* Bacon's Works, vol. 12, p. 282. In another place he says, 'I do yet bear an extreme zeal to the memory of my old mistress, Queen Elizabeth, to whom I was rather bound for her trust than her favour.'-Ib. 73. In his unfinished History of Great Britain, he likewise notices the Queen's thrifty disposition. 'For Queen Elizabeth, although she had the use of many both virtues and demonstrations, that might draw and knit unto her the hearts of her people, yet nevertheless carrying a hand restrained in gift, and strained in points of prerogative, could not answer the votes either of servants or subjects to a full contentment; especially in her latter days, when the continuance of her reign, which extended to five-and-forty years, might discover in people their natural desire and inclination towards change; so that a new court and a new reign were not to many unwelcome.'-Bacon's Works, vol. 3, p. 425.