"For his honest behavior in his master's cause he was esteemed the most faithfullest servant, and was of all men greatly commended."

The execution of Essex occasioned murmurings among the people. These expressions of discontent must have been directed against the principal actors at the trial, and against the government. Bacon must have had his share of unpopularity. The Queen deemed it advisable to allay public discontent by publishing a "Declaration of the Practices and Treasons Attempted and Committed by Robert, late Earl of Essex, and his Complices." Bacon was selected to draft this paper, and accepted the office of pursuing his patron in the grave, of demonstrating to the English people, if possible, the inexcusable, unpardonable guilt of his late friend, the Earl, and the justification of his new friend, the Queen.

Yet, in his "Apology" to the English people, when Elizabeth was gone, and the name of Essex again heard in connection with words of praise, of sorrow, of anger, Bacon says:

"For the time which passed, I mean between the arraignment and my Lord's suffering, I was but once with the Queen, at what time, though, I durst not deal directly for my Lord as things then stood; yet generally I did commend Her Majesty's mercy, terming it to her as an excellent balm that did continually distil from her excellent hands, and made an excellent odor in the senses of the people."

If Bacon thought that Essex's conduct was worthy of mercy at the Queen's hands, between the prison and the block, how much worthier was it of mercy at a friend's, between the charge and the sentence !

Let us endeavor to analyze his conduct in the light of his characteristics, and of his career from his early entrance into the arena.

The weakness of Bacon's nature, as a man in the battle of life, was want of self-reliance, a constant dependence upon and looking towards others, a willingness to become the instrument of smaller men, whose abilities were more practical or whose lots were more fortunate. He was constantly looking about him for some one to tie to, as a patron, and his letters convey pledges, which, if made to be kept, would destroy individuality of opinion and action. After seeking the patronage of the Cecils, and failing, he turned to Essex and succeeded. With gratitude for past and hope of future favors, he tells the Earl, "I am more yours than any man's," etc. When in pursuit of the SolicitorGeneralship, and asking the aid of Lord Keeper Puckering, he

says:

"My affection inclineth me to be much (your) Lordship's, and my course and way, in all reason and policy for myself, leadeth me to the same dependence; hereunto if there shall be joined your Lordship's obligation in dealing strongly for me as you have begun, no man can be more yours.

I hope you will think I am no unlikely piece of wood to shape you a true servant of."

And after a quarrel with Coke, to whom he addressed a letter of expostulation, we find him hinting how much he might have been that man's, his life-long enemy's, who bullied him and thwarted him at every step, whenever an occasion offered. "If you had not been shortsighted in your own fortune (as I think), you might have had more use of me."

This quarrel between Bacon and Coke occurred in the Exchequer, and the latter was, as usual, the assailant, and his language and conduct were as coarse as customary. He sneered at Bacon for being an unsworn Counsel of the Queen, and alluded to the affair of the spunging-house. Bacon set down all that either of them said. And now that Essex was gone, having apparently turned to Secretary Cecil as the most available patron, he furnished Sir Robert with a transcript, in order to anticipate at headquarters the report of his enemy or of the court gossips. The letter to his cousin, written from Gray's Inn, April 29th, 1601, contains a statement of their relations, strikingly at variance with the truth:

:

"I am bold now to possess your Honor, as one that ever I found careful of my advancement, and yet more jealous of my wrongs."

Seven years had elapsed since Anthony Bacon transmitted to Lady Bacon this picture of Sir Robert's care and jealousy for Francis:

"If your Lordship had spoken of the Solicitorship,' said Sir Robert to the Earl of Essex, 'that might be of easier digestion to the Queen.' 'Digest me no digesting,' said the Earl; 'for the Attorneyship is that I must have for Francis Bacon; and in that I will spend my uttermost credit, friendship and authority. And for your own part, Sir Robert, I do think much and strange both of my Lord, your father, and you, that can have the mind to seek the preferment of a stranger before so near a kinsman; namely, considering if you weigh in a balance his parts and sufficiency in any respect with those of his competitor, excepting only four poor years of admittance, which Francis Bacon hath

more than recompensed with the priority of his reading, in all other respects you shall find no comparison between them.""

With this certain knowledge of his cousin's antagonism from the lips of Essex, with the equally certain knowledge derived from a long and fruitless chase after preferment which the Cecils could have secured for him, with his own conclusion, expressed afterwards to Villiers, heretofore quoted, complaining of the Cecils, father and son, for repressing men of merit, this paragraph becomes one of the many witnesses furnished by Bacon that testify to his disingenuousness and to his sacrifices of personal honor and resentment upon the shrine of official patronage.

This year, 1601, must have been a troubled one. His peace of mind was further clouded by the death of Anthony Bacon, who seems to have been an exceptionally devoted brother. He died, as Francis lived, in debt; and it is probable that the latter received comparatively little from the estate, after the demands of creditors had been satisfied, and the bills of doctors and undertaker paid.

But his services against Essex were not altogether unremunerated. Heavy fines had been imposed on many of the Earl's co-conspirators, and of this money, £1,200 were assigned to Bacon by the Queen's order.

Elizabeth now met, for the last time, her people in parliament. A fresh invasion of her realm, the landing of a Spanish army in Ireland, occasioned the demand of money, and inspired a patriotic response.

Bacon appeared in the House of Commons in the graceful rôle of a law-reformer, and presented a bill for the regulation of weights and measures, a wise and

beneficent proposition, which met with no encouragement, and was postponed for a future generation of legislators to enact as a blessing to their country; for it did not receive the attention it deserved until William IV. was on the throne.

A most generous supply was granted the Queen, greater than was ever before proposed. A motion was made to exempt the poorer classes, "the three-pound men;" but Bacon opposed any exemption. He had grown wiser, or less sympathetic, than when he antagonized a smaller imposition: because of its "impossibility, the poor men's rent is such as they are not able to yield it.". Now, this was his language: "It was dulcis tractus pari jugo, and therefore the poor as well as the rich not to be exempted."

The Queen could not find fault with this speech, as she did with the former, and although it subjected Bacon to the sarcasms of Sir Walter Raleigh, who revived and quoted his early speech about the taxpayer selling his "pots" and "pans," it insured him against the frowns of Elizabeth.

The question of monopolies, or grants by the Queen of exclusive rights to certain individuals or companies, to deal in certain commodities, was raised in this parliament, and threatened to bring the Commons and Crown in collision. That this royal custom of parceling out the privileges of supplying the necessities of whole peoples, at prices which unrivaled patentees and grantees chose to demand, was not only a wrong, but a much-abused wrong, every member of both Houses knew; and when a bill was proposed to stamp it, both as opposed to law and as a cruel grievance, Bacon stood up as the Queen's advocate, defended the custom as a