Bacon, unfortunately, helped his kinsmen in their endeavour to bring him into disfavour with Elizabeth. He had been elected member for Middlesex in 1593, and his first speech on the assembling of Parliament was in favour of law reform. The applause bestowed on it seems to have incited him to further efforts; and in a debate on the subsidy demanded by the Queen he eloquently denounced it, and declaimed upon the sufferings which such exactions must cause to the inferior gentry. He carried his motion for an enquiry, and the anger of his imperious sovereign at this thwarting of her will may be imagined. She desired that Bacon might be told he should never receive favour or preferment from her, nor should he enter her presence. In reply, the too facile orator promised amendment, and humbly craved pardon. The Solicitor-General's place becoming vacant some time after, Bacon applied for his uncle's influence to obtain it; but Burleigh was resolved never to advance so formidable a rival to his son, and, on Bacon's bringing his case before the Queen, he was met by her anger at his speech, and the prejudice instilled into her mind against him by the Cecils.

Bacon then turned to the favourite of Elizabeth, and the enemy of the Cecils-the Earl of Essex, who with generous ardour endeavoured to assist him against them. But the Queen was jealous of the great popularity of the young Earl after his expedition to Cadiz, and refused obstinately to give the place to Bacon. Essex, vexed and mortified, then resolved to bestow an independence on his friend out of his own fortune, and insisted on his accepting Twickenham Park and its Garden of Paradise, then worth more, Bacon tells us, than £1,800-a large sum in those days-the same land in the present time has been valued at £100,000.

Bacon, thus set at ease in money matters-he was deeply in debtdetermined to show the world how false the Cecils's estimate of his legal knowledge was, and wrote a treatise on the "Elements and Use of Common Law," which at once answered its intended purpose.

In 1597 Bacon published his most celebrated and immortal work, "The Essays," and "The Colours of Good and Evil," and at once his genius became known to the world. "In Bacon's Essays," says Dugald Stewart, "the superiority of his genius appears to the greatest advantage, the novelty and depth of his reflections often receiving a strong relief from the triteness of the subject. The volume may be read from beginning to end in a few hours, and yet, after the twentieth, one seldom fails to remark in it something overlooked before."

But, like his first unsuccessful work, this successful one was destined to have an evil influence on his fortunes. He was a suitor to the beautiful widow of Sir Christopher Hatton, and had, perhaps, some hopes of success; but, unluckily, the Essays fell into her hands, and

she read the fatal words, "Great spirits and great businesses do keep out this weak passion, i.e., love." Whether this tradition be true or not, it is certain that anyone reading the Essays must have seen how little Bacon knew of the passion he professed.

The lady rejected him, and added to his mortification by marrying his rival and enemy, old Sir Edward Coke, the Attorney-General.

Bacon now devoted himself to his legal work, and had soon won the reputation of a great lawyer by his celebrated argument on perpetuities, which he published as a tract.

But now came the first of Bacon's great moral failures.

His generous friend, the Earl of Essex, had been sent to Ireland by Elizabeth to conduct the war against Tyrone. His conduct in this position incurred blame from his sovereign (he had made an unjustifiable treaty with the Irish Rebel), and (betrayed, it is said, by a stratagem of Cecil's), he left his post without the Queen's permission, and rushed, unsummoned, into her presence. At that very time he found his sovereign a visitor at the house at Twickenham which he had given to Bacon-who by his legal successes, his writings, and the death of Burleigh, had regained Elizabeth's favour. Thus it was in his house that the impetuous Earl came into the startled presence of Elizabeth. The Queen received him coldly, and after some apparent consideration ordered him to confine himself to his own house, and the Star Chamber to examine into his conduct. Bacon was retained as council-extraordinary against his friend. At first he endeavoured earnestly to effect a reconciliation between the favourite and the Queen; but both of them distrusted him, apparently, and, Lord Macaulay says, "the reconciliation which Bacon had laboured to effect appeared utterly hopeless." The stubborn pride of the Earl, and the jealousy of Elizabeth, rendered all his efforts vain.

"A thousand signs," goes on the great essayist, "legible to eyes far less keen than his, announced that the fall of his patron was at hand. He [Bacon] shaped his course accordingly. When Essex was brought before the Council to answer for his conduct in Ireland, Bacon, after a faint attempt to excuse himself from taking part against his friend, submitted to the Queen's pleasure, and appeared at the bar in support of the charges."

Essex was sentenced to be removed from his place at the Council board, to be suspended from his offices of Earl Marshal and Master of the Ordnance, and to be imprisoned during the Queen's pleasure. But Elizabeth, having thus humiliated him, would not fully carry out the sentence. She continued him as Master of the Horse, and gave him full liberty, but warned him, significantly, to "be his own keeper."

But Essex was the victim of evil counsellors and mischief-makers of all kinds. He had petitioned the Queen for the monopoly of sweet

wines, and Elizabeth refused, saying (it was reported) "that an unmangeable beast must be stinted in his provender." These cruel words were repeated to the fallen favourite, who, driven to fury, devised a mad scheme of rebellion against his Sovereign, meaning to secure the Queen's person, and banish from about her all whom he considered his enemies.

The absurd attempt at exciting a rising in London failed: he was taken prisoner, and tried for high treason, the prosecution being managed by Sir Edward Coke as Attorney-General, and Bacon as one of the Queen's Counsel.

At the trial Sir Edward Coke treated the fallen Earl with great insolence and scurrility; Bacon was moderate and decent, but ought never to have been placed in such a position. The crime was easily proved, and the favourite was sentenced to death. His fate is too well known to be repeated here.

But he was the idol of the people. The murmurs at his untimely end were bold and universal, and the Queen herself was severely blamed.

The Administration therefore found it necessary to defend its conduct by an appeal, or sort of apology, to the people, and Bacon was the writer selected to execute this painful task. If it was really (as is said) imposed on him by the contrivance of Cecil, it was indeed a masterpiece of malignity on the part of his envious cousin, for it brought on Bacon the hatred and contempt of the nation. He was everywhere condemned as an ungrateful traitor to his benefactor for murdering his good name as the Ministry had his body; his life even was threatened, and he was in daily peril of assassination. This obliged him to publish, in his own defence, the "Apology" found amongst his writings, in which he labours to clear himself of blame, asserting that he had never done the Earl any ill offices with the Queen (though she had insinuated that he had); that on the contrary he had always given Lord Essex good advice, and that he had wished and tried to secure his preservation.

But no apology could excuse his conduct in this instance.

In the following reign Sir Henry Yelverton ventured on the displeasure of James and Villiers, rather than plead against the wicked Earl of Somerset; because he (Somerset) had made him SolicitorGeneral.

Grief and remorse for Essex's death caused that of his royal mistress. She survived him scarcely a year, and was succeeded by James VI. of Scotland.

Bacon at once sought to ingratiate himself with the new king, who received him favourably, and made him (at his request) a knight in a batch of three hundred on whom he conferred that title! James sowed honours broadcast. Soon after Bacon, who was then seeking to win

the daughter of a rich alderman, married her. She was a Miss Alice Barnham.

Bacon soon after appeared as counsel for the Crown on the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh for being engaged in a conspiracy to place the Lady Arabella Stuart, James's cousin, on the throne; but his old enemy, Coke, would not allow him to examine the witnesses, or address the jury.

The following year Bacon published his treatise on the "Advancement of Learning," which greatly recommended him to the King, to whom it was dedicated. The aim of the treatise was to survey accurately the whole state and extent of the intellectual world at that period -so short a time (comparatively) after the revival of learning; to show what parts of it had been successfully cultivated; those that lay still neglected; and by what methods learning might be improved and advanced. This work had a wonderful effect in awaking the attention and calling forth the powers of all the students and learned men of Europe, and vast results probably proceeded from it, though some blame has been attached to Bacon for ignorance of many "proficiencies," as he would have called them, where he found "deficiencies." In 1607 Bacon became Solicitor-General. He had, meantime, been busy again with his pen, and published the first sketch of his "Novum Organum," his " De Sapientia Veterum,” and an enlarged edition of his "Essays." He also wrote valuable treatises to explain and improve the law.

In 1613 he succeeded to the Attorney-Generalship, about three months after the death of his cousin and enemy Cecil-the Lord Treasurer Salisbury. He was now a wealthy man. This office brought him in £6,000 a year, and, as his office of Registrar of the Star Chamber was now his, he had £1,600 a year more from that— large sums in that age.

The trial of the guilty Earl of Somerset was the next great case which occupied the Attorney-General, and in this there was much mystery. Bacon had become the subservient creature of James, and James evidently feared the exposure by Somerset of some secret of his own; and he gave his Attorney-General immense trouble, and many perplexing cautions and directions in that miserable trial.

A new favourite had taken Somerset's place- George Villiers, shortly to be Duke of Buckingham, and to him the Attorney-General now paid court, giving him, however, it must be allowed, good and prudent advice.

It was by the influence of Buckingham that, in 1617, Bacon became Chancellor, with the title of Lord Keeper. Shortly afterwards he was created Viscount St. Albans.

And now Bacon had reached the height of his ambition. He had

the house where he was born, York House, on the Thames, fitted up splendidly: he had a villa at Kew; a small dwelling at Gormanbury. His retinue was princely: according to Mr. Spedding it consisted of two chaplains, six gentlemen-of-the-chamber, six gentlemen-waiters, four pages, two gentlemen ushers, three yeomen of the wardrobe, three yeomen of the pantry, and four butlers (see note at p. 88), not to mention the inferior servants.

These followers seem to have managed their Master's property very much as they pleased, and thus wrought his ruin.

The philosopher who wrote " It is a strange desire to seek power and lose liberty; or, to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self," had bartered away his liberty for pomp, show, and wealth. He had said, "Men in great place are thrice servants; servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame, and servants of business: " he was destined to find himself also the servant of an imperious, grasping, unprincipled favourite.

His old enemy, Coke, who had been dismissed from the Chief Justiceship, perceived that his only means to restore his fortune was to please the Duke of Buckingham, who (amidst all his selfishness) was devotedly fond of his relatives. He therefore offered his daughter by his second wife, Lady Hatton, to the brother of the Duke, the needy Sir John Villiers, this young lady being a great heiress. Lady Hatton, who had long been separated from the old Judge, opposed this marriage, and even ran off with her daughter, and hid her near Hampton Court; but Coke pursued them, and brought back his daughter. Bacon, fearing the renewed ascendancy of his old enemy, opposed this marriage in every way. He wrote to the king against it, and thus incurred the wrath both of the favourite and the sovereign. James, enraged, wrote severely to his Chancellor, and Bacon perceived his danger, and, with his usual moral cowardice, shrank from it. He bowed before the tempest, and apologised humbly for having mistaken the king's wishes, and again he and Buckingham were friends but henceforward Bacon was the slave of the capricious favourite. The king was always in need of money. To fill his purse he resumed the old system (which Elizabeth had given up) of monopolies and patents.

These were charters under the Great Seal conferring on certain persons the power of being the only dealers in any article of merchandize, or the only pursuers of any manufacture, and permitting them to enter to search any house which might be suspected of invading their patent or monopoly. Bacon had, on his first acquaintance with Villiers, urged him to put an end to this mode of plundering the people. But now he found that he must pass under the Great Seal whatever patents or monopolies the favourite chose to send him ; con