Page images
PDF
EPUB

the charge not formally from the House, but enough to inform my conscience and memory, I find matter sufficient and full both to move me to desert the defence, and to move your lordships to condemn and answer me."

This is not the confession of a criminal, but rather the submission of a man who feels that he has by his weakness given colour to the accusations of his enemies, and that, as he cannot offer a complete defence, he will attempt no partial explanation. He had done some things weakly, foolishly, thoughtlessly. He had allowed his servants, through want of supervision, to drag their master's high office through much foul mire. He had allowed the continuance of a practice which, as it led to bribery and corruption, he could not excuse; and having allowed it, he owned his responsibility, but "never had he bribe or reward in his eye or thought when pronouncing sentence or order." No fair judgment can be pronounced on the subject of Bacon's moral criminality until, as Mr. Spedding says, four questions have been considered. "1. What was the understanding, open or secret, upon which the present, or 'bribe,' was given or taken ? 2. To what extent was the practice prevalent at the time? 3. How far was it tolerated? 4. How stood it with regard to other abuses prevailing at the same time?" No one will deny the reprehensibility of the practice, and Bacon himself, when his conscience was awakened, saw it clearly. It was in this sense that he spoke to Dr. Rawley: "I was the justest judge that was in England these fifty years, but it was the justest censure in Parliament that was there these two hundred years."

The sentence passed upon the ex-chancellor (3rd May) was to the following effect :

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

tions, his organ music, his "nicotian weed," and a game at bowls. To this period of calm the world owes a more complete edition of his "Essays," his weighty but too partial "History of Henry VII.," and a Latin translation. of his “Advancement of Learning.”

NOTE GORHAMBURY.

A picturesque writer supplies the following sketch of his retreat at Gorhambury :

"The Gothic pile, enlarged by Sir Nicholas for Lady Anne, which had come into his possession on his brother's death, stood high and dry above the water; and as the stream would not flow up to his house he took his house down to the stream. Avenues of stately trees sloped from the hall-door to the little lakes which, four or five acres in extent, were kept bright as crystal, filled with brilliant fish, and paved with pebbles of various hues. On the banks of one of these lakelets he had built Verulam House, a tiny but enchanted palace, one front leaning on the water, the other glancing, under oak and elm, up the long leafy arcade to his mother's house. This place was furnished and complete. The larders and kitchens were underground; through the centre of the blocks ran a staircase delicately carved; on the rests and landings a series of figures—a bishop, a friar, a king, and the like-not one repeated either in idea or execution; on the door of the upper story statues of Jupiter, Apollo, and the round of gods. Beauty and luxury combined. Chimneypieces prettily wrought, rooms lofty and wainscotted, baths, oratories, divans. Shafts from the chimneys ran round the rooms, with cushions on these shafts so as to garner up the heat. The roof, which was flat and leaded, in the Eastern manner, commanded views of wood and water, plain

"That the Lord Viscount St. Albans shall undergo fine and ransom of £40,000; that he shall be imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure; that he shall for ever be incapable of any office, place, or employment in the State or Commonwealth; that he shall never sit in Parliament, nor come within the verge of the Court." Thus was compassed the ruin and disgrace of the greatest Englishman of his time, and his enemies triumphed in his downfall. Cranfield became Lord

Treasurer and Earl of Middlesex; Buckingham obtained a lease of York House; Williams obtained the Seals. While these men rejoiced in their spoils, Bacon, on the 31st of May, was carried to the Tower, bearing with him in his hour of darkness the love and friendship of such fine natures as Ben Jonson, the learned Selden, the Church poet George Herbert, Hobbes of Malmesbury, Sir Robert Cotton, and Sir Henry Savile.

He was moved from the Tower, however, on the following day, through the interposition of Prince Charles, and allowed to retire to Gorhambury. At first he yearned to return to the movement and action of political life; and his fine being remitted, and a pension of £1200 a-year granted to him, he was not without some hope of being eventually reinstated in office. In this he was disappointed. In 1624, he received a full pardon, annulling his exclusion from the House of Lords; but by that time advancing years and increasing weakness had disabled him from participation in parliamentary contention. Meanwhile he had renewed the studies and learned pursuits in which he had always delighted, and gradually he recovered his composure and intellectual tranquillity. His leisure hours were cheered by his birds and his dogs, his blooming gardens, his thriving planta

tions, his organ music, his "nicotian weed," and a game at bowls. To this period of calm the world owes a more complete edition of his "Essays," his weighty but too partial "History of Henry VII.," and a Latin translation of his "Advancement of Learning."

NOTE GORHAMBURY.

A picturesque writer supplies the following sketch of his retreat at Gorhambury :—

"The Gothic pile, enlarged by Sir Nicholas for Lady Anne, which had come into his possession on his brother's death, stood high and dry above the water; and as the stream would not flow up to his house he took his house down to the stream. Avenues of stately trees sloped from the hall-door to the little lakes which, four or five acres in extent, were kept bright as crystal, filled with brilliant fish, and paved with pebbles of various hues. On the banks of one of these lakelets he had built Verulam House, a tiny but enchanted palace, one front leaning on the water, the other glancing, under oak and elm, up the long leafy arcade to his mother's house. This place was furnished and complete. The larders and kitchens were underground; through the centre of the blocks ran a staircase delicately carved; on the rests and landings a series of figures-a bishop, a friar, a king, and the like-not one repeated either in idea or execution; on the door of the upper story statues of Jupiter, Apollo, and the round of gods. Beauty and luxury combined. Chimneypieces prettily wrought, rooms lofty and wainscotted, baths, oratories, divans. Shafts from the chimneys ran round the rooms, with cushions on these shafts so as to garner up the heat. The roof, which was flat and leaded, in the Eastern manner, commanded views of wood and water, plain

« PreviousContinue »