The commons, on their assembling, appointed no less than eighty committees to examine into abuses in the church, the courts of law, and every department of the state. Buckingham, himself, was threatened, and conscious that his danger was imminent, he consulted one of the most sagacious and penetrating men in England, Williams, dean of Westminster. The advice he received was prudentit was to shelter himself, by abandoning his accomplices to the vengeance of parliament. Approved of by the king, this counsel was followed. In the first instance, (15th March) the committee on the courts of justice reported, through their chairman, that two petitions had been presented for corruption against the chancellor by two suitors. The first petition stated, that having a cause depending in chancery, it had been hinted to the petitioner, that a gift of 100. to the chancellor would secure success. Not having the money, the petitioner was forced to borrow it, which he did, from a usurer, at an enormous rate of interest. He carried the money to the chancellor, and was assured through the domestics that all would be right. The decree, however, was given against him. The next case was that of a suitor, who, at a like instigation, had presented the chancellor with 400/. and with no better success. To these charges even Bacon's friends could scarcely say anything. The king sent the commons a message, regretting the suspicions against his chancellor, and proposing to refer the charges for investigation to a commission of members of both houses. The commons, however, and amongst them was sir Edward Coke, did not approve of this new way of trial; and having agreed to articles of accusation, presented them to the upper house at a conference according to the accustomed form. (Comm. Journ. Lord's Journ.) Bacon foresaw his fate, and withdrew from the Lords' house, excusing himself for his absence, and entreating them to suspend their judgments respecting him until he had been tried. He shut himself up in his chamber, and abandoned himself to despair. In the meantime the number of the charges against him increased to twenty-three, and the lords proceeded in their investigation, which was interrupted by the prorogation of parliament for three weeks. This period was spent by Bacon in vain endeavours to induce James to screen him from punishment. The king advised him to plead guilty, and promised

to do all in his power to mitigate what he could not prevent. On the 17th of April the house met again, and resumed their inquiry into the charges sent up from the commons. On the 22d, prince Charles delivered to them a letter from the chancellor, acknowledging in general terms his guilt; but they requiring a more explicit confession, he sent them such a one on the 30th, in which he admitted he was "guilty of corruption, and renounced all defence." Upon this they appointed a deputation to ascertain, from his own lips, that this confession was really subscribed by him; and having obtained this information, they sent the serjeant-at-arms to summon him to Westminster-hall to hear his sentence. His illness, however, was accepted as a sufficient reason for his absenting himself, and sentence was accordingly pronounced. It subjected him to a fine of 40,000l., and to imprisonment during the king's pleasure. It incapacitated him from holding any office in the state, or sitting in parliament; and banished him for life from the verge of the court.

On the last day of May he was committed to the Tower, whence, after two days, he was released, and retired to Parson's-green, from whence he went to Gorhambury, where he remained until the end of the year. Although his income amounted to 2,500l. (of which 1,200l. was a pension from the government,) he was deeply involved, being both extravagant and negligent of money. The king, however, released his fine, or rather assigned it for his benefit to certain of his friends. A vacancy (1623,) occurring in the provostship of Eton college, he applied for the post, but without success. If his fall had been shameful, his retirement was not ungraceful. Occupied in the composition of works "ære perennius," he was building up for himself a more durable reputation, than the most brilliant career could ever win for the most accomplished statesman. "Eminent foreigners crossed the seas on purpose to see and discourse with him." His friends were of those whose names "men will not willingly let die:"-"Rare Ben Jonson;" the learned Selden; the philosophic Hobbes; the amiable sir Julius Cæsar; the pious Herbert; the subtle Gondomar. His secretary, who so nobly stood up for him when his master had deserted him (see MEAUTYS, Sir Thomas) and his chaplain, (see RAWLEY, W.) still remained with him.

In the commencement of the year

1624, the whole of the parliamentary sentence was remitted, and Bacon was summoned as a peer to the first parliament of Charles I., but his infirmities prevented his attending. In 1626, he returned to Gray's-inn, having been forced to part with York-house. In April, whether on his way to Gorhambury, or merely in the course of a drive, is not known, he visited the neighbourhood of Highgate. The day was cold, and the snow lay thick on the ground. It had previously occurred to him, that snow might be used for the purpose of preserving animal substances from putrefaction, and, determined to try the experiment, he descended from his carriage, entered a cottage, and purchased a fowl, which, with his own hands, he stuffed with snow. A sudden chill struck him, and he rapidly became so ill, as to be unable to return home. He was carried to the house of the earl of Arundel, at Highgate, where, after lingering a week, he expired in the arms of his friend, sir Julius Cæsar, on Easter day, the 9th of April, 1626. Howell (Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ,) speaks of him as having died of a languishing illness, and so poor, as not to have left sufficient to defray the expenses of his funeral. By his will, which seems to have been written at various times, but bears date on the 19th of December, 1625, he directs that the surplus of the monies to be derived from the sale of his property (therein directed) should be applied to the purchase of lands for the endowment of two lectures in either of the universities; one to be for natural philosophy and the sciences therewith connected. Neither of the lecturers were to be "professed in divinity, law, or physic." The magnitude of his debts, however, prevented the execution of this design, the amount being 22,341, and the funds for their satisfaction being only 6,000l. Lady Bacon survived him, and died on the 29th June, 1650, and was buried in Eyworth church, near Biggleswade, in Bedfordshire. In the early part of his will, Bacon bequeaths her certain property, which bequest towards the end he revokes, and "leaves her to her right."

We have now to consider lord Bacon in another character to that of the dexterous politician, or the corrupt judge, in one for which he was more qualified to shine, being, as he himself observes, "ad

It is a remarkable circumstance, that every one of the witnesses to this will (six in number,) were legatees under it.

literas potiùs quam ad aliud quicquam natus, et ad res gerendas, nescio quo fato, contra genium suum abreptus." (De Aug. lib. viii. cap. 3.) His writings may be considered as naturally divisible into three classes, according to the subjects to which they relate-Law, Policy, and Philosophy.

I. Of his law writings, the first which he composed (1596) was his Elements of the Laws of England, published in 1636, and which consists of two tracts-the first of which is a Collection of the Rules and Maxims of the Common Law, with their latitude and extent, and the other explains the Use of the Common Law for the preservation of our persons, goods, and good names. It is, however, by his Reading on the Statute of Uses that Bacon is best known as a law writer. This Reading, delivered before the Society of Gray's-inn in 1599 or 1600, is characterised by Mr. Hargrave as a profound treatise on the subject as far as it goes;" and at the time of its appearance must have been of the greatest utility. In it, shunning the errors of his predecessors in office, who loved to raise needless objections, and "concise and subtle doubts," his object was to expound the statute and the cases relating to it as clearly as might be; to open," as he expressed it," the law upon doubts, and not doubts upon the law." In this Reading, Bacon controverts the doctrine, that the intention of the statute was, the extirpation of uses. He says that" this was the exposition, as tradition goeth, that a reader of Gray's-inn, who read soon after the statute, was in trouble for and worthily, who, as I suppose, was a boy." This doctrine, which he treats with such contempt, is mentioned by Coke, who also read upon this statute, (1 Rep. 125,) and to whose opinion chief baron Gilbert expressed his adherence, (on Uses, 74,) but both Mr. Sanders (on Uses, 89) and sir Edward Sugden (Notes on Gilbert, in loc. cit.) agree in the opinion of lord Bacon.

This treatise is more systematical than his Elements, in the preface to which he vindicates his mode of composition, on the ground that “ delivering knowledge in distinct and disjointed aphorisms doth leave the wit of man more free to turn, and stop, and make use of that which is delivered to more several purposes and applications." Thus did he shun that "over-early and peremptory reduction of knowledge into arts and methods," which he elsewhere (Advancement of Learning) denounced.

The Proposal for Amending the Laws of England, which he presented to king James, is well worthy of the reputation of the author. It is valuable chiefly as containing his views of the then existing defects of our laws-the severity of the penal code, the uncertainty of decisions, the accumulation of statutes, and the multiplicity of suits naturally consequent thereon. The remedy which he proposed was, "the reducing or perfecting the course, or corps of the common laws, digesting or recompiling them, so that the entire body and substance of law should remain only discharged of idle, or unprofitable, or hurtful matter." This plan is widely different from the modern plan of codification, in reference to which, he observes, "I dare not advise to cast the law into a new mould. The work which I propound tendeth to pruning and grafting the laws, and not to ploughing up and planting it again; for such remove I hold a perilous innovation."

Bacon, however, was unaware of all the results such a plan would produce, for he speaks of the Corpus Juris Civilis as containing the whole library of a civilian. He did not know that the Jus Civile Ante-Justinianeum was as necessary to the civilian as the Pandects or Codex; and that, in fact, an English code would not have superseded the necessity of Fitzherbert and Brooke in the chambers of the lawyer. It may be as well, here, to mention that he induced king James to take some steps towards law reform-1st, By appointing two lawyers as reporters, with a salary of 100l. a-year each; and 2dly, By nominating a commission for the "reducing of concurrent statutes to a clear and uniform law." On the commission, besides himself, were lord Hobart, Noy, the two Finches, and others. His own plan, probably the least objectionable that has been devised, has never been attempted-the risk attendant on experiments of the kind has been sufficient to prevent its essayal. He wrote, besides these, some law tracts of slight importance.

II. Lord Bacon's political writings, or at least such as are exclusively political, are neither numerous nor important. Their spirit is that of the school in which he was educated-the spirit of reform, tempered with prudence, and directed with knowledge. Commending to Villiers the counsel of the royal philosopher, "Meddle not with them that are given to change;" he was equally hostile to "a froward retention of custom," or to

the support of institutions unsuited to the character and requisitions of the age. As we have already observed, the condition of Ireland attracted much of his attention, and while the king was endeavouring to unite his two great kingdoms, Bacon strove to turn the royal attention to that unhappy country, which was then suffering all the evils of conquest, without even the compensation which a strong government brings with it. He declared Ireland to be "blessed with a race of generous and noble people, but," he added, "the hand of man does not unite with the hand of nature. The harp of Ireland is not strung to concord." Immigration, the establishment of a learned and pious clergy, and the diffusion of the scriptures, were amongst the remedies he advised for her ills.-From the number of political reflections scattered through it, and which are its chief source of value, the History of Henry VII. (written in 1621, and published in 1622) may be properly mentioned here. Dr. Johnson has remarked that, in the composition of this work, Bacon "does not seem to have consulted any records, but to have just taken what he found in other histories, and blended it with what he learnt by tradition." The applauses which he bestowed in it on many of the legislative enactments of Henry's reign, proves that he had formed the same extravagant estimate of the efficiency of laws as did his contemporaries, and the fallacy of which it has needed the development of a more enlightened political philosophy to enable us to detect. We refer especially to the terms in which he characterises the laws then passed against the great evil of the times the increase of pastures, and which required the keeping up of all houses which were used with twenty acres of land, and forbade the letting of the house apart from the land. The laws for the maintenance of drapery, for keeping wool in the country, and limiting the price of cloth, he also highly eulogizes. But that wise and beneficent act (2 Henry VII. c. 1), by which the adherents of a de facto king were exempted from the penalties of treason, Bacon characterises as a law more "just than legal," and " magnanimous than provident." See Fuller, Holy State, book iv. chap. 7.

more

In ecclesiastical politics Bacon was, as might be expected in the nephew of Burghley, the successor of Ellesmere, and the friend of Andrewes, a zealous churchman; and when some one,

hostile to the church, was objecting to him her abuses, he replied, "Sir, the subject we talk of is the eye of England, and if there be a speck or two, we endeavour to take them off; but he were a strange oculist that should pull out the eye." In 1606 he drew up two tracts, one on the Controversies of the Church, and the other on the Pacification and Edification of the Church, in which last he says, "I am persuaded that the papists themselves should not need so much the severity of penal laws if the sword of the Spirit were better edged, by strengthening the authority and suppressing the abuses in the church." În his Considerations touching the War with Spain, (1604,) he recommends a measure of that kind; the tract, together with his curious Advertisement touching a Holy War, (1622,) and his essay of the True Greatness of the Kingdom of Britain, well deserve perusal.

Bacon when young exhibited great indifference to religion, (Birch, Mem. vol. i. p. 72,) but a spirit of ardent piety breathes through all his works. He has left us a Confession of Faith, (Reliq. Wotton. p. 471,) and some Prayers, which assure us that, erring as he might have been in conduct, he entertained just and true notions of religion. The Christian Paradoxes, published under his name, bear internal marks that they are not authentic. When chancellor, he showed (Montagu, Life, p. 199) that, with sir Edward Coke, he was willing that "church livings should pass by livery and seizin, and not by bargain and sale." In his essay on the Vicissitude of Things, he alludes to the heresy of Arminius, from which also we may conclude that his views were orthodox. See besides, his Advice to sir George Villiers.

III. Dr. Warburton said of Mallet's Life of Bacon, that the author had forgotten that Bacon was a philosopher. Without desiring to become obnoxious to this censure, it will hardly consist with our design to treat as fully of Bacon's philosophical character as the importance e subject deserves. We shall be compelled to content ourselves with a list of his principal works, and some brief observations on their tendency and results. 1. Essayes, first published in 1597; republished, with considerable additions, in 1612; and again, with still further additions, in 1624. The value of these Essays is too well allowed to require any comment. Without the elegance of

Addison, or the charming egotism of Montaigne, they have acquired the widest circulation; and if Bacon had written no more, they would have bequeathed his name, undying, to posterity. Burke preferred them to the rest of his writings, and Dr. Johnson observed, that "their excellence and value consists in their being the observations of a strong mind operating upon life, and in consequence," he added, " you will find there what you seldom find in other books." (Malone's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds.) They were translated into Latin by Ben Jonson and Bishop Hacket. 2. The Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human, published in 1605. 3. De Sapientia Veterum, published in 1609, in which he gives a moral or political turn to most of the fables of the Greek mythology, sometimes displaying remarkable acuteness and penetration; at other times an exuberance of fancy, which amuses rather than instructs. It was, as he says, "written in the midst of a term and parliament." 4. Novum Organum, published in 1620. 5. De Augmentis Scientiarum, Lib. IX., first published correctly in 1623. This work is a translation of the Advancement, revised and enlarged. The alterations consist chiefly in the addition of an analysis of natural history, and the insertion of a dissertation on the philosophy of law. The translation was executed principally by the well-known George Herbert, and other of his friends. It was honoured by being entered, fifty years afterwards, in the Catalogue of Librorum Prohibitorum, at Rome. King James expressed his opinion of it rather profanely, by observing that "It was like the peace of God; it passed all understanding." 6. Apothegms, published in 1625. A reviewer has pronounced this to be "the best jest book" ever given to the public. (Edinb. Rev. No. 132.) 7. The translation of certain Psalms into English verse, published also in the same year. Aubrey declared lord Bacon to have been "a good poet," but in this work his piety is more to be commended than his poetry. It was dedicated to his friend, the incomparable George Herbert. 8. Sylva Sylvarum, published after his death, by his chaplain, Dr. Rawley, together with that most admirable romance, 9. The New Atlantis. Many of his tracts and letters are to be found in Rawley's Resuscitatio, Tennison's Baconiana, and Stephens's Collection of his Letters. The above list, it is to be understood, comprehends only his

most important works. The whole are to be found collected in Mr. Montagu's edition, which was completed in 16 vols, Svo, in 1834. There is also an edition published by Mallet, in folio and 4to, and afterwards in 8vo.

In considering the character of lord Bacon's philosophical writings, we are at once struck with the fact, that his mind was eminently critical, and that those facts are decidedly the most valuable which are occupied in testing the results of the existing systems of knowledge, and in ascertaining also the causes which impede and perplex the mind in the pursuit of truth. There is abundant evidence in his works, that he had not entered very deeply into the study of those writers who had founded the various schools of knowledge. There is little reason to believe that he had read much of Plato, or Aristotle; nor indeed is it at all probable, his amount of scholarship was adequate to such a task. He appears to have felt, that with all the intellect that had been enlisted in the service of philosophy, little had been done towards what he esteemed the true end of all learning. The indulgence of a vain and profitless curiosity, the attainment of a mere reputation, the acquisition of a facility of disputation, such were ends men had for the most part proposed to themselves in the pursuit of knowledge, while the true end he believed to be "the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate." It must not, however, be concluded, that we yield a perfect adherence to the censures which he passed on previous systems of philosophy; or, that we believe his criticisms to be in every instance just. Still for the most part he correctly represented the results which had ensued from the conduct of their disciples and successors, who instead of advancing from the point which they had reached, "spent their wits and industries about the wits" of their masters, "which many times they rather depraved than illustrated." It was in directing attention to the study of nature, in advocating "original and severe inquisition," that the chief value of Bacon's writings appears to us to consist. The phrase of the Baconian philosophy is current enough, but no phrase was ever invented with less meaning. His opinions are not susceptible of reduction to any fixed or settled scheme; they stand aloof from system; in fact, they abound with

• One instance, which ought to be very familiar, is in the Essays. Compare the first sentences of the 16th and 17th Essays.

contradictions and inconsistencies. The phrase originates in an opinion that he discovered, or invented some new method, called the Inductive process, for the investigation of truth; and that to this method all the brilliant discoveries, and the useful inventions of later times, are to be ascribed. The facts are far otherwise. The links which connect the Novum Organum with the discovery of planetary gravitation, and the invention of the spinning jenny are not so apparent. The inductive process is that merely of common sense. When, from a variety of conclusions compared, we arrive at a general truth, we reason inductively. Plato, as Mr. Coleridge has very properly observed, " argues on all subjects, not only from, but in, and by inductions of facts;" (The Friend, vol. iii. p. 157;) and as a reviewer remarks, Aristotle "has given the history of the inductive process, concisely indeed, but with great perspicuity." Lord Bacon has, indeed, and correctly, analyzed the process, and given rules by which it may be applied; but it is never to be forgotten, that in the words of a zealous Baconian, “only a few observe," it might be added, have observed, "the rules and precepts of the inductive logic," (Todd's Book of Analysis,) as laid down by lord Bacon. We have no hesitation in expressing our conviction, that it is as the advocate of freedom of inquiry, and also as drawing the attention of mankind to natural philosophy, (a science then but little cultivated,) that Bacon's chief merits consist.

It has been supposed farther, that it is to Bacon we owe the annihilation of the authority of the schoolmen. But this is an error; the standard of revolt had been unfurled before,

"Vixêre fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi."

In Italy, the great intellectual movement began, and the names of Telesius, Pomponatius, Campanella, and Patricius, predecessors of Bacon, were the earliest to expose the folly of exercising the intellect, not in the discovery of new truths, but in the interpretation of old writers. There seems, however, no reason to believe that to the writings of these authors Bacon owed any thing; that his hostility to the schoolmen and their unprofitable pursuits, was other than selforiginated, except so far as it may have

See his observations on Aristotle and Plato in the 7th chapter of the Interpretation of Nature.

In the last chapter of the Posterior Analytics, and the first of the Metaphysics.-Edin. Rev. No. 132. 474