1606. VII. 14. ugly scrapes. In digging his huge pond in Westwood Park, he had put under water some part of an old Feb. road, never doubting his power to do what he saw good on his own estate, the more so that he had given a turn to the road more convenient for himself and for every one else. A neighbour, between whom and Sir John no love was lost, seeing the flaw in this easy mode of making things straight, had procured from the Crown an order to remove the pond and restore the King's ancient highway. This news he had sent to Westwood, saying, with a politeness which the hot old gentleman read for insult, that, though he had such an order in his hands, he should not use it so long as the knight was pleased to live with him on friendly terms. Scorning to owe his pleasures to such a fellow, Sir John had broken down his banks, and, the pool lying high, the waters had raced and crashed through the orchards, strewing the fields with dead fish for a mile or more, and discolouring the Severn as far off as Worcester for a week. Having let out his pool, he has come to answer for himself, and seek power to fill it with water and fish once more. A yet more serious quarrel with Lord Zouch helped to bring him up to town. As President of the Council of Wales and the Welsh Marches, Lord Zouch for a long time claimed a certain jurisdiction over the four border shires of Gloucester, Hereford, Salop, and Worcester; a claim which the shires denied and resisted, with loud speeches from the gentry, met by 'threats of force on the part of Zouch, tumultuous riding, signing, and protesting, ending for the day in solemn appeals from the four shires to the House of Commons, and from the angry Council of Wales to the King. Sir 1606. Herbert Crofts, Knight of the shire for Hereford, had VII. 14. the cause against Zouch in hand. Sir John, who was Sheriff of Worcester, but not a Parliament man, having Feb. no tongue to wag, yet felt a passionate interest in this appeal; for Lord Zouch not only claimed a certain authority in his county, but showed no sense of the respect due, even from a peer, to so great a man as Sir John. 15. Alice is now near her lover, whom she may spy as he trots from Gray's Inn to Westminster, or lounges from the House towards Chancery-lane. Bacon sees many a rock ahead. He is still a simple knight, and he has the misery of differing from Sir John on the great question of Lord Zouch and the shires. Sir John can hardly make him out. Pakington is a Royalist root and branch, one who has lent money to his Prince on Privy Seals, and who would draw a sword for Church and King with the ready zeal which made his grandson famous among the soldiers of Charles the First; yet this young lawyer, who has spent his life in recommending reforms, presumes to defend against him, loyal Sir John, the prerogatives of the Crown! Wiser heads than that of the warm old Worcestershire knight were often at fault when trying to explain to themselves the relations of Bacon to the Puritan House of Commons and to the episcopal and regal court. Yet they seem to be easy of explanation. It is, indeed, so rare for a man to stand on good terms with a hostile Crown and House of Commons, that it is often thought and sometimes found to be impossible. 15. Com, Jour., i. 286, 299; App. to the Verney Papers, ed. by John Bruce, 281. 1606. Feb. VII. 15. Winwood tried it. Strafford tried it. Pym would have tried it. But Winwood lost favour with the House when he took office under the Crown; lost favour at Court when he leaned to the Puritan opinions of the House. Strafford and Pym had each to choose a side. Bacon's position was far more lofty, and for years it seemed as if it were more secure. From his height of view and round of sympathy he was unable to throw himself, tongue and pen, into the exclusive and sectarian lines of either camp. His reconciling genius spanned the dividing stream of party. Above the foolish Prince and petulant squires, he saw his country; not merely the England of Bancroft, of the Hampton Court Conference, of the Proclamation against Papists; but the England of a thousand years, of Alfred and of Edward, of Cressy and of Cadiz, of Chaucer and of Spenser; the England of a glorious past and a hopeful future; the land which had nurtured Wycliffe and Caxton, which had broken the spiritual bonds of Leo, which had crushed the invincible fleets of Spain. This country he strove to arm, to free, to guide; now by aiding the King in questions of revenue and of union; now by aiding the House in questions of reform or war. In each he was consistent first and last. His first votes in the House were for supplies, his last speech was for supplies. With no fear of the controversial genius of Rome, he felt a wholesome dread of the fleets and regiments of Spain; those tracts by which Parsons, Schioppius, and Bellarmino stung the sleep from so many pillows passed him by; but he could not hear unmoved that the same Paul who had launched an interdict on Venice was forming a Roman Catholic League against England; that the O'Neiles and O'Donnels, driven out from Ire land by Lord Montjoy, were hurrying home from Brussels VII. 15. and Madrid; that rebels were drilling in the wilds of 1606. Connaught and Ulster; that Fajardo was manning his Feb. ships in Cadiz bay, and Brochero proffering his red hand to brush away Virginia with steel and flame. Willing to meet the men of words with words, he was not less eager to meet the men of war with steel and lead, the midnight assassin with the chain, the gibbet, and the cord. Now, to starve the Crown was to leave England weak. True, the Prince was lax, and moneys voted for the musters and the fleets might drop into the pouches of Hume and Herbert and Carr; yet of two dark evils he chose to dare the least, seeing that to pare down the subsidies, as many virtuous and unreasoning squires proposed, was to subject James and his needy servants to the magnificent corruptions of Lerma, the great minister of Spain, already suspected, and with truth, of having taken the chief men of the Privy Council and the Bedchamber into his pay. Better own the King's debts than let Lerma pay them. Therefore, while he spoke with Hastings and Hyde against patents, wardships, private monopolies, the whole tagrag of feudal privilege, he constantly voted with Hitcham and Hobart for those supplies which were necessary to maintain the splendour of the Crown and the efficiency of the musters and the fleet. Here he parted from the majority; wide as in his vote for union with the Scots. 16. Cecil, knowing his kinsman free from selfish and sectarian views, consults him on the money-bills and settlements. The debates on a grant for the new 16. Bacon to Cecil, Feb. 10, 1606, S. P. O. 1606. VII. 16. reign are about to come on; and Cecil, who as Earl of Salisbury sits in the Peers, has begun to feel his need Feb. of a bold and influential friend in the Lower House. He hints that the Court shall no longer oppose Bacon's rise at the bar. On his part, Bacon is ready to assist the Crown in procuring an ample grant; to shape drafts and preambles for the government such as may disarm the resentment of knight and squire. Cecil takes him at his word, and Bacon drafts a bill. Here is a note which shows how he is nearing power: Mar. 11. BACON TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY. IT MAY PLEASE YOUR GOOD LORDSHIP, Feb. 10, 1606. I cannot as I would express how much I think myself bounden to your Lordship for your tenderness over my contentments. But herein I will endeavour hereafter as I am able. I send your Lordship a preamble for the subsidy, drawing which was my morning's labour to-day. This mould or frame, if you like it not, I will be ready to cast it again, de novo, if I may receive your honourable directions: for any particular corrections, it is in a good hand; and yet I will attend your Lordship (after to-morrow's business, and to-morrow ended, which I know will be wearisome to you) to know your further pleasure: and so in all humbleness I rest at your Lordship's honourable commands more your ever bounden F. BACON. 17. After warm debates in the Lower House a bill goes up to the throne for two subsidies and four 17. Hoby to Edmonds, Mar. 7, 1606; Cecil to Earl of Mar, Mar. 9, 1606, S. P. O.; Com. Jour., i. 281-84. |