1588, and Middlesex in 1593. His political creed can be stated very briefly, consisting as it did in a persistent advocacy of a via media in all things, a middle course between popular privilege and royal prerogative, or, to to express it more definitely, moderation in secular reform with toleration in religion alike to Puritan and Papist. This policy he supported in two pamphlets. The first, entitled "The Greatest Birth of Time," published in 1585, was chiefly devoted to advocating mildness of treatment towards the recusants; the second, in 1589, dealt with the divisions in the Anglican Church over the Marprelate and other controversies. In both he pleaded for greater elasticity in matters of doctrine and of discipline. Ere long he attained fame as a parliamentary orator. The same compactness of expression and richness of fancy characterised his speeches as appear in his writings. Ben Jonson's opinion, albeit often cited before, merits mention again-" There happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could spare or pass by a jest) was nobly censorious. No man ever spoke more neatly, more pressly,1 more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness in what he uttered." 2

1

Two pieces of preferment, if such they can be

1 Readily.

2 Discoveries-Jonson's Works, vol. iii. p. 401.

called, came to him at this time-he was admitted a Queen's Counsel Extraordinary, while the Cecils, wearied by his continual importunity, were at last shamed into procuring for him the reversion of the Registrarship of the Star Chamber on the death of the occupant. As this event did not take place for many years, Bacon, like Walter Scott with his Clerkship, experienced all the humiliation of waiting to fill dead men's shoes. Surprise has been expressed that, considering the reputation of the late Sir Nicholas Bacon, his son, even in spite of the apathy of the Cecils, should not have received some marks of favour from the Queen. The young politician, however, in his zeal for the defence of popular privileges, had attacked, in the House, the attempt to force on the Commons a conference with the Lords, on a question of Supply; while he also had opposed the demand for large subsidies. Such offences were unpardonable without apologies the humblest, which do not appear to have been offered. Burghley and his son-Sir Robert Cecil-made the most of this "insubordination." They fanned the spark of irritation in the Queen's mind into the flame of indignation. Any solicitations on Bacon's part for promotion, therefore, were met with chilling silence or polite refusal. Personally, however, Burghley's constant refusal to assist Bacon proceeded as much from

the great statesman's detestation of nepotism as from contempt for his nephew's vanity and instability. To the resolute old Treasurer, Francis Bacon's versatility savoured too much of political volatility—an offence inexcusable in his eyes.

Bacon now resolved to be the suitor for his kinsmen's good offices no longer. He, therefore, transferred his allegiance to the party of the Earl of Essex, that brilliant but impetuous young nobleman, who, after climbing so high into the favour of the Queen, fell so disastrously through conduct that had not even the merit of opportunism to palliate it. But at this time he was the rising star in English politics, and the rival of the great Burghley himself. For Bacon, the young Earl

conceived an affection both warm and sincere. With the advancement of his friend's fortunes Essex specially charged himself, making request so persistently to the Queen, first for the AttorneyGeneralship, next for the Solicitor-Generalship, and finally for the post of "Master of the Rolls," that her Majesty begged him to speak on some other topic! When all these offices were put past Bacon, greatly to his chagrin, his patron consoled him with the gift of an estate at Twickenham, valued at £2000. They appear to have lived on terms of the closest intimacy, Bacon sharing in the social pleasures of Essex House, to aid which he wrote

the Masque "The Conference of Pleasure"-a line of work for which Bacon evinced special aptitude, as witness his "Palace of Learning" and contributions to the "Gesta Grayorum," written at the request of the Benchers of Gray's Inn. How profoundly he had studied even the art of amusing people is evident from his Essay on "Masques and Triumphs,"1 published in the 1625 edition of the work.

The question of the degree of Bacon's culpability in undertaking a part at least of the prosecution of Essex, when, upon the failure of the latter in 1599 to suppress Tyrone's rebellion in Ireland, and after his absurd attempt to raise an insurrection, he was impeached on a charge of high treason, is too vexed a problem to be discussed here with the limited space at our command. Let it suffice to say that while on the one hand Bacon had certainly been placed in possession of the facts of Essex's treasonable negotiations with the King of Scots, on the other he exhibited unnecessary rancour against his former benefactor, twice interposing to keep the Court in view of the main facts of the case, from which Coke's confusion had allowed the examination to wander.2 Professor Gardiner's opinion is perhaps the fairest summary of both sides of the matter. 1 P. 163. Cf. Nichol and Spedding.

? Essex's recriminations upon Bacon at his trial-but charges never denied by the latter. Cf. Nichol's Bacon and Macaulay's Essay.

"That the course Bacon took indicates poverty of moral feeling cannot be denied. Yet our sentiment on the precedence of personal over political ties is based on our increased sense of political security, and is hardly applicable to a state of things in which anarchy, with its attendant miseries, would inevitably have followed on the violent overthrow of the Queen's right to select her Ministers."

Essex was convicted, condemned, and executed. So threatening, however, was the attitude of the people, to whom the dashing, debonair Earl had presented himself in the light of a national hero by his capture and sack of Cadiz, that Elizabeth quailed before it, and insisted on an official "declaration" of Essex's treason being prepared. The drawing up of this was entrusted to Bacon. In it he persistently takes the blacker view of his late friend's conduct, refusing to admit any palliation of the crimes with which he was accused. Whether pricked in conscience over his conduct, or stung into irritation by the taunts of the friends of Essex, he issued immediately thereafter a justification of his action, which savours not a little of Jesuitical casuistry. Qui s'excuse s'accuse! There is reason to believe that the passage in the Essay on "Friendship," written in 1607, and beginning, "There be some whose lives are, as if they perpetually played upon a stage, disguised to all others, open only to