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TIIE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



shrunk ; his sympathetic readers will carry away 

 from the perusal of his pages notions the very 

 opposite of those found in Lord Macaulay's pages, 

 and even radically different from those given by 

 that most scrupulous and veracious writer, Mr. 

 Gardiner. This is the price, then, we must pay 

 for getting Francis Bacon reclaimed to the paths 

 of integrity : we must unlearn all that we have 

 hitherto learned of a big section of English ac- 

 tivity, and learn its history all over again, taking 

 special care to change all our sinners into saints 

 and all our saints into sinners. I am not sure 

 whether we shall not also have to overhaul, in 

 some measure, our old ideas of right and wrong — 

 at any rate have to make those we strive to judge 

 by somewhat elastic. 



Perhaps the chapter of Bacon's life that looks 

 ugliest to the casual observer, as yet a stranger 

 to the power of explanations, is the chapter that 

 unfolds his dealings with the young Earl of Es- 

 sex. Yet Bacon's admirers find no difficulty 

 whatever in it. They admit that Essex worked 

 zealously to advance Bacon's interests, became 

 his champion against every possible rival, labored 

 with a generous enthusiasm to win office and dis- 

 tinction for him, and when all his efforts failed 

 to overcome the reluctance of the queen, gave 

 Bacon an estate, which he afterward sold for 

 what would be nearly £9,000 now. They as- 

 sert, however, that Bacon paid for these benefits 

 by services rendered to Essex of at least equal 

 value — letters of advice, and such like, accepting 

 as literal truth Bacon's own statement, "I did 

 not only labor carefully and industriously in that 

 he set me about, whether it were matter of advice 

 or otherwise, but neglecting the queen's service, 

 mine own fortune, and in a sort my vocation, I 

 did nothing but devise and ruminate with myself, 

 to the best of my understanding, propositions and 

 memorials of anything that might concern his 

 lordship's honor, fortune, or service." * The ob- 

 ligations being thus about equal, there was no 

 reason, they think, why Bacon should not bring 

 into play all his powers of persuasion to insure 

 his former friend's conviction for treason, when 

 he was manifestly guilty of treason. Bacon, they 

 also say, had a stronger feeling within him than 

 friendship — a devouring zeal for the public ser- 

 vice. Again, to use his own words, " Whatso- 

 ever I did concerning that action and proceeding " 

 (the trial of Essex) " was done in my duty and ser- 

 vice to the queen and the state; in which I would 

 not show myself false-hearted nor faint-hearted 

 for any man's sake living." Bacon, it is clear, 

 1 Spedding, vol. iii., p. 143. 



was more an antique Roman than a vulgar Eng- 

 lishman : he would cheerfully have settled the 

 rope round the neck of his own brother to save 

 from the slightest harm a queen or state — that 

 had offices to bestow ! 



As to the first of these pleas, it can owe its 

 validity only to the principle that all friendship 

 is but a debit and credit account, and that, when 

 the two sides exactly balance each other, the so- 

 called friends are quits, their relations return to 

 their original state, and each is at liberty to act 

 as if he had never received from or done a kind- 

 ness to the other. Bacon's apology, after his 

 friend's death, is therefore a kind of lawyer's bill : 

 Dr. so much advice and looking after somewhat 

 complicated affairs, 1 Cr. so much zeal on various 

 occasions and a small estate. The columns are 

 totted up, the amounts are exactly equal ; no 

 one who knows how to do a sum in simple addi- 

 tion can reasonably blame Bacon for giving his 

 professional services to the crown against Essex. 

 Yet few, I am sure, can see without a pang the 

 largest-brained philosopher of the modern world 

 rising in court and coldly shutting the door of 

 hope against the generous, unselfish, eager-heart- 

 ed friend of former days who stood at bay before 

 him gallantly fighting for his life. " I have never 

 yet seen in any case," he said, " such favor shown 

 to any prisoner ; so many digressions, such de- 

 livering of evidence by fractions, and so silly a 

 defense of such great and notorious treasons," 9 

 and so on, giving a keener edge to the axe by 

 every sentence. "To this," an eye-witness re- 

 ports, "the earl answered little;" and we can 

 well believe him. 



What Essex's case is in Bacon's extra-official 

 public career Peacham's is in his official. Peach- 

 am was a Somersetshire clergyman, among whose 

 papers was found a manuscript sermon that had 

 never been preached, in which the king's policy 

 was assailed with virulence, and a sweeping ven- 

 geance was predicted for the king and his minis- 

 ters. James took fright ; the speotre of a wide- 

 spread nefarious Puritan conspiracy rose before 

 his mind ; Peacham was seized, charged with trea- 

 son, and measures were taken to make him dis- 

 close the names of his supposed accomplices. 

 Peacham had no accomplices to disclose. There- 

 upon it was resolved in Council to put him to the 

 torture, and a warrant was issued to Winwood 

 the secretary, Bacon the attorney-general, and six 

 others, to see the poor wretch tortured. The war- 

 rant was duly executed — in the words of the report 



> " Anxiety of Mind," Mythical Lawyer's Bill. 

 8 Spedding, vol. ii., p. 229. 



