10 J. HOPKINSOJT — ANNrVEESARY ADDRESS : 



England,' in which he gives advice of value for all time. In 1592, 

 just three centuries ago, he writes the letter to his uncle, Lord 

 Burleigh, in which occurs the memorable expression : " I have taken 

 all knowledge to be my province." 



During the Parliament of 1593, England is again threatened 

 with foreign invasion. The Spaniards, being victorious in France, 

 having penetrated even to Calais, there is no telling how soon they 

 may attack Dover, and while London is being decimated by the 

 plague, and levies are being raised in England for Henri Quatre, 

 King of France, money is reijuired for the sinews of war. The 

 Peers decide the amount — three subsidies, each of four shillings in 

 the pound, in three years. To dictate to the Commons the amount 

 they are to give is an innovation, and the tax is unpreccdentedly 

 heavy. Will no one contest the question, under peril of incurring 

 the Queen's displeasure, and perhaps of imprisonment ? For less 

 offence one member had been immured in the Tower and another 

 in the Fleet. Only one dare do it, and that one is Francis Bacon. 

 " To give," he says, " is the prerogative of the people — to dictate 

 what they shall give is not the duty of the House of Peers." A 

 debate ensues, the House divides, and Bacon gains his point. But 

 the money must be raised, so Sir Walter Ptaleigh says, and the 

 Commons can now grant it of their own free-will ; aiid would have 

 done so ; but Bacon again steps forward, says that he fears such a 

 heavy tax may raise discontent, and suggests that the period shall 

 be doubled, reducing the subsidy to two shillings in the pound 

 each year, and that the grant shall be declared exceptional. The 

 result is a compromise ; four years are allowed, and a clause is 

 inserted in the Bill declaring that the money " is given solely for 

 the war against Spain." Bacon, by his independent action, has 

 established for ever the exclusive right of the House of Commons 

 to directly tax the peojile for imperial purposes, and to define the 

 use to which the money raised shall be applied. The Sovereign 

 was not yet, however, entirely dependent upon the Commons for 

 supplies, having power to raise money by indirect taxation, etc., 

 but no large amount could thus be obtained. 



This same year begets a friendship which has, more than any- 

 thing else, given occasion for the formation of an unjust estimate 

 of Bacon's character, and a rivalry which, nearly thirty years 

 hence, will cause his ruin. The friend is the Earl of Essex, 

 grandson of a cousin of the Queen, petted and spoiled by her for 

 lack of a grandson of her own to pet and spoil. The rival is Sir 

 Edward Coke, then Speaker of the House of Commons, a clever 

 lawyer, but a hot-headed, blood-thirsty bully, who sees that Bacon's 



