XVIII PREFACE, 
followed the partial failure of the Island voyage, the total 
failure of the Irish expedition, his hasty return, the Queen’s 
displeasure, and then the final catastrophe. 
But we must go back for a while to see in what matters 
Bacon was occupied. In 1595 the question of Star-Chamber 
Fees was undergoing investigation, and in consequence, cer- 
=a 
tain fees hitherto claimed by the Clerk had been restrained __ 
by the Lord Keeper. Bacon, who was immediately interested, 
addressed a paper to Egerton on the subject in July 1597. 
His estate at this time, as he confesses in another letter, was 
‘weak and indebted,’ a condition which he attributed in part 
to the slender provision made for him by his father, and 
greatly also to the plan of his own life, in which he ‘rather 
referred and aspired to virtue than to gain.’ Want was steal- 
ing upon him. But he was not disheartened. There were 
three means of preventing it: his practice, in which he was 
conscious of not playing his best; the prospect of a place 
under government; and the reversion of the clerkship of the 
Star-Chamber. The last of these he proposed to give up to 
the Lord Keeper’s son, if Egerton would obtain the Master- 
ship of the Rolls for him; but once more he failed, and the 
office was not filled up till the next reign. 
The ninth Parliament of Elizabeth met on the 24th of 
October, 1597, and Bacon sat as member for Ipswich. His 
first speech was. on a motion which he brought forward 
‘against depopulation of towns and houses of husbandry, and 
for the maintenance of husbandry and tillage,’ a question 
which in after years possessed his mind, and was discussed in 
his Essay ‘ Of the true Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates,’ 
first published in 1612, and again in his History of Henry VII. 
in 1622. An examination of D’Ewes’s Journal of the House 
of Commons shows that his name is to be found on com- 
mittees for the consideration of every question of import- 
ance during this session, and that though the Queen had not 
yet forgiven his conduct on a former occasion, his position in 
the House was as high as ever. 
But if his reputation was increasing his debts were in- 
