XXXvVi PREFACE. 
treason; and secondly, whether it was possible to establish a 
treasonable charge on the mere fact of composition, The 
idea of consulting the judges separately originated with the 
King. Whether he thought by this means to get a more 
genuine opinion from the others when they were not influenced 
by the presence and authority of Coke, or what was his 
motive, we have no means of knowing. That Bacon had 
anything to do with suggesting such a course, there is no 
evidence to show. What he did was to carry out the King’s 
instructions, and to lay the case before the Lord Chief Justice 
for his opinion. Coke’s opposition was not exerted against 
the consultation of the judges, but against their being con- 
sulted separately. None of the judges of the King’s Bench 
had to try the case, and therefore it is hard to see with what 
truth Bacon’s conduct can be described as tampering with 
the judges in order to procure a capital conviction, Peacham 
was ultimately tried at the assizes at Taunton, on the 7th of 
August, 4615, and convicted of high treason, but the capital 
sentence was never carried into effect, because, as the report 
of his trial says of his offence, ‘many of the judges were of 
opinion that it was not treason.’ That his case excited any 
indignation in the country, is a simple invention of Lord 
Campbell’s, 
On the 24th and 25th of May, 1616, Bacon took part as 
Attorney General in the trial of the Earl and Countess of 
Somerset for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. With 
the prosecution of the inferior agents in this mysterious crime 
he had nothing to do. During the early part of this year the 
health of the Lord Chancellor (Ellesmere) had been giving 
way, and Bacon was a suitor to the King for the office which 
seemed likely to be vacant. On the 9th of June he became a 
Privy Councillor, an appointment upon which he was formally 
congratulated by the University of Cambridge, which he 
represented in Parliament4, He had held the office of 
4 He now gave up his practice, though he retained his office of At- 
torney General, and employed his first leisure in addressing to the King a 
proposition for the compiling and amendment of the laws of England, 
