PREFACE. xii 
serving of turns, be they of great ones or small ones.’ In 
his Essay ‘Of Great Place,’ first published in 1612, and re- 
' issued in 1625, he says: ‘For corruption: Do not only bind 
thine own hands, or thy servants’ hands, from taking, but 
bind the hands of suitors also from offering.’ In confessing 
himself guilty of corruption, therefore, does he admit that 
the whole practice of his life had been a falsification of his 
principles? Let us see. Of the twenty-two cases of bribery 
with which he was charged, and which we may safely assume 
were all that the malice of his enemies could discover against 
him, there are but four in which he allows that he had in 
any way received presents before the causes were ended} 
and even in these, though technically the presents were made 
pendente lite, there is no hint that they affected his decision. 
During the four years of his Chancellorship he had made 
orders and decrees to the number of two thousand a year, 
as he himself wrote to the Lords, and of the charges 
brought against him there was scarcely one that was not two 
years old. The witnesses to some of the most important 
were Churchill, a registrar of the Court of Chancery, who 
had been discharged for fraud; and Hastings, who contra- 
dicted himself so much that his testimony is worthless. But 
we are more concerned with Bacon’s confession of guilt than 
with the evidence by which the charge was supported. Ina 
paper of memoranda which he drew up at the time, and 
which has been printed by Mr. Montagu (Bacon’s Works, xvi. 
pt 1. p. cccxlv), he writes: ‘There be three degrees or cases, 
as I conceive, of gifts or rewards given to a judge. The first 
is of bargain, contract, or promise of reward, pendente lite. 
And of this my heart tells me I am innocent; that I had no 
bribe or reward in my eye or thought when I pronounced 
any sentence or order. The second is a neglect in the 
judge to inform himself whether the cause be fully at an 
end, or no, what time he receives the gift; but takes it upon 
the credit of the party that all is done, or otherwise omits 
to inquire. And the third is, when it is received sine fraude, 
after the cause ended; which it seems, by the opinions of 
