PREFACE, . Xili 
of Commons, and to preserve this he moved, ‘that now they 
might proceed herein by themselves apart from their Lord- 
ships.’ After considerable discussion the question was ultim- 
ately put to the House, that no such conference should be 
had with the Lords, and was carried by a majority of 217 to 
128. The point of privilege was yielded, and a motion of Sir 
Walter Ralegh’s for a general conference with the Lords 
carried unanimously. As thé result of this, the original pro- 
position was so far modified that four years instead of three 
were to be allowed for the payment of the subsidies. Bacon 
‘assented to three subsidies, but not to the payment under six 
years,’ but he was outvoted and made no further difficulty. 
Such was the solitary act of patriotism of which Macaulay 
says Bacon was guilty. And even for this, he adds, he made 
the most abject apologies. Two letters of Bacon’s on this 
subject have been preserved, one to Lord Burghley, the other 
probably, as Mr. Spedding conjectures, to Essex. The tone 
of both is that of manly justification of his conduct ; in neither 
is there one syllable of apology or regret for what he had 
done. He is evidently surprised at being misunderstood. The 
Queen was angry at his speeches, and Bacon expresses his 
grief that she ‘ should retain an hard conceit’ of them. What 
follows is very instructive. ‘It. mought please her sacred 
Majesty to think what my end should be in those speeches, 
if it were not duty, and duty alone. Iam not so simple but I 
know the common beaten way to please. And whereas popul- 
arity hath been objected, I muse what care I should take to 
please many, that taketh a course of life to deal with few.’ 
At this juncture the Attorney-Generalship was vacant, and 
whatever chance Bacon might have had, through the influence 
of Essex, of being appointed to the post, was entirely nullified 
by the Queen’s displeasure. For himself he was not anxious 
for the honour, but he assured Elizabeth, in a letter which was 
intended to appease her, that he was ready to do that for her 
service which he would not do for his own gain. ‘My mind,’ 
he says, ‘turneth upon other wheels than those of profit.” Had 
it not been for this chance, however, he would probably have 
