XV111 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 

 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- 



