XXXVI 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. Peacharn 

 was ultimately tried at the assizes at Taunton, on the 7th of 

 August, 1615, 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 Parliament d . He had held the office of 



* 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. 



