PREFACE. xli 



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. In a 

 paper of memoranda which he drew up at the time, and 

 which has been printed by Mr. Montagu (Bacon s Works&amp;gt; xvi. 

 p* i. 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 



