xlii PREFACE. 



the civilians, is no offence. In another draft he adds this 

 comment: For the first, I take myself to be as innocent 

 as any born on St. Innocents day in my heart. For the 

 second, I doubt in some particulars I may be faulty. And 

 for the last, I conceived it to be no fault/ 



Such is Bacon s own interpretation of his confession, and 

 we are bound to accept it, for it is borne out by twenty-two 

 of the articles of the charge. To the twenty-third article, 

 that he had given way to great exactions by his servants, ( he 

 confessed it to be a great fault that he had looked no better 

 to his servants. With this confession, we may leave his 

 name and memory, as he left it in his will, to men s charit 

 able speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next ages. 

 The verdict can hardly be other than that he pronounced 

 himself: I was the justest judge that was in England these 

 fifty years ; but it was the justest censure in Parliament that 

 was these two hundred years. This censure, pronounced on 

 the 3rd of May by the Lords, was that he should pay a fine of 

 4o,ooo/. and be imprisoned in the Tower during the King s 

 pleasure ; that he should thenceforth be incapable of holding 

 any office in the State, or of sitting in Parliament ; and that he 

 should not come within the verge of the Court. He had 

 resigned the Seal to the King on the ist of May. It had 

 been decided by a majority of two that his titles were not to 

 be taken from him. But the sentence of imprisonment was 

 partially carried out, evidently to his great astonishment. On 

 the 3ist of May he was taken to the Tower, and instantly 

 wrote a passionate letter to Buckingham, Good my Lord, 

 procure the warrant for my discharge this day. The order 

 must have been given at once. On the 4th of June he wrote to 

 thank the King and Buckingham for his release. On the ;th e he 

 dated a letter to the Prince of Wales from Sir John Vaughan s 

 house at Parson s Green, whither he had been allowed to 

 retire. On the pth, Chamberlain writes to Carleton that the 



e The date usually given to this letter, June i. is obviously mcorrect. 

 Mr. Spedding informs me that it should be June 7. 



