LIFE OF BACON. 



that period to counteract the then common custom of 

 importuning the judges, he warned Villiers of the evil. 

 &quot; By no means,&quot; he says, &quot; be you persuaded to inter 

 pose yourself, either by word or letter, in any cause de 

 pending, or like to be depending in any court of justice, 

 nor suffer any other great man to do it where you can 

 hinder it, and by all means dissuade the King himself 

 from it, upon the importunity of any for themselves or 

 their friends : if it should prevail, it perverts justice; but 

 if the judge be so just, and of such courage, as he ought 

 to be, as not to be inclined thereby, yet it always leaves a 

 taint of suspicion behind it; judges must be as chaste as 

 Cgesar s wife, neither to be, nor to be suspected to be un 

 just; and, Sir, the honour of the judges in their judicature 

 is the King s honour, whose person they represent.&quot; (a) 



The trial of Peacham took place at Taunton on the 7th 

 of August, 1615, before the Chief Baron and Sir Henry 

 Montagu. Bacon did not attend, but the prosecution was 

 conducted by the King s Serjeant and Solicitor, when the 

 old clergyman, who defended himself, &quot;very simply, al- 



head boldness and faction, said, she had an opinion that there was treason 

 in it, and asked me if I could not find any places in it that might be 

 drawn within case of treason : whereto I answered, for treason surely I 

 found none, but for felony very many. And when her majesty hastily 

 asked me, wherein ? I told her, the author had committed very apparent 

 theft : for he had taken most of the sentences of Cornelius Tacitus, and 

 translated them into English, and put them into his text; and another 

 time, when the Queen would not be persuaded that it was his writing 

 whose name was to it, but that it had some more mischievous author ; and 

 said with great indignation, that she would have him racked to produce his 

 author: I replied, &quot;Nay, madam, he is a doctor; never rack his person, 

 but rack his style ; let him have pen, ink, and paper, and help of books, 

 and be enjoined to continue the story where it breaketh off, and I will 

 undertake by collating the styles to judge whether he were the author 

 or no.&quot; 



(a) See Advice to Villiers, vol. vi. p. 400. 



