LIFE OF BACON. 



The same course of private consultation with the judges 

 would have been adopted in the case of Owen, had not 

 the Attorney General been so clear in his opinion of the 

 treason, as to induce him to think it inexpedient to imply 

 that any doubt could be entertained, (a) 



His speeches against Owen (b) and Talbot,(c) which are 

 preserved, are in the usual style of speeches of this nature, 

 with some of the scurrility by which the eloquence of the 

 bar was at that time polluted. 



When speaking of the King s clemency, he says, &quot; The 

 King has had too many causes of irritation : he has been 

 irritated by the Powder treason, when, in the chair of 

 majesty, his vine and olive branches about him, attended 

 by his nobles and third estate in parliament, he was, in 

 the twinkling of an eye, as if it had been a particular 

 doomsday, to have been brought to ashes, and dispersed to 

 the four winds. He hath been irritated by wicked and 

 monstrous libels, and by the violence of demagogues, who 

 have at all times infested, and in times of disturbance, 

 when the scum is uppermost, ever will infest society ; con 

 fident and daring persons, Nihil tarn verens, quam ne dubi- 

 tare aliqud de re, videretur, priding themselves in pulling 



() A letter to the King of account of Owen s cause, &c. llth Feb. 1614. 



It may please your excellent Majesty, Myself, with the rest of your 

 jcounsel learned, conferred with my Lord Cooke and the rest of the judges 

 of the King s Bench only, being met at my lord s chamber, concerning the 

 business of Owen. For although it be true that your majesty in your letter 

 did mention, that the same course might be held in the taking of opinions 

 apart, in this which was prescribed and used in Peacham s cause; yet 

 both my lords of the council and we, amongst ourselves, holding it in 

 a case so clear, not needful; but rather that it would import a diffidence 

 in us, and deprive us of the means to debate it with the judges (if cause 

 were) more strongly (which is somewhat) we thought best rather to use 

 this form. 



(/&amp;gt;) Vol. vi. p. 172. (c) Vol. vi. p. 452. 



