WlLLtAMS*s ADVICE. cccxliii 



attended with danger to your lordship and to his majesty* 

 These popular outcries thrive by opposition, and when they 

 cease to be opposed, they cease to exist. The Chancellor 

 has been accused. He cannot escape unheard* He must 

 be acquitted or convicted. He cannot, in this time of 

 excitement and prejudgment, expect justice. His mind 

 will easily be impressed by the fate of other great men, 

 sacrifices to the blind ignorance of a vulgar populace, 

 whom talent will not propitiate or innocence appease. Can 

 it be doubted, that the prudent course will be the Chan 

 cellor s submission, as an atonement for all who are under 

 popular suspicion. The only difficulty will be to prevail 

 upon him to submit. He has resolved to defend himself, 

 and in speech he is all powerful ; but he is of a yielding 

 nature, a lover of letters, in mind contemplative, although 

 in life active; his love of retirement may be wrought 

 upon ; the King can remit any fine, and, the means once 

 secured to him of learned leisure for the few remaining 

 years of his life, he will easily be induced to quit the 

 paradise of earthly honours.&quot; 



So spake the prelate, and the voice that promised present 

 immunity to the King and his humbled favourite, seemed 

 to them the voice of an angel ; but the remedies of a state 

 empiric, like those of all empirics, are only immediate 

 relief; &quot; they help at a pang, but soon leese their opera 

 tion.&quot; (a) 



The King fatally resolved upon this concession, (b) and 

 Bacon s remarkable prediction fell upon him and his sue- 



(a) See ante, p. xlvi. 



(&) The giving them over to the power of the parliament not only 

 weakened his own prerogative, but put the House of Commons upon such 

 a pin, that they would let no parliament pass (for the times to come) with 

 out some such sacrifice. And so fell Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, 

 Lord Verulam, and Viscount of St. Albans. Heylin. 



