NOTE Z Z. 



Fuller. 



Such as condemn him for pride, in his place with the fifth part of his parts, 

 had been ten times prouder themselves. He had been a better master if he had 

 been a worse, being too bountiful to his servants, and either too confident of 

 their honesty, or too conniving at their falsehood. The story is told to his 

 advantage, that he had two servants, one in all causes patron to the plaintiff 

 (whom his charity presumed always injured) the other to the defendant (pitying 

 him as compelled to law), but taking bribes of both, with this condition, to 

 restore the money received if the cause went against them. Their lord, igno 

 rant thereof, always did impartial justice; whilst his men (making people pay 

 for what was given them) by compact shared the money betwixt them, which 

 cost their master the loss of his office. 



Bushel. Rushworth. 



He was over indulgent to his servants, and connived at their takings, and their 

 ways betrayed him to that error : they were profuse and expensive, and had at 

 their command whatever he was master of. The gifts taken were for the most 

 part for interlocutory orders : his decrees were generally made with so much 

 equity, that though gifts rendered him suspected for injustice, yet never any 

 decree made by him was reversed as unjust, as it has been observed by some 

 who were well skilled in our laws. -Rushworth s Collection, vol. i. 26. 



Aubrey. 



His favourites took bribes, but his lordship always gave judgment secundum 

 aequum et bonum. His decrees in Chancery stand firm ; there are fewer of his 

 decrees reversed than of any other Chancellor. 



Lloyd. 



He reflected upon himself, when he said to his servants as they rose to him 

 in the hall, &quot; Your rise hath been my fall.&quot; Though, indeed, he rather 

 trusted to their honesty, than connived at their falsehood, yet he did impartial 

 justice commonly to both parties, when one servant was in fee with the plaintiff, 

 and the other with the defendant. 



It seems scarcely possible to suppose that if the judgments of the Chancellor 

 had been influenced by the solicitations and presents, the intimacy between him 

 and the King and Buckingham would have continued. The idea of his judg 

 ments being tainted never enter the mind of Lord Bacon. This appears from 

 various passages in his works. 



In his letter to Buckingham, written as soon as the charge was made, he says : 



To the Marquis of Buckingham, (a) 



My very good Lord, Your lordship spoke of purgatory. I am now in it ; 

 but my mind is in a calm ; for my fortune is not my felicity. I know I have 

 clean hands, and a clean heart; and, I hope, a clean house for friends or ser 

 vants. But Job himself, or whosoever was the justest judge, by such hunting 

 for matters against him, as hath been used against me, may for a time seem 

 foul, especially in a time when greatness is the mark, and accusation is the 

 game. And if this be to be a Chancellor, I think, if the great seal lay upon 

 Hounslow Heath, nobody would take it up. But the King and your lordship 

 will, I hope, put an end to these my straits one way or other. And in troth 

 that which I fear most is, lest continual attendance and business, together with 

 these cares, and want of time to do my weak body right this spring by diet and 

 physic, will cast me down ; and that it will be thought feigning, or fainting. 

 But I hope in God I shall hold out. God prosper you. 



(a) This letter seems to have been written soon after Lord St. Alban began 

 to be accused of abuses in his office of Chancellor. 



