

NOTE X 7. 



And iii his letter of March 25, to the King, he says : And for the briberies 

 and gifts wherewith I am charged, when the books of hearts shall be opened, 1 

 hope I shall not be found to have the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart, in a 

 depraved habit of taking rewards to pervert justice ; howsoever I may be frail, 

 and partake of the abuses of the times. 



When the Chancellor saw the King in April, during the recess, he had pre 

 pared notes of his intended communication to the King. The following are the 

 notes : 



Memoranda of what the Lord Chancellor intended to deliver to the King, 

 April 16, 1621, upon his first access to his Majesty after his troubles. 



If your majesty will graciously give me the hearing, I will open my heart 

 unto you, both touching my fault and fortune. For the former of these, I shall 

 deal ingenuously with your majesty, without seeking fig-leaves or subterfuges. 

 There be three degrees, or cases, as I conceive, of gifts and rewards given to a 

 judge : the first is of bargain, contract, or promise of reward, pendente lite. 

 And this is properly called venalissententia,or baratriu, or corrupted munerum. 

 And of this my heart tells me I am innocent; that I had no bribe or reward in 

 my eye or thought, when I pronounced any sentence or order. The second is a 

 neglect in the judge to inform himself whether the cause be fully at an end or 

 no, what time he receives the gift, but takes it upon the credit of the party, that 

 all is done; or otherwise omits to inquire. And the third is, when it is 

 received sine fraude, after the cause ended ; which, it seems by the opinion of 

 the civilians, is no offence. Look into the case of simony, &c. 



Now, if I might see the particulars of my charge, I should deal plainly with 

 your majesty, in whether of these degrees every particular case falls. But for 

 the first of them, I take myself to be as innocent as any born upon St. Inno 

 cents 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; but therein I desire 

 to be better informed, that I may be twice penitent, once for the fact, and again 

 for the error. For I had rather be a briber than a defender of bribes. 



I must likewise confess to your majesty, that at new-years tides, and likewise 

 at my first coming in, which was, as it were my wedding, I did not so precisely, 

 as perhaps 1 ought, examine whether those that presented me had causes before 

 me, yea or no. And this is simply all that I can say for the present, concerning 

 my charge, until I may receive it more particularly. And all this while, I do 

 not fly to that, as to say that these things are villa temporis, and not vitia 

 hominis, 



And in another letter to Buckingham he says : I perceive by some speech, 

 that passed between your lordship and Mr. Meautys, that some wretched 

 detractor hath told you that it were strange I should be in debt ; for that I 

 could not but have received an hundred thousand pounds gifts since 1 had the 

 seal, which is an abominable falsehood. Such tales as these made St. James 

 say, that the tongue is a fire, and itself filed from hell, whither when these 

 tongues shall return, they will beg a drop of water to cool them. I praise God 

 for it, I never took penny for any benefice or ecclesiastical living ; I never took 

 penny for releasing any thing 1 stopped at the seal ; I never took penny for any 

 commission, or things of that nature ; I never shared with any servant for any 

 second or inferior profit. My offences I have myself recorded, wherein I 

 studied, as a good confessant, guiltiness, and not excuse; and therefore 1 hope 

 it leaves me fair to the king s grace, and will turn many men s hearts to me. 



The state of Lord Bacon s mind may also be discovered by his own rule, the 

 sudden expressions which were made by him when the charge was made. 



In the Advancement of Learning, he says, that the modes by which words 

 give us an insight into character are, when they are sudden, &quot; vino tortus et 

 ira.&quot; So, when speaking of the use of Mechanical History, he says, &quot; As a 

 man s disposition is never well known till he be crossed, nor Proteus ever 

 changed shapes till he was straitened and held fast ; so the passages and varia 

 tions of nature cannot appear so fully in the liberty of nature, as in the trials 

 and vexations of art.&quot; 



