DR RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 7 



great satisfaction. Nevertheless, though she cheered him much 

 with the bounty of her countenance, yet she never cheered 

 him with the bounty of her hand ; having never conferred upon 

 him any ordinary place or means of honour or profit, save 

 only one dry reversion of the Register's Office in the Star 

 Chamber, worth about 1600/. per annum, for which he waited 

 in expectation either fully or near twenty years l ; of which 

 his lordship would say in Queen Elizabeth's time, That it was 

 like another man's ground buttalling upon his house, which might 

 mend his prospect, but it did not Jill his barn ; (nevertheless, in 

 the time of King James it fell unto him) ; which might be im- 

 puted, not so much to Her Majesty's averseness and disaffection 

 towards him, as to the arts and policy of a great statesman 

 then, who laboured by all industrious and secret means to 

 suppress and keep him down ; lest, if he had risen, he might 

 have obscured his glory. 2 



But though he stood long at a stay in the days of his mistress 

 Queen Elizabeth, yet after the change, and coming in of his new 

 master King James, he made a great progress ; by whom he 

 was much comforted in places of trust, honour, and revenue. 

 I have seen a letter of his lordship's to King James, wherein 

 he makes acknowledgment, That he was that master to him, that 

 had raised and advanced him nine times ; thrice in dignity, and 

 six times in office. His offices (as I conceive) were Counsel 

 Learned Extraordinary 3 to His Majesty, as he had been to 

 Queen Elizabeth ; King's Solicitor-General ; His Majesty's At- 

 torney-General ; Counsellor of Estate, being yet but Attorney; 

 Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England ; lastly, Lord Chan- 

 cellor ; which two last places, though they be the same in au- 

 thority and power, yet they differ in patent, height, and favour 

 of the prince; since \\hose time none of his successors, until 



1 The reversion, for which he considered himself indebted to Burghley, was 

 granted to him in October 1589. He succeeded to the office in July 1608. In the 

 Latin version Rawley adds that he administered it by deputy. 



2 The person here alluded to is probably his cousin Robert Cecil, who, though he 

 always professed an anxiety to serve him, was supposed (apparently not without 

 reason) to have thrown obstacles secretly in the way of his advancement. 



3 See note 3. p. 5. Rawley should rather have said " counsel learned, no longer 

 extraordinary" It is true indeed that King James did at his first entrance confirm 

 Bacon by warrant under the sign manual in the same office which he had held under 

 Elizabeth by special commandment. But it was the " establishing him and bringing 

 him into ordinary " with a salary of 401., which he reckons as first in the series of 

 advancements. This was in 1604. He was made solicitor in 1 607, attorney in 1613, 

 counsellor of state in 1616, lord-keeper in 1617, lord chancellor in 1618. His 

 successive dignities were conferred respectively in 1G03, 1618, and 1620-1. 



R 4 



