BACON. 



183 



Eae, 

 Francis. 



sive instruments. But charges of a more personal 

 nature arose against the chancellor ; and the House of 

 Commons, after receiving the complaints of a great 

 number of individuals, reported them to the lords, 

 and accused hrt lordship of having, in his judicial ca- 

 pacity, received bribes from suitors before the court 

 of chancery. At first he endeavoured to shelter Him- 

 self from the effects of a minute investigation, by 

 mingling vague protestations of his upright inten- 

 tions with a reluctant confession, that, through the 

 weakness of human nature, and the influence of evil 

 example, lie might have erred ; at the same time la- 

 bouring to persuade his judges, that the deprivation 

 of his office would have a more salutary effect in pre- 

 venting future delinquency, than the infliction of a 

 severer punishment. His judges, not mollified by 

 his submission, required him to give in a specific an- 

 swer to all the charges. He sent a letter to the 

 House, acknowledging himself guilty in almost all 

 the twenty-eight articles, and attempting to palliate 

 his criminality in a few of them. On the 3d of May, 

 six weeks after the investigation commenced, the fol- 

 lowing sentence was pronounced : " Upon complaint 

 of the commons against the Viscount St Albans, lord 

 chancellor, this high court hath thereby, and by his 

 own confession, found him guilty of the crimes and 

 corruptions complained of by the commons, and of 

 sundry other crimes and corruptions of like nature ; 

 and therefore this high court having first summoned 

 him to attend, and having his excuse of not attend- 

 ing by reason of infirmity and sickness, which he 

 protested was not feigned, or else he would most 

 willingly have attended, doth nevertheless think fit 

 to proceed to judgment, and therefore this high 

 court doth adjudge, That the Lord Viscount St 

 Albans shall undergo fine and ransom of 40,000 ; 

 that he shall be imprisoned in the Tower during the 

 king's pleasure ; that he shall for ever be incapable 

 of any office or employment in the state or common- 

 wealth ; that he shall never sit in parliament, or come 

 within the verge of the court." 



The only extenuation of Bacon's corruption, which 

 has ever been attempted, is thus pleaded by Addi- 

 son. " His principal fault seems to have been the 

 excess of that virtue which covers a multitude of 

 faults. This betrayed him to so great an indulgence 

 towards his servants, who made a corrupt use of it, 

 that it stripped him of all those riches and honours 

 which a long series of merits had heaped upon him." 

 This lame apology, feebly hinted at by the chancel- 

 lor himself, deserves little notice. His connivance 

 at the extortions of his servants was one of the cor- 

 ruptions charged on him ; and his guilt will not be 

 lessened by the supposition, that the support of their 

 extravagance led him to all his other acknowledged 

 nets of venality. To say that his unrighteous gains 

 were not avariciously hoarded, but lavished on his 

 unworthy dependents, or that want of economy had 

 plunged him into difficulties, or that it is chanty to 

 wink at violations of justice, is to insult the moral 

 feelings of mankind ; and on the same principles we 

 must excuse the depredations of every marauding 

 chief, who shares the spoil with the partakers of his 

 enormities. That the practice of taking presents 

 had long prevailed in the court of chancery, is not 



disputed ; but it is scarcely credible, that former chan- 

 cellors could have safely carried it on to the same im- 

 moderate extent, to which it appeared, on the trial, 

 to have proceeded in a single year; and no precedent 

 could form an excuse for such palpable baseness. 



The sentence of the high court of parliament was 

 not rigorously inflicted. After a short imprisonment, 

 he was released from the Tower, and the other parts 

 of his sentence were also remitted by the king, who 

 granted him a pension of .1800 a year. The re- 

 mainder of his days was passed in contemplation. 

 Though at the time of his fall he was sixty years of 

 age, the vigour of his understanding, and the inten- 

 sity of his application to study, were not in the 

 smallest degree impaired. During the period of his 

 humiliation, under the disadvantages of declining 

 health, dejected spirits, and embarrassed circum- 

 stances, he employed himself in writing and revising 

 those valuable works, which have, in a great mea- 

 sure, redeemed his name from disgrace, and placed 

 him in the first rank of modern philosophers. He 

 died at Highgate on the 9th of April 1626, from 

 the effects of some incautious experiments on the 

 preservation of bodies. He was buried in St Mi- 

 chael's church at St Albans, where a monument of 

 white marble was erected to his memory. He is re- 

 presented sitting in a contemplative posture, and un- 

 derneath is an inscription written by Sir Henry Wot- 

 ton, to the following purpose : Franciscus Bacon 

 Baro de Verulam, St Alb. Fie, sen notioribus titulis, 

 Scientiarum Lumen, Facundice Lex, sic sedebat : 

 Qui, postquam 'Omnia Naturalis Sapientice et Civilis 

 Arcana evolvisset, Naturae decretum explevit. 



The countenance of Bacon was strongly expres- 

 sive, and his ordinary conversation indicated the 

 quickness and universality of his talents. In his per- 

 son he was of the middle stature, and his figure was 

 food; but his constitution was by no means athletic, 

 le had a spacious forehead, dark hair and eye-brows, 

 a black penetrating eye, generally looking upward, a 

 very grave cast of features, and a capacity of speaking 

 like a master on every subject. " At one time, (says 

 Osborn,) he would entertain a country lord, in pro- 

 per terms, relating to horses and dogs ; and, at ano- 

 ther time, outcant a London surgeon." His opi- 

 nions and assertions were received as oracles; but he 

 always encouraged others to speak their sentiments, 

 and, in repeating the observations which he thus 

 drew forth, he never failed to clothe them with a 

 new dignity and grace, and to enrich them with the 

 additions of his own wisdom. Thus, (to use the 

 words of his chaplain, Dr Rawley,) " he would light 

 his torch at every man's candle." A remarkable 

 peculiarity in his constitution is gravely attested by 

 the same biographer. " It would seem the moon 

 had some principal place in the figure of his nativity ; 

 for she never was in her passion, but he was seized 

 with a sudden fit of fainting, and that though he took 

 no previous knowledge of the eclipse." He was 

 married about the age of forty, to a daughter of 

 Alderman Barnham, a lady of considerable fortune, 

 by whom he had no progeny. In the discharge of 

 his public functions, it is said, that he always acted 

 with courteousness and humanity, or, as the king ex- 

 pressed it, *' suavibus mod is j" but there is too great 



Bacon^ 

 Francis. 



