law had been exhausted in his case sixteen years back, when he had been convicted of treason. They held :

"That Sir Walter Raleigh, having been attainted of high treason, which is the highest and last work of the law, he cannot be drawn in question judicially for any crime or offense since committed."

They recommended:

"Either that a warrant should be immediately sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower for his immediate execution under the former sentence, or that he should be brought before the Council and principal judges, some of the nobility and gentlemen of quality being admitted to be present, and there being a recital of all his recent offenses, and then he being heard and withdrawn-without any fresh sentence, the Lords of the Council and judges should give their advice openly, whether, in respect of these offenses, the King might not, with justice and honor, give warrant for his execution on his attainder."

Execution of the sentence sixteen years old was awarded; and, to pacify Spain, more than to vindicate the law, the scholar, sailor and soldier, the patriot of one reign and the ornament of two, was beheaded. His behavior on the scaffold was that of a Christian philosopher. Profane history has no parallel; and never died an Englishman so eloquently, if we consider either the pity and indignation which he awakened • among his contemporaries, or the opinions of historians and biographers from that time to this.

Bacon shared the unpopularity of this execution as he shared that attendant upon the execution of Essex, and he was again employed in writing the "Declaration," or defense, which was to excuse the inexcusable.

The pen which performed this office turned, with comprehensive facility, to figuring in pounds, shillings and pence, and the preparation of a statement of the King's finances, as a New Year's gift to James, which, though not completed in time for presentation on that day, was promised by a letter dated January 2, 1618. This letter presents a glowing picture of a happy King and people, poetical in its conception and execution, but having one dark stroke of the pencil across its face, the happy people would not lend or give the good King enough money to squander in extravagance, which added nothing to the "true greatness of Britain."

The subsequent pages in Bacon's official life are not of much interest until we reach the last, which is not far removed. The prosecution of the Earl of Suffolk for trafficking with the public money; the prosecution of Attorney-General Yelverton, at the instigation of Buckingham; and the prosecution of Dutch merchants for the exportation of bullion, were the prominent causes in which he appeared. When Bacon was temporarily out of favor, waiting with fear and trembling the coming of the King and favorite from Scotland, Yelverton went forth to face the anger of both, and exhibited, as we have seen, a disinterested care of Bacon, forewarning and forearming him by the friendly letter which has already been quoted. But it seems that this friendship had come to an end. eth pretty pert with me of late," writes the Lord Chancellor to the favorite. Yelverton was prosecuted, as Lord Campbell puts it, "on the pretext of having introduced into a charter, granted the city of London, certain clauses alleged not to be agreeable to the King's warrant, and derogatory to his honor," but in

"Mr. Attorney grow

fact, because to Bacon and Buckingham he "gave great offense by refusing to pass some illegal patents." Bacon reported to Buckingham, with some pride, the vigor he displayed in the Star Chamber on this occasion: :

"I have almost killed myself," he writes, "by sitting almost eight hours. How I stirred the court I leave to others to speak. I would not for anything, but he had made his defense, for many deep parts of the charge were deeper printed by the defense."

This is small enough glorification over the fall of a man; but let us see what sentimental capital Bacon made out of the opportunity. A memorandum of what he was to say in passing sentence on Yelverton fastens hypocrisy of the worst dye upon him, when contrasted with his unsympathetic report to Buckingham:

"Sorry for the person, being a gentleman I lived with in Gray's Inn, served with him when I was attorney, joined with him in many services, and one that ever gave me more attributes in public than I deserved; and, besides, a man of very good parts, which, with me, is friendship at first sight, much more, joined with so ancient an acquaintance. But, as judge, hold the offense very great, etc.”

Chuckling with Buckingham over Yelverton's defense, congratulating himself that it unfavorably impressed the triers, then, after conviction, pretending sorrow and magnanimity in passing the sentence which followed. But all through this inglorious career, while engaged in seeking office, in executing office; while leader in the House of Commons, and in all capacities vigorously performing the legitimate and illegitimate tasks assigned

him; while flattering a pedantic and conceited King, fawning around a passionate and corrupt favorite, taking sides in a family quarrel, and then deserting the cause he had espoused; while thus disgracefully occupied in public life, he, in private life, was nobly employed upon the greatest work of his pen. And now he gave to the world his "Novum Organum.”

The King, unworthy of its dedication, made a proper acknowledgment of the honor in a letter to Bacon. Coke wrote on the fly-leaf of the copy which Bacon was weak enough to give him, the following distich, exhibiting temper as bad as his poetry:

"It deserveth not to be read in schools,

But to be freighted in the Ship of Fooles."

The scholars, at home and abroad, who had been waiting patiently for its publication, received it with warm and flattering appreciation. To them Bacon was a philosopher; and in this character they knew him, judged him, and revered him.

PART III.

FROM PUBLICATION OF "NOVUM ORGANUM," OCT. 12, 1620, TO DEATH OF BACON, APRIL 10, 1626.

Place, power, fortune and fame,- -all now seemed to be Bacon's. As Lord Chancellor and Lord Verulam, as the first lawyer, councillor and scholar in England, he celebrated his sixtieth birthday. Friends, disciples, poets and flatterers gathered around him at York House. Everything was on an extravagant and magnificent scale. And Ben Jonson was there to read an ode which the occasion inspired.

But in the midst of all this sunshine a fatal storm was brewing. The King's son-in-law, depending on English sympathy and Protestant enthusiasm, had accepted the crown of Bohemia. Instead of yielding to public sentiment and improving the opportunity of becoming the arbiter of Europe's fate, achieving popularity and glory by becoming the champion of Protestantism, James assumed the rôle of judge and mediator. While he was playing at King-craft, the Spaniards fooled him, and the Catholic coalition made his son-in-law a princely vagabond. Then it was that the duped King yielded to English and Protestant indignation, and summoned parliament to supply sinews

E