FROM ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TO PUBLICATION OF "NOVUM ORGANUM," OCTOBER 10, 1620.

Elizabeth, throughout her reign, would never permit the question of succession to be mentioned or discussed. A dying nod in the direction of Scotland was her only confirmation of the divine right of James.

"A mouse that trusts to one poor hole

Can never be a mouse of any soul."

So thought the statesmen and courtiers, great and little, who advised, obeyed and flattered the great Queen and vain woman.

Sir Robert Cecil, the Earl of Northumberland, and others, had, for years previous to the Queen's death, been in secret correspondence with James.

Anthony Bacon, who, as an amateur, was dabbling in all politics, had, in connection with the Earl of Essex, also established a correspondence with certain persons around King James. Francis Bacon, who was cognizant of this, now proposed to utilize whatever capital his brother had accumulated under Essex. On this capital of his dead brother and dead patron he now traded. To one of his brother's correspondents

osed a letter to the King himself, in which he this tribute to the memory of Elizabeth: "A prins happy in many things, but most happy in her sucessor." Yet he must have known James to have been a pedant, a coward and a trifler; a man whose defects and deficiencies were aggravated by contrast with the woman who had preceded him. Bacon next proceeds to invite the King's kindly glances to himself:

“And yet further and more nearly, I was not a little encouraged, not only upon a supposal that unto Your Majesty's sacred ears (open to the air of all virtues), there might perhaps have come some small breath of the good memory of my father, so long a principal counsellor in this your kingdom; but also by the particular knowledge of the infinite devotion and incessant endeavors (beyond the strength of his body and the nature of the times) which appeared in my good brother towards Your Majesty's service; and were, on Your Majesty's part, through your singular benignity, by many most gracious and lively significations and favors, accepted and acknowledged, beyond the merit of anything he could effect. All which endeavors and duties were for the most part common to myself with him, though by design (as be tween brethren) dissembled.

"And therefore, most high and mighty King, my most dear and dread sovereign Lord, since now the corner-stone is laid of the mightiest monarchy in Europe, and that God above, who is noted to have a mighty hand in bridling floods and fluctuations of the seas and of people's hearts, hath by the miraculous and universal consent (the more strange because it proceedeth from such diversity of causes), in your coming in, given a sign and token what he intendeth in the continuance. I think there is no subject of Your Majesty's who loveth this island and is not hollow and unworthy, whose heart is not set on fire, not only to bring you peaceofferings to make you propitious, but to sacrifice himself a

burnt-offering to Your Majesty's service; amongst which number no man's fire shall be more pure and fervent than mine. But how far forth it shall blaze out, that resteth in Your Majesty's employment.”

Bacon's next step was to address the Earl of Northumberland, who was thought to stand highest with the King, a letter inclosing the draft of a proclamation to be issued by the King, upon his entrance. It is an able state paper because of its fitness for the times and probable acceptability to the people of England, to whom the praise of Elizabeth which it contained would have been especially grateful. Whether Bacon really expected that the King, surrounded by old and new friends greedy for favor, recognition and employment, would accept the advice and service of a private man in so important a matter, is unknown; but the offer would evidence his zeal, and the writing evidence his capacity.

King James, before his arrival at London, and his coronation, directed that all persons in office when the Queen died should continue until he should determine otherwise. Bacon, by this order, was deprived of the shadow which he had accepted in lieu of the substance, for he never was, in law, the Queen's counsel, never having been sworn or received his warrant as such. But he was not idle in preparing himself as a candidate for royal favor. The Queen's death was the signal for the revival of the hopes and prospects of the friends of the Earl of Essex. The release of the Earl of Southampton was a foregone conclusion; and he wrote to this nobleman, who had identified himself with Essex, been tried and condemned with Essex, whom Bacon had prosecuted together with Essex.

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"Neither is it any point of law," said Bacon, at the trial, "as my Lord of Southampton would have it believed, that condemns them of treason. To take secret counsel, to execute it, to run together in numbers armed with weapons,— what can be the excuse? Warned by the Lord Keeper, by a herald, and yet persist! Will any simple man take this to be less than treason?"

The friends of Southampton were visiting him in the Tower, and conveying their hearty congratulations upon the freedom which he was soon to enjoy. Bacon substituted a letter for a call, in which he said:

"I would have been very glad to have presented my humble service to your Lordship by my attendance if I could have foreseen that it should not have been unpleasing to you. And therefore, because I would commit no error, I chose to write, assuring your Lordship (how credible soever it may seem to you at first, yet it is as true as a thing that God knoweth), that this great change hath wrought in me no other change towards your Lordship than this, that I may safely be now that which I was truly before."

The extract above given from Bacon's speech against Southampton is an answer to this letter; and unless we judge him by an entirely different standard than we do other men, we cannot escape the conviction of insincerity, either at the trial or in this letter. Southampton was as guilty at one time as at another.

"And so, craving no other pardon," concludes Bacon's letter, "than for troubling you with this letter, I do not now begin, but continue, to be your Lordship's humble and much devoted."

Always your servant, although once your merciless prosecutor!

Bacon's pen was busy during these excited times. Having been admitted to the King's presence, he gave an immediate account of it to Northumberland. He had "no private conference to any purpose. No more hath almost any other English." But he describes him after a courtier's fashion.

Bacon, on the King's arrival, was continued an unsworn counsellor, which meant little or nothing. This must have been a disappointment to him who had volunteered to write royal proclamations. That he was again in that depressed state which always inspired him to persuade himself, or try to convince others, that he had given over the pursuit of political place and honors, is evident from a letter to Sir Robert Cecil, dated July 3d, 1603.

One of the earliest acts of sovereignty on the part of King James was the confirming of knighthood upon a troop of three hundred gentlemen, who were marched up like a drove of cattle to be branded, and were assessed so many pounds for the honor conferred upon them.

When there was anything to get, Bacon was on hand / to ask. Besides, his activity as Queen's counsel had involved the neglect of his practice, and periodical embarrassment was again disturbing him. A second courtship proclaimed the narrowed condition of his finances, all of which appears from the letter to his cousin, Sir Robert, above referred to:

"For my purpose and course," he writes, "I desire to meddle as little as I can in the King's causes, His Majesty now abounding in counsel, and to follow my private thrift and practice, and to marry with some convenient advancement. For, as for my ambition, I do assure your honor,