returned both for St. Albans and for Ipswich, (a) which borough he elected to represent; and, at this early period, so great a favourite was he with the house, that some of the members proposed him as Speaker. (b)

On the 22nd of March, the King first addressed the parliament, recommending to their consideration the union of the two kingdoms; the termination of religious discontents; and the improvement of the law. (a)

Upon the return of the Commons to the lower house, the storm commenced. Prayers had scarcely been ended, and the house settled, when one member proposed the immediate consideration of the general abuse and grievance of purveyors; the burthen and servitude to the subjects of the kingdom, attendant upon the wardship of children ;—the oppression of monopolies;—the abuses of the Exchequer, and the dispensation of penal statutes. After this proposal, received by an expressive silence, another member called the attention of the house to what he termed three main grievances: the burthen, charge, and vexation of the commissaries' courts ;-the suspension of learned and grave ministers for preaching against popish doctrine;-and depopulations by inclosure. (a)

To consider these weighty subjects a select committee of the house was appointed, including Bacon as one of the members. This committee immediately entered upon

is so far gone, and that the gentleman's friends are in some expectation of success, I leave it to your kind regard what is further to be done, as willing to give satisfaction to those which have put me in trust, and loth on the other side to press above good manners. And so, with my loving commendations, I remain, yours, &c.-1603.

(a) Commons' Journals. See note JJJ at the end.

(b) Here, after some silence, the names of others were muttered; as of Sir Francis Hastings, Sir Henry Nevill, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Edward Hobby, Sir Henry Mountague, the Recorder of London, and others; but the more general voice ran upon Sir Edward Phelips, who thereupon stood up, and used some speech to excuse and disable himself, to this effect, &c.

their inquiries, and, so ready were the parties with their evidence, and so active the members in their proceedings, that on the 26th Bacon made his report to the house of the result of their investigations. (a)

The political discontent, thus first manifested, increased yearly under the reign of James, and having brought his son to the scaffold, continued till the combustible matter was dispersed. "Cromwell," it was said, "became Protector, because the people of England were tired of kings, and Charles was restored because they were weary of Protectors." Such are the consequences of neglecting gradual reform.

During the whole of the conflicts in the commencement of this stormy session, Bacon's exertions were unremitting. He spoke in every debate. He sat upon twenty-nine committees, (a) many of them appointed for the consideration. of the important questions agitated at that eventful time. He was selected to attend the conferences of the privy council; to report the result; and to prepare various remonstrances and addresses; was nominated as a mediator between the Commons and the Lords; and chosen by the Commons to present to the King a petition touching purveyors. (c)

(a) Commons' Journals.

(c) He said: "The message I now bring your majesty concerns the manifold abuses of purveyors. In this grievance, to which the poor people are most exposed, and men of quality less, we shall require your majesty to conceive that you hear the very groans and complaints of your commons more truly than by representation, for there is no grievance in your kingdom so general, so continual, so sensible, and so bitter to the common subject, as this whereof we now speak, assuring ourselves that never king reigned who had better notions of head and notions of heart for the good and comfort of his loving

To his address, clothed in language the most respectful, yet distinctly pointing out what was expected by the people, the King listened with the patience due from a sovereign to his suffering and oppressed subjects; and, instead of the displeasure felt by Elizabeth at his firm and honest boldness, (a) he received it kindly, and replied to it graciously.

Many of his speeches are fortunately preserved: (r) they are all distinguished for their fitness for the hearers and the occasion, their knowledge of affairs, and their pithy, weighty eloquence.

The King had hitherto continued to employ Bacon, in the same manner in which he had served the late Queen; but he now thought fit to shew him higher marks of favour than he had received from her majesty; and accordingly, on the 25th of August, 1604, constituted him by patent his counsel learned in the law, with a fee of forty pounds a year, which is said to have been a grace scarce known before;" (b) and he granted him the same day, by another patent under the great seal, a pension of sixty pounds a

subjects. The abuses of purveyors are of three sorts: 1st. They take in kind what they ought not to take. 2. They take in quantity a greater proportion than comes to your majesty's use. 3. They take it in an unlawful manner; instead of takers they become taxors, imposing and extorting divers sums of money, sometimes in gross, sometimes as stipends annually paid to be free from their oppressors. They take trees, which they cannot do by law, which are the beauty, shelter, and countenance of men's houses, and that under the value; nay, they are grown to that extremity that they will take double poundage, once when the debenture is made, and again when the money is paid."See vol. vi. p. 3, for the whole speech.

(a) Ante, p. xxxi.

(b) See Rawley's Life.

(r) See vols. v. and vi.

year,

for special services received from his brother Anthony Bacon and himself. (b)

It must not be supposed that either political altercations or legal promotions diverted his attention from the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge. He knew well the relative worth of politics and philosophy.

His love of knowledge was never checked, perhaps it was increased by his occupations in active life. "We judge," he says, " that mankind may conceive some hopes from our example, which we offer, not by way of ostentation, but because it may be useful. If any one therefore should despair, let him consider a man as much employed in civil affairs as any other of his age, a man of no great share of health, who must therefore have lost much time, and yet, in this undertaking he is the first that leads the way, unassisted by any mortal, and steadfastly entering the true path that was absolutely untrod before, and submitting his mind to things, may somewhat have advanced the design." (d) Politics employed, but the love of knowledge occupied his mind. (e) It advanced like the river, which is said to flow without mingling her streams with the waters of the lake through which it passes. (f)

During the vacation of this year, he escaped from exertions respecting the Union, (g) to Eton, where he conversed on the subject of education with his friend, Sir Henry Saville, then provost of the college; to whom, upon his return, he wrote the following letter:

To Sir Henry Saville.

Coming back from your invitation at Eton, where I had refreshed myself with company, which I loved; I fell into

(b) See note TTT at the end.

(d) Nov. Org. Aph. v.

(e) See a letter of Bp. Hall's on the Pleasure of Study and Contemplation. (f) Fuller's Holy State. Essay of Company, b. iii. c. 5.

(g) See his letter to Sir Robert Cotton, dated 8th Sept. 1604.

a consideration of that part of policy whereof philosophy speaketh too much, and laws too little; and that is, of education of youth. Whereupon fixing my mind awhile, I found straightways, and noted, even in the discourses of philosophers, which are so large in this argument, a strange silence concerning one principal part of that subject. For as touching the framing and seasoning of youth to moral virtues, (as tolerance of labours, continency from pleasures, obedience, honour, and the like,) they handle it; but touching the improvement and helping of the intellectual powers, as of conceit, memory, and judgment, they say nothing; whether it were, that they thought it to be a matter wherein nature only prevailed, or that they intended it, as referred to the several and proper arts, which teach the use of reason and speech.

But for the former of these two reasons, howsoever it pleaseth them to distinguish of habits and powers; the experience is manifest enough, that the motions and faculties of the wit and memory may be not only governed and guided, but also confirmed and enlarged, by customs and exercise daily applied: as if a man exercise shooting, he shall not only shoot nearer the mark, but also draw a stronger bow. (a) And as for the latter, of comprehending these precepts within the arts of logic and rhetoric; if it be rightly considered, their office is distinct altogether from this point; for it is no part of the doctrine of the use or handling of an instrument, to teach how to whet or grind the instrument to give it a sharp edge, or how to quench it, or otherwise, whereby to give it a stronger temper.

Wherefore, finding this part of knowledge not broken, I have, but "tanquam aliud agens," entered into it, and salute you with it; dedicating it, after the ancient manner, first as to a dear friend, and then as to an apt person; for as

(a) The same remark will be found in one of his Essays.