to oblige the hearts of the people to him by the administration of justice." (a)

exertions

From these political expedients he turned to his more Judicial interesting judicial duties. How strenuously he exerted himself in the discharge of them may be seen in his honest exultation to Buckingham, and may be easily conceived by those who know how indefatigable genius is in

paid out to others, and the duke neither had nor disposed of a penny thereof to his own use, as is suggested against him. And afterwards, when the Lord M. left that place, and his money was not repaid unto him, he urged the duke upon his promise; whereupon the duke being jealous of his honour, and to keep his word, not having money to repay him, he assured lands of his own to the Lord M. for his security. But when the duke was in Spain, the Lord M. obtained a promise from his late majesty of some lands in fee farm, to such a value as he accepted of the same in satisfaction of the said money, which were afterward passed unto him; and at the duke's return the Lord M. delivered back unto him the security of the duke's lands, which had been given unto him as aforesaid.”

:

Rushworth, i. 387. See Cobbett.

(a) See his letter to the Earl of Buckingham, of November 19, 1617, vol. xii. p. 252. “My very good Lord,—The liking which his majesty hath of our proceeding, concerning his household, telleth me that his majesty cannot but dislike the declining and tergiversation of the inferior officers, which by this time he understandeth. There be but four kinds of retrenchments: 1. The union of tables. 2. The putting down of tables. 3. The abatement of dishes to tables. 4. The cutting off new diets and allowance lately raised and yet perhaps such as are more necessary than some of the old. In my opinion the first is the best and most feasible. The Lord Chamberlain's table is the principal table of state. The Lord Steward's table I think is much frequented by Scottish gentlemen. Your lordship's table hath a great attendance; and the groom of the stole's table is much resorted to by the bedchamber. These would not be touched; but for the rest (his majesty's case considered) I think they may well be united into one. These things are out of my element, but my care runneth where the King's state most laboureth: Sir Lionel Cranfield is yet sick, for which I am very sorry; for methinks his majesty upon these tossings over of his business from one to others hath an apt occasion to go on with subcommittees. God ever preserve and prosper you. Your Lordship's true friend and devoted servant."

any business in which it is interested: (a) how ardent and strenuous it is in encountering and subduing all difficulties to which it is opposed. (a)

In a letter to Buckingham of the 8th of June, 1617, he says, (b) "This day I have made even with the business of the kingdom for common justice; not one cause unheard; the lawyers drawn dry of all the motions they were to make; not one petition unanswered. And this, I think, could not be said in our age before. This I speak, not out of ostentation, but out of gladness, when I have done my duty. I know men think I cannot continue if I should thus oppress myself with business: but that account is made. The duties of life are more than life; and if I die now, I shall die before the world be weary of me, which in our times is somewhat rare." And in two other letters he, from the same cause, expresses the same joy. (c)

These exertions did not secure him from the interference of Buckingham, or protect him, as they have never protected any judge, from misrepresentation and calumny; but, unmoved by friendship or by slander, he went right onward in his course. He acted as he taught, from the

(a) See vol. ii. p. 21, Advancement of Learning.

(b) See vol. xii. p. 348.

(c) In a letter of Dec. 6, 1617, vol. xii. p. 339, he says, "Your lordship may marvel, that together with the letter from the board, which you see passed so well, there came no particular letter from myself; wherein, though it be true, that now this very evening I have made even with the causes of Chancery, and comparing with the causes heard by my lord, that dead is, of Michaelmas term was twelvemonth, I find them to be double so many and one more; besides that the causes that I dispatch do seldom turn upon me again, as his many times did."--And in a letter of May 17, 1619, vol. xiii. p. 17, he says, "I send now to know how his majesty doth after his remove, and to give you account that yesterday was a day of motions in the Chancery. This day was a day of motions in the Star Chamber, and it was my hap to clear the bar, that no man was left to move any thing, which my lords were pleased to note they never saw before."

!

conviction that "a popular judge is a deformed thing:
and plaudits are fitter for players than magistrates. Do
good to the people, love them, and give them justice, but
let it be nihil inde expectantes:' looking for nothing,
neither praise nor profit." (a)

terference.

Notwithstanding Bacon's warning to Buckingham, that Buckinghe ought not, as a statesman, to interfere, either by word ham's inor letter, in any cause depending, or like to be depending in any court of justice, (b) the temptations to Buckingham were, it seems, too powerful to induce him to attend to this admonition, in resistance of a custom so long established and so deeply seated, that the applications were, as a matter of course, made to statesmen and to judges, by the most respectable members of the community, and by the two universities. (c)

Early in March Sir Francis was appointed Lord Keeper,
and, on the 4th of April, Buckingham thus wrote: "
My
honourable Lord,-Whereas the late Lord Chancellor
thought it fit to dismiss out of the Chancery a cause
touching Henry Skipwith to the common law, where he
desireth it should be decided; these are to intreat your
lordship in the gentleman's favour, that if the adverse
party shall attempt to bring it now back again into your
lordship's court, you would not retain it there, but let it
rest in the place where now it is, that without more vexa-
tion unto him in posting him from one to another, he may
have a final hearing and determination thereof. And so I
rest your Lordship's ever at command, G. BUCKINGHAM.

My Lord, this is a business wherein I spake to my
Lord Chancellor, whereupon he dismissed the suit.” (d)

(a) Speech to the Judges before the circuit, vol. vii. p. 258.
(b) See ante, p. clxxvi.

(c) See note Z Z at the end.

(d) This is the first of many letters which the Marquis of Buckingham

Wraynham.

Scarcely a week passed without a repetition of these solicitations. (a)

When Sir Francis was first entrusted with the great seal, he found a cause entitled Fisher v. Wraynham, which had been in the court from the year 1606. He immediately examined the proceedings, and, having ordered the attendance of the parties, and heard the arguments of counsel, he terminated this tedious suit, by decreeing against the defendant Wraynham, who was a man described as holding a smooth pen and a fine speech, but a fiery spirit. He immediately published a libel against the Chancellor and the late Master of the Rolls: for which he was prosecuted in the Star Chamber. (b)

Sir Henry Yelverton, in stating the case, said, "I was of counsel with Mr. Wraynham, and pressed his cause as far as equity would suffer. But this gentleman being of an unquiet spirit, after a secret murmuring, breaks out into a complaint to his majesty, and, not staying his return out of Scotland, but fancying to himself, as if he saw some cloud arising over my lord, compiled his undigested thoughts into a libel, and fastens it on the King. And his most princely majesty, finding it stuffed with most bitter reviling speeches against so great and worthy a judge,

wrote to Lord Bacon in favour of persons who had cases depending in, or likely to come into the court of Chancery. The marquis made the same kind of applications to Lord Bacon's successor, the Lord Keeper Williams, in whose life by Bishop Hacket, part i. p. 107, we are informed, that "there was not a cause of moment, but, as soon as it came to publication, one of the parties brought letters from this mighty peer, and the Lord Keeper's patron."-See note ZZ at the end. See this letter, vol. xii. p. 314. (a) See a collection of some of these letters in note Z Z at the end.

(b) State Trials. See a tract, published 1725, entitled, Vindication of the Chancellor from the aspersions of Wraynham. See Hobart's Reports, p. 220, and Popham, p. 135.

hath of himself commanded me this day to set forth and manifest his fault unto your lordships, that so he might receive deserved punishment. In this pamphlet Mr. Wraynham saith, he had two decrees in the first Lord Chancellor's time, and yet are both cancelled by this Lord Chancellor in a preposterous manner: without cause; without matter; without any legal proceedings; without precedent, upon the party's bare suggestions, and without calling Mr. Wraynham to answer: to reward Fisher's fraud and perjuries; to palliate his unjust proceedings; and to confound Wraynham's estate: and that my lord was therein led by the rule of his own fancy. But he stayeth not here. Not content to scandalize the living, he vilifies the dead, the Master of the Rolls, a man of great understanding, great pains, great experience, great dexterity, and of great integrity; yet, because he followed not this man's humour in the report thereof, he brands him with aspersions."

And Mr. Serjeant Crowe, who was also counsel for the prosecution, said, "Mr. Wraynham, thus to traduce my lord, is a foul offence; you cannot traduce him of corruption, for thanks be to God, he hath always despised riches, and set honour and justice before his eyes. My lords, I was of counsel with Fisher, and I knew the merits of the cause, for my Lord Chancellor seeing what recompense Fisher ought in justice to have received, and finding a disability in Wraynham to perform it, was enforced to take the land from Wraynham to give it to Fisher, which is hardly of value to satisfy Fisher's true debt and damages."

Wraynham was convicted by the unanimous opinion of the court; (a) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, in

(a) Consisting of Sir Edward Coke, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord Chancellor Bacon, the Lord Chief Justices of the King's Bench,