himself preparing to meet the fate which too surely awaited him. A better idea of the state of his mind will be formed from the two papers which follow, and which both belong to this interval. On the 10th of April he made his will:-a will drawn up apparently in haste, with the brevity and simplicity of one who thought that he was taking leave of the world, and could not afford to waste words in long leave taking. THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF SIR FR. BACON, VISCT. OF ST. ALBAN'S, LORD CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND. 1 I bequeath my soul to God above, by the oblation of my Saviour. My body to be buried obscurely. My name to the next ages, and to foreign nations. My compositions unpublished, or the fragments of them, I require my servant Harris to deliver to my brother Constable, to the end that if any of these be fit in his judgment to be published, he may accordingly dispose of them. And in particular I wish the Elogium I wrote In felicem memoriam Regina Elizabethæ may be published. And to my brother Constable I give all my books and to my servant Harris for this his service and care 50 pieces in gold, pursed up. : To my wife, a box of rings; save the great diamond I would have restored to Sir George Reynell. To the Prince, the golden screen which I provided for the Queen his mother. To the Spanish Ambassador, the picture of Indian feathers, in the frame of gold. To my L. Cavendish the casting bottle of gold. To Sir Edw. Sackville, the ring with the crushed diamond, which the Prince gave me. To Mr. John Finch, the lease of my lodgings at Gray's Inn. All my lands, tenements, and hereditaments, leases, goods and chattels, and the use and trust of them wheresoever and of what nature soever, I give and bequeath to my executors for the payment of my debts by their discretion, and the surplusage of the the value of them to be disposed as followeth. 1 Additional MSS. 4259, f. 111. Copy in the hand of John Locker. No reference to the MS. from which it is copied. 1621.] HIS WILL, AND PRAYER. 229 To my servant, Mr. Thomas Mewtys, 500l. To such other of my servants as I shall declare by writing or word before witnesses, 8001. The rest in pios usus to be distributed at the discretion of my executors. I constitute my executors Mr. Thos. Crew, Mr. Thos. Hedley, Mr. John Finch, Mr. John Young my servant, and Mr. William Hatcher my servant; and I desire my executors to make the first offer of the reversion of Gorhambury and Verulam after my wife's decease, to the Prince's Highness; because they being things of pleasure and not far from Barkhamstead, it may be his Highness may take a like to deal for them. My executors to have legacies in plate of 30l. a piece. Justice Hutton to be the supervisor, to whom I give the triangle salt of gold. 10 April, 1621. FR. ST. ALBAN, Canc. Having thus disposed of his earthly affairs, he retired within himself, and still "thinking of his account and answer in a higher Court," made his silent appeal from earth to heaven-from those with whom explanation was hopeless to Him before whom concealment was impossible. That "prayer or psalm" which was found afterwards among his papers, and which Addison quoted as resembling the devotion of an angel rather than a man, was composed, certainly before the 18th April, and most probably at this very time. A PRAYER, or PSALM.2 Most gracious Lord God, my merciful Father, from my youth up, my Creator, my Redeemer, my Comforter. Thou (O Lord) soundest and searchest the depths and secrets of all hearts; thou knowledgest the upright of heart, thou judgest the hypocrite, thou ponderest men's thoughts and doings as in a balance, thou measurest their intentions as with a line, vanity and crooked ways cannot be hid from thee. Remember (O Lord) how thy servant hath walked before thee: remember what I have first sought, and what hath been principal 1 See a letter from Chamberlain to Carleton of that date. in mine intentions. I have loved thy assemblies, I have mourned for the divisions of thy Church, I have delighted in the brightness of thy sanctuary. This vine which thy right hand hath planted in this nation, I have ever prayed unto thee that it might have the first and the latter rain; and that it might stretch her branches to the seas and to the floods. The state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been precious in mine eyes: I have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart: I have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men. If any have been mine enemies, I thought not of them; neither hath the sun almost set upon my displeasure; but I have been as a dove, free from superfluity of maliciousness. Thy creatures have been my books, but thy Scriptures much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and gardens, but I have found thee in thy temples. Thousand have been my sins, and ten thousand my transgressions; but thy sanctifications have remained with me, and my heart, through thy grace, hath been an unquenched coal upon thy altar. O Lord, my strength, I have since my youth met with thee in all my ways, by thy fatherly compassions, by thy comfortable chastisements, and by thy most visible providence. As thy favours have increased upon me, so have thy corrections; so as thou hast been alway near me, O Lord; and ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me; and when I have ascended before men, I have descended in humiliation before thee. And now when I thought most of peace and honour, thy hand is heavy upon me, and hath humbled me, according to thy former loving-kindness, keeping me still in thy fatherly school, not as a bastard, but as a child. Just are thy judgments upon me for my sins, which are more in number than the sands of the sea, but have no proportion to thy mercies; for what are the sands of the sea, to the sea, earth, heavens? and all these are nothing to thy mercies. Besides my innumerable sins, I confess before thee, that I am debtor to thee for the gracious talent of thy gifts and graces, which I have neither put into a napkin, nor put it (as I ought) to exchangers, where it might have made best profit; but misspent it in things for which I was least fit; so as I may truly say, my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my 1621.] THE STATE OF HIS CASE. 231 pilgrimage. Be merciful into me (O Lord) for my Saviour's sake, and receive me into thy bosom, or guide me in thy ways. This I take to be better evidence of the state of his mind at this crisis than the reports from Paul's walk, the speculations of courtiers, or the anecdotes of the next generation. 7. But the day passed over. He was not to die yet: and it was necessary to think of his account and answer in the inferior Court by which he was to be judged on earth. Not yet knowing what he was to be charged with, he could not yet decide what course to take. But the examinations of the witnesses against him having for the last few days been taken "in open court," I presume that he knew the substance of their evidence, so far. What more the Committees that were at work during the recess would have to report to the House at its next meeting, he could not know: and till he did, he could only prepare himself and wait. But he knew enough to see that there was no hope of acquittal. Even if he had been charged with nothing for which he could not offer a justification really satisfactory to himself—even if he had done nothing which at the time he did it he knew or believed to be censurable-how could he hope to satisfy his judges? In a case which was to be tried by a court of popular opinion-and the House of Lords in those days was no better-in a season of passionate political excitement, when the very ideas of public morality were in a state of revolution, and when, as commonly happens, those who are in most danger to be suspected of the crime, join loudest in the hue and cry-to have had the evidence on the accusing part lying for weeks before the world-undisputed, unexamined, unexplained-for all men to talk of and form their impressions upon, was a disadvantage too heavy for any defence to overcome, even if the case had been in itself sound and clear. But Bacon's case was not so. He found when he came to examine it that he was to be accused of some things which he could neither deny nor honestly attempt to justify. The sentence therefore was certain to go against him; and the question was, what penalties the offence entailed, and what course was most likely to dispose the judges to be lenient. He reviewed the records of cases bearing analogy to his own, especially with reference to the judgments passed: and the rough draft of certain notes upon them (which look very like notes for an argument in defence), written in Meautys's hand, was found. among his papers. NOTES UPON MICHAEL DE LA POLE'S CASE.1 10 Rich. 2. The offences were of three natures: 1. Deceits to the King. 2. Misgovernance in point of estate, whereby the ordinances made by the ten commissioners for reformation of the state were frustrated, and the city of Gaunt in foreign parts lost. 3. And his setting the seal to pardons for murders, and other enormous offences. The judgment was Imprisonment, Fine and Ransom, and Restitution to the King, but no disablement, nor making him uncapable, no degrading in honour mentioned in the judgment.2 But contrariwise, in the clause that restitution should be made and levied out of his lands and goods, it is expressly saved, that because his honour of Earl was not taken from him, therefore his 201. per annum creation money should not be meddled with. 24 Edw. 3. OBSERVATIONS UPON THORPE'S CASE. His offence was taking of money from five several persons that were felons, for staying their process of exigent; so that it made him a kind of accessory of felony, and touched upon matter capital. The judgment was the judgment of felony: but the proceeding had many things strange and new ; First, the proceeding was by commission of oyer and terminer, and by jury; and not by Parliament. The judgment is recited to be given in the King's high and sovereign power. It is recited likewise, That the King, when he made him Chief Justice, and increased his wages, did ore tenus say to him, in the presence of his Council, that now if he bribed 1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 259. Draught in Meautys's hand; no docket nor anything else explanatory. 2 First written "but no loss of Office or Place mentioned in the judgment, no degrading in Honour." |