days, because one of the principal offenders being brought to confess and the other persisting in denial, her Majesty in her wisdom thought best some time were given to him that is obstinate to bethink himself; which indeed is singular good in such cases. Thus desiring your Lordship's pardon, in haste I commend my fortune and duty to your favour. From Gray's Inn, this 24th of August, 1594.

Your Lordship's most humbly

to receive your commandments,

FR. BACON.

THE SAME TO THE SAME.1

It may please your good Lordship,

As your Lordship hath at divers times holpen me to pass over contrary times, so I humbly pray you not to omit this favourable time; I cannot bear myself as I should till I be settled. And thus desiring pardon, I leave your Lordship to God's preservation. From Gray's Inn, this 25th of August, 1594.

Your Lordship's most humbly at commandment,

FR. BACON.

But the fates were still against this unfortunate suit. The arrival of some bad news from Ireland turned the favourable time into an unfavourable one. The next day he writes to his brother (who had lately removed from Gray's Inn to a house in Bishopsgate Street, much to his mother's distress, who feared the neighbourhood of the Bull Inn, where plays and interludes were acted) :

Brother,2

:

My cousin Cooke is come four days since and appointeth towards Italy this day se'nnight. I pray take care for the money to be paid here within four or five days. The sum you remember is £150.

to deal with Bushell for two or three days; and then Mr. Bacon and I to deal with him." I being, I believe, Mr. Waad.

The next day Edmund Yorke was examined again before the same three.

On the 27th, Richard Williams made a confession before Blunt, Drewe, Coke, Bacon, and Waad.

On the 28th, Yorke and Williams were confronted before the same, all but Coke. See State Paper Office: Domestic, 1594.

1 Harl. MSS. vol. 6996. 200. Original: own hand. 2 Lambeth MSS. 650. 168. Original: own hand.

I hear nothing from the Court in mine own business. There hath been a defeat of some force in Ireland by Mackguier, which troubleth the Queen, being unaccustomed to such news thence; and thereupon the opportunity is said to be less to move her. Yet there is an amends in eodem genere by the coming in of the Earl of Tyrone, as was expected.

I steal to Twickenham, purposing to return this night; else I had visited you as I came from the Tower. Thus in haste I leave you to God's preservation. From Gray's Inn, this 26th of August, 1594.

Your entire loving brother,

6.

FR. BACON.

The question of the Solicitorship was thus again adjourned, and we hear no more of it for a month. The next letter relates to a private affair in which M. Gourgues was concerned, who was still in England, and with whom Francis had improved his acquaintance during his late visit to Cambridge; M. Gourgues having taken the opportunity of seeing the younger University while he was there.1

FRANCIS BACON TO RICHARD YOUNG.2

Mr. Young,

I shall desire your friendly pains in the repairing and punishing of an outrage offered by one Thomas Lewys, dwelling near White Chapel, upon a French gentleman of very good quality and honourable, and upon his company, not in terms alone but in very furious assailing them. My request to you is the rather for the good report of our nation, whither this gentleman is come only for his own satisfaction and experience, that he may have experience of the good policy amongst us in correcting such insolencies, specially upon strangers of his respect; and therefore desire you so great an abuse may be examined and corrected. And so in haste I wish you very well. From Gray's Inn, this 2nd of September, 1594.

Your very loving friend,

1 Lambeth MSS. 650. 149.

FR. BACON.

2 Lambeth MSS. 650. 186. Original: own hand. Docketed, "Lre. de Mons Francois Bacon a Mr. Justice Young, le de

1594." "

The French gentleman's name is Mr. Gourgues, son to the Principal Treasurer of Guyenne, and this bearer shall relate to you the particularities of the abuse.

But no record remains either of the particularities or of the event. Only we know that early in the following month Mr. Gourgues returned to France.

7.

During the last week Bacon's "Tower employment," mentioned in his letter to the Lord Keeper of the 24th, had been proceeding without intermission. The dates of the several examinations in which he had been engaged from the 20th to the 28th, are stated in my note on that letter. On the 31st, Williams was examined once again, before Blount, Bacon, and Waad; and his examination had reference this time more especially to one Ralf Sheldon, who was about to be interrogated upon some particulars brought out in the course of the investigation, which touched him. A series of interrogatories, drawn up by Bacon with a view to his examination, is preserved in the State Paper Office, and belongs properly to this place. As a genuine specimen of the manner in which these investigations were managed, it would indeed be worth printing on its own account. For it will help the reader to understand what kind of thing an examination upon interrogatories" really was, and to correct in some material points our popular notions of the detective process of which it made part. Modern popular writers, lawyers as well as historians, are apt to speak of the entire proceeding in these cases as a scandalous abuse of power, a process essentially iniquitous,-in intention, in theory, in practice, merely tyrannous and opposed to the true ends of justice. And liable to abuse it no doubt was, as all secret proceedings must be; for the Government acted under no effective check, beyond the fear of seeing their case break down when it came to public trial; and this was materially diminished by the then general practice of the Courts, in receiving as evidence depositions of witnesses that had been taken privately, without requiring that the witnesses themselves should be produced in open court to confirm them. Certainly there was nothing to prevent a Government from abusing such a power, except conscience and shame. But conscience and shame have their operation in Princes and Ministers as in other men, and the question is whether during Elizabeth's reign this power was so abused. Now I must say that the records which I have examined (and I have had occasion to examine several in the course of this work) do not seem

to me to justify any such imputation. To me the usual order of proceeding in these cases seems, in principle at least, rational, and the likeliest that could be adopted for the discovery of the truth, supposing that to be the object. Information is received which throws suspicion upon A of having been a party to some treasonable correspondence. A is apprehended and questioned upon the particular matters in which he is suspected of having had a hand. He must say something, and if he cannot give the true account of what he has done, he must give a false one. The questions and answers are carefully set down, generally signed by himself, always signed by the Commissioners before whom the examination is taken. He is then remanded. Upon a careful scrutiny of his statement it appears that if true it will be confirmed, if false confuted, by the evidence of B and C, whom it implicates. B and C are then sent for and severally questioned. Not knowing what A has said, they can hardly invent statements which shall agree in all particulars with his and with each other, unless all be true. Their answers are taken down in like manner, and are found upon a like scrutiny to involve new particulars. This supplies matter for a fresh examination of A. The same process is repeated as long as it promises to bring out anything new; till at last by successive siftings the several witnesses (each being carefully kept in the dark as to the others' tale) find themselves involved in irreconcilable contradictions or inextricable embarrassments; and one or other, in despair of maintaining the falsehood, confesses the truth. This I believe to be a correct description of the Elizabethan practice; and though it cannot be denied that a government bent upon making out a case, and using unscrupulously all the means at their disposal for terrifying, tempting, or perplexing the examinates, for suppressing the statement of one and garbling the statement of another, might by this method extort evidence which would make an innocent man seem guilty,—and that this is a good reason for altering the practice, neither can it be denied that a government bent upon discovering the truth, and using their powers fairly and scrupulously to that end, would by this method have the best chance of succeeding. And I do not see why a government in the judgment of history is not entitled to the same benefit as a private man in the judgment of his peers, that of being presumed innocent in the absence of direct evidence implying or indicating guilt.

This consideration however, though important in other cases with which we shall have to deal, does not especially concern us here. No such suspicion can possibly be raised against the Government on account of their proceedings in the matter to which this paper of Bacon's refers; for (whether it were that the evidence elicited was not conclu

sive, or that for reasons of state it was thought inexpedient to make it public) none of the persons in question were brought to trial. And it is as a specimen of the manner in which such inquiries were prosecuted that the paper chiefly deserves attention. A careful study of the other examinations might possibly explain some of the more obscure allusions. But the general character and purpose of the interrogatories is sufficiently intelligible; and as I see no reason for believing that a more particular investigation would lead to any interesting result, I shall merely give it as it stands without further comment.

ARTICLES OF EXAMINATION OF RALF SHELDON, ESQ.

COLLECTED OUT OF THE SEVERAL ACCUSATIONS OF H. YOUNG, RIC. WILLIAMS, EDM. YORKE, AND OTHERS.1

To feel whether he will readily acknowledge those which are advertised, as Williams his servant, Williams his nephew, Oglethorpe the priest.

To try what light he will yield from himself, and how it will concur with that which is advertised.

There be three all known to him; to see whether he will take knowledge of all.

To see if he will concur in the pretext of sending him into Ireland for hawks.

What fugitives he knoweth, and what conversation and acquaintance he hath had with any of them in time past.

What messages or letter he hath at any time sent to any of them, or received from any of them.

What relief he hath at any time furnished any of them with.

What books or libels against the state have at any time fallen into his hands.

Whether he knew one Wil

liams.

What became of Ed. Williams his servant.

All in Bacon's hand. Docketed, in

1 State Paper Office: Domestic, 1594. another hand, "6 7ber, 1594. Articles set down by Mr. Bacon, touching Sheldon. This one particular to be kept by itself."