well of myself in anything, it is in this, that I am free from that vice." In his thirtieth year, according to Mr. Montagu (meaning apparently the year 1589), Bacon was appointed Queen's Counsel learned extraordinary, an honour," it is added, "which until that time had never been conferred upon any member of the profession." Rawley calls it "a grace (if I err not) scarce known before."*

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It appears to have been from about this date that Bacon began to attach himself to the prevalent royal favourite, the Earl of Essex. Nevertheless, it was about this very timef that his relations the Cecils, hostile as they were to Essex and his faction, procured for him the reversion of the valuable place of Register of the Star Chamber. It was worth about 1600l. per annum; "for

* Mr. Jardine, in Criminal Trials' (Library of Entertaining Knowledge'), 1832, vol. i. p. 385, note, observes that "it does not distinctly appear at what time Bacon received his nomination as Queen's Counsel." Mr. Jardine adds, " He is said to have been the first King's Counsel under the degree of Sergeant."

We do not find that Mr. Montagu anywhere assigns a precise date to this appointment, although he notices it under the year 1591 (Life, p. xxvi.). But Dugdale (in Baconiana,' p. 247) states that Bacon was made one of the Clerks of the Council in 32 Eliz., quoting as his authority the Patent Rolls of that year, p. 11. The 32 Eliz. extended from Nov. 1589 to Nov. 1590. This, we suppose, is the same appointment which Rawley designates as that of Register of the Star Chamber; the Judges of the Court of Star Chamber having been the Lords of the Council, or chief ministers of the crown. Indeed it is clear, from a comparison of various passages in the Egerton Papers (edited by Mr. Collier for the Camden Society, 4to. London, 1840), that the office of which Bacon held the reversion, was called indifferently the Clerkship of the Council, or the Clerkship of the Star Chamher (Confer pp. 272 and 429). Mr. Collier, however, would appear to be mistaken in his assertion, at p. 266, that Bacon did not obtain the reversion of the Clerkship of the Star Chamber till some time after his disappointment in regard to the office of Solicitor-General.

which," says Rawley, "he waited in expectation either fully or near twenty years; of which his lordship would say, in Queen Elizabeth's time, that it was like another man's ground buttaling [abutting] upon his house, which might mend his prospect, but it did not fill his barn. Nevertheless, in the time of King James it fell unto him." But it can scarcely be made matter of charge against Elizabeth or her ministers, as the worthy chaplain in his zeal would almost make it, that the office did not become vacant sooner. Bacon's failure in obtaining any present provision, he goes on, might be imputed, not so much to her Majesty's averseness or disaffection towards him, as to the arts and policy of a great statesman then [he means Burghley], who laboured by all industrious and secret means to suppress and keep him down; lest, if he had risen, he might have obscured his glory." According to Mr. Collier (Egerton Papers, p. 269), "there is some reason to think that Bacon at one time acted as private secretary to Sir Robert Cecil." But this was perhaps at a date considerably later; for the letter which gives occasion to the remark, and which is stated to be addressed in the hand-writing of Bacon, is dated the 25th of December, 1597.

Long ere now, however, Bacon had commenced his career as a politician. Instead of having, as is commonly stated, first entered parliament in 1592, it appears from Browne Willis's Notitia Parliamentaria and D'Ewes's Journals that he had sat in every House of Commons from the fifth parliament of Elizabeth, which met in 1585. He was returned to that parliament for Melcombe Regis; to Elizabeth's sixth parliament, which met in 1586, for Taunton; to her seventh, which met in 1588, for Liverpool; to her eighth, which met in 1592, for Middlesex; to her ninth, which met in 1597, for Ipswich; to her tenth, which met in 1601, for both Ipswich and St. Alban's, when he elected to serve for the former place; to James's first parliament, which met in 1603, again for the same two places, when he elected, as before, to serve for Ipswich; and to James's second parliament, which

met in 1614, for St. Alban's, for Ipswich, and for the University of Cambridge, when he elected to serve for the last. It seems to have been in the more spacious arena of the House of Commons that Bacon's eloquence first broke forth so as to attract observation. One account, indeed, is, that it was not till 1594 that he made his first pleading at the bar, his previous professional practice having been confined to his chambers, or at the most to the inferior courts.* The description that has been given of his oratory by Ben Jonson would seem to have a special reference to his speaking in Parliament :-"There happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language, where he could spare or pass by a jest, was nobly censorious [censorlike]. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end."t

In 1592, also, appeared Bacon's first publication, as far as is known: Certain Observations upon a Libel published this present year, 1592, entituled A Declaration of the True Causes of the Great Troubles presupposed to be intended against the Realm of England.' It will fall to be noticed when we come to give an account of his political writings.

On the promotion of Sir Edward Coke to be Attorney

* B. Brit. 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 494.

+ 'Discoveries;' Works, by Gifford, ix. 184. To Jonson we are also indebted for the knowledge of a peculiarity in his manner of speaking:-" My Lord Chancellor of England wringeth his speeches from the strings of his band, and other counsellors from the picking of their teeth."-Conversations with Drummond, edited by Mr. D. Laing for Shakespeare Society, 8vo. Lond., 1842, p. 25.

General, in April, 1594, Bacon became a candidate for the vacant office of Solicitor-General; but another person was eventually appointed. Upon this the Earl of Essex, who had exerted himself in his friend's behalf with extraordinary zeal, and took his failure much to heart, munificently presented him with an estate near Twickenham, which he afterwards sold for 18007. The fact has been circumstantially related by Bacon himself.

In 1596 he completed and dedicated to the Queen 'A Collection of some of the Principal Rules and Maxims of the Common Law, with their Latitude and Extent;' but this work was not published till 1630, some years after the author's death, when it was printed along with another tract subsequently written, 'The Use of the Law, for Preservation of our persons, goods, and good names, according to the practice of the laws and customs of this land;' both being included under the title of 'The Elements of the Common Law of England.'*

Seene

And now we come to the publication of the first edition of the ESSAYS, which appeared in a small 8vo. volume, with the following title:Essayes. Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. and allowed. At London. Printed for Humfrey Hooper, and are to be sold at the blacke Beare in Chauncery Lane. 1597. Only the leaves are numbered, and there are 45 of them in all, in two series; of which the first, extending to 13 leaves, is occupied with the Essays. The 14th leaf presents the following new title:- Meditationes Sacrae. Londini. Excudebat Johannes Windet. 1597. Then follow, on 14 more leaves, the Meditationes Sacrae, in Latin, being the same that are called the Religious Meditations on the first or general titleThe leaf numbered 16 of this second series prepage. sents a third title: Of the Coulers of good and evill, a fragment. 1597;' and it is followed by 16 leaves con

* Mr. Montagu, nowever (Life,' p. xxxv.) appears to consider the Maxims' and the 'Use' as having originally formed one work. The Dedication to Elizabeth, and the Preface, clearly apply only to the 'Maxims.’

taining the tract so called, being the same that is called Places of Persuasion and Disswasion in the general title. The Meditationes Sacrae are printed in the Italic letter; the Essays and Colours in the Roman. On the back of the last leaf are the words-"Printed at London by John Windet for Humfrey Hooper. 1597."*

We may observe, that, notwithstanding the date 1597, it is most probable that the volume really appeared in the early part of what we should now call the year 1598. The Essays are inscribed by the author "To M. Anthony Bacon, his deare Brother;" the Dedication being dated "From my chamber at Graies Inne this 30 of Januarie. 1597." This would mean January, 1598, according to the then usual mode of computation.

There is another edition of the same collection with exactly the same title-page, except only that the date is 1598. It may have appeared, therefore, either in the same year with the former or in the beginning of the year 1599. It is in 12mo., and the page is of a smaller size than in the former. Only the leaves, of which there are 50, are numbered. It is not so neatly printed as the edition marked 1597; but the chief difference is, that the Religious Meditations are now in English. They in particular are full of the grossest misprints-all of which have been carefully preserved in Mr. Montagu's edition. The only other known impression of the same collection (having also the Meditations in English) is a small 8vo., printed at London for John Jaggard, dwelling in Fleete Streete, at the hande and Starre, near Temple Barre. 1606." The date of the Dedication is also altered

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*Mr. Montagu says that the 'Religious Meditations' are not printed, as the 'Essays' are, for Hooper. But in the next sentence but one he says, "Although the name of Hooper does not appear in the title prefixed to the Meditationes Sacrae,' it is evident that Windet was the printer for Hooper." The first or general title-page shows clearly enough that the entire volume was printed for Hooper. Mr. Montagu also expresses himself as if the Places of Perswasion and Disswasion' were a second title of the 'Religious Meditations.'