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The truth is, that as pusillanimity will talk bigger on some occasions than true valour on any; he meant to make himself formidable to his people, that they might not discover how much he was afraid of them.

Though he did not succeed in the union of the kingdoms, he found his judges, in an affair of a similar kind, more complaisant than the great council of the nation had been: I mean the naturalization of all Scotsmen born since his accession to the throne of England. This was adjudged by Sir Edward Coke in Case of the the great case of Calvin; as it had been argued at Post-nati, large before all the judges by Sir Francis Bacon. The affair is now no longer of importance to either kingdom: but one assertion of our author, on that occasion, ought not to be forgot. He roundly affirms that monarchies do not subsist like other governments, by a precedent law; and that submission to them is grounded upon nature.

Vol. IV.

P. 319.

In 1610 he published another treatise, intitled, An. 1610. "Of the Wisdom of the Ancients." This work bears the same stamp of an original and inventive genius with his other performances. Resolving not to tread in the steps of those who had gone before him, men, according to his own expression, not learned beyond certain common places; he strikes out a new tract for himself, and enters into the most secret recesses of this wild and shadowy region; so as to appear new on a known and beaten subject. Upon the whole, if we cannot bring ourselves readily to believe that there is all the physical, moral, and political meaning veiled under those fables of antiquity, which he has discovered in them, we must own that it required no common penetration to be mistaken with so great an appearance of probability on his side. Though it still remains doubtful whether the ancients were so knowing as he attempts to shew they were, the variety and depth of his own knowledge are, in that very attempt, unquestionable.

Hobart being advanced to the place of Chief An. 1613. Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir Francis Bacon suc-L ceeded him as Attorney General in 1613; about

three months, after the death of his kinsman and enemy the lord treasurer Salisbury: a minister fertile in expedients for supplying his master's wants, and well acquainted with the temper of England: a man of dexterity, craft, and intrigue, rather than a great man. The office that Bacon now entered upon was of exorbitant profit for that age. He owns, in one of his letters to the king, that it was worth to him 60001. a year; and his employment of register to the Star-Chamber, which I mentioned above, now brought him in 16001. a year more. By what fatality was it that so extraordinary a man did not add to his other virtues that of a reasonable œconomy? Had he done so, it had preserved him from one transcendent fault and the other blemishes on his moral name had been lost in the brightness of his intellectual qualities. But he was remarkably subject to the same weakness that so much dishonoured his master. His dependents had him wholly in their power, and squandered his fortune away, shamefully and without measure. In a private family, this begot disorder, necessity, corruption: and all England beheld, from the same management in administring the public, the same effects; only more felt and fatal, as they were universal.

It was not however till the year 1611 that James abandoned himself to one sole favourite. About that time was brought to court Robert Car, a Scotsman, then in the first bloom of his youth, and of distinguished beauty; by which he at once engaged the king's attention, and in a little while ingrossed all his affection. As he was wholly illiterate, James himself would needs be his preceptor: and it must have been a scene altogether new and ridiculous, to see the sovereign of three kingdoms daily instructing, in the first elements of grammar, the man who was shortly after to govern those kingdoms. In his bounty to this stripling, he observed no other measure but that of his passion, which was as extreme as it Truth seemed unaccountable. Car, in four or five years of favour, from a mere adventurer was raised to be earl

brought to

light,p.89.

of Somerset and amassed an enormous estate of nineteen thousand pounds a year in land; besides plate, money, and jewels, to the amount of two hundred thousand pounds more. And yet he deserves a place in history, only for his scandalous amour with the countess of Essex; for procuring her An. 1613. to be divorced from her husband, and for combining with her to poison his friend, who had dissuaded him from that ill step. The fate of Sir Thomas Overbury; the dark and dreadful scene of guilt that ushered it in; and the part those two great criminals acted in that tragedy, are recounted by all historians. Though the horrible transaction lay yet wrapt up in darkness, and was not discovered till two years after, remorse and the upbraidings of conscience pursued Somerset every where. Through all the splendour of fortune and favour, the trouble of his mind was visible in his countenance, in his whole deportment. He grew by degrees to neglect his person and dress; his Coke. sprightliness of temper left him and his conversation, from being gay and entertaining, was become cold, serious, and gloomy. This alteration in him was quickly followed by a change in the king's affections; which had no deeper or more solid foundation than these external and slight accomplishments. The courtiers, whom envy and interest render extremely sharpsighted, quickly discovered this change, and improved it. Luckily for their designs, there now ap- An. 1615. peared at court another young man, fitted by nature to draw the curiosity of James, and to supplant the earl of Somerset in his favour. This was the famous Wilson, George Villiers, the younger son of a good family in P. 79. Leicestershire; afterwards duke of Buckingham. As the surprising elevation of this youth had a particular influence on the future fortunes, and even on the fall, of Sir Francis Bacon, his character will deserve a place at large in this history.

His mother, who could not give him a fortune, bestowed on him such an education as might enable him to acquire one, especially in a court like this. The advantages he owed to nature, such as a handsome

face, a body exactly proportioned, an ease and gracefulness in his motions, she had taken care to improve with that elegance of manners, that artificial politeness, and skill of excelling in trifles, which are the last finishings of a French education. In a word, he was just returned from his travels, and accomplished in all those agreeable and frivolous arts, which were a certain recommendation to the favour of James. The earls of Pembroke and Bedford, with some other lords who were secret enemies to Somerset, after dressing out this youth with a studied exactness, placed him to advantage in the king's eye, at a comedy. That monarch was immediately smitten with his face, air, and appearance; which yet he endeavoured for some time to conceal. Nay he carried this dissimulation so far, that he would needs be solicited by the queen to receive Villiers into his bosom: imagining the world would be thus deceived into a belief that he rather followed her advice, in this matter, than his own inclination. Such was the kingcraft on which he so highly valued himself. The queen was not easily prevailed with to take this step; worth of of which she foresaw all the consequences. At last, however, she yielded to the archbishop's importunity; telling him at the same time, that those who laboured most to promote Villiers might be the first to feel his ingratitude. Upon this he was immediately knighted, and declared gentleman of the bed-chamber: the herd of courtiers rivalling each other in their offers of Weldon, friendship and service to him. Some of them even descended to undertake his quarrels, and brave such as were still in Somerset's interest.

Rush

Abbot,

ch. 1.

p. 84.

Bacon,

Among those who courted the rising favourite, none was more zealous than Sir Francis Bacon; as none was able to serve him more nobly, or more usefully. Villiers had at this time sense enough to Vol. III. feel his inexperience in business, and therefore had recourse to our author for his advice: which he gave Villiers, him fully in a letter, still extant among his works; p. 429. written with so superior a judgment and so much honest freedom, that it does honour equally to his head

Advice to

Sir G.

and heart. He has ranged his thoughts under seven or eight principal topics of consideration, and entered into an accurate detail of what a minister ought to know and practise. In another letter to him, he has these remarkable words: "It is now time that you "should refer your actions chiefly to the good of your

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sovereign, and your country. It is the life of a "beast always to eat, and never to exercise. In "this dedication of yourself to the public, I recom"mend to you principally that which I think was "never done since I was born, and which, not done, "hath bred almost a wilderness and solitude in the

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king's service which is, that you countenance, " and encourage, and advance able and virtuous men "in all kinds, degrees, and professions." This excellent advice the favourite received with thankfulness; and neglected.

Though the king's passion was now wholly di- An. 1616. verted upon a new object, he still affected to treat Somerset with kindness and distinction; even after the discovery of his being an accomplice in poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury had rendered this dissimulation not only mean but criminal. Yet he continued it to Wilson, the last, embracing with fondness the man whom he p. 81. had secretly ordered to be arrested: and intreating him to hasten his return, when he believed he should never see him more. In such trifles he was fond to exert his talent of political management. The earl's unhappy passion for the young countess of Essex was the source of all his misfortunes, and drew after it the most terrible consequences: ending, as I have already observed, in the murder of his friend; in the ruin of himself, and of her to whom he had treacherously sacrificed that friend. The whole affair is displayed at full length in our author's charges against those two prime agents in that infernal con May 24, spiracy. They were both found guilty, sentenced 25. Stateto die, and afterwards pardoned by the king, not- I. p. 334, trials, Vol. withstanding his solemn imprecations to the contrary, 348. on himself and his posterity.

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