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have thought it advisable to give the principal variations in foot-notes, as they show something of the history of the work.

The dedication in the other MSS. and editions bears date Jan or Jan 8th, 1596 (i. e. 1596-7). In the Camb. MS. it ismerely 1596, i. e. any time between March 25th 1596, and March 24th 1597; and it seems clear, as I have pointed out in a note, that it was an earlier draft, and that shortly after its composition may we not say after its presentation ? - Bacon had the interview or communication with the Queen to which he alludes in the later draft.

In the Camb. MS. there are only 20 Rules, instead of 25; they stand in a different order 1; and there are in many Rules fewer examples, as well as considerable variations in the phraseology and sense.

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My own impression is that the shorter text has been expanded into, and not abridged from, the longer. But it is of more importance to observe that whereas it is clear that Bacon, while at work on either text, had before him cases adjudged as late as 37° Eliz. i. e. 1594 and 1595,- I have failed to find any indication in the marginal references, which so abound in some of the MSS. and editions, of any use of later cases. If this be the fact, it seems to me quite conclusive that these English texts belong entirely to a period of Bacon's life contemporary with, or prior to, the date of his Dedication, and are not chance fragments from the larger Collection at which he tells us, when Attorney General, he had recently been and hoped to continue working.3

The Preface contains no internal marks to fix its date. Besides the omission of the main part of it in the Lincoln's Inn MS. it may be observed that in the Camb. MS. it appears to be designed to introduce exactly one hundred Rules, instead of the 66 some few" of the common text.

On the whole, I think the probable solution is, that at an early date in Bacon's law studies he conceived the thought of such a treatise De Regulis Juris as he advocates in the De Augmentis and in the Proposals, and began to work at it "more

1 Nos. 1 to 20 in the Camb. MS. correspond with Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 18, 15, 16, 12, 1, 2, 19, 21, 20, 22, 9, 25, 3, 23, 24, in the text.

2 See notes in the 1st and 3rd Rules. The latter may perhaps suggest that the longer text was in hand some time in 1597, or may be 1598.

Proposal for amending the Laws of England. See also the list of his law manuscripts in the Commentarius solutus.

cursorily," by noting down Maxims in Latin, and examples in the language in which he found them, not caring "to hunt after words but matter: " that after the Queen's speech and the ensning debate in the Parliament of 35° Eliz. to which he refers in the Dedication, and in which he took a part, he prepared a careful specimen of the work in English, and may have shown it, with the first Dedication, to the Queen or her ministers: that he was encouraged by "that which he was afterwards vouchsafed to understand from Her Majesty," and not only retouched his Dedication but enlarged his specimen : that he may perhaps have written the first paragraph of the Preface, as it appears in the Lincoln's Inn MS., before he altered his plan; but that before he finished the Preface he had changed his mind, and intended to publish in Law French one hundred, if he could arrange so many in a satisfactory state, or at any rate "some few."

Whether the "Regula Juris, cum limitationibus et casibus," described among his MSS. in 16082 as "merely a composition of his own and not a note book," was the work we have, or an ampler collection in another form, I know no means of determining; but for the reasons above given, I conceive we have here no trace of the result of the later labours spoken of in the Proposals.

I believe the present text, formed by a free use of all the MSS. and editions, and with scarcely any purely conjectural emendation, will be found much improved. Any such conjectures I have duly noticed, and where a difficulty without a solution has occurred to me I have called attention to it. Where I have made any observation on the law, it has generally been because I found some early annotator (in the first edition or in some MS.) has already put a query, but I have not thought it generally necessary to examine doubtful points, especially with the warning Bacon himself gives us that he did not always mean to be bound by authority.

Bacon did not intend to give any references to cases. Nevertheless, some of them seem manifestly to refer to manuscript authority, giving only the year of Elizabeth's reign, and to have been about contemporaneous with the text. These I have

Proposal for amending the Laws. 2 Commentarius solutus.

X 4

* See note in 1st Rule.

preserved. The references to the Year Books seem to have accumulated under the hands of transcribers, and very carelessly. I have expunged a great many which seemed to me clearly irrelevant, but do not feel confident that all which I have retained will be found correct or worth consulting. Where I found a reference to Brook or Fitzherbert, I have thought that sufficient and suppressed the Year Book; the abridgments being much the pleasanter references, and giving any reader the opportunity of further investigation if he thinks it worth while.

Those in brackets have not been verified.

TO HER SACRED MAJESTY.

I DO here most humbly present and dedicate to your Majesty a sheaf and cluster of fruit of that good and favourable season, which by the influence of your happy government we enjoy. For if it be true that silent leges inter arma, it is also as true, that your Majesty is in a double respect the life of our laws; once, because without your authority they are but litera mortua ; and again, because you are the life of our peace, without which laws are put to silence. And as the vital spirits do not only maintain and move the body, but also contend to perfect and renew it, so your sacred Majesty, who is anima legis, doth not only give unto your laws force and vigour, but also hath been careful of their amendment and reforming. Wherein your Majesty's proceeding may be compared, as in that part of your government, (for if your government be considered in all the parts, it is incomparable,) with the former doings of the most excellent princes that have reigned, who have ever studied to adorn and honour times of peace with the amendment of the policy of their laws.

Of this proceeding in Augustus Cæsar the testimony remaineth:

Pace data terris, animum ad civilia vertit

Jura suum; legesque tulit justissimus auctor.

Hence was collected the difference between gesta in armis and acta in toga, whereof he disputeth thus:

Ecquid est, quod tam propriè dici potest actum ejus qui togatus in republica cum potestate imperioque versatus sit quam lex? quære acta Gracchi: leges Sempronia proferentur. Quære Syllæ: Cornelia. Quid? Cn. Pompeii tertius consulatus in quibus actis consistit? nempe in legibus. A Cæsare ipso si quæreres quidnam egisset in urbe et toga: leges multas se responderet, et præclaras tulisse.

The same desire long after did spring in the emperor Justinian, being rightly called ultimus Imperatorum Romanorum; who, having peace in the heart of his empire, and making his wars prosperously in the remote places of his dominions by his lieutenants, chose it for a monument and honour of his government, to revisit the Roman laws, and to reduce them from infinite volumes and much repugnancy into one competent and uniform corps of law. Of which matter himself doth speak gloriously, and yet aptly, calling it proprium et sanctissimum templum Justitiæ consecratum: a work of great excellency indeed, as may well appear, in that France, Italy, and Spain, which have long ago shaken off the yoke of the Roman empire, do yet nevertheless continue to use the policy of that law: but more excellent had the work been, save that the more ignorant and obscure time undertook to correct the more learned and flourishing time. To conclude with the domestical example of one of your Majesty's royal ancestors: King Edward I. your Majesty's famous progenitor, and principal lawgiver of our nation, after he had in his younger years given himself satisfaction in the glory of arms, by the enterprise of the Holy Land, having inward peace, (otherwise than for the invasions which himself made upon Wales and Scotland, parts far distant from the centre of the realm,) he bent himself to endow his state with sundry notable and fundamental laws, upon which the government ever since hath principally rested.1

Of these examples, and others the like, two reasons may be given; the one, because that kings, which, either by the moderation of their natures, or the maturity of their years and judgment, do temper their magnanimity with justice, do wisely consider and conceive of the exploits of ambitious wars, as actions rather great than good; and so, distasted with that course of winning honour, they convert their minds rather to do somewhat for the better uniting of human society, than for the dissolving or disturbing of the same. Another reason is, because times of peace, drawing for the most part with them abundance

The Cambridge MS. here adds:-" And lastly, the King Your Majesty's father had this royal design in such regard and so deeply looked into the state of his laws, as it is to be seen that he made more statutes (not speaking of penal laws, but such as were in amendment of the common laws) than all the Kings between him and the same King Edward I. and that specially in the 32nd year of his reign, what time this kingdom flourished in peace."

A less courtly or more mature judgment of Henry VIII.'s merits as a lawgiver is found in the Offer of a Digest of the Laws of England.

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