that period to counteract the then common custom of importuning the judges, he warned Villiers of the evil. "By no means," he says, "be you persuaded to interpose yourself, either by word or letter, in any cause depending, or like to be depending in any court of justice, nor suffer any other great man to do it where you can hinder it, and by all means dissuade the King himself from it, upon the importunity of any for themselves or their friends: if it should prevail, it perverts justice; but if the judge be so just, and of such courage, as he ought to be, as not to be inclined thereby, yet it always leaves a taint of suspicion behind it; judges must be as chaste as Cæsar's wife, neither to be, nor to be suspected to be unjust; and, Sir, the honour of the judges in their judicature is the King's honour, whose person they represent." (a)

The trial of Peacham took place at Taunton on the 7th of August, 1615, before the Chief Baron and Sir Henry Montagu. Bacon did not attend, but the prosecution was conducted by the King's Serjeant and Solicitor, when the old clergyman, who defended himself, "very simply, al

head boldness and faction, said, she had an opinion that there was treason in it, and asked me if I could not find any places in it that might be drawn within case of treason: whereto I answered, for treason surely I found none, but for felony very many. And when her majesty hastily asked me, wherein? I told her, the author had committed very apparent theft: for he had taken most of the sentences of Cornelius Tacitus, and translated them into English, and put them into his text; and another time, when the Queen would not be persuaded that it was his writing whose name was to it, but that it had some more mischievous author; and said with great indignation, that she would have him racked to produce his author: I replied, "Nay, madam, he is a doctor; never rack his person, but rack his style; let him have pen, ink, and paper, and help of books, and be enjoined to continue the story where it breaketh off, and I will undertake by collating the styles to judge whether he were the author or no."

(a) See Advice to Villiers, vol. vi. p. 400.

though obstinately and doggedly enough," was convicted, but, some of the judges doubting whether it was treason, he was not executed. (b)

(6) Edmund Peacham, a minister in Somersetshire [MS. letter of Mr. Chamberlain, dated January 5, 1614-5]. I find one of both his names, who was instituted into the vicarage of Ridge, in Hertfordshire, July 22, 1581, and resigned it in 1587 [Newcourt Reporter, vol. i. p. 864]. Mr. Peacham was committed to the Tower for inserting several treasonable passages in a sermon never preached, nor, as Mr. Justice Croke remarks in his Reports during the reign of King Charles I. p. 125, ever intended to be preached. Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter of the 9th of February, 1614-5, to Sir Dudley Carleton, mentions Mr. Peacham's having been “stretched already, though he be an old man, and, they say, much above threescore; but they could wring nothing out of him more than, they had at first in his papers. Yet the king is extremely incensed against him, and will have him prosecuted to the uttermost." In another letter, dated February 23, we are informed that the king, since his coming to London on the 15th, had had "the opinion of the judges severally in Peacham's case; and it is said, that most of them concur to find it treason; yet my lord chief justice [Coke] is for the contrary; and if the Lord Hobart, that rides the western circuit, can be drawn to jump with his colleague, the chief baron [Tanfield], it is thought he shall be sent down to be tried, and trussed up in Somersetshire." In a letter of the 2nd of March, 1614-5, Mr. Chamberlain writes, "Peacham's trial at the western assizes is put off, and his journey stayed, though Sir Randall Crew, the king's serjeant, and Sir Henry Yelverton, the solicitor, were ready to go to horse to have waited on him there." "Peacham, the minister," adds he, in a letter of the 13th of July, 1615," that hath been this twelvemonth in the Tower, is sent down to be tried for treason in Somersetshire, before the lord chief baron and Sir Henry Montagu, the recorder. The Lord Hobart gave over that circuit the last assizes. Sir Randall Crew and Sir Henry Yelverton, the king's serjeant and solicitor, are sent down to prosecute the trial." The event of this trial, which was on the 7th of August, appears from Mr. Chamberlain's letter of the 14th of that month, wherein it is said that "seven knights were taken from the bench, and appointed to be of the jury. He defended himself very simply, but obstinately and doggedly enough. But his offence was so foul and scandalous, that he was condemned of high treason; yet not hitherto executed, nor perhaps shall be, if he have the grace to submit himself, and shew some remorse. He died, as appears from another letter of the 27th of March, 1616, in the jail at Taunton, where he was said to have "left behind a most wicked and desperate writing, worse than that he was convicted for."

The same course of private consultation with the judges would have been adopted in the case of Owen, had not the Attorney General been so clear in his opinion of the treason, as to induce him to think it inexpedient to imply that any doubt could be entertained. (a)

His speeches against Owen (b) and Talbot, (c) which are preserved, are in the usual style of speeches of this nature, with some of the scurrility by which the eloquence of the bar was at that time polluted.

When speaking of the King's clemency, he says, "The King has had too many causes of irritation: he has been irritated by the Powder treason, when, in the chair of majesty, his vine and olive branches about him, attended by his nobles and third estate in parliament, he was, in the twinkling of an eye, as if it had been a particular doomsday, to have been brought to ashes, and dispersed to the four winds.-He hath been irritated by wicked and monstrous libels, and by the violence of demagogues, who have at all times infested, and in times of disturbance, when the scum is uppermost, ever will infest society; confident and daring persons, Nihil tam verens, quam ne dubitare aliquâ de re, videretur, priding themselves in pulling

(a) A letter to the King of account of Owen's cause, &c. 11th Feb. 1614. It may please your excellent Majesty,-Myself, with the rest of your counsel learned, conferred with my Lord Cooke and the rest of the judges of the King's Bench only, being met at my lord's chamber, concerning the business of Owen. For although it be true that your majesty in your letter did mention, that the same course might be held in the taking of opinions apart, in this which was prescribed and used in Peacham's cause; yet both my lords of the council and we, amongst ourselves, holding it in a case so clear, not needful; but rather that it would import a diffidence in us, and deprive us of the means to debate it with the judges (if cause were) more strongly (which is somewhat) we thought best rather to use this form.

(b) Vol. vi. p. 172.

(c) Vol. vi. p. 452.

down magistrates, and chaunting the psalm, "Let us bind the kings in chains, and the nobles in fetters of iron."

During this year an event occurred, which materially affected the immediate pursuits and future fate of Sir Francis Bacon, the King's selection of a new favourite.

George Villiers, a younger son of Sir George Villiers and Mary Beaumont, on each side well descended, was born in 1592. Having early lost his father, his education was conducted by Lady Villiers, and, though he was naturally intelligent and of quick parts, more attention was paid to the graces of manner and the lighter accomplishments which ornament a gentleman, than the solid learning and virtuous precepts which form a great and good man. At the age of eighteen he travelled to France, and, having passed three years in the completion of his studies, he returned to the seat of his forefathers, in Leicestershire, where he conceived an intention of settling himself in marriage; but, having journeyed to London, and consulted Sir Thomas Gresham, that gentleman, charmed by his personal beauty and graceful deportment, advised him to relinquish his intention, and try his fortune at court. Shrewd advice, which he, without a sigh, obeyed. He sacrificed his affections at the first temptation of ambition.

The King had gradually withdrawn his favour from Somerset, equally displeased by the haughtiness of his manners, and by an increasing gloom that obscured all those lighter qualities which had formerly contributed to his amusement, a gloom soon after fatally explained. Although powerfully attracted by the elegance and gaiety of Villiers, yet James had been so harassed by complaints of favouritism, that he would not bestow any appointment upon him, until solicited by the Queen and some of the gravest of his councillors. In 1613 Villiers was taken into the King's household, and rose rapidly to the highest

honours. He was nominated cupbearer, received several lucrative appointments; the successive honours of knighthood, of a barony, an earldom, a marquisate, and was finally created Duke of Buckingham.

From the paternal character of Bacon's protection of the new favourite, it is probable that he had early sought his assistance and advice; as a friendship was formed between them, which continued with scarcely any interruption till the death, and, indeed, after the death of Bacon:(a) a friendship which was always marked by a series of the wisest and best counsels, and was never checked by the increased power and elevation of Villiers.

This intimacy between an experienced statesman and a rising favourite was naturally looked upon with some jealousy, but it ought to have been remembered that there was never any intimacy between Bacon and Somerset. In the whole of his voluminous correspondence, there is not one letter of solicitation or compliment to that powerful favourite, or any vain attempt to divert him from his own gratifications to the advancement of the public good; but in Villiers he thought he saw a better nature, capable of such culture, as to be fruitful in good works. Whatever the motives were in which this union originated, the records extant of the spirit by which it was cemented are honourable to both. In the courtesy and docility of Villiers, Bacon did not foresee the rapacity that was to end in his own disgrace, and in the violent death of the favourite.

About this period, Sir George Villiers personally and by letter, importuned his friend to communicate his sentiments respecting the conduct which, thus favoured by the King, it would be proper for him to observe; and, considering these requests as commands, Bacon wrote a letter

(a) See Bacon's will.