importunities of his creditors, assigned it to Mr. Justice Hutton, Mr. Justice Chamberlain, Sir Francis Barnham, and Sir Thomas Crew, whom Bacon in his will directed to apply the funds, for the payment and satisfaction of his debts and legacies, having a charitable care that the poorest creditors or legatees should be first satisfied. (a)

This intended kindness of the King the Lord Keeper Williams misunderstood and endeavoured to impede by staying the pardon at the seal, (b) until he was commanded

(a) The following is the extract from the will: "Whereas of late my fine, and the whole benefit thereof, was by his majesty's letters patent conveyed to Mr. Justice Hutton, Mr. Justice Chamberlain, Sir Francis Barneham and Sir Thomas Crewe, knight, persons by me named in trust; I do devise by this my will, and declare, that the trust by me reposed, as well touching the said lands as upon the said letters patents, is, that all and every the said persons so trusted, shall perform all acts and assurances that by my executors, or the survivor or survivors of them shall be thought fit and required, for the payment and satisfaction of my debts and legacies, and performance of my will, having a charitable care that the poorest either of my creditors or legataries be first satisfied."

(b) Dr. Williams, Bishop of Lincoln elect, and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, to the Viscount St. Alban.

My very good Lord,-Having perused a privy seal, containing a pardon for your lordship, and thought seriously thereupon, I find that the passing of the same (the assembly in parliament so near approaching) cannot but be much prejudicial to the service of the King, to the honour of my lord of Buckingham, to that commiseration, which otherwise would be had of your lordship's present estate, and especially to my judgment and fidelity. I have ever affectionately loved your lordship's many and most excelling good parts and endowments; nor had ever cause to disaffect your lordship's person. So as no respect in the world, beside the former considerations, could have drawn me to add the least affliction or discontentment unto your lordship's present fortune. May it therefore please your lordship to suspend the passing of this pardon until the next assembly be over and dissolved, and I will be then as ready to seal it as your lordship to accept of it; and, in the mean time, undertake that the King and my Lord Admiral shall interpret this short delay as a service and respect issuing wholly from your lordship, and rest, in all other offices whatsoever,

Your Lordship's faithful servant, Jo. LINCOLN, elect. Custos Sigilli. Westminster College, Oct. 18, 1621.

by Buckingham to obey the King's order. In October the pardon was sealed. (a)

The Lord Keeper to the Duke.

My most noble Lord,—I humbly thank your Lordship for your most sweet and loving letter, &c. I humbly beseech your lordship to meddle with no pardon for the Lord of St. Albans, until I shall have the happiness to confer with your lordship; the pardoning of his fine is much spoken against, not for the matter (for no man objects to that) but for the manner, which is full of knavery, and a wicked precedent. For by this assignation of his fine, he is protected from all his creditors, which, I dare say, was neither his majesty's nor your lordship's meaning. Let all our greatness depend, as it ought, upon yours, the true original. Let the King be Pharaoh, yourself Joseph, and let us come after you as your half brethren, God bless you, &c,

To the Lord Keeper.

My very good Lord,—I know the reasons must appear to your lordship many and weighty which should move you to stop the King's grace, or to dissuade it; and somewhat the more in respect of my person being, I hope, no unfit subject for noble dealing, I send Mr. Meautys to your lordship, that I might reap so much your fruit of your lordship's professed good affection, as to know in some more particular fashion what it is that your lordship doubteth or disliketh, that I may the better endeavour your satisfaction or acquiescence, if there be cause. So I rest,

Oct. 18, 1621.

Your Lordship's to do you service, FR. ST. ALBAN.

To the Marquis of Buckingham.

My very good Lord,-An unexpected accident maketh me hasten this letter to your lordship, before I could dispatch Mr. Meautys; it is that my Lord Keeper hath staid my pardon at the seal. I ever rest your Lordship's most obliged friend and faithful servant, FR. ST, ALBAN.

Oct. 18, 1621.

(a) The Lord Keeper to the Duke, concerning the Lord of St. Alban. My most noble Lord,-I have received your lordship's expression concerning the pause I made upon the patent for my Lord of St. Alban's pardon. The latter I have not yet sealed, but do represent, in all lowliness and humility, these few considerations by your lordship to his sacred majesty, wherein let your lordship make no question but I have advised with the best lawyers in the kingdom; and after this representation I will perform whatsoever your lordship shall direct.

1. His majesty and your lordship do conceive that my Lord of St. Alban's pardon and grant of his fine came both together to my hands, and so your lordship directs me to pass the one and the other. But his lordship was

He had scarcely retired to Gorhambury, in the summer Henry 7. of 1621, when he commenced his history of Henry the Seventh.

too cunning for me. He passed his fine (whereby he hath deceived his creditors) ten days before he presented his pardon to the seal. So as now, in his pardon, I find his parliament fine excepted, which he hath before the sealing of the same obtained and procured. And whether the house of parliament will not hold themselves mocked and derided with such an exception, I leave to your lordship's wisdom. These two grants are opposite and contradictory, in this point, the one to the other.

After 2 and 3, he thus proceeds:

4. I will not meddle or touch upon those mistakings which may fall between the parliament and his majesty, or the misinterpretation that enemies may make hereof to your lordship's prejudice, because I see, in his majesty's great wisdom, these are not regarded. Only I could have wished the pardon had been referred to the council-board, and so passed. I have now discharged myself of those poor scruples, which, in respect only to his majesty's service and your lordship's honour, have wrought this short stay of my Lord of St. Alban's pardon. Whatsoever your lordship shall now direct, I will most readily (craving pardon for this not undutiful boldness) put in execution. Because some speech may fall of this day's speech, which I had occasion to make in the Common Pleas, where a bishop was never seen sitting there these seventy years, I have presumed to inclose a copy thereof because it was a very short one.

Your lordship shall not need to take that great pains, which your lordship, to my inexpressible comfort, hath so often done in writing. What command soever your lordship shall impose upon me, as touching this pardon, your lordship's expression to Mr. Packer, or the bearer shall deliver it sufficiently. God from heaven continue the showering and heaping of his blessings upon your lordship, &c.—Oct. 27, 1621.

To the Lord St. Alban.

My honourable Lord,-I have delivered your lordship's letter of thanks to his majesty, who accepted it very graciously, and will be glad to see your book, which you promised to send very shortly, as soon as it cometh. I send your lordship his majesty's warrant for your pardon, as you desired it; but am sorry that, in the current of my service to your lordship, there should be the least stop of any thing. Your lordship's faithful servant, October, 1621. G. BUCKINGHAM.

Grant of pardon to the Viscount St. Alban, under the privy seal. A special pardon granted unto Francis, Viscount St. Alban, for all felonies done and committed against the common laws and statutes of this

During the progress of the work considerable expectation of his history was excited: (a) in the composition of which he seems to have laboured with much anxiety, and to have submitted his manuscript to the correction of various classes of society; to the King, (b) to scholars, and to the

realm; and for all offences of præmunire; and for all misprisions, riots, &c. with a restitution of all his lands and goods forfeited by reason of any the premises; except out of the same pardon all treasons, murders, rapes, incest; and except also all fines, imprisonments, penalties, and forfeitures adjudged against the said Viscount St. Alban by a sentence lately made in the parliament. Teste Rege apud Westm. 17 die Octob. anno Regni suo 19. Per lettre de privato sigillo.

(a) Dr. Rawley, in his life of Bacon, says, "His fame is greater, and sounds louder in foreign parts abroad than at home, in his own nation; thereby verifying that divine sentence, a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country and in his own house. Concerning which I will give you a taste only, out of a letter written from Italy (the storehouse of divine wits), to the late Earl of Devonshire, then the Lord Cavendish. I will expect the new Essays of my Lord Chancellor Bacon, as also his history, with a great deal of desire; and whatsoever else, he shall compose. But in particular, of his history, I promise myself, a thing perfect, and singular; especially in Henry the Seventh, where he may exercise the talent of his divine understanding."

(b) It appears by a letter from his faithful friend, Sir Thomas Meautys, that the King did correct the manuscript. The letter is dated January 7, 1621-2, and directed to the Lord Viscount St. Alban. It contains the following passage: "Mr. Murray tells me, the King hath given your book to my Lord Brooke, and enjoined him to read it, recommending it much to him, and then my Lord Brooke is to return it to your lordship; and so it may go to the press when your lordship pleases, with such amendments as the King hath made, which I have seen and are very few, and those rather words, as epidemic, and mild instead of debonnaire, &c. Only that of persons attainted, enabled to serve in parliament by a bare reversal of their attainder, the King by all means will have left out. I met with my Lord Brooke, and told him that Mr. Murray had directed me to wait upon him for the book when he had done with it. He desired to be spared this week, as being to him a week of much business, and the next week I should have it; and he ended in a compliment, that care should be taken, by all means, for good ink and paper to print it in, for that the book deserveth it. I beg leave to kiss your lordship's hands."

uninformed. Upon his desiring Sir John Danvers to give his opinion of the work, Sir John said, "Your lordship knows that I am no scholar. "Tis no matter, said my lord, I know what a scholar can say; I would know what you can say. Sir John read it, and gave his opinion what he misliked, which my lord acknowledged to be true, and mended it. Why, said he, a scholar would never have told me this ;"(a) but, notwithstanding this labour and anxiety, the public expectation was not realized.

If, however, in the history of Henry the Seventh, it is vain to look for the vigour or beauty with which the Advancement of Learning abounds: if the intricacies of a court are neither discovered nor illustrated with the same happiness as the intricacies of philosophy: if in a work written when the author was more than sixty years of age, and if, after the vexations and labours of a professional and political life, the varieties and sprightliness of youthful imagination are not to be found, yet the peculiar properties of his mind may easily be traced, and the stateliness of the edifice be seen in the magnificence of the ruins.

His vigilance in recording every fact tending to alleviate Facts. misery, or to promote happiness, is noticed by Bishop Sprat, in his history of the Royal Society, where he says, "I shall instance in the sweating sickness. The medicine for it was almost infallible: but, before that could be generally published, it had almost dispeopled whole towns. If the same disease should have returned, it might have been again as destructive, had not the Lord Bacon taken care to set down the particular course of physic for it in his history of Henry the Seventh, and so put it beyond the possibility of any private man's invading it." (b)

(a) Aubrey.

(b) Whether it is not the same, or of the same nature, as the cholera which has lately appeared and now exists in England.-See vol. iii. p. 113.