After the death of Elizabeth, the career of his ambition was more prosperous. Before James I. ar rived in England, Bacon wrote letters to all the Scottish gentlemen of whom lie had the slightest knowledge, offering his services to the king, and ear nestly soliciting their interest to procure him employ ment in the affairs of state. He was one of the 237 persons, on whom the honour of knighthood was conferred, soon after the accession of the new sove reign ; and lie was also appointed one of the king's counsel learned. The endeavours of Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, could not now defeat the servile arts by which Bacon rose progressively through so many steps of preferment. In 1605 he recommended him self to the notice of James, by addressing to him his great work Of the Advancement of Learning, in the introduction to which he compliments that pe dantic monarch, as being incomparably superior in judgment, learning, eloquence, and every princely attribute, to Julius Cmsar, Marcus Antoninus, Her mes Trismegistus, and all the potentates and demi gods of ancient times. In 1607 he was appointed solicitor•general. Four years afterwards he was made joint judge of the knight marshal's court. In 1613 he -became attorney-general, and was sworn a member of the privy council. In 1617, he was raised to the high office of keeper of the great seal of Eng land ; and on the 4th of January 1619, he was ad vanced to the greatest legal dignity which the favour of his master could bestow,—the office of lord.chan cellor, an office which he had long laboured to pro cure, not only by descending to the most humiliating , importunities, but also by vilifying the talents and principles of his rivals. In the course of the same year he was successively created Baron Verulam, and Viscount St Albans. James had advanced him nos. less than nine times : six in office, and three in dig nity. After having thus rapidly attained tile climax of his hopes, he sunk with still greater rapidity into the lowest degradation.
It is well known that the parliament which met in 1621, acted with a firm and determined boldness, of which there had previously been few examples in the history of England. In the examination of grie vances, the commons were led to attend particularly to some patents for monopolies, which had excited loud murrwsrs among the subjects. Bacon and the other officers of state were supposed to have been the agents of I3uckingham in obtaining these oppres.
sive instruments. But charges of a more personal nature arose against the chancellor; and the House of Commons, after receiving the complaints of a great number of individuals, reported them to the lords, and accused h lordship of having, in his judicial ca pacity, received bribes from suitors before the court of chancery. At first he endeavoured to shelter Him self from the effects of a minute investigation, by mingling vague protestations of his upright inten tions with a reluctant confession, that, through the weakness of human nature, and the influence of evil example, lie might have erred ; at the same time la bouring to persuade his judges, that the deprivation of his office would have a more salutary effect in pre venting future delinquency, than the infliction of a severer punishment. His judges, not mollified by
his submission, required him to give in a specific an swer to all the chirges. He sent a letter to the House, acknowledging himself guilty in almost all the twenty-eight articles, and attempting to palliate his criminality in a few of them. On the 3d of May, six weeks after the investigation commenced, the fol lowing sentence was pronounced : " Upon complaint of the commons against the Viscount St Albans, lord chancellor, this high court hath thereby, and by his own confession, found him guilty of the crimes and corruptions complained of by the commons, and of sundry other crimes and corruptions of like nature ; and therefore this high court having first summoned him to attend, and having his excuse of not attend ing by reason of infirmity and sickness, which he protested was not feigned, or else he would most _willingly have attended, doth nevertheless think fit to proceed to judgment, and therefore this high court cloth adjudge, That the Lord Viscount St Albans shall undergo fine and ransom of R40,000 ; that he shall be imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure ; that he shall for ever be incapable of any office or employment in the state or common wealth ; that he shall never sit in parliament, or come within the verge of the court." The only extenuation of Bacon's corruption, which has ever been attempted, is thus pleaded by Addi son. " His principal fault seems to have been the excess of that virtue which covers a multitude. of faults. This betrayed him to so great an indulgence towards his servants, who made a corrupt use of it, that it stripped him of, all those riches and honours which a long series of merits had heaped upon him." This lame apology, feebly hinted at by the chancel lor himself, deserves little notice. His connivance at the extortions of his servants was one of the cor• ruptions charged on him ; and his guilt will not be lessened by the supposition, that the support of their extravagance led him to all his other acknowledged acts of venality. To say that his unrighteous gains were not avariciously hoarded, but lavished on his unworthy dependents, or that want of economy had plunged him into difficulties, or that it is charity to wink at violations of justice, is to insult the moral feelings of mankind ; and on the same principles we must excuse the depredations of every marauding chief, who shares the spoil with the partakers of his enormities. That the practice of taking presents had long prevailed in the court of chancery, is not disputed ; but it is scarcely credible, that former chan cellor's could have safely carried it on to the same im moderate extent, to which it appeared, on the trial, to have proceeded in a single year ; and no precedent could form an excuse for such palpable baseness.