the grave records and precedents that grounded the judgment of that cause; and therefore I would have you both guide and arm yourself with them against these vapours and fumes of law, which are extracted out of men's inventions and conceits.

The third advice I will give you hath a large extent; it is, that you do your endeavour in your place so to manage the King's justice and revenue, as the King may have most profit, and the subject least vexation: for when there is much vexation to the subject and little benefit to the King, then the Exchequer is sick and when there is much benefit to the King, with less2 trouble and vexation to the subject, then the Exchequer is sound. As for example; if there shall be much rakeing3 for the King's old debts, and the more fresh and late debts shall be either more negligently called upon or over-easily discharged or over-indulgently stalled: or if the number of informations be many, and the King's part or fines for compositions a trifle; or if there be much ado to get the King new land upon concealments, and that which he hath already be not well known and surveyed, nor the woods preserved, (I could put you many other cases ;) this falls within that which I term the sick estate of the Exchequer; and this is that which makes every man ready with their undertakings and their projects to disturb the ancient frame of the Exchequer (than the which, I am persuaded, there is not a better): this being the burthen of the song: That much goeth out of the subject's purse, and little cometh to the King's purse. Therefore, give them not that advantage so to say. Sure I am, that besides your own associates, the Barons, you serve with two superior great officers, that have honourable and true ends and desire to serve the King and right the subject.

5

There resteth, that I deliver you your patent.

1 the case.

S.

3 So S. R. has racking.

2 the less. S. I think it should be least.

4 of. S.

5 to get the King into land unto concealments. S.

6 which I said was the disease. S.

7 The whole passage from 'this' to 'say' is omitted in S. 8 than the which there were never any that had more.

9 desires. S.

THE SPEECH USED BY SIR FRANCIS BACON, LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL OF ENGLAND, TO SIR WILLIAM JONES, UPON CALLING ΤΟ BE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF IRELAND,

HIS

1617.1

Sir William Jones,

The King's most excellent Majesty, being duly informed of your sufficiency every way, hath called you, by his writ now returned, to the state and degree of a serjeant at law; but not to stay there, but, being so qualified, to serve him as his Chief Justice of his King's Bench in his realm of Ireland. And therefore that which I shall say to you, must be applied not to your serjeant's place (which you take but in passage) but to that great place where you are to settle; and because I will not spend time to the delay of the business of causes of the court, I will lead you the short journey by examples, and not the long by precepts.

2

The place that you shall now serve in, hath been fortunate to be well served in four successions before you. Do but take unto you the constancy and integrity of Sir Robert Gardiner; the gravity, temper, and discretion3 of Sir James Lea; the quickness, industry, and dispatch of Sir Humphry Winch; the care and affection to the commonwealth, and the prudent and politic administration of Sir John Denham; and you shall need no other lessons. They were all Lincoln's-Inn men as you are; you have known them as well in their beginnings as in their advancement.

But because you are to be there not only Chief Justice, but a councillor of estate, I will put you in mind of the great work now in hand, that you may raise your thoughts according unto it.

Ireland is the last ex filiis Europe which hath been reclaimed from desolation and a desert (in many parts) to population and plantation; and from savage and barbarous customs to humanity and civility. This is the King's work in chief. It is his gar

1 Rawley's 'Resuscitatio,' p. 89 (R.), compared with a transcript in E. Sherburn's hand, docketed by Carleton, "My Ld. Keeper's Speech to Sir William Jones." S. P. Ireland, James I. 1617. (S.)

2

of causes and hearing. S.

may have. S.

3 So S. R. has direction.

5 hath come in and been. S.

land of heroical virtue and felicity, denied to his progenitors, and reserved to his times. The work is not yet conducted to perfection, but is in fair advance. And this I will say confidently, that if God bless that1 kingdom with peace and justice, no usurer is so sure in seven years space to double his principal with interest, and interest upon interest, as that kingdom is within the same time to double the stock both of wealth and people. So as that kingdom, which once within these twenty years wise men were wont to doubt whether they should wish it to be in a pool, is like now to become almost a garden, and younger sister to Great Britain. And therefore you must set down with yourself to be not only a just governor, and a good Chief Justice (as if it were in England), but under the King and the Deputy you are to be a master-builder, and a masterplanter, and reducer of Ireland. To which end I will trouble you at this time but with three directions.

The first is, that you have special care of the three plantations. That of the north, which is in part acted: that of Wexford, which is now in distribution; and that of Longford and Letrim, which is now in survey. And take this from me, that the bane of a plantation is, when the undertakers or planters make such haste to a little mechanical present profit, as disturbeth the whole frame and nobleness of the work for times to come. Therefore hold them to their covenants, and the strict ordinances of plantation.

The second is, that you be careful of the King's revenue, and by little and little constitute him a good demesne, if it may be ;6 which hitherto is little or none. For the King's case is hard,7 when every man's land shall be improved in value with increase manifold, and the King shall be tied to his dry rent.8

My last direction (though first in weight) is, that you do all good endeavours to proceed resolutely and constantly, and yet with due temperance and equality, in matters of religion; lest

1 So S. R. has this kingdom.

2 "to double the rest (sic) and principal thereof, yea and perhaps to treble it." S. 3 a younger. S. 4 Weshford. R. 5 true. S. 6 S. omits if-be. 7 And the King's case will be hard, that. S. 8 The Notes in Harl. MSS. 1576, give this passage thus:-" Most of the land hath passed through his hand; yea, and yet when the sun shines or rains in Ireland, it shines not nor rains not on the King's revenew here. And when every man's land rises three fold, four fold, and five fold, the King shall be tied to his dry rent."

Ireland civil become more dangerous to us than Ireland savage. So God give you comfort of your place.2

[After Sir William Jones's Speech :]

I had forgotten one thing, which was this. You may take exceeding great comfort, that you shall serve with such a Deputy; one that (I think) is a man ordained of God to do great good to that kingdom. And this I think good to say to you, that the true temper of a Chief Justice towards a Deputy is, neither servilely to second him, nor factiously to oppose him.3

g.

The short letter which follows deserves attention, because it was brought up again two months later in a way for which Bacon, I am sure, was not at all prepared. It would not be well, however, to anticipate the story; and therefore I shall only say now that it was imputed to him by the King as a grave offence, and leave the reader for the present to guess wherein the offence lay.

TO THE R. HON. HIS VERY GOOD L. THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM, OF HIS M.'S MOST HON. COUNCIL OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.4

My very good Lord,

I know your Lordship hath a special care of anything that concerneth the Queen. She was entered into dislike of her Solicitor, this bearer Mr. Lowder, and resolute in it. To serve and not to please is no man's condition. Therefore upon knowledge of her pleasure he was willing to part with his place, upon hope not to be destituted, but to be preferred to one of the Baron's places in Ireland. I pray move the King for him, and

2 The last sentence omitted in the MS.

1 Be worse. S. 3 "The reply of my Lord Keeper after his [Sir W. Jones's] answer" is given thus in the Harl. MS. :- "There is a poor herb called Trifolium which I do wear. in mine hat-Justice Hutton, Baron Denham, and the Chief Justice of Ireland Jones. For yourself, assure yourself that the King hath the best ear in the world, neither too open nor too much shut, but carried with the best moderation and discretion that ever Prince that wore the crown had. As for my part, your tale shall be truly told, and for that infusion that may be here, doubt not but it shall be." No part of the reply as given in the other report appears in these notes. And yet it is not likely that such a compliment to the Deputy (Sir Oliver St. John) would have been missed altogether. I fancy this is something like what Bacon said; the other being what he came with the intention of saying.

4 Fortescue Papers. Original. Own hand.

let his Majesty know from me, that I think (howsoever he pleased not here) he is fit to do his Majesty service in that place; he is grave and formal (which is somewhat there), and sufficient enough for that place. The Queen hath made Mr. Hackwell her solicitor, who hath for a long time taken much pains in her business, wherein she hath done well. He was an opposite in Parliament, as Jones was, that the King hath made Chief Justice of Ireland. But I hold it no ill counsel to win1

or to remove such men. God preserve and prosper you.

Your true and devote friend and servant,

Whitehall, 25 May, 1617.

FR. BACON.

We shall now have an opportunity of seeing how very wide of the mark "the general opinion" may be (even when collected by so dispassionate and sensible a man as Chamberlain) in its speculations upon the proceedings of men in great place. We have all of us abundant opportunities of seeing exactly the same thing among ourselves, but in history of past times it does not often happen that the general opinion and the particular fact can be brought into such immediate comparison. And in the absence of express contradiction by the event, popular rumours are too commonly accepted as worth very much more in the way of evidence than they really are. Easter term, which began on the 7th of May, ended on the 2nd of June. Bacon's absence on two or three occasions at the council board or Star chamber had alarmed people for the country. The Lord Keeper had not health or strength for his work: what was to become of the private subject and the commonwealth? On the 8th of June Bacon wrote to Buckingham the following letter, which will give the an

swer.

TO THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM.2

My very good Lord,

This day I have made even with the business of the kingdom for common justice. Not one cause unheard. The lawyers drawn dry of all the motions they were to make. Not one petition unanswered. And this I think could not be said in our age before. This I speak not out of ostentation, but out of

1 I think the word must be either "winne" or "inne." Somebody has read it "joine," and written the word above.

2 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 65. Fair copy in E. Sherburn's hand. Docketed "8 June. A copie of yr L. Ire to my L. of Buckingham."