and to those other officers of the Green-cloth, who are subordinate to them.1 6. Yet for Green-cloth law, take it in the largest sense, I have no opinion of it further than as it is regulated by the just rules of the common laws of England. 7. Towards the support of his Majesty's own table, and of the Prince's, and of his necessary officers, his Majesty hath a good help by Purveyance, which justly is due unto him; and, if justly used, is no great burthen to the subject; but by the purveyors and their under-officers it is many times abused. In most parts of the kingdom, I think, it is already reduced unto a certainty in money; and if it be indifferently and discreetly managed, it would be no hard matter to settle it throughout the whole kingdom; yet to be renewed from time to time: for that will be best and safest, both for king and people. 8. The King must be put in mind to preserve the revenues of the crown, both certain and casual, without diminution, and to lay up treasure in store against a time of exigency; empty coffers gives but an ill sound, and makes the people many times forget their duty, thinking the King must be beholding unto them for a supply. 9. I shall by no means think it fit that his Majesty reward any of his servants with the benefit of forfeitures, either by fines in the court of Star-chamber, or High Commission court, or other courts of justice, or that they should be farmed out, or bestowed upon any so much as by promise, before judgment given; it would be neither profitable nor honourable. 10. Besides matters of serious consideration, in the courts of princes there must be time for pastimes and disports: when there is a queen and ladies of honour attending her, there must be sometimes masques, and revels, and interludes; and when there is no queen, nor princess, as now ;3 yet at festivals, and 1 C adds " as a kind of council and a court of justice also." 2 "Settle it so." C. 3 "Blackbourne," says Professor Craik (Bacon, his Writings and his Philosophy, vol. iii. p. 237), "is puzzled by a passage which he conceives would imply that the paper had been written after the death of the Queen (in March 1619); but the expression to which he refers—' when there is no Queen or Princess, as now' -may evidently be taken in two senses.' No doubt "as now 99 may mean either "6 as now there is" or 66 as now there is not ;" but I confess that to me the words convey the impression that there was not at the time of writing either Queen or Princess at Court. It will be observed that they are not found in the other copy. for entertainment of strangers, or upon such occasions, they may be fit also: yet care would be taken, that in such cases they be set off more with wit and activity than with costly and wasteful expences. 11. But for the King, Prince, Lords and Chivalry1 of the court, I rather commend, in their turns and seasons, the riding of the great horse, the tilt, the barriers, tennis, and hunting, which are more for the health and strength of those that use and exercise them, than in an effeminate way to please themselves and others. 12. Dice and cards may be sometimes used for recreation, and to unbend the bow, when field-sports cannot be had; but not to use them as a mean to spend the time, much less to misspend the thrift of the gamesters. 13. And now the Prince grows up fast to be a man, and is of a sweet and excellent disposition; and it would be an irreparable stain and dishonour upon you, having that access unto him, if you yourself should mislead him, or suffer him to be misled by any loose or flattering parasite: the whole kingdom hath a deep interest in his virtuous education; and if you (keeping that distance which is fit) do humbly interpose yourself in such a case, he will one day give you thanks for it. SIR,-I shall trouble you no longer; I have run over these things as I first propounded them; please you to make use of them, or any of them, as you see occasion; or to lay them by, as you shall think best, and to add to them (as you daily may) out of your own experience. And I must be bold to put you in mind again of your present condition; you are in the quality of a sentinel; if you sleep, or neglect your charge, you are an undone man, and you may fall much faster than you have risen. I have but one thing more to mind you of, which nearly concerns yourself; you serve a great and gracious master, and there is a hopeful young prince, whom you must not disrespect; it behoves you to carry yourself wisely and evenly between them both do not you so adore the sun rising, that you He speaks there of " a Queen and ladies of honour attending on her;" but not of a Princess; which was the case of the English Court in 1615 and 1616. After the Queen's death in 1619 there was neither Queen nor Princess, and if Bacon was revising and correcting the work after that date, nothing was more natural than to insert such a clause. 1 "Cavalry "in L. 2 L omits "to." forget the father that raised you to this height; nor be you so obsequious to the father, that you give just cause to the son to suspect that you neglect him: but carry yourself with that judgment, as, if it be possible, may please and content them both 1; which I believe truly will be no hard matter to do: so may you live long beloved of both, which is the hearty prayer of Your most obliged and devoted Servant F. B. ANOTHER of the most valuable of Bacon's occasional works-his proposition to the King touching the compiling and amendment of the laws of England-belongs to the period between June 1616 and March 1616-7. At what exact time within that period it was written or presented, I do not know how to determine. It may have been a work of the long vacation, or it may have been presented as a New Year's gift. But no date is needed to account for or explain it. Indeed it may be doubted whether it ought to be classed among the "occasional works" at all; for the occasion to which it addresses itself was coextensive with his adult life. Since he was a man there had been no time which did not furnish occasion for the desire, if not the endeavour, to see the laws of England digested into an intelligible and manageable code. In his first speech in Parliament of which we have any detailed report (26 February, 1592-3), though its business was to support a motion for supply, he took occasion from a remark dropped by the Lord Keeper on the multiplicity of the existing laws, to enlarge (in terms which, as far as we can judge from the imperfect report, were substantially the same as the commencement of this paper) upon the importance of reducing and abridging them.1 In his "Promus of Formularies and Elegancies," which was begun at the commencement of the Christmas vacation of 1594, we find among other quotations, applicable, though not complimentary, to the condition of the law, the following note:-" Jurisconsulti domus, oraculum civitatis: now as ambiguous as oracles." A few weeks after, in the playful device which he contributed to the Christmas revels at Gray's Inn, he put 1 See above, Vol. I. p. 213. 2 Works, vol. vii. p. 192. : the same topic into the mouth of one of the councillors of the Prince of Purpoole, whose part was to "advise virtue and a gracious government." "Then look into the state of your laws and justice of your land: purge out multiplicity of laws: clear the incertainty of them repeal those that are snaring; and press the execution of those that are wholesome and necessary: define the jurisdiction of your courts:" etc. In January, 1596-7, he dedicated to Queen Elizabeth the first sample of his Maxims of the Law,-a collection of the principal Rules and Grounds of Law dispersed through the whole body of decided cases-a collection which he meant to be his great contribution to the science of his profession, and a principal auxiliary in the work of law reform; and again in his dedication took occasion to magnify the importance and beneficence of that work. "But I am an unworthy witness to your Majesty of a higher intention and project, both by that which was published by your Chancellor in full Parliament from your royal mouth in the five-andthirtieth of your happy reign"-this was the passage to which he had alluded in his speech in Parliament, on the 26th of February, 1592-3,-" and much more in that which I have since been vouchsafed to understand from your Majesty, importing a purpose for these many years infused in your Majesty's breast, to enter into a general amendment of the state of your laws, and to reduce them to more brevity and certainty; that the great hollowness and unsafety in assurances of lands and goods may be strengthened; the snaring penalties that lie upon many subjects removed; the execution of many profitable laws revived; the judge better directed in his sentence; the counsellor better warranted in his counsel; the student eased in his reading; the contentious suitor that seeketh but vexation disarmed, and the honest suitor that seeketh but to obtain his right relieved: which purpose and intention, as it did strike me with great admiration when I heard it, so it must be acknowledged to be one of the most chosen works, of highest merit and beneficence towards the subject, that ever entered into the mind of any king. and as it is no doubt a precious seed sown in your Majesty's heart by the hands of God's divine majesty, so I hope in the maturity of your own times it will come up and bear fruit." On the 28th of March 1607, speaking in the House of Commons on the benefits that would follow a union of laws between England and Scotland, he observed that the means to the work would be as excellent as the work itself: "for if both laws shall be united, it is of necessity for preparation and inducement thereunto See above, Vol. I. p. 339. 2 Works, vol. vii. p. 316. |