The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

ADVICE ABOUT THE CHARTERHOUSE. 239
there being no man to therefore some entry
prosecute, there can be ought to be made of
no man likewise to pay; them.
and so the king loseth
his moiety, when his There be other points wherein the officer may
title appears by verdict. be of good use, which may be comprehended in
3. It falleth out some- 3. The officer in such his grant or instructions, wherewith I will not
times in informations of case, is to inform the now trouble your majesty, for I hold these to be
weight, and worthy to king's learned counsel, the principal.
be prosecuted, the in- that they may prosecute Thus have I, according to your majesty's
former dieth, or falls to if they think fit. reference, certified my opinion of that part of
poverty, or his mouth Sir Stephen Proctor's projects, which concerneth
is stopped, and yet so penal laws: which I do wholly and most humbly
as no man can charge submit to your majesty's high wisdom and judghim with composition, ment, wishing withal that some conference may
and so the matter dieth. be had by Mr. Chancellor and the barons, and
4. There be sundry 4. The officer is to the rest of the learned counsel, to draw the
seizures made, in case take knowledge of such service to a better perfection. And most speciwhere the laws give seizures, and to give ally that the travels therein taken may be conseizures, which are re- information to the court sidered and discerned of by the lord treasurer,
leased by agreements concerning them. whose care and capacity is such, as he doth
underhand, and so mo- This is of more diffi- always either find or choose that which is best
ney wrested from the culty, because seizures for your majesty's service.
subject, and no benefit are matter in fact, The recompense unto the gentleman, it is not
to the king. whereas suits are matter my part to presume to touch, otherwise than to
All seizures once of record: and it may re- put your majesty in remembrance of that propormade, ought not to be quire morepersons to be tion, which your majesty is pleased to give to
discharged, but by or- employed,asattheports, others out of the profits they bring in, and perder of the court, and where is much abuse. haps with a great deal less labour and charge.
ADVICE TO THE KING,
TOUCHING
MR. SUTTON'S ESTATE.
and the very nature of the work itself, in the
~M[Ay IT PLEtASE YOUR MAJESTY, vast and unfit proportions thereof, being apt to
I FIND it a positive precept of the old law, provoke a misemployment: it is no diligence of
that there should be no sacrifice without salt: theirs, except there be a digression from that
the moral whereof, besides the ceremony, may model, that can excuse it from running the same
be, that God is not pleased with the body of a way that gifts of like condition have heretofore
good intention, except it be seasoned with that done. For to design the Charterhouse, a buildspiritual wisdom and judgment, as it be not ing fit for a prince's habitation, for an hospital,
easily subject to be corrupted and perverted: is all one as if one should give in alms a rich
for salt, in the Scripture, is a figure both of embroidered cloak to a beggar. And certainly a
wisdom and lasting. This cometh into my man may see "tanquam quae oculis cernuntur,"
mind, upon this act of Mr. Sutton, which that if such an edifice, with six thousand pounds
seemeth to me as a sacrifice without salt; having revenue, be erected into one hospital, it will in
the materials of a good intention, but not pow- small time degenerate to be made a preferment
dered with any such ordinances and institutions of some great person to be master, and he to
as may preserve the same from turning corrupt, take all the sweet, and the poor to be stinted, and
or at least from becoming unsavoury, and of little take but the crumbs; as it comes to pass in divers
use. For though the choice of the feoflees be hospitals of this realm, which have but the names
of the best, yet neither can they always live; of hospitals, and are only wealthy benefices in