The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

xC1V LIFE OF BACON.
orders be made but in public court, and not in i Adam, nor concealed my faults in my bosom.'
chambers; that excessive fees be taken away; that This is the only justification which I will use.
no bribery nor money be given for the hearing of 1" It resteth, therefore, that without fig-leaves I
any cause. These and many other things his do ingenuously confess and acknowledge that,
majesty thought fit to be done this session. And having understood the particulars of the charge,
his majesty added, that when he hath done this, not formally from the House, but enough to inand all that he can do for the good of his subjects, form my conscience and memory, I find matter
he confesseth he hath done but the duty whereunto sufficient and full both to move me to desert the
he was born."-The house then adjourned till the defence, and to move your lordships to condemn
afternoon. and censure me. Neither will I trouble your
In the afternoon the Prince of Wales ", signi- lordships by singling those particulars, which I
fled unto the lords that the lord chancellor had think may fall off.
sent the following submission to their lordships:
Quid te exempta juvat spinis de pluribus una l
" To the Right Honourable the Lords of Neither will I prompt your lordships to obParliament, in the Upper House assem- serve upon the proofs, where they come not
bled. home, or the scruples touching the credits of the
witnesses; neither will I represent unto your,' The humble Submission and Supplication of lordships how fr a defence might, in divers
the Lord Chancellor. lordships how far a defence might, in divers
things, extenuate the offence, in respect of the
1" It may please your lordships,-I shall hum- time or manner of the gift, or the like circumbly crave at your lordships' hands a benign inter- stances, but only leave these things to spring
pretation of that which I shall now write. For out of your own noble thoughts and observawords that come from wasted spirits and an op- tions of the evidence and examinations thempressed mind are more safe in being deposited in selves, and charitably to wind about the particua noble construction, than in being circled with lars of the charge, here and there, as God shall
any reserved caution. put into your mind, and so submit myself wholly
" This being moved, and, as I hope, obtained, to your piety and grace.
in the nature of a protection to all that I shall "And now that I have spoken to your lordships
say, I shall now make into the rest of that where- as judges, I shall say a few words to you as
with I shall at this time trouble your lordships a peers and prelates, humbly commending my
very strange entrance. For, in the midst of a cause to your noble minds and magnanimous afstate of as great affliction as I think a mortal man fections.
can endure, (honour being above life,) I shall,Your lordships are not simple judges, but
begin with the professing of gladness in some parliamentary judges; you have a further exthings. tent of arbitrary power than other courts; and,
1" The first is, that hereafter the greatness of a if your lordships be not tied by the ordinary course
judge or magistrate shall be no sanctuary or pro- of courts or precedents, in points of strictness
tection of guiltiness, which (in few words) is the and severity, much more in points of mercy and
beginning of a golden world. The next, that, mitigation.
after this example, it is like that judges will fly ", And yet, if any thing which I shall move
from any thing that is in the likeness of corrup- might be contrary to your honourable and worthy
tion, (though it were at a great distance,) as from ends to introduce a reformation, I should not seek
a serpent; which tendeth to the purging of the it. But herein I beseech your lordships to give
courts of justice, and the reducing them to their me leave to tell you a story. Titus Manlius took
true honour and splendour. And in these two his son's life for giving battle against the prohipoints, God is my witness, that though it be my bition of his general; not many years after, the
fortune to be the anvil upon which these good like severity was pursued by Papirius Cursor, the
effects are beaten and wrought, I take no small dictator, against Quintus Maximus, who beinm
comfort. upon the point to be sentenced, by the interces"6 But, to pass from the motions of my heart, sion of some principal persons of the senate, was
whereof God is only judge, to the merits of my spared; Whereupon Livy maketh this grave and
cause, whereof your lordships are judges, under gracious observation: Neque minusfirmata est disGod and his lieutenant, I do understand there ciplina militarisperic:tlo Qtinti llaximi, quam miiath been heretofore expected from me some jus- scrabili supplicio Titi llanlii. The discipline of war
tification; and therefore I have chosen one only was no less established by the questioning of Quinjustification instead of all other, out of the justi- tus Maximus than by the punishment of Titus
fications of Job. For, after the clear submission Manlius; and the same reason is of the reformation
and confession which I shall now make unto your of justice; for the questioning of men of eminent,
iordships, I hope I may say and justify with Job, place hath the same terror, though not the same
in these words:'I have not hid my sins as did rigour with the punishment.