its enemies, and something for the improvement of the government of his native country, both which thoughts were likely to arise in the mind of Elizabeth's 'young lord keeper,' as she playfully called him, but also to achieve a task which was peculiarly his own, to create a new system of philosophy to replace that of Aristotle, not merely for the satisfaction of the cravings of his own speculative reason, but for the practical benefit of humanity at large.
In 1570 young Bacon was attached to the embassy of Sir Amias Paulet to France. He was still abroad when, on 20 Feb. 1579, his father died, leaving him with but a small fortune. On his return to England, which followed soon after he received the bad news, he devoted himself to the study of the law, though he was not without hope of more suitable work. In 1580, at least, he was looking to his uncle. Lord Burghley, to support a suit for some kind of preferment, the exact nature of which is unknown. As, however, he did not receive a favourable answer, he continued his legal studies, and on 27 June 1582 was admitted utter barrister.
Bacon's rise in life was brought about by his election to the parliament which met on 23 Nov. 1584, in which, no doubt through Burghley's interest, he sat for the borough ot Melcombe Regis. The time was one in which the greatest questions were at issue. The danger arising from the activity of the supporters of Mary Stuart was coming to a head, and at the same time, though the queen and the House of Commons were completely at one in their desire to establish the national independence by keeping the catholics in check, there was a division of opinion between them on the form of religion to be maintained in the country, the commons wishing to see the established religion modified in the direction of Calvinistic puritanism, and the queen wishing to preserve the worship of the Prayer-book intact.
Bacon's views upon the political situation were embodied in a 'Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth,' written in the end of 1584 or the beginning of 1585. There is nothing crude or immature in this his first political memoir. Every line of it, in fact, is full of a wisdom too far in advance of the time to be palatable either to the queen or to the commons. Most remarkable at that day was Bacon's recommendation of the best mode of dealing with the catholics. Arguing on the hypothesis that they were the queen's enemies, he spoke of the impossibility of contenting them, and of the danger of driving them to despair. The latter, however, was precisely what the government was doing by urging the oath of supremacy. It would, thought Bacon, be 'better to frame the oath in this sense: That whosoever would not bear arms against all foreign princes, and namely the pope, that should any way invade her majesty's dominions, should be a traitor.' Having thus not merely anticipated but improved upon the oath of allegiance of 1606, he touched upon another string.. 'For preachers,' he wrote, 'because thereon grows a great question, I am provoked to lay at your highness's feet my opinion touching the preciser sort, first protesting . . . that I am not given over, no, nor so much as addicted, to their preciseness; therefore till I think that you think otherwise, I am bold to think that the bishops in this dangerous time take a very evil and unadvised course in driving them from their cures.' His reasons were two: first, because it injured the queen's reputation to have it known that there were divisions amongst her protestant subjects; and secondly, 'because, in truth, in their opinions, though they are somewhat over squeamish and nice, and more scrupulous than they need, yet with their careful catechizing and diligent preaching they bring forth that fruit which your most excellent majesty is to wish and desire, namely the lessening and diminishing of the papistical number.' Other suggestions for indirectly weakening the catholics follow, after which the writer turns his attention to foreign affairs.
By any one who wishes to understand Bacon's career this letter should be attentively studied. He must very early have got into the habit of entertaining thoughts for which persons in authority were not yet ripe, and of looking about for means by which he might alter their judgment. The way open now was not open then. He could not stir up opinion by public writing or public speaking. His words as a member of parliament would not go beyond the walls of parliament, and were likely to fall on deaf ears within them. Not only did the one way of influencing the course of affairs lie in ability to win the queen and those immediately around her, but Bacon was well content that it should be so. In the queen and her council, with all their defects, was to be found the regulative authority which controlled the manifestations of the national life, and Bacon had no wish to subordinate the queen's government to the irregular impulses of a House of Commons untrained by experience in the management of great affairs. To say this is to say that Bacon must look to achieve a statesman's ends by the means of a courtier, to gain access, to offer services,
