been deeply interested in the downfall of Somerset, and accused of secretly working his ruin, Bacon gained great honour in the opinions of all men, by his impartial yet merciful treatment of a man whom in his prosperity he had shunned and despised.
Early in this year, (1615, Æt. 55,) a dispute which occasioned considerable agitation, arose between the Court of Chancery and the Court of King's Bench, respecting the jurisdiction of the chancellor after judgment given in courts of law. Upon this dispute, heightened by the warmth and haughtiness of Sir Edward Coke, and the dangerous illness of the chancellor at the time when Coke promoted the inquiry, the king and Villiers conferred with Bacon, to whom and other eminent members of the profession, the matter was referred, and upon their report, the king in person pronounced judgment in favour of the lord chancellor, with some strong observations upon the conduct of Coke.
Pending this investigation, (1616, Æt. 56,) Villiers, it seems, communicated to Bacon the king's intention either to admit him a member of the privy council, or, upon the death or resignation of the chancellor, to intrust him with the great seal, a trust to which he was certain of the chancellor's recommendation.
Having thus discharged the duties of solicitor and attorney-general, with much credit to himself and advantage to the community, he, early in the year 1615–16, expressed to Villiers his wish to be admitted a member of the privy council, from the hope that he might be of service "in times which did never more require a king's attorney to be well armed, and to wear a gauntlet and not a glove." In consequence of this communication, the king, on the 3d of June, gave him the option either to be made privy councillor, or the assurance of succeeding the chancellor. Bacon, for reasons which he has thus expressed in a letter to Villiers, preferred being sworn privy councillor:
"Sir, the king giveth me a noble choice, and you are the man my heart ever told me you were. Ambition would draw me to the latter part of the choice; but in respect of my hearty wishes that my lord chancellor may live long, and the small hopes I have that I shall live long myself, and, above all, because I see his majesty's service daily and instantly bleedeth; towards which I persuade myself (vainly, perhaps, but yet in mine own thoughts firmly and constantly) that I shall give, when I am of the table, some effectual furtherance, (as a poor thread of the labyrinth, which hath no other virtue but a united continuance, without interruption or distraction,) I do accept of the tormer, to be councillor for the present, and to give over pleading at the bar; let the other matter rest upon my proof and his majesty s pleasure, and the accidents of time. For, to speak plainly, I would be loath that my lord chancellor, to whom I owe most after the king and yourself, should be locked to his successor for any advancement or gracing of me. So I ever remain your true and most devoted and obliged servant. —3d June, 1616."
He was accordingly sworn of the privy council, and took his seat at the board on the 9th of June; it having been previously agreed that, though in general he should cease to plead as an advocate, his permission to give counsel in causes should continue, and that if any urgent and weighty matter should arise, that he might, with the king's permission, be allowed to plead. Upon this unusual honour he was immediately congratulated by the university of Cambridge.
Such were the occupations of this philosopher, who, during the three years in which period he was attorney-general, conducted himself with such prudent moderation in so many perplexed and difficult cases, and with such evenness and integrity, that his conduct has never been questioned, nor has malice dared to utter of him the least calumny.
He now approached his last act as attorney-general, which was of the same nature as the first, his prosecution of Mr. Markham in the Star Chamber, for sending a challenge to Lord Darcy.
On the 3d of March, 1616–17, Lord Brackley, then lord chancellor, being worn out with age and infirmities, resigned the great seal, and escaped, for a short interval, from the troubles of the Court of Chancery, over which he had presided for thirteen years, amidst the disputes between this high tribunal and the courts of common law, and the pressure of business, which had so increased as to have been beyond the power of any individual to control.
On the 7th of the same month, the seals were delivered by the king to Sir Francis Bacon, with four admonitions: First, To contain the jurisdiction of the court within its true and due limits, without swelling or excess. Secondly, Not to put the great seal to letters patent, as a matter of course to follow after precedent warrants. Thirdly, To retrench all unnecessary delays, that the subject might find that he did enjoy the same remedy against the fainting of the soul and the consumption of the estate, which was speedy justice. "Bis dat, qui cito dat." Fourthly, That justice might pass with as easy charge as might be; and that those same brambles, that grow about justice, of needless charge and expense, and all manner of exactions, might be rooted out so far as might be.
Thus was Francis Bacon, then in the fifty-seventh year of his age, created Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.
In the joy of recent possession he instantly wrote to his friend and patron, the Earl of Buckingham, with a pen overflowing with the expression of his gratitude.
