Upon sending to Buckingham his patent for creating him a viscount, he says, "I recommend unto you principally, that which I think was never done since I was born, and which, because it is not done, hath bred almost a wilderness and solitude in the king's service; which is, that you countenance, and encourage, and advance able men, in all kinds, degrees, and professions. For in the time of the Cecils, the father and the son, able men were by design and of purpose suppressed; and though of late choice goeth better, both in church and commonwealth, yet money and time-serving, and cunning canvasses and importunity prevaileth too much. And in places of moment, rather make able and honest men yours, than advance those that are otherwise, because they are yours."
And in his appointment of judges, it will be seen that he was influenced only by an anxiety to select the greatest ability and integrity, "science and conscience," for these important trusts.
In the exercise of this virtue there was not any merit peculiar to Bacon. It was the common sympathy for intellect, which, from consciousness of the imbecility and wretchedness attendant upon ignorance, uses power to promote merit and relieve wrongs. It passes by the particular infirmities of those who contribute any thing to the advancement of general learning, judging it fitter that men of abilities should jointly engage against ignorance and barbarism. This had many years before his promotion been stated by Bacon: "Neither can this point otherwise be; for learning endueth men's minds with a true sense of the frailty of their persons, the casualty of their fortunes, and the dignity of their soul and vocation: so that it is impossible for them to esteem that any greatness of their own fortune can be a true or worthy end of their being and ordainment; whereas the corrupter sort of mere politicians, that have not their thoughts established by learning in the love and apprehension of duty, nor ever look abroad into universality, do refer all things to themselves, and thrust themselves into the centre of the world, as if all lines should meet in them and their fortunes; never caring, in all tempests, what becomes of the ship of state, so they may save themselves in the cockboat of their own fortune."
This truth, necessarily attendant upon all knowledge, is not excluded from judicial knowledge. It has influenced all intelligent judges: Sir Thomas More; the Chancellor de l'Hopital; Lord Somers, to whom he has been compared; D'Aguesseau; Sir Edward Coke, and Sir Matthew Hale. Bacon's favourite maxim therefore was, "Detur digniori: qui beneficium digno dat omnes obligat;" and in his prayer, worthy of a chancellor, he daily said, "This vine, which my right-hand hath planted in this nation, I have ever prayed unto thee that it might stretch her branches to the seas and to the floods."
Whatever were Sir Francis's gratifications, attendant upon the dignity of this promotion, in direct pecuniary profit he sustained great loss: as he relinquished his office of attorney-general, worth at least £6000 a year, his chancellorship to the prince, and his post of Registrar of the Star Chamber, worth about £1600 a year, whilst the direct profits of the great seal were only £918, 15s. Of the amount of the indirect profits from fees and presents it is, of course, impossible to form a correct estimate. It must, however, have been considerable, as, according to the oriental customs of the times, statesmen were then seldom approached by a suitor without some acceptable offering.
The new year's gifts, regularly presented to the king, were of immense value, and were given by the great officers of state, peers and peeresses, the bishops, knights, and their ladies, gentlemen and gentlewomen, and even from the tradesmen, and all the officers of the household. These presents were chiefly in money, but sometimes varied by the taste of the donors. As a matter of curiosity, it may be noticed, that Sir Francis Bacon gave to the queen "one pettycoat of white sattin, embrodered all over like feathers and billets, with three broad borders, fair embrodered with snakes and fruitage, 'emblems of wisdom and bounty;'" exhibiting, even at that day, a fancy delighting in splendour and allegory; and so general was the practice, that when Bacon applied to the queen to be appointed solicitor-general, his application was accompanied by the present of a jewel.
This custom of making presents to persons in power was not confined to the reigning monarch, but extended to statesmen. They were made, as of course, to Lord Salisbury, to Lord Burleigh, and to all persons in office, and made by the most virtuous members of the community. The same custom extended to the chancellor, and to the judges. In the time of Henry the Sixth the practice existed. In the time of Sir Thomas More, when the custom seems to have been waning, presents were, without any offence, offered to that righteous man; and it is mentioned by the biographer of Sir Augustine Nicholls, one of the judges in the time of James the First, as an instance of his virtue, that " he had exemplary integrity, even to the rejection of gratuities after judgment given, and a charge to his followers that they came to their places clear-handed, and that they should not meddle with any motions to him, that he might be secured from all appearance of corruption."
This custom, which, more or less, seems to have prevailed at all times in nations approaching civilization, was, about the year 1560, partially
