world to recognise his transcendent abilities; but ambition must have
indeed hardened the heart of this man, ere she could console him for
having thus cast from him every sentiment of gratitude, and affection,
for having thus forsworn the honourable fealty that he owed to his
benefactor and his friend.
From this moment, however, Bacon rose steadily, and, after the
accession of James I., having published a brilliant pamphlet in favour
of uniting the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, he rapidly
obtained considerable honour.
In 1616 he was sworn of the Privy Council. He then devoted himself to
reducing, and, in fact, recomposing the laws of England.
When Attorney-General he distinguished himself by his endeavours to
restrain duelling, a practice at that time very frequent and very fatal.
In 1617 he was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and the
following year he was raised to the woolsack, and created Lord Verulam.
In the midst of these honours, and notwithstanding, also, the press of
business, he did not forget his studies in philosophy, but in 1620 he
published his great work, "Novum Organum." In 1621 he was advanced to
the dignity of Viscount, and as Lord St. Albans he appeared with great
splendour at the opening of Parliament.
But he had now arrived at the culminating point of his triumphs, and
at the very moment when his power seemed greatest and his position most
stable, his fall was near.
A very few months after Parliament had assembled, a committee of the
House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the abuses that existed
in the Courts of Justice; and, ere many sittings had taken place, the
Chancellor was openly accused of corrupt practices.
The King, ever pusillanimous, and shrinking from giving support to a
falling man, sent for Bacon, and, it is said, positively enjoined him
to submit to his peers, promising to reward him afterwards!
The Chancellor, although he could have had but little faith in such
promises, and foresaw his approaching ruin if he did not plead for
himself, resolved, however, to obey the Royal command.
He was silent therefore under the accusations brought against him, and
on the 3rd May, 1621, the House of Lords gave judgment against him,
pronouncing upon him the following severe sentence:
"That he was to pay a fine of £40,000, and be confined a prisoner in
the Tower, during the King's pleasure. That he should for ever be
incapable of holding any place, office, or employment in the State, and
that he should never again sit in Parliament, nor come within the verge
of the Court."
At this distance of time the world judges him more leniently than he
was then judged by his peers.
Greed of money had never been one of Bacon's failings. He loved power,
place, and the good things that money can procure. He also loved his
ease, and the affection and good-will of those about him; but of the
gold itself he took little or no heed.
It was, in fact, to this carelessness, and to an amiability that he
carried to the extent of selfish weakness that he owed his fall. For
years all that he possessed had been at the service of those about him,
and unhappily he was surrounded by, and had bestowed his kindness on
persons, who were not only unworthy of it, but who had basely abused
the confidence he had reposed in them.
We are told by Rushworth, that the Chancellor (Bacon) treasured up
nothing for himself or his family, but that he was so over-indulgent to
his servants, that this indulgence reached the point of conniving at
their evil doings. Both his servants and his dependents were therefore
profuse and extravagant, and had at their command whatever he was
master of.
Too late did Bacon perceive his error. It is related that, one day
during his trial, he passed through a room where several of his
servants were sitting. They rose up respectfully to salute him as he
went by, but said the Chancellor, "Sit down, my masters, for your rise
has been my fall."
There seems little reason now to doubt that the gifts the Chancellor
was accused of taking had been enforced, and received by these
underlings.
It was these lamentable gifts that had caused him to be suspected of
injustice, and yet it was subsequently proved that his decrees had been
made for the most part with so much equity, that not one of them was
ever reversed as unjust.
"It was peculiar to this man," says one of his numerous biographers,
"to have nothing narrow or selfish in his composition. He gave away
without concern whatever he possessed, and believing other men to be of
the same mould, he received with as little consideration."
This opinion is probably correct in the main, but the greatest admirers
of this talented and in many respects exceptionally great man, must
admit that, ere he could have become unmindful of the honourable fealty
he owed to his dead friend, the greed of power must have been strong
in his heart, and that it was a selfish reluctance to take trouble
that made him disregard one of the most stringent duties of the great,
not only to be just themselves, but to ascertain that injustice is not
practised by their subordinates.
After a short period of imprisonment the fallen Chancellor was released
from the Tower. The King ultimately remitted his fine; and, after the
death of James, he was again summoned to attend Parliament in the first
year of the reign of Charles I., but never again after his degradation
did Bacon take part in active life.
At first, indeed, after his release from prison, he found himself in
extreme poverty. All he valued in this world had gone from him. Place,
position, money, and, above all, that consideration from others which
had been so dear to his heart.
So great at one time was his pecuniary distress, that he wrote a
pathetic letter to King James, entreating His Majesty's assistance.
"Lest," as he expresses it, "he should be reduced to carry a wallet,
and after having lived only to study, be forced to study to live."
Notwithstanding the sorrowfulness of the letter, there lurks within
it a vein of the humour that rendered him so delightful a companion,
and through it all can be perceived the indomitable spirit of the man,
that, even in the bitterest moment of his shattered fortunes, rose
superior to the ruin that had overtaken him.
The energy that had made him so powerful in his public career did not
desert him in his retirement.
With all the ardour of his great heart, he loved his country home, his
quiet lodgings in Gray's Inn, and the studies to which, during the last
years of his life, he wholly devoted himself. It was at this period
that he wrote some of his most important English and Latin works;
and from these it is evident that his thoughts were as free, and as
vigorous, as they had ever been during the earliest and most brilliant
years of his career.
Although he had been unhappy in having had many false and unworthy
friends, one, at least, loved him faithfully to the end; and it was by
him, Sir Thomas Meanty, his secretary, that the monument was erected to
his memory in St. Michael's Church, St. Albans.
Many have written the biography of this distinguished man, but the best
evidences of his life are the works he has given to the world: works
replete with noble thoughts; works so grand, that they make us the more
regret that there should be even one flaw to tarnish the golden lustre
that shines around the name of one so brilliant, so illustrious.
It was in chambers in Coney Court, now called Gray's Inn Square,
that Bacon passed his last years, and where he wrote several of his
greatest works.
The aspect of these old houses--indeed, of these old chambers--bears
traces, not only of the storms and sunshine that have passed over them
in all this lapse of time, but they also speak to us powerfully of the
vicissitudes of human life, and of the changes that are taking place
around us yearly, nay, hourly.
What anxiety and distress, what joy and what pain, have not these old
walls witnessed.
How many hearts have beat high with hope, or have been racked with
anguish in the thoughtful gloom of many of these shadowy rooms.
Bacon himself, though he bore so brave a front before the world, must
have had many torturing recollections and regrets as he paced up and
down these ancient chambers. But then, again, what noble thoughts came
to cheer and support him as he overcame the keenness of his pain, and
fixed his mind on objects higher and grander than the passing events of
human life.
Thus generation after generation pass away, with all their joys and all
their fears.
Each human being departs, and his name is no more known even in the
spot where he dwelt; but still the great squadrons of mankind are ever
advancing, with the same delights, the same anxieties as those who have
left this earth many hundreds of years ago; thus every place is filled
and emptied, and filled again in endless rotation.
Truly life is but a magic-lantern, and the players therein are but
fleeting shadows.
Bacon died on Easter Sunday, the 9th of April, 1626, being then
sixty-six years of age.
In the December previous he had with his own hand written his will. In
it he writes:
"For my burial, I desire it may be in St. Michael's Church near St.
Albans. There was my mother buried, and it is the parish church of my
mansion house at Gorhambury, and it is the only Christian church within
the walls of Old Verulam. For my name and memory, I leave it to men's
charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and to the next ages."
SIR NICHOLAS BACON.
Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal during the greater
part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was born at Chislehurst, in Kent,
in 1510.
Few men have enjoyed during a long and brilliant career a more
unblemished reputation for probity, or have conducted themselves in
troubled and dangerous times with more prudence and good discretion
than this celebrated statesman and judge.
He received his first rudiments of learning at home, and at a small
village school in the neighbourhood of his father's house; but when
still very young he was sent to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Here he made great progress in all branches of useful knowledge, and
then travelled over France, making some stay in Paris, in order, as an
old chronicler remarks, "to give the last polish to his education."
Either this last polish or his natural gifts enabled him to turn his
speeches with singular aptitude and felicity. Though resolute in
proposing and carrying out any measure he deemed advisable, he spoke
with so much prudence and tact, that he ever succeeded in retaining the
good will even of his opponents.
This is all the more remarkable, for never, perhaps, did party feeling
run so high, never was party animosity more bitter, both with regard to
politics and also on religious subjects, than during this period, when
England was convulsed by the tremendous changes that were taking place
in the Church, and by the savage persecutions that had been endured
and inflicted both by Protestants and by Roman Catholics.
Alas! that men, while calling themselves Christians, should so distort
and make of none effect the first principles of our Divine Teacher!
When Bacon returned from Paris he settled in Gray's Inn, and applied
himself with such assiduity to the study of the law, that he speedily
became of note amongst the learned in that profession. His profound
knowledge of many difficult points of law enabled him to be useful not
only to the Government but also to the King (Henry VIII.), insomuch
that, on the dissolution of the Monastery of Bury St. Edmund's, in
Suffolk, King Henry conferred upon him several manors in that county.
Two years afterwards he was promoted to the office of Attorney of
Wards, an appointment of both honour and profit.
Edward VI. confirmed him in this post, and in the last year of that
King's reign Bacon was elected treasurer of Gray's Inn.
His great moderation and his consummate prudence preserved him safely
during the dangerous reign of Queen Mary, although he was well known to
be a staunch Protestant.
No sooner did Elizabeth come to the throne, however, than he was
knighted, and the Great Seals of England having been taken from
Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, they were delivered to Sir Nicholas
Bacon in November, 1558, with the title of Lord Keeper.
It is much to the credit of Sir Nicholas that he himself introduced
a Bill into Parliament for the purpose of defining and settling the
position of Lord Keeper; although, had he chosen to be silent, and to
procure for himself the additional title of Lord Chancellor, he might
have obtained almost unlimited power.
But his motto was, and ever had been, "_Mediocra firma_." He was
content to be safe, and did not desire greatness.
Unlike many celebrated men, he was unaffectedly modest, and devoid of
self-seeking, so that while it was said of some other great personages
that they seemed wiser than they were, the common voice of the nation
agreed in this, that Sir Nicholas Bacon was even wiser than he seemed.
To the Queen he was indeed a most valuable minister, and a most trusty
counsellor, for not only was he as a statesman remarkable for a clear
head, and wise, farseeing sagacity, but he had marvellous skill in
balancing factions, and it was thought he taught the Queen this same
secret, the more important to Elizabeth, for being, as Her Majesty
was, the last of her family, she was without those supports that are
ordinarily incidental to Princes.
In Chancery, also, Bacon much distinguished himself by the very
moderate use he made of power, and by the great respect he ever showed
for the Common Law. But better than all, in an age of bigotry, when
religious differences aroused in men every violent and cruel passion,
Bacon showed that though his own religious opinions were strong, he
could speak and act on that, as on all other subjects, with moderation
and with strict equity.
The main business of the session of January, 1559, was the settlement
of religious observances, and no man had a greater share in this
momentous and difficult question than the Lord Keeper.
The speeches he made at this period are described by many contemporary
writers as "most eloquent, solid, and excellent speeches;" and at this
day we can perceive that they were, as another old chronicler observes,
"models of eloquence, profound wisdom, and conciliatory discretion."
Few men have left behind them so delightful a character as this famous
statesman and lawyer.
Powerful and wise in public life, in his home he was the tender father,
the affectionate relative, the indulgent and unostentatious friend.
Though endowed with a keen appreciation of art, and gifted with a fine
and graceful taste, as appeared by his house and gardens at Gorhambury,
yet he never permitted himself to indulge in an undue or lavish
expenditure. So simple and modest was he in this respect, that, when
the Queen came to visit him at Redgrave, Her Majesty said she found the
house too small for so great a man.
"Nay, madam," said the Chancellor, "but it is your Majesty who has made
me too great for my house."
Yet, with his usual graceful tact and ready acquiescence in the wishes
of his Royal Mistress, he immediately built two small wings to his
house.
His health began to fail during the later years of his life, and he
became distressingly corpulent; but he was as diligent in his work, and
his temper remained as kind, and his wit as bright as ever.
After having held the Great Seal more than twenty years, this able
statesman and faithful counsellor was suddenly removed from this life
by the following accident:
He was under the hands of his barber, and the weather being rather
sultry, although February, Sir Nicholas, who suffered much from heat by
reason of his great size, caused the window before him to be opened. He
presently fell asleep, but after a time, a current of cold air blowing
upon him, he awoke shivering and feeling very ill.
"Why," said he to his servant, "did you suffer me to sleep thus
exposed?"
The man replied that he durst not venture to disturb him.
"Then," said the Lord Keeper, "by your civility I lose my life." And so
indeed it proved. He was removed immediately to his bed-chamber, and
was tended with loving care, but he expired a very few days after being
taken ill.
Sir Nicholas was twice married. By his first wife, Jane, daughter of
William Fernley, he had three sons, who died young, and three daughters.
By his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, a woman
distinguished alike for her beauty, her piety, and her learning, he
had two sons, of whom the youngest, Francis, became so celebrated
as Chancellor, philosopher, and writer; a man whose exceptionally
brilliant gifts have thrown comparatively into the shade the far more
elevated character of his father.
Happy would it have been for the son, if, with his father's talents,
he had inherited his father's unswerving integrity and noble sense of
honour.
Far happier would have been the closing years of Lord Bacon's life had
he, like his father, Sir Nicholas, dealt righteously with all men.
SIR WILLIAM GASCOIGNE.
It is not unusual to find amongst ancient families that the same
Christian name is retained from generation to generation, constantly
descending for centuries in unbroken succession.
Sometimes this name is preserved in memory of a distinguished ancestor.
Sometimes from respect to some prince or powerful patron who had
conferred honour or lands upon the family.
Many have supposed that the name of William came to this country at
the time of the Norman Conquest. It has been ascertained, however,
that long before that date it was in common use in Saxon families,
especially amongst those who inhabited the Northern Counties.
This name William is a German word, and, according to Martin Luther, of
compound meaning.
_Helm_, signifying "defence;" and _Kenhelm_, "Defence of kindred."
_Willy_, _Villi_, or _Billi_ with the Germans, like _Poly_ amongst the
Greeks, before several names indicates "many," consequently _Wilhelm_,
now softened into _William_, means "Much defence" or "Defence of many."
Not only did the Normans, who had settled here when their Duke became
King of England, call their sons after their victorious sovereign,
but many of the old lords of the soil, who, wearied with Harold's
tyranny, had gladly welcomed the advent of the foreign prince, gave
their children the name now so much in vogue. In addition to this
compliment to their new King, some of the Saxon Thanes and great landed
proprietors moulded their rougher Northern surnames into courtly
Norman terminations.
Thus Gaskin, an old West Riding family, Normanised itself into
Gascoigne.
As time went on, this Royal name of William was regularly transmitted
from father to son amongst those families who depended upon the
Conqueror or his line, or who had received gifts of offices, lands,
seignories, or privileges, until in a few years it became so common
amongst those of high rank, that at a certain festival given at the
Court of King Henry II., when Sir William St. John and Sir William
Fitz-Hamon, two especial officers, commanded that none "but those of
the name of William should dine in the Great Chamber with them," they
were accompanied by a hundred and twenty Williams, all knights.
Sir William Gascoigne, Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1401, the
second year of the reign of King Henry IV., was the eighth Sir William
in lineal descent, and was succeeded, as we learn from Dugdale and
Fuller, by seven more Sir Williams, all knights.
The Chief Justice was born in 1350, _temp._ Edward III., at Gawthorp,
in the parish of Harwood, between Leeds and Knaresborough.
Sir William was the eldest of five brothers. He married twice: first,
Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Alexander Mowbray, and by her had
an only son, Sir William Gascoigne, of Gawthorp, a brave commander in
the wars under King Henry V. His descendant, the last Sir William of
this branch, married Beatrice, daughter of Sir Richard Tempest, and
had four sons, all of whom died young, and one daughter, Margaret,
his sole heir, in whom the Gascoignes of this line terminated. This
daughter married, in 1552, Thomas Wentworth, of Wentworth Woodhouse,
in Yorkshire, and brought great estates into that family. Thomas
Wentworth was Sheriff for Yorkshire in the twenty-fourth year of Queen
Elizabeth, and had, besides four daughters, an only son, who became
afterwards Sir William Wentworth, and was the father of Thomas, first
Earl of Strafford.
The Chief Justice married, secondly, Joan, daughter of Sir William
Pickering, and widow of Sir Ralph Graystock, Baron of the Exchequer.
By this marriage Sir William had also an only son, James Gascoigne,
settled at Cardington, in Bedfordshire. A descendant of this James
Gascoigne, the inheritrix of Cardington, married her distant cousin
William, a younger son of the Gascoignes of Gawthorp.
This William Gascoigne was Sheriff for Bedfordshire in 1506, _temp._
King Henry VII., and was Sheriff for Buckinghamshire in the fifth
year of King Henry VIII. He was subsequently knighted by Henry VIII.,
and became Comptroller of the Household to Cardinal Wolsey; for the
great Cardinal in many respects affected Royal state, and succeeded
in having the chief offices of his household held by nobles, or by
men of gentle birth. This branch of the Gascoignes also terminated
in a daughter, Dorothy, who married Sir Jarrett Harvye; thus the
direct descendants of the famous Chief Justice became merged in other
families. Of collateral descendants, however, there are many; Nicholas
Gascoigne of Lavingcroft, Sir William's next brother, having left a
numerous family of sons and daughters, who married amongst the Percys,
Latimers, Vavasours, etc.
From the eldest son of this Nicholas descended a somewhat celebrated
man, Richard Gascoigne, who was not only a learned antiquary and
collector, but who has done good service to the history of this country
by having brought before the public in 1638 Mr. Dugdale, whose writings
have given much interesting and important information.
The greater part of the valuable collections made by Richard Gascoigne
is now at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire. There are also relics of the
Gascoigne family at Ickwellbury, Bedfordshire.
William Gascoigne became a student of the Law at Gray's Inn, and was
early enrolled a member of that learned Society. His career was both
brilliant and rapid. Towards the end of the reign of King Richard II.
he was already so eminent in his profession that, in 1398, he was made
one of the King's Serjeants.
There are records of many transactions at this period, all of which
give proof, not only of Gascoigne's great abilities as a lawyer, but
also testify to the esteem in which he was held on account of the
fidelity and uprightness of his advice, and the invariable justice
of his decisions. His great merits caused him to be appointed one of
the Commissioners for Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, when this
Prince was about to go into banishment.
Gascoigne had to watch over the interests and receive all moneys that
might come to the Duke during his absence from England. A most onerous
appointment, involving not only considerable difficulty but also no
inconsiderable danger, for in those turbulent days the law of might
frequently warred most successfully against the law of right.
So early as the second year of the reign of King Henry IV., Gascoigne
was made Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and we find that in
1403 Judge Gascoigne and Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland, were
commissioned by the King to levy and assemble forces in the counties
of York and Northumberland in order to quell the insurrection of Henry
Percy, Earl of Northumberland.
Somewhat later these Commissioners were also empowered to treat with
this same rebellious Earl.
When Archbishop Scrope and others were taken in arms against the King,
His Majesty would have had Gascoigne immediately to give sentence
of death against the contumacious Archbishop; but the Chief Justice
refused, resolutely declaring he would not pronounce such a sentence
in so irregular and illegal a manner. This refusal brought upon him
the King's high displeasure, but the people praised him much for his
justice and his moderation.