Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/351

 Bacon in accordance with that law of our nature by which desire for change in one direction is always accompanied by a strong dislike of change in another, were as conservative in their respect for the existing constitution as they were eager to cut themselves loose from the old moorings in political action. What the Rockingham whigs were to Burke, King James was to Bacon, the depositary of existing constitutional authority, with the help of which the ignorant masses— to Bacon the masses represented in the House of Commons, to Burke the masses unrepresented in it — might safely be controlled.

It was only in the nature of things that Bacon should think more of James, as Burke thought more of Rockingham, than he was really worth; and Bacon unfortunately had none of that moral dignity which Burke possessed. He calculated on winning ground by appealing to the lower side of men's natures as well as to the higher. He had had a bad training in the court of Elizabeth, and there was nothing in his nature to make that training innocuous.

To give us an insight into Bacon's mind, we have a collection of private memoranda known as the 'Commentarius Solutus,' set down in the end of July and the beginning of August 1608. It is full of hints as to the advancement of his great schemes in science and politics as well as to the advancement of his own fortunes. Great ideas jostle with small ones, and the thought of a restoration of philosophy or of laying the foundations of a showy and attractive foreign policy is found side by side with a plan for flattering the lord chamberlain who might be helpful, or exposing the demerits of an attorney-general who is a rival. Altogether Bacon's character is nowhere else depicted so completely as a whole as in these loose jottings.

To the same year are to be assigned the treatise 'In felicem memoriam Elizabethæ,' which, as composed in honour of a sovereign who had no longer anything to give, is valuable as another key to Bacon's real thoughts, and a 'Discourse on the Plantation of Ireland,' presented to the king as a new-year's gift at the opening of 1609. As, however, the question of the treatment of the native population, which is now known to have been the most important part of the business, is not even alluded to, it is enough to speak of the paper as containing excellent advice, on the hypothesis that such a settlement as that which was proposed was a good thing in itself.

Bacon's correspondence during 1609 is the best evidence that he was not making way with James as a political adviser. Salisbury, in fact, blocked his path, having become lord treasurer in 1608, and being now at the height of his credit as a financial reformer, with hopes of so far increasing the revenue and diminishing the expenditure of the crown as to restore the financial balance. Letters to Toby Matthew, on the other hand, show Bacon pushing forward the 'Instauratio Magna' which was to reform philosophy, and one of them of 10 Oct. was accompanied by a fragment of the work, supposed to have been the 'Redargutio philosophiarum.' About the same time he sent to Andrewes his 'Cogitata et Visa,' and on 17 Feb. 1610 forwardedto Toby Matthew his 'De Sapientia veterum.'

By this time parliament was already in session, having met on 9 Feb. With his longing for harmony between the public powers, Bacon must have felt this session to be unusually trying. Salisbury, having failed to bring about a balance between revenue and expenditure, attempted to strike a bargain with the commons which came to be known as the Great Contract. It was precisely the method which Bacon thoroughly distrusted. He thought that failure in making a bargain would only leave both sides more irritated with one another than before, and he knew that Salisbury had already caused considerable irritation by laying on the new impositions, the levy of which was justified as legal by the judgment of the court of Exchequer in Bate's case, but which alarmed the House of Commons as endangering the principle of the parliamentary basis of taxation. On the legal question involved, Bacon argued in defence of the king's claim; but his argument was no measure of his political judgment, and he was probably well satisfied at the compromise offered by James, by which the commons were to grant about two-thirds of the Impositions levied, whilst James was to bind himself never to levy more without their consent. In the same way Bacon would, no doubt, have been pleased if the Great Contract could have been carried into effect, by which James was to abandon his income from feudal tenures and other obnoxious sources, while he was to receive in exchange 200,000l. a year, a sum which, though it would not make him altogether independent of future subsidies, would, with the exercise of due economy, raise him above that constant necessity of courting the commons for subsistence' sake which Bacon deprecated. Bacon, however, can hardly have felt much surprise when both bargains were wrecked in the following session, and when, on 29 Feb. 1611, James dissolved his first parliament in anger.