Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/57

Rh named, to investigate monopolies and to report on the administration of the courts of justice. This latter committee reported to the House of Commons, March 15, that the Lord Chancellor was guilty of corruption in office, and cited two cases of bribery as proof. Bacon fell ill, and sat in the House of Lords for the last time on March 17. He wrote to the Duke of Buckingham, he had an interview with the King, but he was only referred back to the Commons. By the middle of April the two original charges had increased to twenty-three. At first Bacon was inclined to meet the charges against him and to defend his honor, but his judgment wavered from day to day. He wrote to the King, April 20, asking for the charges in particular. The next day, April 21, it occurred to him that he might weather the "tempest that had come upon him" by a general submission, and he wrote again,—"I assure myself that if it be reformation that be sought, the very taking away the Seal, upon my general submission, will be as much an example for these four hundred years as any further severity." On the following day, April 22, he sent a letter to the Lords, entitled, The Humble Submission and Supplication of the Lord Chancellor, in which he said,—"I do ingenuously confess and acknowledge that, having understood the particulars of the charge, not formally from the House, but enough to inform my conscience and memory, I find matter sufficient and full, both to move me to desert the defence, and to move your Lordships to condemn and censure me." The Rh