Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/55

Rh to convulsion. In England this appeared at Runymede in the reign of John, and in the subversion of the pope's authority in the reign of Henry the Eighth.

When the spirit of reform has once been raised, its progress is not easily stayed. Through the ruins of Catholic superstition various defects were discovered in other parts of the fabric: and the people, having been spirit-broken during the reign of Henry, and lulled during the reign of Elizabeth, reform now burst with accumulated impetuosity. So true is the doctrine of Bacon, that, "when any of the four pillars of government are mainly shaken, or weakened, which are religion, justice, counsel, and treasure, men had need to pray for fair weather." The state of Bacon's mind at this period may be easily conceived. The love of order and the love of improvement, apparently not really opposed to each other, were his ruling passions: and his mode of improvement was the same in all science, natural or human, by experiment, and only by experiment; by proceeding with the greatest caution, and by remembering that, after the most careful research, we may be in the greatest error: "for who will take upon him, when the particulars which a man knows, and which he hath mentioned, appear only on one side, there may not lurk some particular which is altogether repugnant: as if Samuel should have rested in those sons of Jesse which were brought before him in the house, and should not have sought David, who was absent in the field." He never presumed to act until he had tried all things; never used one of Briareus's hundred hands, until he had opened all Argus's hundred eyes. He acted through life upon his father's favourite maxim, "Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner." This was his general mode of proceeding, which, when the experiment was attended with difficulty, generated more caution; and he well knew that, of all experiments, state alterations are the most difficult, the most fraught with danger.

Zealous as he was for all improvement; believing, as he did, in the omnipotence of knowledge, that "the spirit of man is as the lamp of God, wherewith he searcheth the inwardness of all secrets;" and branding the idolaters of old times as a scandal to the new, he says, "It is good not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident: and well to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not desire of change that pretendeth the reformation: that novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be always suspected; and, as the Scripture saith, 'that we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it;' always remembering that there is a difference in innovations, between arts and civil affairs. In civil affairs, a change, even for the better, is to be suspected, through fear of disturbance; because they depend upon authority, consent, reputation, and opinion, and not upon demonstration; but arts and sciences should be like mines, resounding on all sides with new works and further progress."

Such was the state of his mind upon entering into public life at the commencement of the parliament, which assembled on the 19th of March, 1604, when, having already made some progress in the king's affections, he was returned both for St. Albans and for Ipswich, which borough he elected to represent; and, at this early period, so great a favourite was he with the House, that some of the members proposed him as speaker.

On the 22d of March, the king first addressed the parliament, recommending to their consideration the union of the two kingdoms; the termination of religious discontents; and the improvement of the law.

Upon the return of the Commons to the Lower House, the storm commenced. Prayers had scarcely been ended, and the House settled, when one member proposed the immediate consideration of the general abuse and grievance of purveyors;–the burden and servitude to the subjects of the kingdom, attendant upon the wardship of children;–the oppression of monopolies;–the abuses of the Exchequer, and the dispensation of penal statutes. After this proposal, received by an expressive silence, another member called the attention of the House to what he termed three main grievances: the burden, charge, and vexation of the commissaries courts;–the suspension of learned and grave ministers for preaching against popish doctrine;–and depopulations by enclosure.

To consider these weighty subjects a select committee of the House was appointed, including Bacon as one of the members. This committee immediately entered upon their inquiries, and, so ready were the parties with their evidence, and so active the members in their proceedings, that on the 26th Bacon made his report to the House of the result of their investigations.

The political discontent, thus first manifested, increased yearly under the reign of James, and having brought his son to the scaffold, continued till the combustible matter was dispersed. "Cromwell," it was said, "became Protector, because the people of England were tired of kings, and Charles was restored because they were weary of Protectors." Such are the consequences of neglecting gradual reform.

During the whole of the conflicts in the commencement of this stormy session, Bacon's exertlions were unremitting. He spoke in every debate. He sat upon twenty-nine committees, many of them appointed for the consideration of the important questions agitated at that eventful time. He