Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/67

 your behaviour and speech full of discretion; and this shows, that though you could not resist the tempter, yet you bear a Christian and generous mind, answerable to the noble family of which you are descended." During the time he was solicitor he composed, as it seems, his "Confession of Faith." Bacon as solicitor naturally looked forward to the office of attorney-general, to which he succeeded on the 27th of October, upon the promotion of Sir Henry Hobart to the chief justiceship of the common pleas. Never was man more qualified for the office of attorney-general than Bacon. With great general knowledge, ever tending to humanize and generate a love of improvement; with great insight into the principles of politics and of universal justice, and such worldly experience as to enable him to apply his knowledge to the times in which he lived. "Non in republica Platonis; sed tanquam in fæce Romuli;" with long unwearied professional exertion in the law of England, publications upon existing parts of the law, and efforts to improve it, he entered upon the duties of his office with the well-founded hope in the profession, that he would be an honour to his name and his country, and without any fear that he would be injured by the dangerous authority with which he was intrusted. Although power has, upon ordinary minds, a tendency to shape and deprave the possessor, upon intelligence it tends more to humble than to elevate. When Cromwell, indignant that Sir Matthew Hale had dismissed a jury because he was convinced that it had been partially selected, said to this venerable magistrate, "You are not fit to be a judge," Sir Matthew answered, "It is very true." When Alexander received letters out of Greece of some fights and services there, which were commonly for a passage or a fort, or some walled town at the most, he said, "It seemed to him, that he was advertised of the battle of the frogs and the mice, that the old tales went of; so certainly, if a man meditate much upon the universal frame of nature, the earth with men upon it, the divineness of souls except, will not seem much other than an ant-hill, where as some ants carry corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to and fro a little heap of dust." With the duties of the office he was well acquainted. As a politician he never omitted an opportunity to ameliorate the condition of society, and exerted himself in all the usual House of Commons questions: thus dilating and contracting his sight, and too readily giving up to party what was meant for mankind. As public prosecutor, he did not suffer the arm of justice to be weakened either by improper lenity or severity at variance with public feeling. Knowing that the efficacy of criminal legislation consists in duly poising the powers of law, religion, and morals; and being aware of the common erroneous suposition, that, by an increase in the quantity of any agent, its beneficial effects are also increased, he warned the community that the acerbity of a law ever deadened the execution, by associating compassion with guilt, and confounding the gradation of crime; and that the sentiment of justice in the public mind is as much or more injured by a law which outrages public feeling, as by a aw which falls short or disappoints the just indignation of the community.

But, not confining his professional exertions to the discharge of the common duties of a public prosecutor, he availed himself of his situation to advance justice and humanity, and composed a work for compiling and amending the laws of England, which he dedicated to the king. "Your majesty," he says, "of your favour having made me privy councillor, and continuing me in the place of your attorney-general, I take it to be my duty not only to speed your commandments and the business of my place, but to meditate and to excogitate of myself, wherein I may best, by my travails, derive your virtues to the good of your people, and return their thanks and increase of love to you again. And after I had thought of many things, I could find, in my judgment, none more proper for your majesty as a master, nor for me as a workman, than the reducing and recompiling the laws of England." In this tract, having traced the exertions of different legislators from Moses to Augustus, he says, "Cæsar si ab eo quærereter quid egisset in togâ, leges se respondisset multas et præclarus tulisse;" and his nephew Augustus did tread the same steps but with deeper print, because of his long reign in peace, whereof one of the poets of the time saith,

From July, 1610, until this period, there had not been any parliament sitting; and the king, unable to procure the usual supplies, had recourse, by the advice of Lord Salisbury, to modes injurious to himself, and not warranted by the constitution. Bacon, foreseeing the evils which must result from these expedients, implored the king to discontinue them, and to summon a parliament.

A parliament was accordingly summoned, and met in April, 1614, when the question whether the attorney-general was eligible to sit in the House was immediately agitated; and, after debate, and search of precedents, it was resolved, that, by reason of his office, he ought not to sit in the House of Commons, as he was an attendant on the lords: but it was resolved that the present attorney-general shall for this parliament remain in the House, although this privilege shall not extend to any future attorney-general.

Upon his entrance on the discharge of his legal