Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/77

Rh to confer upon him the title of an earl, with a pension for life; an honour which, as he died on the 15th of the month, before the completion of the arrangements, was transferred to his son, who was created Earl of Bridgewater by the first patent to which the new lord keeper affixed the seal.

On the 14th of March the king quitted England, to visit his native country; and Sir Francis had scarcely been a week raised to the office of lord keeper, when he was placed at the head of the council, and intrusted with the management of all public affairs.

The king was accompanied by Buckingham, who, in his double capacity of prime minister, and master of the revels, assisted with equal readiness at the discussions which were to direct the nation, and the pastimes contrived to amuse the king. Graceful in all exercises, and a fine dancer, Buckingham brought that diversion into great request, while his associates willingly lent themselves to the devices which his better taste disdained; for James is said to have loved such representations and disguises as were witty and sudden, the more ridiculous the more pleasant.

The policy of the favourite seems to be clear. He had endeavoured to prevent the king's visit; and, in surrounding his royal master with these buffooneries, he well knew that he should disgust the better part of the Scottish nobility, and keep aloof all those grave and wise councillors, who could not recognise, under the disguise of a masquer, the learned pupil of Buchanan, and the ruler of two kingdoms.

Through the whole of this progress a constant communication was maintained between Buckingham and the lord keeper.

On the 7th of May, being the first day of term, the lord keeper went in great state to Westminster, in the following order:

In this pomp he entered the hall. How different from the mode in which his successor took his seat!

Upon the lord keeper's entrance, he, in the presence of so many honourable witnesses, addressed the bar, stating the nature of the charge which had been given to him by the king, when he was intrusted with the great seal, and the modes by which, under the protection of God, it was his intention to obey what he was pleased to call his majesty's righteous commandments.

With respect to the excess of jurisdiction, or tumour of the court, which was the first admonition, the lord keeper dilated upon all the causes of excess, and concluded with an assurance of his temperate use of authority, and his conviction that the health of a court as well as of a body consisted in temperance.

With respect to the cautious sealing of patents, which was the second admonition, the lord keeper having stated six principal cases in which this caution was peculiarly requisite, and to which he declared that his attention should be directed, thus concluded: "And your lordships see in this matter of the seal, and his majesty's royal commandment concerning the same, I mean to walk in the light, so that men may know where to find me; and this publishing thereof plainly, I hope will save the king from a great deal of abuse, and me from a great deal of envy; when men shall see that no particular turn or end leads me, but a general rule.

With respect to speedy justice, which was the third admonition, and upon which, in his essays on "Delay and Despatch," it appears that he had maturely deliberated, he explained the nature of true and affected despatch; and, having divided delays, into the delays of the judge and of the suitor, he said, "For myself, I am resolved that my decree shall come speedily, if not instantly after the hearing, and my signed decree speedily upon my decree pronounced. For fresh justice is the sweetest; and to the end that there be no delay of justice, nor any other means-making or labouring, but the labouring of the counsel at the bar. "Again, because justice is a sacred thing, and the end for which I am called to this place, and therefore is my way to heaven; and if it be shorter, it is never a whit the worse, I shall, by the grace of God, as far as God will give me strength, add the afternoon to the forenoon, and some fourth night of the vacation to the term, for the expediting and clearing of the causes of the court; only the depth of the three long vacations would reserve in some measure free from business of estate, and for studies, arts, and sciences, to which in my own nature I am most inclined.

"There is another point of true expedition, which resteth much in myself, and that is in my manner of giving orders. For I have seen an affectation of despatch turn utterly to delay at length: for the manner of it is to take the tale of of the counsellor at the bar his mouth, and to give a cursory order, nothing tending or conducing to the end of the business. It makes me remember what I heard one say of a judge that sat in chancery; that he would make forty orders in a morning out of the way, and it was out of the way indeed; for it was nothing to the end of the