and dated 20th September of this year, relates to a tragical accident which had just happened. Francis Lord Norris and Lord Willoughby of Eresby had had a quarrel. During an interview between them in a churchyard at Bath, they came from words to blows, and Lord Norris drawing in self defence had the ill-luck to kill one of Lord Willoughby's servants. The Coroner's Jury (9 September) found it manslaughter. Expecting to be put upon his trial, he wrote (it seems) to Bacon, to bespeak his favour. And this is Bacon's answer. SIR FRANCIS BACON TO LORD NORRIS, IN ANSWER TO HIM.1 My Lord, I am sorry of your misfortune; and for anything that is within mine own command, your Lordship may expect no other than the respects of him, that forgetteth not your Lordship is to him a near ally, and an antient acquaintance, client, and friend. For that which may concern my place, which governeth me and not I it, if any thing be demanded at my hands or directed, or that I am ex officio to do any thing; if I say, it come to any of these three, for as yet I am a stranger to the business, yet saving my duties, which I will never live to violate, your Lordship shall find that I will observe those degrees and limitations of proceeding which belongeth to him that knoweth well he serveth a clement and merciful master, and that in his own nature shall ever incline to the more benign part; and that knoweth also what belongeth to nobility, and to a house of such merit and reputation as the Lord Norris is come from. And even so I remain, Sept. 20, 1615. Your Lordship's very loving friend. Lord Norris's own account of the matter was that he intended no quarrel, but was assaulted unexpectedly, that Lord Willoughby's man drew upon him, and that he slew him in pure self-defence.2 And I suppose this was found to be true; for we hear no more of the trial; and he was presently pardoned.3 1 From the collections of the late Robert Stephens, Esq. 3 Letters of Lord Carew to Sir Thomas Roe; Camd. Soc. THE length of time which passed after the dissolution of the last Parliament before another was called, coupled with the shifts to which the Government was driven in the meantime for raising money, has given rise to an impression that it was the deliberate intention and policy of the King to dispense with Parliaments altogether, and try to carry on the government without. But though to those who look only at the surface of events without observing their causes there may seem to be some colour for this opinion, we have conclusive evidence that it was not so. If there was any time when James might be fairly suspected of a determination to dispense with Parliaments, it was immediately after the unfortunate issue of the last; for the conciliation of which he had gone, as he thought, so far in concessions. Yet within less than sixteen months we find him seriously engaged with his Council in consultations and preparations for calling another. Of course I do not impute this to any romantic desire on his part to put limitations upon his own authority. The same financial embarrassment which made Parliaments so difficult to deal with obliged him to face the difficulty. He did not see any hope of effectual remedy by any other means; and though he disliked the necessity he was prepared to submit to it. The fact is not altogether new; for Mr. Gardiner has duly recorded it, though I cannot think that in his view of James's proceedings and policy he has taken it duly into account. But I am fortunate in being able to supply some fresh evidence on the subject which is both new and material. With whom the resolution originated,—whether with James himself, or with his Privy Council, or with some private adviser, does not clearly appear. But it was, if not suggested, at any rate very strongly supported by Bacon, in a memorial or letter of advice which he addressed to the King about this time. If we knew the exact date of it we should be able to judge whether it was this memorial which induced the King to refer the matter to his Council, or whether the knowledge that it had been referred to the Council induced Bacon to write the memorial. I incline myself to the first supposition, because I think he could hardly have entered so fully and carefully into the whole question without some allusion to the deliberations of the Council, if he had known that they were going on. The point is not however of much importance; for whatever the occasion may have been, the paper itself contains an elaborate discussion of the expediency of calling another Parliament and the measures to be taken by way of preparation,-submitted by him privately to the King, and to be taken therefore as representing his own personal opinion. A manuscript copy of it, in a handwriting of the time, or not much later, had found its way into the Library of the Inner Temple, where it remains. And it is a singular and sig. nificant fact that, though entered in the printed catalogue under Bacon's name, with the title (not quite correct indeed, but not on that account the less inviting to curiosity) of" Sir Francis Bacon on Parliaments," no notice has been taken of its contents, so far as I know, by anybody. It is true that the name does not appear upon the face of the transcript (which seems to be the work of a copyist); but on the outside leaf is written, in the hand of the transcriber, "Concerning a Parliamt," and underneath, in another hand, "Sir Francis Bacon;" and the internal evidence is as conclusive as to the authorship as internal evidence can possibly be. As a piece of contemporary testimony concerning a very important passage of history which is very little understood, its value will not be disputed even by those who are not prepared to accept it as conclusive. It is the report of one who was in a particularly good position to observe what passed, for the information of one whom it deeply concerned to understand the case rightly, and who besides his personal knowledge had the command of reports from many other quarters to check it by. In my own account of the passages to which it relates, though I have had the advantage of being acquainted with it and bearing it in mind, I have endeavoured to make out the story from evidence quite independent of it, and I do not think I have admitted into the narrative any single fact which rests upon this authority: so that those who distrust Bacon's powers of observation and judgment in such things can correct his report for themselves where they find reason. Papers of this kind are apt to be lost as well as saved by the very 1 Since this was written, Mr. Gardiner has mentioned it as a valuable paper. 'Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage,' vol. i. p. 67, note. thing which gives them their peculiar value. Being too confidential to go into the general collection, they are laid by in some more secret place and forgotten, or they are lent to a friend with a special caution to keep them private, and so become separated from their companions and lost. And even if they escape destruction, yet as time goes on, those into whose hands they fall are less and less likely to know what they are about and what their value is; so that even after they are found, the chances are that they are still as much lost as ever. The original of this paper had the luck long ago to fall into the hands of somebody who saw that it was worth copying; and the copy being now, by permission of the Benchers of the Inner Temple, printed in its proper place among Bacon's writings of business, I hope it may be considered safe from all further risk. The title, I ought to add, has been inserted by myself. The manuscript has neither title nor address, nor signature, nor date. A LETTER TO THE KING ADVISING HIM TO CALL A PARLIAMENT.1 Concerning a Parliament, if I were to give opinion to a King whose distastes were stronger with him than his occasions, I confess I should be doubtful and reserved. But because his Majesty is a prince of so great judgment that can give every event his true cause, and that can collect upon things that formerly have not so well succeeded as well what to amend as what to avoid, I encourage myself that I may deliver mine opinion as well safely as freely ;—intending when I speak of safety, of being saved in his Majesty's good conceit and favour; for other peril I esteem not. Whosoever therefore shall dissuade a Parliament, cannot deny thus much, that a Parliament is the ancient and royal way of aid and provision for the King with treasure (for the word Supply and Supply of wants I am almost fallen out with). They will likewise grant that it is easier to create will than means; neither can they show any other means sufficient, but it is of more casual and slow coming in and hath not conjoined with it the point of honour and reputation, which doubleth the rest; or rather surmounts it in many parts. But they will say the experience and success of the two last Parliaments doth intimidate and astonish them to try the same means again, except they had other foundations than they then had. Wherein on the other side I do profess simply and 1 Inner Temple Library, no. 538, vol. xxxvii. plainly; not as one that affecteth paradoxes or desireth to speak confident or strouted speeches, but ingeniously; that nothing doth encourage me more than that which I do remember of those Parliaments; not indeed alone, but joined also with the remembrance of former Parliaments further back. And this is no other collection than Demosthenes in the like cases doth often use and iterate, when he saith in divers places Quod ad præterita pessimum id ad futura optimum; which passage always he adviseth when things have gone amiss by accident and error or mishandling, and not of their proper indisposition. For nothing is to a man either a greater spur or a greater direction to do over a thing again, than when he knows where he failed. And I am of the same opinion in this matter of Parliament; in which subject I ought not to be novice-like or ignorant, having now served full twelve Parliaments; out of which this one advice may flow which I shall now give; which is so far from tending to any acting, or minting, or packing, or canvassing, or any the like devices, as it tendeth wholly to the restoring that great Council to the natural use and ancient dignity and splendour thereof, from which it hath in latter time, I will not say degenerated, but certainly receded; whereby it will also appear that we shall need no other foundation than that that is laid in a blessed time, which is a good King and good people; and that there is not requisite any great or laborious engine to draw kindness out of the affections of the subjects; but that it is only like the opening of a springhead, which with a little cleansing will run frankly of itself. And yet I do not see but that there is a kind of co-operation of some beneficial accidents happened since the last Parliament, which advantages added to the correction of former errors will make the matter assure itself; and that is the best kind of undertaking. But because it is first in nature to remove impediments, and then to use advantages, I will speak first of the impediments or errors, and then of the advantages. First therefore, not to speak of the Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's time, in whose reign things were so well settled and disposed, as if she demanded anything it was seldom denied, and if she pretended any it was never inquired; I will speak only of the Parliament in the third of the King; at which Parliament the King had granted unto him three subsidies and six VOL. V. N |