THE LETTERS AND THE LIFE OF FRANCIS BACON INCLUDING ALL HIS OCCASIONAL WORKS NAMELY LETTERS SPEECHES TRACTS STATE PAPERS MEMORIALS DEVICES PREFACE. THE last volume ended with the first work of Bacon's Attorney Generalship. The present carries him almost, but not quite, to the end of the period during which he held that office. It was one of his periods of highest political activity; in which many matters of great immediate importance in their own day, and probably of great ultimate importance to the whole subsequent history of England, fell to his charge. The Parliament of 1614, with its high hopes, fair promises, and disastrous issue; the attempt to raise supplies by a " Benevolence," which followed; -the legal proceedings against Talbot, for refusing to repudiate the Jesuits' doctrine of king-killing; against Peacham, for treasonable words intended to be preached; against Owen, for treasonable words spoken; against Oliver St. John, for slander of the King and Council;-the consultation of Judges single and apart; the deliberations concerning the calling of another Parliament, with the precautions to be used, the subjects to be proposed, and the courses to be held ;-the trial of the Earl and Countess of Somerset for the murder of Overbury ;-the dispute between the Crown and the Judges in the case of Rege inconsulto;—the assault by the Court of King's Bench upon the Court of Chancery, in the case of Præmunire;-the first essay of government in Ireland through a Parliament of its own;-All these come within the period embraced in this volume; and they were all matters in which Bacon was, one way or other, personally engaged,—in some as adviser and manager, in some as actor under the direction of superiors, in some as a kind of intruder with advice unasked. Of his papers relating to them, some have remained till now, not only unprinted, but unknown; |