FRANCIS BACON was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and was born at York House in the Strand, the 22nd of January, 1561. In boyhood he was sprightly and intelligent beyond his years. The queen, who was taken with the smartness of his answers, used to try him with questions on various subjects; and it is said, that once when she asked him how old he was, his reply was ingeniously complimentary: "I am just two years younger than your Majesty's happy reign." Elizabeth expressed her approbation by calling the boy "her young lord keeper." "Nothing is known of his early education. Having, however, parents of a superior order - a father distinguished as a lawyer and a statesman, and a mother gifted with uncommon abilities, and eminent for her learning and piety, Bacon was placed favourably, from the first, for the formation of a learned and virtuous cha

racter.

Cambridge, and was placed under the tuition of Dr. Whitgift, at that time master of the college, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Here Bacon studied with diligence and success. The following fact, connected with his residence at college, has been thus stated and authenticated by Dr. Rawley, his chaplain and biographer:-"Whilst he was commorant at the University, about sixteen years of age (as his lordship hath been pleased to impart unto myself), he first fell into the dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle. Not for the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way -being a philosophy (as his lordship used to say) only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the life of man. In which mind he continued to his dying day.

On leaving Cambridge, he entered Gray's Inn as a student of law. It is likely that his admission was in Michaelmas term, since it appears, from the records of the Inn, that he was made an antient on the 21st of November, 1576-an honour usually conferred on barristers, but bestowed on the sons of judges in consequence of their birth. His attendance in London not being required for some years, by the regulations of his inn, Bacon was sent, in compliance with a custom at the time common among the nobility, to study the institutions and manners of other countries. He went accordingly in the suite of Sir Amias Paulet, the British ambassador to the court of France. His superior sagacity and discretion soon induced the ambassador to intrust him with a message of some delicacy and importance to the queen; a commission which Bacon executed so as to obtain the royal approbation. On his return to Paris, he made frequent excursions into the country, spent some time in Poictiers, and busied himself in collecting information on the characters and resources of the different princes of Europe. His work of the State of Europe, in which he arranged and estimated the information thus collected, and which was written when he was nineteen years of age, displays conspicuously the industry, guided by deep

VOL. V.

F

penetration, which characterized his youthful mind. He places everything in the light which best shows its nature as a political element. He estimates the different weights, in the scale of national importance, with an inductive and philosophic soberness-a justness of discrimination, and a nicety of tact and acuteness, which give us not merely a knowledge of the subject, but also an insight into the state of his mind, prompted to make such observations by the early influence of that ambition which was the spring and life of his career.

His studies abroad were interrupted by the death of his father in 1579. Returning to London on this occasion, he found himself the only one of his family left unprovided for; his father having been prevented by the suddenness of his death from purchasing an estate with the money set aside for his youngest son. Instead of the whole, Francis received only a fifth share of the money. This caused him "straits and difficulties" in his youth. When a student in Gray's Inn, he divided his time between law and philosophy; and nothing can be more false than the fustian of his biographers about his genius being too lofty for the dry and thorny paths of legal investigation. He was early a proficient in law, and the knowledge which he attained could only have been acquired by a bent of mind suited to its investigations. Law was his principal study. Though when a student he sketched his great work the Organon,' in a piece which his youthful pride entitled 'Partus Temporis Maximus,' the Greatest Birth of Time, his studies were chiefly directed to legal subjects.

On the 27th of June, 1582, he was called to the bar. His practice soon became considerable. In 1586, four years after, he was made a bencher. In his 28th year he became council extraordinary to the queen. In 1588 he was appointed a reader to his Inn; and again, in 1600, the Lent double-reader; appointments which showed the opinion of his professional acquirements held by those who were best able to judge of them, since the duty of reader was generally discharged by men of eminence in the profession, and seldom by persons so young as Bacon

in years and practice, when he first received the honour, His double-reading on the Statute of Uses has been republished several times, first in 1642; and in 1804 it was edited by William Henry Rowe, as a work of high authority on the difficult subject which it investigates.

It was

Although connected with the most powerful family of Elizabeth's reign, the nephew of Lord Burleigh, and the cousin of Sir Robert Cecil,-his advancement corresponded neither to the natural influence of his talents nor the apparently favourable position in which he was placed by his connexions. The practical and every-day minds of the Cecils were ill-fitted for appreciating the philosophic genius of Bacon; and his early and zealous friendship for their rival, the accomplished and unfortunate Earl of Essex, armed their prudence against him. They represented him to the queen as a speculative man; a dangerous individual, therefore, in the realities of business. All that the Cecils ever procured for him was the reversion of the office of Registrar of the Star Chamber; an appointment which, to use Bacon's comparison, "mended his prospect, but did not fill his barn." twenty years before he received the salary of 16007. per annum, connected with this situation. The exertions of Essex in behalf of Bacon were more hearty, but less efficient. The office of solicitor-general becoming vacant, Essex endeavoured to procure the place for his friend, and when baffled by the superior influence of the Cecils, he generously made him a present of Twickenham Park, worth about 18007., and so beautiful a spot, that Bacon called it "a Garden of Paradise." A coldness came over their friendship owing to difference of policy and opinion. Bacon in vain entreated Essex to desist from the proceedings which caused his ruin. They parted on bad terms in consequence. Bacon reckoned the last act of Essex no better than madness. When ruin closed round upon him, Bacon did much that ingenious remonstrance and affectionate entreaty could do with her majesty in behalf of the ill-advised Earl. Many have doubted his sincerity in this course; and perhaps with some reason. At the command of her ma

jesty, Bacon appeared as one of her majesty's counsel against his former friend; and in mitigation of this ap parent ingratitude, his admirers urge the compulsion laid upon him by the duties of his office, the risk of implica tion in the treasons of his patron, consequent upon refusal, and the opportunity which it gave him of mitigating the severity of the accusation. When commanded by the queen and her counsel to draw up a declaration of the treasons of Robert, Earl of Essex, it was found necessary to alter and embitter it considerably, the attachment of Bacon having softened down his statement so much that it was reckoned too mild for the nature of the case; and her majesty remarked on first reading it, "I see old love is not easily forgotten." The public judge only by ap pearances, and Bacon's conduct was accordingly much censured. In his own vindication he addressed to one of the deceased earl's most devoted friends, a letter stating his conduct, and claiming merit to himself on grounds which perhaps will not satisfy those who require in poli tical friendships the disinterestedness and self-sacrificing feelings of private attachment.

In 1592 Bacon was returned to parliament for the county of Middlesex, and distinguished himself in the debates by taking the popular side. His first political production was published in 1594. It was Observations upon a libel entitled 'A Declaration of the Causes of the great Troubles.' In 1596 his most popular work, 'Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral,' was published, and about the same time his 'Maxims of Law.' His circumstances at this time were very bad: he was disappointed in his attempts at forming a lucrative matrimonial connexion, and twice arrested for debt. Two years afterwards his "History of the Alienation Office' was written the MS. is in the Inner Temple Library. His In felicem Memoriam Elizabethæ Angliæ Regina' was also written about this period. It was not published, however, until after his death, when it appeared, according to directions left in his will. This work, entitled in English Felicities of Queen Elizabeth,' is a noble eulogium on the character of an illustrious princess, covering all the parts