Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

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AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 69
" Bacon, who now sat for Middlesex, barred his own path by
a speech in the House of Commons . . . upon subsidies, which
he considered too burdensome for a people overlaid with taxes.
... It was, therefore, in entire good faith that Bacon protested
against the subsidies, declaring that the gentlemen must sell
their plate and the farmers their brass pots before this should
be paid. The House was unanimously against him. . . . But
'the speech, though made in manifest sincerity, did not, on that
account, conciliate the Queen; and Bacon's conscientious opposition
brought on him the penalty of exclusion from the royal presence."
(lb. p. 35.)
" Bacon's fame as a patriot was fixed in these transactions.
The breadth of his views, the comprehensiveness of his politics,
the solidity of his understanding were observed by his contemporaries.
" (Hep worth Dixon, Story, p. 37.)
" The House had not sat a week . . . before he hinted at his
scheme for amending the whole body of English law. . . .
Reform the code! Bacon tells a House full of Queen's Serjeants
and utter barristers that laws are made to guard the rights of
the people, not to feed the lawyers. ... So runs his speech . . .
a noble thought ... a plan developed in his maxims of the law
. . . universally read . . . the Code Napoleon is the sole embodiment
of Bacon's thought. Ten days later he gave a check to
the government, which brought down on his head the censures
of Burghley and Puckering, which are said to have represented
the personal anger of the Queen. . . . Burghley asked the Peers to
confer on a grant of money for the Queen's service, and Cecil
reported to the Commons that the Peers had decided for them
what they were to give. . . . Who rose to warn the minister of
this grave mistake! . . . Bacon stood up. A few clear words
declared that . . . to give was the prerogative of the people — to
dictate what they should give was not the duty of the Peers.
{lb. 65-66.)
Bacon compared unfavourably with Coke.
Bacon as Attorney-General " holding up to posterity for ever
the contrast between his courtier-like servility, and Coke's
manly independence. " (Abbott, int. to Essays, lvi.)