THE

EDINBURGH REVIEW,

APRIL, 1861.

No. CCXXX.

From un

ART. I. The Personal History of Lord Bacon. published MSS. By WM. HEPWORTH DIXON. London: 1861.

IT

T is not the first time that the pages of this Journal have been devoted to an examination of the charges which weigh upon the character of Lord Bacon, and compel us to believe that the man who stands forth to all ages as the noblest representative of England's intellect, is not the noblest representative of her public virtue. The cause was argued at our assize long ago, when no less a man than Basil Montagu was the advocate of the great Chancellor, and no less a judge of historical evidence than Lord Macaulay rejected and refuted the defence of that enthusiastic biographer. It may well be that this great problem of the union of the highest intellectual powers with acts of incredible moral meanness and baseness, still exercises an irresistible attraction over the mind of many a student of history and of mankind; another generation has sprung up in the interval, and more accurate and extensive researches into the State Papers and the Council Registers of Elizabeth and James, have somewhat augmented the evidence bearing upon Bacon's life. Mr. Hepworth Dixon, with this evidence in his hands, calls upon the world to reject its former conclusions, and to reverse our former sentence. It would be an idle and a presumptuous attempt to rewrite those brilliant pages of our late illustrious contributor, which stand recorded in English literature as the most complete summary extant of the grandeur of Bacon's genius, and of the deplorable failings of his character. But in justice to Bacon himself, and to his most recent champion, we have carefully re-examined the whole of the evidence, both old

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Y

and new; and though we can find in this volume no sufficient. reasons to alter our former convictions, we think our readers will not be unwilling to receive at our hands a more fresh and full account of the facts by which that conviction is sustained.

That Bacon should find another advocate among the men of letters of this day, is not a matter of surprise to us. Nor-although we object on many grounds to the undiscriminating eulogy before us-do we doubt that the real Bacon of History was very different from the harsh caricature which Pope originally gave to the world, and which several modern writers have amplified. It is evident from his letters and speeches, and from the testimony of most of his contemporaries, that Bacon not only was a statesman of deep insight and broad views, but that he had that large and humane ambition to accomplish social and political good which occasionally blends with the philosophic temper. His ideas respecting church government and toleration; his project of making the Law of England the structure of a sacred temple of justice;' his admirable plan of reducing Ireland to civility and right, to obedience and peace;' his thorough perception of the numerous mischiefs which a lingering feudalism was inflicting on England; and his full appreciation of the happy consequences which a union with Scotland was likely to produce, attest at once the comprehensiveness of his wisdom and the general kindliness of his disposition. If we measure him, too, by the standard of his age, reflect upon the circumstances of his life, and consider the various influences and temptations which operated on his acts and character, we believe that even those parts of his career which appear most worthy of blame and contempt admit of at least a partial vindication. That tame servility which shocks us so much, because so unworthy of his splendid powers, seemed probably only a graceful pliancy to the bishops and nobles of James and Elizabeth. His holding a brief for the Crown against Essex, and pleading against his unfortunate friend, we characterise as the blackest of treasons; but a lawyer trained in the courts of the Tudors, who had heard from the lips of living witnesses how Somerset had done his brother to death and Norfolk had sate in judgment on his niece, would certainly have been of a different opinion. Even the least defensible act of Bacon, his writing a posthumous libel on Essex, may, in some degree, be excused on the grounds that Elizabeth positively ordered the composition, and that disobedience to the Crown in those days would probably have been followed by punishment. So too, precedent, usage, and reasonable authority sustain some passages in Bacon's Attorney-generalship which we now condemn as cruel and iniquitous; and this defence may be

partly urged to palliate the charge of judicial corruption of which we cannot believe him innocent. Notwithstanding all these allowances, however, the moral and intellectual nature of Bacon will still present a marked antithesis; and this, in fact, was his main characteristic. With his splendid energy and boldness in speculation, he was evidently timid and hesitating in action, with a natural tendency to yield to power, and not entirely superior to temptation. To use his own language, he had two sympathies, the sympathy for perfection and the sympathy for advancement; and to gain advancement he has told us plainly that he had no objection to creeping and obsequiousness. Place such a man, a giant in intellect and rich in every endowment of genius, yet weak, irresolute, and full of ambition, in the court and closet of James and Elizabeth, and would the corrupting currents of the world be likely to leave him unsoiled by their contact?

That this was the real character of Bacon, and the only vindication it admits of, we think we shall prove to our readers' satisfaction. Mr. Dixon, however, proclaims the contrary; and insists that Bacon, the lawyer and politician, is, on the whole, as worthy of our reverence as Bacon the author of the De 'Augmentis.' He maintains that, even when tried by the test of modern social and political ethics, the conduct of Bacon can always be justified, and that certainly none of his public acts deserved blame in the seventeenth century. He contends that Bacon was nearly as conspicuous for dignity, rectitude, and disinterested patriotism, as he was for keen ability and wisdom, and that the man whom many have portrayed as a cowardly flatterer, libeller, and timeserver, was really one of the heroes of statesmanship. Impressed with this view, he not only brings out into much more than their fit prominence the fairer passages in the life of his subject, but he vindicates Bacon's conduct to Essex, applauds him throughout his career in Parliament, insists on his excellence as an officer of the Crown, and struggles to prove that his judicial integrity was as undoubted as his judicial ability.

Notwithstanding all these assertions, however, we decline to reject the former evidence on this subject; and, indeed, demon'stration' in the face of fact is, as Bacon has told us, empty and 'futile. Our judgment upon this volume is, that it is throughout an unprofitable paradox, the ideal of a vaporous fancy, as Bacon probably would have termed it. Nor do we think much the better of it because in this eccentric rhapsody Mr. Dixon has shown considerable diligence, and a true appreciation of some of the characters who rose to eminence in the history of

the period. The Sophist in the Clouds' was not always in the wrong, though his aim was to trifle with common sense; and Pangloss was often ingenious and learned in proving the ills of the world delightful. When the main idea of a work is unsound, it is little to the purpose that here and there it contains some new and original matter, and now and then some acute observations; but, even in these subordinate respects, Mr. Dixon can claim but little commendation. While we have no doubt that his theory is false, and that all he has said will not shake in the least the general opinion of Bacon's character; and while he has used all the artifices of an advocate in embellishing facts that tell on his side, and making enormous omissions and misstatements, we must also add that his original researches have not been fruitful of much new matter, on points at least of paramount importance. As for the manner, design, and style of this book, they appear to us to be in the worst possible taste. A biography should be a portrait executed with manliness, simplicity, and truth, not a display of spasmodic rhetoric, tawdry ornament, and false effect; and we regret to have so soon to notice another distressing example of those extravagances and deformities of style with which Mr. Carlyle has infected the English language.

Before, however, we deal with the case which Mr. Dixon has here put forward, we would call attention to those parts of this volume which seem to us worthy of commendation. Mr. Dixon has given us some information upon the social relations of Bacon; and the letters of Anne Lady Bacon to her sons, which appear for the first time in his Appendix, are very characteristic and amusing. He has also collected a number of facts respecting the youth and the marriage of Bacon, which fill several agreeable pages; while, as regards more important points, he has thrown some new light on the Villiers' match, and on the combination of parties which led to the fall of the great Chancellor. We are also obliged to Mr. Dixon for his account of the early career of Bacon in the last four parliaments of Elizabeth. He observes, justly, that Bacon's biographers have passed over his life in the House of Commons between 1580 and 1593, and only notice him in 1593, in reference to his opposition to Burleigh when bringing forward the double subsidy, and claiming the votes of the Peers upon it. Even a cursory study of D'Ewes's Journal would convince any one that in these years the position of Bacon in Parliament was eminent; and it was only proper to dwell at some length upon this interesting phase in his history. The account of Mr. Dixon contains some facts which hitherto have not been generally made public. It appears certain that,