llor, can, by any fair construction, be
called a bribe. Not one appears to have been given on a promise; not one
appears to have been given in secret; not one is alleged to have
corrupted justice."

It must be remembered that the salaries of all the high officers of the
government were at that time paid in gifts and fees. Thus the king gave
the lord chancellor but L81 6_s._ 8_d._ a year, while the place was
worth L10,000 to L15,000; worth in our money to-day $125,000. "The
judges had enough to buy their gloves and robes, not more." The lord
chancellor had to maintain a huge retinue: "his court, his household,
and his followers, gentlemen of quality, sons of peers and prelates;
magistrates, deputy lieutenants of counties, knights of the shire, have
all to live on fees and presents." It is still true that in England the
law will not help a barrister or a physician to recover a fee; their
compensation is, in theory, at least, supposed to be a gratuity for
those they serve.

But it may be urged that Bacon plead guilty to corruption and bribery.
He did nothing of the kind. He acknowledged that he "partook of the
abuses of the times," and that the existing customs should be reformed;
but he solemnly declared to Buckingham, May 31, 1621: "I have been a
trusty and honest and Christ-loving friend to your lordship and the
justest chancellor that hath been in the five charges since my father's
time." Again, he said: "I had no bribe or reward in my eye or thought
when I pronounced any sentence or order.... I take myself to be as
innocent as any babe born on St. Innocent's day in my heart." All
attempts to subsequently reverse his decrees failed, although his
enemies were in possession of power. But King James urged him to make no
defence, "to trust his honor and his safety to the crown.... He pleads
guilty to carelessness, not to crime." He desired to live to finish up
his philosophical works. To resist the king's wishes was to leave
himself at the mercy of his life-long enemy, Coke; he yielded. The king
remitted his fine of L40,000 and released him from the Tower. Bacon goes
back to his books and writes in cipher: "I was the justest judge that
was in England these fifty years; but it was the justest censure that
was in Parliament these two hundred years." He meant thereby, that while
personally innocent of corruption, the sentence would end gift-giving
to judges. His formal confession to Parliament is a justification of
every ac