lived, things might
not, perhaps, have been better in James's government, but many things,
probably, would have been different. But while Salisbury was supreme,
Bacon, though very alert and zealous, was mainly busied with his
official work; and the Solicitor's place had become, as he says, a "mean
thing" compared with the Attorney's, and also an extremely laborious
place--"one of the painfullest places in the kingdom." Much of it was
routine, but responsible and fatiguing routine. But if he was not in
Salisbury's confidence, he was prominent in the House of Commons. The
great and pressing subject of the time was the increasing difficulties
of the revenue, created partly by the inevitable changes of a growing
state, but much more by the King's incorrigible wastefulness. It was
impossible to realise completely the great dream and longing of the
Stuart kings and their ministers to make the Crown independent of
parliamentary supplies; but to dispense with these supplies as much as
possible, and to make as much as possible of the revenue permanent, was
the continued and fatal policy of the Court. The "Great Contract"--a
scheme by which, in return for the surrender by the Crown of certain
burdensome and dangerous claims of the Prerogative, the Commons were to
assure a large compensating yearly income to the Crown--was Salisbury's
favourite device during the last two years of his life. It was not a
prosperous one. The bargain was an ill-imagined and not very decorous
transaction between the King and his people. Both parties were naturally
jealous of one another, suspicious of underhand dealing and tacit
changes of terms, prompt to resent and take offence, and not easy to
pacify when they thought advantage had been taken; and Salisbury, either
by his own fault, or by yielding to the King's canny shiftiness, gave
the business a more haggling and huckstering look than it need have had.
Bacon, a subordinate of the Government, but a very important person in
the Commons, did his part, loyally, as it seems, and skilfully in
smoothing differences and keeping awkward questions from making their
appearance. Thus he tried to stave off the risk of bringing definitely
to a point the King's cherished claim to levy "impositions," or custom
duties, on merchandise, by virtue of his prerogative--a claim which he
warned the Commons not to dispute, and which Bacon, maintaining it as
legal in theory, did his best to prevent them from discussing, and