ghts, which now fly to
many pieces, be reduced to that center. But all this is no more
than I am, which is not much, but yet the entire of him that is--"

In the following May (May 24, 1612) Salisbury died. From this date James
passed from government by a minister, who, whatever may have been his
faults, was laborious, public-spirited, and a statesman, into his own
keeping and into the hands of favourites, who cared only for themselves.
With Cecil ceased the traditions of the days of Elizabeth and Burghley,
in many ways evil and cruel traditions, but not ignoble and sordid ones;
and James was left without the stay, and also without the check, which
Cecil's power had been to him. The field was open for new men and new
ways; the fashions and ideas of the time had altered during the last ten
years, and those of the Queen's days had gone out of date. Would the new
turn out for the better or the worse? Bacon, at any rate, saw the
significance of the change and the critical eventfulness of the moment.
It was his habit of old to send memorials of advice to the heads of the
Government, apparently without such suggestions seeming more intrusive
or officious than a leading article seems now, and perhaps with much the
same effect. It was now a time to do so, if ever; and he was in an
official relation to the King which entitled him to proffer advice. He
at once prepared to lay his thoughts before the King, and to suggest
that he could do far better service than Cecil, and was ready to take
his place. The policy of the "Great Contract" had certainly broken
down, and the King, under Cecil's guidance, had certainly not known how
to manage an English parliament. In writing to the King he found it hard
to satisfy himself. Several draft letters remain, and it is not certain
which of them, if any, was sent. But immediately on Salisbury's death he
began, May 29th, a letter in which he said that he had never yet been
able to show his affection to the King, "having been as a hawk tied to
another's fist;" and if, "as was said to one that spake great words,
_Amice, verba tua desiderant civitatem_, your Majesty say to me, _Bacon,
your words require a place to speak them_," yet that "place or not
place" was with the King. But the draft breaks off abruptly, and with
the date of the 31st we have the following:

"Your Majesty hath lost a great subject and a great servant. But if
I should praise him in propriety, I should say th