further, enjoined to review and amend his published
reports, where they were inconsistent with the view of law which on
Bacon's authority the Star Chamber had adopted (June, 1616). This he
affected to do, but the corrections were manifestly only colourable;
his explanations of his legal heresies against the prerogative, as these
heresies were formulated by the Chancellor and Bacon, and presented to
him for recantation, were judged insufficient; and in a decree, prefaced
by reasons drawn up by Bacon, in which, besides Coke's errors of law,
his "deceit, contempt, and slander of the Government," his "perpetual
turbulent carriage," and his affectation of popularity, were noted--he
was removed from his office (Nov., 1616). So, for the present, the old
rivalry had ended in a triumph for Bacon. Bacon, whom Coke had so long
headed in the race, whom he had sneered at as a superficial pretender to
law, and whose accomplishments and enthusiasm for knowledge he utterly
despised, had not only defeated him, but driven him from his seat with
dishonour. When we remember what Coke was, what he had thought of Bacon,
and how he prized his own unique reputation as a representative of
English law, the effects of such a disgrace on a man of his temper
cannot easily be exaggerated.

But for the present Bacon had broken through the spell which had so long
kept him back. He won a great deal of the King's confidence, and the
King was more and more ready to make use of him, though by no means
equally willing to think that Bacon knew better than himself. Bacon's
view of the law, and his resources of argument and expression to make it
good, could be depended upon in the keen struggle to secure and enlarge
the prerogative which was now beginning. In the prerogative both James
and Bacon saw the safety of the State and the only reasonable hope of
good government; but in Bacon's larger and more elevated views of
policy--of a policy worthy of a great king, and a king of England--James
was not likely to take much interest. The memorials which it was
Bacon's habit to present on public affairs were wasted on one who had so
little to learn from others--so he thought and so all assured him--about
the secrets of empire. Still they were proofs of Bacon's ready mind; and
James, even when he disagreed with Bacon's opinion and arguments, was
too clever not to see their difference from the work of other men. Bacon
rose in favour; and from the first he was on the be