the
work so rapidly done was not well done. We are assured that Bacon's
decisions were unquestioned, and were not complained of. At the same
time, before this allegation is accepted as conclusive proof of the
public satisfaction, it must be remembered that the question of his
administration of justice, which was at last to assume such strange
proportions, has never been so thoroughly sifted as, to enable us to
pronounce upon it, it should be. The natural tendency of Bacon's mind
would undoubtedly be to judge rightly and justly; but the negative
argument of the silence at the time of complainants, in days when it was
so dangerous to question authority, and when we have so little evidence
of what men said at their firesides, is not enough to show that he never
failed.

But the serious thing is that Bacon subjected himself to two of the most
dangerous influences which can act on the mind of a judge--the influence
of the most powerful and most formidable man in England, and the
influence of presents, in money and other gifts. From first to last he
allowed Buckingham, whom no man, as Bacon soon found, could displease
except at his own peril, to write letters to him on behalf of suitors
whose causes were before him; and he allowed suitors, not often while
the cause was pending, but sometimes even then, to send him directly, or
through his servants, large sums of money. Both these things are
explained. It would have been characteristic of Bacon to be confident
that he could defy temptation: these habits were the fashion of the
time, and everybody took them for granted; Buckingham never asked his
good offices beyond what Bacon thought just and right, and asked them
rather for the sake of expedition than to influence his judgment. And as
to the money presents--every office was underpaid; this was the common
way of acknowledging pains and trouble: it was analogous to a doctor's
or a lawyer's fee now. And there is no proof that either influence ever
led Bacon to do wrong. This has been said, and said with some degree of
force. But if it shows that Bacon was not in this matter below his age,
it shows that he was not above it. No one knew better than Bacon that
there were no more certain dangers to honesty and justice than the
interference and solicitation of the great, and the old famous pest of
bribes, of which all histories and laws were full. And yet on the
highest seat of justice in the realm he, the great reformer of its
abus