s former colleague of
"corruption of reward;" but "in truth that makes the offence rather
divers than less;" for some offences "are black, and others scarlet,
some sordid, some presumptuous." He pronounced his sentence--the fine,
the imprisonment; "for his place, I declare him unfit for it." "And the
next day," says Mr. Spedding, "he reported to Buckingham the result of
the proceeding," and takes no small credit for his own part in it.

It was thus that the Court used Bacon, and that Bacon submitted to be
used. He could have done, if he had been listened to, much nobler
service. He had from the first seen, and urged as far as he could, the
paramount necessity of retrenchment in the King's profligate
expenditure. Even Buckingham had come to feel the necessity of it at
last; and now that Bacon filled a seat at the Council, and that the
prosecution of Suffolk and an inquiry into the abuses of the Navy had
forced on those in power the urgency of economy, there was a chance of
something being done to bring order into the confusion of the finances.
Retrenchment began at the King's kitchen and the tables of his servants;
an effort was made, not unsuccessfully, to extend it wider, under the
direction of Lionel Cranfield, a self-made man of business from the
city; but with such a Court the task was an impossible one. It was not
Bacon's fault, though he sadly mismanaged his own private affairs, that
the King's expenditure was not managed soberly and wisely. Nor was it
Bacon's fault, as far as advice went, that James was always trying
either to evade or to outwit a Parliament which he could not, like the
Tudors, overawe. Bacon's uniform counsel had been--Look on a Parliament
as a certain necessity, but not only as a necessity, as also a unique
and most precious means for uniting the Crown with the nation, and
proving to the world outside how Englishmen love and honour their King,
and their King trusts his subjects. Deal with it frankly and nobly as
becomes a king, not suspiciously like a huckster in a bargain. Do not be
afraid of Parliament. Be skilful in calling it, but don't attempt to
"pack" it. Use all due adroitness and knowledge of human nature, and
necessary firmness and majesty, in managing it; keep unruly and
mischievous people in their place, but do not be too anxious to
meddle--"let nature work;" and above all, though of course you want
money from it, do not let that appear as the chief or real cause of
calling it. Take