me whether I will or no." No one for years had discharged the
duties of his office with greater efficiency. Scarcely a trace remains
of any suspicion, previous to the attack upon him, of the justice of his
decisions; no instance was alleged that, in fact, impure motives had
controlled the strength and lucidity of an intellect which loved to be
true and right for the mere pleasure of being so. Nor was there anything
in Bacon's political position to make him specially obnoxious above all
others of the King's Council. He maintained the highest doctrines of
prerogative; but they were current doctrines, both at the Council board
and on the bench; and they were not discredited nor extinguished by his
fall. To be on good terms with James and Buckingham meant a degree of
subservience which shocks us now; but it did not shock people then, and
he did not differ from his fellows in regarding it as part of his duty
as a public servant of the Crown. No doubt he had enemies--some with old
grudges like Southampton, who had been condemned with Essex; some like
Suffolk, smarting under recent reprimands and the biting edge of Bacon's
tongue; some like Coke, hating him from constitutional antipathies and
the strong antagonism of professional doctrines, for a long course of
rivalry and for mortifying defeats. But there is no appearance of
preconcerted efforts among them to bring about his overthrow. He did not
at the time seem to be identified with anything dangerous or odious.
There was no doubt a good deal of dissatisfaction with Chancery--among
the common lawyers, because it interfered with their business; in the
public, partly from the traditions of its slowness, partly from its
expensiveness, partly because, being intended for special redress of
legal hardship, it was sure to disappoint one party to a suit. But Bacon
thought that he had reformed Chancery. He had also done a great deal to
bring some kind of order, or at least hopefulness of order, into the
King's desperate finances. And he had never set himself against
Parliament. On the contrary, he had always been forward to declare that
the King could not do without Parliament, and that Parliament only
needed to be dealt with generously, and as "became a King," to be not a
danger and hindrance to the Crown but its most sincere and trustworthy
support.

What was then to portend danger to Bacon when the Parliament of 1620/21
met? The House of Commons at its meeting was thoroughly loyal