ent had induced him to give an unjust decision. It was the power of
custom over a character naturally and by habit too pliant to
circumstances. Custom made him insensible to the evil of receiving
recommendations from Buckingham in favour of suitors. Custom made him
insensible to the evil of what it seems every one took for
granted--receiving gifts from suitors. In the Court of James I. the
atmosphere which a man in office breathed was loaded with the taint of
gifts and bribes. Presents were as much the rule, as indispensable for
those who hoped to get on, as they are now in Turkey. Even in
Elizabeth's days, when Bacon was struggling to win her favour, and was
in the greatest straits for money, he borrowed L500 to buy a jewel for
the Queen. When he was James's servant the giving of gifts became a
necessity. New Year's Day brought round its tribute of gold vases and
gold pieces to the King and Buckingham. And this was the least. Money
was raised by the sale of officers and titles. For L20,000, having
previously offered L10,000 in vain, the Chief-Justice of England,
Montague, became Lord Mandeville and Treasurer. The bribe was sometimes
disguised: a man became a Privy Councillor, like Cranfield, or a
Chief-Justice, like Ley (afterwards "the good Earl," "unstained with
gold or fee," of Milton's Sonnet), by marrying a cousin or a niece of
Buckingham. When Bacon was made a Peer, he had also given him "the
making of a Baron;" that is to say, he might raise money by bargaining
with some one who wanted a peerage; when, however, later on, he asked
Buckingham for a repetition of the favour, Buckingham gave him a lecture
on the impropriety of prodigality, which should make it seem that "while
the King was asking money of Parliament with one hand he was giving with
the other." How things were in Chancery in the days of the Queen, and of
Bacon's predecessors, we know little; but Bacon himself implies that
there was nothing new in what he did. "All my lawyers," said James, "are
so bred and nursed in corruption that they cannot leave it." Bacon's
Chancellorship coincided with the full bloom of Buckingham's favour; and
Buckingham set the fashion, beyond all before him, of extravagance in
receiving and spending. Encompassed by such assumptions and such
customs, Bacon administered the Chancery. Suitors did there what people
did everywhere else; they acknowledged by a present the trouble they
gave, or the benefit they gained. It may be that