bery were preferred against him
before the Privy Council. A disappointed suitor, named Parnell, declared
that the Chancellor had been bribed with a gift-cup to decide in favor
of his (Parnell's) adversary. Mistress Vaughan, the successful suitor's
wife, had given Sir Thomas the cup with her own hands. The fallen
Chancellor admitting that "he had received the cup as a New Year's
Gift," Lord Wiltshire cried, with unseemly exultation, "Lo! did I not
tell you, my lords, that you would find this matter true?" It seemed
that More had pleaded guilty, for his oath did not permit him to receive
a New Year's Gift from an actual suitor. "But, my lords," continued the
accused man, with one of his characteristic smiles, "hear the other part
of my tale. After having drunk to her of wine, with which my butler had
filled the cup, and when she had pledged me, I restored it to her, and
would listen to no refusal." It is possible that Mistress Vaughan did
not act with corrupt intention, but merely in ignorance of the rule
which forbade the Chancellor to accept her present. As much cannot be
said in behalf of Mrs. Croker, who, being opposed in a suit to Lord
Arundel, sought to win Sir Thomas More's favor by presenting him with a
pair of gloves containing forty angels. With a courteous smile he
accepted the gloves, but constrained her to take back the gold. The
gentleness of this rebuff is charming; but the story does not tell more
in favor of Sir Thomas than to the disgrace of the lady and the moral
tone of the society in which she lived.

Readers should bear in mind the part which New Year's Gifts and other
customary gratuities played in the trumpery charges against Lord Bacon.
Adopting an old method of calumny, the conspirators against his fair
fame represented that the gifts made to him, in accordance with ancient
usage, were bribes. For instance Reynel's ring, presented on New Year's
day, was so construed by the accusers; and in his comment upon the
charge, Bacon, who had inadvertently accepted the gift during the
progress of a suit, observes, "This ring was received certainly
_pendente lite_, and though it were at New Year's tide, yet it was too
great a value for a New Year's Gift, though, as I take it, nothing near
the value mentioned in the articles." So also Trevor's gift was a New
Year's present, of which Bacon says, "I confess and declare that I
received at New Year's tide an hundred pounds from Sir John Trevor, and
because it ca