's pleasure; that he should be for ever incapable
of any office, place or employment in the state or commonwealth; that he
should never sit in parliament, or come within the verge of the court. This
heavy sentence was [v.03 p.0143] only partially executed. The fine was in
effect remitted by the king; imprisonment in the Tower lasted for about
four days; a general pardon (not of course covering the parliamentary
censure) was made out, and though delayed at the seal for a time by Lord
Keeper Williams, was passed probably in November 1621. The cause of the
delay seems to have lain with Buckingham, whose friendship had cooled, and
who had taken offence at the fallen chancellor's unwillingness to part with
York House. This difference was finally smoothed over, and it was probably
through his influence that Bacon received the much-desired permission to
come within the verge of the court. He never again sat in parliament.

So ends this painful episode, which has given rise to the most severe
condemnation of Bacon, and which still presents great and perhaps
insuperable difficulties. On the whole, the tendency of the most recent and
thorough researches has been towards the opinion that Bacon's own account
of the matter (from which, indeed, our knowledge of it is chiefly drawn) is
substantially correct. He distinguishes three ways in which bribes may be
given,[39] and ingenuously confesses that his own acts amounted to
corruption and were worthy of condemnation. Now, corruption strictly
interpreted would imply the deliberate sale of justice, and this Bacon
explicitly denies, affirming that he never "had bribe or reward in his eye
or thought when he pronounced any sentence or order." When we analyse the
specific charges against him, with his answers to them, we find many that
are really of little weight. The twenty-eighth and last, that of negligence
in looking after his servants, though it did him much harm, may fairly be
said to imply no moral blame. The majority of the others are instances of
gratuities given after the decision, and it is to be regretted that the
judgment of the peers gives us no means of determining how such gifts were
looked upon, whether or not the acceptance of them was regarded as a
"corrupt" practice. In four cases specifically, and in some others by
implication, Bacon confesses that he had received bribes from suitors
_pendente lite_. Yet he affirms, as we said before, that his intention was
never swayed b