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of Commons, and to preserve this he moved, ‘that now they might proceed herein by themselves apart from their Lordships.’ After considerable discussion the question was ultimately put to the House, that no such conference should be had with the Lords, and. was carried by a majority of 217 to 128. The point of privilege was yielded, and a motion of Sir Walter Ralegh’s for a general conference with the Lords carried unanimously. As the result of this, the original proposition was so far modified that four years instead of three were to be allowed for the payment of the subsidies. Bacon ‘assented to three subsidies, but not to the payment under six years,’ but he was outvoted and made no further difficulty. Such was the solitary act of patriotism of which Macaulay says Bacon was guilty. And even for this, he adds, he made the most abject apologies. Two letters of Bacon’s on this subject have been preserved, one to Lord Burghley, the other probably, as Mr. Spedding conjectures, to Essex. The tone of both is that of manly justification of his conduct; in neither is there one syllable of apology or regret for what he had done. He is evidently surprised at being misunderstood. The Queen was angry at his speeches, and Bacon expresses his grief that she ‘should retain an hard conceit’ of them, What follows is very instructive. ‘It mought please her sacred Majesty to think what my end should be in those speeches, if it were not duty, and duty alone. I am not so simple but I know the common beaten way to please. And whereas popularity hath been objected, I muse what care I should take to please many, that taketh a course of life to deal with few.’

At this juncture the Attorney-Generalship was vacant, and whatever chance Bacon might have had, through the influence of Essex, of being appointed to the post, was entirely nullified by the Queen’s displeasure. For himself he was not anxious for the honour, but he assured Elizabeth, in a letter which was intended to appease her, that he was ready to do that for her service which he would not do for his own gain. ‘My mind,’ he says, ‘turneth upon other wheels than those of profit.’ Had it not been for this chance, however, he would probably have