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with new value.’ He confesses that it is a fragment, and yet not written in haste, for he has been about it near thirty years. But he feels that. his own life is hastening to its close, and he wishes that a portion of his work at least should be saved. The end was now very near. On the 27th of January, 1620-1, he became Viscount St. Alban. His fortune, which for nearly four years had borne him smoothly on, now raised him to his greatest height, as if to make the final catastrophe more dramatic and appalling. Parliament met on the 30th. The Chancellor, in addressing the new Speaker, gave expression to a sentiment which, read in the light of subsequent events, seems prophetic, —‘It is certain that the best governments, yea, and the best of men, are like the best precious stones, wherein every flaw or icicle or grain are seen and noted more than in those that are generally foul and corrupted.’ Coke, who had not been in the House for many years, was returned as member for Liskeard. On the 5th of February he moved for a Committee to inquire into public grievances. A Committee was appointed to report concerning the Courts of Justice. Bacon, unsuspecting any malice, acted like a man who was certainly not conscious of any great delinquency. On the 17th of February Sir E. Sackville reported to the House that the Chancellor willingly consented that any man might speak anything freely concerning his Court. On the 15th of March Sir Robert Phillips laid before the Lower House the report of the Committee on Courts of Justice. It came like a thunderclap. The Lord Chancellor was accused of corruption in the exercise of his functions, and two instances were given as proofs. On the 19th the Lords received a message from the Commons requesting a conference concerning abuses in certain eminent persons. Bacon was absent through illness. He sat in the House of Lords for the last time on Saturday, the 17th of March. Next day, Sir James Ley, Lord Chief Justice, was empowered by the King’s commission to act as his substitute. On the Monday the conference for which the Lower House applied was granted,