t servility while in the
sunshine, save his fixed malignity when dismissed to the shade. In 1594
the office of Attorney-General became vacant; Coke regarded the prize as
his own until he found one ready to dispute it with him. Bacon, eager
to outstrip his rival, had made interest at Court, and, had his age been
as ripe as his genius, Coke might have been thrust aside in the
encounter. Intrigues failed, because "one precedent of so raw a youth
being promoted to so great a place" it was impossible to find. Coke was
left master of the field, but neither combatant forgot the result of the
contest. The new Attorney-General declined his marvelous opponent for
Solicitor-General, and Bacon resolved to take unmeasured revenge both
for the disappointment and the insult.

A fitter tool for its melancholy work prerogative never found than in
Attorney-General Coke, who, for his punishment, lived to destroy the
foul abuses he had been paid to nourish. The liberty of the subject is
identified with the name of the individual who, as much as any of his
time, sought to crush it. The perversions of criminal law to which this
man condescended, as prosecutor for the Crown, are familiar to the
readers of history. His cruel arrogance and atrocious bearing toward the
unfortunate (we do not speak of the guilty) can never be forgotten. Lord
Campbell tells us that Coke, in his age, "made noble amends" for the
licentious and unscrupulous dealings of his earlier life. We can not
admit the term; for repentance to be noble, the motive must be pure. The
gain to society by the stand made by Coke, in the name of the people,
against the encroachments of the Crown is not to be overestimated; but
respect does not attach to the soiled instrument by which our blessings
were secured. A singular instance of the brutality of the
Attorney-General, and of his overstrained duty to the Crown, occurred at
the trial of the unfortunate and gallant Essex. Well may the present
biographer exclaim, "This was a humiliating day for our _order_!" Essex
had striven hard to obtain for Bacon the office then held by his
accuser. The insurrection in the city might sooner be pardoned than that
offense, which, indeed, received no mercy. For once, Bacon and Coke
ceased to be rivals, but only that they might be co-partners in
inexpiable guilt. Divines may preach even to the infidel of the inherent
rottenness of our fallen nature, when they can point to Bacon, the pride
of humanity, t