yet meanest of men gave his whole heart to the
accomplishment of either work. By the elevation of the Attorney-General,
Bacon had become Solicitor-General, and a more servile spirit never
filled the office. The first triumph of Coke over the king encouraged
him to more open war against despotism and abuse. The monarchs before
the Revolution loved to repair laws by royal proclamation, and none were
busier at that trade than the silly James. Coke asserted his authority
again, and again defeated him. To console His Majesty and to help
himself, Bacon recommended the _promotion_ of the incorrigable
assailant. Coke was made, accordingly, Chief Justice of the King's
Bench. The profits of the office were much less than those of the
Justice of the Common Pleas, although the rank was higher. Hence Coke's
disgust at the bettering of his condition, which also helped Bacon on a
step, by furnishing Attorney-General Hobart with the chiefship of the
Common Pleas.

Coke continued to display his independence during the three years that
he presided in the Court of King's Bench, but he had stopped short of
committing an act that might deprive him of the reversion of the
Chancellorship, to which his great acquirements and reputation well
entitled him. Bacon, always alive to his master's interests, urged upon
the king the danger of elevating the Chief Justice to the woolsack, long
before the vacancy occurred. "If you take my Lord Coke," said he, "this
will follow: first, your Majesty shall put an overruling nature into an
overruling place, which may breed an extreme; next, you shall blunt his
industries in the matter of your finances, which seemeth to aim at
another place (the office of Lord Treasurer); and, lastly, popular men
are no sure mounters for your Majesty's saddle." His Majesty, easily
frightened, cherished the warning, while Coke took no pains to disarm
suspicion. His triumphs gave him courage, and he went from bad to worse.
A question arose as to the power of the king to grant ecclesiastical
preferments to be held along with a bishopric. A learned counsel at the
bar denied the power. Bacon, the Attorney-General, not caring to defend
it, mentioned another power of the king's--viz., his right to prohibit
the hearing of any cause in which his prerogative is concerned until he
should intimate his pleasure on the matter to his judges; and advised
such a prohibition to be issued in the case in question. Coke treated
the advice with di