en after due weight is given to all
considerations urged in their favour,[11] seem to confirm the view already
taken of Bacon's theory of government, and at the same time show that his
sympathies with the royal party tended to blind him to the true character
of certain courses of action, which can only be justified by a straining of
political ethics. The advice he offered, in all sincerity, was most prudent
and sagacious, and _might_ have been successfully carried out by a man of
Bacon's tact and skill; but it was intensely one-sided, and exhibited a
curious want of appreciation of what was even then beginning to be looked
on as the true relation of king, parliament and people. Unfortunately for
James, he could neither adopt nor carry out Bacon's policy. The parliament
which met in April 1614, in which Bacon sat for Cambridge University, and
was dissolved in June, after a stormy session, was by no means in a frame
of mind suitable for the king's purposes. The House was enraged at the
supposed project (then much misunderstood) of the "Undertakers"; objection
was taken to Bacon being elected or serving as a member while holding
office as attorney-general; and, though an exception was made in his
favour, it was resolved that no attorney-general should in future be
eligible for a seat in parliament. No supply was granted, and the king's
necessities were increased instead of diminished. The emergency suggested
to some of the bishops the idea of a voluntary contribution, which was
eagerly taken up by the noblemen and crown officials. The scheme was
afterwards extended so as to take in the whole kingdom, but lost something
of its voluntary character, and the means taken to raise the money, which
were not what Bacon would have recommended,[12] were calculated to stir up
discontent. The general dissatisfaction received a somewhat unguarded and
intemperate expression in a letter sent to the justices of Marlborough by a
gentleman of the neighbourhood, named Oliver St John,[13] in which he
denounced the attempt to raise funds in this way as contrary to law, reason
and religion, as constituting in the king personally an act of perjury,
involving in the same crime those who contributed, and thereby subjecting
all parties to the curses levelled by the church at such offences. St John
was summoned before the Star Chamber for slander and treasonable language;
and Bacon, _ex officio_, acted as public prosecutor. The sentence
pronounced (a f