affectation of popularity, were noted—­he was removed from his office (Nov., 1616).  So, for the present, the old rivalry had ended in a triumph for Bacon.  Bacon, whom Coke had so long headed in the race, whom he had sneered at as a superficial pretender to law, and whose accomplishments and enthusiasm for knowledge he utterly despised, had not only defeated him, but driven him from his seat with dishonour.  When we remember what Coke was, what he had thought of Bacon, and how he prized his own unique reputation as a representative of English law, the effects of such a disgrace on a man of his temper cannot easily be exaggerated.

But for the present Bacon had broken through the spell which had so long kept him back.  He won a great deal of the King’s confidence, and the King was more and more ready to make use of him, though by no means equally willing to think that Bacon knew better than himself.  Bacon’s view of the law, and his resources of argument and expression to make it good, could be depended upon in the keen struggle to secure and enlarge the prerogative which was now beginning.  In the prerogative both James and Bacon saw the safety of the State and the only reasonable hope of good government; but in Bacon’s larger and more elevated views of policy—­of a policy worthy of a great king, and a king of England—­James was not likely to take much interest.  The memorials which it was Bacon’s habit to present on public affairs were wasted on one who had so little to learn from others—­so he thought and so all assured him—­about the secrets of empire.  Still they were proofs of Bacon’s ready mind; and James, even when he disagreed with Bacon’s opinion and arguments, was too clever not to see their difference from the work of other men.  Bacon rose in favour; and from the first he was on the best of terms with Villiers.  He professed to Villiers the most sincere devotion.  According to his custom he presented him with a letter of wise advice on the duties and behaviour of a favourite.  He at once began, and kept up with him to the end, a confidential correspondence on matters of public importance.  He made it clear that he depended upon Villiers for his own personal prospects, and it had now become the most natural thing that Bacon should look forward to succeeding the Lord Chancellor, Ellesmere, who was fast failing.  Bacon had already (Feb. 12, 1615/16). in terms which seem strange to us, but were less strange then, set forth in a letter to the King the reasons why he should be Chancellor; criticising justly enough, only that he was a party interested, the qualifications of other possible candidates, Coke, Hobart, and the Archbishop Abbott.  Coke would be “an overruling nature in an overruling place,” and “popular men were no sure mounters for your Majesty’s saddle.”  Hobart was incompetent.  As to Abbott, the Chancellor’s place required “a whole man,” and to have both jurisdiction, spiritual and temporal, “was fit only for a king.”