It was wise, and from his point of view honest
advice, though there runs all through it too much reliance on
appearances which were not all that they seemed; there was too much
thought of throwing dust in the eyes of troublesome and inconvenient
people. But whatever motives there might have been behind, it would have
been well if James had learned from Bacon how to deal with Englishmen.
But he could not. "I wonder," said James one day to Gondomar, "that my
ancestors should ever have permitted such an institution as the House of
Commons to have come into existence. I am a stranger, and found it here
when I arrived, so that I am obliged to put up with what I cannot get
rid of." James was the only one of our many foreign kings who, to the
last, struggled to avoid submitting himself to the conditions of an
English throne.
CHAPTER VI.
BACON'S FALL.
When Parliament met on January 30, 1620/21, and Bacon, as Lord
Chancellor, set forth in his ceremonial speeches to the King and to the
Speaker the glories and blessings of James's reign, no man in England
had more reason to think himself fortunate.
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