At the
same time it does not appear that Bacon did anything to watch how things
went in the Committees, which had his friends in them as well as his
enemies, and are said to have been open courts. Towards the end of
March, Chamberlain wrote to Carleton that "the Houses were working hard
at cleansing out the Augaean stable of monopolies, and also extortions in
Courts of Justice. The petitions against the Lord Chancellor were too
numerous to be got through: his chief friends and brokers of bargains,
Sir George Hastings and Sir Richard Young, and others attacked, are
obliged to accuse him in their own defence, though very reluctantly. His
ordinary bribes were L300, L400, and even L1000.... The Lords admit no
evidence except on oath. One Churchill, who was dismissed from the
Chancery Court for extortion, is the chief cause of the Chancellor's
ruin."[3] Bacon was greatly alarmed. He wrote to Buckingham, who was
"his anchor in these floods." He wrote to the King; he was at a loss to
account for the "tempest that had come on him;" he could not understand
what he had done to offend the country or Parliament; he had never
"taken rewards to pervert justice, however he might be frail, and
partake of the abuse of the time.
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