WHEN IT BECAME EVIDENT THAT ELIZABETH'S REIGN was drawing
to a close and that James of Scotland would be assuming Eng-
land's throne, Bacon contemplated his future with both ap-
prehension and hope. Of his capacity to play a part in the settle-
ment of political questions he had not the slightest doubt. He
knew that there were certain questions of magnitude which
Parliament and the Privy Council had avoided in Elizabeth's
lifetime, through a respect for both her person and her tempera-
ment and out of a regard for her successes without and within
the kingdom. "For Queen Elizabeth," as Bacon was to write
later in his Beginning of the History of Great Britain, "though
she had the use of many both virtues and demonstrations that
mought draw and knit unto her the heart of her people, yet
nevertheless carrying a hand, restrained in gift and strained in
points of prerogative, could not answer the votes either of
servants or subjects to a full contentment; especially in her
latter days, when the continuance of her reign (which extended
to five and forty years) mought discover in people their natural
desire and inclination towards change."

In the same writing Bacon remarked that "those that had made

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