The annals of biography present no sorrier picture than this.

"Upon advised consideration of the charges," he wrote, "descending into my own conscience, and calling my memory to account so far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defence.

O my lords, spare a broken reed!" It is useless for his defenders, among whom the chief are Mr.Basil Montagu and Mr.Hepworth Dixon, to inform us that judges in that day were ill paid, and that it was the custom to receive gifts.

If Bacon had a defence to make and did not make it, he was a coward or a sycophant: if what he said is true, he was a dishonest man, an unjust judge.

He was sentenced to pay a fine of L40,000, and to be imprisoned in the Tower at the king's pleasure; the fine was remitted, and the imprisonment lasted but two days, a result, no doubt foreseen, of his wretched confession.
This was the end of his public career.