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Speech against Dueling - Francis Bacon · Classic Speeches

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Section twenty nine of the World's Best Orations, Volume one. This is a
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LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Gloria Lowry.
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The World's Best Orations from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Volume one
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by David J. Brewer and Edward A. Allen. Speech against Dueling by
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Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon fifteen sixty one two sixteen twenty six. Francis Bacon,
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Baron Verulem and Viscount Saint Albans is called by one of his contemporaries,
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the eloquentist man in England. Perhaps those who read his legal arguments before the
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star Chamber may not see this eloquence so fully exemplified in them as in his
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incomparable essays. But wherever he speaks, it is Francis Bacon speaking. It
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is doubtful if any other man ever lived who has even approached him in the
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power of controlling his own and subsequent times by purely intellectual means. Until his
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time, Aristotle had no rival in the domain of pure intellect. Since he
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lived the higher mind of the world has owned his mastery and has shown the
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results of the inspiration of his intellectual daring in following, regardless of consequences,
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the inductive method, the determination to make truth fruitful through experiment, which has
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resulted in the scientific accomplishments of the modern world. Lucretia's writes of the pleasure
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of knowing truth as like that a man on shore in a storm has in
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seeing the struggles of those who are about to be shipwrecked. Quote tis sweet
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when the seas are roughened by violent winds to view on land the toils of
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others. Not that there is pleasure in seeing others in distress, but because
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man is glad to know himself secure. It is pleasant too to look,
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with no share of peril, on the mighty contests of war. But nothing
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is sweeter than to reach those calm, undisturbed temples raised by the wisdom of
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philosophers. Whence thou mayst look down on poor, mistaken mortals wandering up and
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down in life's devious ways. End quote Lucretius two one, translated by Ramage
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quote suave mari magno turbantibus ecra ventis y terra magnum altcrius spectaire leborum non quia
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vexari quinquam est jucunda voluptas said quibus ipse malice caius quius surnaire suave est end
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quote, et cetera. Perhaps the spirit of the ancient learning was never so
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well expressed elsewhere as in these lines. In what may be called a plea
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for the possibilities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Bacon answered it, quote,
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is there any such happiness for a man's mind to be raised above the
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confusion of things? Where he may have the prospect of the order of nature
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and error of man? But in this view of delight only, and not
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of discovery, of contentment, and not of benefit, shall he not as
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well discern the riches of Nature's warehouse as the beauties of her shop? Is
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truth ever barear, shall he not be able thereby to produce worthy effects and
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to endow the life of man with infinite commodities. Among the infinite commodities already
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developed from the thought flowing into and out of the mind which framed these sublime
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sentences are the steam engine, the electric motor, the discoveries of the microscope,
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and the treatment of disease, the wonders of chemistry, working out practical
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results to alleviate human misery, and to increase steadily from year to year,
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and from century to century, the sum of human comfort. Looking forward to
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this, Bacon worked for it until his whole life became a manifestation of his
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master thought. It may be said with literal truth that he died of it,
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for the cold which brought him his death resulted from his rashness in leaving
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his carriage when sick, to expl experiment on the arrest of putrefaction by freezing.
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The idea came to him. It was winter and the ground was covered
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with snow. He was feeble, but he left his carriage to stuff snow
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into the carcass of a chicken he had procured for the experiment. The experiment
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succeeded, and centuries later, as a result of it, England is fed
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with the meat of America and Australia. But Bacon died after it, leaving
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behind him ideas which stamp him as the greatest and brightest, whether or not
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he was also the meanest of mankind. On this latter point, he may
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speak for himself as he does. Thus in the volume State Trials, from
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which his speech on dueling before the star Chamber here used is extracted. Howel's
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Volume two, upon advised consideration of the charge, descending into my own conscience,
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and calling my memory to account, as far as I am able,
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I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption, and do
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renounce all defense, and put myself upon the grace and mercy of your lordships.
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To the nineteenth article, viz. That in the cause between Raynell and
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Peacock he received from Raynell two hundred pounds and a diamond ring worth four or
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five hundred pounds, I confess and declare that on my first coming to the
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Seal, when I was at Whitehall, my servant Hunt delivered me two hundred
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pounds from Sir George Raynell, my near ally, to be bestowed upon furniture
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of my house, adding further that he had received divers former favors from me,
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and this was, as I verily think, before any suit was begun.
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The ring was received certainly pendente lite, and though it was at New
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Year's tide, it was too great a value for a new Year's gift.
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Though I take it nothing near the value mentioned in the article end quote,
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that while Lord Chancellor of England, he took gifts intended to corrupt justice.
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He confessed to his shame, but he does not seem to have been wholly
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able to decide whether in doing so he broke faith with those who wished to
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corrupt him, or with the Kingdom and Constitution of England he represented against their
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desire to purchase justice. He seems to have believed that though his conduct was
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corrupt, his decisions were honest. He says, indeed, that in spite
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of his bribe taking quote, he never had bribe or reward in his eye
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or thought when he pronounced any sentence or order end quote. This cannot be
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admitted in excuse even for Bacon, but his moral weakness, if it obscure
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for the time, the splendor of his intellect died with him, while his
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genius, marvelously radiant above that of any other of the last ten centuries,
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still illuminates the path of every pioneer of progress. His address to the Star
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Chamber on Dueling was delivered in the proceedings against mister William Priest for writing and
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sending a challenge, and mister Richard Wright for carrying it January twenty sixth,
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sixteen fifteen, Bacon being then the King's Attorney General. The text is from
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T. B. Howell's State Trials, London, eighteen sixteen speech against Dueling,
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My Lords, I thought it fit for my place and for these times,
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to bring to hearing before your lordships some cause touching private duels, to
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see if the scourt can do any good to tame and reclaim that evil which
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seems unbridled. And I could have wished that I had met with some greater
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persons as a subject for your censure, both because it had been more worthy
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of this presence, and also the better to have shown the resolution I myself
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have to proceed without respect of persons in this business. But finding this cause
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on foot in my predecessor's time, I thought to lose no time in a
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mischief that groweth every day. And besides, it passes not a miss sometimes
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in government that the greater sort be admonished by an example made in the meaner,
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and the dog to be eaten before the lion. Nay, I should
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think, my lords, that men of birth and quality will leave the practice
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when it begins to be filified, and come so low as to barber surgeons,
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and butchers, and such base mechanical persons. And for the greatness of
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this presence in which I take much comfort, both as I consider it in
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itself, and much mo more in respect. It is by His Majesty's direction
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I will supply the meanness of the particular cause by handling of the general point,
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to the end that by the occasion of this present cause, both my
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purpose of prosecution against duels and the opinion of the Court, without which I
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am nothing for the censure of them, may appear, and thereby offenders in
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that kind may read their own case and know what they are to expect,
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which may serve for a warning until example may be made in some greater person,
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which I doubt the times will but too soon afford. Therefore, before
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I come to the particular whereof your lordships are now to judge, I think
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the time best spent to speak somewhat one of the nature and greatness of this
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mischief, Two of the causes and remedies. Three of the justice of the
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law of England, which Sons Dick not to think defective in this matter.
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Four of the capacity of this court, where certainly the remedy of this mischief
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is best to be found five touching mine own purpose and resolution, wherein I
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shall humbly crave your Lordship's aid and assistance for the mischief itself. It may
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please your lordships to take into your consideration that when revenge is once extorted out
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of the magistrate's hands, contrary to God's ordinance, mihi vindicta ego retribuum,
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and every man shall bear the sword not to defend, but to assail.
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And private men begin once to presume to give law to themselves and to right
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their own wrongs. No man can foresee the danger and inconveniences that may arise
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and multiply. Thereupon. It may cause sudden storms in court, to the
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disturbance of his majesty and unsafety of his person. It may grow from quarrels
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to bandying, and from bandying to trooping, and so to tumult and commotion,
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from particular persons to dissension of families and alliances, yea, to national
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quarrels, according to the infinite variety of accidents which fall not under foresight,
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so that the state, by this means shall be like to a distempered and
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imperfect body, continually subject to inflammations and convulsions. Besides, certainly, both
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in divinity and in policy, offenses of presumption are the greatest other offenses yield
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and consent to the law, that it is good, not daring to make
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defense or to justify themselves. But this offense expressly gives the law an affront,
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as if there were two laws, one a kind of gown law,
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and the other a law of reputation, as they term it. So that
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Paul's and Westminster, the pulpit, and the courts of justice must give place
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to the law, as the King speaketh in his proclamation of ordinary tables,
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and such reverend assemblies. The yearbooks and statute books must give place to some
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French and Italian pamphlets which handle the doctrine of duels, which, if they
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be in the right transseemus ad illa. Let us receive them, and not
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keep the people in conflict and distraction between two laws. Again, my lords,
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it is a miserable effect when young men full of towardness and hope,
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such as the poets call Aurari Philee, sons of the morning, in whom
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the expectation and comfort of their friends consisteth shall be cast away and destroyed in
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such a vain manner. But much more it is to be deplored when so
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much noble and genteel blood should be spilt upon such follies, as if it
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were adventured in the field in service of the king in realm, were able
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to make the fortune of a day and change the future of a kingdom.
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Your lordships, see what a desperate evil this is. It troubleth peace,
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it disfurnisheth war. It bringeth calamity upon private men, peril upon the state,
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and contempt upon the law. Touching the causes of it, the first
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motive, no doubt, is a false and erroneous imagination of honor and credit.
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And therefore the King, in his last proclamation doth most aptly and excellently
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call them bewitching duels. For if one judge of it, truly, it
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is no better than a sorcery that enchanteth the spirits of young men that bear
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great minds, with a false show species falsa, and a kind of satanical
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illusion and apparition of honor against religion, against law, against moral virtue,
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and against the precedents and examples of the best times and valiantist nations, as
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I shall tell you by and by when I shall show you that the law
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of England is not alone in this point. But then the seed of this
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mischief being such, it is nourished by vain discourses and green and unriped conceits,
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which nevertheless have so prevailed as though a man were stayed and sober minded,
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and a right believer, touching the vanity and unlawfulness of these duels.
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Yet the stream of vulgar opinion is such as it imposeth a necessity upon men
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of value to conform themselves, or else there is no living or looking upon
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men's faces, So that we have naught to do in this case so much
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with particular persons, as with unsound and depraved opinions, like the dominations and
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spirits of the air, which the Scripture speaketh of. Here unto may be
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added that men have almost lost the true notion and understanding of fortitude and valor.
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For fortitude distinguisheth of the grounds of quarrels, whether they be just,
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and not only so, but whether they be worthy, and setteth a better
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price upon men's lives than to bestow them idly. Nay, it is weakness
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and disesteem of a man's self to put a man's life upon such ledger performances.
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A man's life is not to be trifled away. It is to be
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offered up and sacrificed to honorable services, public merits, good causes, and
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noble adventures. It is an expensive blood, as it is in expensive money.
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It is no liberality to make a profusion of money upon every vain occasion,
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Nor no more is it fortitude to make effusion of blood, except the
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cause be of worth. And thus much for the cause of this evil,
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for the remedies, I hope some great and noble person will put his hand
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to this plow. And I wish that my labors of this day may be
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but forerunners to the work of a higher and better hand. But yet to
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deliver my opinion as may be proper for this time and place. There be
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four things that I have thought on as the most effectual for repressing of this
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depraved custom of particular combats. The first is that there due appear and be
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declared a constant and settled resolution in the state to abolish it. For this
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is a thing my lords must go down at once, or not at all,
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For then every particular man will think himself acquitted in his reputation when he
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sees that the state takes it to heart as an insult against the King's power
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and authority, and thereupon hath absolutely resolved to master it like unto that which
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we set down in express words in the Edict of Charles the ninth of France,
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touching duels, that the King himself took upon him the honor of all
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that took themselves grieved or interested for not having performed the combat. So must
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the state do in this business. And in my conscience there is none that
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is but of a reasonable sober disposition. Be he never so valiant, except
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it be some furious person that is like a firework, but will be glad
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of it when he shall see the law and rule of state disinterest him of
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a vain and unnecessary hazard. Secondly, care must be taken that this evil
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be no more cockered, nor the humor of it fed. Wherein I humbly
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pray your lordships that I may speak my mind freely and yet be understood aright
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the proceedings of the great and noble Commissioners Marshal I honor and reverence much and
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of them I speak not in any sort, But I say the compounding of
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quarrels, which is otherwise in use by private noblemen and gentlemen, is so
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punctual, and hath such reference and respect under the received conceits. What is
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beforehand and what is behindhand? And I cannot tell what as without all question.
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It doth in a fashion countenance and authorize this pertice of duels, as
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if it had in it somewhat of right. Thirdly, I must acknowledge that
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I learned out of the King's last proclamation the most prudent and best applied remedy
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for this offense, if it shall please His Majesty to use it, that
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the wit of man can devise. This evense my lords, is grounded upon
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a false conceit of honor, and therefore it would be punished in the same
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kind in aio quis rectissime plecticture in quo peccat. The fountain of honor is
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the King and his aspect, and the access to his person continueth honor in
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life, and to be banished from his presence is one of the greatest eclipses
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of honor that can be if his Majesty shall be pleased that, when this
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Court shall censure any of these offenses in persons of eminent quality, to add
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this, out of his own power and discipline, that these persons shall be
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banished and excluded from his court for certain years, and the courts of his
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Queen and Prince. I think there is no man that hath any good blood
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in him, will commit an act that shall cast him into that darkness,
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that he may not behold his Sovereign's face. Lastly, and that which more
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properly concerneth this court, we see, my lords, the root of this
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offense is stubborn, for it despitheuth death, which is the utmost of punishments.
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And it were a just but miserable severity to execute the law without all
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remission or mercy, where the case proveth capital. And yet the late severity
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in France was more whereby a kind of martial law established by ordinance of the
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King in parliament, the party that had slain another was presently had to the
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gibbet insomuch as gentlemen of great quality were hanged, their wounds bleeding, lest
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a natural death should prevent the example of justice. But my lords, the
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course which we shall take, is of far greater lenity, and yet of
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no less efficiation. See which is to punish in this court all the middle
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acts and proceedings which tend to the duel, which I will enumerate to you
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Anon, and so to Hue and Vex the root in the branches, which
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no doubt in the end will kill the route, and yet prevent the extremity
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of law. Now for the law of England, I see it accepted to
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though ignorantly in two points, the one that it should make no difference between
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the insidious and foul murder and the killing of a man upon fair terms,
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as they now call it. The other that the law hath not provided sufficient
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punishment and reparations for contumely of words as the lawe and the like. But
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these are no better than childish novelties against the divine law, and against all
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laws in effect, and against the examples of all the bravest and most virtuous
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nations of the world. For first, for the law of God, there
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is an ever to be found any diface trince made in homicide, but between
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homicide voluntary and involuntary, which we term misadventure. And for the case of
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misadventure itself. There were cities of refuge, so that the offender was put
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to his flight, and that flight was subject to accident. Whether the revenger
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of blood should overtake him before he had gotten sanctuary or no. It is
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true that our law hath made a more subtle distinction between the will inflamed and
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the will advised, between manslaughter and heat, and murder upon prepensed malice or
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cold blood, as the soldiers call it, an indulgence not unfit for the
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choleric and warlike nation. For it is true I referore brevis a man in
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fury is not himself this privilege of passion the ancient Roman law restrained but to
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a case, that was, if the husband took the adulterer in the manner
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to that rage and provocation. Only it gave way that a homicide was justifiable,
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but for a difference to be made in killing and destroying man upon a
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forethought purpose, between foul and fair, and as it were, between single
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murder and vied murder. It is but a monstrous child of this latter age,
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and there is no shadow of it in any law, divine or human.
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Only it is true I find the scripture that Cain enticed his brother into
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the field and slew him treacherously, but Lamech vaunted of his manhood that he
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would kill a young man, and if it were to his hurt. So
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I see no difference between an insidious murder and a braving or presumptuous murder,
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but the difference between Cain and Lammak. As for examples in civil states.
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All memory doth consent that Graecia and Rome were the most valiant and generous nations
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of the world, And that which is more to be noted, they were
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free estates, and not under a mo anarchy, whereby a man would think
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it a great deal. The more reason that particular persons should have righted themselves.
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And yet they had not this practice of duels, nor anything that bear
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show thereof, And sure they would have had it if there had been any
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virtue in it. Nay as he saith fas est et ab hoste do serai.
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It is memorable that which is reported by council or ambassador of the Emperor,
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touching the censure of Turks of these duels. There was a combat of
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this kind performed by two persons of quality of the Turks wherein one of them
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was slain and the other party was converted before the council of Bashaw's. The
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manner of the reprehension was in these words, quote, how durst you undertake
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to fight one with the other? Are there not Christians enough to kill?
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Did you not know that whether of you shall be slain, the loss would
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be the great signors end quote? So as we may see, the most
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warlike nations, whether generous or barbarous, have ever despised this. Wherein now
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men glory, it is true, my lords, that I find combats of
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two natures authorized. How justly I will not dispute as to the latter of
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them the one. When upon the approaches of armies in the face one of
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the other, particular persons have made challenges for trial of valors in the field
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upon the public quarrel. This the Romans called pugna per provocationem. And this
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was never but either between the generals themselves, who were absolute, or between
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particulars by license of the generals, never upon a private authority. So you
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see David asked leave when he fought with Goliath and Joab. When the armies
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were met, gave leave and said let the young man play before us.
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And of this kind was that famous example in the Wars of Names between twelve
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Spaniards and twelve Italians, where the Italians bore away the victory. Besides other
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infinite like examples worthy and laudable, sometimes by singles, sometimes by numbers.
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The second combat is a judicial trial of right, where the right is obscure,
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introduced by the Goths and the northern nations, but more anciently entertained in
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Spain. And this yet remains in some cases as a divine lot of battle,
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though controverted by divines touching the lawfulness of it, so that a wise
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writer saith talatar pugnates videntur tentare deum quiahac gualant udaeus ostendat et faciat miraculumstum cosm
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habens victor eficiatur quad sepe countra accident. But whosoever it be this kind of
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fight taketh its warrant from law, nay the French themselves. Whence this folly
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seemeth chiefly to have flown, never had it but only in practice and toleration,
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and never as authorized by law. And yet now of late they have
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been fain to purge their folly with extreme rigor, insomuch as many gentlemen left
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between death and life in the duels, as I spake before, were hastened
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to hanging with their wounds bleeding. For the state found it had been neglected
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so long as nothing could be thought cruelty, which tended to the putting of
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it down. As for the second defect, pretended in our law that it
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hath provided no remedy for lies. In Philips, it may receive like answer.
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It would have been thought a madness amongst the ancient lawgivers to have set
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a punishment upon the lae given, which in effect is but a word of
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denial, a negative of another's saying. Any lawgiver, if if he had
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been asked the question, would have made Solon's answer that he had not ordained
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any punishment for it, because he never imagined the world would have been so
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fantastical as to take it so highly. The civilians dispute whether an action of
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injury lie for it, and rather resolve the contrary. And Francis, the
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first of France, who first set on and stamped this disgrace so deep is
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taxed by the judgment of all wise writers for beginning the vanity of it.
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For it was he that, when he had himself given the lie and defied
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to the Emperor to make it current in the world, said in a solemn
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assembly, that he was no honest man that would bear the lie, which
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was the fountain of this new learning. As for the words of approach and
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contumely, whereof the lie was esteemed none, it is not credible but that
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the orations themselves are extant. What extreme and exquisite reproaches were tossed up and
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down in the Senate of Rome, and the places of Assembly and the like
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in Graecia, And yet no man took himself fouled by them, but took
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them for breath and style of an enemy, and either despised them or returned
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them. But no blood was spilt about them. So of every touch or
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light blow of the person, they are not in themselves considerable, save that
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they have got them upon the stamp of a disgrace which maketh these light things
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pass for great matters. The law of England and all laws hold these degrees
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of injury to the person, slander, battery, mayhem, death, and
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if there be extraordinary circumstances of despite and contumely, as in case of libels
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and bastinados un the like, this court taketh them in hand, and punisheth
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them exemplarily. But for this apprehension of a disgrace, that a philip to
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the person should be a mortal wound to the reputation, it were good that
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men did hearken under the saying of Gonsalvo, the great and famous commander,
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that was wont to say, a gentleman's honor should be de telacraciore of a
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good strong warp or web, that every little thing should not catch in it,
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when as now it seems, they are but cobweb, lawn, or
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such light stuff, which certainly is weakness, and not true greatness of mind,
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but like a sick man's body that is so tender that it feels everything,
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and so much in maintenance and demonstration of the wisdom and justice of the
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law of the land, for the capacity of this court, I take this
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to be a ground infallible, that wheresoever an offense is capital or matter of
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felony, though it be not acted there the combination or practice tending to the
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offense is punishable in this court, as high misdemeanor so practiced to in prison
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though it took no effect. Waylaying to murder though it took no effect,
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and the like have been a judge heinous misdemeanors punishable in this court, nay,
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inceptions and preparations in inferior crimes that are not capital as the borning and
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preparing of witnesses that were never deposed or deposed nothing material have likewise been censured
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in this court, as appeareth by the decree in Garnon's case. Why then,
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the major proposition being such, the minor cannot be denied, For every
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appointment of the field is but combination and plotting of murder. Let them gild
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at how they list. They shall never have fairer terms of me in a
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place of justice than the conclusion followeth that it is a case fit for the
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censure of the court, And of this there be precedence in the very point
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of challenge. It was the case of Wharton plaintiff against Elikar and Aclum defendants,
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where Acklam, being a follower of Eleikar's, was censured for carrying a
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challenge from Elikar to Wharton, though the challenge was not put in writing,
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but delivered only by word of message. And there are words in the decree
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that such challenges are to the subversion of government. These things are well known,
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and therefore I needed not so much to have insisted upon them, but
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that in this case I would be thought not to innovate anything of my own
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head, but to follow the former precedence of the Court. Though I mean
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to do it more thoroughly, because the time requires it more. Therefore,
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now to come to that which concerneth my part, I say that, by
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the favor of the King and the Court, I will prosecute in this court
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in the cases following. If any man shall appoint the field though if I
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be not acted or performed, If any man shall send any challenge in writing,
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or any message of challenge, if any man carry or deliver any writing
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or message of challenge, If any man shall accept to be second in a
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challenge of either side, if any man shall depart the realm with intention and
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agreement to perform the fight beyond the seas. If any man shall revive a
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quarrel by any scandalous bruets or writings contrary to former proclamation published by His Majesty
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in that behalf. Nay, I hear there be some council learned of duels
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that tell voting men when they are beforehand and when they are otherwise, and
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thereby incense and incite them to the duel and make an art of it.
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I hope I shall meet with some of them too. And I am sure,
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my lords, this course of preventing duels, in nipping them in the
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bud, is fuller of clemency and providence than the suffering them to go on
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and hanging men with their wounds bleeding, as they did in France. To
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conclude, I have some petitions to make first to your lordship, my Lord
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Chancellor, that in case I be advertised of a purpose in any to go
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beyond the sea to fight, I may have granted His Majesty's writ of nay
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exeat regnum to stop him. For this giant bestrideth the sea, and I
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would take and snare him by the foot on this side, for the combination
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and plotting is on this side, though it should be acted beyond the sea.
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And your Lordship said notably the last time I made a motion in this
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business, that a man may be as well for to say, as fellow
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de say, if he steal out of the realm for a bad purpose,
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as for the satisfying of the words of the writ, no man will doubt,
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but he does machinari contra coronum, as the words of the writ be
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seeking to murder a subject, for that is ever contra coronum et dignitatum.
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I have also a suit to your lordships all in general, that for justice's
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sake, and for true honor's sake, honor of religion, law, and
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the King, our Master, against this fond and false disguise or puppetry of
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honor, I may, in my prosecution, which it is like enough,
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may sometimes stir coals which I esteem, not for my particular but as it
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may hinder the good service I may, I say, be countenanced and assisted
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from your lordships. Lastly, I have a petition to the nobles and gentlemen
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of England that they would learn to esteem themselves at a just price non hos
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quoiesitum munus in usus. Their blood is not to be spilt like water or
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a vile thing. Therefore that they would rest persuaded. There cannot be a
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form of honor except it be upon a worthy matter, but this Ipsey Vy
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durant I am resolved. End of Section twenty nine