That
he should sell justice is the blackest charge that can be brought
against a judge. At first Bacon could not believe that any one
would dare to attack him. But when he heard that it was true, he
sank beneath the disgrace, he made no resistance. His health
gave way. On his sick-bed he owned that he had taken presents,
yet to the end he protested that he had judged justly. He had
taken the bribes indeed, but they had made no difference to his
judgments. He had not sold justice.
He made his confession and stood to it. "My lords," he said, "it
is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your lordships be
merciful to a broken reed."
Bacon was condemned to pay a fine of 40,000 pounds, to be
imprisoned during the King's pleasure, never more to have
office of any kind, never to sit in Parliament, "nor come
within the verge of the Court."
"I was the justest judge that was in England these fifty years,"
said Bacon afterwards. "But it was the justest censure in
Parliament that was these two hundred years.
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