damus will not lie to compel the Masters of the Bench of an Inn of Court to call a candidate to the bar. From the first traces of the existence of the Inns of Court, no example can be found of the interposition of the Courts of Westminster Hall proceeding according to the general law of the land, but the judges have acted as a domestic forum. (See also 2 Br. Ch. Rep. 241, and 20 How. State Trials, 689.)

QUARRELS BETWEEN COKE AND BACON.

The hostility which existed between these two celebrated men appears to have had its origin in professional rivalry. The seniority of Coke, and his reputation as a lawyer, had raised him to honours of which Bacon was very ambitious, and which he imagined that Coke had prevented him from obtaining, by casting reflections upon his legal acquirements. It is probable also that Coke felt some jealousy at Bacon's great proficiency in other pursuits. The different tempers of the two men, and their very opposite political principles, must likewise have tended to keep open the breach between them. Bacon had endeavoured for some time to obtain the place of SolicitorGeneral, and attributed his ill-success to the interference of Sir Edward Coke: under this impression, he addressed the following letter to his adversary, at that time Attorney-General :

"Mr. Attorney,

"I thought it best, once for all, to let you know in plainness what I find of you, and what you shall find of me, to take to yourself a liberty to disgrace and disable my law, my experience, my discretion: what it pleaseth you I pray think of me; I am one that knows both my own wants and other men's, and it may be perchance that while mine mend, others stand at a stay. And surely I may not endure in public place to be wronged, without repelling the same to my best advantage to right myself. You are great, and therefore have the more enviers, which would be glad to have you paid at another's cost. Since the time I missed the solicitor's place, (the rather, I think, by your means,) I cannot expect that you and I shall ever serve as attorney and solicitor together; but either to serve with another upon your remove, or to step into some other course : So as I am more free than ever I was from any occasion of unworthy conforming myself to you, more than general good manners, or your particular good usuage, shall provoke; and if you had not been short-sighted in your own fortune, as I think, you might have had more use of me. But that side is passed. I write not this to show my friends what a brave letter I have written to Mr. Attorney; I have none of those humours, but that I have written is to a good end; that is,

to the more decent carriage of my master's service, and to our particular better understanding or one another. This letter, if it shall be answered by you in deed and not in word, I suppose it will not be worse for us both; else it is but a few lines lost; which for a much smaller matter I would have adventured. So this being to yourself, I for my part rest, &c."

On his obtaining office, Bacon did not scruple to use every means of rendering himself agreeable to the King, and at the same time exerted all his influence to shake the credit of his old rival, Coke, who had been promoted to the chief seat in the King's Bench. Some account of the manner in which Bacon conducted himself at this time, will be found in another part of these volumes. It is creditable to Sir Edward Coke, that on Bacon's impeachment and disgrace, he made no ungenerous use of his triumph. The differences which existed between Bacon and Coke do not appear to have put an end to all the offices of friendship between them. In the library of Mr. Coke, at Holkham, there exists a presentation copy of the Novum Organum, (Edit. Joan. Bell, 1620,) with an inscription in it "To Sir Edward Coke," and at the top of the title-page appear the following words in the hand-writing of Sir Edward :