As  the  century  drew  towards  its  close,  Bacon's  reputation  as  a
practical  lawyer  and  as  an  authority  on  great  legal  questions  drew
him  into  the  important  causes  of  the  day  (such  as  Slade's  Case  in
1596  and  The  Lord  Cromwell's  Case  in  1601,  reported  by  Coke),
and  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  of  the  profession.  It  is  diffi-
cult to  compare  him  with  his  only  serious  rival,  Sir  Edward  Coke  ;
but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  Bacon  welcomed  comparison.
The  Statute  of  Uses  provided  the  most  acute  legal  controversy  of
the  age.  Coke,  as  Reader  at  the  Inner  Temple  in  1592,  had
dealt  most  successfully  with  this  subject,  and  he  appeared  with
Bacon  in  the  great  Chudleigh  Case  in  1594,  when  the  functions
of  uses  were  analyzed  with  all  the  most  refined  reasoning  that
decadent  Aristotelianism  could  provide.  Bacon  did  not  hesitate
as  to  his  theme  when,  on  November  9,  1599,  he  was  offered  the
Double  Readership  at  Gray's  Inn.  He  accepted  the  offer  on
November  14,  and  in  the  Lent  Vacation  of  1600  he  gave  his  famous
Heading  on  the  Statute  of  Uses,  which  extended  over  six  or  possibly
nine  days.  He  was  certainly  not  afraid  of  the  precedent  set  by
Coke.  He  deliberately  challenged  comparison.  In  this  elaborate
study,  as  in  the  Maxims  of  the  Law,  he  wished  to  appear  as  a


FRANCIS   BACON  153

lawyer  who  not  only  rivalled  but  outshone  the  only  man,  with
the  possible  exception  of  Croke,  who  stood  in  his  rank.
On  the  Coronation  Day  of  James  I.,  Bacon  was  knighted,  and
shortly  afterwards  he  married  a  daughter  of  Alderman  Barnham,
who  presumably  brought  money  as  well  as  beauty  to  the  now
famous  lawyer.  In  1607  he  obtained  the  long-desired  Solicitor-
Generalship.
