The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-05
"Bur was Francis Bacon much better2 Was
he not removed from ofica for criminal prac-

bur was Francis Bacon much betterf was
he not removed from Office for criminal prac-
| tices2"
81 do not pretend that. Bacon was perfect
character He partook Of the imperfections of
| the times. He was born in that palace of kings,
| York place, and raised in the atmosphere of a
court. We can scarcely, in this free age and
country, understand the condition Of things in
! which all hopes of greatness, or preferment, or
power conferred in the sovereign 1t
was considered no more unmanly to
| crlnge to the anointed representative OF
| God, the Queen. than it was to bow before God s
altar. But apart from this Bacon q noble
and magnificent man. AS member of Parlia.
ment he incurred the hostility of the crown by
| standing up for popular rights. The whole cast
of his mind was philanthropic His philosophy
! was intended for the 'betterment of mems bread
and wine, and it has produced effects il the i'm
provement of the condition of the masses that
are simply incalcuable. The purpose of the
| plays was the good of man. They are mighty
moral sermons, preached to those who, perhaps,
| never enter church. and they have carried
| through many generations, and will carry 70 the
end of the world. right to the hearts of the peo
| pie, lessons which enter insensibly but pervade
the whole being Who has risen from listening
to one of the Shakespeare plays without being
mentally stimulated and morally improvedg
There never has been in the world before or
since his day another such intellect as that of
Francis Bacon SO versatile so original so pro-
found, so comprehensive, SO wise, SO benevolent,
and with such an infinite pity for the sins and
sufferings of mankind"
But was he not corruptl"
mo, he took presents from the suitors in his
court 1t was the custom of the age. 1t was
expected he would do He received no salary.
1t was understood that he should be paid in fiat
way 1t was evil custom, but he did not
make it. Read his confession wrung from him
by King James, to save his worthless favorite,
buckingham, from overthrow, and you will see
that 1t is confession of guilt. He shows that
in nearly every case he decided in favor of the
man who gave the smallest gift In other cases
the presents were made after the decisions were
rendered. In no one case does he acknowledge
wrong doing. He SAYS i was the justest
judge that has sat in seven ages, but this is the
JusteSt judgment ever given meaning that
while he had been guilty of no crime, it was
right to overthrow so dangerous practice
"
''You have not told me how you discovered
the cipher What train of thought led you to
the discovery?
Five years.ago had after much reflection,
reached the conclusion that Francis Bacon was
| the real author of the Shakespeare plays; an
| opinion, | would add. entertained by the late
Senator Carpenter. OF Wisconsin, the late Lord
Palmerston, of England, and held now by Gen.
Butler and hundreds of others Of the keenest
| intellects of the day.
II could understand why Bacon should be
ashamed to acknowledge these plays during L!s
| lifetime, but l could not rid myself of this
| thought; the man who had the genius to write
such productions knew their true value 1.-THE SON.
nets show this) why should he, then, willingly
| dsown and set aside from himself forever all
| claim upon such immortal works? The social
prejudices of an age belong only to that age; the
productions of genius survive the death of kings
the fall of dynasties and the obliteration of gov
ernments, nationalities and languages Ba-
con himself, in exempliacatioa. Of this,
which, after so many great kingdoms
have persisted survive, to-day, with scarcely the
change of a syllable And, in like manner
these Shakespeare plays will endure until the
unto the generations whose scholars will study
! the English tongue as we now study the
| Sanscrit 1t seemed to me impossible that the
| brain that conceived these works would take no
steps to reclaim them. in some future genera
ton One day, while indulging in these
| thoughts, CHANGED to pick the Boys Own
Book belonging to one of my sons. an English
work. and very fine one. In it was chapter
on ciphers read it with curious interest l
noticed that Francis Bacon invented several
intricate ciphers. said to myself Gould he
have left cipher in the plays? / proceeded to
read all that Bacon had written on the subject
of ciphers He had written great deal. Many
of these were ciphers of letters or signs for
letters. But said Bacon Il quote from mem
ory), 'the best cipher of all is cipher
of words where the writing in folding
holdeth a ,quintuple relation to the
writing infoided, and no more. ON
from the letters of Cicero an instance of q
man general whose army was in a demorah
condition and surrounded by the enemy, ana
who did not dare TO let the enemy know the des-
perate straits he was in. He therefore proceeded
to write letter to a correspondent in Rome, and
gave glowing account of the condition of
things, but certain words contained in the letter.
holding prearranged position, told the whole of
the dreadful truth. All this appears in Bacon's
great work, "De Arguments" and this l remem-
Der was published in 1923 the same year as the
Shakespeare folio. Here, l said to myself, is is
sued at the same time from the same pen, all the
highest philosophy and the highest poetry Is
one the complement of the otherl Does one ex-
plain the other2 Does this cipher of words refer
to the Shakespeare plays2 Is this the key to the
riddle? Then, said to myself, if Francis Bacon,
anywhere in the plays, asserts that he is the real
author of them will find the words Francis
Bacon in the plays, and if there is denial of
Shakspeare's authorship we will find, necessarily,
the words Shak and Spere or Shakes and Pier.
vi
IT proceeded deliberately to reread the plays
to find the evidences of cipher and found
them in abundance While the word Stratford
(Shakspeares residence) does not occur once in
the plays, the word St Adams (Bacon's resi-
dence) occurs nearly dozen times. found on
page Sc of the second part of the folio of 1925
part of Henry W. TACT 2, scene A., the name
Francis repeated in one column about twenty
times, while on page 50, first part of the folio in
found the name William repeated nearly a
dozen times. Close to the twenty repetitions of
Francis I found Bacon, Nicholas, Bacons,
Son., Master of the 'Exchecquer,' Lord,
Keeper of the Great Seal st Adams On
the same column, in the Merry Wives with the
word William 1 again found Bacon and
near at hand the words Shaks' and
Pier the words evidently being dragged
into the text Facing the words 'Nicho-
las Bacon Henry w. act 2. scene /.
the combination of the two words being likely to
arouse attention, found the following lines, like
a sgnboard, pointing to the cipher opposite:
And now will unveil secret book, and to your
quick conceiving discontents I'll read you mat
ters deep and dangerous, as full of peril and ad-
venturous spirit as to oercross a current roaring
loud on the uncertain footing of speare.
ut seemed to me as if Bacon had said-put
| doon and danoarous ssnaora, Itha Ias+ 800 &c