He posed as the enemy of all abuses and corruption.

He brought his unrivalled, though not always accurate, knowledge of law and history to the service of the Committees, and took care that the Chancellor's name should not be forgotten when it could be connected with some bad business of patent or Chancery abuse.

It was the great revenge of the Common Law on the encroaching and insulting Chancery which had now proved so foul.

And he could not resist the opportunity of marking the revenge of professional knowledge over Bacon's airs of philosophical superiority.

"To restore things to their original" was his sneer in Parliament, "this, _Instauratio Magna.