A speech delivered in this year, pro Quinctio, is still extant; it is concerned with a technical point of law and has little literary merit.
With all his learning and ingenuity Coke failed in inducing or even forcing the jury to bring in a bill against the court of chancery, and it seems fairly certain that on the technical point of law involved he was wrong.
The point of law was argued by Bacon, and decided by the chancellor in favour of the king, who put the question to the judges individually, " Whether, if at any time, in a case depending before the judges, which his majesty conceived to concern him either in power or profit, and thereupon required to consult with them, and that they should stay proceedings in the meantime, they ought not to stay accordingly?"
The session, however, was not far advanced when the question of patents was brought up; a determined attack was made upon the very ones of which Bacon had been in dread, and it was even proposed to proceed against the referees (Bacon and Montagu) who had certified that there was no objection to them in point of law.
Such confirmation, however, though necessary to enable the council to enforce them, does not itself confer upon them any validity in point of law.
