om a branch of the royal stem. I know a
citizen,[15] who adds or alters a letter in his name with every plum he
acquires: he now wants but the change of a vowel, to be allied to a
sovereign prince in Italy; and that perhaps he may contrive to be done,
by a _mistake_ of the graver upon his tombstone.

When I am upon this subject of nobility, I am sorry for the occasion
given me, to mention the loss of a person who was so great an ornament to
it, as the late lord president;[16] who began early to distinguish
himself in the public service, and passed through the highest employments
of state, in the most difficult times, with great abilities and untainted
honour. As he was of a good old age, his principles of religion and
loyalty had received no mixture from late infusions, but were instilled
into him by his illustrious father, and other noble spirits, who had
exposed their lives and fortunes for the royal martyr.

----_Pulcherrima proles,
Magnanimi heroes nati melioribus annis._[17]

His first great action was, like Scipio, to defend his father,[18] when
oppressed by numbers; and his filial piety was not only rewarded with
long life, but with a son, who upon the like occasion, would have shewn
the same resolution. No man ever preserved his dignity better when he was
out of power, nor shewed more affability while he was in. To conclude:
his character (which I do not here pretend to draw) is such, as his
nearest friends may safely trust to the most impartial pen; nor wants the
least of that allowance which, they say, is required for those who are
dead.

[Footnote 1: No. 40 in the reprint. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 2: Writing to Stella, May 14th, 1711, Swift informs her: "Dr.
Freind was with me, and pulled out a twopenny pamphlet just published
called 'The State of Wit,' giving a character of all the papers that have
come out of late. The author seems to be a Whig, yet he speaks very
highly of a paper called 'The Examiner,' and says the supposed author of
it is Dr. Swift" (vol. ii., p. 176, of present edition). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 3: Horace, "Odes," III. xxiv. 21.

"The lovers there for dowry claim
The father's virtue, and the mother's fame."
P. FRANCIS.

[T.S.]]

[Footnote 4: "The Congratulatory Speech of William Bromley, Esq., ...
together with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Answer."--See also No.
42, _post_, pp. 273-4. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5: See No. 33, _ante_, pp.