cies,
which, he said, would necessarily attend it.[*]

* Kennet, p. 662.

He was not, however, insensible to the great flow of affection which
appeared in his new subjects; and being himself of an affectionate
temper, he seems to have been in haste to make them some return of
kindness and good offices. To this motive, probably, we are to ascribe
that profusion of titles which was observed in the beginning of his
reign; when, in six weeks' time after his entrance into the kingdom, he
is computed to have bestowed knighthood on no less than two hundred and
thirty-seven persons. If Elizabeth's frugality of honors, as well as
of money, had formerly been repined at, it began now to be valued and
esteemed, and every one was sensible that the king, by his lavish and
premature conferring of favors, had failed of obliging the persons on
whom he bestowed them. Titles of all kinds became so common, that they
were scarcely marks of distinction; and being distributed, without
choice or deliberation, to persons unknown to the prince, were regarded
more as the proofs of facility and good nature, than of any determined
friendship or esteem.

A pasquinade was affixed to St. Paul's, in which an art was promised
to be taught, very necessary to assist frail memories in retaining the
names of the new nobility.[*]

We may presume that the English would have thrown less blame on the
king's facility in bestowing favors, had these been confined entirely
to their own nation, and had not been shared out, in too unequal
proportions, to his old subjects. James, who, through his whole reign,
was more guided by temper and inclination than by the rules of political
prudence, had brought with him great numbers of his Scottish courtiers,
whose impatience and importunity were apt, in many particulars, to
impose on the easy nature of their master, and extort favors of which,
it is natural to imagine, his English subjects would loudly complain.
The duke of Lenox, the earl of Marre, Lord Hume, Lord Kinloss, Sir
George Hume, Secretary Elphinstone,[**] were immediately added to the
English privy council. Sir George Hume, whom he created earl of Dunbar,
was his declared favorite as long as that nobleman lived, and was one
of the wisest and most virtuous, though the least powerful, of all those
whom the king ever honored with that distinction. Hay, some time after,
was created Viscount Doncaster, then earl of Carlisle, and got an
immense fortune from t