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. 207-14. [T.S.]