I passed from him to the general--Forgive, my lord, said I, the seeming
formality of my behaviour in this parting scene: it is a very solemn one
to me. You have expressed yourself of me, and to me, my lord, with more
passion, (forgive me, I mean not to offend you,) than perhaps you will
approve in yourself when I am far removed from Italy. For have you not a
noble mind? And are you not a son of the Marquis della Porretta? Permit
me to observe, that passion will make a man exalt himself, and degrade
another; and the just medium will be then forgot. I am afraid I have
been thought more lightly of, than I ought to be, either in justice, or
for the honour of a person who is dear to every one present. My country
was once mentioned with disdain: think not my vanity so much concerned in
what I am going to say, as my honour: I am proud to be thought an
Englishman: yet I think as highly of every worthy man of every nation
under the sun, as I do of the worthy men of my own. I am not of a
contemptible race in my own country. My father lives in it with the
magnificence of a prince. He loves his son; yet I presume to add, that
that son deems his good name his riches; his integrity his grandeur.
Princes, though they are entitled by their rank to respect, are princes
to him only as they act.
A few words more, my lord.
I have been of the hearing, not of the speaking side of the question, in
the two last conferences I had the honour to hold with your lordship.
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