Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/268

260 important and essential circumstance. The Scotch noblemen, though born almost under the north pole, have much more tunable appellations, except some very few, which, I suppose, were given them by the Irish, along with their language, at the time when that kingdom was conquered and planted from hence; and, to this day, retain the denominations of places, and surnames of families, as all historians agree.

I should likewise not be sorry, if the names of some bishops sees were so much obliged to the alphabet, that upon pronouncing them, we might contract some veneration for the order and persons of those reverend peers, which the gross ideas sometimes joined to their titles are very unjustly apt to diminish.

Deanry-House, Sept. 26, 1726.

HE continual concourse of beggars, from all parts of the kingdom to this city, having made it impossible for the several parishes to maintain their own poor, according to the ancient laws of the land; several lord mayors did apply themselves to the lord archbishop of Dublin, that his grace would direct his clergy, and the churchwardens of the said city, to appoint badges of brass, copper, or pewter, to be worn by the poor of the several parishes. The badges to be marked with initial letters of the name of each church, and numbered 1, 2, 3, &c. and to be well sewed