Extract from the Courier of the Lower Rhine, 5th March 1774---``Stockholm, 11th February.---It was formerly the custom when the king elected any one to the rank of nobility, or conferred on him the title of baron, to insert in the diploma the circumstances by which he had merited the distinction. But upon a late occasion, when his Majesty ennobled M. de Geer, chamberlain of the court, he requested that the kindness and good pleasure of the king might be inserted in his diploma as the only reason for his elevation. His Majesty not only complied, but directed that the Chancery should thenceforward follow this rule, as was anciently the practice under the sovereigns of the family of Vasa, till the reign of Christina.''

I have not seen any of these ancient diplomas of Swedish nobility, and I know not whether the facts these exhibited as the reasons operating upon the sovereign were specific and detailed: but whatever were the nature of this certificate, it served as a token of respect to public opinion, and a means of preserving undiminished the value of titles of nobility. This usurpation was scarcely noticed amidst the great revolution which the king had just accomplished. In the career of arbitrary power, there are open conquests and clandestine acquisitions.