the garter; and the garter had been
given to Portland. Of course, such things were for the Dutch; and it was
strange presumption in an Englishman, though he might have won a victory
which had saved the State, to expect that his pretensions would be
considered till all the Mynheers about the palace had been served. [792]

Wharton, still retaining his place of Comptroller of the Household,
obtained the lucrative office of Chief Justice in Eyre, South of Trent;
and his brother, Godwin Wharton, was made a Lord of the Admiralty. [793]

Though the resignation of Godolphin had been accepted in October, no new
commission of Treasury was issued till after the prorogation. Who should
be First Commissioner was a question long and fiercely disputed. For
Montague's faults had made him many enemies, and his merits many more,
Dull formalists sneered at him as a wit and poet, who, no doubt, showed
quick parts in debate, but who had already been raised far higher than
his services merited or than his brain would bear. It would be absurd
to place such a young coxcomb, merely because he could talk fluently and
cleverly, in an office on which the wellbeing of the kingdom depended.
Surely Sir Stephen Fox was, of all the Lords of the Treasury, the
fittest to be at the head of the Board. He was an elderly man, grave,
experienced, exact, laborious; and he had never made a verse in his
life. The King hesitated during a considerable time between the two
candidates; but time was all in Montague's favour; for, from the first
to the last day of the session, his fame was constantly rising. The
voice of the House of Commons and of the City loudly designated him as
preeminently qualified to be the chief minister of finance. At length
Sir Stephen Fox withdrew from the competition, though not with a very
good grace. He wished it to be notified in the London Gazette that the
place of First Lord had been offered to him, and declined by him. Such
a notification would have been an affront to Montague; and Montague,
flushed with prosperity and glory, was not in a mood to put up with
affronts. The dispute was compromised. Montague became First Lord of
the Treasury; and the vacant seat at the Board was filled by Sir Thomas
Littleton, one of the ablest and most consistent Whigs in the House
of Commons. But, from tenderness to Fox, these promotions were not
announced in the Gazette. [794]

Dorset resigned the office of Chamberlain, but not in ill humour,
and r