194

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CIUP.

XXIV.

11198 .

ship, had not been consulted. Godolphin devoured hisill temper. Caermarthen ordered out his wonderfulyacht, and hastened to complain to the King, who wasthen at Loo. But what had been done could not beundone.

This bold stroke placed Montague’s fortune, in thelower sense of the word, out of hazard, but increased theanimosity of his enemies and cooled the zeal of his ad-herents. In a letter written by one of his colleaguesSecretary Vernon, on the day after the appointment, theAuditorship is described as at once a safe and lucra-tive place. “But I thought,” Vernon proceeds, “Mr.Montague was too aspiring to stoop to anything belowthe height he was in, and that he least consideredprofit.” This feeling was no doubt shared by many ofthe friends of the ministry. It was plain that Montaguewas preparing a retreat for himself. This flinching ofthe captain, just on the eve of a perilous campaign,naturally disheartened the whole army. It deserves tobe remarked that, more than eighty years later, anothergreat parliamentary leader was placed in a very similarsituation. The younger William Pitt held in 1784 thesame offices which Montague had held in 1698. Pittwas pressed in 1784 by political difficulties not lessthan those with which Montague had contended in1698. Pitt was also in 1784 a much poorer man thanMontague in 1698. Pitt, in 1784, like Montague in1698, had at his own absolute disposal a lucrative sine-