WIXLIAM AITII MAEY.

121

Several eminent men took new appellations by which theymust henceforth be designated. Danby became Marquess of-Caermarthen, Churchill Earl of Marlborough, and BentinckEarl of Portland. Mordaunt was made Earl of Monmouth,not without some murmuring on the part of old Exclusionists,who still remembered with fondness their Protestant Duke,and who had hoped that his attainder would be reversed, andthat his title would be borne by his descendants. It was re-marked that the name of Halifax did not appear in the list ofpromotions. None could doubt that he might easily haveobtained either a blue riband or a ducal coronet; and, thoughhe was honourably distinguished from most of his contempora-ries by his scorn of illicit gain, it was well known that hedesired honorary distinctions with a greediness of -which hewas himself ashamed, and which was unworthy of his fineunderstanding. The truth is that his ambition was at this timechilled by his fears. To those whom he trusted he hintedhis apprehensions that evil times were at hand. The King’slife was not worth a year’s purchase: the government wasdisjointed, the clergy and the army disaffected, the parliamenttorn by factions: civil war was already raging in one part of theempire: foreign war was impending. At such a moment aminister, whether Whig or Tory, might well be uneasy; butneither Whig nor Tory had so much to fear as the Trimmer,who might not improbably find himself the common mark at whichboth parties would take aim. For these reasons Halifax de-termined to avoid all ostentation of power and influence, todisarm envy by a studied show of moderation, and to attach tohimself by civilities and benefits persons whose gratitude mightbe useful in the event of a counterrevolution. The next threemonths, he said, would be the time of trial. If the governmentgot safe through the summer it would probably stand.*

* Reresby’s Memoirs.

CHAP.

XI.

JU89.