[Footnote 1: The Commission was, of course, made out before the Duke of
Shrewsbury was given the White Staff, the possession of which made him a
Lord Justice in virtue of his office.]

From The Hague, where he arrived on September 5, 1714, George I sent
authority to Charles, Viscount Townshend, to form a Cabinet, with power
to nominate his colleagues. Townshend took the office of Secretary of
State for the Northern Department, and appointed James Stanhope
Secretary of State for the Southern Department. Lord Halifax became
First Lord of the Treasury; Lord Cowper, Lord Chancellor; the Earl of
Nottingham, Lord President; the Marquis of Wharton, Lord Privy Seal; the
Earl of Oxford, First Lord of the Admiralty; the Earl of Sunderland,
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; Robert Walpole, Paymaster-General of the
Forces. As Captain-General Marlborough was in the Cabinet.

Lord Halifax, when making out the Commission of the Treasury, invited
his cousin Montagu to be one of the Commissioners, although the latter
had not secured a seat in Parliament. "It will be surprizing to add,"
says Lady Mary, "that he hesitated to accept it at a time when his
father was alive and his present income very small; but he had certainly
refused it if he had not been persuaded to it by a rich old uncle of
mine, Lord Pierrepont, whose fondness for me gave him expectations of a
large legacy." Lady Mary, though glad enough that her husband had been
given a place, was not over and above delighted that it was one so
modest.


_Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to her Husband_

[Enclosed, September 24, 1714.]