rest of a life which had opened under the fairest auspices
burdensome to himself and almost useless to his country.

The naval administration and the financial administration were
confided to Boards. Herbert was First Commissioner of the
Admiralty. He had in the late reign given up wealth and dignities
when he found that he could not retain them with honour and with
a good conscience. He had carried the memorable invitation to the
Hague. He had commanded the Dutch fleet during the voyage from
Helvoetsluys to Torbay. His character for courage and
professional skill stood high. That he had had his follies and
vices was well known. But his recent conduct in the time of
severe trial had atoned for all, and seemed to warrant the hope
that his future career would be glorious. Among the commissioners
who sate with him at the Admiralty were two distinguished members
of the House of Commons, William Sacheverell, a veteran Whig, who
had great authority in his party, and Sir John Lowther, an honest
and very moderate Tory, who in fortune and parliamentary interest
was among the first of the English gentry.19

Mordaunt, one of the most vehement of the Whigs, was placed at
the head of the Treasury; why, it is difficult to say. His
romantic courage, his flighty wit, his eccentric invention, his
love of desperate risks and startling effects, were not qualities
likely to be of much use to him in financial calculations and
negotiations. Delamere, a more vehement Whig, if possible, than
Mordaunt, sate second at the board, and was Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Two Whig members of the House of Commons were in the
Commission, Sir Henry Capel, brother of that Earl of Essex who
died by his own hand in the Tower, and Richard Hampden, son of