The Whig junto was still their terror and their abhorrence.

They continued to assail Montague and Orford, though with somewhat less ferocity than while Montague had the direction of the finances, and Orford of the marine.

But the utmost spite of all the leading malecontents were concentrated on one object, the great magistrate who still held the highest civil post in the realm, and who was evidently determined to hold it in defiance of them.

It was not so easy to get rid of him as it had been to drive his colleagues from office.

His abilities the most intolerant Tories were forced grudgingly to acknowledge.