Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/226

 consolidated fund was formed for the purpose of meeting the interest on the various government loans (8 & 9 William III, c. xx.) By the same act the capital stock of the Bank of England was enlarged by a new subscription, which was immediately taken up by the public, and afforded a further proof of Montagu's commercial sagacity.

Sir Stephen Fox having withdrawn his claim to the post, Montagu was appointed first lord of the treasury on 1 May 1697 in the place of Godolphin, whose resignation had been accepted in the previous October. With the object of damaging Montagu, Charles Duncombe [q. v.] accused the treasury board of tampering with exchequer bills. An inquiry was instituted and the board acquitted ; while Duncombe, who confessed under cross-examination to being a party to an infamous fraud when receiver of excise, was committed to the Tower (Journals of the House of Commons, xii. 63). On 16 Feb. 1698 Colonel Granville charged Montagu in the House of Commons with having obtained for himself a grant, in the name of one Thomas Railton, of certain securities forfeited to the king in Ireland of the value of about 10,000l. A warm debate ensued, during which Montagu avowed the truth of the charge and defended his conduct. The question that he should withdraw from the house after his speech was defeated by 209 to 97, and it was resolved that 'the Honourable Charles Mountague, Esquire, Chancellor of the Exchequer, for his good services to this Government does deserve his Majesty's Favour ' (ib. xii. 116). In the same year Montagu's bill for the promotion of the General Society, to which the monopoly of the Indian trade was to be given, and by which a loan of 2,000,000l., bearing interest at 8l. per cent, was to be advanced to the government, was carried through both houses (9 & 10 William III, c. xliv.) In spite of the forebodings of his opponents, who predicted the immediate failure of the scheme, the whole sum was subscribed in a few days. At the general election in July 1698 Montagu was again returned for Westminster, and the petition which was lodged against his return was dismissed as 'frivolous, vexatious, and scandalous' in the following December (ib. xii. 365-6). On the death of Sir Robert Howard, Montagu secured the auditorship of the exchequer, and placed his brother in the post until he should want it himself (5 Sept. 1698). The reversion of this place, worth some 4,000l. a year, had been granted by Charles II to the Marquis of Carmarthen (afterwards second Duke of Leeds), who, however, failed ultimately to establish his title to it (, iv. 423, v. 185, 190-l, 290, 308-9, 314). Montagu was a lord justice in the king's absence in 1698-9.

Hitherto Montagu's career had been one of uninterrupted success, though his overbearing conduct and his extreme vanity had made him many enemies. Fortune now rapidly began to desert him. He was assailed on all sides by a crowd of libellers, who accused him of boundless corruption gave him the nickname of 'Filcher,' and invented fabulous stories of his extravagant mode of life. Even in the House of Commons, where he 'had gained such a visible ascendant over all that were zealous for the king's service that he gave the law to the rest' (, Hist. of his own Time, iii. 397-398), Montagu now found himself thwarted and opposed at every turn. Having lost his position as leader of the house, he resigned the office of chancellor of the exchequer in May, and that of first lord of the treasury in November 1699. He took his seat as auditor of the exchequer on 18 Nov. 1699 (, iv. 583), and was created Baron Halifax of Halifax in the county of York on 13 Dec. 1700 with remainder on failure of male issue to his nephew George, the son and heir of his elder brother, Edward Montagu. Halifax took his seat in the House of Lords on 11 Feb. 1701 (Journals of the House of Lords, xvi. 593). On 14 April 1701 a motion declaring Halifax to be 'guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor' on account of his share in the Partition Treaty was carried in the House of Commons by 186 votes to 136, and a unanimous resolution that he should be impeached was subsequently passed (Journals of the House of Commons, xiii. 490). A few days afterwards an address was presented to the king from the House of Commons praying him to dismiss Halifax, Somers, Orford, and Portland from his 'Council and Presence for ever' (ib. p. 497), while a counter-address was presented from the House of Lords beseeching him not to pass any censure upon the four lords until judgment had been given on the impeachment (Journals of the House of Lords, xvi. 655). On 14 June six articles of impeachment against Halifax were brought up from the House of Commons. The first five articles mainly related to the grants which Halifax had obtained from the king in the names of Thomas Railton, Hemy Seager, and Christopher Montagu in trust for himself, while the sixth charged him with advising and promoting the conclusion of the Partition Treaty. In his answer Halifax acknowledged obtaining these grants, but denied that he had ever advised, or had even been consulted about the treaty (ib. pp.750-2),