HISTORY OF EUROPE 
and some of the inferior seats at 
the Treasury and other public 
boards, were allotted to Messrs. 
Golding, Bond, and general Mait- 
land; the latter a seceder from the 
“old opposition.” In this multi- 
plicity of appointments it was gene- 
rally remarked, that by the change 
the hands of the government were 
not strengthened, no acquisition of 
talent, rank, or character, accruing 
thereto; and secondly, that most 
of the lucrative offices thus dis- 
posed of, fell to the share of the 
personal connexions of the minis- 
ter. 
We do not pretend to enter into 
any investigation of the merits of 
administration as it now stood; 
219° 
indeed, like those chiefs the com- 
panions of AEneas, no discriminat- 
ing epithet could attach to them 
individually: but we can safely as- 
sert, that towards the end of the 
year, the nation seemed heartily 
sick and tired of an experimen- 
tal government, composed of ‘‘ mo- 
derate men,” of moderate abilities, 
raised from the middling classes of 
society; and ‘who, as they were 
avowédly without any other claim 
to public favor, save that of ‘‘ good 
intentions,” so did it seem, that they 
were determined to confine them- 
selves to that line of conduct, 
which could be exactly bounded by 
such pretensions, 
CHAP. 
