were kindled, and a false brother arose, who divulged the arcana, and exposed the good Prior, in order to ridicule him as Minister of the Finances. But, of this, more hereafter. CHAPTER XII. Honours heaped on Lord Bute.--His first Levée.--Archbishop Secker.--Lord Halifax appointed to the Admiralty.--Lord Melcomb a Cabinet Councillor.--Lord Bute’s Haughtiness.--First appearance of “The North Briton.“--Its excessive Audacity.--Sketch of its Author, John Wilkes.--Churchill, Wilkes’s Associate.--Earl Temple.--Capture and recapture of Newfoundland.--The French camp surprised by Prince Ferdinand.--Propensity of the Court for Peace.--General Conway--Peter the Third.--The Czarina Elizabeth.--The Empress Catherine.--Horrible Conspiracy against Peter.--Catherine raised to the Throne.--Murder of Peter.-- Effect of the Russian Revolution on the King of Prussia. Every honour the Crown could bestow was now to be heaped on the Favourite. He was fond of his own person, and obtained the Garter in company with Prince William.[228] His first levée was crowded like a triumph. Archbishop Secker, who waited at it, pretended that, seeing a great concourse as he came from Lambeth,[229] he had inquired the occasion, and had gone in. Lincoln’s-inn-fields, where the Duke of Newcastle lived, was not now in the way to Lambeth. About the same time died Lord Anson, and left the Admiralty too at the disposal of the Favourite. He wished to bestow it on Lord Sandwich, to make room for Rigby, as Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; but the shyness of the Duke of Cumberland, whose creature Sandwich was, made that measure impracticable; and the Admiralty was bestowed on Lord Halifax, with permission to retain Ireland for a year. Elliot,[230] a chief confident of the Favourite, was appointed Treasurer of the Chambers; and Lord Melcombe a cabinet councillor: but there ended all the ambition of the latter, he dying of a dropsy in his stomach a few weeks afterwards.