... have an inefficient man at the head of the Board of Trade; and, at his suggestion, on the first day of November, 1748, two months after the peace of America and Europe had been ratified, the Earl of Halifax , then just thirty-two years old, entered upon his long period of service as First Commissioner for the Plantations. He was fond of splendor, profuse, and in debt; passionate, overbearing, and self-...