 Robert Walpole became a Privy Councillor and rose to the position of Paymaster of the Forces in a Cabinet nominally led by Lord Halifax, but actually dominated by Lord Townshend (Walpole's brother-in-law) and James Stanhope.Walpole was also appointed chairman of a secret committee formed to investigate the actions of the previous Tory ministry in 1715.Lord Oxford was impeached, and Lord Bolingbroke suffered from an act of attainder.