 In 1753, when a charge was laid before the privy council against James Johnson, Bishop of Gloucester, together with Mr Stone and William Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, of having drunk the Pretender's health, he defended his old schoolfellows with so much earnestness and eloquence that he secured their acquittal, and the proposed inquiry was negatived in the House of Lords by a large majority, George II remarking that "he was indeed a man to make a friend of.