The frequent journeys made by George II. to Hanover, (whither it was supposed he transported a large share of the national treasure,) and his attachment to Lady Kilmarnock, afterwards Countess of Yarmouth, excited the displeasure of some of the inhabitants of this town; and the Rev. _Thomas Whiston_, curate to Dr. Bell, preached a sermon full of asperity against the King’s conduct. His text was from Proverbs vii, 19–22. “The good man is not at home, he is gone a long journey, he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.” Mr. Whiston seems to have been endued with that talent which gives its possessor a facility in adapting the language and circumstances of distant ages to the occurrences of modern times; of which he gave further proof after the suppression of the rebellion in 1745, and the return of the Pretender into France, when he zealously defended the succession of the House of Brunswick, taking for his text, 2 Kings, xix, 33. “By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.” {110} One would suppose this clergyman to have been in his day somewhat of an uncommon and singular, though not apparently of a disreputable character. He was evidently a patriot and anti-jacobite; and, unlike most of his order, he could discern the errors and misdoings of the great, and even testify against them in a very open and pointed manner. On the prudence and propriety, or expediency of this part of his conduct, different persons, no doubt, would entertain different opinions. What he would have thought, said, or done, had he lived in the present reign, and to this very time, it is impossible to know. Of royal journeys to Hanover, and of female favourites, or mistresses of the sovereign, one may presume he would have seen no cause of complaint. But that the same would have been the case, as to all our state maxims, and public measures, and especially our three last wars, is more, perhaps, than we are warranted to conclude; as it seems rather probable, not to say more than probable, that Mr. Whiston would have discovered in some, if not in all of them, no slight cause of disgust and animadversion. How he would have stood affected toward some of our princes of the blood, or royal dukes, and what texts, or passages of scripture he would have applied to them, or made the groundwork of sermons or addresses to his parishioners concerning them, are questions that cannot now be answered or resolved.