In the present case the proposed arrangement was peculiarly objectionable.

For the object of issuing the commission was the conciliating of dissenters; and it was therefore most desirable that the Commissioners should be men in whose fairness and moderation dissenters could confide.

Would thirty such men be easily found in the higher ranks of the clerical profession?
The duty of the legislature was to arbitrate between two contending parties, the Nonconformist divines and the Anglican divines, and it would be the grossest injustice to commit to one of those parties the office of umpire.
On these grounds the Whigs proposed an amendment to the effect that laymen should be joined with clergymen in the Commission.

The contest was sharp.

Burnet, who had just taken his seat among the peers, and who seems to have been bent on winning at almost any price the good will of his brethren, argued with all his constitutional warmth for the clause as it stood.