"ATTERBURY'S PAD."
During the debates on the Occasional Conformity and Schism Bills, in the House of Lords, in December 1718, these measures were very warmly opposed by Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester; who said "he had prophesied last winter that this bill would be attempted in the next session, and he was very sorry to find that he had turned out a true prophet." Lord Coningsby, who always spoke in a passion, rose immediately after Atterbury, and remarked that "one of the right reverends had set himself forth as a prophet; but, for his part, he did not know what prophet to liken him to, unless to that famous prophet Balaam, who was reproved by his own ass." The Bishop, in reply, with great calmness and wit met the attack of Lord Coningsby, thus concluding: "Since the noble Lord has discovered in our manners such a similitude, I am well content to be compared to the prophet Balaam; but, my Lords, I am at a loss to make out the other part of the parallel. I am sure that I have been reproved by nobody but his Lordship." From that day forward, Lord Coningsby was known by the sobriquet of "Atterbury's Pad."