Some arrangement, to which it is desirable that some members of the government, or at least of parliament, should be parties—which arrangement ought to include a proper number of practical persons, but not a preponderance of men of theoretical science or of scientific repute, nor any who can be interested in making the matter a means of office, gain, expense, or delay—must be entered into with a view to decide upon the means to be adopted, of calling the attention of all the members of the legislature to what concerns the convenience of all at home and abroad, and which cannot fail to be understood by all and by themselves; who are in duty bound not to give up what is evident for what is only argument, nor to yield their opinions to conjectural inferences derived from mere assumptions and syllogisms, or to arguments which have evidence of nothing but that they are inconclusive: nor, in this matter which all can well understand, to assent to assertions or proposements which will not carry the clear conviction of all along with them.
Source: wiktionary