quoted, with some odious
applications; but the majority being convinced of the loyalty, virtue,
integrity, and great abilities of his royal highness, to whom the nation
owed obligations of the most important nature, passed the bill with a
few amendments, in which the lords acquiesced; and in a little time it
received the royal sanction.

GENERAL NATURALIZATION BILL.

The death of the prince of Wales was fatal to a bill which had been
brought into the house of commons, for naturalizing all foreign
protestants who should settle within the dominions of Great Britain.
Political arithmeticians have generally taken it for granted, that
to every commercial nation an increase of people is an increase of
opulence; and this maxim is certainly true, on the supposition that
every individual is industrious, and that there is a sufficient field
for employment; but all these general maxims ought to be received
under certain qualifications. When all branches of manufacture are
overstocked, an addition of workmen will doubtless be an additional
incumbrance on the community. In the debates which this bill produced,
the members of the ministry were divided among themselves. The measure
was enforced by the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. W. Pitt, and Mr.
Lyttelton; and in opposing it the earl of Egmont was joined by Mr. Fox,
secretary at war. Petitions and counter-petitions were presented by the
merchants of London, Bristol, and other trading towns of the kingdom.
All merchants and traders of foreign extraction exerted themselves
vigorously in its behalf, and it was without doubt countenanced by the
administration; but the project was odious to the people in general.
The lord mayor, aldermen, and commons of London, in common-council
assembled, composed a remonstrance to the lower house, setting forth the
danger and inutility of a general naturalization of foreign protestants.
A petition of the merchants and principal inhabitants of Bristol
represented that such a law would be prejudicial to the trade and
commerce of this kingdom, by preventing many industrious artificers from
procuring a sufficient support for themselves and their families, and of
consequence increasing the rates of the poor; that the introduction of
such a number of foreigners, instead of being a support to the present
happy establishment, might endanger the very basis of our constitution;
that it would greatly tend to the diminution of our manufactures, as
many