bye-laws, contrived by any monopolizing cabal.*

* Several other bills were passed; one for regulating the
number of public houses, and the more easy conviction of
persons selling ale and strong liquors without license--an
act which empowered the justices of peace to tyrannize over
their fellow-subjects: a second, enabling the magistrates of
Edinburgh to improve, enlarge, and adorn the avenues and
streets of that city, according to a concerted plan, to be
executed by voluntary subscription: a third, allowing the
exportation of wool and woollen yarn from Ireland into any
port in Great Britain: and a fourth, prescribing the breadth
of the wheels belonging to heavy carriages, that the high
roads of the kingdom might be the better preserved.

NATURALIZATION OF THE JEWS.

But this session was chiefly distinguished by an act for naturalizing
Jews, and a bill for the better preventing clandestine marriages. The
first of these, which passed without much opposition in the house of
lords, from whence it descended to the commons, was entitled, "An act
to permit persons professing the Jewish religion to be naturalized by
parliament, and for other purposes therein mentioned." It was supported
by some petitions of merchants and manufacturers, who, upon examination,
appeared to be Jews, or their dependents; and countenanced by the
ministry, who thought they foresaw, in the consequences of such
a naturalization, a great accession to the monied interest, and a
considerable increase of their own influence among the individuals of
that community. They boldly affirmed, that such a law would greatly
conduce to the advantage of the nation; that it would encourage persons
of wealth to remove with their effects from foreign parts into Great
Britain, increase the commerce and the credit of the kingdom, and set a
laudable example of industry, temperance, and frugality. Such, however,
were not the sentiments of the lord-mayor, aldermen, and commons of
the city of London in common-council assembled, who, in a petition to
parliament, expressed their apprehension that the bill, if passed into
a law, would tend greatly to the dishonour of the christian religion,
endanger the excellent constitution, and be highly prejudicial to the
interest and trade of the kingdom in general, and of the city of
London in particular. Another petition to the same purpose was next day
presented to the