ame upon the carpet, to obtain any new accounts from America,
and as it was thought necessary to know the quantities of iron made in
that country, the house presented an address to his majesty, desiring
he would be pleased to give directions that there should be laid before
them, in the next session of parliament, an account of the quantity
of iron made in the American colonies, from Christmas, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and forty-nine, to the fifth day of January,
in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, each year being
distinguished.

REGULATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE IMPORTATION OF SILK.

From this important object, the parliament converted its attention to a
regulation of a much more private nature. In consequence of a petition
by the lord-mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London, a bill
was brought in, and passed into a law without opposition, for the more
effectual preservation and improvement of the fry and spawn of fish in
the river Thames, and waters of Medway, and for the better regulating
the fishery in those rivers. The two next measures taken for the benefit
of the public were, first, a bill to render more effectual the several
laws then in being, for the amendment and preservation of the highways
and turnpike-roads of the kingdom; the other for the more effectually
preventing the spreading of the contagious distemper which, at that
time, raged among the horned cattle. A third arose from the distress of
poor silk manufacturers, who were destitute of employment, and deprived
of all means of subsisting, through the interruption of the Levant
trade; occasioned by the war, and the delay of the merchant ships from
Italy. In order to remedy this inconvenience, a bill was prepared,
enacting, that any person might import from any place, in any ship or
vessel whatsoever, till the first day of December, one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-seven, organzine thrown silk of the growth
or production of Italy, to be brought to the custom-house of London,
wheresoever landed; but that no Italian thrown silk, coarser than
Bologna, nor any tram of the growth of Italy, nor any other thrown silk
of the growth or production of Turkey, Persia, East Indies, or China,
should be imported by this act, under the penalty of the forfeiture
thereof. Notwithstanding several petitions, presented by the merchants,
owners, and commanders of ships, and others trading to Leghorn, and
other ports of Italy