he thirty-first year of the reign
of George II.

In the beginning of March, petitions were offered to the house by the
merchants of Birmingham in Warwickshire, and Sheffield in Yorkshire,
specifying that the toy trade of these and many other towns consisted
generally of articles in which gold and silver might be said to be
manufactured, though in a small proportion, inasmuch as the sale of
them depended upon slight ornaments of gold and silver: that by a clause
passed in the last session of parliament, obliging every person who
should sell goods or wares in which any gold or silver was manufactured
to take out an annual license of forty shillings, they the petitioners
were laid under great difficulties and disadvantages; that not only the
first seller, but every person through whose hands the goods or wares
passed to the consumer, was required to take out the said license:
they therefore requested that the house should take these hardships
and inequalities into consideration, and indulge them with reasonable
relief. The committee, to which this affair was referred, having
resolved that this imposition was found detrimental to the toy and
cutlery trade of the kingdom, the house agreed to the resolution, and a
bill being prepared, under the title of "An act to amend the act made in
the last session, for repealing the duty granted by an act of the sixth
year of the reign of his late majesty, on silver plate, and for granting
a duty on licenses to be taken out by all persons dealing in gold and
silver plate," was enacted into a law by the royal sanction. By this new
regulation, small quantities of gold and silver plate were allowed to be
sold without license. Instead of the duty before payable upon licenses,
another was granted, to be taken out by certain dealers in gold and
silver plate, pawnbrokers, and refiners. This affair being discussed,
the house took into consideration the claims of the proprietors of lands
purchased for the better securing of his majesty's docks, ships, and
stores at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth; and for better fortifying
the town of Portsmouth, and citadel of Plymouth, in pursuance of an act
passed in the last session. We have already specified the sum granted
for this purpose, in consequence of a resolution of the house, upon
which a bill being founded, soon passed into a law without opposition.*

* The next bill which was brought into the house related to
the summons issued by th