direct before the twenty-ninth day of September. This
indulgence, and other favours granted to the company, were privately
purchased of the ministry, and became productive of a loud outcry
against the government. The merchants published a journal of the whole
transaction, and petitioned the house of commons that their liberty of
trading to the East Indies might be confirmed by parliament. Another
petition was presented by the company, praying that their charter
might receive a parliamentary sanction. Both parties employed all their
address in making private application to the members. The house having
examined the different charters, the book of their new subscriptions,
and every particular relating to the company, resolved that all the
subjects of England had an equal right to trade to the East Indies
unless prohibited by act of parliament.

{WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688--1701.}

GENERAL NATURALIZATION BILL.

But nothing engrossed the attention of the public more than a bill which
was brought into the house for a general naturalization of all foreign
protestants. The advocates for this measure alleged, That great part
of the lands of England lay uncultivated; that the strength of a nation
consisted in the number of inhabitants; that the people were thinned by
the war and foreign voyages, and required an extraordinary supply; that
a great number of protestants, persecuted in France and other countries,
would gladly remove to a land of freedom, and bring along with them
their wealth and manufactures; that the community had been largely
repaid for the protection granted to those refugees who had already
settled in the kingdom. They had introduced several new branches of
manufacture, promoted industry, and lowered the price of labour; a
circumstance of the utmost importance to trade, oppressed as it was with
taxes, and exposed to uncommon hazard from the enemy. The opponents
of the bill urged with great vehemence, That it would cheapen the
birthright of Englishmen; that the want of culture was owing to the
oppression of the times; that foreigners being admitted into the
privileges of the British trade, would grow wealthy at the expense of
their benefactors, and transfer the fortunes they had gained into their
native country; that the reduction in the price of labour would be a
national grievance, while so many thousands of English manufacturers
were starving for want of employment, and the price of provisions
continued