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History Of The Jews In England--the Jew Bill Of 1753History of the Jews in England--The Jew Bill of 1753: (This page is part of the History of the Jews in England) Jewish loyalty During the Jacobite insurrection of 1745 the Jews had shown particular loyalty to the government. Their chief financier, Samson Gideon, had strengthened the stock market, and several of the younger members had volunteered in the corps raised to defend London. Possibly as a reward, Pelham in 1753 brought in a bill allowing Jews to become naturalized by application to Parliament. It passed the Lords without much opposition, but on being brought down to the Commons the Tory party made a great outcry against this "abandonment of Christianity," as they called it. On the other hand, it was contended that the Jews performed a very valuable function in the commercial economy of the nation, providing one-twelfth of the nation's profits and one-twentieth of its foreign trade. The Whigs, however, persisted in carrying out at least one part of their general policy of religious toleration, and the bill was passed and received the royal assent (26 Geo. II., cap. 26). Anti-Jewish efforts Nevertheless, a great clamor was raised against it, and the lord mayor and the corporations of London petitioned Parliament for its repeal. Effigies of Jews were carried about in derision, and placards with the inscription "No Jews, no wooden shoes" were pasted up in the most prominent public resorts. The latter part of the popular cry referred to foreign Protestants, chiefly Huguenots, whom the Pelham ministry had also tried to naturalize as recently as 1751, when the bill for their relief had been petitioned against and dropped. A naturalization bill for foreign Protestants had been passed as early as 1709, but was repealed three years later; and the precedent was now followed in the case of the Jews (Lecky, "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," i. 283). In 1754 the Jew Bill was repealed, and an attempt was even made to obtain the repeal of the act of 1740 permitting the Jews in the colonies to be naturalized. It is difficult to understand the intensity of the popular outburst at the time, since the sons of the very persons whom the populace refused to allow to be naturalized became by mere place of birth subjects of the British crown. Related articles External link
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