CONCERNING

NATURALIZATIONS:

SHEWING,

I. What a Naturalization is Not J

II. What it is;

III. What are the Motives for the present Clamours against

the Bill passed last Sessions for enabling the Parliament to Naturalize such Jews, as they shall approve

IV. Setting forth the Nature of this Affair considered in a

Religious Light.

V. Proposing a Scheme for the Prevention of all future Na

turalizations, by explaining, how the same Ends may be obtained in a Way much more efficacious, and altogether Popular.

With an Hint relating to the Orphan Fund in the City of London. -..' .

By J O S I A H TUCKER, M. A.

Rector of St S T E T H E N's in Bristol,

..and

Chaplain to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Bristol.

The SECOND ED.ITION, Corrected.

LONDON:

Printed for Thomas Trye, near Gray's-Inn Gate,
Holborn. M.dcc.liii.

LETTER

T O A

F R I E N D,

Who desired to know, what was the true Meaning of the Term Naturalization, and to what real Motives the present Clamours against the Naturalizing the Jews were to be ascribed,

SIR,

: N Answer to your Question, I here send you the following Account, viz. First, By (hewing, what a Naturalization Bill is not; and, Secondly, What it is: And then I shall proceed to the other Parts of your Enquiry. Now a Naturalization Bill doth not give a Right so much as to a Parish Settlement: But a Foreigner, without Naturalization, may acquire this Right, either by Service, Apprenticeship, or Renting a Tenement of a certain Value, in the same Manner as such Rights are obtained by English-born Subjects: And a Female Foreigner may gain a Parish Settlement by Marriage. Nay, every Foreigner, if taken sick, or A 2 render

endered incapable of Labour, must be relieved by; a Poor-Rate in the Place, where he shall then happen" to reside, if he hath not acquired a legal Settlement in some other Part of the Kingdom. So that in fact, the Poor of all Nations, and all Religions, are entitled to a Parish Subsistence in England (when they want it, and cannot otherwise be relieved) as much as any NaturalTborn Subject: For the Humanity of our Laws is such, that they will not suffer any Person, let his Country or Religion be what they will, to perish through Want.

Perhaps you may imagine, That the Law empowers proper Officers to send such indigent Foreigners to their native Countries:—But there neither is, nor ever was, such legal Power subsisting, by Virtue either of the Statute, or Common Law of the Realm, And * if Ten Thousand Foreign Beggars were immediately to land, the Magistrates are not empowered by Law to send them out; nor can they employ a Shilling of the public Money for such Purposes. Please to observe, that I say,—Foreign Beggar\j—to distinguish them from such, as belong to any Part of the British Dominions; because indeed such poor People may be sent to their respective Habitations ., but Foreigners cannot. This is the real Fact; and this is Law.

Again, a Naturalization Bill doth not convey the Grant of the Freedom of any City, Borough, or Corporate Society in the Kingdom:—But most of these , Privileges may be, and sometimes are, conveyed to Foreigners without being naturalized at all.

Lastly, A Naturalization Bill never can qualify a Person to be employed in any Office, or Trust, Civil or Military ., a naturalized Foreigner never can receive any Grants from the Crown directly, or indirectly i rectly; he never can be a Member of the Privy Coun-^ til, or of either House of Parliament:—Because there *•* is a restraining Clause inserted in every Naturalization Bill against such Privileges; and by ist of George I. Stat. II. Cap. 4. no Bill can be so much as proposed to either House of Parliament without such restraining Clause being first inserted. v

The Words of the Act are as follow; "Be it ** farther enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That \ ** no Person shall hereafter be naturalized, unless in ** the Bill exhibited for that Purpose there be a "Clause or particular Words inserted, to declare, "that such Person shall not thereby be enabled to be ** of the Privy Council, or a Member 0/ either "House of Parliament, or to take any Office or *' Place of Trust, either Civil or Military, or to ** have any Grant of Lands, Tenements or Heredi*' laments from the Crown, to himself, or any other *' Person in Trust for him ; ©£f* And that no Bill *' of Naturalization shall hereafter be received in ei"ther House of Parliament, "unless such Clause or "Words be first inserted, or contained therein."

This Act, so strong and expressive, is little more than a Continuation of a former Law past the 12th and 13th of William III. Cap. 2. Whereas before that Time all naturalized Persons might have . enjoyed every Office of Trust, Power, or Preeminence equally with the Natives. Nay, by the 15th of Charles II. Cap. 15. all Foreigners, without Exception to their Religion, were naturalized, if they would exercise any Trade, relating to Flax, Hemp, or Tapistry, for the Space of three years (which they were authorized to do in all Places, Corporate or not Corporate, privileged or not privileged;) and after the Expiration of that Term, they were made capable of being Mayors of Cities, Justices of the Peace, Members of Parliament, &c. &c. Strange Fate of Things! That such an Act of unlimited Na

turaliza