* Several other bills were passed; one for regulating the number of public houses, and the more easy conviction of persons selling ale and strong liquors without license—an act which empowered the justices of peace to tyrannize over their fellow-subjects: a second, enabling the magistrates of Edinburgh to improve, enlarge, and adorn the avenues and streets of that city, according to a concerted plan, to be executed by voluntary subscription: a third, allowing the exportation of wool and woollen yarn from Ireland into any port in Great Britain: and a fourth, prescribing the breadth of the wheels belonging to heavy carriages, that the high roads of the kingdom might be the better preserved.
NATURALIZATION OF THE JEWS.
But this session was chiefly distinguished by an act for naturalizing Jews, and a bill for the better preventing clandestine marriages. The first of these, which passed without much opposition in the house of lords, from whence it descended to the commons, was entitled, “An act to permit persons professing the Jewish religion to be naturalized by parliament, and for other purposes therein mentioned.” It was supported by some petitions of merchants and manufacturers, who, upon examination, appeared to be Jews, or their dependents; and countenanced by the ministry, who thought they foresaw, in the consequences of such a naturalization, a great accession to the monied interest, and a considerable increase of their own influence among the individuals of that community. They boldly affirmed, that such a law would greatly conduce to the advantage of the nation; that it would encourage persons of wealth to remove with their effects from foreign parts into Great Britain, increase the commerce and the credit of the kingdom, and set a laudable example of industry, temperance, and frugality. Such, however, were not the sentiments of the lord-mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London in common-council assembled, who, in a petition to parliament, expressed their apprehension that the bill, if passed into a law, would tend greatly to the dishonour of the christian religion, endanger the excellent constitution, and be highly prejudicial to the interest and trade of the kingdom in general, and of the city of London in particular. Another petition to the same purpose was next day presented to the house, subscribed by merchants and traders of the city of London; who, among other allegations, observed, that the consequences of such a naturalization would greatly affect their trade and commerce with foreign nations, particularly with Spain and Portugal. Counsel was heard, evidence examined, and the bill produced violent debates, in which there seemed to be more passion than patriotism, more declamation than argument. The adversaries of the bill affirmed, that such a naturalization would deluge the kingdom with brokers, usurers, and beggars; that the rich Jews, under the shadow of this indulgence, would purchase lands, and even advowsons; so as not only to acquire an interest in the legislature, but also to influence the constitution of the church of Christ, to which they were the inveterate and professed enemies; that the lower class of that nation, when thus admitted to the right of denizens, would interfere with the industrious natives who earn their livelihood by their labour; and by dint of the most parsimonious frugality, to which the English are strangers, work at an under price; so as not only to share, but even in a manner to exclude them from all employment; that such an adoption of vagrant Jews into the community, from all parts of the world, would rob the real subjects of their birthright, disgrace the character of the nation, expose themselves to the most dishonourable participation and intrusion, endanger the constitution both in church and state, and be an indelible reproach upon the established religion of the country. Some of these orators seemed transported even to a degree of enthusiasm. They prognosticated that the Jews would multiply so much in number, engross such wealth, and acquire so great power and influence in Great Britain, that their persons would be revered, their customs imitated, and Judaism become the fashionable religion of the English. Finally, they affirmed that such an act was directly flying in the face of the prophecy, which declares, that the Jews shall be a scattered people, without country or fixed habitation, until they shall be converted from their infidelity, and gathered together in the land of their forefathers. These arguments and apprehensions, which were in reality frivolous and chimerical, being industriously circulated among the vulgar, naturally prejudiced against the Jewish people, excited such a ferment throughout the nation, as ought to have deterred the ministry from the prosecution of such an unpopular measure; which, however, they had courage enough to maintain against all opposition. The bill passed the ordeal of both houses, and his majesty vouchsafed the royal sanction to this law in favour of the Hebrew nation. The truth is, it might have increased the wealth, and extended the commerce of Great Britain, had it been agreeable to the people; and as the naturalized Jews would still have been excluded from all civil and military offices, as well as from other privileges enjoyed by their christian brethren, in all probability they would have gradually forsaken their own unprofitable and obstinate infidelity, opened their eyes to the shining truths of the gospel, and joined their fellow-subjects in embracing the doctrines of Christianity. But no ministry ought to risk an experiment, how plausible soever it might be, if they found it, as this was, an object of the people’s unconquerable aversion. What rendered this unpopular measure the more impolitic, was the unseasonable juncture at which it was carried into execution; that is, at the eve of a general election for a new parliament, when a minister ought carefully to avoid every step which may give umbrage to the body of the people. The earl of Egmont, who argued against the bill with equal power and vivacity, in describing the effect it might have upon that occasion, “I am amazed,” said he, “that this consideration makes no impression.—When that day, which is not far off, shall arrive, I shall not fear to set my foot upon any ground of election in the kingdom, in opposition to any one man among you, or any new christian, who has voted or appeared in favour of this naturalization.”
MARRIAGE ACT.
Another bill, transmitted from the upper house, met with a reception equally unfavourable among the commons, though it was sustained on the shoulders of the majority, and thus forced its way to the throne, where it obtained the royal approbation. The practice of solemnizing clandestine marriages, so prejudicial to the peace of families, and so often productive of misery to the parties themselves thus united, was an evil that prevailed to such a degree as claimed the attention of the legislature. The sons and daughters of great and opulent families, before they had acquired knowledge and experience, or attained to the years of discretion, were every day seduced in their affections, and inveigled into matches big with infamy and ruin; and these were greatly facilitated by the opportunities that occurred of being united instantaneously by the ceremony of marriage, in the first transport of passion, before the destined victim had time to cool or deliberate on the subject. For this pernicious purpose, there was a band of profligate miscreants, the refuse of the clergy, dead to every sentiment of virtue, abandoned to all sense of decency and decorum, for the most part prisoners for debt or delinquency, and indeed the very outcasts of human society, who hovered about the verge of the Fleet-prison to intercept customers, plying like porters for employment, and performed the ceremony of marriage without license or question, in cellars, garrets, or ale-houses, to the scandal of religion, and the disgrace of that order which they professed. The ease with which this ecclesiastical sanction was obtained, and the vicious disposition of those wretches, open to the practices of fraud and corruption, were productive of polygamy, indigence, conjugal infidelity, prostitution, and every curse that could embitter the married state. A remarkable case of this nature having fallen under the cognizance of the peers, in an appeal from an inferior tribunal, that house ordered the judges to prepare a new bill for preventing such abuses; and one was accordingly framed, under the auspices of lord Hardwicke, at that time lord high chancellor of England. In order to anticipate the bad effects of clandestine marriages, this new statute enacted, that the banns should be regularly published three successive Sundays, in the church of the parish where the parties dwell; that no license should be granted to marry in any place, where one of the parties has not dwelt at least a month, except a special license by the archbishop; that if any marriage should be solemnized in any other place than a church or a chapel without a special license, or in a public chapel without having published the banns, or obtained a license of some person properly qualified, the marriage should he void, and the person who solemnized it transported for seven years; that marriages by license, of parties under age, without consent of parent or guardian, should be null and void, unless the party under age be a widow, and the parent refusing consent a widow married again: that when the consent of a mother or guardian is refused from caprice, or such parent or guardian be non compos mentis, or beyond sea, the minor should have recourse for relief to the court of chancery; that no suit should be commenced to compel a celebration of marriage, upon pretence of any contract; that all marriages should be solemnized before two witnesses, and an entry be made in a book kept for that purpose, whether it was by banns or license, whether either of the parties was under age, or the marriage celebrated with the consent of parent or guardian, and this entry to be signed by the minister, the parties, and the witnesses; that a false license or certificate, or destroying register books, should be deemed felony, either in principal or accessary, and punished with death. The bill, when first considered in the lower house, gave rise to a variety of debates; in which the members appeared to be divided rather according to their real sentiments, than by the rules of any political distinction; for some principal servants of the government freely differed in opinion from the minister, who countenanced the bill; while on the other hand, he was on this occasion supported by certain chiefs of the opposition, and the disputes were maintained with extraordinary eagerness and warmth. The principal objections imported, that such restrictions on marriage would damp the spirit of love and propagation; promote mercenary matches, to the ruin of domestic happiness, as well as to the prejudice of posterity and population; impede the circulation of property, by preserving the wealth of the kingdom among a kind of aristocracy of opulent families, who would always intermarry within their own pale; subject the poor to many inconveniencies and extraordinary expense, from the nature of the forms to be observed; and throw an additional power into the hands of the chancellor. They affirmed, that no human power had a right to dissolve a vow solemnly made in the sight of heaven; and that, in proportion as the bill prevented clandestine marriages, it would encourage fornication and debauchery, insomuch as the parties restrained from indulging their mutual passions in an honourable manner, would be tempted to gratify them by stealth, at the hazard of their reputation. In a word, they foresaw a great number of evils in the train of this bill, which have not yet been realized. On the other side, its advocates endeavoured to refute these arguments, and some of them spoke with great strength and precision. The bill underwent a great number of alterations and amendments; which were not effected without violent contest and altercation. At length, however, it was floated through both houses on the tide of a great majority, and steered into the safe harbour of royal approbation. Certain it is, the abuse of clandestine marriage might have been removed upon much easier terms than those imposed upon the subject by this bill; which, after all, hath been found ineffectual, as it may be easily eluded by a short voyage to the continent, or a moderate journey to North Britain, where the indissoluble knot may be tied without scruple or interruption.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760