(JEWISH NATURALISATION ACT). ~ An Act to permit Persons professing the Jewish Religion, to be naturalized by Parliament; and for other Purposes therein mentioned. London: printed by Thomas Baskett; and by the assigns of Robert Baskett, 1753.
pp. [2], 407-410, including general title with woodcut arms, black letter text.
[and:] An Act to repeal an Act of the Twenty Sixth Year of His Majesty’s Reign, intituled, An Act to permit persons professing the Jewish religion to be naturalized by Parliament; and for other Purposes therein mentioned, pp. 4, including general title with woodcut arms, black letter text.
Small folio (290 × 182 mm), recent paper spines. Excellent copies.
First edition. ‘During the Jacobite rising of 1745, the Jews had shown particular loyalty to the government. Their chief financier, Sampson 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, Henry Pelham in 1753 brought in the Jew Bill of 1753, which allowed Jews to become naturalised by application to Parliament. It passed the Lords without much opposition, but on being brought down to the House of Commons, the Tories made protest against what they deemed an “abandonment of Christianity.” 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 royal assent (26 Geo. II., cap. 26). The public reacted with an enormous outburst of antisemitism, and the Bill was repealed in the next sitting of Parliament, in 1754. (Wikipedia).