A Modest Apology for the Citizens and Merchants of London, Who Petitioned the House of Commons Against Naturalizing the Jews.

(ANGLO-JUDAICA).

for W. Webb

London

1753

Roth, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 220, no. 90

“The Jews have exceedingly troubled our City of late, and they are like to trouble it much longer.” The ill-fated "Jew Bill" of 1753 provoked an extensive public debate over Jewish status in England. Upon its passing in May, 1753, the "Jewish Naturalization Bill" (properly titled) allowed foreign-born Jews to be naturalized without the requirement to receive the Sacrament. Thereafter a noisy campaign was mounted to have the bill repealed. The language of the debate turned ugly, the masses were whipped into near hysteria, and Jewish peddlers were roughed up. Just six months later, Parliament repealed the Act, so that England's Jews would remain second-class citizens. Indeed Jewish legal status stayed unchanged well into the following century. See T.M. Endelman, The Jews of Britain 1656 to 2000 (2002) pp. 74-76.