Four Pamphlets.

£2,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

political pamphlets Four tracts published in the lead-up to the ill-fated Jewish Naturalisation Act of 1753. The act (or 'Jew Bill') sought to remove the requirement for foreign-born individuals 'professing the Jewish Religion' (26 George 2 c.26) to receive Holy Communion as part of the naturalisation process, a stipulation which had hitherto prevented non-Christians from becoming British subjects. Despite receiving the royal assent, an anti-Semitic backlash stoked-up by propaganda misrepresenting the terms of the act led to its repeal the following year. Considerations advances an economic argument in favour of granting Jewish people 'the same Privileges they enjoy in Holland' (p.12). The pamphlet reflects on the unpopularity of the earlier Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act (1708), which offered assistance to Huguenot refugees, and includes a list of MPs who voted for the 1708 bill. The virulently anti-Semitic An Historical Treatise, originally published in 1703, traces a 'Narrative of the Punishment of that People' from the reign of Edward I onwards. Much of the invective seems shockingly familiar: 'the impious and immoral Freedom which the Jews take amongst us, is depending upon the Force and Power of their Money; which, as we have just Reason to believe, runs through many secret Channels, in this Kingdom, corruptly, to support the impious and blasphemous Doctrine of the Jews against the Gospel of Jesus Christ' (p.6). ESTC records just four copies in institutional hol

• Binding: Hardcover

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