Another petition was presented by the company, praying that their charter might receive a parliamentary sanction.

Both parties employed all their address in making private application to the members.

The house having examined the different charters, the book of their new subscriptions, and every particular relating to the company, resolved that all the subjects of England had an equal right to trade to the East Indies unless prohibited by act of parliament.
{WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688--1701.} GENERAL NATURALIZATION BILL.
But nothing engrossed the attention of the public more than a bill which was brought into the house for a general naturalization of all foreign protestants.

The advocates for this measure alleged, That great part of the lands of England lay uncultivated; that the strength of a nation consisted in the number of inhabitants; that the people were thinned by the war and foreign voyages, and required an extraordinary supply; that a great number of protestants, persecuted in France and other countries, would gladly remove to a land of freedom, and bring along with them their wealth and manufactures; that the community had been largely repaid for the protection granted to those refugees who had already settled in the kingdom.

They had introduced several new branches of manufacture, promoted industry, and lowered the price of labour; a circumstance of the utmost importance to trade, oppressed as it was with taxes, and exposed to uncommon hazard from the enemy.