ninth of February was repealed the Act for Naturalizing Foreign
Protestants, which had been passed under the last ministry, and, as many
people thought, to very ill purposes. By this Act any foreigner, who
would take the oaths to the government, and profess himself a
Protestant, of whatever denomination, was immediately naturalized, and
had all the privileges of an English born subject, at the expense of a
shilling.[22] Most Protestants abroad differ from us in the points of
church government; so that all the acquisitions by this Act would
increase the number of Dissenters; and therefore the proposal, that such
foreigners should be obliged to conform to the established worship, was
rejected. But because several persons were fond of this project, as a
thing that would be of mighty advantage to the kingdom, I shall say a
few words upon it.

[Footnote 22: See "The Examiner," Nos. 26 and 45, in vol. ix. of this
edition. [W.S.J.]]

The maxim, "That people are the riches of a nation," hath been crudely
understood by many writers and reasoners upon that subject. There are
several ways by which people are brought into a country. Sometimes a
nation is invaded and subdued; and the conquerors seize the lands, and
make the natives their under-tenants or servants. Colonies have been
always planted where the natives were driven out or destroyed, or the
land uncultivated and waste. In those countries where the lord of the
soil is master of the labour and liberty of his tenants, or of slaves
bought by his money, men's riches are reckoned by the number of their
vassals. And sometimes, in governments newly instituted, where there are
not people to till the ground, many laws have been made to encourage and
allure numbers from the neighbouring countries. And, in all these cases,
the new comers have either lands allotted them, or are slaves to the
proprietors. But to invite helpless families, by thousands, into a
kingdom inhabited like ours, without lands to give them, and where the
laws will not allow that they should be part of the property as
servants, is a wrong application of the maxim, and the same thing, in
great, as infants dropped at the doors, which are only a burthen and
charge to the parish. The true way of multiplying mankind to public
advantage, in such a country as England, is to invite from abroad only
able handicraftsmen and artificers, or such who bring over a sufficient
share of property to secure them from want; to ena