Reasons Humbly Offered for Passing the Bill for the Better Preventing the Covering Aliens Goods Imported [caption title]

London, 1714. Broadsheet. [1]p. plus printed docket title on verso. Disbound. Small folio. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Mild foxing. An early British petitionary leaflet calling for greater enforcement of customs laws for imported goods. The author charges that most consignments of foreign goods are now being made to "Naturalized Foreigners and Unfreemen," who are not under the same obligations as Freemen, who state in their oath "not to Colour of Cover the Goods of Aliens." If "no Remedey be given," it is argued, "all Persons will be discouraged from taking their Freedoms, and few will be left of Substance to perform the necessary Service in the Government of [London]." The document is among the earliest examples of lobbying literature, which first began proliferating during the major changes in British government in the mid-1710s. ESTC records four copies, at the British Library, Oxford, the National Library of Wales, and the California State Library.

Hanson 1980.