[Footnote 1: See Appendix VIII.]

A petition was made to Parliament "to extend the benefit of a late
_act for naturalizing foreigners in North America_, to the Moravian
Brethren and other foreign Protestants who made a scruple of taking
an oath, or performing military service." General Oglethorpe, in the
spring of 1737, presented the petition to the House of Commons, with
an ample speech, and was supported by many members. The opinion of
the Board of Trade was required on this head. The Proprietor of
Pennsylvania promoted the affair among the members of Parliament, and
especially with the Secretary of State, the Duke of Newcastle, by his
good testimonies of the brethren in Pennsylvania. The matter of the
bill was properly discussed, formed into an act, and, having passed,
with the greatest satisfaction, through both houses, received in June,
1747, the Royal assent.[1]

[Footnote 1: Cranz's History of the United Brethren, translated by La
Trobe, Lond. 1780, p. 331.]

On the 20th of February, 1749, another petition in behalf of the
Moravians was presented to the House of Commons; and was supported
by a long and highly impressive speech by Oglethorpe concerning the
origin of their church, their constitution, their pious and benevolent
labors, and particularly, what he was most apprized of, their
peaceable and useful settlements in America. On the 18th of April,
the engrossed bill was read the third time in the House, was passed,
_nemine contradicente_, and ordered to be carried to the House of
Lords. On the 21st of April, the bill was carried by sixteen members
of the House of Commons to the House of Lords; and, after a short
address by Oglethorpe, their leader, to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke,