his brother, Earl Richard, to raise what money he wanted, upon the Jews. Which as he punctually endeavoured to execute, these unhappy people were driven to such despair, as to resolve, one and all, to depart the country; and therefore deputed Elias, one of their senior rabbies, to acquaint the earl, that, (as they plainly perceived their utter destruction would be inevitable, if they staid any longer in England,) they humbly besought the king for leave to go away; assuring him, that, were it in their power, his demands no sooner should be made than satisfyed; but that, as matters were with them at present, they could not possibly supply him, tho' they should sell their skins: for, by his connivance at the Caursini, and some of his own private bankers, their trade had been so far ruined, as not to yield them a subsistence. At the end of which speech, (it being delivered with great concern and vehemence,) the poor old man fainted, and was with some difficulty brought again to himself.

"Upon which the earl, prudently considering that their removal was no ways consistent with the king's affairs at present, (who had rather get little by them than nothing,) pretended to be very much their friend; and answered, that the king, his brother, was their loving prince, and ready at all times to oblige them; but, in this matter, could not grant their request: because the King of France bad lately published a severe edict against Jews, and no other Christian country would receive them; by which means they would be exposed to such hardships and difficultys, as would much afflict the king, who had always been tender of their welfare. In short, they raised what money they could, and the king, for this once, was contented to take it.

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Yet, notwithstanding such manifest desolation, this loving prince called upon them again the very next year; and when they presumed to remonstrate, and again begged leave to depart, they could obtain nothing further than the following royal declaration.

"It is no marvel if I covet money; it is an horrible thing to imagine the debts wherein I am well bound. By the head of God, they amount to the summ of two hundred thousand marks; and if Í should say three, I should not exceed the bounds of truth. I am deceived on every side. I am a maimed and abridged king; yea now but a halfed king. For having made a certain estimate of the expences of my rents, the summ of the annual rent of Edward my son amounts to above fiveteen thousand marks. There is therefore a necessity for me to live of the money gotten from what place soever, and from whomsoever, and by what means soever.' Therefore, as Mr. Prynne continues to express it, being made another Titus or Vespasian, he sold the Jews, for some years, to Earl Richard, his brother; that those whom the king had excoriated, he might eviscerate.”

The deed, which contains this curious mortgage, is well worth quoting, and runs thus:

"Rex omnibus, &c. Noveritis nos mutuo accepisse à dilecto Fratre, & fideli nostro R. Comite Cornubiæ, quinque millia marcarum sterlingorum novorum, & integrorum; ad quorum solutionem, assignavimus, & tradidimus ei, omnes Judæos nostros Angliæ. Assigna

vimus etiam, & obligavimus, eosdem Judæos prædicto Comiti, ad solutionem trium millium marcarum in quibus nobis tenebantur, dẹ Tallagio eidem Comiti faciendo, in hunc modum; videlicet, that the Jews should pay to the earl, his executors, or assigns, in Quind. Trin. anno 39. 1000l. in Quinden. S. Mich. the same year, 1000%. &c. and that the Jews should forfeit 5007. for every default of payment. king further grants the earl power to destrain them by their chatels and bodies; with other covenants, which may be seen at length in Rymer."

The

For it is a singular fact, that so absolutely were the Jews considered the property of the monarch, that he, more than once, made them over to others, either as security for a loan, or farmed them out for a given time in payment of his debts. They were handed over, in turns, in this manner, to the brother of Henry, the Earl Richard; to his son Edward, and to the Caturcensian, the deeds of which conveyances are still extant,

One of the most remarkable circumstances of this reign, relating to the Jews, is the summoning of the Jewish parliament, as it has been called, by the king, "to consult," says the writ, " with us, as well concerning our, as your own, interest." (Ad tractandum nobiscum, tam de nostrâ quam suâ utilitate.") Dr. Tovey gives the following account of it:

"But I question whether very many are acquainted with Parliamentum Judaicum. Yet such a one was now held (being the 25th of H. 3,) as properly deserves that title. For the king directed writs to the sheriffs of each county, commanding them to return before him, at Worcester, upon Quinquagesima Sunday, six of the richest Jews from every town; or two only, from such places where there were but few: to treat with him as well concerning his own, as their benefit; and threatening the sheriffs, that, if they failed, he would so terribly handle them, that they should remember it as long as they lived.

"Great, no doubt, was the surprise of these unhappy people, to find themselves thus, all of a sudden, made counsellors to the king, after so many years spent in ignominious servitude: I could almost think they believed he was desirous to become Jew himself: when they observed how little he regarded the Christian sabbath, by appointing it for their day of meeting. But, whatever sanguine hopes this great honour might have inspired them with, when they came, poor men, to understand no other part of his Majesty's most gracious speech, but that he wanted money-they must raise him money he had called them together to think of ways and means, to furnish him with twenty thousand marks; their consternation was inexpressible. But there was no remedy. Liberty of speech, for this one time, was denyed in parliament; and they were only commanded to go home again, and get half of it ready by Midsummer, and the remainder by Michaelmas. Prynne (in his Demurrer, p. 29) has given us above a hundred names of those persons who were returned to this parliament; but, as they make but indifferent musick, I shan't repeat 'em."

Nearly the last act of the king was one of oppression against the Jewish community, to whom he had been indebted for the chief means of supporting his lavish expenses.

"And now (says Dr. Tovey) as if King Henry foresaw, that all worldly commerce between him and his Jews was soon to be broken off, and for ever cease, he called upon them to make up the whole accompt, and pay in the ballance. All arrears of talliage were to be cleared in four months, and half of them paid in seventeen days. And, in the mean time, such as could not give security were to be imprisoned; and no otherwise bailed than by body for body. And if any one of them, or their sureties, did not clear the whole upon the days prefixed, any summs formerly paid in part were to be forfeited, and their persons, goods, and chatels, at the king's mercy. Pat. 56 H. 3. p. 2.

m. 10.

"Numbers of them, upon this occasion, were imprisoned in the Tower of London, and other places. Nothing but weeping and wailing was to be seen in every corner. Even the friers, who had so lately taken possession of their synagogue, as it is said, pityed them: nor were the Caursini and Caturcensian brokers (tho' their rivals in extortion) without compassion. For nothing could be more rigorous and unmercyful than the king's proceedings at this time: but death, as inexorable as himself, quickly after seized him, and gave the Jews some short respite from those afflictions which could not otherwise have been supported."

Edward I. in whose reign their perpetual banishment from England was to take place, began by dealing fiercely with this despised race. They were not only fined, taxed, imprisoned, and confined to live in particular districts as formerly, but any, the slightest defalcation in the payment of the taillage, which was now levied on children as well as their parents, was punished by banishment. In such cases, the defaulter was compelled to appear at Dover, before the expiration of three days, prepared for his migration.

"Did the forefathers (asks Dr. Tovey) of this miserable people, think you, meet with more rigorous taskmasters in Egypt? They were only called upon to make brick: but nothing less than makeing gold seems to have been expected from the Jews in England! And, indeed, one would almost think they were masters of the secret."

In the third year of this reign, the statute de Judaismo was passed, which, though it abolished usury, placed the Jews on a more comfortable and secure footing than they had been in the reigns of Edward's ancestors. It was not long, however, before the wrath of the king fell upon this devoted people, either through their own folly or the false accusations of their enemies. A general suspicion falling upon them, that they were guilty of

adulterating and clipping the coin, every Jew was seized upon in one day.

"It was the seventeenth of November, 1279; and after full conviction, two hundred and eighty of them, both men and women, received sentence of death at London, and were executed without mercy; besides great numbers in other parts. Many more were continued in prison; and our records of this year abound with instances of the king's selling and granting their houses and lands, forfeited upon this

occasion."

This was but a prelude to their final banishment-in the 18th year of his reign, the king seized upon all the real estates of the Jews in the kingdom, and banished the whole community for ever. There is a good deal of difficulty in coming at the motives of the king for this heavy punishment; as, contrary to the usual custom, they are not set forth in the records.

"King Edward, (says Speed) anno 1290, banished the Jews out of his realm, on account of their having eaten his people to the bones; not neglecting therein his particular gain." And Daniel, the historian, explains this matter still further, by telling us, that King Edward eased his people of as great a grievance as corrupt judges, by the banishment of the Jews; for which the kingdom willingly granted him a fifteenth; having before, viz. in his ninth year, offered a fifth part of their goods to have them expelled. But then the Jews gave more, and so stayed till this time, which brought him a great benefit by confiscation of their immoveables, with their tallies and obligations, which amounted to an infinite value. But now hath he made his last commodity of this miserable people, which having never been under other cover but the will of the prince, had continually served the turn in all the necessary occasions of his predecessors, but especially of his father and himself."

The misery of the Jews, previous to their migration, from the insults and injuries of the people, it may easily be conceived were excessive.

"One grievous story (says Dr. Tovey) of this kind is given us by my Lord Coke. He says, that the richest of the Jews having imbarked themselves, with their treasure, in a tall ship of great burthen; when it was under sail, and gotten down the Thames, towards the mouth of the river, beyond Quinborough, the master of it, confederating with some of the mariners, invented a stratagem to destroy them. And to bring the same to pass, commanded to cast anchor, and rode at the same, till the ship, at low water, lay upon the sands: and then, pretending to walk on shore, for his health and diversion, invited the Jews to go along with him: which they, nothing suspecting, readily consented to; and continued there till the tide began to come in again; which as soon as the master perceived, he privily stole away, and was

again drawn up into the ship, as had been before concerted. But the Jews, not knowing the danger, continued to amuse themselves as before. Till at length, observing how fast the tide came in upon them, they crowded all to the ship side, and called out for help. When he, like a profane villain, instead of giving them assistance, scoffingly made answer that they ought rather call upon Moses, by whose conduct their fathers past thro' the Red Sea, and who was still able to deliver them out of those rageing floods which came in upon them: and so, without saying any more, leaving them to the mercy of the waves, they all miserably perished.

"But the fact coming, some how or other, to be known, the miscreants were afterwards tryed for it by the justices itenerant in Kent, convicted of murder, and hanged. The same learned author tells us, that the number of Jews thus banished was fifteen thousand and threescore. But Matthew Westminster says, it amounted to sixteen thousand five hundred and eleven."

From this period until the time of the Commonwealth, the history of the Jews, in England, is a complete blank. It was under Cromwell, however, that the Jews, on the Continent, thought they had found a favorable epoch for commencing a negociation for their return.

After various negociations and a regular council, at Whitehall, upon the matter, by Cromwell and his advisers, the Jewish agent, Rabbi Menasseh Ben-Israel, an able and learned Jew, who had been sent to England, to procure their return, was obliged to depart from the kingdom, without any decided revocation of their banishment. Though it must be stated, that the Jews themselves have averred that they received a private consent to their re-admission; and Bishop Burnet says, positively, that Cromwell brought a company of them over to England, and gave them leave to build a synagogue. Dr. Tovey, however, on consulting the Jewish registers, finds, that, by their own account, until the year 1663, the whole number of Jews did not exceed twelve: and he is justly of opinion, that the date of their introduction again into England, must be referred to the reign of Charles II.—a time when the prejudices against the Jewish faith disappeared, not in the light of a tolerant spirit, but lost in that utter carelessness about all religions, which then pervaded the court and became fashionable in the nation. From this time, the history of the Jews ceases to be singularly distinguished from the history of any other religious sect, which was not tolerated by the laws; and, as we have extended this article much beyond the limits assigned to it, we will conclude it at the point where its interest is likely to cease.