52 



been the guilty parties. Nor can we be satisfied even to this 

 extent ; for tradition has so interwoven the possible with the 

 impossible, the reasonable with the marvellous and miraculous, 

 that we who reject the latter, cannot, without large modifica- 

 tions, accept the former. If, on the other hand, we bring the 

 events home to ourselves, and ask how we should be likely to 

 act or to be treated in similar circumstances, the full force of 

 the injustice of the proceedings is more likely to strike us. 

 No man can say that Ins property, life, or honour is safe in 

 such a state of society ; we prefer the " Lynch law" of the 

 United States, or the decrees of the most absolute sovereign 

 in Europe, to the tender mercies of Lord John of Lexington, 

 or the clemency of King Henry III. 



Having thus noticed the supposed facts of the case, let us 

 advert to the motives which were likely to influence both the 

 accusers and the accused. If we examine the motives of the 

 accusers, the Jews were rich, the people in general were, by 

 comparison, poor. The business of money lending was mono- 

 polized by the former, the term " usury" being applied to the 

 practice whenever interest was charged ; and the insecurity 

 of a large proportion of their debts, obliged them to cover the 

 risk by a proportionally large rate of interest. Hence their per- 

 sons were disliked, but their money bags were ardently desired. 

 Now if the modern law, which makes the property of a con- 

 victed felon forfeit to the state, existed in the olden time, (and 

 it is not probable that our ancestors erred on the side of libe- 

 rality,) Jew-hunting must have been one of the most profitable 

 occupations of the period. The peculiarity of dress, which was 

 then rigidly adhered to, rendered them at once conspicuous ; 

 their difference in manners, and in speech, — for to this hour 

 their " speech bewrayeth " them, in those localities where 

 Hebrews " most do congregate," — was prima facie evidence to 

 the mob that they were not good citizens ; an accusation only 

 was wanting, and though consisting of " trifles light as air," it 



