53 



would be to the prejudiced " confirmation strong as proofs of 

 holy writ." 



Though the History of England has been handed down to 

 us by Gentile writers, who, if prejudiced at all, were so on the 

 opposite side, the early portions contain the records of a series 

 of outrages on the Jews " that strike the soul with horror but 

 to name them I" At the coronation of Richard I, a few Jews, 

 attracted by curiosity, intruded themselves, contrary to orders, 

 into Westminster Hall ; the popular cry was raised against them, 

 and some one saying that the King intended to massacre them 

 all, the mob plundered and burned their houses, and put to the 

 sword all whom they could find. The inhabitants of other cities 

 were anxious to follow so significant an example. " In York, five 

 hundred of the Jewish nation, who had retired into the castle 

 for safety, found themselves unable to defend the place, mur- 

 dered their own wives and children, threw the dead bodies over 

 the walls upon the popidace, and then setting fire to the houses, 

 perished in the flames.* The gentry of the neighbourhood, 

 who were all indebted to the Jews, ran to the cathedral, where 

 their bonds were kept, and made a solemn bonfire of the papers 

 before the altar. The compiler of the Annals of Waverley, in 

 relating these events, blesses the Almighty for thus delivering 

 over this impious race to destruction. t " In a single paragraph, J 

 the historian coolly enumerates sums amounting to 87,600 

 marks, (worth nearly £1,000,000 of our money,) some of 

 which were taken jocularly, and others by force, but all in the 

 most wanton injustice, and without the slightest intention of 

 repayment. In the reign of Henry III, and within eight years 



* For a similar act of self-devotion, see II Maccabees, xiv. 37 — 46. Nicanor 

 attempts to destroy Razias, " the father of the Jews,", who, in the most determined 

 manner, and with the highest regard for his religion, commits suicide; "choosing 

 rather to die manfully, than to come into the hands of the wicked, to be abused 

 otherwise than beseemed his noble birth." — v. 42. 



+ Hume, chapter x. For a minute account of this occurrence, one of the saddest 

 that is contained in English History, see D' Israeli's Curiosities of Literature. 



X Hume, Appendix ii. 



H 



