378 CRUELTY TO JEWS. C HAP. XIV. 



Such is the story which is told by the histo- 

 rian, without any of those indignant expressions 

 which the moral feelings of the present day 

 would extort from the most hardened perse- 

 cutor. It seems to be told rather as a good joke 

 than with that kind of feeling which every vir- 

 tuous mind would be now impressed with, in 

 recounting the sufferings of the most guilty 

 offenders against the laws of society. 



Another cotemporary writer has however 

 given a different statement of the conduct of 

 the king, and much more favourable to his cha- 

 racter ; for he relates, that when the king heard 

 the story he condemned to the gallows all who 

 were concerned in the robbery and murder 1 . 



Notwithstanding the banishment of the Jews, 

 the establishments for strict examination, and 

 the severe penalties which the king, at the re- 

 quisition of his parliament, enacted, the base 

 money continued to flow into the kingdom in a 

 most copious stream. These coins were brought 

 into the country by foreign merchants, probably 

 concealed in goods. They were distinguished 

 by the names of pollards, crocards, scaldings, 

 brabants, eagles, leonines, sleepings, and various 

 other denominations 2 . They were chiefly white 



1 Wilkes' Chronicle, p. 122, as quoted by Ruding in his 

 first volume, p. 380. 



2 Walsingham says, speaking of the base coins, " Gallici 

 nempe hanc monetam fabricaverunt ; quae non erat argentea 



