fore the Bishop, in 1239, at which time it was that the child's father found him in the Jew's houfe, after he had been loft a whole year. The accused in vain appealed to the king; the bishop maintained, that the crime, being of a religious nature was cognizable only by the Spiritual Court; upon which four of them were dragged at the tail of fo many horfes to a gibbet, where they were put to death. So that they must have been very incorrigible to dare commit the fame crime fo many times within the fpace of five years, and after having been fo feverely punished for it.

Some years after the Jews of London were indicted for the fame crime, but with fome difference in the manner; the child having been fold to them by his parents, and crucified, and the fact difcovered by fome miraculous circumstances not worth relating; fo that he was canonized for a martyr, and his relics wrought ftrange wonders. However, the murderers could not be found out; only fome Jews having left London about that time, were threwdly fufpected. Their whole nation was ftill more alarmed the following year, when the fhepherds made fuch havock of them In Spain, France, and Germany; and they had reason to fear the ftorm would fall next upon them here; to prevent which, they purchased an edict from the king, forbidding any one to hurt them in any of his dominions. But as that prince's minister was fill craving for more money, and they refused to pay it, they were accufed of fome murder committed in London, where, after various vexations and fufferings, they were obliged to pay one-third of all their wealth. On this occafion, Matthew Paris tells us of one fingle Jew, named Aaron, who paid at different times, to extricate himself out of prifon, and other vexations, about 200 marks of gold, and 30,000 of filver. The reft fared no better, being profecuted fometimes for coining falfe money, at others, for counterfeiting the king's feal, and fuch like; from which they found no other way to efcape than by bleeding frequently to the monarch, or bribing, as they did in feveral inftances, their judges to be favourable to them.

The holy war, to which Henry was preffingly invited by the Pope, proved another pretence for fqueezing money out of his fubjects, and efpecially from the Jews, whom he made no fcruple to ftrip of all they had left. The next was the pretended Spanish war, to which the nobility and gentry refused to contribute till it was actually declared. The Jews were again called upon for new fupplies, but being quite exhaufted, begged leave they might leave the king

B 2

dom

dom for fome more propitious country. Elias, one of their brethren, undertook to plead for them before the council and in a pathetic fpeech, which was accompanied with a flood of tears, reprefented the impoffibility of their paying fuch an exorbitant fum as was demanded of them; and begged they might be rather banished the kingdom than be thus inhumanly oppreffed; profeffing, that if they were to be flayed alive, they were not able to raife the money. He fwooned away, or pretended to do fo, at the conclufion; but the council, who probably gave no credit to him, obliged them to produce the greateft part of the fum demanded. The next year the king demanded 8000 marks of them; and upon their pleading infolvency, fold them to his brother Richard, who paid him that fum for them, and would in all likelihood have made them refund it double, had he not been convinced of their real poverty ann mifery.

The Jews of Lincoln were about the fame time accused of having crucified a young Chriftian, with the following circumftances of inhumanity: that they fed him fome time before with milk, to make him more fufceptible of pain; that they convened an affembly of the most confiderable Jews in England, to aflift at his execution; that they appointed one of them to act the part of Pontius Pilate, and pronounce fentence of death against him; that they caused him to be whipt till the blood gufhed out, to be crowned with thorns, buffetted, fpit upon; that every one of them plunged his knife into him; that they made him drink vinegar, and crucified him by the name of Jefus; that they pierced his heart with a fpear, and after he was dead, took out his entrails, to ufe in their magic operations, and flung the rest of his body into a well belonging to that houfe, where the forrowful mother after a long fearch found it. One Copin, at whofe houfe the fact was committed, not only confeffed it before the Lord Lexington, upon promife of having his life fpared, but owned it to be a ufual cuftom among them to do fo every year, if they could procure any fuch children, The king, upon his coming from the north of England, being informed of all, highly blamed that nobleman for promifing to fpare fuch a villain's life, and revoked his pardon; upon which Copin was dragged at a horfe's tail to the place of execution, where he was hanged in chains, or, as Trivet in his Chronicle for 1267, words it, "His body and

foul were made a prefent to the demons of the air." Their condition was ftill more defperate all the time of the league and civil wars which happened during that prince's reign;

4

reign; wherein, let which fide foever get the better, they were fure to be crushed by it; at least we find that the leaguers feized on their fynagogue at Lincoln, and from thence paffed into the Ifle of Ely, and made dreadful havock among them, And it is likewife pretended that Henry III. did at length banish them by a perpetual edict.

This banishment is variously related by Hiftorians, as well as the motives of it. The Jews affirmed it to have happened in the year of the world 5020 (of Chrift 1260) which our learned Selden justly looked upon as a palpable mistake, and that the former date ought to be 5050; which would be more probable, if that error had not been in more authors than one; but as it is the fame in most of them, it is more likely that they have either defignedly or inadvertently antedated the difafter by thirty years.

Accordingly, an infcription was found engraved, in Hebrew letters, on a ftone in Winchester gol, where probably the Jews of that county had been confined, to this purpose: The commonalty of the Jews were arrested " and imprisoned in the year of the world 5047." So that they could not have been banifhed either in the year of the world 5020, or of Chrift 1260. Befides, the leaguers being defeated by King Henry, feized on the fynagogue of Lincoln above-mentioned in 1267. From which it is evident that they were ftill in the kingdom, and had their public meetings about the latter end of that monarch's reign. We may add, that none of our English annalifts have made any mention of the perpetual edict, but, on the contrary, observe that his fon Edward I. raufed the Jews to be imprifoned in 1287, and to be all banifhed three years after. The annals of the Dominicans of Colmar affirm, that this happened in 1291; which is the more probable, because the council that was held in London, and caufed their banishment, bears date 1291.

The occafion of the banifhment is likewife variously related. One Jewish writer pretends, that they had been falfly accused to King Henry of counterfeiting his coin, and by thofe very rogues who had done it; and that the profecution was carried on with fuch vehemence against them, that the king, who faw through it, ordered them to be banifhed, to fave them from a more cruel punishment. Another tells us, that a prieft falling in love with a beautiful Jewefs, and not being able to obtain her by any other means, fubmitted himself to be circumcifed, and abjured Chrif tianity; which being foon after known, the zealots infifted

that

that all the Jews in London fhould be burnt alive; but that the king only caufed thofe to be burnt who had a hand in that fact, and banifhed the reft. But in neither cafe it is credible that he would, for the crime of a few private perfons, banish a whole nation which had fo often filled his. coffers.

A third pretends that his fon Edward, feeing the country almoft ruined by famine and peftilence, was easily perfuaded that the incredulity and wickednefs of-the Jews had drawn down those two dreadful punishments on the whole nation upon which they were all called upon to turn Chriftians. But that not having removed the famine, they began to ascribe the continuation of it to the violence they had offered to their confciences. Upon which the king ordered two pavilions to be erected near the fea-fide, the one with a red cross over it, into which the fincere profelytes, and the other with the law of Mofes in it, into which the diffatisfied converts were bade to repair. But many of the latter fufpecting fome private design against them, forbore to go to the Mofaic booth; and well it was for them; for those that did were immediately maffacred, and their bodies flung into the fea. In this manner Cordoro Las Excellencias, a Spanish Jew, has accounted for and related this affair, on the authority of other Jewish writers.

It is however agreed by moft Chriftian authors, that this edict was published against them about the latter end of the thirteenth century, which is farther proved by public records, found in fome chanceries. Trivet affirms, moreover, that king Edward, who banished them out of his kingdom, granted them money to tranfport them into France, and afterwards confifcated their effects. Walfingham fays much the fame thing and Polydore Virgil tells us, that this edict was enacted by a council that fat at London in 1291, and being defirous to fever the goats from the lambs,' ordered the Jews to leave England in a few days, but with a permiffion to take their effects with them. He adds, "that* they obeyed, and that the nation, which was then very numerous in England, took their final leave of it, and fill removed from place to place till they all perifhed; whofe lofs, fays he, needs not be much regretted, provided they leave behind thofe facred books, without which it would be difficult for us to preferve our religion for the future." It is plain our author had no great belief in thofe prophecies which affure us that they will be actually recalled before the end of the world. However that be, it is plain they'

never

never more appeared in a body in this kingdom, from that time, till they were recalled to it, in the time of Oliver Cromwell, who thought it expedient for the carrying on of his defigns, to employ them as fpies in moft parts of Europe. On that footing for private intelligence they still stand with our government. But it may be obferved, that the act of their expulfion is ftill in force against them; for Cromwell's power, as ufurped, could never give them here a legal fettlement, unless ratified by fome fubfequent law, which does not appear to have taken place.

The two following Letters, the first on Card-playing, the fecond, on Preaching, are from a Chinese Mandarin at London, to his Friend at Pekin.

TH

HE English partake of a more terrible diverfion than that of the Tragedies, which are represented on their theatres. It is called the recreation of play or gaming. This fpectacle is exhibited in almost every house.

The ftage is a green table; and the principal actors that do bufinets in the fcene with the players, are fmall pieces of pafteboard, painted on one fide with magic figures, which raife very furprizing commotions in them; but they do not produce the fame effects in every one of the players: fome they enliven with a gay and fmiling countenance, others they deject with a gloomy and fullen air.

The scene is not limited to any fixed time, but opens most commonly about night-fall, and clofes about the break of day; for the acts of the pieces are fometimes longer and fometimes fhorter.

The play is a sort of science that confifts in being happy, and this happiness is merely a combination of chance. The main point of skill in the fcience arifes from having certain pieces of pafteboard rather than others, and it is in this preference that lies the difficulty of refolving the problem of the play. The annals of the British monarchy mention a great number of citizens, who either hanged or drowned themselves for not having been able to refolve this problem.

The written law on this fort of play may be found in a book, which almost all manner of perfons have by heart, without ever having read it. Befides this printed code, there are alfo Doctors of Gaming, who decide certain