We have now recorded the fortunes of the Jews, during the sixteenth century, in all the countries of Europe where a domicile was allowed them, as well as in Spain and Portugal, where, though banished by law, they were still, under a nominal profession of Christianity, permitted to linger. We have now once again to transfer our attention to eastern and southern lands, in which, under Mahometan rule, they found a more merciful refuge. Before doing so, however, it is proper to repeat the remark already made, that, although legally forbidden, during those centuries, to enter several of the European kingdoms, it is far from certain that they were not to be found in them, and that in no inconsiderable numbers, though doubtless they were careful to keep out of sight as much as possible. Reference has been made to a Spanish historian, who says that ‘many of the Spanish exiles fled to England, establishing themselves in three of the largest towns—Dover, York, and London—and that they built synagogues in the last-named city, where they afterwards carried on a thriving trade.’ ‘From 1291 to 1655,’ writes a pamphleteer in 1753, ‘the Jews have run the hazard, as they do in another country [doubtless Spain], where so many of them have expired, and annually still expire in the flames; but meeting all along with lenitives [merciful usage], they have made true one of our English proverbs of claiming an ell’s longitude for an inch’s allowance.’[177] In France it is certain that they were tolerated, so long, probably, as they did not make themselves conspicuous. Rabbi Joseph relates that Henry II. allowed certain Jews from Mauritius to reside in the French cities, and in 1550 granted them his protection and various privileges. His father and his queen, Catherine de Medici, had Jewish physicians, who were high in favour with their employers. We are told that the Parliament of Paris condemned in severe terms the inhuman conduct of the sovereigns of Spain and Portugal; and that many of the Portuguese emigrants were suffered to establish themselves at Bordeaux and Bayonne, where they have since resided without molestation. The same, no doubt, was the case among the German States; where, if the Jews were persecuted in one city, it was comparatively easy to fly for shelter to another. So likewise in Russia. The Jews have never been readmitted to the provinces from which they were originally driven out. But Russia has in modern times acquired by conquest extensive territories in which there was a large Hebrew population. She did not carry her dislike so far as to expel them from her new dominions, and has as many as two millions of Jewish subjects. But her feelings towards them have undergone but little change.