warned the king that, as the punishment of his guilty act, he would die childless. The Jews could not face the storm. They knew that any attempt to open shops, or bring their merchandise into Naples, would be the signal for a riot, not improbably for a massacre. After a brief sojourn in the city, they withdrew from it. In 1775, Pius VI., the Pope whom Napoleon imprisoned and deposed, revived some of the harsh laws against the Jews, whose condition, for a long time past, had been growing more peaceful and assured. He issued an edict by which Rabbinical literature was suppressed; no Hebrew book, or even manuscript, might remain in the possession of a Jew. He was required to keep himself rigidly within the limits of his Ghetto; he was obliged again to wear his yellow badge; when a corpse was buried, no funeral procession was allowed; no Jew might employ a Christian midwife or wet-nurse; and, _vice versâ_, a Christian might not employ Jews. The old enactment requiring Jews to attend controversial sermons was again enforced; and the Rabbins were obliged to draw up lists of their disciples, who were required to be present. This seems to have been at the outset of Pius’s long reign. The outbreak of the French Revolution, and the troubles which it brought upon him, probably gave a new direction to his thoughts. Turning to France, we find that the condition of the Jews during the eighteenth century was very peculiar. It has been mentioned in a previous chapter that, although nominally excluded from France, they had long been suffered to dwell there under protections granted to them by Henry II. and others. There were, indeed, three different sections of Jews resident in France at this time—the Portuguese Jews, to whom charters were granted by the French Parliament A.D. 1550. These were chiefly to be found in Bayonne, Bordeaux, and its vicinity. They appear at first to have passed under the name of New Christians, and as such, no doubt, were obliged to submit themselves to the ordinances of the Church; but in the fierce strife which ensued between the Catholics and Huguenots they escaped notice. It is said that they contracted marriages according to their own rites, and evaded the baptism of their children. There were, again, the Jews of Avignon, who were either Italians or native Frenchmen. These had been tolerated by the Popes during their residence there, and probably no great notice had been taken of them since the removal of the papal court. Again, after the conquest of Metz and Alsace, a considerable number of German Jews became subjects of France. It is likely that they by no means regretted the change of masters; for only a few years before, the Parliament at Metz had burnt a number of Jews on the old charge of murdering infants. Louis XIV. granted the Jews of Alsace the same privileges possessed by Bordeaux and other cities—that of free commerce, on condition of paying a certain poll-tax, subsequently compounded for a lump sum.