emeralds, and great pearls; another with Indian pearls; and one great crown of gold, ornamented with emeralds, sapphires of the east, rubies, and large oriental pearls.” I have no hesitation in saying that a great part of the articles displayed were Jewish. The coincidence of their banishment with the above display, warrants such a supposition. ¹ See p. 100. ² By Mr. Herbert, city librarian, in his History of City Companies. Notwithstanding the harshness and severity of this decree, it seems not to have been sufficient to excite any commiseration on the part of the people. Many were still unwilling to allow the Jews to depart in quiet, but sought to take the last opportunity remaining to them to give vent to their unchristian hatred and enmity against these unfortunate people, and to despoil them of the small portion of their wealth which remained to them. The principal Jews were forced to provide themselves with letters of safe conduct from the king; and it became necessary, for their protection, to issue orders to the officers and magistrates of the towns through which they passed, to guard them against the violence of the populace. One instance of the barbarities to which they were subjected, deserves to be particularly noticed, as it affords a just example of the sentiments entertained by the people towards the Jews. It is thus related by Hollinshead, and copied by Lord Coke and many other writers since: “A sort of the richest of them,” he says, “being shipped with their treasure in a mighty tall ship which they had hired, when the same was under sail, and got down the Thames, towards the mouth of the river, towards Quinborough, the master mariner bethought him of a wile, and caused his men to cast anchor, and so rode at the same, till the ship, by ebbing of the stream, remained on the dry sand. The master herewith enticed the Jews to walk out with him on land, for recreation; and at length, when he understood the tide to be coming in, he got him back to the ship, whither he was drawn by a cord. The Jews made not so much haste as he did, because they were not aware of the danger; but when they perceived how the matter stood, they cried to him for help, howbeit he told them that they ought to cry rather unto Moses, by whose conduct their fathers passed through the Red Sea; and, therefore, if they would call to him for help, he was able enough to help them out of these raging floods, which now came in upon them. They cried indeed, but no succour appeared, and so they were swallowed up in the water. The master returned with the ship, and told the king how he had used the matter, and had both thanks and rewards, as some have written. But others affirm (and more truly as should seem) that divers of the mariners, which dealt so wickedly against the Jews, were hanged for their wicked practice; and so received a just reward of their fraudulent and mischievous dealing.”