We read in Giraldus Cambrensis of “a certain Jew, who about this time chanced to travel towards Shrewsbury in company with Richard _Peche_ (Sin), Archdeacon of _Malpas_ (Bad-steps), in Cheshire, and a reverend dean, whose name was Deville. Amongst other discourse which they condescended to entertain him with, the archdeacon told him that his jurisdiction was so large as to reach from a place called _Ill-street_, all along till they came to _Malpas_, and took in a very wide circumference of the country. To which the infidel, being more witty than wise, immediately replied, ‘Say you so, sir? God grant me then a good deliverance, for it seems I am riding in a country where _Sin_ is the archdeacon, and the _Devil_ himself the dean; where the entrance into the archdeaconry is _Ill-street_, and the going forth from it, _Bad-steps_’――alluding to the French words _peche_ and _mal-pas_.” It was properly observed, that “it is perhaps too much to judge of the state and condition of a body of people by a casual jest which fell from an individual of that body, and yet we would not wish for better information concerning the actual condition of a small society of men, dwelling in and at the mercy of an alien country, than the manners and character of a single person out of the whole community.”¹ ¹ Retrospective Review, vol. i., p. 207. Dr. Jost thinks that the above piece of wit owed its existence to the French schools, and justly observes that it does not follow from it that the Jews were prone to abuse their fellow-creatures (as Dr. Tovey intimates), even if they disregarded the clergy. Truth to speak, _they_ merited nothing else from the hands of the Jews but disregard and contempt.¹ ¹ “_Vor ihren Hange zur Witzelei, der sich bei allen, die aus der frazözischen Schule entsprossen sind und noch entspriessen, immer findet, hat uns die Zeit noch eine Anecdote erhalten, die wir als characteristisch nicht übergehen können.... Daraus folgt nun gerade nicht, was der Berichterstatter daraus entnehmen will, dass die Juden so gerne ihre Nebenmenschen beleidigten, da sie sogar die Geistlichen nicht geschont hätten._”――Jost’s Geschichte der Israeliten, vol. vii., p. 114.