From the accession of this sovereign to the throne, the Jews had to date in characters of blood the commencement of a new and most severe series of sufferings and outrages; their footsteps in this country from the days of Richard to the days of Edward the First――when they were finally banished――may be tracked by their blood; against them sympathy has been steeled, and for their rights justice has had no balances. So far has the bitterness of their affliction been from exciting commiseration, or their hopeless prostration from disarming cruelty, that however Norman, Saxon, Dane, and Briton may have differed in other respects, and however adverse they were to each other, they concurred in treading down the Jews, and contended which should look with greatest detestation upon a people whom it was accounted a point of religion to hate, to revile, to despise, to plunder, and to persecute. How truly was it said, that “except, perhaps, the flying fish, there was no race existing on the earth, in the air, or in the waters, who were the objects of such an unintermitting, general, and relentless persecution as the Jews of this period. Upon the slightest and most unreasonable pretences, as well as upon accusations the most absurd and groundless, their persons and property were exposed to popular fury.”¹ ¹ Sir Walter Scott. It may not be uninstructive, however, to dwell on the history of the Jews in this realm during that period――though a dreary tale of woe――as it throws a great measure of light upon the national character of the people of this country, and the nature of its government during the dark ages of its annals; and if it be painful to you to hear of massacres, extortions, and persecutions perpetrated by your ancestors, upon a defenceless people, it is still a subject of congratulation that you are permitted to turn your eyes upon the improved state both of the persecuted and the persecutors――an idea which is naturally reflected from the opaque surface of these barbarous times with a luminous brightness, upon your own more happy epoch.