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 up 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 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 his ship, and told the king how he had used the matter, and had both thanks and rewards, as some have written.'

Nearly all over the world this cruel history is traditionally known among the Jews, who add a myth to it; namely, that the Almighty, in execration of the deed, has ever since caused a continual turmoil among the waters over the fatal spot. The disturbance in the water caused by the fall, on ebb-tide, at old London Bridge, was said to be the place; and when foreign Jews visited London, it was always the first wonderful sight they were taken to see. The water at the present bridge is now as unruffled as at any other part of the river, yet Dr Margoliouth, writing in 1851, says that imost of the old Jews still believe in the legend regarding the troubled waters.

There are few relics of the Jews thus driven out of England. The rolls of their estates, still among the public records, shew that the king profited largely by their expulsion. Jewry, Jew's Mount, Jew's Corner, and other similarly named localities in some of our towns, denote their once Hebrew occupants. The Jew's House at Lincoln can be undoubtedly traced to the possession of one Belaset, a Jewess, who was hanged for clipping coin, a short time previous to the expulsion. The house being forfeited to the crown by the felony, the king gave it to William de Foleteby, whose brother bequeathed it to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, the present possessors. Passing through so few hands, in the lapse of so many years, its history can be easier traced, perhaps, than any other of the few houses of the same age in England. The head of the doorway of this remarkable edifice, as will be seen by the illustration on the preceding page, forms an arch to carry the fireplace and chimney of the upper room. There seems to have been no fireplace in the lower room, there being originally but two rooms-one above, the other below.

The number of banished Jews comprised about 15,000 persons of all ages. English commerce, then in its infancy, received a severe shock by the impolitic measure; nor did learning escape without loss. One of the expelled was Nicolaus de Lyra, who, strange to say in those bigoted days, had been admitted a student at Oxford. He subsequently wrote a commentary on the Old and New Testaments, a work that prepared the way for the Reformation. Both Wickliffe and Luther acknowledged the assistance they had received from it.

GREAT EARTHQUAKE AT LISBON.

And though Pope, when describing the Temple of Dulness, says:

'De Lyra there a dreadful front extends,' both parties, at the period of the Reformation, agreed in saying:

'Si Lyra non lyrasset,

Lutherus non saltasset'

'If Lyra had not piped, Luther would not have danced.'

From the expulsion down to the period of the Commonwealth, the presence of a few Jews was always tolerated in England, principally about the court, in the capacity of physicians, or foreign agents. Early in 1656, the wise and tolerant Protector summoned a council to deliberate on the policy of allowing Jews to settle once more in England. That all parties might be represented, Cromwell admitted several lawyers, clergymen, and merchants, to aid the council in its deliberation. The lawyers declared that there was no law to prevent Jews settling in England; the clergy asserted that Christianity would be endangered thereby; and the merchants alleged that they would be the ruin of trade. Many of the arguments employed on this discussion were again used in the late debates on the admission of Jews into parliament. The council sat four days without coming to any conclusion: at last Cromwell closed it by saying, that he had sent for them to consider a simple question, and they had made it an intricate one. That he would, therefore, be guided by Providence, and act on his own responsibility. A few days afterwards, he announced to his parliament that he had determined to allow Jews to settle in England, and the affair was accomplished. In May and June 1656, a number of Jews arrived in London, and their first care was to build a synagogue, and lay out a burial-ground. The first interment on their burial-register is that of one Isaac Britto, in 1657.

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE AT LISBON IN 1755.

One of the most awful earthquakes ever recorded in history, for the loss of life and property thereby occasioned, was that at Lisbon on the 1st of November 1755. Although equalled, perhaps, in the New World, it has had no parallel in the Old. About nine o'clock in the morning, a hollow thunder-like sound was heard in the city, although the weather was clear and serene. Almost immediately afterwards, without any other warning, such an upheaval and overturning of the ground occurred as destroyed the greater part of the houses, and buried or crushed no less than 30,000 human beings. Some of the survivors declared that the shock scarcely exceeded three minutes in duration. Hundreds of persons lay half-killed under stones and ruined walls, shrieking in agony, and imploring aid which no one could render. Many of the churches were at the time filled with their congregations; and each church became one huge catacomb, entombing the hapless beings in its ruins. The first two or three shocks, in as many minutes, destroyed the number of lives above mentioned; but there were counted twentytwo shocks altogether, in Lisbon and its neighbourhood, destroying in the whole very nearly 60,000

disappeared completely, as if a cavern had closed in upon them. The seaport of Setubal, twenty miles south of Lisbon, was engulfed and wholly disappeared. At Cadiz, the sea rose in a wave to a height of sixty feet, and swept away great part of the mole and fortifications. At Oporto, the river continued to rise and fall violently for several hours; and violent gusts of wind were actually forced up through the water from chasms which opened and shut in the bed beneath it. At Tetuan, Fez, Marocco, and other places on the African side of the Mediterranean, the earthquake was felt nearly at the same time as at Lisbon. Near Marocco, the earth opened and swallowed up a village or town with 8000 inhabitants, and then closed again. The comparisons which scientific men were afterwards able to institute, shewed that the main centre of the disturbance was far out in the Atlantic, where the bed of the ocean was convulsed by up-and-down heavings, thereby creating enormous waves on all sides. Many of the vessels out at sea were affected as if they had struck suddenly on a sand-bank or a rock; and, in some instances, the shock was so violent as to overturn every person and everything on board. And yet there was deep water all round the ships.

Although the mid-ocean may have been the

focus of one disturbance which made itself felt as far as Africa in one direction, England in another, and America in a third, Lisbon must unquestionably have been the seat of a special and most terrible movement, creating yawning gaps in various parts of the city, and swallowing up buildings and people in the way above described. Many mountains in the neighbourhood, of considerable elevation, were shaken to their foundations; some were rent from top to bottom, enormous masses of rock were hurled from their sides, and electric flashes issued from the fissures. To add to the horrors of such of the inhabitants as survived the shocks, the city was found to be on fire in several places. These fires were attributed to various causes-the domestic fires of the inhabitants igniting the furniture and timbers that were hurled promiscuously upon them; the large wax-tapers which on that day (being a religious festival) were lighted in the churches; and the incendiary mischief of a band of miscreants, who took advantage of the terror around them by setting fire to houses in order to sack and pillage. The wretched inhabitants were either paralysed with dismay, or were too much engaged in seeking for the mangled corpses of their friends, to attend to the fire; the flames continued for six days, and the

half-roasted bodies of hundreds of persons added to the horrors.

Mr Mallet, in his theory of earthquakes (which traces them to a kind of earth-wave propagated with great velocity), states that the earthquake which nearly destroyed Lisbon was felt at Loch Lomond in Scotland. 'The water, without any apparent cause, rose against the banks of the loch, and then subsided below its usual level: the greatest height of the swell being two feet four inches. In this instance, it seems most probable that the amplitude of the earth-wave was so great, that the entire cavity or basin of the lake was nearly at the same instant tilted or canted up, first at one side and then at the other, by the passage of the wave beneath it, so as to disturb the level of the contained waters by a few inches-just as one would cant up a bowl of water at one side by the hand.'

ALL-HALLOW-TIDE CUSTOMS AT THE MIDDLE

TEMPLE.

In the reign of Charles I, the young gentlemen of the Middle Temple were accustomed at AllHallow-Tide, which they considered the beginning of Christmas, to associate themselves for the festive objects connected with the season. In 1629, they chose Bulstrode Whitelocke as Master of the Revels, and used to meet every evening at St Dunstan's Tavern, in a large new room, called "The Oracle of Apollo,' each man bringing friends with him at his own pleasure. It was a kind of mock parliament, where various questions were discussed, as in our modern debating societies; but these temperate proceedings were seasoned with mirthful doings, to which the name of Revels was given, and of which dancing appears to have been the chief. On All-Hallows-Day, the master [Whitelocke, then four-and-twenty], as soon as the evening was come, entered the hall, followed by sixteen revellers. They were proper handsome young gentlemen, habited in rich suits, shoes and stock ings, hats and great feathers. The master led them in his bar gown, with a white staff in his hand, the music playing before them. They began with the old masques; after which they danced the Brawls,* and then the master took his seat, while the revellers flaunted through galliards, corantos, French and country dances, till it grew very late. might be expected, the reputation of this dancing soon brought a store of other gentlemen and ladies, some of whom were of great quality; and when the ball was over, the festive-party adjourned to Sir Sydney Montague's chamber, lent for the purpose to our young president. At length the courtladies and grandees were allured-to the contentment of his vanity it may have been, but entailing on him serious expense-and then there was great striving for places to see them on the part of the London citizens. To crown the ambition and vanity of all, a great German lord had a desire to witness the revels, then making such a sensation at court, and the Templars entertained him at great cost to themselves, receiving in exchange that which cost the great noble very little-his avowal that "dere was no such nople gollege in Ghristendom as deirs."-Memoirs of Bulstrode Whitelocke, by R. H. Whitelocke, 1860, p. 56.

As

* Erroneously written Brantes in the authority quoted.

ALL-SOULS-DAY.

This is a festival celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, on behalf of the souls in purgatory, for whose release the prayers of the faithful are this day offered up and masses performed. It is said to have been first introduced in the ninth century by Odilon, abbot of Cluny ; but was not generally established till towards the end of the tenth century. Its observance was esteemed of such importance, that in the event of its falling on a Sunday, it was ordered not to be postponed till the Monday, as in the case of other celebrations, but to take place on the previous Saturday, that the souls of the departed might suffer no detriment from the want of the prayers of the church. It was customary in former times, on this day, for persons dressed in black to traverse the streets,

ringing a dismal-toned bell at every corner, and calling on the inhabitants to remember the souls suffering penance in purgatory, and to join in prayer for their liberation and repose. At Naples, it used to be a custom on this day to throw open the charnel-houses, which were lighted up with torches and decked with flowers, while crowds thronged through the vaults to visit the bodies of their friends and relatives, the fleshless skeletons of niches along the walls. At Salerno, also, we are which were dressed up in robes and arranged in told, that a custom prevailed previous to the fifteenth century, of providing in every house on the eve of All-Souls-Day, a sumptuous entertainment for the souls in purgatory who were supposed then to revisit temporarily, and make merry in, the scene of their earthly pilgrimage. Every one quitted the habitation, and after spending the night at church, returned in the morning to find the whole feast consumed, it being deemed eminently inauspicious if a morsel of victuals remained

uneaten. The thieves who made a harvest of this pious custom, assembling, then, from all parts of the country, generally took good care to avert any such evil omen from the inmates of the house by carefully carrying off whatever they were unable themselves to consume. A resemblance may be traced in this observance, to an incident in the story of Bel and the Dragon, in the Apocrypha.

Born-Dr William Vincent, scholar and miscellaneous writer, 1739; Marie Antoinette, queen of Louis XVI., 1755, Vienna; Field-Marshal Radetzky, celebrated Austrian commander, 1766, Castle of Trebnitz, Bohemia; Edward, Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, 1767.

Died.-Dr Richard Hooker, author of the Ecclesiastical Polity, 1600, Bishop's Bourne; Richard Bancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, 1610, Lambeth; Sophia Dorothea, consort of George I. of England, 1726, Castle of Ahlen, Hanover; Alexander Menzikoff, Russian statesman and general, 1729, Siberia; Princess Amelia, daughter of George III., 1810, Windsor; Sir Samuel Romilly, eminent lawyer and philanthropist, 1818; Sir Alexander Tegner, Swedish poet, 1846, Wexiö, Sweden; Dr Richard Burnes, diplomatist, murdered at Cabul, 1841; Esaias Mant, theological and miscellaneous writer, 1848, Ballymoney, Antrim.

SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.

SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.

The revocation in 1685, by Louis XIV., of Henry IV.'s Edict of Nantes, by which for nearly a hundred years Protestants had enjoyed at least toleration, cost France dearly, but greatly enriched England by the immigration of a multitude of skilful artisans, who introduced to the land of their adoption many forms of useful and elegant industry. Nor did these noble exiles profit England only by their manual skill. The names of their descendants appear with distinction in almost every department of our national life, but few with a more radiant glory than encircles the head of Sir Samuel Romilly.

His grandfather came from Montpellier, and settled in the neighbourhood of London as a waxbleacher. His father was a jeweller, and in Frith Street, Soho, he was born on the 1st of March 1757. As a boy, he received an indifferent education at the French Protestant school, but as soon as he had left it, he diligently applied himself to self-culture. What business he should follow, he could not decide. A solicitor's was thought of, a merchant's office was tried, and then his father's shop, but none pleased him. Meanwhile, he studied hard and became a good Latin scholar. Eventually, he was articled for five years to one of the sworn clerks in Chancery. In his leisure, he read extensively, but with method, governing himself with a strict rein. At the expiration of the five years, it had been his intention to purchase a seat in the Six Clerks' Office, and there quietly settle for life; but his father needed the requisite funds in his business, and Romilly, deprived of this resource, determined to qualify himself for the bar. Severe mental application brought on ill health, and to recruit his strength he made a journey to Switzerland. In Paris, he formed the acquaintance of D'Alembert, Diderot, and other thinkers of their school, and their influence had considerable effect in moulding his opinions towards liberalism and reform.

In 1783, Romilly was called to the bar, but he had to wait long ere he was rewarded with any practice. When briefs did at last fall to his lot, it very soon became manifest that they were held by a master; he gave his conscience to all he undertook, and wrought out his business with efficiency. Solicitors who trusted him once were in haste to trust him again, and a start in prosperity being made, success came upon him like a flood. His income rose to between £8000 and £9000 a year, and in his diary, he congratulates himself that he did not press his father to buy him a seat in the Six Clerks' Office. Lord Brougham says: Romilly, by the force of his learning and talents, and the most spotless integrity, rose to the very heights of professional ambition. He was beyond question or pretence of rivalry the first man in the courts of equity in this country.'

Mirabeau visited London in 1784, and introduced Romilly to the Marquis of Lansdowne, who was so impressed with the young man's genius, that he twice offered him a seat in parliament; but Romilly was too proud to sit under even such liberal patronage. Not until 1806 did he enter the House of Commons, and then as Solicitor General in the

SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.

Whig government, styled 'All the Talents,' formed after the death of Pitt. That administration lasted little more than a year, but Romilly remained a member of the House for one borough or another to the end of his life. In parliament, he was felt as a great power, and his speeches and votes were invariably on the Whig and progressive side. His oratory, which some competent judges pronounced the finest of his age, was usually listened to with rapt attention; a passage in his speech in favour of the abolition of the slave-trade received the singular honour of three distinct rounds of applause from the House.

Romilly's grand claim to remembrance, however, rests on his humane efforts to mitigate the Draconic code of English law. Nearly three hundred crimes, varying from the most frightful atrocity to keeping company with gipsies, were indiscriminately punishable with death. As a consequence, vice flourished, for, as Lord Coke long ago observed, 'too severe laws are never executed.' He had long meditated over the matter, and after discussing various schemes of procedure, he cautiously ventured, in 1808, to bring in a bill to repeal the statute of Elizabeth, which made it a capital offence to steal privately from the person of another. This he succeeded in getting passed. He next, in 1810, tried a bolder stroke, and introduced three bills to repeal several statutes, which punished with death the crimes of stealing privately in a shop goods to the value of 5s., and of stealing to the amount of 40s. in dwelling-houses, or in vessels in navigable rivers. All three were lost! He did not despair, however, but kept agitating, and renewed his motions session after session. He did not live to reap success, but he cleared the way for success after him.

Romilly had married, in his forty-first year, Miss Garbett, a lady of rare intelligence, whom he first met at the Marquis of Lansdowne's, and their union proved eminently happy. After twenty years of conjugal felicity, she fell into delicate health. In 1818 there was a dissolution of parliament, and as an evidence of the respect in which Romilly was held, the electors of Westminster placed his name at the head of the poll, although he declined to spend a shilling or solicit a vote. Never, alas! was he destined to sit for Westminster. Public honours were vapid whilst his beloved partner lay nigh unto death. On the 29th of October she died. The shock was dreadful to Romilly. In his agony he fell into a delirium, and in a moment, when unwatched, he sprang from his bed, cut his throat, and expired in a few minutes. The sad event took place in his house, Russell Square, London, 2d November 1818. When Lord Eldon, next morning, took his seat on the bench, and saw the vacant place within the bar where for years Romilly had pleaded before him, iron man though he was, his eyes filled with tears. I cannot stay here!' he exclaimed, and rising in great agitation, broke up

his court.

In one grave the bodies of husband and wife were laid at Knill, in Herefordshire. It is a singular circumstance, that in the parish church of. St Bride, Fleet Street, there is a tablet on the wall with an inscription to the memory of Isaac Romilly, F.R.S., who died in 1759 of a broken heart, seven days after the decease of a beloved wife.

Romilly's style of speech was fluent, yet simple, correct and nervous, and without ornament of any kind. His reasoning was clear and accurate, and seemed to the hearer intelligible without an effort. His voice was deep and sonorous, and his presence full of severe and solemn dignity. To these oratorical powers he brought great earnestness; whatever he undertook, he fulfilled with all his might. The cause of his client he made his own, and he was reckoned to run the fairest chance of victory who had Romilly for his advocate.

FUNERAL OF A JEWISH RABBI

There are not often opportunities, in England, of witnessing the funeral obsequies of the great priests or rabbis among the Jews; because that peculiar a ratio to the whole people do not form so large population here as in many continental countries, and consequently do not comprise so many sacerdotal officers. One of the few instances that have occurred, took place on the 2d of November 1842. Dr Herschel, who had been chief rabbi of England for forty-two years, was buried on this day. At ten o'clock in the morning, the body, in a plain dealcoffin covered with a black cloth, was removed from his residence in Bury Court, St Mary Axe, to the chief synagogue in Duke's Place, Houndsditch. It was supported and followed by twenty-four leading members of the Hebrew persuasion, including Sir Moses Montefiore. During the progress from the door of the synagogue to the ark, a special service was chanted by the Rev. Mr Asher, the principal reader; and after the bier had been placed before the ark, an impressive ceremonial took place. The ark was covered with black cloth; the whole of the windows were darkened; the synagogue was illuminated by waxtapers; and the whole place assumed a sombre and imposing aspect. This portion of the religious ceremony having been completed, a procession was formed to convey the remains of the venerable rabbi to their last resting-place, the Jews' burialground, at Mile End. In the procession were the boys and girls of the German, Spanish, and Portuguese Jewish schools; the youths training up for the priesthood; the readers of the various metropolitan synagogues; and the carriages of the principal Jewish laity. There were nearly a hundred carriages in all. In accordance with a wish expressed by the deceased, there were no mourning-coaches. On arriving at the burialground, at Heath Street, Mile End, the body was carried into a sort of hall, in the centre of which it was placed. The reader, then, taking his position at the head of the coffin, repeated a burial-service. At the conclusion of the prayers, the coffin was borne to the grave. Several brown-paper parcels, sealed with wax, containing papers and documents, were thrown into the grave, in obedience to instructions left by the deceased; and a large box, containing one of the laws of Moses, written by Rabbi Herschel himself on parchment, was also, at his special request, consigned to the grave with him. The shops of the Jewish tradesmen along the line of route were closed as the procession passed, the ceremony altogether occupying five hours.

NOVEMBER 3.

ST RUMALD.

St Papoul or Papulus, priest and martyr, 3d century. St Flour, bishop and confessor, about 389. St Rumald or Rumbald, confessor, patron of Brackley and Buckingham. St Wenefride or Winifred,* virgin and martyr, in Wales. St Hubert, bishop of Liege, confessor, 727. St Malachy, archbishop of Armagh, confessor, 1148.

ST RUMALD.

They who have read Foxe's Martyrology, will perhaps remember that several Lollards who, to save their bodies from the stake, renounced the 'new doctrine,' were nevertheless required to walk to Buckingham, and present an offering at the shrine of St Rumald. Now this St Rumald, whose name is also written Rumbald, and Grumbald, was a very remarkable saint. According to Leland, who copies from a monkish life of him, he was the son of the king of Northumbria by a Christian daughter of Penda, king of Mercia. He was born at Sutton, in Northamptonshire, but not far from the town of Buckingham. Immediately he came into the world, he exclaimed: 'I am a Christian! I am a Christian! I am a Christian!' He then made a full and explicit confession of his faith; desired to be forthwith baptized; appointed his own godfathers; and chose his own name. He next directed a certain large hollow stone to be fetched for his font; and when some of his father's servants attempted to obey his orders, but found the stone far too heavy to be removed, the two priests, whom he had appointed his godfathers, went for it, and bore it to him with the greatest ease. He was baptized by Bishop Widerin, assisted by a priest named Eadwold, and immediately after the ceremony he walked to a certain well near Brackley, which now bears his name, and there preached for three successive days; after which he made his will, bequeathing his body after death to remain at Sutton for one year, at Brackley for two years, and at Buckingham ever after. This done, he instantly expired. After this three-days' existence, the miraculous infant was buried at Sutton by Eadwold the priest; the next year he was translated by Bishop Widerin to Brackley; and the third year after his death, his remains were carried to Buckingham, and deposited in a shrine, in an aisle of the church which afterwards bore his name. Shortly before the year 1477, Richard Fowler, Esq., chancellor to Edward IV., began to rebuild this aisle, but died before its completion. In his will, therefore, he made this bequest: Item, I wolle that the aforesaid Isle of St Rumwold, in the aforesaid church prebendal of Bucks, where my body and other of my friends lyen buried, the which isle is begonne of new to be made, be fully made and performed up perfitely in all things att my costs and charge; and in the same isle that there be made of new a toumbe or shrine for the said saint where the old is now standing, and that it be made curiously with marble in length and breadth as shall be thought by myn executors most convenient, consideration had to the rome, and upon the same tombe or shrine I will that there be sett a coffyn or a chest

* See notice of St Winifred at p. 6 of this volume.