172 APPENDIX TO LECTURE III. tures (for no stars are now in the roof, nor are any said to have remained there so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth), it may be allowable to propose another conjectural etymology, as plausible, perhaps, as any of them. It is well known that, before the banishment of the Jews under Edward I., their contracts and obligations were denominated in our ancient records starra, or starrs, from a corruption of the Hebrew word shetar, a covenant. These starrs, by an ordinance of Richard the First, preserved by Hoveden, were commanded to be enrolled and deposited in chests, under three keys, in certain places; one, and the most considerable, of which was in the king's exchequer at Westminster; and no starr was allowed to be valid, unless it were found in some of the said repositories. The room at the exchequer, where the chests containing these starrs were kept, was probably called the star-chamber, and when the Jews were expelled the kingdom, was applied to the use of the king's council, sitting in their judicial capacity. To confirm this, the first time the starchamber is mentioned in any record, it is said to have been situated near the receipt of the exchequer at Westminster (the king's council, his chancellor, treasurer, justices, and other sages, were assembled en la chaumber des esteilles presta resceipt at Westminster, Clause 41, Edw. III. m. 13). For in process of time, when the meaning of the Jewish starrs were forgotten, the word star-chamber was naturally rendered in law French, la chaumbre des esteilles, and in law Latin, camera stellata, which continued to be the style in Latin till the dissolution of that court."Encyclopædia Britannica. LECTURE IV. My lecture this evening commences with the history of the Jews in this country, during the reign of King John-the reign of one who has acquired an unenviable notoriety in the political history of this country-one who is well known as a disobedient son, an unnatural brother, and a savage monarch— one who disregarded the rights of all menone, in short, who trampled under foot all laws, both Divine and human. What could the Jews expect from such a character? The natural effect of the cruelties to which they had been subjected during the last reign, under Richard Cœur deLion-who, though generous, was yet rash and romantic, which was the cause of their 176 THE JEWS ALLURED BY JOHN very great sufferings-I say, the natural effect would have been to deter them from attempting to accumulate any more wealth in this country; and it was to be apprehended that on the accession of such an unprincipled man to the throne, and the semibarbarian state of the then people of England, who were continually quarrelling with each other, and were ready at all times to plunge the sword or the lance into the breasts of each other: the Jews, under such circumstances, instead of resorting to England, as holding out to them inducements for the acquirement of riches, might have been expected to have quitted this island altogether. It was well put into the mouth of a Jewish maiden of that age," Such is no safe abode for the children of Israel. Ephraim is an heartless dove-Issachar an over-laboured drudge, which stoops between two burdens. Not in a land of war and blood, surrounded by hostile neighbours, and distracted by internal factions, can Israel hope to rest during her wanderings." It was to |