CHAPTER XX.1864
SIR MOSES RECEIVES THE THANKS OF THE CITY OF LONDON—THE PROJECTED SURVEY OF JERUSALEM—BAD NEWS FROM ROME, HAMADAN, AND JAFFA—ENDOWMENT OF JUDITH COLLEGE, RAMSGATE—DEATH OF LORD PALMERSTON.
THURSDAY, October 6th.—We meet Sir Moses in the Guildhall, surrounded by the most influential merchants and bankers of the City of London, standing before the Lord Mayor, and receiving from him the resolution of thanks voted by the Corporation.
The Lord Mayor, addressing Sir Moses, who remained standing on the dais during the ceremony, said:
"Sir Moses Montefiore, this Court, as representing the citizens of London, has from time immemorial voted the freedom of this City to distinguished naval commanders and to renowned soldiers, who have prized the honour exceedingly. It has also voted the freedom to statesmen, to patriots, to philanthropists, and to those who have devoted their time, their energies, and their money to alleviate the sufferings of humanity. (Cheers.) To you, Sir Moses Montefiore, a distinguished member of the Hebrew community, this great city has voted a resolution of thanks, expressive of their approval of the consistent course you have pursued for a long series of years, of the sacrifices you have made, of the time you have spent, and of the wearisome journeys you have endured, in order not only to alleviate the sufferings of your co-religionists, but at the same time to alleviate the sufferings and miseries of people of all creeds and denominations (Cheers.) It gives me great pleasure, Sir Moses Montefiore, to be the medium of presenting to you this resolution, and of congratulating you upon being enrolled among those whom this city has thought worthy to receive the tribute of their respect and admiration. (Cheers.) This city has at all times been most anxious on all occasions to evince its sympathy with suffering humanity, irrespective of creed, of colour, and of country, and I beg to shake you by the hand." (Cheers.)
"Sir Moses Montefiore, this Court, as representing the citizens of London, has from time immemorial voted the freedom of this City to distinguished naval commanders and to renowned soldiers, who have prized the honour exceedingly. It has also voted the freedom to statesmen, to patriots, to philanthropists, and to those who have devoted their time, their energies, and their money to alleviate the sufferings of humanity. (Cheers.) To you, Sir Moses Montefiore, a distinguished member of the Hebrew community, this great city has voted a resolution of thanks, expressive of their approval of the consistent course you have pursued for a long series of years, of the sacrifices you have made, of the time you have spent, and of the wearisome journeys you have endured, in order not only to alleviate the sufferings of your co-religionists, but at the same time to alleviate the sufferings and miseries of people of all creeds and denominations (Cheers.) It gives me great pleasure, Sir Moses Montefiore, to be the medium of presenting to you this resolution, and of congratulating you upon being enrolled among those whom this city has thought worthy to receive the tribute of their respect and admiration. (Cheers.) This city has at all times been most anxious on all occasions to evince its sympathy with suffering humanity, irrespective of creed, of colour, and of country, and I beg to shake you by the hand." (Cheers.)
Sir Moses Montefiore replied:
"Lord Mayor and Gentlemen of the Corporation, I am so deeply impressed by the high compliment you have just been pleased to offer me that I fear my emotion will incapacitate me from conveying to you in adequate terms my thanks and gratitude."Vividly recalling how many, distinguished by their brilliant achievements,in war, in science, in art, and by general service to mankind, have enjoyed in your hall the cordial reception with which you have this day greeted me, my heart glows with feelings of delight that you have estimated so favourably my humble endeavours in the cause of humanity."The Imperial edict which, through the Divine blessing, I had the happiness to obtain from His Sheriffian Majesty the Sultan of Morocco, securing to the Jews and Christians in his dominions the same rights and privileges which are enjoyed by other classes of his subjects, constitutes a bright epoch in the history of that Empire, and must assuredly tend to advance its prosperity."Permit me to present for your acceptance a copy of this important edict, and beg for it a record in the minutes of your Court."Mindful of my long and valued association with the Corporation of the City of London, and of the high and responsible office to which I was elected by the confidence of my fellow-citizens in the first year of the reign of our beloved Queen, and remembering how nobly and how successfully your ancient Corporation has toiled for religious freedom, I am the more gratified by the distinguished honour I have this day received—an honour I shall ever bear in grateful remembrance."My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen. I thank you most heartily for your kindness, and I offer you my earnest wishes for the continued prosperity of this great Corporation, and for your individual welfare."
"Lord Mayor and Gentlemen of the Corporation, I am so deeply impressed by the high compliment you have just been pleased to offer me that I fear my emotion will incapacitate me from conveying to you in adequate terms my thanks and gratitude.
"Vividly recalling how many, distinguished by their brilliant achievements,in war, in science, in art, and by general service to mankind, have enjoyed in your hall the cordial reception with which you have this day greeted me, my heart glows with feelings of delight that you have estimated so favourably my humble endeavours in the cause of humanity.
"The Imperial edict which, through the Divine blessing, I had the happiness to obtain from His Sheriffian Majesty the Sultan of Morocco, securing to the Jews and Christians in his dominions the same rights and privileges which are enjoyed by other classes of his subjects, constitutes a bright epoch in the history of that Empire, and must assuredly tend to advance its prosperity.
"Permit me to present for your acceptance a copy of this important edict, and beg for it a record in the minutes of your Court.
"Mindful of my long and valued association with the Corporation of the City of London, and of the high and responsible office to which I was elected by the confidence of my fellow-citizens in the first year of the reign of our beloved Queen, and remembering how nobly and how successfully your ancient Corporation has toiled for religious freedom, I am the more gratified by the distinguished honour I have this day received—an honour I shall ever bear in grateful remembrance.
"My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen. I thank you most heartily for your kindness, and I offer you my earnest wishes for the continued prosperity of this great Corporation, and for your individual welfare."
Sir Moses, accompanied by the mover of the resolution, Mr Alderman (now Sir) Benjamin Phillips, then retired from the hall amidst the cheers and applause of the numbers who had assembled to witness the gratifying scene.
A copy of the resolution, beautifully emblazoned with the city arms, as well as those of the Lord Mayor and Sir Moses, and surrounded by paintings representing the Missions of Sir Moses, may be seen in the Lecture Hall of the College. It is greatly admired by visitors for its elegant execution.
"Nothing," Sir Moses observes in his Diary, "could have exceeded the courtesy of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council. I was delighted with the Lord Mayor's address, and I am happy to say they were pleased with my reply."
A copy of the edict of His Sheriffian Majesty and Sir Moses' speech had been entered in the minutes of the Court, and a copy sent to each of the members.
Sir Moses then attended the afternoon and evening service at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, receiving congratulations from all present.
In the Court Circular, dated Windsor Castle, June 20th, we find a notice:
"His Highness Mustapha Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador, and Sir Moses Montefiore arrived at the Castle to-day from London.
"Sir Moses Montefiore had an audience of Her Majesty."
We may infer, from the gracious receptions which Her Majesty on several former occasions had given to Sir Moses, that, in the present instance, she did not fail to manifest her approbation of his Mission to Morocco.
September 25th.—We meet him at his favourite retreat, Smithembottom.
"I have great cause," he says, "for thankfulness. Since I was here in November last, I hope that, by Divine blessing, I have been of some use to my fellow-creatures, both Jews and Christians, and, I believe I may add, 'Moors.' To God alone, who helped and sustained me, be honour and glory. I believe that my dear Judith would have approved my conduct, and, sure I am, had it pleased an all-wise Providence to have spared her, she would have shared my fatigue and dangers, but it was otherwise ordained, and I can only submit with humble spirit to the decree of Heaven. My angel guide of so many happy years being no longer with me on earth in mortal form, I sincerely pray the God of Israel to be my guide, and to permit her heavenly spirit to comfort me, and keep me in the right path, so that I may become deserving of the happiness to rejoin her in Heaven when it shall please God to call me from the world."
"A visit to Smithembottom," he remarks in his Diary, "is now to me very similar to that of the solemn 'Day of Atonement,' with the exception of fasting. I hope hours spent in serious reflection on the past incidents of a long life tend to make me better, and constitute a great moral lesson."
Sir Moses now contemplated establishing a college for the study of theology and Biblical literature in Jerusalem. "I have," he says, "with, I hope, the Divine blessing, resolved on establishing in the Holy Land, in memory of my ever-lamented and blessed wife, a college (Beth Hamedrásh), with ten members, to erect ten houses with gardens for their dwelling, with a certain yearly allowance to them, and to purchase and send them a good Hebrew library for their use." He hoped to go there and purchase the land, and to lay the foundation-stone. This idea, however, he soon relinquished for a similar institution in Ramsgate, to which I shall have an opportunity further on in this work to direct the attention of the reader.
December 7th.—He received from Mr (now) Lord Hammond, of the Foreign Office, by permission of Lord Russell, despatches from Sir John Drummond Hay, and a letter from him, addressed to Sir Moses, also despatches for his perusal from Athens and Corfu, all of which were most satisfactory. "It was, indeed," Sir Moses says, "truly kind of Earl Russell and Mr Hammond to favour me with the perusal of them."
Earl Russell, as well as all his successors at the Foreign Office, have repeatedly afforded him opportunities to read despatches received from their Ambassadors and Consuls at Foreign Courts, whenever they contained any important communication regarding the Jews.
Sir Moses was enabled to attend his meetings in the city, notwithstanding the great fatigue he had undergone during his journey, and was as ready and eager as ever with his suggestions for improvements in any measure of financial importance.
On the recurrence of the anniversary of his birthday, which this year was the eightieth, he sent his usual gifts to communal schools and charities in England, as well as to those in the Holy Land, conveying to the latter his hope to pay them another visit soon.
Some readers who have attentively perused the narrative of Sir Moses' Mission to Morocco, will perhaps say that since the issuing of the Sultan's edict twenty-three years ago, His Sheriffian Majesty's commands contained therein do not seem to have been very strictly adhered to. The Moors say, and apparently with good reason, "To promise is not the same as to perform." Their observation seems just, when we find that, notwithstanding the promises made by the Sultan to Sir Moses, he continued to receive complaints from almost every Hebrew community of the oppression and ill-treatment to which they had been subjected. Still one must bear in mind, that even in European countries rights and privileges granted by a sovereign would be many a time, intentionally or unintentionally, withdrawn from loyal subjects by those appointed to carry out the will of the reigning monarch, were it not for the numerous votaries of the cause of justice who are ever ready to bring before the court those who thus wilfully violate the rights of others. But such is not the case in Morocco. Even the lovers of justice cannot always succeed in making known to the Sultan the acts of cruelty committedby the local governors or military officers. As this would necessitate long and tedious journeys before reaching the Palace, and should they reach it in safety, there is yet another difficulty to encounter in procuring evidence, witnesses being in general very reluctant to testify against any man in power. Thus it happens that injustice is practised by some of the local governors with impunity; but there is every reason to believe that the Sultan himself, as far as lay in his power, strictly adhered to the words of the edict.
The Sultan gave his word in the presence of the representative of the English Government, and would not, if reminded of it by Her Majesty's Government, withdraw his promise.
East Cliff, February 6th.—Sir Moses, being anxious to see if anything could be done through the medium of the English officers of engineers then at Jerusalem, with regard to the water supply there, he proceeded to London. "In spite of old age and weakness," he says, "I would willingly undergo any fatigue and risk to benefit Jerusalem." He called at Adam Street for a copy of the resolution on the subject passed by the Committee of the Syrian Relief Fund during his absence, went to the Athenæum to see Mr John Freeland, and called on Sir John Macneil.
February 9th.—He went to Southampton on a visit to the Ordnance Survey Office, where he had a long interview with Sir Henry James with reference to the survey of Jerusalem, then being carried out by a party of engineers belonging to that department—a work in which, as may readily be imagined, Sir Moses took the deepest interest. Sir Henry presented him with a beautiful photograph of the wailing wall at Jerusalem, with which Sir Moses expressed himself highly gratified.
February 15th.—He attended a meeting of the Syrian Improvement Fund Committee, Mr Layard, Mr Hodgkin, and several other members being present, when £100 was voted for the use of Captain Wilson and the engineers at Jerusalem towards the expenses of excavations, &c., for the purpose of finding a mode of providing Jerusalem with a better supply of water.
February 16th.—Count P. de Strezelski wrote a letter, by desire of Miss Coutts (now Baroness Burdett-Coutts), to learn whether they could venture on some steps to improve thelamentable and humiliating state of the Jewish community at Rome. In spite of the snow, Sir Moses went to see the Count, and told him that he believed no good could be achieved by agitation; but perhaps a mild and very quiet application, personally made at Rome on behalf of the Jews, might be successful. "I would," Sir Moses says, "if this plan was favourably received, go at my own personal expense to Rome."
The Count, wishing to have Miss Coutts' advice, and Sir Moses being himself desirous of expressing to her his thanks for her kind and benevolent solicitude for the welfare of his co-religionists, they drove to Piccadilly, but as Miss Coutts was not at home, the Count promised to see her in the evening, and report to Sir Moses by letter to Ramsgate.
Sir Moses then called on the President and Secretary of the Board of Deputies in reference to the same subject. Both agreed with them as to the impossibility of moving the Pope by public agitation, and would not express any hope that good could in any way be obtained for the Jewish inhabitants at Rome. However, Sir Moses says, "I am ready at all risk to try it, if the mode I suggest shall meet with the approval of Earl Russell, and I have his powerful support in my Mission. No time should be lost."
March 25th.—An alarming letter reached him from the Hebrew community at Hamadan (the ancient city of Shooshan) in Persia. They were suffering terribly from persecutions by the Persians, and appealed to him for his intercession with the Shah in their behalf. "The weather has been very rough and cold, with rain, wind, and sleet," he writes. "I could not sleep last night for thinking of our poor suffering brethren in Persia." Early in the morning he commenced making inquiries regarding travelling in Persia, and left East Cliff for London to take the letter he had received to the Chief Rabbi, who, he found, had already received a similar one.
In order to gather further information regarding Persian affairs, he went to see the lady whose son he had placed at the Bluecoat School, and who was well acquainted with Teheran. "I found her," he says, "a very intelligent woman, about forty years of age. She first went to Persia when she was thirteen years old, and married there. She lived in Persia twenty-six years, and had been to England three times during that period.She went from Liverpool to Constantinople by sea, was then about ten days on the Black Sea, and afterwards journeyed one thousand miles on horseback to Teheran. She described the climate as being good, but very hot in summer—too hot to travel by day."
March 28th.—He called on Mr Layard (now Sir Austen H. Layard), presenting him with his (Sir Austen's) bust, which Sir Moses had ordered of Mr Wiener, a distinguished sculptor of Brussels. Sir Austen received it with great pleasure. Sir Moses spoke of the letter from Hamadan, and offered to go there to obtain a firman from the Shah, if Sir Austen would give him letters. Sir Austen said he should have every assistance, and as many letters as he wished, if he went, and that he would write to Mr Alison, our representative at the Court at Teheran. Sir Moses then gave him the translation of the Hamadan letter, which Sir Austen read with great attention. Sir Moses said he intended to start on the 1st of May, upon which Sir Austen informed him that Mr Alison should be instructed to afford him every assistance and information as to the best mode of reaching the capital.
"But could not some plan be found to save you from so long and dangerous a journey?" asked Sir Austen. He proposed that Sir Moses should write in his own name to the Shah, and state what he had obtained from the Sultan at Constantinople and the Sultan of Morocco in favour of their Jewish subjects, and to send him copies of the firman and edict, with a petition for a similar edict from him. Sir Austen said he would forward Sir Moses' letter to the British Minister at Teheran to present it to the Shah, which he thought would answer the purpose, and save him great fatigue and risk.
Sir Austen presented him with a most beautiful copy of his large work, containing an account of his researches in connection with the excavations at Babylon. Sir Moses asked for one of his smaller works instead, but Sir Austen said, "You have had your way, and now I must have mine." After mature consideration, and acting upon the advice of Sir Austen, Sir Moses gave up the idea of a journey to Persia, but wrote an address to the Shah, praying for a firman in favour of his brethren, and Lord Russell was good enough to forward it to its destination through Mr Alison, the British Minister at Teheran.
Having abandoned the scheme of building a Theological College in Jerusalem, he was determined to have one near his Synagogue in Ramsgate, in memory of his wife, and made an agreement with this object with a local builder. "May God in His mercy and goodness," he prays, "grant that the inhabitants of the intended College may devote themselves to the study of His Holy Laws, and may they find peace and happiness in their dwellings." On Saturday evening, the 24th of June, the eve of the new moon of Tamuz, 5625A.M., he laid the foundation stone of the College, in the presence of his relatives and friends. In the same month he made the first remittance of £50 to the inmates of the Juda Touro Almshouses in Jerusalem. In the succeeding years he considerably increased these remittances, and continued forwarding them up to his death. To Mr Hyde Clarke of Smyrna he sent a similar sum, to be distributed by that gentleman among the indigent sick at that place; and to Jerusalem he forwarded a case of medicines for the Dispensary.
August the 27th.—Sir Moses had scarcely despatched his appeal to the Shah on behalf of his brethren at Hamadan, in Persia, when a heartrending cry came from the Holy Land, an unusual combination of misfortunes having befallen them. "No rain had fallen for many months, the harvest was spoilt, locusts covered the ground for miles around, the cholera had broken out in all its fury, famine and plague reigned supreme in the Holy Cities.
"The fatal disease commenced its ravages on the coast of Egypt, and raged furiously in Alexandria; with intense virulence it advanced to the city of Jaffa, and devastated it. The corpses of the dead lay in the streets unburied, the living fled on every side, and the once bustling seaport town was stricken with terror and awed into silence. All the towns and villages between Jaffa and Jerusalem were affected. The gates of the latter were closed, so that none could come out or go in. The city was in a state of siege, and the inspectors of quarantine surrounded it.
"The representatives of all the congregations combined to do all in their power to alleviate the distress, but their funds were exhausted, the plague showed no signs of abating, and they sent forth their piteous cry for help to their brethren abroad."
The Chief Rabbi and Sir Moses at once invited the attentionof the London Committee of Deputies of the British Jews to the distressing condition of the Jews in Palestine, asking their powerful aid, and suggesting that they should issue an appeal to all the congregations in the British Empire. To this the Board of Deputies readily agreed, and immediately published an appeal in all the leading papers. The result was most satisfactory. The contributions to the appeal fund amounted to a large sum, and, knowing the willingness of Sir Moses to assist personally in the administration of the same, the Board invited him to proceed to Jerusalem for that purpose.
Sir Moses, without hesitation, disregarding his advanced age and feeble state of his health, accepted the invitation, and promised to proceed to the Holy City as soon as the necessary preparations for such a journey would permit.
Before giving the reader a full account of this fresh journey to the Holy Land, I have still to bring to his notice some entries in his Diary of the current year.
October 19th.—"TheTimesof to-day," he writes, "gave me the mournful intelligence of the death of that great and good man, Lord Palmerston. I most sincerely grieve at his loss. I have had very many interviews with his Lordship, and he was on every occasion most kind and friendly. He was ever ready to attend to any representation I had to make on behalf of the Board of Deputies. On my return from Morocco, the last time I spoke to him, he was kindness itself. Peace to his honest soul. May he rest in Heaven."
November 1st.—Sir Moses endowed the Judith College; and on the 15th of the same month he considered the constitution of the same, which he subsequently submitted to his friends to ascertain their views on the subject.
December 31st.—Notwithstanding the severity of the weather, he frequently went to town and attended the meetings of companies and associations.