CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 064 186 095 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924064186095 Production Note Cornell University Library pro- duced this volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. It was scanned using Xerox soft- ware and equipment at 600 dots per inch resolution and com- pressed prior to storage using CCITT Group 4 compression. The digital data were used to create Cornell's replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Stand- ard Z39. 48-1984. The production of this volume was supported in part by the Commission on Pres- ervation and Access and the Xerox Corporation. Digital file copy- right by Cornell University Library 1991. Qforttcll Uninctaita Ethrary 3tl|aca, S?eni fork FROM THE BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY COLLECTED BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE. g^.j^^^-.'^Vi^^^iS^ (From a Photograph taken by J. E. Mavall, F.C.S., F.R.M.S., 164, A'Wci Bond Street.) SIK MOSES MONTEFIOEE. Ceitt^ititial §t0Jp[tartg, EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS AND JOURNALS. By LUCIEN wolf. WITH PORTRAIT. UN3INDA&U LONDON : JOHN MUKRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1884. u [All Eights Seserved.] LONDON : BRADEURT, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTEBS, WHITEFRIARS. PKEFACE. The following Biography has been compiled entirely from o&cial records and other reliable data. I have to thank many kind friends for their assistance. Mr. E. H. LiNDO, Secretary to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, and Mr. Lewis Emanuel, Secretary to the Board of Deputies, opened to me the important archives committed to their care. Mr. J. B. Montefioee, Mr. F. D. MocATTA, Mr. H. Guedalla, Dr. L. Loewe, Mr. Edwin Arnold, and Signer Cesab Oltvbtti of Turin placed at my disposal a great deal of anecdotic and other information, and Mr. Guedalla most painstakingly revised the proof-sheets. Among the sources of in- formation not acknowledged in the following pages, I must gratefully mention Mr. Israel Davis' Biogra- phical Sketch of Sir Moses Montefiore, reprinted from the Times ; and the files of a large number of Jewish newspapers, particularly the Jewish World and Jewish Chronicle of London. L. W. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE. The Montefiore family — Origin of its name — Montefiorea at Ancona — Settlement of the family in Leghorn — Moses Vita Montefiore comes to England — Commercial career — Jews in London in 1760 — Descendants of the Jewish Hidalgos — Abraham Lumbrozo de Mattos Mocatta — Benjamin D'Israeli — Moses Vita Montefiore's family — Adventures of Joshua Montefiore — Sir Moses' father marries a daughter of Abra- ham Mocatta — Antiquity of the Mocatta family — Mos^ Mocato a literary contemporary of Spinoza — Messrs. Mo- catta and Goldsmid of London — Connection with the Lamegos and Disraelis — Joseph Elias Montefiore — His family — Birth of Moses Montefiore — Moses Montefiore's education and apprenticeship CHAPTER II. COJDHEECUL CAREER. Moses Montefiore enters the Stock Exchange — Jewish brokers — Eminent Jews in the City — Abraham Montefiore joins his brother — Nathan Maier Bothschild establishes himself in London — Montefiore's marriage — Connection of the Monte- fiores with the Eothschilds — First news of Waterloo — Transactions of the New Court financiers — Death of Abra- ham Montefiore — Eetirement of Moses Montefiore — The viii Contents. rA(3E Alliance Insurance Company — Story of its establishment — The Imperial Continental Gras Association — The Slave loan — Park Lane sixty years ago 16 CHAPTER III. FIRST VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND. May Day, 1827 — The start from Park Lane — London to Dover in twelve hours — Posting through France — Aged poor on the route — Dangers of Eastern travel — The Greek insurrec- tion and the Powers — Pirates in the Mediterranean — Mr. Montefiore engages a schooner and is convoyed to Alex- andria by a sloop of war — Chase of a pirate — From Alexandria to Cairo — Interview with Mehemet Ali — New Year at Alexandria — Journey to Jafia disguised as Turks — Reception at Jerusalem — The Jews of the Holy Land — The return journey — Battle of Kavarino — Admiral Sir William Codrington entrusts Mr. Montefiore with despatches — Home again — Mr. Montefiore and H. E. H. the Duke of Clarence 29 CHAPTER IV. EARLY COMMinfAL LABOURS. Ineligibility of minors for membership of the Synagogue — Mr. Montefiore petitions the Council of Elders for admission — Petition granted on the same day that a new Chief Rabbi is elected — Mr. Montefiore's zeal in the service of the Synagogue — He holds office — Becomes treasurer — Isaac D'Israeli's Synagogue account — Reaches the dignity of Parnass — Signatures in old minute books — The " Monte- fiore" Almshouses — Extra-synagogual labours— The Lava- dores — The two " nations " in the Jewish community — Mr. Montefiore disapproves of the division — Contributes by his marriage and his advice to its eradication — Devotes him- self to the Emancipation struggle — Becomes a member of the Board of Deputies— Throws himself with energy into the work — Purchases East Cliff Lodge — Could Jews hold land? — Former residents at East Cliff .... 41 Contents. ix CHAPTER V. THE JEWS OF ENGLAND (750 — 1837). PAQK Early history — Position in the country preyious to the expul- sion — Jewish learning — Jewish heroism — Statutum de Jtidauino — Expulsion by Edward I. — Legend of London Bridge — Secret visits to England — Eetum under Cromwell — Denied civil rights — Disabilities in 1828 — Mr. Montefiore devotes himself to the Emancipation struggle — Early history of the movement not encouraging — The " Jew Bill " of 1753 — Mr. Montefiore and the Repeal of the Test and Corpora- tion Acts — Interviews with the Duke of Sussex — Agitation from 1830 to 1837 — Mr. Montefiore becomes President of the Board of Deputies — Sheriflt of London — Knighted — Queen Victoria and Sir Moses Montefiore — Capital punish- ment — Sir Moses Montefiore and Marshal Soult — Sir Moses turns his attention to his foreign brethren .... 52 CHAPTER VI. SECOND VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND. Jews and Agriculture — Mr. Cobbett's taunt — Sir Moses Monte- fiore determines to introduce agriculture among the Jews of the Holy Land — Journey to the East for that purpose — Investigates the condition of European communities on his route — Brussels — Aix-la-Chapelle — Strasbourg — Avignon — Marseilles — Nice — Genoa — Florence — Papal States — Dis- abilities of the Jews of Rome — Lady Montefiore expresses her indignation to a Papal Monsignore — Dr. Loewe — The Eastern question — Arrival at Beyrout — Progress through Palestine — Enthusiastic receptions — Saf ed — Tiberias — Jerusalem — Sir Moses malces enquiries into the condition of the Jews — Distributes money — Back to Alexandria — Inter- view with Mehemet Ali, who promises to assist his plans — Return to England — Changes in Eastern politics — Defeat of Sir Moses' plans . 64 Contents. CHAPTEK VII. THE DAMASCUS DRAMA. FAQH The "Red Spectre" of Judaism — Its history and origin — Kerival of the Blood Accusation at Damascus in conse- quence of the disappearance of Father Thomas — The fanaticism of the monks and the designs of the French Consul — M. de Katti Menton sets himself to manufacture a case against the Jews — Secures the co-operation of the Governor of the city — Arrest, torture, and confession of a Jewish barber — A Jewish youth flogged to death — Further arrests — The prisoners submitted to terrible tortures — Wholesale seizure of Jewish children — Batti Menton'a mcmcliards — Another confession — The bottle of human blood — Two of the prisoners die under torture — Protests of the Austrian Consul — A mass over mutton bones — Attempt to excite the Mussulman populace — The prisoners con- demned to death — The " Red Spectre " at Rhodes — ^Anti- Jewish risings 80 CHAPTER VIII. THE MISSION TO MEHEMET ALT. Significance of the new Blood Accusation to the Jews of England — Appeals for help — Meeting convened by Sir Moses Montefiore — Interview with Lord Palmerston — M. Crimienx has an audience of Louis Philippe — Action of Prince Mettemich — Mehemet All takes alarm, and appoints a Consular Commission of Enquiry — French intrigues — M. Thiers protests against the Enquiry — Resolve to send a Mission to Mehemet Ali, headed by Sir Moses Montefiore — Debate in Parliament — Indignation Meeting at the Man- sion House — Acquittal of the Jews of Rhodes — Sir Moses Montefiore arrives at Alexandria, and interviews the Vice- roy — Hesitation of Mehemet Ali — Intrigues of the French Consul— Sir Moses Montefiore's diplomacy — Its happy results — Release of the Damascus prisoners — The Eastern Question — Egypt and the Quadruple Alliance — Mehemet Contents. xi FAQE Ali loses Syria — Sir Moses Montefiore proceeds to Con- stantinople, and obtains an important Finnan from the Sultan — The jonmey home — Sir Moses Montefiore and Louis Philippe — Rejoicings of the Jews — Royal recognition of Sir Moses' efforts 94 CHAPTER IX. FIVE YEAES OF HOUE 'VrOEK. Synagogual labours — Sir Moses' popularity — ^Visits to the Con- gregational Schools — He helps to promote education in the Jewish Community — Jews' College, the Jews' Hospital, and the Free School — The Board of Deputies — Its constitution and functions — Sir Moses corresponds with Sir James Graham and Sir Robert Peel in respect to various Bills before Parliament — Foreign Affairs — The Holy Land — Sir Moses Montefiore establishes a Loan Fund, a Printing Establishment, and a Linen Factory at Jerusalem — Assists agricultural schemes, and founds a Free Dispensary — He raises a Belief Fund for the Jews of Smyrna — Promotes the building of a Khan at Beyrout — The Blood Accusation at Marmora — Sir Moses Montefiore and Sir Stratford Canning — The Jews of Morocco — Correspondence with Bokhara — The " Reform " Movement in the Anglo-Jewish Community. 113 CHAPTER X. THE JEWISH QUESTION IN RUSSIA, Oppressed condition of the Jews of Russia — Seriousness of the Rnsso-Jewish Question— Its origin religions not secular— The modem charges refuted by history — Review of Russo- Jewish history — First settlements of the Jews in the South — Conversion of the lUiozars to Judaism — A Jewish King- doin in Russia — The civilizing influence of the Jews — Inroads of the Tartars and extinction of the Khozars — Jewish settlements in the West— Their privileges — Grati- fying results of Jewish colonization — Numerousness of the Polish Jews a source of congratulation by native historians xii Contents. — The Russian Prince Sviatopolk invites the Jews into his dominions — The Jews held in high esteem by the people — They serve in the army — They proselytise on an extensive scale — Judaism embraced by the Metropolitan of the Greek Church — With the rise of the power of the Church the privileges of the Jews are curtailed — Three centuries of Ghetto life — Four millions of Jews still oppressed . . 126 CHAPTER XI. ErSSIA2f PERSECUTIOXS : MISSION TO CZAR XICHOLAS. The Board of Deputies and the Busso-Jewish Question — Sir Moses Montefiore invited to St. Petersburg by the Russian Government to confer with the Minister of Education on the condition of the Jews— Policy of the Czar Nicholas towards the Jevrs — The persecuting Ukaze of 1843 — Jewish appeals to Sir Moses Montefiore — Temporary suspension of the Ukaze — David Urquhart on Russian persecutions — Re- issue of the Ukaze — Sir Moses Montefiore appeals to Lord Aberdeen to intercede with the Czar — The Ukaze is again suspended — Promulgated once more in 18-45 — A deputation of Russian Jews arrives in England — Diplomatic represen- tations to the Russian Government are ineffectual — Sir Moses Montefiore deputed to proceed to St. Petersburg — Dangers of the journey — Flattering reception in the Russian capital— The Ukaze suspended for a third time — Interview with the Czar — Sir Moses proceeds on a tour of the Western provinces — Adventures on the journey — Willingness of the Jews to follow his advice— Triumphant progress through Jewish Russia — Sir Moses Montefiore and Prince Paskie- vitch — Revocation of the Ukaze — Return to England — Enthusiasm of the English Jews — Royal appreciation of the mission — A baronetcy conferred on Sir Moses Monte- fiore 138 CHAPTER XII. A BUSY DECADE. Resumption of the Emancipation struggle — Mr. David Salomons and the Court of Aldermen — Passing of the Municipal Contents. xiii Corporations Bill— Sir Moses Montefiore and the Dute of Cambridge — Accession to power of Lord John Russell — Baron Lionel de Rothschild is returned to Parliament — Prevented from taking his seat — The Premier proposes to abolish Jewish Disabilities — The Bill is passed by the Commons but thrown out by the Lords — Sir Moses Monte- fiore organises an agitation in favour of the Bill — Second defeat of the Bill— The end of the struggle— Who shall be the first Jewish peer? — Condition of the foreign Jews — Another Blood Accusation at Damascus — Sir Moses Monte- fiore proceeds to Paris and interviews M. Guizot and King Louis Philippe — Satisfactory assurances — The Jews of Turkey— Proposed re-admission of the Jews to Spain — Labours of Mr. Guedalla — Home affairs — Three Missions to Palestine — The " Judah Touro " legacy — Useful works in the Holy Land — Sir Moses Montefiore and Said Pasha — Conversation with the Khedive on the Suez CanaK . .155 CHAPTER XIII. THB MORTAHA CASE, ETC. Lady Montefiore's health gives cause for anxiety — ^A winter in Italy — Sad condition of the Italian Jews — Return to England — The Mortara Case — Abduction of a Jewish boy by the Roman Inquisition on the ground that he had been secretly baptised — ^The Pope refuses to surrender him — Appeal to Sir Moses Montefiore — Excitement in Europe — Another attempted secret baptism— The pretensions of the Papacy — ^Action of Christian public bodies in England — Indignation meetings — Consternation among the Jews of the Papal States — Sir Moses Montefiore interviews Lord Maimesbury — Representations to Napoleon III. — The Powers remonstrate with the Papal Government — Non ■Possvmia — Sir Moses Montefiore proceeds to Rome — Ne- gotiations with Cardinal AntoneUi— The Pope refuses to see Sir Moses or to surrender the child — Subsequent efforts unavaUing— The labours of 1859, 1860, and 1861— Mis- cellaneous foreign business— The Morocco Relief fund- Persecution of the Syrian Christians— Appeals of Sir Moses Montefiore and M. Crimieux— The "Blood Accusation" tablet at Damascus 172 xiv Contents. CHAPTER XIV. LADY MONTEFIORE. PAOE Death of Lady Montefiore — Her early years — Education — Marriage — Participation in her husband's humanitarian work — Accompanies Sir Moses on his foreign missions — Diaries of the journeys to Palestine — Extracts from her journals — Home life — Anecdote illustrative of her benevo- lence — Communal labours — The Funeral at Ramsgate — Memorial foundations — The Tomb on the East Cliff . . 1 89 CHAPTER Xy. THE JOURNEY TO MOROCCO. Trip to Constantinople to obtain a confirmation of Firmans from the new Sultan — Return to England, and retirement at Ramsgate — Appeal from Gibraltar on behalf of Moorish Jews — Arrest and torture of twelve Jews at SaflB at the instance of the Spanish Consul — Execution of two of the prisoners — Sir Moses hurries to London and prevails upon the Foreign Secretary to telegraph to Morocco requesting a stay of proceedings — Correspondence with Morocco dis- closes a sad state of affairs among the local Jews — Sir Moses resolves to proceed to Morocco — The journey to Madrid — Interview with Queen Isabella — Friendliness of the Spanish Government — Arrival at Tangier — Release of the prisoners — The journey into the interior — Arrival at Morocco city — Imposing reception by the Sultan — Promul- gation of an Edict protecting Jews and Christians — Second interview with the Sultan — The return home — ^Audiences with Queen Isabella and Napoleon III. — Reception in England — Parliamentary tribute to Sir Moses Montefiore — Freedom of the City of Loudon 213 CHAPTER XVI. ANOTHER BUSY DECADE. Drought in the Holy Land — A new Relief Fund — The sixth journey to Palestine — The locust pest in Palestine — Sir Contents. xv Moses investigates the condition of the Jerusalem Jewish community — Promotes public works in the Holy City — Holds an inquiry respecting a charge against the Safed Jews by the Rev. Dr. Macleod — Suggestions for the appli- cation of the balance of the Relief Fund— Death of Dr. Hodgkin — Persecution of Jews in Ronmania — Mission to Bucharest — Interriews with Prince Charles — The Prince's assurances — Home labours — ^A second journey to Russia — Reception at St. Petersburg — Audience with the Czar Alexander II. — Improved condition of the Russian Jews — Resignation of the Presidency of the Board of Deputies — The Montefiore Testimonial Fund 233 CHAPTER XVII. " FORTY days' SOJOUKN IN THE HOLY LAND." The seventh journey to the Holy Land — Diary of the journey — " Forty Days' Sojourn in the Holy Land " — ^Arrival at Venice — Admiral Drummond warns Sir Moses against cholera — ^Ancient intercourse between the Jews of Venice and London — The Sabbath at sea — Arrival at Port Said — Reception at Jaffa — The Jews of Jaffa — On the way to Jerusalem — ^A moonlight ride from Bab-el-Wad — Enthu- siastic welcome at Jerusalem — The work of the Forty Days — Georgian Jews and Jewish heroism — Sir Moses suggests sanittuy improvements at Jemsalem — Return home — Scheme for the amelioration of the condition of the Pales- tinian Jews — Sir Moses Montefiore and Jerusalem . , 253 CHAPTER XVIII. CONCLXrSION 271 THE LIFE OF SIK MOSES MONTEFIOEE. CHAPTER I. FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE. The Montefiore family — Origin ot its name — Montefiores at Ancona — Settlement of the family in Leghorn — Moses Vita Montefiore comes to England — Commercial career — Jews in London in 1760 — Descendants of the Jewish Hidalgos — Abraham Lumbrozo de Mattos Mocatta — Benjamin D'Israeli — Moses Vita Monte- fiore's family — Adventures of Joshua Montefiore — Sir Moses' father marries a daughter of Abraham Mocatta — Antiquity of the Mocatta family — Mose Mocato a literary contemporary of Spinoza — Messrs. Mocatta and Goldsmid of London — Connection with the Lamegos and Disraelis — Joseph Elias Montefiore — His family — Birth of Moses Montefiore — Moses Montefiore's education and apprenticeship. One evening, in the early part of the year 1784, a highly respectable Jewish merchant of the City of London announced to his wife, in their cosy drawing- room at Kennington, that he purposed paying a visit to Italy at an early date, to buy some advantageous parcels of straw bonnets, to which his correspondents had drawn his attention. In those days, when not merely the boring of the Mont Cenis, but railways themselves, were undreamt of, such a journey was no light matter. The wife, however, was young and n B 2 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. r. adventurous, and she gave her consent to the proposed enterprise on one condition : that she was not left behind. The husband prudently declined to contest his partner's whim ; the conjugal bargain was struck ; the company of the lady's brother was invited, and the journey was undertaken. Not the least important incident in this commercial expedition occurred at Leghorn, on the evening of the 24th October, 1784. The lady in question gave birth to a boy, whose name was registered in the archives of the local sjTiagogus as Moses Haim Montefiore. The travellers were Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Elias Montefiore, of London, and Mrs. Montefiore's brother, Moses Mocatta, likewise of London ; the nouveau-ne was the subject of this book. In the Via Eeale, opposite the new Leghorn Synagogue, the house is stiU. pointed out in which this event took place, just one hundred years ago. Little is known of the family history of the Monte- fiores beyond the four generations settled in this country. It is generally assumed that they must have come originally from the small town of the same name in the Italian province of Ascoli Piceno. The fact has, however, been overlooked that there are two Montefiores in Italy, one in the neighbourhood of Fermo, and the other near Forli. No certain evidence exists to connect the family with either of these places, although, from the frequent adoption by Jews of sur- names from the names of the towns in which they have resided, there is a strong probabDity that at some period it was domiciled in one of the Montefiores. CH. I.] The Montefiores in Italy. 3 At the same time the fact must not be lost sight of that names of flowers or connected with flowers have always been popular with Jews, and that the name Montefiore itself appears very frequently among Jews in the German equivalent Blumberg, together with many kindred names, such as Blumenbach, Blumen- thal, Eosenberg, Rosenthal, Rosenfeld, Veilchenfeld, Lilienfeld, &c. The earliest record which has been preserved of the Montefiore family is neither engraved on stone, nor in- scribed on parchment. It exists appropriately enough in the. shape of a silk ritual curtain, magnificently embroidered and fringed with gold, which, on festive occasions, is suspended before the Ark in the ancient Jewish Synagogue at Ancona. In the centre of this curtain is a Hebrew inscription recording its gift to the Synagogue in 1630 by Leone (Judah) Montefiore, whose wife Rachel, it states, had embroidered and inscribed it with her own hands. The Montefiores appear to have occupied a good position as merchants at Ancona, where, throughout the middle ages, their co-religionists enjoyed the reputation of a prosperous and industrious class. When Pius V. expelled the Jews from the States of the Church he expressly excepted those of Ancona, in order not to disturb the trade with the East, which was entirely in their hands. In the latter half of the seventeenth century, Amadio Montefiore and Ismael Montefiore appear, from entries in the Synagogue books, to have been prominent members of the Ancona Jewish Community. 4 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. i. At an early period some of the Ancona Montefiores settled in Leghorn. The Jews of that city enjoyed even greater prosperity than their hrethren in the Adriatic port. Their commercial genius was an im- portant element in the development of commerce and industry all over Italy, hut in Leghorn the tolerance of the Medicis secured them the fi-eest scope for their activity. Menasseh hen Israel, in his petition to Cromwell for the re-admission of the Jews to England, attributes the rise of Leghorn entirely to the industry and " merchandising " of the Jews ; and, indeed, their commercial influence must have been very great, when we find a writer relating, in the early part of the eighteenth century, that the inhabitants generally, Jew and Gentile, observed the Jewish Sabbath as a day of rest from business. Early in the seventeenth century there were Montefiores in Leghorn, who signed them- selves " Montefiore d'Ancona," thus placing their origin beyond all doubt. One of them, Isach Vita Montefiore, was a merchant of standing about 1690. He took into his business his nephew Judah, who had come from Ancona to seek his fortime. Judah, ia process of time, married a daughter of the Medinas, who presented him with four sons, the eldest of whom, Moses Haim (or Vita*) Montefiore, was Sir Moses Montefiore's grandfather. Moses Vita Montefiore, the elder, was bom Decem- ber 28th, 1712, and married on March 29th, 1752, * "Haim" is a common Hebrew name, signifying "Life," or, in Italian, "Vita." CH. I.] Sir Moses Montefiore^s Grandfather. 5 Ester Hannah, daughter of Massahod Eacah, a Moorish merchant of Leghorn. The hride was only seventeen ; and, according to a portrait of her, still extant, was of remarkable beauty. Moses Montefiore did not prosper at Leghorn ; and six years after his marriage he resolved to emigrate to England, where several of his mother's relatives had made large fortunes, notably the wealthy Sir Solomon Medina, who financed Marlborough's campaigns, and was the Rothschild of the reign of Queen Anne. Accom- panied by his youngest brother Joseph — ^who stayed, however, but a short time — Moses Montefiore landed in England in 1758, and immediately established himself as a merchant, trading with Italy. He lived and had his offices and warehouses at Nos. 13 and 15, Philpot Lane, in the city of London ; and, according to his son Joshua, who has recorded the fact in his Bible, was "of high and respectable standing in society, and a merchant of eminence." After twenty years of successful trading, he took a house in Mutton Lane, Hackney, then a rural district, much afiected by wealthy Jews. Here dwelt at their ease such notable Israelites as Ephraim Aguilar, the father of Grace Aguilar, and a scion of one of the most dis- tinguished of the Portuguese Jewish families; his kinsman, the generous Abraham Lopez Pereira, who left a substantial sum to the churchwardens of Hackney to supply the local poor with coals in the winter season, in addition to noble legacies to the Syna- gogue; and David Alves Rebello, the gifted numis- 6 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [oh. i. matist and writer on natural historj'. Close by, in Bethnal Green, resided many more descendants of the Jewish Hidalgos, among them Abraham Lumbroso de Mattos Mocatta, an opulent Jewish broker, whose daughter Eachel became the -wife of Montefiore's son Joseph, and mother of Sir Moses. Abraham Mocatta was one of the patriotic band of London merchants, who in March, 1774, when the rumours of a French invasion in favour of the young Pretender were pre- valent, waited on George II. with an address, express- ing their " resentment and indignation at so rash an attempt," and declaring their resolution "at this critical conjuncture to exert our utmost endeavours for the support of public credit ; and at all times to hazard our lives and fortunes in defence of your Majesty's sacred person and government, and of the security of the Protestant succession in your family." Among the Italian merchants, with whom the elder Montefiore competed in business, was one Benjamin D 'Israeli, of 5, Great St. Helen's, the father of Isaac D'Israeli, author of " Curiosities of Literature," and grandfather of the Earl of Beaconsfield, sometime Prime Minister of England. Among the Hebrews he must have frequently met in the ancient Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Bevis Marks, were the two Bemals, Abraham Eicardo, the father of the economist; Ephraim, Baron d'Agmlar, ancestor of General d'Aguilar, and father-in-law of Admiral Keith Steward; Mordecai Eodrigues Lopez, grandfather of the present Sir Massey Lopes ; Naphtali Basevi, the <-■«■ 1] Joshua Montefiore. 7 father-in-law of Isaac Disraeli; and the scions of many other ancient Hebrew families, such as the Abrahanels, Mendez da Costas, VUla-Keals, Alvarez, Lindos, Lousadas, Francos, Salvadors, Samudas, Nunes, Ozorios, Seixas, Fonsecas, Supinos, da SUvas, Garcias, de Castros, and Ximenes. Moses Montefiore not only prospered ; he com- pleted the Mosaic blessing by multiplying as well. His wife bore him seventeen children, nine sons and eight daughters. Several of the daughters married well. Of the sons the first three were born at Leg- horn, and the eldest, Judah, remained there in the care of his grandparents ; the second, David, became a tobacco merchant, and carried on business in the Borough ; the third, Samuel (grandfather of Mr. H. Guedalla), married Mr. Abraham Mocatta's daughter Grace, entered the export business, and settled in Mansell Street, Goodman's Fields ; the fourth, Joseph Elias, was the father of .Sir Moses ; the fifth, Abraham, went abroad ; the sixth, Joshua, became a lawj'er and a soldier ; the seventh and eighth, Eliezer (who married a grand-daughter of Simon Barrow, of Amsterdam), and Jacob, became partners, established themselves as general merchants in Camomile Street, City, and subsequently went to the West Indies; a ninth son, Lazarus, died in infancy. The most remarkable of all Moses Montefiore's children was his sixth son, Joshua. Possessed of a well- stored mind and splendid abilities, he might have 8 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. i. made an important name for himself had it not been for his roving disposition. At eighteen years of age he commenced to study law with James Cross, and, in the same year that his nephew. Sir Moses Montefiore, was bom, he was admitted an attorney-at-law and solicitor in Chancery by Sir William Scott, Judge of the Admiralty Court, and Notary Public by the Court of Faculties of the Archbishop of Canterbury. While working at his profession he obtained considerable success as an author. His " Commercial and Notarial Precedents" quickly ran through three editions in London and two in the United States. His " Com- mercial Dictionary," which was dedicated by permis- sion to Lord EUenborough, was long regarded as the standard work of its kind. He also wrote the " Trader's Compendium," the " United States Trader's Compen- dium," an essay on the " Law of Copyright," and "Law and Treatise on Book-keeping." Joshua Montefiore was, however, not fitted for a stay-at-home life, and he seized the first opportunity of exchanging the pen for a sterner weapon. Towards the end of 1791 a colonising mania seized the citizens of London. Several merchants formed themselves into a society for the purpose of establishing settlements on or near the coast of Africa, and an expedition, consisting of 275 adventurers, was fitted out to take possession of the Island of Bulama. One of the directors was Moses Ximenes, afterwards Sir Maurice Ximenes, a prominent and wealthy Israelite, and among the adventurers was Joshua Montefiore, who gave up his legal practice to CH. I.] Joshua Montefiore's Adventures. g take part in an enterprise which accorded so well with his venturesome tastes. The expedition turned out disastrously, and Joshua Montefiore was one of the few who survived its many trials and reverses. On his return home he wrote an account of his adventures. From this work it appears that having a taste for soldiering, the military arrange- ments of the expedition were from the outset confided to him. It was he who hoisted the British flag on landing at Bulama, and he, too, organised the whole oflfensive and defensive economy of the colony. Soon after the adventurers were settled, we find him in com- mand of one of the vessels helonging to the expedition, keeping a look-out for suspicious craft and chasing and boarding Portuguese slavers. One day the colony was surprised by a war canoe full of armed " Indians," and it devolved upon him to pacify the chiefs by a diplomatic palaver. The "Indians" retired, and Joshua counselled his fellow-colonists, on the next appearance of the natives, to make overtures to them for the acquisition of the island by purchase, at the same time pointing out the injustice of holding by force land which did not rightly belong to them. His filibustering hearers stared amazed at this unexpected sermon, and flatly refused to follow his advice. The result was that when next the " Indians " landed a severe conflict took place, and the new colony was wrecked. Joshua Montefiore then travelled into the Papel country, met the Antula Indians, interviewed a native king, and dined with him on porcupine and squirrels. At Sierra Leone he visited lo The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. i. another dusky potentate, the King of Nambana, whom he describes as " a very respectable old gentle- man." On his return home he was presented by Lord Boston to King George III., at his Majesty's special request, and was offered knighthood, which he declined. Finding it difficult to settle down to his old profession, he entered the army, and was the first Jew to hold a military commission in this country. He served in various parts of the world, and in 1809, as ah officer in the York Light Infantry, was at the taking of Martinique and Guadaloupe. On his retirement he proceeded to the United States, where he practised as a lawyer, and published a weekly poHtical journal, entitled "Men and Measures," which was subven- tioned by the British Government. In his seventy- third year he married a second time, and died in 1843, aged eighty-one, leaving issue by his second marriage, seven children, the youngest of whom was only six weeks old. Joshua Montefiore had cast his lot among strangers, but on his death-bed he called his eldest daughter to his side, and, asking her for pen, ink, and paper, wrote out from memory an Enghsh translation of the Hebrew burial service, which he enjoined her to read aloud at his funeral. He also desired to be buried in his garden at St. Albans, Vermont, and his wish was complied with. One of his sons, Mr. Joseph Monte- fiore, has achieved quite a reputation as a lawyer and joiimalist, and is now Editor of the Baldwin Bulletin, Wisconsin. Sir Moses Montefiore still retains a vivid CH. I.] The Mocatta Family. ii recollection of his dashing " Uncle Josh," whose laced red coat and pigtail, and cocked hat and sword, together with his fund of tremendous anecdote, rendered him a huge favourite with his nephews. On his mother's side Sir Moses Montefiore's lineage is of undouhted antiquit3\ " Mocatta " is an Arabic name which carries hack the family bearing it to, at least, the period of the Moorish dominion in Spain. The Mocattas claim for themselves, however, a more remote antiquity, alleging that, as an Eastern Jewish family, they entered the Peninsula in the wake of the conquer- ing armies of Tarik and Musa, in the eighth century. After the expulsions by Ferdinand and Isabella, part of the family settled in Venice, traded, flourished, became impoverished, and died out about a century ago, leaving their tombs on the Lido, the long island extending like a breakwater in front of the Venetian lagoon, where the Jewish cemetery was situated. The branch from which Sir Moses Montefiore is descended emigrated to Holland, and traded there. Some mem- bers presided from time to time over the Amsterdam Congregation. Others with Hterary tastes made graceful contributions to the poetical literature of the Hispano- Jewish exiles, A Mose Mocato was a literary con- temporary of Spinoza, and one of a band of twenty- one young Jewish poets who applauded in Hebrew, Spanish, and Latin verse the publication of Joseph Penso's Hebrew dramas. The literary traditions of the family have in recent years been worthily sus- tained by Mr. Frederic D. Mocatta, with an excel- 12 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. i. lent sketch of the history of the Jews of Spain and Portugal. When, in 1688, William of Orange entered England, a large number of Dutch Jews took up their abode in this country. Among them were the Mocattas, or LumbroBO de Mattos Mocattas, as thej' were called. In 1694, Mr. Isaac de Mocatta established in Mansell Street the firm which, about three-quarters of a century later, became Mocatta and Keyser, and in 1783, when Mr. Asher Goldsmid joined it, assumed the stj'le which it still preserves of Mocatta and Goldsmid, bullion brokers to the Bank of England and the East India Company. Sir Moses Montefiore's maternal grandfather, Abraham Lumbroso de Mattos Mocatta, married about 1760 the heiress of the Lamegos, another ancient and distinguished family, one of the progenitors of which was Joseph Zapateiro de Lamego, a Jewish navigator of the fifteenth centurj', who first brought the intelligence to Europe that there was a South Cape of Africa, which could be doubled. Moses Mocatta, one of the sons of Mr. Abraham Mocatta — the names Lumbrozo de Mattos were di'opped by Royal licence in 1780 — was the author of several works, and translator of the celebrated contro- versial essay of Isaac Troki, Chizuk Emunah. He was a fellow traveller of his sister and brother-in-law in 1784, when his nephew Moses Montefiore was bom at Leghorn. It may be mentioned that through the Mocattas a sUght relationship is established between Sir Moses Montefiore and the late Earl of Beacons- CH. I.] Joseph Elias Montefiore. 13 field. The mother of the Earl, nee Sarah Basevi, was sister-in-law to Sir Moses Montefiore's uncle, Moses Mocatta, and also to Ephraim Lindo, whose hrother David Abarbanel Lindo was Sir Moses' uncle by mar- riage with Abraham Mocatta's daughter Sarah. It was David Abarbanel Lindo who performed on Lord Beaconsfield the ceremony of initiation into the Covenant of Abraham. Joseph Elias Montefiore, the father of Sir Moses, was bom in London on the 15th October, 1759, soon after his parents arrived in this country. He passed his early years in his father's warehouses in Philpot Lane, and eventually estabhshed himself on his own account in Lime Street, Fenchurch Street. Here he carried on a considerable business in Italian goods, notably Leghorn straw bonnets and Carrara marbles. On his marriage in 1783 he took a house at No. 3, Kennington Place, VauxhaU, where, in addition to his eldest son, seven children were bom to him, two sons, Abraham and Horatio, and five daughters, Sarah, Esther, Abigail, Rebecca and Justina. All the sons did well in life. Abraham, whose commercial career was identified with that of his elder brother, was twice married. By his first wife, a daughter of Mr. George Hall, of the London Stock Exchange, he had one daughter, Mary, who msirried Mr. Benjamin Mocatta, and by his second wife, Henrietta Rothschild, he had two sons (Joseph Meyer, of Worth Park, and Nathaniel Meyer, of Coldeast), and two daughters, Charlotte and Louisa, the latter of whom is the present Lady 14 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. i. Anthony de Rothschild. Horatio became a successful London merchant. He married Sarah, a daughter of David Mocatta, by whom he had a family of six sons and six daughters. His youngest son is Lieutenant- Colonel Emanuel Montefiore, late of Bombay. Of the daughters of Joseph Montefiore, the eldest, Sarah, manied first, Mr. Solomon Sebag, of London, and secondly, Mr. Moses Asher Goldsmid, youngest brother of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. She was the mother of Mr. Joseph Sebag, and mother-in-law of Mr. H. GuedaUa. The second, Esther, met her death by an accident in her fifteenth year; the third, Abigail, became the wife of Benjamin Gompertz, a well-known mathematician and actuary of the Alliance Insurance Company; the fourth, Rebecca, married Mr. Joseph Salomons, brother of the late Sir David Salomons, Bart. ; and the youngest, Justina, found a husband in the same family whence her eldest brother took his wife. She married Mr. Benjamin Cohen, of Richmond, Surrey, who was for many yeais con- nected with the elder Rothschild. One of their sons is Mr. Arthur Cohen, Q.C., M.P. All the sons of Mr. Joseph Montefiore received an elementary education at a local school, which they left early for the more serious business of life. Mi*. Moses Mocatta, who lived in Kennington Place, a short distance fi-om the Montefiores, superintended theii- studies in Hebrew and religion, and it was from him that Moses Montefiore derived that lai-ge-hearted interest in the traditions and fortunes of his race. CH. I.] Apprenticeship. 15 ■which has enabled him to exert so potent an influence on their more recent history. On leaving school each of the sons was taught a trade. Abraham was ap- prenticed to Mr. Flower, the eminent silk merchant of Watling Street. It is a curious circumstance that Mr. Flower's grandson, Mr. Cyril Flower, afterwards became the husband of one of Abraham Montfifiore's grand-daughters. Moses entered a provision house. One of his father's neighbours in Kennington Place was a Mr. Robert Johnson, head of the firm of Johnson, McCulloch, Sons, & Co., wholesale tea merchants and grocers, of 19, Eastcheap. An intimacy sprung up between the two families, and young Moses Montefiore became articled to the Eastcheap house. Here, in the closing years of the last century, he gained his first commercial experience. CHAPTER II. COMMEKCIAL CAREER. Moses Montefiore enters the Stock Bxcliange — Jewish brokers — Eminent Jews in fhe city — Abraham Montefiore joins his brother — Nathan Maier Rothschild establishes himself in London — Montefiore's marriage — Connection of the Montefiores with the Rothschilds — First news of Waterloo — Transactions of the New Court financiers — Death of Abraham Montefiore — Retirement of Moses Montefiore — The Alliance Insurance Company — Story of its establishment — The Imperial Continental Gas Association — The Slave loan — Park Lane sixty years ago. Young Montefiore did not continue long in the trade for which his father had destined him. More rapid fortunes were to be made in the money business, in which at that period the house founded by his mother's family, Messrs. Mocatta and Goldsmid, " Brokers in Bullion, Specie, Diamonds and Pearls, G-rigsby's Coffee House, near Bank," occupied a prominent position. Of a handsome presence, over six feet in height, engaging in his manners, and a Captain in the Surrey Militia, Montefiore was ver\' much liked by his rich relatives, and was a frequent guest at the palatial residences of the Goldsmids at Morden and Eoehampton. At Asher Goldsmid's house, on one occasion, he met Lord Nelson at dinner, and chanted the lengthy Grace after meals of the Hebrew CH. 11.] On the Stock Exchange. 17 liturgy in his presence. His intimacy with Asher Goldsmid's gifted son seems to have strongly influenced his own character. Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was an earnest philanthropist, as well as an astute financier. The Mend subsequently of Brougham, James Mill, Mrs. Fry, and Eobert Owen, a busy advocate of Negro Emancipation, the restriction of capital punishment, and the cause of popular education, he was eminently fitted to be the companion of one who was destined to rank conspicuously among the philanthropists of the age. Moses Montefiore having testified a desire to adopt a Stock Exchange career, his uncles purchased for him for £1200 the right to practise as one of the twelve Jewish brokers licensed by the City. The fact that the number of Jewish brokers was then limited is an interesting indication of the restrictions under which the Jews of England lived in Moses Montefiore's youth. Sometimes even these restrictions were not considered sufficiently narrow by enemies of the Jews. On one occasion when a Jew applied to be admitted as broker in the City of London, a petition was presented by the Christian brokers, praying for its rejection. The terms of the petition are extremely curious. It was entitled : — " Beasons offered humbly to the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen against a Jew (who is a known enemy to the Christian religion), his being admitted a broker." The reasons alleged were six in number, and recited in substance that the Jews had by statute no right to immunities and privileges of any i8 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [oh. ti kind, and that every branch of trade would be injured by admitting them as brokers. The statement of fact contained in these reasons cannot of course be dis- puted ; the prophecy, however, has happily failed to be realised, even with the abolition of the restric- tion by which the number of Jewish brokers was limited.* On the Stock Exchange Moses Montefiore's amiable disposition rendered him very popular. His enter- prise, industry, and steadiness, too, obtained for him the confidence of many clients. "Always remember that it is better to earn a pound, than toss for two," said an old Scotch friend, to whom he applied for advice when about to commence business on his own account ; and this counsel would always occur to him when he felt tempted to plunge into speculation. His enterprise is illustrated by his issuing a weekly price list of securities at a time when such publications were almost unknown. At first his office was at Grigsby's Coffee House, where he basked in the prestige of his maternal uncle's patronage ; but later on he established himself successively at No. 1, Birchin Lane, and 3, Bartholomew Lane. In course of time he was joined by his brother, Abraham Montefiore, who had realised * " The last recorded instance of a Jew purchasing the right to act as broker took place in 1826, when Mr. J. B. Montefiore bonght for 1500 guineas from Sir William Magnay, the then Lord Mayor, the medal which formed the title deed of the privilege, and which had lapsed by the death of the previous owner. Two years after, the absurd limitation was removed." — Piciotto, "Sketches of Anglo- Jewish History," p. 386. CH. 11.] The City Jews. 19 a small fortune in the silk trade, but was ambitious to torn over his money more rapidly than was possible in industrial undertakings. The firm of Montefiore Bros, carried on business in Shorter's Court, Throg- morton Street. The year in which Moses Montefiore was admitted into the Stock Exchange also witnessed the entry into the same institution of David Eicardo, subsequently member of Parliament for Portarlington, and the ablest economist of his day. David Eicardo had seceded from Judaism, and left the parental roof as a mere youth ; and Christian strangers had helped him in his studies and his financial career. His father, to whom his apostasy was the source of an abiding sorrow, still carried on business as a merchant at Garraway's Coflfee House. The Eothsciulds of the time were Messrs. Benjamin and Abraham Groldsmid, of 6, Capel Court, whose town houses were in Finsbury Square and Spital Square, and who possessed princely estates at Morden and Eoehampton. At this period Lord Beaconsfield's maternal and paternal grandfathers were still familiar figures in the City. Naphtali Basevi, or, as he was called in the Sjoiagogue, Naphtali de Solomon Bathsheba, was a merchant in Wormwood Street, Broad Street ; Benjamin D'Israeli had retired from the firm of D'Israeli and Parkins, of which he had been the head, and was Hving in Charles Street, Stoke Newington, but he stiU occasionally looked in to the City, and transacted business at Tom's Coffee House, Cornhill. C 2 20 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. n. With all their industry and ability it is doubtful whether the Montefiores would have been as successful as they eventually were, had it not been for their con- nection with the boldest speculator and shrewdest financier of the time, Nathan Maier Eothscluld. In 1812, when this connection commenced, Rothschild was only thirty-five years old, but he had already founded, on a secure basis, the English branch of the world-ffimed house of which he was destined to become the leading spirit. In his twentieth year, such was his father's confidence in him, that he had despatched him to Manchester with £20,000 in his pocket to start in business as a manufacturer of cotton goods, and within five years he had increased this capital tenfold. In 1802 his father's financial transactions with England assumed such large proportions that he found it neces- sary to estabUsh a branch of his banking business in London. He called upon Nathan to undertake its organization and management. The well-known pro- bity of the elder Rothschild had made him the de- positary of the fortunes of many of the French nobility, who, fleeing from the terrors and conquering armies of the Republic, knew not where to lodge their money for safety. Rothschild took it into his keeping, and in due time transmitted it to his son in London, who turned it to good account. Unacquainted with the sources of Nathan Rothschild's capital, the steady- going city folk of those days looked askance at the large transactions of the new financier ; and when, in 1806, he asked the wealthy Levi Barent Cohen, of CH. II.] Nathan Maier Rothschild. 21 Angel Court, Throgmorton Street, for his daughter, it was not unnaturally thought that the speculating stranger was more attracted hy the young lady's dowry of £10,000 than by her personal charms. Mr. Cohen himself hesitated at first to give his consent to the marriage, whereupon, it is said, the future millionaire attempted to calm his intended father-in-law's fears by the characteristic remark : "If, instead of giving me one of your daughters, you could give me all, it would be the best stroke of business you had ever done." The year in which the marriage took place (1806) was a fortunate one for the Eothschilds. It was the year which saw the power of Prussia broken on the field of Jena. Immediately after the battle, Napoleon, with his usual high-handedness, expelled the Elector William I. of Hesse-Cassel from his dominions, al- though he had previously recognised him as one of the neutral princes. Before his flight the Elector de- posited large siuns of money with Maier Bothscluld, who had for some years acted as his Court agent, and these sums — said to have amounted to nearly £600,000 — ^the latter was successful in transmitting to his son in London. With this accession of capital Nathan EothschUd was enabled to enter upon a large exten- sion of his financial operations. The times were propitious to so long-headed a capitalist. The coalition against Napoleon drew large sums of gold from England, and EothschUd became the paymaster of the allied forces. How sagaciously he utilised every opportunity for turning over his capital may be judged 22 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. h. from the circumstance that he once bought bills of the Duke of Wellington at a discount, then sold to Govern- ment the gold wherewith to cash them, and finally undertook to convey the money to Portugal to pay the troops. It was he who organized the vast network of agencies all over Europe which gave the firm the earhest political information, and at the same time the means of turning it to the most comprehensive account. In the infancy of steam he had special steamboats to bring his news from Boulogne to Dover, and carrier pigeons to fly with it to Lon- don. The value of his Continental agencies was recognised in 1809 by the British Government, who, during that year, remitted through his house all the sums despatched to the Continent to keep up the struggle with Napoleon. When, in 1810, the money- market was left without an acknowledged head, owing to the death of Abraham Goldsmid, Rothschild be- came, by general consent, the arbiter of the Stock Exchange. The coimection of the Montefiores with this remark- able man was brought about in 1812, when Moses Montefiore married Judith Cohen, a daughter of Levi Barent Cohen, and sister-in-law of the future millionaire. Later on Abraham Montefiore espoused as his second wife Rothschild's sister Henrietta, and their daughter Louisa married in 1840 Rothschild's second son, Anthony. Moses Montefiore took a house in New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, adjoining the one occupied by his CH. II.] Rothschild and Montefiore. 23 brother-in-law. A warm friendship sprung up between the two men, and Montefiore became intimately as- sociated with Rothschild in all his enterprises. His business career from this time is inseparable from that of his brother-in-law, for whom he acted as stockbroker. In 1813 the transactions of the firm in New Court entered on a phase of unparalleled magni- tude. The allies arrayed an army of nearly a million of men against Napoleon, and Eothschild strained every nerve to keep Lord Castlereagh well supplied with funds. In that year he made his first public appearance as an English loan contractor, bringing out a loan for £12,000,000. The time of the Napoleonic wars afforded a host of opportunities for the acquisition of wealth ; but what were chances to the majority of speculators were cer- tainties to the financiers of New Court Rothschild's agents kept him supplied with the latest intelligence, tod in his counting-bouse more was known of the movements of armies and of the schemes of Continental statesmen than in Downing Street itself. Both the escape from Elba and the result of the battle of Waterloo were known to him before any other man in England. Sir Moses still relates to the few visitors he is allowed to receive how, at five o'clock one morning, he was roused by Mr. Rothschild with the intelligence that Napoleon had eluded the vigilance of the English cruisers and had landed at Cannes. Hastily dressing himself, he received instructions what sales to effect on the Exchange, and then Mr. Roth- 24 The Life of Sir Moses Monteflore. [ch. h. schild went to communicate his information to the Ministry. A French courier had brought the news, too precious to be entrusted to the usual pigeon-post, and when, in the evening, he was given a packet of despatches for the correspondents from whom he had come, Mr. Eothschild asked him, as he filled a stirrup- cup, if he knew what news he had brought. The man answered " No." " Napoleon has escaped fi-om Elba and is now in France," announced Mr. Eothschild. For a moment the man looked incredulous. Then waving his glass, he shouted " Vive I'Empereur ! " and enthusiastically tossed off a bumper. As the courier took his leave Eothschild turned to his brother-in-law and said reflectively, "If that is the temper of the French I foresee we shall have some trouble yet." Mr. Eothschild was not an ungenerous employer, and the Httie Frenchman, to whom he was indebted for many valuable services, he subsequently set up in business in Calais. "When Sir Moses, in after-years, had occasion to visit the Continent, he frequently visited the ex-courier and indulged in a chat with him on the stirring times in which he had faithfully borne his part. A change now took place in the transactions of New Court. The feverish anxieties of war time were over, and financial operations became foimded on a firmer and more substantial basis. In other respects the character of the business carried on by Mr. Eoth- schild and his colleagues was little altered. Instead of CH. 11.] Retirement from Business. 25 finding money to pay aamies they now had to provide the means for re-organizing the imsetiled European Governments. The French undertook to give com- pensation to the allies for every kind of damage caused by the armies of the Consulate and Empire, and to pay an indemnity of 700,000,000 francs. Altogether two milliards were required, and it devolved upon the Rothschilds to negotiate loans for the settlement of this huge claim. In 1824 Abraliam Montefiore died at Lyons, on his way home from Cannes, whither he had gone for the re-estabKshment of his health. He had been excep- tionally fortunate on the Stock Exchange, and left behind him an immense fortune. Moses Montefiore had also accumulated considerable wealth, and now, past the midway of life, without children to work for or partner to assist him, he began to consider whether he might not free himself &om the labours and anxieties of money-getting. As was his wont, he turned to his beloved wife for advice, and her coimsel — " Thank God, and be content " — ^he followed. The year in which Sir Moses retired fi:om business was the stormiest the City had known since the days of the South Sea Bubble, but, as in 1721 so in 1825, the Jewish financial houses stood as firm as a rock. "With a few companies, of which he was President or Director, Mr. Montefiore continued his connection. Among these were the Alliance Insurance Company, the Imperial Continental Gas Association, the Pro- vincial Bank of Ireland, and the British, Irish, and 26 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. u Colonial Silk Company. Of the two first he was a founder. The establishment of the Alliance was brought about by the unsuccessful candidature of Mr. Benjamin Gompertz, a brother-in-law of Mr, Monte- fiore, for the post of actuary to the Guardian Office. It was whispered at the time that Mr. Gompertz owed his want of success to the fact of his being a Jew, and much indignation was excited among his co-religionists in consequence. Dissatisfaction also prevailed in the Jewish community at the difficulties which the existing companies interposed in the way of granting fire policies to Jews, the impression appear- ing to prevail that arson had some peculiar charm for the Hebrew. Mr. Montefiore consulted Mr. Roth- schild on the subject, and suggested the formation of a new insurance office. In this Mr. Rothschild con- ciured, although he was already a shareholder in the Guardian, and very soon an influential directorate was brought together. Curiously enough the strong Jewish character of the new office became an important element in its success. It had not then been ascer- tained that the Jews enjoyed a greater longevity than other races, and their lives were consequently insured at rates determined by the ordinary actuarial calcula- tions. Some fifteen years later Hoffinann of Berlin, and BemouiUi of Basle, commenced the elaborate studies in vital statistics which have since proved that Jewish lives are, on an average, nearly fifty per cent, more valuable than those of any other known people. The Gas Association was at first not so successful. CH. 11.] Joint Stock Enterprises. 27 Its object was to extend the system of gas-lighting to the principal European cities. Only ten years before men of scientific eminence, among them Davy, Wol- laston, and Watt, had declared that coal gas could never be safely applied to the purposes of street lighting, and an immense amount of prejudice still remained to be encountered. Progress was extremely slow, and for seventeen years Sir Moses took no director's fees. During his foreign tours he paid many anxious visits to the company's Continental establishments. He was frequently advised to terminate the operations of the company, but he declined. His courage and enter- prise were ultimately rewarded. The company gra- dually turned the comer, and is now one of the most prosperous of the commercial societies in the City. Of both these companies Sir Moses still remains President, and it is his custom to give an annual dinner to all employed in their London offices. In 1836 the Royal Society recognised his exertions in the early introduction of gas by electing him a Fellow, as "a gentleman much attached to science and its practical use." His supporters on the occasion were Sir Richard Vyvyan, Dr. Babington, Dr. Pettigrew, Colonel Colby, and others. Sir Moses was also one of the original directors of the Provincial Bank of Ireland, and So great was his interest in that undertaking that, when its offices were opened in Dublin, he made a special journey across St. George's Channel to issue its first note over the counter. Later in life he joined the board of the South 28 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. n. Eastern Kailway Company on its fonnation ; and he was also concerned in financing the loan of £20,000,000 by which the objects of the Slave Emancipation move- ment of 1833 were carried out. On his retirement Mr. Montefiore sold his residence in New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, to the Alliance Insurance Company, and, as befitted a gentleman of fortune and leisure, took a house in the fashionable West. This was in Green Street, Park Lane. He afterwards removed to his present address, 35, Park Lane, then 10, Grosvenor Gate. Mr. Kothschild appears to have taken a house about the same time in Piccadilly, and the brothers-in-law were, consequently, stiU neighbours. The district was then compara- tively new, and as open and suburban as Kilbum and WiUesden at the present day. The row of houses in which Mr. Montefiore took up his abode was un- finished, and where the Marble Arch now stands were tea-houses"and the booths of donkey and pony-keepers, who hired out their cattle to children for a gallop down the Bayswater Boad. CHAPTER III. FIEST VISIT TO THE HOLT LAND. May Day, 1827 — The start from Park Lane — London to Dover in twelve hours — Posting through France — ^Aged poor on the route — Dangers of Eastern travel — The Greek insurrection and the Powers — Pirates in the Mediterranean — Mr. Montefiore engages a schooner and is convoyed to Alexandria by a sloop of war — Chase of a pirate — From Alexandria to Cairo — Interview with Mehemet Ali — New Tear at Alexandria— Journey to Jaffa dis- guised as Turks — Eeception at Jerusalem — The Jews of the Holy Land — The return journey — Battle of Navarino — Admiral Sir William Codrington entrusts Mr. Montefiore vrith despatches — Home again — Mr. Montefiore and H. E. H. the Duke of Clarence. It is May-day in the year 1827 — a typical May-day. Not a speck is visible in the gleaming sky, and the trees of Hyde Park are clad in their full robes of green. A concert of carolling and chirping songsters comes from the leafy shadows, and the air is laden with perfume from the flower gardens of the neighbourhood. Eight o'clock has not yet struck, but notwithstanding the earliness of the hour one of the houses in Park Lane is already astir. A capacious travelling carriage with four horses stands at the door, and servants are busy packing away valises and trunks, and all the requisites for a protracted journey. Mr. and Mrs. Montefiore are about to imdertake 30 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. hi. their long-contemplated visit to the Holy Land, the cradle of their race, the theatre of the most remarkable episodes in its stupendous history. Many a time in the brief hohdays snatched from the absorbing occupa- tions of their City life, the worthy and pious couple had laid out plans for a visit in the following year to the hallowed soil in which so much of their historic sympathy centred, but when the time came something always occurred to prevent it — either political compli- cations rendered travelling in the Mediterranean unsafe, or Mr. Montefiore could not be spared from the Stock Exchange — and so they were obliged to content them- selves vdth another peep at Paris, or a short stay at Rome, or a visit to the birthplace of the Montefiores in the city of the Medicis, or sometimes only with a ramble along the South coast, amid scenes consecrated by the recollections of their honeymoon. Now, how- ever, the City had ceased to have an imperative claim on Mr. Montefiore's time, and the cherished project was to be realised. At six o'clock Mr. Montefiore had gone, as was his wont, to attend early morning service in the synagogue, and thither, as soon as the travelling carriage was ready, his wife proceeded, first stopping for a moment in Piccadilly to wave her adieux to young Hannah Eothschild,* who had risen thus early to bid her beloved aunt and uncle God speed. The carriage clattered • Afterwards wife of the Eight Hon. Henry Fitzroy, and mother of the present Lady Coutts Lindsay of Balcarres. CH. III.] Posting through France. 31 into the City, took up Mr. Montefiore in Bevis Marks, and made its way towards the Dover Road. Breakfast was taken at Dartford and dinner at Canterbury, and at the end of twelve hours the travellers alighted at Dover. Very interesting is Mrs. Montefiore's diary* of the journey which commenced so auspiciously oin this bright May morning ; particularly as showing how primitive still were the conditions of foreign travel fifty years ago. It is not surprising to learn that, when it took twelve hours to journey to Dover, three months were required to reach Malta, and that only after seven weeks more could Jerusalem be entered. Nor were the circumstances of this voj'age less striking and romantic than one might expect from its primitive character, albeit its date is so comparatively recent. Mr. and Mrs. Montefiore embarked from Dover under a salute of guns in honour of their fellow- passenger, the Prussian Ambassador, who was about to take leave of absence. The travelling carriage was put on board, and served as a cabin during the passage. Arrived at Calais, the Montefiores were joined by their relatives, Mr. and Mrs. David Salomons, and together they proceeded to post through France. Boulogne, Montreml, Abbeville, Grandvilliers, Beaumont, and Charenton were reached in rapid succession, the out- skirts of Paris were passed, a brisk run was enjoyed on the Melun road, the Autun mountain was scaled, and • Privately printed in 1836. 32 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. m. on the 11th May Lyons was reached. Here the happy party was saddened by the receipt of letters announcing the death of a relative, and their depression was not relieved when, in the course of the evening, Mr. Montefiore discovered that they were stopping in the hotel in which his brother Abraham had breathed his last three years before. So far, however, the journey had been a happy one. Every now and then we read of Mrs. Montefiore enjoying " a stage outside the coach with dear M ," " a little variety," adds the diarist, with almost girlish archness, "which made it pleasing to all parties." Little dreaming of the old age that one of their party was destined to attain, the travellers took an especial delight in relieving the wants of the aged poor on their route. At Chambery they assisted a poverty-stricken woman who was stated to be 114 years old ; at Lans-le-bourg one of the appUcants for their bounty was 93 ; and at a village on the dreary mountain side of Badi- cofani, " which seems the asylum of poverty, Monte- fiore gaive the curate a dollar for the oldest person in the place, who they said had only the heavens for his covering and the earth for his couch." Having traversed the Mont Cenis without accident, and written a few grateful sentences in their prayer books for their " safe passage across the Alpine barrier," the travellers arrived at Florence in time to celebrate Shebuoth (the Feast of Weeks). The gentle- men went to the synagogue at seven in the morning, but the heat was so great that the ladies were obliged CH. HI.] Pirates in the Mediterranean. 33 to conduct their devotions at their hotel. Naples, their last resting place on the European mainland, was reached during the rejoicings of the festa of Corpus Domini, and here the Montefiores bade fare- well to their travelling companions. Bumoors now began to reach the voyagers x>{ the dangers of travelling in the East. The Greek in- surrection had attracted the official attention of Europe in consequence of the cruelties of Ibrahi'^ Pacha in the Peloponnesus, and the relations between the Porte and the Powers were becoming strained; It was pointed out to Mr. Montefiore that, under these circumstances, a journey to Palestine was fraught with great peril. The Duke of Eichelieu, on his way home from Egypt, happened, however, to stop at Naples^ and he reassured the travellers. They determined to proceed. The Portia, a 176 ton brig, was engaged to take them to Messina, whence they were carried in a litter over the Sicilian mountains, and at Capo Passero embarked in a speranara, or two-masted open row- boat, for Malta. General Ponsonbj', the Governor; received them most cordially, but did not allay their anxieties as to the safety of Eastern travel. So law- less had the high seas become in consequence of the disorganized state of Oriental politics, that it had been found necessary to despatch a large naval force against the pirates. Mr. Montefiore, high-spirited and sahgi^ine, was with difficulty dissuaded from taking passage in an tmescorted merchantman. On the 1st August news was received that an ultimatum had been 34 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. in. presented to the Porte by the British, French, and Kussian Ministers, and again the ti'avellers •were warned that it would be " too enterprising " to proceed until a reply had been handed to the Powers by the Sultan. Still Mr. Montefiore " seems bent upon going at all events," and the Leonidas, a vessel of 380 tons burden, carrying twenty-two men, " which we trust will be amply sufficient to repel the attacks of pirates," was engaged for £550 to take him and his wife to Alexandria. Mrs. Montefiore now became indisposed — the anxieties of the journey had apparently told upon her — and it was not until the welcome intelligence was received that the Leonidas was to be convoyed to Alexandria by the Gannet sloop of war, that she wag enabled to leave her chamber. Having relieved the poor of the Malta congregation, and given a farewell breakfast to the chiefs of the Synagogue, the travellers again embarked. On the seventh day after their departure the Gannet gave chase to a supposed pirate, but " the valiant anticipations of making a capture were vain," Otherwise the voyage was quiet and dull. On the tweKth day they arrived at Alexandria, where they passed a couple of days examining the antiquities of the city. Then, in three days more, they partly sailed and were partly towed up the Nile in a cangia to Cairo. Here they explored the Great Pyramid under the guidance of a Bedouin, who told them he had acted in the same capacity to Napoleon, and on the 5th September they were presented to Mehemet Ali. The portrait of this re- CB- "I.] Mehemet All. 35 markable man, sketched by Mrs. Montefiore, is very interesting : — " The conversation was supported in a lively manner by the Pacha for three-quarters of an hour. He smoked and ordered coflfee to be seiTed. His pipe was richly studded with diamonds and other precious stones. He encourages every new invention and improvement, and informed Montefiore of his having established silk and other manufactories in his territories ; and that he had planted numbers of olive and mulberry trees. His extensive mercantile transactions were, however, a great source of jealousy and dissatisfaction to his subjects, who are thereby deprived of the advantages of com- petition and unfettered trade. He would not grant a farmer a longer lease than a year, and fixed the price of all the produce of the land himself. At the age of forty-five he commenced learning to read and write, which he persevered in to his satisfaction ; a singular instance of strength of mind. All his vast trans- actions are managed by himself, and every written document passes under his inspection. He told Monte- fiore that he never indulges in more than Tour hoiu^ sleep during the night. He might prove a great character in the world were he entirely unfettered." This interview laid the foundation of a lasting friendship. Mehemet Ali was so charmed with his Jewish visitor that he proposed to him to act as his agent in England. Although Mr. Montefiore's retire- D 2 36 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. m. ment from business rendered his acceptance of this offer impracticable, he has always maintained relations of a friendly character with the Egyptian Court. "When, in after years. Said Pacha, a successor of Mehemet, sent his son Toussoun to England to be educated, his guardianship was confided to Sir Moses. Another cangia took the travellers back to Alex- andria, but there the chances of being able to reach Jerusalem in safety became more than ever remote. The Sultan — or " Grand Signor," as Mrs. Montefiore calls him in old-fashioned phrase — ^had not deigned to reply to the ultimatum of the Powers, and war seemed imminent. Mr. Montefiore was in despair ; liis good wife, not so ardent to brave danger, philosophised on the "futility and weakness of all human plans." Their position was anything but enviable. One person told them tliat Abdullah, the Pacha of Damascus, was in- imical to all Em-opeans, and " that a Frank by going to Syria would run the risk of being massacred." To return was equally out of the question, for no convoy was available, and the pirates had assembled in force. " You win certainly be sold for slaves if you stir," said Mr. Salt, the British Consul, and so they were obliged to pass the Jewish New Year "pent up in a miserable room, in a confined street, and suffocating from the sands and hot blasts of the sirocco wind." Mrs. Montefiore adds, complacently, that her husband " now began to comprehend that travelling is not always divested of disagreeables." In this way they were detained several weeks in CH. III.] Jerusalem. 37 Egypt; but eventually they resolved, in defiance of all danger, to set sail for JajGfa. Mrs. Montefiore donned the Turkish bernische aad white muslin turban and veil, in order to pass for a Mussulman lady, in case of accidents. Several of the European gentlemen on board also assumed an Oriental garb ; but Mr. Montefiore, gallant as ever, refused all solicitations to disguise himself. Fortunately Jaffa was reached in safety ; and, after some parleying, the travellers were allowed by the Turkish authorities to land, and to proceed to Jerusalem. By all classes of the population of the holy city they were received with overwhelming cordiality. So delighted were the Jews to welcome one of their own fiEiith, who was affluent and honoured, that the Chacham, in his enthusiasm, likened Mr. Montefiore's visit to the coming of the Messiah. The Governor invited him to his house, offered him pipes and coffee, and ordered a scribe to add a handsome eulogium to his passport, to which he affixed his name and seal. The travellers had entered Jerusalem with the pro- foundest reverence ; but this feeling was soon trans- formed into pity for its " fallen, desolate, and abject condition," as Mrs. Montefiore describes it. This is the account her diary gives of the state of the Holy Land: — "Many were the solemn thoughts which rose in our minds on finding ourselves in this Holy Land : the country of our ancestors, of our religion, and of our former greatness, but now, alas ! of persecution and 38 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. m. oppression. We hear from every one of the extor- tions that are levied, and that there is no means of support, except such as is provided by the bounty of other coimtries, with the exception of the little help aflforded by the few families who continue here from a principle of religious enthusiasm, and contribute all in their power to the support of the necessitous. There are four Synagogues adjoining each other, belonging to the Portuguese, who form the principal portion of the Jewish community* The Germans have only one place of worship, and the greater proportion of the population are from Poland. . . » There is no com- merce; and shops are not suffered on terms which admit of their becoming profitable." On the 21st October they left Jerusalem. During the whole of the preceding night seventeen Babbis sat up prajong for them in the Synagogue. The next morning the Portuguese high priest came at an early hour to give them his blessing ; and then, amid the good wishes of a numerous multitude, who followed them to the gates, they set out on their return journey. This visit to Jerusalem impressed the travellers deeply; it gave a deep-seated and serious purpose to their lives ; it cemented the foundations of that ardent interest in the fortunes of their oppressed race, and suffering humanity generally, which has written the name of "Montefiore" so large in the history of Judaism and philanthropy. How deeply this influence was felt, even at the early period of this first journey. CH. III.] The Return Journey. 39 may be seen in Mrs. Montefiore's eloquent words at the close of her chapter on Jerusalem : — " ' Farewell, Holy City ! ' we exclaimed, in our hearts. ' Blessed be the Almighty, who. has protected us while contemplating the sacred scenes which environ thee ! Thankful may we ever be for His manifold mercies ! May the fountain of our feelings evermore run in the current of praise and entire devotion to His win and His truth, till the time shall arrive when the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.' " The return journey was undertaken not a moment too soon; indeed, had it not been for the slowness with which news travelled in the year 1827, the de« parture of the Montefiores from Turkish territory might not have been altogether unmolested. The battle of Navarino had been fought the day before they left Jerusalem, and they arrived in Alexandria in time to hear the Arab women lamenting the disaster in the public streets. Nor had all danger from pirates passed away. Vessels preceding them had been attacked by the Greek buccaneers ; and at Alexandria they wit- nessed the arrival of one of these corsairs in the safe custody of a French cutter. The journey back to Malta was fuU of anxieties. Being without convoy, they asked the chief officer of the ship whether he would offer any resistance were he attacked. " Oh, certainly ! " was the encouraging reply. " Do you 40 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. hi. think I should tamely consent to have my ship pillaged, when I have the promise of Captain Montefiore's assistance, and four loaded guns to the vessel?" " Then we have a chance of having our throats cut ! " tlankly exclaimed Dr. Madden, who was of the party. Their usual good fortune attended them, however ; and, after a somewhat stonny voyage, Malta was safely reached. Here they met Admiral Sir William Codrington, to whom they had letters of introduction, and were entrusted by him with despatches, on the subject of Navarino, to the Duke of Clarence, after- wards William IV. Homeward then they travelled with all speed. H.M.S. Mastiff carried them in six days to Messina, and thence to Naples ; and much the .same route as the outward journey brought them in eight weeks to London. The despatches, of which he was the bearer, Mr. Montefiore delivered at the house of the Duke of Clarence before going to his own home. Next morn- ing His Eoyal Highness sent for him to Park Lane, to thank him personally for his complaisance. In the course of the conversation that ensued. His Eoyal Highness asked what people in the East were saying -of Navarino ? " That it could not be prevented," was the answer ; " for, a,s the British commander him- self said, • when the British flag is insulted, an English admiral knows what is his duty!'" To which the Duke replied, musingly, " Inevitable ! Inevitable ! " CHAPTER IV. EARLY COMMUNAL LABOUES. Ineligibility of minors for membeiship of the Synagogue — Mr. Montefiore petitions the Council of Elders for admission — Petition granted on the same day that a new Chief Rabbi is elected — Mr. Montefiore's zeal in the service of the Synagogue — He holds office — Becomes treasuiei — Isaac D'IsraeU's Synagogue account — Keaches the dignity of Pamats — Signatures in old minute books — The "Montefiore" Almshouses — Extra-syna- gogual labours — The Lavadores — The two " nations " in the Jewish community — Mr. Montefiore disapproves of the division — Contributes by his marriage and his advice to its eradication — Devotes himself to the emancipation struggle — Becomes a member of the Board of Deputies — Throws himself with energy into the work — Purchases East CMS. Lodge — Could Jews hold land ?— Former residents at East Cliff. For nearly a quarter of a century previous to the journey described in the last chapter, Mr. Montefiore had been an earnest and active member of the Syna- gogue. From his earliest youth he had been a punctual attendant at the services, and, from the time lie attained man's estate, a generous contributor to the congregational funds. It was one of the rules of the Portuguese Synagogue that no one should be eligible for membership of the congregation before his twenty- first year, and this rule was only waived under exceptional circumstances, and on receipt of a petition for admission from the youthfid candidate. On the 42 The Life of Sir Moses Montefore. [en. iv. 4th November, 1804, an important meeting of the Council of Elders was held under the presidency of Mr. Jacob Samuda, the Warden President, for the purpose of electing a new Chief Eabbi. After a long deUberation the choice fell upon the learned Eabbi Raphael Meldola, of Leghorn, and a hojie was expressed that this gentleman would succeed in reviving the religious spirit of the congregation, which since the death of the late Chacham Azevedo had been very conspicuously waning. Towards the con- clusion of the meeting the chairman announced that he had received a petition from Mr. Moses Montefiore, of Vauxhall, who, although only twenty years of age, was desirous of being admitted a Yahid, or member of the congregation. A few questions were asked, and the prayer was unanimously granted. To no two men is English Judaism more substantially indebted than Chacham Meldola and Sir Moses Montefiore, and it is an interesting coincidence that they were elected members of the community, though in widely drflferent ranks, on the same day. The Synagogue authorities had no reason to regret their infraction of the law in admitting Mr. Montefiore. A more regular atteadant at the services had never been seen within the Synagogue walls. Every morning, at seven o'clock, he was in his place, piously offering up his prayers to the God of his ancestors. As his means improved, so year by year he increased his contributions to the Synagogue exchequer ; and, at the meetings of the Yehidim, no one evinced a more earnest CH. IV.] Becomes Parnass and Gabay. 43 interest in the affairs of the congregation. He soon took rank in the communitj', and one by one served all the various offices connected with the administration. He was successively Parnass or Governor of the Terra Santa and Cautivos funds, of the Hospital, the Burial Society, and the Theological College. In 1814 he became Gabay, or Treasurer, and, in that capacity, had doubtless much to do with the celebrated Syna- gogue account, which Isaac D'Israeli refused to pay in that year, and which eventually led to the secession of the DTsraelis from the Jewish community. Five years later he reached the proud position of Parnass, or Warden-President of the congregation. Six times he has served this important post, the last occasion on which his towering form was seen in the Banca (warden's box) being in 1854. His assiduity in the discharge of his duties may be seen by a reference to the ininute books of the congregation. He appears to have been very rarely absent from the various meetings, and hundreds of times his signature, in a neat Italian hand, may be read at the foot of the records of the proceedings. Previous to 1826 his autograph appeal's in the Hebrew style, viz., " Moseh de Joseph Eliau Montefiore ;" subsequent to that date he adopted his present signature, " Moses Montefiore," and, except that it is somewhat firmer, it differs in no respect from his signature at the present day. In 1823 Mr. Montefiore presented the Synagogue with an estate of thirteen houses in Cock Court, Jewry Street, on the condition that the rents arising during 44 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. iv. five years should be invested to form a repairing fund, and then the dwellings should be occupied by deserving poor. The " Montefiore Almshouses " are still an interesting feature in the Sephardic community. Mr. Montefiore did not confine his attention to organisations immediately connected with the Syna- gogue. He co-operated in all the various societies which laboured for the communal welfare. His unostentatious but practical piety in this respect is illustrated by his connection with the Lavadores, an extra- Synagogual Society for washing the dead and preparing the bodies for burial. There is no more sacred duty incumbent on the Israelite than to perform the last offices for the dying and the dead. The importance of the duty in Jewish teaching has been beautifully expressed by Heinrich Heine : — " Drei Gebote Bind die Hochsten : Gastrecht iiben, Kranke pflegeu Und zum Grabe hin den Todten Hit Gebeten zu geleiten." As a matter of fact the teaching goes beyond mere prayer at bmial. The duty is prescribed of washing and coffining the corpse, and so highly is this duty esteemed that the discharge of it is held to be a privilege to which only the most blameless Jews may be admitted. Hence in every community a voluntary society exists charged with this function, and the most jealous care is exercised over the admission of members. The wealthiest Jews are frequently found among them, and, in former years, member- OH. iv.] The Lavadores. 45 ship conveyed a higher distinction than wealth or rank. In foreign countries, when the Jews desire to render particular honour to an eminent non-Jew, they elect him an honorary member of their Chevra Kadisha, as the society is called in the German communities. One of these at Grosswardein recently elected M. Tisza, the Hungarian Premier, a member, in acknow- ledgment of his defence of the Israelites against the Anti-Semitic agitators. The late Emperor Ferdinand of Austria was a member of the Chevra Kadislui of Pi-ague, and whenever his name appeared on the rota he never failed to appoint a Jewish substitute to perform his duties. The English Jews established their society of 'Lavadores in 1723. It consists of twenty-five members, each of whom pays an entrance fee and an annual contribution towards the expenses. Mr. Montefiore was admitted a member in 1808. Among the dead for whom he jierformed the last offices was the very Chacham Meldola who entered the Anglo-Jewish community on the same day that he was elected a Ydhid. On the seventieth anniversary of his entrance into the society he was re-appointed its Governor, although, of course, miable any longer to undertake the work attached to the office. Orthodox in his principles, and strictly observant of the minute. Jewish ceremonial, Moses Montefiore was still a far-seeing and liberal man of the world. His superiority to ancient prejudices was illustrated by his marriage. There was a time when unions between Spanish and German Jews were frowned upon by the 46 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. iv aristocratic denizens of Bevis Marks. The pride of the Sephardim, nurtured in the most brilliant age of Spanish culture, of which they were at once the pro- moters and the ornaments, had never been broken. Even the colossal persecution under Ferdinand and Isabella had not humbled them, and in their exile they shrunk instinctively from fellowship with their German and Polish brethren, upon whose sad history not one ray of light had been shed, and who had been reduced by ceaseless oppression to a lowly, pettifogging, almost an ignoble race. The barrier between the two "nations," as they were called, although imsanctioned by law or ritual, continued for a long time after the German Jews in this country had vindicated their native Hebrew energy and skill by commercial and intellectual successes. As late as 1744, when Jacob Bemal, an ancestor of the present Duchess of St. Albans, desired to wed a German Jewess, he had to apply for leave to the Mahamad or Council of Elders of the Synagogue, and then he only obtained permis- sion under the most humiliating conditions. This and kindred prejudices had never found a supporter in Moses Montefiore. By his mai-riage in 1812 with a " Tedesco " — for the Cohen family belonged to that plebeian section of the community — he contributed to break it down. The folly and injustice of the division between the two " nations " became apparent to him as soon as he made the acquaintance of his wife's accomplished family. When he began to think over the struggle the Jews would soon have to sustain in CH. IV.] The Two " Nations." 47 order to win a legal and social equality with their Christian fellow-citizens, his intelligence assured him that any such division in the community was a source of absolute danger to its interests. In almost every city he has visited during his several missions to foreign countries, he has preached the necessity of communal union to his co-religionists. In Jerusalem he spoke earnestly on the subject to the eccle^astical chiefs during his first visit. " Discord and differences in the bosom of Judaism have been my greatest grief," he significantly said in 1863, to a deputation which waited upon him at Pesth, from the most orthodox and unbending of the Jewish congregations in the city. Deeply impressed with what he had seen of the degraded condition of his co-religionists in the East, daring his tour in 1827, Mr. Montefiore resolved, soon after his return to England, to take a still more active part in the public life of the Anglo-Jewish community. A survey of the condition of his brethren assured him that it would be impossible for them to do any- thing of importance for the benefit of oppressed foreign communities. It was obviously necessary that they should win their own freedom first ; and he was grati- fied to see, that for a struggle to this end both the times and the condition of his co-religionists were favourable. Mr. Montefiore's views on Jewish emanci- pation were not of an heroic kind, but they were intelligent and practical. " I am an enemy of all sudden transitions," he said in conversation some years after. " The Jew must, in his claims and wishes, not 48 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. iv. outstrip the age. Let him advance slowly but steadily ; let Tiim gradually accustom his Christian fellow-citizens to his gradual progress and success in public life, and what may not be obtainable even by an arduous struggle, will, after a certain time, faU into his lap like ripe fruit." Mr. Montefiore thought he saw these conditions fulfilled as he pondered on the subject fifty-six years ago. There was union in the com- munity ; many of its members had won for themselves distinguished positions in society, and the tendency of national thought, as illustrated in ParUament by the Cathohc emancipation agitation, was distinctly liberal. A representative body charged with the duty of " watching " all chances of emancipation was already in existence in the Anglo-Jewish commimity. The Deputados, or " United Deputies of British Jews," was formed in 1746, when the two houses of the Irish Legislature were quarrelling over a Jewish NaturaUza- tion Bill. The Irish House of Commons had twice passed the Bill, and twice it had been rejected by the House of Lords. The Bevis Marks Sjnagogiie formed a Committee of Dihgence, to render assistance to the party favourable to Jewish emancipation, but the Bill was again and finally negatived by the Peers. Un- daimted by their want of success, the Jews of London set themselves to organise their forces. From the ^' Committee of Dihgence " was formed in 1760 the " Deputies of the Portuguese nation," and towards the «nd of the same year that body admitted to its deliberar tions representatives of the German congregations in CH. IV.] Joins the " United Deputies." 49 Duke's Place and Magpie Alley. For many years the labours of the " Deputies " were not of any great importance. The presentation of addresses to the Crown, fuU of assurances of Jewish loyalty, on occa- sions of public rejoicing or public mourning, formed the staple of their work. In 1795 their representa- tions to Parliament procured the rejection of a clause of doubtful bearing in the Sedition Bill, and in 1805 they prosecuted the Bt. James's Chronicle for the publication of some offensive articles against the Jews, and obtained an apology from the Editor. This body, of which Mr. Moses Mocatta had become President, was joined by Mr. Montefiore early in 1828. An inspection of the minutes of the " United Deputies " discloses from this date a sudden development in their corporate activity, which it is impossible not to asso- ciate with their new recruit. During the very month of his election he became a member of a sub-committee charged to di-aw up a petition in reference to the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and to present it to the House of Lords. Indeed in this year the agitation for the removal of Jewish disabilities in England was for the fii"st time placed on a firm basis. The Deputados became the soul of the agitation, and Mr. Montefiore the soul of the Depxdados. Two years later Mr. Montefiore solved one of the Disability problems in his own person, by purchasing the small East Cliff estate, near Ramsgate, notwith- standing that many eminent legal authorities still con- sidered that the Jews could not lawfully possess real 50 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. iv estate in England. It is true that in 1818 Sir Samuel KomiUy had held that Jews born iu England were as much entitled to own land as any other natives, at the same time pointing out that no one had ever objected to a title on the ground that the owner was a Jew; nevertheless, down to the removal of all disabilities in 1853, this poiut was still doubted under the statutes or ordinances of the 54th & 55th Henry III. (c.e. 1269), which declared that no Jew should hold a freehold, and it was never definitely settled. East Cliff Lodge is a charming marine vUla, in the Strawberry HiU or modem Gothic style. It consists of a centre and two wings, with the summit embattled, and each wing surmounted by an ornamental turret and spire. The dining-room, pronounced by local guide- books " the most elegant specimen of Gothic domestic architecture in England," is a noble apartment, having a screen of columns at the lower end, and opening from a vestibule by folding doors curiously wrought; The grounds, which cover about thirteen acres, and extend to the verge of the cliff, are laid out with great taste and judgment. Their principal attractions are two subterranean caverns, reputed to be the work of smugglers, which lead from the summit of the cliff by a gradual descent, 500 yards long, to the beach below. One cavern diverges in an easterly, the other in a westerly direction. Both are lighted by a series of arched recesses, excavated out of the solid chalk, and which, carpeted with turf and covered with shrubs and flowers, present a very gay appearance during the cH. IV.] East Cliff Lodge. 51 summer season. The house was built about 1795 by Mr. Benjamin Bond Hopkins, who disposed of it to Viscoimt Keith, better known as Lord Elphinstone. It then became the property of the Marquis Wellesley, brother of the Duke of Wellington. At one time it was the favourite summer residence of Queen Caroline, when Princess of Wales. Mr. Montefiore rented East Cliff Lodge for some years before he purchased it. One of the first uses to which he put the land when it became his own was the building of a synagogue, which he opened to all comers. The foundation stone was laid in 1831, and the building was consecrated in 1833. Soon after he had thus permanently taken up his abode in Kent he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the county. E 2 CHAPTER V. THE JEWS OF ENGLAND (750 1837). Early history — Position in the country previous to the expulsion — Jewish learning — Jewish heroism — Statutum de Judaumo — Expulsion by Edward I. — Legend of London Bridge — Secret visits to England — Return under Cromwell — Denied civil rights — Disabilities in 1828 — Mr. Montefiore devotes himself to the Emancipation struggle — Early history of the movement not en- couraging — The " Jew Bill " of 1753 — Mr. Montefiore and the Repeal of the Test and Coi-poration Acts — Interviews with the Duke of Sussex — Agitation from 1830 to 1837 — Mr. Montefiore becomes President of the Board of Deputies — Sheriff of London — Knighted — Queen Victoria and Sir Moses Montefiore — Capital punishment — Sir Moses Montefiore and Marshal Soult — Sir Moses turns his attention to his foreign brethren. At what period the earliest Jewish settlement took place in England is one of those difficult historical questions of which nothing more certain is known than that it is " involved in ohscurity." A copyist's error in the Pesiktha Rabbathi, by which " Mauritania " was transformed into " Britannia," has suggested that the Jews were ah'eady acquainted with Britain in the Talmudic age. It has also been surmised that Hebrew supercargoes accompanied the Phoenician mariners who traded with the Cimbri and Damnonii of Cornwall before the Eoman invasion. The first mention of Jews in any document connected with English history is in the canons of Sebright, Archbishop of York, which CH. v.] Early Anglo-Jewish History. 53 contain an ordinance that "no Christian shall Judaize or presume to eat with a Jew." These canons were issued in the year 750. After the Norman Conquest the Jews of England became nmnerous and wealthy. It is a mistake to imagine, with Professor Goldwin Smith, that they voluntarily " streamed " into the country as rapacious camp followers of the Conqueror. The truth is they were brought over here by William, with the deliberate design of their acting as engines of indirect taxation. " The Jews," saj^s WiUiam of Newburgh, " are the Royal usurers," and it was in this capacity that they were domiciled in England. How they had become forced into this position is a melancholy story. Ex- cluded from markets and trade guilds, prohibited &om dealing in wines and cereals, forbidden to employ slaves at a time when aU manufacturing industry was conducted by serf-labour, no means of earning their bread remained to them but usury. The Church smoothed their way to this occupation hy prohibiting Christians (on the strength of the passage, Luke vi. 35) from taking interest of any kind on loans. Amid the universal want of ready money occasioned by the constant decrease in the stock of gold and silver, and the absence of any substitute for the precious metals, borrowing became a necessity with all classes, and the Jews, who had acquired consider- able wealth by trading, were thus forced to lend. High interest increased their riches ; and the English kings, whose taxbg power was greatly crippled by 54 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. v. the freedom of the Barons, consequently submitted them to crushing imposts. To enable them thus to make good the deficiencies in the revenue, they were specially taken into the Royal protection, and their rates of interest — once as high as 86| per cent. — ^were sanctioned by Royal decree. It is not surprising that, under these circumstances, the Jews became hateful to the nation ; but Mr. Free- man's picture of them, " stalking defiantly among the people of the land," is purely an effort of fancy. In their learning and their heroic fidelity to their religion, we have abundant evidence of their good sense. Jews taught geometry, logic, and philosophy in the Univer- sity of Oxford, and Jewish schools or colleges were established in London, York, Lincoln, Oxford, Cam- bridge, and Warwick. Thither flocked Jew and Gentile to hear distinguished Rabbis expound the principles of arithmetic, Hebrew, Arabic, and medicine. The cele- brated Ibn-Ezra visited England in 1159, and delivered lectures in London. During his stay he wrote his religio-philosophical work Jesod Mora. Among other learned Jews who lived in England before the expulsion were Rabbi Jacob, of Orleans, who taught in London, and Rabbi Benjamin, of Canterbury, both pupilsof Rabbi Jacob Tarn, the famous Tossafist, and grandson of Rashi. The fidelity of the Jews to their religion was illustrated by a thousand martyr deaths, but by nothing more gloriously than their beleaguerment in York Castle, when five hundred destroyed themselves rather than apostatise. It is impossible to read Isaac d'Israeli's CH. v.] The Expulsion. 55 vivid sketch of this " scene of heroic exertion " without feeling that to portray these men as the grasping and arrogant bullies depicted to us in Mr. Freeman's pages is little less than a calunm}''. Massacres of Jews were, as a rule, sternly punished by the English kings, who could ill afford to have their " chattels" injured. When, however, exorbitant taxes could no longer be squeezed from them, they were ruthlessly abandoned to the fury of the populace. The competition of the Caorsini, who disguised their usury in commissions and expenses, first reduced their ■ value in the eyes of the King. The Government tried to expel the new comers, but in vain ; they were the servants of the Pope, and no one dared touch them. "With the gradual relaxation of the Koyal interest in the Jews, the clergy grew bolder in denouncing them as heretics. The public mind became inflamed ; and to gain popularity Edward I. passed the statute De Jitdaumo, which, among other restrictions, prohibited the Jews from practising the usury they had already been compelled, to the King's great grief, to abandon. Their expulsion from the country, amid horrible cruelties, soon followed. The Jews carried with them into exile the remem- brance of many an outrage that marked their exodus from Britain. Of one they preserved the tradition through no less than five centuries. A number of Jews were barbarously drowned in the Thames, close by where London Bridge now stands. When the old bridge was in existence the fall of the waters 56 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. v. at ebb tide caused a disturbance under one of the arches ; and this, as late as eighty j'ears ago, the Jewish gossips firmly believed was occasioned by the wrath of the Deity at the horrible crime committed there in the year 1290. It is generally assumed that from this date until the Protectorate there were no Jews in England. Indeed, Mr. J. E. Green goes so far as to assert that " from the time of Edward to that of Cromwell no Jew touched EngUsh ground." Recent researches have proved, however, that in spite of proscription, Hebrews frequently visited these shores. The House of Converts, near Chancery Lane, received Jews con- tinuously from the thirteenth to the eighteenth cen- turies ; and the files of accounts preserved in the Record Office show that as many as seventy- two Jews resided within its walls dm-ing the early years of Edward III.'s reign. In the State papers relating to the marriage of Katherine of Aragon with Arthur, Prince of Wales, we are told that Henry VII. had a long interview with a Spanish envoy to discuss the presence of Jews in England. Roderigo Lopes, acknow- ledged to be a Jew, was Physician to Queen Eliza- beth. The great legal luminaries, Littleton and Coke, both inveigh against the Jews with a vigour inexpUcable, except on the hypothesis that members of the proscribed race were resident in England. It was not, however, until the time of Cromwell that Jews took up their abode in the land in any number. No actual revocation of the edict of expulsion seems CH. v.] Struggle for Jewish Emancipation. 57 to have taken place, but that some sort of permission to return was granted them it is impossible to doubt. In 1657 they considered their position sufficiently secure to justify them in purchasing a burial-ground ; and Cromwell's views on their readmission are put beyond all doubt, by the fact that he granted Menasseh ben Israel, the Jewish advocate, a pension of £100 a year. Until the year 1829, when the Test and Corporation Acts were repealed, it was held by legal authorities that Jews in England had no civil rights ; and even as late as 1846 the Act De Judaismo was formally on the Statute Book. In 1673 the Jews were indicted for worshipping in public in their synagogues ; and in 1685 thirty-seven of their merchants were suddenly arrested in the Royal Exchange, imder the statute 23 of Elizabeth, for not attending any chm-ch. Two years earlier it had been argued before the King's Bench by the Attorney-General, in the case of the East India Company v. Sand, that all Jews in England were under an imphed Ucence, which the King might revoke, the effect of doing which would be that they would then become aliens. Even so great a judge as Lord Hardwicke held, in 1744, that a bequest for the maintenance of a Synagogue was void, because the Jewish religion was not tolerated in England, but only connived at by the Legislature. This decision was accepted as a precedent in 1786 by Lord Thurlow, and again in 1818 by Lord Eldon. In 1828, when Moses Montefiore set in motion the struggle for 58 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [oh. v. Jewish emancipation, the English Jews, according to Tomlins' " Law Dictionary," still laboured under serious disabilities. "A Jew," we are told, "is prevented from sitting in Parliament, holding any office, civil or military, under the Crown, or any situation in cor- porate bodies. He may be excluded from practicing at the bar, or as an attorney, proctor, or notary, from voting at elections, from enjoying any exhibition in either university, or from holding some offices of inferior importance." When Mr. Montefiore joined the Deputados of Bevis Marks, the question of Jewish Emancipation had already a ParHamentary history. It had not, however, been encouraging. Certainly in 1723 a slight conces- sion had been made in respect to the oath of abjuration, and in 1740 an impracticable Naturalisation Act had been passed for the Colonies ; but the attempt of Mr. Pelham in 1753 to carry into effect a wider scheme of Jewish Emancipation for the home country had produced such an uproar that, for nearly a century after, the bulk of the English Israelites shrunk from publicly agitating for their rights. Mr. Pelham's Act, historically known as " The Jew Bill," was at first passed by both Houses and received the Royal assent, but it only lived for a few months. An alarm for the Church and for religion spread through the land. It was proclaimed from countless pulpits that if the Jews were naturalised in Britain the country became liable to the curses pronounced by prophecy against Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Everj' dead OH. v.] " The Jew Bill:' 59 wall in the kingdom exhibited in varied orthography the couplet, " No Jews, No wooden shoes." Mr. Sydenham Toted for the measure and lost his seat for Exeter in consequence. A respectable clergy- man named Tucker, who wrote a defence of the Jews, was maltreated by the populace. The Bishop of Norwich, who supported the Bill, was insulted on his ensuing confirmation circuit. At Ipswich the boys called upon his lordship " to come and circumcise them," and a paper was affixed to one of the Church doors to state that " next day, being Saturday, his lordship would confirm the Jews, and on the day follow- ing the Christians." To such a pitch rose the popular excitement that the Ministers beat a hasty and igno- minious retreat. On the very first day of the next session the Duke of Newcastle brought in a BiU to repeal the previous measure, and it was rapidly carried through both Houses. The incident elicited a stinging commentary from Horace Walpole. " The populace," he wrote, " grew suddenly so zealous for the honour of the prophecies that foretold calamity and eternal depression to the Jews, that they seemed to fear lest the completion of them should be defeated by Act of Parliament. The little curates preached against the Bishops for deserting the interests of the Gospel ; and aldermen grew drunk at county clubs in the cause of Jesus Christ, as they had used to do for the sake of King James. A cabal of ministers, who 6o The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. v. had insulted their master with impunity, who had hetrayed every ally and party with success, and who had crammed down every Bill that was calculated for their own favour, jielded to transitory noise and suh- mitted to fight under the banners of prophecy in order to carry a few more seats in another Parliament." The remembrance of the intolerant spirit displayed by the English people on this occasion, rendered the Jews for many years exceedingly anxious to avoid any- thing that might direct public attention to them as a body. The repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in 1828, however, aroused their hopes, and Mr. Mon- tefiore, on behalf of the Board of Deputies, with the assistance outside of Mr. N. M. Eothschild and Mr., afterwards Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, endeavoured to obtain a removal of the disqualifications pressing upon Jews. Mr. Montefiore had several interviews on the subject with the Duke of Sussex, whose sympathy with the Jews had been abeady evinced in many sub- stantial ways, and obtained from bim a promise of his interest and support. The Premier, however, was im- favourable to any concession, on the ground that it was inexpedient so soon after the passing of the Catholic Belief BUI to excite the feelings of the country by another measure of the same description. The move- ment consequently fell to the ground. Not for long, however. In January, 1830, a petition to Parliament was prepared, and a deputation from the Board of Dejiu- ties waited upon the Duke of Sussex, who again promised his support. A host of petitions from Jews and non- CH. v.] The Lords prove obdurate. 6i Jews all over the country poured into the House of Commons, and on the 5th of April Mr. Robert Grant moved for leave to bring in a BiU for the Repeal of the Civil Disabilities of the Jews. Mr. Montefiore and his brother Deputies were indefatigable in their efforts to bring pressui'e to bear on Parliament to pass the Bill. A committee of their body sat daily between ten and four o'clock at the King's Head in the Poultry, and incurred expenses amounting to Httle less than £1000. Nevertheless, on the second reading of the Bill, on the 23rd May, it was thrown out by 228 noes against 165 ayes. Three years later another effort was made and with better success. The Commons passed Mr. Grant's BiU, but in the Lords it was thrown out. Year by yeai", for four years more, the campaign was prosecuted with unwearying zeal, Mr. Montefiore in the meantime becoming the leader of the movement by his election to the Presidency of the Board of Deputies in succession to his uncle, Mr. Moses Mocatta. Each year, however, the Lords proved obdurate, and a pause in the struggle took place. The agitation so far had not been altogether without profit to the Jews. Mr. David Salomons had opened the shrievalty to his co-religionists in 1835, and a Bill to enable him to serve passed through Parliament without opposition. Mr. Montefiore took advantage of the Act to become a candidate for the same office in 1837, and was elected. Early in the year he headed two deputations — one from the Board of Deputies, and the other from the town of Ramsgate — to congratulate 62 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. v. the young Queen on her accession. When Her Majesty subsequently entered the City of London on Lord Mayor's day, the honour of knighthood was con- ferred on the new Sheriff as well as on the Lord Mayor, the famous Mr. Alderman Wood, father of Lord Hatherley. These were not the first occasions on which Sir Moses had met Queen Victoria. In 1834, when the Duchess of Kent and her daughter were re- siding at Townley House, Eamsgate, they frequently rambled through the picturesque grounds of East Cliff Lodge, and Mr. Montefiore courteously provided them with a special key to his private gate. On his first visit to Court he was graciously reminded of his hospitality. "We always remember with pleasui-e the happy days we spent at Eamsgate," cordially added the Duchess of Kent, who was standing by the throne. With another member of the royal family Sir Moses had also established intimate relations ; this was the Duke of Sussex, uncle to the Queen. His Eoyal Highness had taken a deep interest in the Jews, He was a patron of their hospital, and presided at its anniversary dinners. A diligent student of the Hebrew language, and Jewish history and literature, he also actively assisted in the movement for Jewish emancipation. Sir Moses Montefiore was the first con- forming Jew to receive the honour of knighthood, and the Duke rightly interpreted the circumstance as indicating the faUxire of anti-Jewish prejudice. He took no pains to hide his satisfaction. When the ceremony of iavestiture was performed he was present, H- v.] Sir Moses, Sheriff of London. 63 and at its conclusion he seized Sir Moses' hand, and heartily shaking it exclaimed, " This is one of the things I have worked for all my Ufe ! " The year of office Sir Moses served as Sheriff was distinguished hy the large collections made for the City charities, and hy the complete absence of capital punishment. The latter circumstance is a source of great pride to Sir Moses. There was certainly one criminal condemned to death, hut with the assistance of a lady highly placed, a reprieve was obtained. Sir Moses, at that period, found few to sympathise with him in his humane dislike of the death punishment. His representations on the subject to Lord John Kussell were coldly received, and when, while showing Marshal Soult over Newgate, he expressed his opinions on the subject to that inflexible disciplinarian, they evoked only an astonished stare. During the same year he continued indefatigably to discharge his duties as President of the Board of Deputies. He began now, however, to turn his atten- tion more towards the foreign Jews, whose oppressed condition had attracted his sympathies ten years before. The Emancipation struggle was safe in other hands, and he felt he could now leave it. His brother-in-law, David Salomons, his nephew, Lionel de Eothschild, his relatives, Isaac Lyon Goldsmid and Francis Goldsmid, were all prepared to invade the precincts of Parliament itself in the interests of Jewish emancipation ; but for so public a struggle Sir Moses Montefiore had no ambition. CHAPTER VI. SECOND VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND. Jews and Agriculture — Mr. Cobbett's taunt — Sir Moses Montefiore determines to introduce agriculture among the Jews of the Holy Land — Journey to the East for that purpose — Investigates the condition of European communities on his route — Brussels — Aix- la-Chapelle — Strasbourg — Avignon — Marseilles — Nice — Genoa — Florence — Papal States — Disabilities of the Jews of Home — Lady Montefiore expresses her indignation to a Papal Monsignore — Dr. Loewe — The Eastern question — Arrival at Beyrout — Pro- gress through Palestine — Enthusiastic receptions — Saf ed — Tiberias — Jerusalem — -Sir Moses makes enquiries into the con- dition of the Jews — Distributes money — Back to Alexandria — Interview with Mehemet AH, who promises to assist his plans — Eetnrn to England — Changes in Eastern politics — Defeat of Sir Moses' plans. Amid the engrossing labours of the Disability agita- tion, Sir Moses Montefiore had still found time to communicate occasionally with foreign Jewish com- munities. Distress, however remote, never failed to attract his attention, or to elicit from him sympathetic and substantial assistance. The interest he evinced in the welfare of his oppressed brethren spread his fame far and wide among them. Dr. Wolfi", the well- known missionary, found, already in 1834, that his name was known to the Jews of Bokhax-a, Samarcand, BaJkh, Khokand, and Herat. CH. VI.] Second Visit to the Holy Land. 65 Several circumstances now combined to determine him to a more active and systematic treatment of the various problems raised by the appeals addressed to him from abroad. Not only was he enabled by the InU in home affairs to give these problems more atten- tion than formerly, but he had convinced himself that it was of greater importance to the honour and fair £uue of Judaism that the Jewish character, as exempU- fied by the great mass of his foreign brethren, should be assisted to rehabihtate itself, than that every effort should be concentrated on one or two agitations for the repeal of local disabihties. Mr. Cobbett's taunt that " the Israehte is never seen to take a spade in his hand, but waits Uke the voracious slug to devour what has been produced by labour in which he has no share," had sunk deep in his heart, and he resolved to seize an early opportunity of assisting the more down- trodden communities of his co-rehgionists, to improve then- condition by agiicultural and industrial labour. He selected the Jews of Palestine for his first experi- ment in this direction. His choice of these communi- ties was determined partly by the fact, that the Holy Land had a special attraction for him, and partly because he had reason to hope that his influence with Mehemet AH, then lord of Syria, would enable him to obtain a fair field for his operations. Accompanied by his devoted spouse, he started on his second voyage to the Holy Land on the Ist November, 1838. The journey was not a du-ect one, as the travellers were desirous of enquiring into 66 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. ti. the political and social condition of the Jewish com- munities of the Continent. To this task they devoted close upon seven months. In Lady Montefiore's private journal* many in- teresting particulars are preserved concerning the Continental Jews at this period. Their condition was not altogether unsatisfactory, although the sun of civil and religious liberty had not yet dawned. At Brussels the travellers found a community of about eighty families, possessing a neat little synagogue, in which sermons in German were delivered weekly. At Aix-la-Chapelle the community, though very poor, were erecting a new synagogue, towards the expense of which the travellers contributed. At Strasbourg ritual reforms had already been introduced ; but at Avignon, once the home of so many learned Rabbis, there were no regular religious sendees, and no means of obtain- ing Kosher food. Marseilles had some excellent com- munal schools, in which Hebrew, French, and Latin were efficiently taught ; but in Nice, then a town of the kingdom of Sardinia, the Jews were so oppressed, that the Chacham told Sir Moses it was with the greatest difficulty he retained his position in the commimity. Notwithstanding the disabilities to which they were subjected, the Jews had, with touching loyalty, erected a handsome monument, with a Hebrew inscrip- tion, commemorating the visit of the King Charles Felix to the town. * Privately printed in 1814. CH. VI.] Jews of Rome. 67 Skirting the shores of the Mediterranean in their travelling coach and six, the Montefiores arrived on the 3rd of January at Genoa, where they attended the ancient Synagogue, and relieved the poor, principally immigrants from Northern Africa. The community they found in a very impoverished state. Proceeding to Florence, where there was a Jewish population of 3000, they met with the first indications in Italy of a liberal policy towards the Jews. The Tuscan Government, although maiatain- ing many of the old restrictions, had recently given its Hebrew subjects considerable freedom in commercial matters. They were allowed, inter alia, to farm the tobacco revenues ; and many of them were extremely well off. In the Papal States, on the other hand, the old mediffival regulations were maintained. "How painful ! " exclaims Lady Montefiore, in her diary, *' it is to find our people under so many disadvantages here (Rome). Three thousand five hundred souls are obliged to maintain themselves by shops, and in a confined part of the city. Arts, sciences, mechanism are prohibited. Four times in the year two hundred are obliged to attend a sermon for their conversion. It is said that no proselytes are made, except occa- sionally fi:om among the most destitute. Leo XII. deprived them of the privilege granted by Pius VII. of keeping shops out of the Ghetto." Lady Montefiore did not confine the expression of her feelings on this subject to the privacy of her diary. While entertain- ing a Papal Monsignore, she tells us, "I did not p 2 68 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vi. conceal from him the indignation with which I should be animated at finding myself denied all opportunity of acquiring distinction by the free and honourable exertion of such ability as might be conferred upon me by the Author of my being." It was during this visit to Eome that Sir Moses Montefiore first encountered Dr. Louis Loewe, a Jewish scholar, who for close upon half a century has acted as the benevolent Hebrew's lieutenant in all his philanthropic enterprises. An accomplished linguist and earnest Israelite, Dr. Loewe was well fitted for duties, the adequate discharge of which required a wide acquaintance with foreign languages almost as much as a good Jewish heart. Dr. Loewe had already obtained considerahle reputation as a linguist, and while in England had enjoyed the patronage of the Duke of Sussex. He had travelled extensively in Ethiopia, Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Greece. Arabic literature he had read with Sheik Mohammad Ay^d Ettantavy ; Persian he had studied imder Sheik Eefa; and Coptic he had learnt of a Coptic priest. His career had been an adventurous one, and now, on his return from an Eastern tour, he was prosecuting literary researches in the Vatican library, under the auspices of the Cardinals Mezzo- fanti, Angelo Mai, and Lambruschini. Dr. Loewe spent Passover with the Montefiores at Eome, and read and expounded to them the Passover service. He subsequently accepted an invitation to accompany them to the Holy Land. *^- "^'i] Risks of Travelling. 6g The Mediterranean was no longer infested with the pirates who, on the previous journey, had heen so serious a source of anxiety ; but the eternal Eastern Question, in another of its protean shapes, still ren- dered the dominions of the Padishah unsafe for Euro- pean travellers. Shortly before leaving Eome a private message was conveyed to Lady Montefiore from the Baroness James de Kothschild at Naples, informing her that there was good reason to believe that the Sultan was about to make an effort to recover Syria from Mehemet Ali, by force of arms, and advising her to persuade her husband not to pursue his projected tour. Sir Moses was deeply concerned at this intelligence, calculated as it was to defeat his cherished plans ; but he buoyed himself up with the hope that he might effect the object of his mission before the actual out- break of hostilities, and he adhered to his determina- ' tion to proceed. No sooner had he arrived at Malta, however, than he was met by other and more serious objections. The plague had broken out in the Holy Land, and the gates of Jerusalem were closed ; the country was stated to be infested with brigands ; and the heat of a Syrian summer, he was warned, would severely try a European constitution. Sir Moses was still not to be dissuaded from his enterprise, but he began to feel considerable anxiety on his wife's score. He suggested to her that he should proceed alone. "This I peremptorily resisted," writes Lady Monte- fiore, " and the expression of Euth furnished my heart at the moment with the language it most desired to yo The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vi. use : ' Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee ; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge.' " Two days later the attached couple emharked in the English steamer Megara, and within a week they cast anchor in the Bay of Beyrout. The journey through the Holy Land resemhled almost a royal progress. As the friend of Mehemet Ali, Sir Moses was received hy the authorities with distinction; as a henevolent and wealthy Israelite, desirous of seeing Palestine prosper, he was welcomed by the poverty-stricken inhabitants with enthusiasm. Immediately on his arrival at Beyrout, the Governor waited upon him, and begged him to take up his quarters in his own house. The following day a numerous congregation assembled ia the Synagogue and offered up special prayers for the safe accomplish- ment of his undertaking. At Safed, where he passed* the Pentecost holidays, the rejoicings were of the wildest description. Deputations met him on the road and presented addresses. Crowds of people — young and old, rich and poor — danced around him, shouted, clapped their hands, sounded their Darrabukas, and chanted songs of praise. As he entered the city guns were fired, and the streets and the tops of the houses were thronged with men, women, and children. The Governor, Abd-el-Khalim, attended by the Cadi and other influential Mussulmen, paid him a ceremonious visit, and expressed a hope that, " as Queen Esther had delivered her people from destruction, so might CH. VI.] Reception in the Holy Land. 71 the Hebrews, suffering in Palestine under such ac- cumulated distresses, be relieved by his (Sir Moses') efforts." Not less cordial was the reception at Tibe- rias. Deputations from all the congregations awaited Sir Moses outside the walls, and the Governor, mounted on a beautiful Arab steed, and attended by a numerous suite, presented him with an address of welcome. Then, with music and dancing, and amid deafening cries of "Live the protector !" he entered the town. On the 7th June he arrived outside Jeru- salem, but in consequence of the plague raging in the town, encamped on the Mount of Olives. The Governor, Mohamed Djisdor, paid a visit to his encampment and pressed him to enter the city; eventually he consented. The conversation at this interview, which was interpreted by Dr. Loewe, and has been preserved by Lady Montefiore, is worth quoting : — The Governor : " May your day be bright and blessed ! " Sir Moses : " And yours full of blessings and com- forts!" The Governor. — " May the Almighty prolong your life!" Sir Moses. — " And yom's continue in happiness." The Governor. — " The air is delightful here." Sir Moses. — " Most beautiful. I should think the breezes of this mountain would convey health and every other blessing to the Holy City." The Governor. — " Doubtless all blessings arise from 72 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vi this mountain ; particularly as you have pitched your tent upon it." Sir Moses. — " Blessed be he who bestows so much honour upon me by his kind and flattering expres- sions ! " The Governor. — "I say what my heart feels, and that which the whole world witnesses with me ! " Sir Moses. — " I wish it were in my power to show my friendly feelings towards you, as well as to others who think so kindly of me." The Governor. — " I wish to impress on your mind, that not only the Jews, but the Mussulmans, Christians, and every other class of the inhabitants are most anxious for your entrance into the Holy City," Sir Moses. — "I am perfectly convinced of the worthy and distinguished character of its inhabitants, and that such it should be is not astonishing, subjected as it is to the careful observation of such a Governor as your- self; and had it not been on account of Lady M., I should have entered the town the very day of my arrival." The Governor. — " God shall prolong your life. Only tmder the watchful eye of our lord, Ibrahim Pacha, and yourself, can happiness be increased. At the time when our lord came to Jerusalem I went to meet him. He said to me, ' Achmet ! ' I replied, ' Eflfendina ! ' ' You know the age when it was said. This is a Christian and that a Jew, and there is a Mussulman ! but now, Achmet, these times are past. Never ask what he is: let him be of whatsoever religion he CH. VI.] The Governor of Jerusalem. 73 may do him justice, as the Lord of the world desired of us.' " Sir Moses. — " These are my sentiments. Make no distinction. Be like the sim which shines over the whole world — all are hlessed hy its light, all strength- ened and refreshed by its warmth, whether they be Jews, Christians, or Mussulmans." The Governor. — " Long live Effendina ! His sword is very long ! Look at the spot on which your tents are pitched. Ten years ago five hundred men would have been needed to make your abode here secure. At present you may walk with a bag of gold in your hand. Not a soul would molest you." Sir Moses. — " You are perfectly right. I can my- self bear witness to the change that has taken place in this country. Twelve years ago, when I visited this town, I often heard the complaints of travellers. Even at that time I personally experienced no inconvenience. But now that Mehemet Ali governs, we not only travel in security, but are furnished by his Highness with letters of introduction to the various authorities of the country." The Governor. — " Mehemet Ali knows how to appre- ciate distinguished persons like yourself ; and I assure you I am longing to show you every proof of my respect. But while you are sitting here in quarantine our means are limited, and it is impossible for us to manifest the delight which would otherwise be evidenced. Follow my advice. Enter the city, and I wiU come and accompany you with the whole of my suite. The day 74 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vi. of your appearing among us shall be a festival to all the people. I will send you a beautiful Arabian horse ; in short, whatever you like, whether soldiers, horses, or servants. Depend upon it, by my head, by my eyes, by my beard, aU shall be ready in a moment ! " Sir Moses. — " I feel highly obliged to you, and am fully assured of your goodwill. I promise you that I will enter, be it the will of God, on Wednesday morn- ing, when I shall be happy to avail myself of the kind offer of your company." The Governor. — "You have poured torrents of blessings on my head ; and I shall not fail to be here, at whatever hour you desire, with the Khakham Morenu, whether before or after sunrise. We are all your servants." The Governor was as good as his word, and a princely reception was accorded to Sir Moses Monte- fiore. We cannot do better than quote the description from Lady Montefiore 's bright narrative : — " At a quarter past three we were called, in order to commence early preparations for entering the city. The Governor arrived at six o'clock, attended by his officers and suite. Coffee, cibouks, and a plate of cake were served, his excellency giving a piece of the latter to each of his suite. After some conversation, we rose to depart. M expressed his wish to ride his own horse, thinking that sent for him too spirited, but the Governor replied that two young men were appointed to walk by his side. All the party being mounted, the Governor led the way, attended by his CH. VI.] Entry into Jerusalem. 75 officers. The chief of the cavalry arranged the order of march, and two soldiers with long muskets were appointed immediately to precede me. The scene produced by this descent of the Mount of Olives, passing as we were through the most romantic defiles, and with long lines of Turkish soldiers, mounted on noble Arab horses and dressed in the most costly costume, cannot be easily described. More honour, they said, could not have been paid even to a king. We entered the city through the Gate of the Tribes. The streets were narrow, and almost filled up with loose stones and the ruins of houses which had fallen to decay. Our guards on each side were busily engaged in keeping off the people, a precaution rendered necessary to lessen the danger of contagion. Having passed through the bazaar, we entered the Jewish quarter of the town, and which appeared the cleanest of any we had traversed. The streets, every lattice, and all the tops of the houses were thronged with children and veiled females. Bands of music, and choirs of singers welcomed our arrival with melodies composed for the occasion, while every now and then the loud, quick clapping of hands gave signal that the whole vast crowd of spectators was striving to give expression to popular delight. Having reached the Synagogue, the Governor entered with us, and then said, addressing M , he would leave us to our devotions, and that his officer should attend us, when we pleased to return to our encampment. M was called to the Sepher, and offered prayer for all our 76 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vi. friends in England, as well as for those present. I was allowed the honour of lighting four lamps in front of the altar, and putting the bells on the Sepher. Blessings were then given for M and me, and for the party. We then went successively to three other Portuguese, and two German Synagogues. Blessings at each place of devotion were offered up for us, and no sight can I imagine more impressive or delightful than that which was thus exhibited." In each of the Holy Cities Sir Moses made elaborate enquiries into the state of the Jewish population. He endeavoured to acquaint himself so thoroughly with the condition of every individual, that, in the schemes he was contemplating, no one Jew should be neglected. Besides visiting the Jewish quarters and personally noting all he saw, he instructed Dr. Loewe to take a kind of census of the Hebrew population. For this purpose statistical forms were prepared and distributed, and when filled up, they gave copious particulars respecting the commimities and their institutions. A collection was also made of such suggestions for effecting improvements, as any thoughtful persons in each locality might care to commit to writing. The Jewish population seemed to regard Sir Moses' schemes with much favour. Elaborate reports were supplied by the Rabbis, in which many excellent and practical suggestions were made. Lady Montefiore sums them up in the words : — " Energy and talent exist. Nothing is needed but protection and encouragement. " OH. VI.] At Work in Jerusalem. 'j'j But Sir Moses did more than make these statistical enquiries ; he munificently relieved the pressing wants of the poor in each of the Holy Cities, and without distinction of creed. Anticipating that he should find the people in a very sorry state, through the devasta- tions of earthquake and plague, and the marauding forays of the Druses, he provided himself hefore leaving Alexandiia with a large sum of money in specie, for distrihution in the Holy Land. The safety of this money was no small source of anxiety during the journey from Beyrout to Safed. The country was alive with brigands, and Sir Moses and his companions were compelled to arm themselves to the teeth ; even Lady Montefiore carried pistols in her holsters. One night, when the escort whose duty it was to look after the tents lost their way, Sir Moses and Lady Monte- fiore had to sleep in their rugs, while Dr. Loewe and the cornier kept watch with loaded fire-arms. With their usual good fortune the travellers escaped moles- tation, and the money was successfully distributed at Safed and Tiberias. Careful enquiries were first made in order to avoid imposture, and then the poor were admitted to Sir Moses' presence in batches of thirtj', and each man and woman was presented with a Spanish dollar, and with half that sum for every child under thirteen years of age. Orphans and children over thirteen received a fall doUar. With rare con- sideration, Sir Moses arranged to receive separately in the evenings, those who shrunk from exposing their poverty to the public gaze. At Jerusalem he was 78 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vi unable to perform this interesting ceremony, as his stock of money had become exhausted, and there was no banker in the city to honour his credits; he was compelled therefore to give the authorities drafts on Beyrout. One of the happy results of this importa- tion of ready money was, that in Safed and Tiberias the price of a measure of com fell immediately from five piastres to two. His enquiries completed, Sir Moses made all haste to lay his plans before Mehemet Ali. He reached Alexandria on July 13th, and was cordially received by the Pacha, who listened attentively while he unfolded his schemes. Mehemet Ali promised every assistance, and expressed himself anxious to improve the condi- tion of his Hebrew subjects. " You shall have any portion of land open for sale in Syria," he said, " and any other land which by application to the Sultan might be procured for you. You may have anyone you would Hke me to appoint as Governor in any of the rural districts of the Holy Land, and I will do every- thing that Ues in my power to support your praise- worthy endeavours." He further gave instructions to his Minister of Finance, Burghos Bey, to confirr. these assurances in writing. A new era seemed dawning for the Jews of the Holy Land. Sir Moses returned to England with a light heart, and prepared to put his plans into execu- tion. But — " The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley." CH. VI.] Disappointment. yg He was still conning over the voluminous data he had collected, and was constructing in his mind the founda- tion of a new commonwealth for Palestine, when he was suddenly called upon to proceed again to the East — this time, not as a peaceful reformer, but as the champion of his people, charged to vindicate their honour in the face of a foul conspiracy. He cheerfully laid aside his agricultural schemes, and girded up his loins for the new enterprise. When he returned home in the following spring, crowned with laurels, and hailed on all sides as the deliverer of Israel, his triumph was clouded by one sad thought — ^the projects to which he had devoted the whole of the previous year were no longer possible. Mehemet Ali had ceased to be lord of Syria, and his improving rule had been replaced by the asphyxiating authority of the Stamboul Effendis, under whom questions of social well-being could expect little fiartherance. CHAPTER VII. THE DAMASCUS DRAMA. The " Eed Spectre " of Judaism— Its history and origin — Eeyival of the Blood Accusation at Damascus in consequence of the dis- appearance of Father Thomas — The fanaticism of the monks and the designs of the French Consul — M. de Eatti Menton sets himself to manufacture a case against the Jews — Secures the co-operation of the Governor of the city — Arrest, torture, and confession of a Jewish barber — A Jewish youth flogged to death — Further arrests — The prisoners submitted to terrible tortures — Wholesale seizure of Jewish children — Eatti Menton's moiuihards — Another confession — The bottle of human blood — Two of the prisoners die under torture — Protests of the Austrian Consul — ^A mass over mutton bones — Attempt to excite the Mussulman populace — The prisoners condemned to death — The "Eed Spectre " at Ehodes — Anti -Jewish risings. Some eighteen centuries and a half ago the city of Alexandria was distracted by an agitation against the Jews, which, in many of its features, was a perfect type of the anti-Semitic movements we have witnessed during the present century. The charges against the Hebrew people were then the same as now. One writer discovered that they were an unsociable tribe ; another affirmed that their religion was a danger to the State. The Eohling of the day was an Egyptian named Apion, who declared that the Jews were required by "a secret tradition" to make use of human blood in CH. VII.] The '' Red Spectre." 8i their Passover ceremonies, and that, consequentlj% they were obliged to sacrifice annually a certain number of Gentiles. The public mind became inflamed, and Flaccus Aquilius, the Roman Prefect, desirous, like many a modem functionary, of ingratiating himself Trith the people, took no measures to prevent the riots and massacres that eventually occurred. No circumstance of this ancient anti-Jewish agitation has been more frequently repeated than the charge of the ritual use of human blood. This " Red Spectre " of Judaism has haunted the whole history of the Hebrew dispersion, and has written the larger portion of its martyrology. It clung even to the skirts of Christianity in the early days of its temporal impo- tence, when its Hebrew origin was still fresh in men's minds. Athenagoras found himself compelled to appeal to Marcus Aurelius for protection against the calumny ; and Origen, in his reply to Celsus, was obliged to cite from the Old Testament the many prohibitions of the use of blood as evidence of the impossibility of the alleged practice. In course of time, however. Chris- tians themselves adopted the fable, together with many other of the superstitions of paganism, and, by a triumph of prejudice, fastened it on the very people whose traditions they had relied on to rebut it when it was related of themselves. Notwithstanding that the post-Biblical legal codes of the Jews worked out into elaborate detail the Scriptural laws on this subject, the Church obstinately persisted in repeating the charge. No Christian ever disappeared about Easter time but 82 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vn. the cry immediately arose that he had been murdered by the Jews. The calendar bristles with saints who are supposed in the flesh to have been victims of this " damnable practice of Judaism." Miracles were wrought by their bodies and their reliques ; and their shrines have been visited by thousands of pilgrims. To this day the accusation is persisted in, and there are stiU people in Europe who believe that ritual murder is a practice of orthodox Judaism. The origin of this extraordinary delusion has per- plexed many historical scholars. The most probable theory seems to be that it was only a natural corollary of the vague impression of the Pagan world that Judaism was a form of sorcery. In the supernatui-al medicine chest blood has always occupied an impor- tant place. Even in Biblical times its magical virtue was the burden of a vulgar superstition ; for we read of harlots washing themselves in Ahab's blood, no doubt vmder the impression that some peculiar beautifying property attached to the blood of a king. Homer, Horace, and Pliny speak of the magical use of blood. Gower in his De Confessione Amantw states it to have been prescribed to Constantine for the cure of his leprosy ; but that he refused to try it, and for his piety was miraculously healed : " The would him bathe in childes bloode, Within seven winters' age ; For as thei sayen, that shulde assuage The lepre." It is very likely that the superior healthiness of the Damascus. 83 Jews, and their immunity from many epidemic diseases, helped to fix more firmly in the popular mind the idea that they occasionally fortified themselves with doses of human hlood. The specific association of the accusation with the Passover has been attributed to the red wine drunk on the first evening of the festival. Red wine is chosen because, according to an old Jewish legend, when Pharaoh was once seriously ill he caused his body to be bathed daily in a bath of the blood of Jewish children in order to regain his health. The fate of these children and other Jews, stated to have been murdered in Egypt, is commemorated on the Passover by drinking red wine ; and it is conjec- tured that supporters of the Blood Accusation imagine this wine to be blood. In the spring of 1840 the Jews of Europe were startled by a revival of the blood calumny in a peculiarly virulent form. Paragraphs appeared in the Times, the Leipziger Allgemeine Zeitung, the Semaphore de Marseilles, and other influential journals, announcing that a charge of ritual murder had actually been brought home to the Israelitish communitj' of Damascus. Sir Moses Montefiore immediately caused enquiries to be made into the truth of the allegation, but it was with great difiSculty that any reliable information could be obtained. Ultimately, however, the true story leaked out, and, as its harrowing details assumed tangible form, it caused a thrill of horror to run through the whole of Western Europe. Early in the year a Capuchin friar, named Thomas G 2 84 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vn. de Calangiano, had, together with his servant, unac- countahly disappeared. The reverend gentleman was well known all over Damascus, where he exercised the profession of physician, visiting in that capacity all classes of the population, Mussulmans, Catholics, Armenians, and Jews. A rumour at fii'st pervaded the town that a quarrel had taken place hetween him and a Turk, and that the latter had been heard to swear that the " Christian dog " should die by his hand. It was even said that a fight had taken place. Very mysteriously, however, the story died away ; and one fine morning a mob of Christians crowded into the Jewish quarter, shouting that the Jews had murdered Father Thomas, to employ his blood in their superstitious rites. Whether this demonstra- tion was promoted by the Catholic clergy or not, it is impossible to say; but the barbarous surmise by which it was actuated does not seem to have been at all repugnant to the feelings of these holy men. On the contrai-y, it appears to have suited their interests to give it all the support in their power, in order, apparently, to avoid a conflict between them- selves and the dominant Mussulman population, which would have certainly taken place had an investigation been made of the clue afforded by the rumoured quarrel. Besides, as Graetz has shrewdly remarked, a monk killed by the Jews would have given them another saint, and furnished them with an additional claim on the purses of the faithful. The expediency of the course adopted by the CH. vn.] Intrigues and Fanaticism. 85 monks recommended itself with peculiar force to the tortuous mind of the French Consul, the Count de Eatti-Menton, an unscrupulous schemer, whose moral character may be inferred from the fact that he had already been dismissed from offices of trust in Sicily and Tiflis. He acquiesced in the accusation against the Jews with alacrity, not merely on the score of the personal interests of the local Christians, but, as he diplomatically thought, to serve the pohtical ends of France in the East by currying favour with the Mussulman population. He immediately set himself to manufacture a case against the Jews ; and for this purpose took into his confidence a trio of the most notorious rascals in Damascus, Hanna Bachari Bey, a well-known Jew-hater; Mohammed El-Telli, an adventurer, who had already extorted money from the Jews on a trumped-up charge of ritual murder ; and Shibli Ajub, a Christian Arab, who was actually imder- going at the time a term of imprisonment for forgeiy, of which he had been convicted mainly on the evidence of a Jew. The Governor of Damascus, Sheriff Pasha, needed no pressing to consent to the proceedings of the French Consul. Gallic influence was then paramoumt in the councUs of Mehemet Ali, who was relying on the specious promises of Louis Philippe to enable bim to defy the European Allies of the Sultan. It was consequentiy more than a provincial official's head was worth to offend a diplomatic agent of the French Government. Besides, Sheriff Pasha was not in- 86 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vu. sensible to the prospect of plunder held out by a well-devised Blood Accusation. The stage thus cleared, the curtain rose on the first act of the drama. Bachari Bey, after a long and mysterious enquiry, discovered a person who was willing to swear that, on the day of the Padre's dis- appearance, he had seen him and his servant enter a house in the Jewish quarter of the city. The tenant of the house in question, a poor barber, was waited upon by the satellites of the French Consul, and sternly interrogated. He showed so much trepidation and confusion, that it was resolved to arrest him, and he was handed over by Ratti-Menton to Sheriff Pasha for further examination. This took the form of 500 lashes, but it failed to extort a confession. More exquisite torture was resorted to, but still the poor barber steadfastly denied all knowledge of the crime. He was then thrown into a pestiferous dungeon to regain strength for further torture. During his in- carceration Shibli Ajub made his acquaintance as a fellow prisoner, and, acting upon instructions from without, endeavoured to gain his confidence, with a view to elicitiag from him the fate of Father Thomas. But still he protested that he knew nothing about it ; and all the machinations of his wily interlocutor were powerless to induce him to incriminate either himself or any of his brethren. At last, growing impatient, Shibli declared himself in his true character. Adopting an imperious tone, he called upon the half-distracted bai'ber to confess his guilt at once ; he told him that CH- vn.] Torture. 87 he was an agent of the Pasha, and if the truth were not immediately avowed, the torture would there and then be resumed. In an agony of terror the miserable creature threw himself at Shibli's feet, and frantically implored his mercy. Shibli coldly repeated his in- terrogatories, when the barber, yielding to his fears, gasped out that he was guilty. So, at least, Shibli reported to his superiors, at the same time stating that the barber had mentioned as his accomplices several Jewish merchants of Damascus, who all, curiously enough, turned out to be very wealthy men. In the meantime Sheriff Pasha had sent for the Jewish ecclesiastical chiefs, and had commanded them to discover the criminals within three days. The whole community were in consequence summoned to the Synagogue by the Eabbis, and a proclamation was read, calling upon any Jew who knew aught that might lead to the detection of the murderers, to in- stantly make it known under pain of excommunication. The community were likewise enjoined to institute a diligent search for the criminals. In consequence of this proclamation, a young man, a Jew, who kept a tobacconist's shop in the Moslem quarter, close by one of the city gates, came forward, and stated that the missing priest and his servant had passed by his door at six o'clock on the evening of the day on which he was last seen ; that he had solicited them to pur- chase twmbeki, but that they had passed on to the house of a Turkish merchant, which they had entered. 88 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vn The young man was taken before the Pasha, to whom he repeated his storj' ; but the latter, instead of in- quiring into its truth, angrily accused him of being an accomplice, and ordered him to be mercilessly flogged. The youth perished imder the bastiaado. He was the first martyr in this terrible tragedy. Eatti-Menton lost no time in communicating to Sheriff Pasha the nature of the barber's alleged con- fession ; and seven of the most influential Jews in the town — David Arari, his son and two brothers, Moses Abulafia, Moses Saloniki, and Joseph Laniado, the latter a man over eighty years of age — were forthwith arrested. Examined by the Governor, they one and all asserted their innocence. At the suggestion of Ratti-Menton the bastinado was called into requisition ; but still they denied all knowledge of the missing monk. Then they were submitted to the most excruciating tor- tures. They were soaked with their clothes for hours at a stretch in large tanks of cold water ; their eyes were punctured ; they were made to stand upright without support for nearly two days ; and when their wearied bodies fell down, they were aroused by the prick of soldiers' bayonets ; they were dragged by the ear, until their blood gushed; thorns were driven between the nails and flesh of their fingers and toes ; fire was set to their beards till their faces were singed ; and candles were held under their noses, so that the flames burnt their nostrils. But still no admission of guilt passed their Hps. Sheriff Pasha then bethought himself of another and still more fiendish plan. He ••n. VII.] Count de Ratti-Menton. 89 oi'dered sixty Jewish children, ranging in age from three to ten years, to be forcibly torn from their mothers, and locked up in a room without food, in the hope that the bereaved parents would frantically denounce the murderers. This infernal expedient also failed. Then maddened by their want of success, Sheriff Pasha and Eatti-Menton invaded the Jewish quarter \sith a troop of soldiers, and demohshed several houses ostensibly to find evidence. Nothing was dis- covered ; and the enraged Governor before taking his leave swore a tremendous oath, that if the body of Father Thomas were not soon produced, many hundred Jewish heads should pay the penaltj^ All this time Eatti-Menton's mouchards had not been idle. They had managed to obtain for themselves the entree to the houses of the imprisoned Jews, and day after day they had spent in cajoling the servants. Mohammed El-Telli had specially attached himself to one of Arari's sei-vants, Mourad El-Fallat, and eventu- ally he prevailed upon him to admit that he had killed Father Thomas at his master's orders, and in presence of the other prisoners. This was held by Eatti- Menton to be a confirmation of the bai'ber's nan-ative, notwithstanding the discrepancy that both the self- accusers claimed to have alone committed the deed. A search for the remains of the murdered man was at once instituted, and resulted in the finding of a piece of bone and a rag in a drain near Arari's house. The bone was declared by Eatti-Menton to be a portion of the priest's skull, and the rag a part of his cap. The go The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. vn. guilt of the accused was now considered established, and all that remained to be discovered was the blood, for the sake of which the Padre was alleged to have been mur- dered. The seven prisoners were again dragged before the Pasha and examined, but to no purpose. Torture was then once more tried. The aged Laniado died under the bastinado. Worn out with pain, one of the prisoners whispered to a gaoler that he had given the blood to Moses Abulafia. The latter, after receiving another thousand blows, and hardly knowing what he was sa3'ing, stammered out that he had hidden the bottle in a certain closet. Abulafia was carried on the backs of fom* men to the closet indicated by him, where, of course, no traces of blood were found. The tortures were then resumed, but without any other result, than that David Arari shared the fate of Joseph Laniado, and Abulafia purchased immunity from further molestation by turning Mussulman. Towards the beginning of March suspicion fell upon six more Jews, among them one Isaac Levi Picciotto, an Austrian subject. He appealed to his Consul, M. Merlato, for protection, and the latter, who had watched the proceedings of Ratti-Menton with undis- guised abhorrence, refused to deliver him up. AE kinds of so-called evidence of his guilt were offered, and threats were even used towards his protector, but M, Merlato proved immovable. About the same time more bones were discovered, and although they were pronounced by physicians to be sheep's bones, Ratti- Menton declared them to be the skeleton of the missing