Part 35 (2/2)

The death of the Duke of Suss.e.x took place at this time, and Sir Moses deeply lamented the loss sustained by his demise.

The Lord Chamberlain sent him a command to attend the funeral on the 4th of May, and Lord Dinorben wrote a letter to inform him that a card of invitation had been sent, and that he would be permitted to follow in his own carriage.

Sir Moses, describing the funeral, says:--

”I left home after six in the morning, and was at Kensington Palace a quarter before seven. The company began to a.s.semble between seven and eight: I suppose there were more than one hundred and fifty persons. The procession commenced at half-past eight; the roads were lined with people, every window filled, also many scaffoldings. The chapel at Kensal Green was solemn and grand, being filled with the grand officers of state, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, &c., &c. We saw none of the Tories or Royal Family at the palace, but in the chapel there were the Duke of Cambridge, chief mourner; Prince Albert, &c. The ceremony was over at twelve. I reached home at a quarter to one, and after breakfast proceeded at once with Lady Montefiore to the city to attend the funeral service in the Portuguese Synagogue, where Dr Loewe (who filled the office of oriental linguist and Hebrew lecturer to his late Royal Highness) delivered a discourse, at the conclusion of which we repaired to the great Synagogue of the German community. There was a funeral service, but no discourse.” ”The Jews,” Sir Moses says, ”have lost an excellent friend: may he be rewarded with eternal bliss for his kindness to suffering humanity.”

On May 30th the Earl of Thanet informed Sir Moses that Lord Lyndhurst had given directions for the insertion of his name in the commission of the peace for the County of Kent.

On July 13th the first step was made for the repeal of the Deportation Ukase in Russia.

”I called at Baron Brunnow's,” he writes. ”He was just stepping into his carriage, dressed in full uniform, going to celebrate a ma.s.s on some public occasion; but he very kindly insisted on my going into his library, and returned with me. I gave him the letter I had received from Konigsberg, which he read, also the Ukase.

He said he believed the Minister of Justice thought it was an act of mercy to remove the Jews from the temptation of smuggling, of which crime many had been guilty, and, no doubt, the Emperor was of that opinion, which was the cause of the order. 'It was possible,' he continued, 'if I were to be at St Petersburg, by speaking with one and another, my influence might cause its revocation;' but he advised me to write to Count Ouvaroff, and, if I showed him the letter, he would suggest such alterations as he thought would be advisable. He recommended that no public steps should be taken in the way of pet.i.tion to the Emperor, as there were two years still before the Ukase would take effect; he thought it a bad measure.”

This statement corroborated what some of the letters from Russia previously addressed to him on the subject had already stated.

A few days later Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore were present at an entertainment given by Mrs Rothschild to the King of Hanover, and met the Duke of Cambridge, the d.u.c.h.ess of Gloucester, and most of the n.o.bility, besides all the Amba.s.sadors. They were introduced to the Marchioness of Ely at her own request, and she complimented them on the result of the Damascus Mission. Several of the Amba.s.sadors spoke to him on the recent reports respecting the state of the Jews in Russia.

_June 1st, 1844._--The Emperor of Russia arrived in London.

_June 6th._--The entry states:--”I have been looking with deep anxiety from morning till evening for a letter from Baron Brunnow. I wrote this week to Lord Aberdeen, soliciting an interview to-morrow. I will do everything I possibly can to approach the Emperor, and pray for our brethren in his dominions. I also wrote to Mr Dawson on the same subject; it engrosses all my thoughts.”

_June 8th._--”Baron Lionel de Rothschild accompanied me to see Lord Aberdeen. He said Baron Brunnow had intimated to him the impossibility of His Imperial Majesty receiving any deputation. I showed his Lords.h.i.+p the Address from the London Committee of Deputies of the British Jews, and asked his advice about sending it to Baron Brunnow, for him to present it on our behalf, and whether he thought there was anything in it that could do harm. His Lords.h.i.+p thought there was not: the Emperor, he said, was very firm when he had once made up his mind on a subject.

”Lionel and I then walked to Sir Robert Peel's. He was just going to mount his horse, on his way to the Queen. He heard all we had to say respecting the address, and said he had heard it whispered that the Emperor would see Sir Moses Montefiore, but the Emperor's stay was so short that he could not tell whether he would be able to do so.”

The address was subsequently given by Sir Moses to Baron Brunnow, who promised to send it to St Petersburg. In the following month, on July 29th, an entry states that the Emperor received the address graciously, but his visit to this country would be so short that it was impossible for him to receive the deputation.

On August 9th Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore proceeded to Birmingham, in company with several of their relatives and friends, Sir Moses having been invited by the Hebrew congregation of that town to lay the first stone of a Hebrew National School, a task which he performed amid the cheers of many hundreds of persons of various religious denominations.

_September 1st._--The cause of two poor Poles who had been imprisoned for hawking without a licence attracted Sir Moses' attention. The men having excellent characters, he determined on going to Chelmsford, to see them there in the Springfield Gaol, where they were then confined under sentence for three months, and to endeavour, if possible, to obtain their release. They had only been six or seven weeks in England, and could speak but a few words of English.

Next morning he went to Springfield Gaol and saw the Governor, who had the two men brought to him. One had been a dyer, and the other had kept a hardware shop near Warsaw. Both men lived whilst in prison on bread and water, refusing to eat either the soup or meat allowed to the prisoners. The Governor recommended him a man to draw up a pet.i.tion for them. Sir Moses immediately sent for him, and instructed him as to the matter of the pet.i.tion. The Governor kindly sent a man to wait till it was written, and Sir Moses then forwarded the pet.i.tion to the prison, where the Governor had it signed by the two prisoners, and returned to Sir Moses, who was just able to take the last train back.

_September 3rd._--He called at Somerset House, and left the pet.i.tion from Springfield Gaol, and three days later had the gratification of receiving a letter from the Secretary of Stamps and Taxes to say that the Board had been pleased to remit the Crown's share of the penalties against the two prisoners.

_October 24th._--Sir Moses is present at the opening of the New Royal Exchange by the Queen; he had a seat in the subscribers' room, where the Royal banquet was given. The Queen, Prince Albert, the Duke of Cambridge, &c., presided at the head table: about two hundred persons dined there.

_October 28th._--The Baroness Brunnow invited him to meet the Grand Duke of Russia; and Sir Moses, entertaining the hope of finding there the opportunity to serve the cause of his brethren, gladly accepted the invitation.

_November 12th._--He was nominated Sheriff of Kent, and on the 17th inst. his friends and most of his neighbours congratulated him on being elected to that high office. His mind, however, was not joyfully attuned to the occasion. His thoughts at one moment were wandering away from happy England to the burning sands of the African deserts, and at another, to the frozen rivers and the snow-covered forests of the north of Russia. This was owing to a visit which he had received from Mr Erith, a Mogador merchant, who gave him a very cheering prospect of the success which might be expected if he were to appeal to the Emperor of Morocco for a firman, to place the Jews in the same position as his other subjects; and to some letters he received from several trustworthy sources, giving disheartening accounts of the state of the Jews in Russia, to the following effect:--

”The Ukase ordering the Jews to remove from the frontier provinces to the interior is now being carried into effect. This measure affects nearly one hundred thousand persons. The families receive pa.s.sports, delivered by the Magistrates, indicating the place to which they are to go, and only a few days after they have received the pa.s.sport, they must sell all their property and convert it into money.”

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