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 passports, delivered by the Magistrates, indicating the place to which they are to go, and only a few days after they have received the passport, they must sell all their property and convert it into money."
CHAPTER XXXIX.
1844.
AFFAIRS IN MOROCCO—LETTER TO THE EMPEROR—HIS REPLY—DEPUTATION TO SIR ROBERT PEEL—DEATH OF LADY MONTEFIORE'S BROTHER ISAAC—SIR MOSES SETS OUT FOR RUSSIA.
The first few months of the year 1844 appeared, according to a statement in the Königsberg Gazette, to give some hope for an improvement in the condition of Sir Moses' co-religionists in Russia.
The paper says:—
"The famous Ukase against the Jews, of the 20th April 1844 (2nd May), seems to be adjourned. The Emperor himself has given orders to the Minister of the Interior to present him with a minute report on the situation and property of the Jews in the villages and frontier towns, before the terrible Ukase is put into execution. This sudden change has produced so much the more joy among the unfortunate Jews, as rigorous measures had already been taken for the execution of the Ukase, as well as the decree of the Senate, dated January 10 (22) 1884. It is to Sir Moses Montefiore and the interference of many members of the nobility that thirty thousand Jews perhaps owe the entire revocation of this law."
As for Morocco, where, during the bombardment of Mogador, the Jews, together with other inhabitants, had been great sufferers, Sir Moses wrote a letter to the editor of the Times, directing his attention to the fact, and showing that the committee in London had correctly estimated the number of the sufferers. Consignments of money, food, and clothing, had, he observed, already been transmitted to Mogador to trustworthy agents, for immediate distribution among the sufferers. The subscriptions to the day he wrote exceeded £2500.
Sir Moses also attended a meeting of the Mogador Committee, at which they agreed to send a letter to the Emperor of Morocco, and to request the Earl of Aberdeen to instruct Mr E. W. Drummond Hay, H.B. Majesty's Consul-General at Tangiers, to forward it to the Emperor.