"Finally, I have to petition your Excellency to take seriously into consideration all that I have here advanced on my suffering brethren's behalf. Your Excellency, I am aware, entertains the most philanthropic views, and when your Excellency reflects on the earnest desire of my brethren in His Imperial Majesty's dominions to benefit by education in the most comprehensive and useful sense of the word, and the restrictions which as Israelites impede a beneficial progress therein, I am sure that your Excellency's enlightened judgment will accord them your powerful advocacy with His Imperial Majesty's Government.
"Your Excellency may indeed believe that I assert as my solemn conviction, that when they shall fully enjoy those privileges and opportunities which their paternal and beneficent Sovereign has designed for them, the result will be surprising to those who have underrated their talents and inclinations, and most gratifying to all who like your Excellency have evinced a sincere desire to promote their welfare, equally with that of the other numerous people over whom His Imperial Majesty reigns.—I have the honour to be, with the highest consideration and the most profound respect, your Excellency's most faithful servant.
(Signed) "Moses Montefiore."
CHAPTER XLVI.
1846.
REPORT TO COUNT KISSELEFF ON THE STATE OF THE JEWS IN POLAND—PROTEST AGAINST THE RESTRICTIONS TO WHICH THEY WERE SUBJECTED.
The last of the three important reports made by Sir Moses Montefiore to the Ministers of the Emperor of Russia was to Count Kisseleff, and ran as follows:—
"To his Excellency Le Comte de Kisseleff, Ministre du domaine de l'Empire de sa Majesté l'Empereur de Russie, &c., &c., &c.
"May it please your Excellency,—My first and principal report had reference, as your Excellency will have seen, to the condition and wants of my brethren in Russia. In obedience, however, to the permission which His Majesty the Emperor most graciously gave me, and to your Excellency's most benevolent desire, it is incumbent on me to make some remarks (which for the sake of clearness I prefer submitting in a distinct paper) in regard to those who are inhabitants of the kingdom of Poland. In so doing, I would humbly beseech His Majesty the Emperor, your Excellency, and His Majesty's Government at large, so far as it may be made acquainted with the subject, to receive such remarks, and any requests that may stand connected with them, with great and indulgent consideration.