"I need not tell you that many of the duties of office myself and colleague have just passed through are of a painful nature. We have often been called upon to witness scenes of agony occasioned by want and crime. Some of this distress, however painful, we could not alleviate; but we have endeavoured to mitigate the sufferings of the prisoners, and to open to them better and happier courses of life, as far as public justice and the necessarily strict rules of a prison would permit.
"If, on the one hand, there have been scenes of distress to witness, on the other I have found many sources of unmingled gratification. I have had opportunities of forming friendships with the members of the Corporation, and of cementing a friendship of long standing with my excellent colleague—friendships which I am sure, as regards my own wishes, will still remain, and cause me to look back on the past year as one of the happiest of my life."
Whilst these proceedings took place at the Guildhall, Sir Moses was fasting and reciting prayers with his community in the ancient and venerable Synagogue called "The Gate of Heaven," as the day on which the meeting took place happened to be the Day of Atonement, appointed in the Bible as a day of repentance and prayer for the forgiveness of sins. The fast does not seem to have affected Sir Moses' health or spirits in the least, as we find him attending service again in the House of Prayer at twenty minutes before seven the next morning. His devotions concluded, he takes an early opportunity of visiting his friends and enquiring how they have passed the previous day. The same evening he dined with his mother, who, he writes, "was, thanks to Heaven, pretty well after her fast."
Monday, October 1st.—He called on Mr Curtis, the Governor of the Bank of England, to thank him for proposing the vote of thanks to the Sheriffs; also on Mr Gurney, who seconded the vote. Later in the day he accompanied Sir George Carrol to Westminster, and at three o'clock the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, the Recorder, and Sheriffs elect came there to receive Her Majesty's approval of the newly elected Sheriffs. The Recorder in his address to the Bench again highly complimented Sir George and Sir Moses on the efficient manner in which they discharged their duties. Sir Moses then returned in great haste to the city, having summoned a meeting at the Alliance Office at four, for the election of a solicitor to the Board of Deputies. At five o'clock he had to attend the new Sheriffs' inauguration dinner at the London Tavern. "There were 150 persons present," he says, "the Lord Mayor in the chair. We had the foremost places, next to the new Sheriffs, and our health was drunk in a most complimentary manner."
Wednesday, October 3rd.—Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore went to Ramsgate, where they spent the Tabernacle holidays very happily, surrounded by relatives and friends whom they had invited for the occasion.
On the 19th they returned again to London. Here they had the satisfaction of finding letters of introduction from Lord Palmerston to Her Majesty's Ambassadors and Consuls in Paris, Florence, Rome, Naples, Malta, Alexandria, and Constantinople, as also to the Admiral on the Mediterranean Station, which Sir Moses had asked for through Mr Spring-Rice.
Monday, October 22nd.—At a meeting of the Deputies of the British Jews, Sir Moses resigned the Presidency on account of his going abroad. The next day he called at the Foreign Office to thank Lord Palmerston for the letters of introduction he had so kindly sent; he also called on Mr Spring-Rice, who was very friendly, and promised him a letter to the Governor of Malta, at the same time requesting Sir Moses to write to him from the East. A few days later he received several letters from Baron Lionel de Rothschild, which Baron Anthony, at the request of Baron Anselm de Rothschild, had procured for him from the French Ministry, to the French Admiral on the Mediterranean Station, and to their Ministers and Consuls.
Before leaving England Sir Moses sent for his solicitor to read over the will he had prepared, and which he signed in his presence, and in the presence of another gentleman whom he had brought as witness.
I notice this item in the entries of his diary to show the completeness of all his arrangements.
There is a book entitled "Notes from a Private Journal of a Visit to Egypt and Palestine by way of Italy and the Mediterranean," written by Lady Montefiore, and printed in the year 1844: a second edition was printed shortly before the death of Sir Moses. Both, having only been intended for private circulation among friends, are unpublished. The account of the journey which I give here is taken partly from Sir Moses' and Lady Montefiore's diaries, and partly from my own, which I kept when travelling with them, with a view of supplying the reader with information on subjects which they have omitted to write down.