He attended a special meeting of the Middlesex Magistrates to consider what steps should be taken in consequence of the late outrage at the House of Detention, a collection being afterwards made for the relief of the sufferers.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
1868.
SERIOUS OUTBREAK AGAINST THE JEWS AT BERLAD—SIR MOSES APPEALS TO THE MOLDAVIAN GOVERNMENT—THE REPLY—REPRESSIVE BILL AFFECTING THE JEWS—THE GALATZ INCIDENT—LORD SHAFTESBURY AND SIR MOSES—VISIT TO THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
DURING the latter part of December 1867 and nearly the whole of January 1868 he was confined to his chamber at Ramsgate by a severe attack of bronchitis, and was just about to start by the advice of his medical attendant for Tunbridge Wells or Reigate for the improvement of his health, when, unfortunately, a report of a serious outrage caused him to abandon the idea.
"I passed a restless night," he says, "and was very weak this morning, but my letters were brought to my bedside about nine o'clock this morning. Among them a letter from the Foreign Office, with a copy of a despatch from Mr Green, Her Majesty's Consul-General at Bucharest, dated 15th January, giving an account of a serious outbreak against the Jews at Berlad in Moldavia."
After the assurance given to him by the Prince and his Ministers, and the powerful support which had been promised by the British Government and all the Great Powers, he was not at all prepared to hear so soon of another outbreak in Moldavia, and the communication he now received caused him great pain.
He immediately wrote to the Foreign Office to ask an audience of Lord Stanley on the subject, and next day started for London, where he at once proceeded to the Foreign Office to see Mr Hammond, taking with him all the letters which had reached him in the morning from Moldavia. Being informed that the Jews there had not applied to the English Consul for advice and protection, he at once sent a telegram to the Chief Rabbi of Berlad, urging him to appeal to the British Consul at Bucharest.
Tuesday, January 28th.—He called on Lord Stanley, accompanied by the President of the London Committee of Deputies of the British Jews. His Lordship received them most courteously, and said he had done all he could, and would continue to do so.