During this month they undertook two journeys to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, one for the purpose of consulting with his friends there on the subject of the Damascus inscription, and the other in compliance with an invitation from Baroness Charlotte and Baron Anselm de Rothschild to the wedding of their daughter with Baron Willie de Rothschild.
On his return to London, one of his first acts in the cause of education was the gift of a hundred guineas to the "Merchant Taylors" for a medal to the best Hebrew scholar, and in grateful remembrance of past services he was able to offer Mr Richard Wood, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Damascus, a cadetship at Addiscombe for his nephew, whilst his remittances to charitable institutions, and the forwarding of medical supplies to Dr Fränkel, in Jerusalem, for the dispensary, showed that he was ever mindful of the requirements of the needy.
We now come to the year 1850, the first two months of which Sir Moses devoted to making selections from papers he had received during his stay in Damascus, relative to the removal of the infamous inscription in the Capuchin Church, and when he had completed the work, he called on Lord Palmerston to request his assistance in the matter.
On that occasion he also conveyed to his Lordship the sincere gratitude of the Russian and Polish Jews in the Holy Land for having been received under the protection of the English Government, the Czar having granted the necessary permission. Lord Palmerston promised to write to Lord Normanby on the subject as soon as Sir Moses had furnished him with further particulars, and, as a matter of fact, had already informed one of the consuls, who had interfered with the religious observances of the Jews, that such conduct was against the wishes of the English Government.
In March he was present at a grand dinner given by the Lord Mayor to the Mayors of the several towns and other cities in connection with the Grand Exhibition of the Industries of all Nations. Prince Albert was in the chair; there were three hundred persons present, and the Prince made a good speech. Sir Moses contributed £100 towards the object in view.
In the same month he attended a meeting of the Elders, to inform them of an invitation he had received from the Great Synagogue in reference to the establishment of a West-End branch, towards which, under certain conditions, he and Lady Montefiore offered to contribute £500.
A few days later he was present at the Mogador Committee, when it was agreed to send 500 dollars for the relief of the poor.
At the end of the month of May he was much disturbed by the issue of a Ukase against the Jews of Moldavia and Wallachia, ordering all those who had hitherto dwelt in the villages to quit the same without delay and remove to the towns.
An appeal, signed by a great number of Moldavian and Wallachian Jews, had been forwarded to him, in which they said that, apart from the considerations that they had committed no wrong justifying so severe a decree as that of their expulsion from the villages, many thousands of their brethren would be cut off from the possibility of earning a livelihood, and would thus become reduced to penury. Their religion, they said, would be looked upon with derision and scorn; and all the accusations and calumnies which their enemies had ever raised against them in justification of this harsh measure were fictions and fabrications of their own. "We implore you," they wrote, "give ear to the supplication of your brethren, and intercede in our behalf, that the decree in question may not be put in execution."
About the same time distressing accounts reached him from the Jews at Rome. The supplicants said: "We are now more oppressed than ever; no Christian is allowed to be in a Jew's house, either as servant or companion. The Pope will receive neither an address nor a deputation from the Jews."