"We are not exaggerating," he continues, "in saying that for years no trial has kept the whole of the civilised world in such breathless suspense as that of Nyiregyhaza."
The press of all nations followed the proceedings of the court with the utmost attention, and even before sentence was given, the Journal des Debats considered it necessary to protest against the proceedings of the court, describing them as a horrible result of the then prevailing Anti-Semitic agitation in Germany—a raging fire devouring thousands of innocent lives, which even a number of intelligent and enlightened men in that country did not hesitate to stir up and fan.
I am alluding to the Tisza-Eszlar trial, instituted to discover and punish the murderer of a girl, fourteen years old, named Esther Solymossi. She was a native of Tisza-Eszlar, in service with one of her relatives, the wife of Audreas Hury, who was living at Nyiregyhaza. This girl was sent by her mistress to make some purchases from a shopkeeper in Ofalu, the old part of the town. She was seen at his house in the middle of the day, and made her purchases there, but never returned to her mistress, although later her own sister, who was in service in the neighbourhood, and other people saw her running fast, as if returning in great haste. The Jews were subsequently accused of having killed the girl, in order to make use of her blood for the approaching feast of the Passover. Sir Moses naturally took a deep interest in this trial, and the revival of the old familiar blood accusation. The trial was not instituted until the following year, but soon after the disappearance of the girl a fearful agitation arose against the Jews. A large number of them, said to be implicated in the murder, were put into prison, and the outcry against them generally was so great that Christian girls serving in Jewish families left their situations, and could not be persuaded to remain, although previously they were perfectly happy and contented.
In many parts of the country violent disturbances took place. Jewish houses were plundered, and the Jews themselves ill-treated. These occurrences were the cause of stormy debates in the Hungarian Parliament, where some of the Anti-Semitic Deputies tried to fix the guilt of the murder upon the Jews, and by way of confirmation again brought forward the exploded story about the Jews of Damascus having, in 1840, murdered a priest to use his blood for Passover. When Sir Moses received a report of these debates, he immediately addressed the following letter to the Minister President:—
"East Cliff Lodge,
"Ramsgate, 9th June 1882."To His Excellency Count Tisza, Minister President of the Imperial and
Royal House of Representatives in Buda-Pesth."May it please your Excellency,—My attention having been drawn by the perusal of a paper, entitled Neues Pester Journal, to a debate held on the 25th of May, in the Imperial Royal House of Representatives in your city, referring to an interpellation made by one of the honourable deputies, in which that gentleman introduces the subject of an accusation brought against the Jews of Damascus in the year 1840, to the effect that the Jews of Europe on that occasion had offered large sums of money to the members of the Austrian and French Consulates in Damascus to gain their favourable services; that the accused had been subsequently liberated by an act of grace from Mohhamed Ali, and that notwithstanding his firman all the people in the East were convinced of the truth of the accusation. I deem it my sacred duty to entreat your Excellency's permission for bringing the following statement to your knowledge, trusting that, for the sake of truth, justice, and humanity, which so pre-eminently distinguish your noble career, you will forgive the intrusion.
"It was in the year 1840 that I had the honour of being entrusted by my brethren in the British Empire with a Mission to Damascus, when I pleaded the cause of the accused first before His Highness Mohhamed Ali in Alexandria, and afterwards in Constantinople before His Imperial Majesty the Sultan Abdel Mejid, from whom I obtained Khát Shérif, in which the Sultan not only declared the innocence of the accused, and that all charges made against them and their religion were nothing but pure calumnies, but His Majesty, in conformity with the Hatti Sherif which had been proclaimed on a former occasion at Gulhane, repeated that the Jewish nation should possess the same advantages, and enjoy the same privileges, as are granted to the numerous other nations who submit to his authority. I am for this reason in a position to assure your Excellency that no other means were used to obtain the liberation of the Jews in Damascus than those of justice and truth.
"Mohhamed Ali granted them freedom and rest (Itlâk î tarwich). These are the words used by him in his firman: 'Every one shall follow his former pursuits and enjoy the utmost protection.' This was no act of grace but of justice, and it is with the feeling of the greatest indignation that I reject the accusation brought by the author of that interpellation against the Jews of Europe.
"I request the favour of your Excellency's kind acceptance and perusal of the accompanying copy of the Sultan's Khát Shérif, also of a book treating on the subject of the accusations, and beg to subscribe myself with profound respect, your Excellency's most humble and obedient servant,
(Signed) "Moses Montefiore."
Almost immediately on the receipt of the letter, the Prime Minister Tisza issued a circular to the local authorities all over the country, couched in the strongest possible language, appealing to the patriotism, love of peace, and impartiality of the Hungarians, impressing upon them the untruth of the accusation and the impossibility of such proceedings, and calling upon the guardians of the public peace to prevent the publication of such absurd superstitions, and to forbid meetings being convened by the instigators.
The Anti-Semites, however, had set their mark upon Sir Moses; three months later they introduced his name in one of their reports, in such a manner that had the allegations been true it would have formed a convenient weapon of attack on the Jews by their enemies in general.
On the 11th and 12th of September 1882, the first International Anti-Jewish Congress met at Dresden, and by virtue of a resolution published a manifesto, addressed to the "Governments and peoples of Christian States endangered by Judaism" (subsequently printed at Chemnitz, Saxony, by Ernst Schmeitzner).
Therein we read on p. 15:—"The Congress finally appointed a Committee, whose next task will be to procure pecuniary assistance for the establishment of an Anti-Semitic press. For bearing in mind the words of the Jew 'Montefiore,' uttered by him in a Rabbinical Assembly at Krakau in the year 1840, the Committee have come to the conclusion that as long as the Christian Aryan natives do not reconquer the press in order to enlighten the people and show them the true state of affairs, they will not be able to effect any good."
Now, as I happen to have been with Sir Moses from the beginning of the year 1840 to the end, I can positively declare that Sir Moses never was at Krakau, never attended a Rabbinical Assembly in that city, nor in any other part of the world, and never spoke the words attributed to him.