In his capacity of Deputy-Lieutenant of the county, Sir Moses, together with Captain Isaake, another Deputy-Lieutenant of the county, invited Colonel Stothard of Dover to come to Ramsgate and select the land for a battery to protect the harbour. On his arrival they went to Wellington Crescent, and selected for that purpose a plot, 200 feet in length and 50 in depth, in the centre of the garden in front of the Crescent.
Sir Moses, ever anxious to serve his country, expressed himself as much satisfied in having had the opportunity of assisting in so important a cause.
Lady Montefiore's state of health, to which I have already alluded, continued to be most unsatisfactory. Her condition frequently prevented Sir Moses from attending meetings or special appointments in the city.
CHAPTER XIII.
1860.
THE SULTAN PERMITS THE BUILDING OF THE JERUSALEM ALMSHOUSES—CONCESSION FOR A CARRIAGE-ROAD FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM—SIR MOSES CHAMPIONS THE PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS OF SYRIA—PUNISHMENT OF THE CULPRITS—DISQUIETING REPORTS FROM DAMASCUS.
THE year 1860 opens with the record of a satisfactory reply from the Turkish Government to Sir Moses' petition respecting the building of the Juda Touro Almshouses in Jerusalem, the interruption of which, by order of Sureya Pasha, had caused him much annoyance and expense. Musurus Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador in London, thus addresses him on the subject.
"I have the pleasure to inform you that I have just received a dispatch from His Excellency Fuad Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sublime Porte, in reply to the communication that I addressed to His Excellency on the subject of the interference by the Imperial authorities at Jerusalem with the erection of the building lately commenced there by your orders for the benefit of your co-religionists. This dispatch states that although, according to the general regulations respecting fortified places in the Ottoman dominions, the erection of such buildings in such proximity to a fortress should not be permitted, yet, notwithstanding this, considering that an exceptional permission was previously granted to you of which you have already availed yourself to erect a building in the vicinity of the fortress above mentioned, His Imperial Majesty the Sultan has been pleased to order that the building last begun should be allowed to be finished, according to your wish, and the necessary orders have in consequence been sent to His Excellency the Governor of Jerusalem.