"Congratulating you on this desirable result being obtained, I have the honour to be, &c."
About the same time he received some intelligence from Count Pizzamano, the Austrian Consul in Jerusalem, respecting a subject which had often engaged his attention in former years, viz, the construction of a carriage road from Jaffa to Jerusalem. It appears that the Count had at last succeeded in obtaining a fifty years' concession from the Turkish Government for the purpose, and he now proposed forming a company with a capital of one million francs, on which he calculated he could offer the shareholders a dividend at the rate of ten per cent. per annum, leaving a surplus to be divided between the contractors and the Amortisation Fund.
The Count was not willing to dispose of any shares before hearing from Sir Moses; and asked him whether he would be inclined to associate himself in the undertaking, sharing profits and losses alike; or, should this not suit him, how many shares he would take himself, and how many he could place in England among his friends?
The concession which the Turkish Government granted to Count Pizzamano to facilitate traffic in the Holy Land may probably have had some connection with the conversation Sir Moses had with Musurus Pasha in London on the subject of Jewish colonisation, consequent upon the offer which the French Government had made to the Jews of Morocco. However gratifying the communication of Count Pizzamano may have been to Sir Moses, his advanced age, and the great anxiety occasioned by the very unsatisfactory state of Lady Montefiore's health, precluded the possibility of his then associating himself with the Count in his important undertaking.
April 3rd.—Sir Moses laid the foundation stone of the Spanish and Portuguese Branch Synagogue at Bryanston Street, near Cumberland Place, towards the building of which he and Lady Montefiore had contributed £500.
June 15th.—The Viceroy of Egypt sent him a portrait of his son, Toussoun Pasha, with a very complimentary letter.
July 3rd.—The entry of this day, regarding the Juda Toura Almshouses in Jerusalem, I give in Sir Moses' own words.
Judah Turo Almhouses at Jerusalem. See Vol. II., page 111.