I may be permitted, perhaps, to interrupt the reader in the perusal of Sir Moses' report, by stating that on his return from the Holy Land, he sent a copy of the information he obtained in Jerusalem, respecting the Safed affair, to the Rev. Dr N. Macleod, and had the pleasure of receiving an acknowledgment from him, which, I think, will be read with much satisfaction. The letter addressed to Sir Moses on the subject is as follows:—

"Adelaide Place, Glasgow, October 19th, 1866.

"My Dear Sir.—I thank you very cordially for your courteous letter, and for the copy of your Report which you were so good as to send to me. I have read all your Report with the greatest attention, and dissent altogether from what is personal to myself.

"I shall have very great satisfaction, indeed, in publishing, possibly in Goods Words, but certainly in the cheap edition of my 'Eastward,' and in both, if you wish it, your contradiction of the story regarding the Safed woman. I have no doubt whatever, that my informant was imposed upon.

"But I have as little doubt that my informant was the Austrian Consul, though I may (how I cannot tell) have made a mistake about his unpronounceable name, by trusting possibly to my memory, and not having rightly taken it up at the time. Nevertheless, he was the Consul. We were living in his house; the official arms were, as I have stated, hung up at the end of his room; he read to us several official documents which he had sent to his Government, and narrated the story in the presence of our party. We rejected it as too shocking to be true, and insisted that he should make further enquiries, and only when he professed to have done so, and again assured us of the fact, did I feel justified, as travellers, in recording the fact and noting the evidence on which it was received.

"Forgive me for saying that I think you should have asked the present Consul whether he had ever lodged our party (we having paid him), or given any such information? If not, who was Austrian Consul at the time? or who represented him in his official residence? And if the present Consul did give us this information, on what evidence was it founded? I do not object to the ex parte statement of the Rabbis. But, in justice to myself and the Consul, his statement most certainly should have been obtained, and opportunity given him to verify or to contradict all his stories. I may also state that he described the fights for charity-money to have been sometimes continued for days, and to the effusion of blood; this may also be false. But other parties besides those implicated should, when possible, be heard.

"But I have no wish to make this a controversy. I shall give your contradiction to the story. I have received an affidavit to the same effect, made before Consul Rogers of Damascus, and a letter from him, expressing his disbelief in it, which I may also publish. In any case, I shall act justly.

—With deepest respect, and sincerest goodwill, I remain, yours faithfully,

"N. Macleod."

With regard to the desirability of making further inquiries of the Consul himself, and of hearing the evidence from other persons besides those implicated, it must be observed that Sir Moses had this time not been able to go to Safed. Had he been there, he would undoubtedly have made the inquiries suggested by the Rev. Doctor. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that Sir Moses did not appear in the Holy Land as a judge, with the power of cross-examining the Austrian Consul, and therefore could not have made such inquiries until the latter had come forward and offered voluntarily to assist in clearing up the matter.

All Sir Moses wanted to ascertain from the representatives of the Safed Hebrew Congregation was, whether the accusation brought against them had any foundation in truth? And if not, that it should be refuted by undoubted evidence.

He had long known the character of the representatives as spotless, and was in the habit of placing the utmost confidence in them on all important occasions. This, and the circumstance that the woman who was said to have been executed by order of the Rabbis was still living at Damascus—a fact which has been testified by the Consul of that place and several other persons who had seen her there—ought to be admitted as the most striking evidence in favour of the representatives of the community.

CHAPTER XXIV.
1866.

DEPARTURE FROM THE HOLY CITY—RETURN TO ENGLAND—VISIT TO BARON BRUNNOW AND LORD CLARENDON—FRIGHTFUL OUTBREAK AGAINST THE JEWS IN PERSIA—FRESH COMPLAINTS FROM MOLDAVIA.

CONTINUING the narrative of his travels, Sir Moses says:—