August 13th.—On calling at the Foreign Office he had the satisfaction of being permitted to peruse two despatches, dated Teheran, 10th and 11th of June, from Mr Alison. The latter had been most active in his powerful appeal to the Persian Government in favour of the Jews, but a few months later dispatches were again given to him to read which caused him acute sorrow. "I called at the Foreign Office," he says, in his entry of the 1st of November, "and gave Mr (now Lord) Hammond a copy of my report. He said he had written to me yesterday, but I had not yet received his letter."
An opportunity was then afforded to him to read several dispatches from Mr Alison at Teheran, giving an account of another frightful outbreak against the Jews at Benfarouch. Many of them were killed and had their houses plundered and destroyed. In fact, the whole of the Jewish population of that place were homeless and starving, and crying aloud for mercy. The Shah's officer was beaten, and the head of the Moslem population declared that he was king there, and that not a Jew should remain alive in the place. The authority of the Shah had disappeared, and the ministers of England, France, Russia, and Turkey had declined to make any further remonstrances to his government. "Heaven protect the poor Jews." I begged Mr Hammond to advise me what I could do for them. He said, "Nothing; that I must wait with patience, and he would let me know when they had further dispatches." I offered to go to Persia, but he said, "It was not possible, I could do no good."
In a letter Sir Moses addressed to me in reference to the outbreak against the Jews at Balfaroosh, he writes: "Lord Clarendon has sent Mr Alison a telegram to express to the Shah the full assurance felt by Her Majesty's Government that the persons who have committed the outrage in question will be severely punished, and that the Jews at Balfaroosh and elsewhere throughout Persia will be protected from ill-treatment and persecution." "Alas," he continues, "I am not yet finished with one effort in favour of our brethren when a new misfortune occurs."
November 5th. He went to the Isle of Thanet Union at Ramsgate; visited all the rooms, and the infirmary, &c.; distributed parcels containing tea and sugar, in addition to gifts in money among 340 persons present. The inmates were always pleased to see him, as he made it a rule to speak a few kind words to them.
He was in the habit of visiting the Union and other charitable institutions in Ramsgate regularly every year, when his health permitted him to do so, and always remembered the inmates on the Queen's Birthday and on other festive occasions.
December 4th.—Sir Moses went to Dover to meet the Rev. Dr Artom, the spiritual head of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation, on his arrival after election. A few days later he had the pleasure of receiving a kind note with an offer of £100 from Miss Burdett Coutts towards the fund to be raised for the supply of water and the improvement of the dwellings of the Israelites in Jerusalem. Subsequently he devoted much time to making arrangements regarding his land at Jaffa.
When Sir Moses, a few months earlier, in a moment of weariness, almost overwhelmed by the frequent appeals to his sympathizing heart from his oppressed and suffering brethren in foreign lands, said, "Alas, I am not yet finished with one effort when a new misfortune occurs," he little thought that he would so soon have again to set out on a mission, and so give up the comforts of home. But the unexpected often happens, and Sir Moses did not think that he would be exempted from the usual lot of mankind; especially as so many thousands of his fellow beings placed their confidence in him, knowing that he would hasten to their help, as long as one spark of hope was left to remove their grievances.
In the first few months of this year he pursued his occupations in their usual order in the city, and when at Ramsgate, where he generally enjoyed the company of relatives and friends, his favourite theme was the improvement of the college buildings by the enlargement of the lecture hall. But even this pleasure soon became clouded by the news of the death of his brother-in-law, Mr Benjamin Cohen, the father of Mr Arthur Cohen, Q.C. Both he and Lady Montefiore were greatly attached to him. He was a man of exceptional goodness of heart, most agreeable in manners; endearing himself to all who associated with him.
Soon after this mournful event he received by the kindness of Lord Stanley, from the Foreign Office, various extracts from reports referring to Hamadan, dated February 22, 1867. "The Jews," Mr Alison's agent writes, "are this year much more ill-treated than last year. Many of the Jews have run away from this province."
Mr R. T. Thomson in his notes on "The Jews of Oroomiah," writes, on February 1, 1867, "There are two hundred families of Jews residing in the town of Oroomiah. The revenue which they pay to the Persian Government annually is fixed at four hundred tomans, but their master Rejjeb Ali Khan, son of Fazzan Agha, takes six hundred tomans besides sundry fines and other small exactions. It was agreed about twenty years ago that they should pay ten tomans annually, in lieu of forced labour. This sum is regularly exacted, and the forced labour likewise, which consists of clearing snow from the houses of the Master and his friends, removing rubbish, and clearing their courtyards.