Part 24 (1/2)

There were present--Mr Joseph Gutteres Henriques, President; Baron de Rothschild, Sir Moses Montefiore, Messrs Moses Mocatta, I. L.

Goldsmid, Jacob Montefiore, Isaac Cohen, Henry H. Cohen, Samuel Bensusan, Dr Loewe, Messrs Louis Lucas, A. A. Goldsmid, Louis Cohen, H. de Castro, Haim Guedalla, Simon Samuel, Joel Davis, David Salamons, Abraham Levy, Jonas Levy, Laurence Myers, Solomon Cohen, Barnard van Oven, M.D., S. J. Waley, and F. H. Goldsmid.

The following resolutions were unanimously adopted:--

”That this meeting has learned with extreme concern and disgust that there have been lately revived in the East those false and atrocious charges, so frequently brought against the Jews during the middle ages, of committing murders in order to use the blood of the murdered as an ingredient in the food during the religious ceremony of Pa.s.sover, charges which, in those times, repeatedly served as a pretext for the robbery and ma.s.sacre of persons of the Jewish faith, but which have long disappeared from this part of the world, with the fierce and furious prejudices that gave them birth.

”That this meeting is anxious to express its horror at finding that, on the ground of these abominable calumnies, numbers of Jews have been seized at Damascus and at Rhodes; that many children have been imprisoned, and almost totally deprived of food; that of the adults seized, several have been tortured till they died, and others have been sentenced to death, and, it is believed, executed, although the only evidence of their guilt was the pretended confessions wrung by torture from their alleged accomplices.

”That this meeting earnestly request the Governments of England, France, and Austria to remonstrate with those Governments under which these atrocities have taken place, against their continuance.

”That this meeting confidently relies on the sympathy and humanity of the British nation to exert its influence and authority to stay such abominable proceedings, and that the President, Joseph Gutteres Henriques, Esq.; The Baron de Rothschild, Sir Moses Montefiore, and Messrs I. L. Goldsmid, Jacob Montefiore, David Salamons, A. A.

Goldsmid, and F. H. Goldsmid do form a deputation to request a conference on the subject with Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

”That these resolutions be advertised in the newspapers.”

A letter was read from the Rev. Dr Hirschel, Chief Rabbi, expressive of his regret that his infirmities prevented his attendance at the meeting, and declaring his concern at the revival of such false and calumnious a.s.sertions, and his horror at such atrocious cruelties.

The meeting was attended by Monsieur Cremieux, Vice-President of the _Consistoire Central des Israelites Francais_, who addressed the meeting, expressing his concurrence and sympathy in its proceedings.

On April 30th the Committee proceeded to Downing Street, and were most kindly received by Lord Palmerston. He promised to use his influence with Mohhammad Ali and the Turkish Government to put a stop to such atrocities. Sir Moses mentioned on this occasion, when Lord Palmerston was speaking of his visit to Palestine, Mr Young's humanity at Jerusalem, and also the fact that the Jews were desirous of being employed in agricultural pursuits.

On June 15th at a meeting of the Deputies and Representatives of all the Synagogues, including the Rev. Dr Hirschel, Rev. D. Meldola, Monsieur Cremieux, and Rev. D. Bibas, Sir Moses was requested to proceed, with Monsieur Cremieux, to Alexandria and Damascus, to which request he acceded.

On June 23rd he attended a meeting at the Great Synagogue, where the resolutions adopted at the previous meeting (June 15th) were confirmed, and he declared his readiness to go.

On the 24th of June he went with Baron Lionel de Rothschild to the Foreign Office. Lord Palmerston was most friendly, and read to them the despatches to Colonel Hodges and Lord Ponsonby. That to Colonel Hodges was most strongly worded, calling on him to address Mohhammad Ali in writing to urge him to compensate the sufferers and remove those officers who had misconducted themselves in Damascus. Lord Palmerston further said he would give Sir Moses letters to Colonel Hodges, telling him to afford him every protection and a.s.sistance, and desiring him to apply to Mohhammad Ali to give him (Sir Moses) every facility for the investigation of the affair. His Lords.h.i.+p also added that he would give him any other letters he might require.

On Friday, July 3rd, there was a crowded and enthusiastic meeting in the Egyptian Hall at the Mansion House, of bankers, merchants, and many influential and learned British Christians, for the purpose of expressing their sympathy with the Israelites, and their earnest wishes for the success of Sir Moses Montefiore previous to his starting on the mission to the East. Mr Alderman Thompson took the chair. The princ.i.p.al speakers were the Lord Mayor, Sir Chapman Marshall, J. Abel Smith, John Masterman, S. Gurney, Sir Charles Forbes, Dr Bowring, Daniel O'Connell, and the Hon. and Rev. Noel. The result of the meeting was highly satisfactory.

In the interval between these meetings Sir Moses attended the Queen's Drawing-Room, and was most graciously addressed there by Prince George of Cambridge, who said he was glad to see him, and reminded him of his having met him at Malta.

At a meeting of the Board of Deputies on the 26th Sir Moses was unanimously elected their president, on the resignation of Mr J. H.

Henriques. He attended the annual festival dinner of the Jews'

Hospital, when the Duke of Suss.e.x presided. On the 11th of June he went to the Merchant Taylors' Hall to meet the Duke of Cambridge and Prince George, the latter being made an honorary member of the Company. Taking special interest in the abolition of slavery, Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore both attended the grand meeting of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, when Prince Albert took the chair and addressed the company. On June 15th he was present at a meeting of the Board of Deputies of the British Jews, and agreed to the addresses of congratulation prepared by the Hon. Secretary, to be sent to Her Majesty, Prince Albert, and the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, on the occasion of the escape of the Queen from the attempt made on her life in the Park on the 10th of June. The address to Her Majesty was subsequently presented by him, as President of the Board of Deputies, accompanied by four other gentlemen, at St James' Palace; and Sir Moses was then presented to the Queen by the Duke of Norfolk, on his going to the East. The next day Sir Moses and the same four gentlemen presented the address to the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, who received them most amiably, and enquired particularly after Sir Moses' health. He then proceeded with them to Buckingham Palace, and presented the address to Prince Albert, who also received them very graciously.

Sir Moses, as the representative of the Jews in the British Empire, now commenced making his arrangements for the departure of the Mission, and Monsieur Cremieux, as representative of the Jews in France, took similar steps.

Sir Moses selected for his companions Mr D. W. Wire (his former under-Sheriff and afterwards Lord Mayor of London), Dr Madden, a distinguished author and well-known traveller in the East, and myself.

Monsieur Cremieux engaged as his companion Monsieur Solomon Munk, a distinguished savant of Paris.

Before I proceed to give the account of the present mission, as taken from the entries in Sir Moses' diary and from my own personal observation, I deem it necessary to direct the attention of the reader to the origin of accusations similar to those made at Damascus, which were brought against the Jews in former times; and to point out the reason why, even to this day, they are not without effect in some of the most enlightened countries.

Tertullia.n.u.s (J. Septimus Florens), one of the Fathers of the Church, who lived in the second century, complains in his work ent.i.tled ”Apologet. advers. gentes” (chap. 8), of the adherents to the religion to which he himself belonged being accused of sacrificing and eating children. Upon which, Pamelius, in his commentary on the same chapter (which he dedicated to Philip II. and Pope Gregory VIII.), observes, that the accusation has its origin in the misunderstanding of the sense of all those pa.s.sages in the New Testament which refer to the Agapes. These verses have been taken by the uninitiated in their literal sense.

The heathens at that time a.s.serted that the Christians used human blood at their Pa.s.sover. Thus we find the origin of that horrible accusation in the first three centuries of the Christian era; not until the thirteenth century was it brought against the Jews, viz., in the year 1235 in Fulda, 1250 in Spain, 1264 in London, 1283 in Bachrach, Moravia, 1285 in Munich.

If these charges were true, it might be asked, how is it that the Jews, who celebrated the Pa.s.sover festival fifteen hundred years before the Christian era, had never been accused of such a crime before? The answer to this question is to be found in the history of the thirteenth century.