Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore Part 5

"He may be well content that need not borrow nor flatter."

He attends this year regularly all the meetings of eight companies or a.s.sociations: the Alliance British and Foreign Life and Fire a.s.surance, the Alliance Marine a.s.surance, the Imperial Continental Gas a.s.sociation, the Provincial Bank of Ireland, the Imperial Brazilian Mining, the Chilian and Peruvian Mining, the Irish Manufactory, and the British Colonial Silk Company.

With all this, no doubt often very exciting work, he still finds time for attending all the meetings of charitable inst.i.tutions of which he is a member, more especially those of his own community; while he is often met in the house of mourning performing duties sometimes most painful and distressing to a sympathising heart.

_February 11th._--He attends for the first time the General Board of the Provincial Bank of Ireland.

Being now considered an authority of high standing in the financial world, various offers were made to him by promoters to join their companies or become one of their directors. Among these undertakings is one which I will name on account of the interest every man of business now takes in it. I allude to a company which had for its object the cutting of a s.h.i.+p ca.n.a.l for uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

He refused the directors.h.i.+p of that gigantic undertaking, which, after having been abandoned for nearly sixty years, was again taken up, under the name of the Panama Ca.n.a.l, by M. de Lesseps.

Thirty years later Mr Montefiore also refused to take a leading part or directors.h.i.+p in the Suez Ca.n.a.l Company, which M. de Lesseps had offered him when in Egypt. I happened to be present at the time when M. de Lesseps called on him with that object. It was in the year 1855, when Mr Montefiore had become Sir Moses Montefiore, and was enjoying the hospitality of his late Highness Said Pasha, who gave him one of his palaces to reside in during his stay at Alexandria.

M. de Lesseps spoke to him for several hours on the subject, but he could not be persuaded that so great an undertaking was destined to be a pecuniary success.

_May 8th._--Mr and Mrs Montefiore leave for Paris. On their return they proceed in July to Oxford; and, at the end of the same month, we see them in Ireland, whither Mr Montefiore went as a member of the deputation sent by the Provincial Bank. In recognition of the services rendered to the Board by himself and the other members of the deputation, a resolution was pa.s.sed, a copy of which is here subjoined.

"Provincial Bank of Ireland, "_Friday, September 9th, 1825_.

"At a meeting of the Court--Present:--John Morris, Esq., in the chair; M. Attwood, Esq., M. P.; H. A. Douglas, Esq.; S. A. Madgan, Esq.; J.

T. Thorp, Esq.; Jas. Brogdon, Esq., M. P.; J. R. Macqueen, Esq., M.

P.; C. E. Prescott, Esq.; S. N. Ward, Esq.

"Resolved unanimously, That the cordial thanks of the Court are due to Messrs Medley, Montefiore, and Blount for the zeal and ability they have evinced in the management of the business committed to their care, the result of which has fully realised the expectations of the Court, and will conduce most essentially to the prosperity of the Company.

"The Chairman is requested to communicate the resolution to the gentlemen of the deputation on their return from Ireland."

1826 (5586 A.M.).--The diary begins with the prayer, "Renew in me, O Lord, the right spirit."

For the information of the general reader I quote a short statement from some historical records of the state of financial transactions in this and the previous year which will explain the importance of the entries Mr Montefiore made in these years, referring to monetary transactions.

On the 12th of January there is an entry stating "the Government will lend the merchants five millions of Exchequer Bills, and the Bank directors have agreed to advance the money. They will not fund till June or July, and then only five or six millions." "This," Mr Montefiore thinks, "is much in favour of stocks."

One of his acquaintance died suddenly at this time, an unfortunate event which he considered was the fatal result of large speculations.

"These two years," the historian says, "were characterised by an extraordinary activity in all departments of trade and commerce. Mr Huskisson, a minister who was a high authority on commercial matters, originated several important measures, especially those relating to the repeal of all duties on goods pa.s.sing between Great Britain and Ireland, an alteration in the duties affecting the silk manufacture, and the repeal of the combination laws and of the law against the emigration of artisans; while the Executive formed commercial treaties, on the reciprocity system, with various countries in Europe, and, acknowledging the independence of the revolted Spanish colonies in America, drew them as additional customers into the British market.

Capital now so far exceeded the ordinary means of its employment, that many joint-stock companies were formed as a means of giving it a wider scope. Some of these a.s.sociations professed objects which were by long established usage the proper business of individuals alone, and others involved hazardous and visionary projects to be carried into effect in remote countries. The depressed state of trade in 1821 and 1822 had led to a diminished importation and production of goods, and was succeeded by an advance of prices in 1823. The consequence was a sudden and unusually large demand and a powerful reaction of supply, which did not cease till production had far exceeded the bounds of moderation.

Through the facilities afforded by a large issue of paper money, the delusion was kept up longer than it would otherwise have been. The first symptom of something wrong was the turning of the exchange against England. A diminution of issues at the bank followed.

Merchants began to experience difficulties in meeting pecuniary obligations. Then took place a run upon the banks, some of which, both in London and the country, were obliged to stop payment. Between October 1825 and February 1826, fifty-nine commissions of bankruptcy were issued against English country banks, and four times the number of private compositions were calculated to have taken place during the same period. While merchants and manufacturers were without credit, their inferiors were without employment, and distress reached almost every cla.s.s of the community. Some liberal pecuniary measures on the part of the Bank of England helped in a short time, rather by inspiring confidence than by actual disburs.e.m.e.nt of money, to retrieve in some measure the embarra.s.sed circ.u.mstances of the country.

"On the same day," Mr Montefiore says, "when the death of an unfortunate speculator caused a general gloom to prevail in the financial world, I was asked by a gentleman if I had the courage to join him in a speculation, my reply was I would see to-morrow." "I fear," Mr Montefiore observes, "this day's awful lesson is quite lost upon him."

The entries I am now giving are very brief, sometimes abrupt, showing (probably) the excited state of affairs in the political and financial world, which appear to have induced him to form a resolution to withdraw entirely from all the turmoil of London.

_March 5th._--Heard there will be no war. The ministers' plan of funding and repaying six millions of the bank has lowered the funds.

_March 17th._--Attended the meeting of the schools; meeting of the society for granting marriage portions to orphans (Spanish and Portuguese Hebrew community).

_March 20th._--The King of Portugal died; The Emperor of Austria dangerously ill; our good king much better.

_April 9th._--Dined with Mr N. M. Rothschild; met there Prince Esterhazy, Duke of St Albans, his brother and two sisters, Lady Augusta Cotton, a son of Lord Coventry, and the Earl of Lauderdale.

_April 13th._--The Emperor Nicholas insists upon the Turks evacuating Moldavia.

_April 16th._--Attended meeting of the elders (Sp. and Port.

Synagogue); signed 1171 cheques, dividends of the Alliance, sixteen s.h.i.+llings per share.

_June 20th._--War commences again in India, after Bhurtpore had been stormed by Lord Combermere and peace made with the Burmese, when they had to pay 100,000 sterling, and cede a great extent of the territory.

During the following three months he again devotes much time to communal affairs, attending committees of schools and charitable inst.i.tutions.

_October 15th._--Political events of great importance attract his attention. He calls with Mr N. M. Rothschild on Prince Esterhazy, who says that Canning and Villele are trying every means to settle a representative const.i.tution for Spain.

_October 22nd._--The entry states, "Received an express that the differences between the Russians and Turks are amicably settled."

_October 29th._--He frequently attends meetings of the elders in this and the following month, also orders blankets for distribution among the poor.

_December 12th._--The king sends a message to the House to the effect that five hundred troops would be sent to Portugal.

_December 14th._--The King of France's speech is considered very warlike.

The diary concludes with the following memorandum:--

"By the blessings of G.o.d, prepare for a trip to Jerusalem. Get letters of introduction from Lord Auckland for Malta, and from J. Alexander for Constantinople. Study Italian, French, and Hebrew."

CHAPTER V.

1827.

FIRST JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM.

The reader having accompanied Mr and Mrs Montefiore through the first period of their life and work, and seen them deservedly raised to a position enabling them, if so disposed, to take a prominent part in important public movements, I shall now describe all the incidents of note in connection with their pursuits in the second period of their lives.

In the year 1827 they decided to visit Jerusalem. Their sole reason for this determination was a wish to visit the Holy Land, a land with which their race is connected by so many a.s.sociations, and of which the name is kept in loving remembrance in the prayers recited daily by every true Israelite.

Mrs Montefiore has given a most interesting account of that journey in her private journal, printed, but not published, and the following narrative is based upon the entries made therein, and in the diaries of Mr Montefiore. For the better understanding of those extracts which bear upon politics, it may not be out of place to briefly recapitulate the circ.u.mstances of the one important event that occurred in the administration of Viscount G.o.derich (Mr Robinson), who succeeded Canning as Premier under George IV. This event was the battle of Navarino, which was followed by the establishment of Greek independence. The cause of Greece was supported, from different motives (see Brewer's "Hume"), by Russia, France, and England. These Powers had their squadrons in the Levant, the English being under the command of Sir Edward Codrington. War had not yet been declared; the Turkish and Egyptian fleet, under Ibrahim Pasha, lay in the Bay of Navarino, and there was an understanding that it should remain till the affairs of Greece were arranged. As the Turks attempted to violate this agreement a general engagement ensued, and the Turkish and Egyptian fleets were completely destroyed in the course of a few hours. By this impolitic act England and France played into the hands of Russia, who was anxious to weaken the power of Turkey, and thus they gave some help towards the long-cherished object of her ambition--the possession of Constantinople.

On May 1st, 1827 (5587-8 A.M.), Mr and Mrs Montefiore repaired to Synagogue as was their custom early in the morning before undertaking any important work, for the purpose of invoking the blessing of Divine Providence on this their first and long-projected journey to Jerusalem. Fortified with letters of introduction, in the first instance, to Admiral Codrington, then commanding on the Mediterranean Station, and taking with them their own carriages, they travelled _via_ Dover, Calais, Turin, Milan, Florence, and Rome to Naples. Here a nephew of Mr Amschel Rothschild a.s.sisted them in obtaining a vessel to take them to Malta, where they visited the plantations of the Silk Company on the ditch of Porto Reale. There were about 5000 mulberry trees at this place, as well as about 400 at Sal Marson, "all looking healthy. We were present," says Mrs Montefiore, "at a dinner given by us in the Palace to the men, women, and children, who were and had been employed by the Silk Company, to the number of 140. The hall was beautifully decorated with shrubs and flowers, and 'Welcome' was written in large letters at the top of the room. There were many joints of beef, a sheep roasted whole, macaroni, rice, bread, cheese, water melons, and good wine. Everyone had as much as he could eat and drink. The broken victuals and wine were afterwards distributed among the poor to the number of thirty. A band of music then entered the hall, and all present danced, as happy as people could be."

At the Palace Mr Montefiore delivered Lord Auckland's and Lord Strangford's letters to the Governor, the Hon. F. C. Ponsonby, who advised him to go to the East in a s.h.i.+p of war, on account of the Greek pirates.

Amidst numerous kind and flattering attentions from the residents, amongst whom were Sir John Stoddart, Mr and Mrs St John, Captain Roberts, Colonel Bathurst, and Miss Hamilton, amidst amus.e.m.e.nts and excursions to Gozo and Marfa, Mr and Mrs Montefiore did not forget on Thursday, the 2nd of August, the fast which was kept on the day of the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. "Thank G.o.d," he says in his diary, "we are quite well after breaking our fast, which we did at 9.35, several stars being then visible. The day has been dreadfully hot and fatiguing. My poor wife suffered so much that I endeavoured to persuade her to break her fast about four o'clock, but she would not. I felt extremely weak, but was free from headache."