MOSES MONTEFIORE AND THE JEWS.
On October 24th, 1884, Sir Moses will, if he should live, have reached the hundredth year of his age. The comparatively near approach of an epoch so interesting to all friends and co-religionists of the still hale and hearty philanthropist has attracted attention abroad as well as at home. A movement is on foot among the Hebrews of New York to prepare a suitable testimonial to Sir Moses Montefiore on the expected centennial of his birthday. An ardent advocate of the old faith, he did not let the toils of money-getting blind him to the unjust political disabilities under which the British Jews labored in his early days nor to the benighted and unfortunate condition of his brethren abroad, particularly in Palestine. In 1827 he made the first of a series of trips to Palestine with a view to personally investigate the cause of the abject state of his brethren in that land. The result of the first visit was the founding of the Palestine fund, of which he has since constantly been the administrator. In 1862 his beloved wife and helpmeet died. Her death marked an epoch of princely charities and donations by Sir Moses. Though grief burdened his soul and physical debility bowed his whitened head, it did not prevent him from immediately proceeding to Morocco in the following year, 1863, to plead the cause of the prosecuted Jews of Port Saafi, who were being massacred and tortured by the Spanish on a trumped-up pretext that the Spanish council had been murdered by the really inoffensive and innocent Jews. The venerable man succeeded once more in throwing oil on the troubled waters and restoring peace and happiness to his persecuted brethren, and also securing valuable privileges for resident Christians there from the Grand Shereef of Morocco. In 1875 he made his seventh and last visit to the Holy Land, the land of his love. Upon his coat of arms is a flag staff, and therefrom flowing a banner, on which, inscribed in Hebrew characters of gold, is the word Jerusalem. To see Palestine the seat of a Jewish state, with Jerusalem as its capital, is and has been the fond ambition and dream of his life—never to be personally realized in his time, as he himself is fully aware. But to the consummation of this wished-for end he has bent the best efforts of a longer life than is usually allotted to man.—London Christian Herald.