Jerusalem, Jew and Gentile competing with each other in their glad welcome. He immediately caused a searching inquiry to be made at the synagogues, of the managers of the various charities, and in all other reasonable channels. The reports sent to him confirmed the evidence presented to him by his own personal inspection, and proved that great good had been accomplished, and that those for whom he had so zealously exerted himself were not unworthy of the sacrifices he had made for them. Again his wise attention to the laws of health was manifested; he had streets cleansed, houses whitewashed, and he endeavoured to incite the proper authorities to further much-needed public sanitary improvements. Forty days were thus spent in Jerusalem, with the result that his interest in its inhabitants was increased twofold, as all he had seen compelled him to regard them as intellectually capable of various employments, and morally willing to work.

When safely at home again, he felt fully justified in putting forth an earnest appeal for funds to help forward several important undertakings for the further advancement of these Eastern Israelites, especially a scheme for house-building, with European improvements, and sufficient garden ground for the cultivation of fruits and vegetables. It is pleasant to learn that these exertions, since largely assisted by the Montefiore Testimonial Committee, have resulted in many hundreds of houses being erected, and in agricultural colonies being aided and strengthened.

If

the age of Sir Moses at the time he thus exerted himself is remembered, it will scarcely require to have it said that this visit to the Holy Land in 1875 was the last long journey he undertook; it concluded that remarkable series of benevolent missions which consumed so much of his time, especially the latter portion of it, and which has left him a name unique in the chronicles of philanthropy.

CHAPTER XVI.

SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE: THE TOILER'S REST.

The "age of chivalry" may be past-the knight may no more be seen issuing from the embattled portal-arch on his barbed charger, his lance glittering in the sun, his banner streaming to the breezebut the spirit of chivalry can never die; through every change of external circumstances, through faction and tumult, through trial. and suffering, through good report and evil report, still that spirit burns, like love, the brighter and the purer-still, even in the nineteenth century, lights up its holiest shrine, the heart of that champion of the widow, that father of the fatherless, that liegeman of his God, his king, and his country-the noble-hearted but lowlyminded. . . gentleman of England.

LORD LINDSAY.

THE closing years of the life of Sir Moses were calm and peaceful. His ample means allowed him to avail himself of every possible help for the preservation of physical health, and he had that tranquillity of mind which arose from his life-long habit of cultivating "peace on earth, good will towards men.” While he had no vain pride in his unbounded benevolent efforts for the good of others, he had the satisfactory consciousness that he had been instrumental in the alleviation of much human misery and in the

diffusion of much human happiness; that through him not only had much temporary distress been relieved, but much permanent benefit had been conferred upon many communities, and especially upon the peculiar people to whom he belonged. He knew that through his unceasing efforts and his own lofty example his brethren in the flesh had become better understood and more duly esteemed; that they had learned lessons of greater self-respect and proper independence, and that in all probability they would never in the future have to bow down their backs that their enemies might pass over them, as they had been compelled to do in the past. Full of days, however, as he was, he fell into no torpid state of existence. For eighty years he had been an active member of the human family all the world over, and he retained his interest in the universal welfare of man to the very end of his long-extended life. Every question which affected the particular or general interests, over which he had so long watched, continued to receive his closest attention. He carefully considered every letter he received, and thought out a suitable reply to each; he read all the leading journals with avidity, and when nearing his hundredth year was the first to hasten to the rescue in several cases of urgent misfortune or wide-spread calamity. Thus in good works more abundant glided away the latter years of the life of this Prince of Israel. Happily, an unbroken harmony subsisted between his mental faculties and his bodily functions ;

the former faithfully served

faithfully served him until physical exhaustion lulled the complete man into his last long sleep. A Hebrew prophet of old asked, "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Safely may it be asserted that, so far as human infirmities permitted, Sir Moses Montefiore, from his ardent youth to his remarkable old age, earnestly and successfully sought to fulfil these requirements.

After all, there is every reason to believe that his public acts of liberality formed but a part, and by far the smaller part, of his unceasing efforts for the good of others. There are few instances, it is safe to affirm, which show a more ready benevolence than the following fact evinces. "About forty years ago," so writes the author of the Centennial Biography of Sir Moses, "he was proposed as a candidate for a presentation governorship of Christ's Hospital, but was strongly opposed by a Christian clergyman. On this, his friends related the cause of his desiring the honour. Some weeks previously, he had been travelling by water to his country-seat at Ramsgate, when he was accosted on board the steamer by a man who asked him for pecuniary assistance. He inquired into the cause of the man's distress, and having given him a sum of money, appointed a day for him to call at East Cliff Lodge to be further relieved. The next morning Sir Moses received a letter from the same. individual, stating, that being irretrievably ruined, he had determined to commit suicide, and asking the