In addition to such facilities for producing a Memoir, I had the special advantage of personally knowing both Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore for many years. There is an entry in the diaries referring to a dinner at the house of one of their relatives on the 27th of November 1835 (where I met them for the first time), and to a visit I subsequently paid them at East Cliff Lodge, Ramsgate, by special invitation, from the 3rd to the 13th of December of the same year. I also had the privilege of accompanying them on thirteen philanthropic missions to foreign lands, some of which were undertaken by both Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, and others by Sir Moses alone after Lady Montefiore's death. The first of these missions took place in the year 1839, and the last in 1874. A no less important circumstance, which I may perhaps be allowed to mention, is, that I was with Sir Moses on the last day of his life, until he breathed his last, and had the satisfaction of hearing from his own lips, immediately before his death, the expression of his approval of my humble endeavours to assist him, as far as lay in my power, in attaining the various objects he had in view. However desirous I might have been to adhere strictly to his wishes, I found it impossible to write a Memoir of Lady Montefiore without making it, at the same time, a Memoir of Sir Moses himself, both of them having been so closely united in all their benevolent works and projects. It appeared to me most desirable, therefore, in order to convey to the reader a correct idea of the contents of the book, to entitle it "The Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore." In order, however, to comply with the instructions of the will, I shall, in giving the particulars of their family descent, first introduce the parentage of Lady Montefiore. To assist the reader in finding the exact month and year referring to Hebrew Communal affairs, I have always given the Hebrew date conjointly with that of the Christian era, more especially as all the entries in the diaries invariably have these double dates. L. LOEWE. 1 Oscar Villas, Broadstairs, Kent, _21st June 1887_ (5647 A.M.). CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Birth of Sir Moses Montefiore at Leghorn--His Family--Early Years 1 CHAPTER II. Early Education--Becomes a Stockbroker--His Marriage 12 CHAPTER III. Extracts from the Diaries--Financial Transactions--Public Events before and after Waterloo--Elected President of the Spanish and Portuguese Hebrew Community 19 CHAPTER IV. Daily Life--Death of his Brother Abraham--An early Panama Canal Project 25 CHAPTER V. First Journey to Jerusalem 36 CHAPTER VI. Mr and Mrs Montefiore leave Alexandria--A Sea Voyage Sixty Years ago 47 CHAPTER VII.