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September 15th. We were caused much anxiety by the absence of any account from Damascus, and by hearing that Mohhammad Ali had had a despatch from Sherif Pasha, stating that he had received His Highness' orders for the liberation of the Jews, but without further notice of it.
In the first instance, I shall apply to Mohhammad Ali for a grant of land for fifty years; some one or two hundred villages; giving him an increased rent of from ten to twenty per cent., and paying the whole in money annually at Alexandria, but the land and villages to be free, during the whole term, from every tax or rate either of Pasha or governor of the several districts; and liberty being accorded to dispose of the produce in any quarter of the globe.
Sir Moses writes in his diary: "I sent to Monsieur Crémieux, but he and Madame Crémieux, with Monsieur Munk and Signor Morpurgo, had already left for Cairo. Mr Wire, Dr Loewe, and I went to Mohhammad Bey's palace. He is the son-in-law of Mohhammad Ali. We entered the garden. As soon as the Pasha saw us he beckoned me to approach him. He was seated in a kiosk.
"Oh! the horrors of slavery!" exclaimed Sir Moses, and added, "Perhaps Mohhammad Ali may not be aware of what we have seen, else he could not conscientiously have spoken as he did, and evinced such pleasure in the vote of thanks which the London Society would certainly not have sent had they known the true state of affairs." Sir Moses returned home much depressed by what he had witnessed.
On the same day we received a letter from Constantinople, enclosing a firman from the Sublime Porte in favour of the deputation of the Jews; from the Grand Vizier to Mohhammad Ali, and to the Governor of the Island of Rhodes. We called on Colonel Hodges and Monsieur Laurin, who had both signed the petition which Sir Moses and Monsieur Crémieux had prepared on the preceding evening.
Mohhammad Ali replied that he would release all the prisoners, upon which, Sir Moses said his desire was to have the guilty punished, and requested therefore a "firman" to go to Damascus. The Pasha said he had better not go there, as that place was in a very excited condition; the country was disturbed and politics unsettled.
He expected that Ibrahim Pasha would be taken, and that Mohhammad Ali would retain Egypt, as our ministers, he said, wished it. Friday, September 27th. All of them gave accounts of the state of politics.
"I have omitted to notice that I gave Mohhammad Ali a copy of Dr Hirschel's letter to me, respecting the charge brought against the Jews of using blood in their religious ceremonies. I gave him copies of the same in Turkish and French; he looked at them, and promised to read them. "We then went to the Palace of Sáeed Bey. Mr Thurburn was with him.
In the course of conversation with Mr Young, the English Consul, the latter expressed his approval of the Jews being employed in agriculture. He advised beginning in a small way, so as not to excite the suspicions of Mohhammad Ali.
During the first interview which Sir Moses had had with Mohhammad Ali, the latter had spoken for a considerable time on the subject, and appeared much pleased with the address of thanks presented to him by Dr Madden from the London Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
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