ergo such fatigue, but Mr and Mrs Montefiore's
religious fervour and warm attachment to their friends would not allow
them to plead weariness as an excuse either for not joining their
community in the House of Prayer, or for neglecting their friends.
They continued this practice until their advanced age and uncertain
state of health no longer permitted it.

CHAPTER IX.

1829-1830.

MR MONTEFIORE PRESENTED TO THE KING--SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE JEWS IN
LONDON IN 1829.

Immediately after the Passover Festival Mr Montefiore was present at
an important meeting, convened by the elders of the Spanish and
Portuguese congregation, to consider the propriety of introducing the
English language for the delivery of sermons and addresses in the
synagogues and colleges. The debate was very long and stormy, as many
members of the congregation were greatly attached to the Spanish
tongue, in which their ancestors in many cases had made their names
famous. This is scarcely to be wondered at, when we consider that the
Jews at one time were highly esteemed in Spain. From the works of
Abbot Bartolocci de Cellens, we learn that they were regarded among
the learned as scholars, and among financiers as honorable,
intelligent, and enterprising men; and that they filled high offices
in colleges and universities, as well as in the councils of kings and
assemblies of merchants and bankers. We must, therefore, not be
surprised that they still clung to that language in spite of the
terrible persecutions which drove them from the Spanish peninsula, but
which do not seem to have weakened the affection they felt for their
native land. The language of the country must always constitute the
strongest bond of union between that country and its people, although
intelligent men emigrating to a land where all are treated with
justice and humanity, must consider it their first duty to make
themselves thoroughly acquainted with its language. In a land where
justice and humanity are unknown, however, or hidden under the dark
shadows of prejudice, ignorance, and fanaticism; where some of the
children of the land would scarcely dare to speak of it as "my
fatherland" or "my mother country," because it disowns those who would
designate it by these terms; in such a land the language is often
disliked by its oppressed children themselves, who long for some other
country where they may learn to forget the injustice they have
encountered there.

Yet, as it