irable to explain the motives
by which I have been actuated, as well as the sources from which most
of my information has been drawn.

The late Sir Moses Montefiore, from a desire to show his high
appreciation of the services rendered to the cause of humanity by
Judith, Lady Montefiore, his affectionate partner in life, directed
the executors of his last will "to permit me to take into my custody
and care all the notes, memoranda, journals, and manuscripts in his
possession written by his deeply lamented wife, to assist me in
writing a Memoir of her useful and blessed life."

The executors having promptly complied with these instructions, I soon
found myself in possession of five journals by Lady Montefiore,
besides many valuable letters and papers, including documents of great
importance, as well as of no less than eighty-five diaries of Sir
Moses Montefiore, dating from 1814 to 1883, all in his own
handwriting.

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