Two months later the Minister sends a most satisfactory reply, of which I also subjoin a translation:--
"Praise be to the only God. There is no strength and no power but in God the Most High. From him who is the servant of God, the Secretary of State, and the Noble Commander, whose name from God is SID TAIB EL YAMINY, to the beloved, wise, and most benevolent SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE, Bart.
"After rendering praise to God the Most High, we beg to inform you that we have received your letter describing the gracious reception accorded to you by the different monarchs, their appreciation of the object which has been accomplished, and the advantages derived therefrom. All mankind will give thanks to you for the readiness and devotion to the good cause which you manifested by bringing the present under the special notice of the great Powers.
"With regard to your statement respecting the affairs of the Jewish subjects of our Lord, whom God may preserve in strength, we have to observe that they are his subjects, and he--may God preserve him and perpetuate his glory and greatness--does not like that they should be pursued by acts of injustice and torment in their unfortunate position; because God the Most High forbids injustice towards people professing our religion, and He likewise forbids injustice toward people professing any other religion.
"Our Lord--may God grant him support--has already commanded the inhabitants of all the other provinces in his Empire, that his Jewish subjects should be treated with kindness and strict justice, so that no wrong whatever be done to any of them. He also rebuked them (the inhabitants of all the other provinces of his Empire), by the power and strength of God, for the injustice they have done. We have not forgotten your polite attention, and the kindness evinced in your letter; we shall never fail to watch rigorously the proceedings of the officials in the provinces of our Lord, whom may God preserve.
"Completed in the month of Mohharam, in the year 1281 of the Hidjrah."
Sir Moses sent an address to the Spiritual Chiefs and Elders of the Morocco Jews, counselling them to inculcate in their poorer and less educated brethren, the necessity of uniform obedience and respect to the Moorish authorities. The danger that the Jews might lose some of the benefits conferred by the recent edict of the Emperor, by exciting the hostility of the Moorish authorities by too independent a tone in demanding the equal treatment with Mohammedans ordered by the Sultan, was mentioned in letters from Barbary, and Sir Moses, whose intercession had already done so much for the Morocco Jews, wisely counselled patience under petty injuries and submission to the authorities, as the best means of preventing the just and generous intentions of the Sultan from being defeated by the fanaticism of his Mohammedan subjects.