During his stay with Mr and Mrs Cohen, his health and spirits improved so much that he soon felt able to go to London, and during the time he remained there to attend, as before, the meetings of the financial and communal institutions of which he was President. After he returned to Ramsgate, his time was fully taken up in answering his numerous correspondents in all parts of the world.
To his young friend, Toussoun Pasha, he sent an affectionate letter, conveying to him his sympathy and condolence on the death of his father; and, in return, the young Egyptian Prince wrote to him, expressing his deep grief at the death of Lady Montefiore, and his gratitude for the kind sentiments Sir Moses manifested to him on the mournful occasion of the early and unexpected death of his father.
The young Prince himself did not live long. He died at an early age of consumption--so it was said.
_October 20th._--This being the eve of the seventy-ninth anniversary of his birthday (corresponding in that year with the Hebrew date, the 8th of Heshván), he sent £79 to the secretary of the Spanish and Portuguese community for distribution among seventy-nine families. He also sent similar sums to other congregations in the Holy Land.
In recording in his Diary the events of the day, the memory of his wife appears to have been ever present with him, and in moments of hesitation, or when undecided what course of action to pursue, he would frequently say, "What would my dear Judith have advised?"
He was at this time overwhelmed with letters and work, and it would appear from various entries that nothing would have been more welcome to him than a recommendation from his friends to withdraw from all his financial engagements, as well as his communal work, at home and abroad, and simply enjoy rest, contemplating the pleasures of the past, and hoping for a blissful future. But the necessity of energy and action in any good or holy cause soon roused him from such moments of depression. We read in his Diary on October 21st:--"Before I was dressed this morning, I received a packet, marked private, from A----. The writer says: 'My dear Sir,--I am unwilling to bring you up to town in order that you may read this duplicate. I therefore send it you to Ramsgate.' The papers which accompanied this were from ---- of Tangiers, and told of the warm and generous efforts of Her Majesty's Government on behalf of the two unfortunate Jews now in prison at Saffi. But the situation of the poor men appeared to me so dangerous that I determined to go at once to London to get the Board of Deputies to take some active steps to secure their release from prison."