HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2989, 29 September 1919, Page 7

HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD.

JTS REMAHKARLE RISE. Ji has oft on hoou related that early know led o'e of the English history at Waterloo formed the foundation of the great fortunes of the Rothschilds. Writing in the Rhiarterly Review on "The House of Rothschild." Mr T. JI. S. Eseott says that he was cautioned many years ago by the first Lord Rothschild aurailist adopting in detail any of the current versions of the way in which this news was obtained, bui was (old that there might be substantial truth in the account given him, through the good offices of the historian, Kingslake, by Adolphe Thiers, known both as historian and as one of the Presidents of France. Staying at Ghent, says this version, Nathan Maver Rothschild stationed himself at a window overlooking the villa of the Roval exih', Louis NA 111. Here at last he saw (he entrance of the messenger who brought the tidings from the battlefield, and observed that he knelt down as one dome; homage to a sovereign who had come into his own attain. That was enough. Napoleon had fallen. Rothschild hurried to London as fast as he could iu a day of primitive transit, and bought Consols steadily on a falling market, for the impression of a French victory had trained grojmd. In the course ol some hours he ’realised sums the exact total oi which has never been published, and was perhaps never certainly known. The founder of the family was Mayer Amschel. of Frankfort, who look the name of Rothschild in 1870. He had been trained as a teacher in the synagogue, but he became a hawker of poods at the preat fairs of his native town. His financial ability became known to the Landprave of Hesse, who swelled his revenue by raising and letting out at a heavy charge mercenary troops to the British (lovernment. Amschel eventually became the Landgrave s chief adviser. lie thus came into relation with the London money market. His -live sons settled respectively at Frankfort. Vienna. Paris, Naples, and London. All engaged in finance, though Janies, of Paris, “achieved a purely intellectual distinction, scarcely second to his financial fame. ’ Nathan Mayer Rothschild was the English representative. He became a lavish entertainer of leading figures in public life, and his eldest son, Baron Lionel Rothschild (whose title was not English), followed his example. The furl was one of Baron Lionel s hobbies, but other interests are indicated by the fact that by 187.0 the Rothschild advances to different Stages on both sides of the Atlantic had reached £•200,000,000. By lending to the British Government at short notice four millions at '2J, per cent, for the Sue/ Canal purchase £IOO,OOO was gained in one rapid transaction. Baron Lionel died in 1870. In IStiO. says Mr Escott, Gueen Victoria had expressed herself very strongly against certain peerages whose creation was supposed to be desired by some of the leading Ministers. One of these was the advance to a barony of the Baronetcy already inherited from his uncle Anthony by the head of the English Rothschilds. ihe honor was delayed until 1880. Ly that date the'first Rothschild had found more than one opportunity for rendering the (lovernment a purely political service. He was a medium of communication between Napoleon HI. and Mr Gladstone on the situation caused by the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern for the Spanish throne at a time when an English Foreign Minister had died and his successor had not been appointed. The Rothschild hospitably extended from "the palace in Piccadilly to ihe luncheon room in St. Swilhin s lane, where a cut off the famous (imineralmry or Tring saddle of mutton formed part of the welcome awaiting (he properly accredited visitoi. So in the 15th century the Kingmaker’s London house in what is now Warwick lane remained open every ■forenoon,‘that any citizen so disposed might enter and cut a juicy slice or carry off' on his dagger as much as the blade could hold Horn one of the six oxen that supplied the Nevdl breakfast table." Tim Him* Rothschild brothers who played the host cm such occasions in (lie late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries “each personified some aspect of nineteenth century England. (All Imvc died within the war period.) they were country gentlemen of beneficent activity, eonnoiseurs, and men of eultonv, and the eldest and the youngest were both, in their different ways, keen sportsmen. Apart Irom this, "the London blend ol La Haute Finance, La Haute Politique, and La Haute Cuisine has been and remains unique.” During past years, says all Escott, the Rothschild millions often ministered after a fashion not advertised in print to national prosperity .by subsidising banks and supporting oi strengthening enterprises like mines, factories, and mills. The process of European construction after the war niav revive the old appeals of ambassadors and chancellors, but for some time past there had been little need for an international relieving officer. A banking bouse like that of the Rothschilds had gradually en countered a form of competition which it had not known in its early davs. "At the present time Hie issue of foreign loans is recognised as the legitimate business ol the great joint stock companies, which have shot out from their Loudon centre branches into all the chief capitals abroad. At jho same time the family riches remain so stupendous that by meiel\ sitting still and doing nothing its members command the means lor decisive- action in any financial stroke suggested by the changing opportunities of international affairs.”