ANECDOTAL PHOTOGRAPHS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1585, 8 April 1882, Page 27

ANECDOTAL PHOTOGRAPHS.

• • SIR MOSES MONTBPIOBE. Sir Moses Montefiore is among the most interesting and venerable of existing British institutions. He was born on the 24th of . October, 1784 — that is, in the first year ,of Pitt's long Premiership, while Canning still learned ' repetition ' at Eton, before Wellington had entered the army, or Byron had seen the light, ivhile Frederick the Great still reigned over Prussia, and Catherine 11. weilded the sceptre of, the Czars, and while he French Revolution was yet a thing of the uture, though dimly foreseen by a few shrewd observers. It is wonderful to think of the men with whom Sir Moses might have conversed, and oi the historical events concerning which he might' be "able to relate the testimony of eyewitnesses. As a child he might have seen Wesley,' Reynold's, Mansfield, Burke, Bums, Horace' Walpole — to take at random a few names of celebrities who disappeared from this earth' in the' last decade of the eighteenth century. 'He might have been a spectator of the execution of Louis XVI. Indeed, if one supposes him td have travelled in boyhood, there is no, end to the list of notable men on whom ho might 'have been privileged "'to gaze. 1 William Melmouth, , the translator, who died in 1709, at the ago of 89, might have told the lad (already old enough to understand) anecdolcß about the South Soa Bubble, the insurrection of 1745, the change of tho calendar, and the outcry at the loss of the 11 days. Four lives like that of Sir Mosos Montefiore take us back beyond tho Reformation, into the ; reigns of Henry VII, Isabella the Catholic, j and Alexander VI. Three more, and we are ! among the -contemporaries of Isaac of York, and Sir Bryan de Bois-Gilbcrt ; from whom, moreover, recent occurrences in Germany and "Russia seem to show that we arc not quite so far removed in spirit as could be wished. Sir Moses himself declares that religious tolerance is scarcely understood out of England, which proves that if a Jew before all things, tho Baronot is certainly, in the next place, an Englishman, and a thoroughgoing one. On the other hand, the country of his birth has reason to be proud of him. _ His life mny 7 roughlyspeaking, bo divided inlu two partis. During the fu'hl he was nukiiuj money, dimuij the second he has beau givmg it away. The Jews , are proverbially generous with their money — ■}

'no matter how they come by it ; but few persons are aware of the numerous claims which a wealthy Jew, as such, must be prepared to satisfy. The thrift of the race, as Mr Dickens observes, has been much overrated. 1 Fond of display, extravagant in their habits, and given over to good living, the Jews are often poor.' Now, though Jews cheerfully contribute to Christian charities, Christians have been in no hurry to return the compliment ; and the wealthy members of the Hebrew community are pretty severely taxed in consequence. Sir- Moses, like his old friend, Lord Beaconsfield, belongs to the Sephardim branch of the lsiaelitish family. In fact, he is a kind of unofficial head of the' English Sephardim, | exercising the authority which' must fall to : high character and great wealth. And yet, so j numerous and splendid have been his acts of benevolence, that he is probably a poorer man now than he was 40 ' years ago. He gives not only in the cut-and-dried modern way, through the intermediary of committees, boards, snugly-paid ' honorary ' secretaries, &c, but in the primitive style, from hand to hand, as Abraham must have done,' On ' his last birthday 'he carefully, made up, with his own hands, 98 little paper 'packets, one for each year of his life, and each containing a bright new sovereign. . He had sent for a bag of thorn from the mint. Of course, each packet was for a poor Jew. 'But he can 'give 'on a larger scale; I have heard, though I will not vouch for the accuracy of the statement, that his purse was of considerable use to* Disraeli ,at ' different periods of that statesman's career. -It would not be "surprising,', iior would there be anything derogatory to' the reputation 'of 'the /former 'in such a circumstance. Even the haughty Chatham consented to accept pecuniary assistance from" his friends.' After all, politicians must live.'" ' •'• " '•'''„ ' Among the fdrmal charities of 'Sir Moses— to distinguish them from the informal, of which the world knows "nothing, maybe mentioned the founding p£ the Jewish Convalescent Home at Norwood, a model for all other houses, and that of the Jewish College at Ramsgate'.* Both ! of these establishments owe their existence to the donor's affectionate desire', to perpetuate the memory of' his wife, Judith— Lady Montefiore. One regrets, by the way, to remember that Sir Moses has no male ' heirs of his body,' so that' the Baronetcy, the, first, hereditary title ever conferred, by an English Sovereign on a Jew, expires with him. , , But,, there is no fear least the! name of Mpntefiore should become extinct. ; t , . •>. <>'<,>;' . As Sir Moses is the first of his faith who has borne the Ulster hand, so he was the first to receive the accplade. _ The.Qiiepn dubbed him a*Knight,on,,the occasion ,of ,her first s,tate visit i to the City, in ,1837, when she^enij.to ,dine , with the new Lord Mayor (Sir John Cowan), and the Sheriffs, of whom; Sir Moses was one. Only two, year? before the first Jew Sheriff of London had, been elected, iri the person, of MiDavid Salomons, when Lord , Melbourne succeeded :in.. , passing an Acji^of.cP.arliament to enable him to -serve. 1 ..,,., I Sir Moses Montefiore is at least as well known abroad-as in England. When he was a little younger any Continental Government that worried the Jiews had to reckon withjhim, and found that-he was not toi beitrifled'.with. This mild-mannered, yet' rather ■ positive, Hebrew seemed always' to /have the English Cabinet behind, him— the Chancellor, 'of .^the Exchequer being.possibly a link to connect the interests' of Sin Moses, with the action of the Secretary of : State for Foreign Affairs.' No amateur diplomatist ever effected so much for the cause he had at heart. Pius IX was the onl# sovereign, whomever', defied Sir Moses— an act of courage the more astonishing in that the latter, was .backed by the /Governments at once of France and of Great Britain. The moral of the Mortaracaseis contained in one or two dry dates. On the 28th of April, 1859,, Cardinal Antonelli announced the final decision of the Vactican, justifying' the course taken by the Archbishop of < Bologna, and refusing all, redress ; on the 7th of September following, the | Assembly at Bologna voted for annexation to Piedmont. Post hoc is not, one grants,- the necessary equivalent of propter hoc. But it is worth bearing in mind that ' the, Jew may govern the money market,- and the money market may govern the world.'— Truth.