Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1868-12-15
BARON JAMES P0TnSctIllp.

rael- Baron james Rothschild, the fifth
son Of Meyer Anselm Rothsohild Of Frank
tort, has been recognized by a sort Of fam
lly compact Or tradition, since the death
in 1886 of the greatest Of his house, Ma
than Meyer Rothschild of London, as the
head Of tribe, less numerous, indeed,
than any one Of the ten which we're lest 70
long ago from the zodiac Of Israel, but
more opulent and more powerful in the
world Of our times than were all the ten
together in Palestine of old. After near
ly fourscore years Of unbroken worldly
prosperity, he has now been gathered to
his fathers. For him the eplandors Of
ferrieres are become as tale that is told.
For him the great gates Of the vast quad
rangle which enolpscs the fabulously sunp-
tuous Hotel of the Rothsehilds in the Rue
iaftte at Paris will open but once more
forever. To call him "a great man" would
be to imply, if not that his life was noble,
at least that his death will make an appre-
ciablc difference in the organization and
the administration Of such human affairs
as he in his time had to do with. To say
that he had fallen in Israel would be to
imply that he was an lsraeIite indeed, not.
outwardly alone, but in his spmpathics,
his relations, and ambition of race. Now
none Of these things can with truth be Ell
thcr said or implied of Baron James de
Rothschild. The colossal moneyea interests
into the enjoyment and the management
of which he was born had become SO solid
ly combined under the control Of his broth
er, Nathan Meyer, who deserves to be
called the founder Of The permanent for
tunes Of the Rothschild family, they were
50 ingeniously distributed and intcrHnbed,
that the efforts Of Baron James we're rath-
er confined to guarding against the possible
evil influences upon his house Of the onor-
nous changes in the w@ldsof finance and
Of politics which have come to pass during
the last twenty years than directed to
making the poeit;o,,- oi.oaay "e'@t'';u ~
the Rothschilds when he came upon the
stage tho basis of new and gran1or opera
tions. And while he never abandoned the
faith of Abraham, Of Isaac, and Of Jacob,
he neither felt nor showed any such con
cern for the welfare Of his co-religionists
as has been felt and shown, for example,
by such eminent and ostimablo Israclites
as the excellent but eventually unfortunate
Abraham Goldsmid in the last century and
Sir Moses MonteGore in cur own times.---
The sarcasm leyeled at him by Prince Tai
leyrand, when that subtle parsonage pre-
sented the ennoblcd son of the banker of
Hessian Landgraye to the head of the
crusading Montmorenoies' with the words,
81 introduce the premier baron of Israel
to the premier baron of Christendom, " was
lost upon Baron James. lie took his title
in good faith, regarded it as valuable
reality, and felt himself to be rather a
Frcnchman Of the haute.fnance, or TO
speak more exactly, Partisan Of the
cOulisSes and the &ockey club, than Jew.
These traits IL his disposition gave power
and poisonous pungency to the terrible at
tack made upon him, by Balzac inhis pic
ture of NJ. de Nucingen. And in these
traits he more nearly resembled such "sue-
cessful" scions Of his ancient oriental stock
as Sampson Gideon, who founded in Eng
land that family of the Culllng Eardleys
which in our days has forlornly ended in
an Exeter Hall Calyanistic disciple Of Lord
Shaftcsbury, and in a bigamistical baronet
than the really noble and gifted Israelites
who have illumined the annals Of modern
art and modern letters with names like
those of Mendelssohn and a Jacoby, =
The political circumstances of the last 70
years in France have not been favorable
to the development in the Partisan branch
Of tle Rothschild family Of such civic and
political facilities as have earned a respect
able, reputation in other fields than those
of finance for some Of their British kins-
men. But Baron James had no otaste for
civic or political life TO be the central
figure of the most powerful commercial
house which has ever enlisted tunless, in
deed we are to except that of the Fuggers
Of augsburg at the height of their for
tuncs) filed the measure Of his ambition.
Need we say how much it secured for him
Of homage and Of influence among men in
these days, when, as our own poet, Halleck,
50 truly sang t1aan itF Naa 4
Lord Stafford mnes for coal and salt,
The Duke of Norfolk deels in malt,
The Douglass in red herrings;
And noble name and cultured land,
Palace and park, and yassal band,
Are powerless 70 the notes of hand
OF Rothschild or the Earrings! !
But homage and influence were by nc
means the whole revenue Of Baron James
vast opulence He loved to dispense q