THE ROTHSCHILDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 201, 23 August 1879, Page 5

THE ROTHSCHILDS.

[LONDON CORRESPONDENT OF THE NEW YORK TRII'.UNE.] At the funeral of the lafe Baron Lionel de Rothschi'd the first spadefuls of earth were thrown iv by the eldest son of the deceased, '• co that ha might /uiGl the duty of burying bis dead." Tbe ether kinsmen followel in their order, then members of the coogregation. As the coffin was lowered into the grave those present joined in the worde: "May he come to his appointed place in peace." and plucked a few blades of grass before they left, saying in acknowledgment of tbe resurrection: " And thay shall bioaßom forth from the ruins like the dust from the earth." It used to be alleged that the Baron had had a paralytic stroke. He never had anything of the kind, save at the last, perhaps, for the papers described tbe elioek which carried him off as internal paralysis ; which I doubt But for seventeen years be had been a cripple from a disease in the nature of rheumatic gout, affecting the joints of the lower limbs. During ihat time he has seldom walked. At first he was able to move about, but the least exercise caused him co much pain that he gradually gave it up altogether. But he otver gave up business, nor relaxed the iron control which belongs by tradition to the head of the great house of money-dmngers. He * was usually carried or supported from one room to another by two attendants. On hia best day3 he would sometimes struggle along for a few steps on his own legs, but those occasions of lato were very rare; and the pi i B b e suffered was distressing. He had to hour violent he idaehts also. He came down to breakfast sometioes eaying he had not slept, and that his heaJ°was woree than usual, and as soon as breakfast was over he would be lifted into his carriage. That was hia idea of relaxatioD, or his notion ofareaoedy for hia ills. Excepting on Saturday or Sunday, the Jewish and Ciiristiau Sabbalhs, wheu ell tbe business of tbe house stopped, or on such other holidays as closed the Exchange, be was not absent from business during all those years of misery. He saw much company, but latterly it was the two elder sons, Sir Nathaniel and Alfred, with whom the outer world came most often in contact. It is part of their success that they are so closely united, and bo perfectly disciplined. No individual sets up his will against the will of ths family. No one- house takes a line against tbe joint opinion of all the boufe*. They are, to all intents aud purposes, a dun, ruled by a chief aud a council, and are the standing exception to the maxim that councils of war do not fight. Inside tbo London family, the discipline is saiJ to have been, if anything, more strict than

abroad. The B iron exacted from his aona absolute, uoquestioiinj,', almost servile, submission — not merely io relation to business tnattfrg but io every relulion of life. A marri ige of ona of the sods a^aiust hi 3 will would have been impossible. Anyone faiiiliar with the gossip o f goeioty can five you a striking ii s ance of this filial docili'.y. And society is already beginning to wonder whether the Baron'a death will make any diil^rencd in this case — whether the son in question still wishes, and if lie still wishes will be permitted, to marry tlie l>idy whom his father denied to him. It is supposed the prohibition hold 3 even after death, end that the will of the dead man is stronger than tho passion of tha living. Family control extended even to the turf. Mr L -opald Rothschild, as you hive no dou'it heard, is the "Mr Acton : ' who won the Darby last year with Sir Bsvys, a despised outsider, and whose pains on that event are put down at the comfortable figure of 200 000 dollars. Everybody who knew anything about rncin<r matters knew who it was who hid himself under this pseudonym, an I if there had been nny secret about it, tbe sight of tho Rothechil.l colors worn by his jockeys would have disclosed the owner's identity. Racinnr, moreover, has long been a family habit, and Mr Leopold Rothschild is not a man who need set up any mystery in such a matter. However, it suited his father that the son's name should not appear in the papers or in the official lists us o«vr;iujj and running horses. It suited him, none the less, to continue raniii/ 33 a commercial speculation, un 1 it. 19 understood that the expenrei •>[ Mr RothsuhiLi's stud appear m au i:em in the family ledger, whence it follows that his winnings would also have to bo divided with his kin. Leopold is the youn^ii £•:>:•. [t is one of the customs of this f.aiiily that the youugest son, who in othjr usuiliy has to work the hirdesr, should b) reliuvtid of most of thu oiits nnd toils of business. The eiders hdve slaved in New Court ever eioc^ th»«y gr^w up, wliieh has not prevented Sir Nathaniel from going into politics, nor Alfred from becoming an oruatm-ni of society and a frieud of the Prince of Wules.