THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 32, 20 January 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD.

(From the Globe.) . «; . ; Among all the congresses held this summer, of princes, lawyers, rinusicians^ schoolmasters, social science Wen,,political economists, and a hundred .others, one yery notable meeting has almost, escaped publio attention. A few days ago our Paris correspondent told \ us that a congress of the illustrious hou9e of Rothschild has been sitting at Paris." The purport of the meeting was nothing i less than to re-arrange the dominions of the great banking dynasty. In one word, the great object of the Rothschild congress was to reduce the five branches of the house who how rule Europe, to four ; and, following the example of Garibaldi, to strike another sovereign of Naples from the list of reigning monarchs. Henceforth there are to be but four kings of the house of Rothschild, with secure, thrones at London, Paris, Vienna, and Frankfort. It is now exactly a hundred years since a poor Jew, called Mayer Anselro, made his appearance at the city of Hanover, barefooted, with a sack on his shoulders and a bundle of raws on his back. Successful in trade, like most of his coreligionists, he returned co Frankfort at the end of a, few years, and set up a small shop in the *' Jew-lane,'' over which hung the signboard of a red shield, called in German roth-schild. As a dealer in old and rare coins, he made the acquaintance of the Serene Elector of Eiesse Cassel, who, happening to be in want of a conn" iential a<;ent, for various open and secret purposes, appoiuted the shrewd-looking Mayer Anselm to the post. The Serene Elector being compelled soon after to fly his country, Mayer Anselm took charge of his cash, amounting to several millions of florins. With the instinct of his race, Anselm did not forget to put the m.ney out on good interest, so that i before Napoleou was gone to Elba, and the illustrious Elector had returned to Cassel, the capital had more than uoubied. The ruler of Hesse-Casscl thought it almost a marvel to get his mouey safely returned iroin tlic -Jewlane of Frankfort, and the Congress of Vienna was never tired of singing th<» praise of his Hebrew agent to all the princes of Europe. The dwellers under the sign of the Red Shield laughed in their sleeves, keeping caretully to themselves the great fact that the Electoral two million florins had brought them four millions of their own. Never was honesty a better policy. Mayer Anselm died in 1812, without having the supreme satisfaction o^ hearing his honesty extolled by kings and princes. He left five sons, who succeeded him in the banking and money-lending business, and who, couscious of their social value, dropped the name of Anselm, and adopted the higher sounding one of Rothschild, taken from the signboard over the paternal house. On his death-bed their father had taken a solemn oath from all of them to hold his four millions well together, and they have faithfully kept the injunction. But the old city of Frankfort clearly was too narrow a reaim for the f< uitful sowing of four millions ; and, in consequence, the five were determined after a while to extend thtir Sphere of operations by establishing branch banks at the chief cities of Europe. 'i he eldest son, Ansdlm, boru 1 773, remained at FraukI'ort ; the second, Salomon, born in 1774, settled at Vienna; the third, Nathan, born in 1777, went to London; the fourth, Charles, the infant terrible of the family, established himself in the soft climate of Naples; and the fifth and youngest, Jrtmes, born 1792, took up his residence at Paris. Strictly united, the wealth and power of the live Rothschilds was vested iv the eldest-born ; nevertheless, the shrewdest of the sons of Mayer Anselm, and heir of his genius, Nathan, the the third son, soon took the reins of government into his own hands. By his faith in Wellington, and the flesh muscle of British soldiers, he nearly doubled the fortune of the family, gaining more than a million sterling by the sole battle of Waterloo, the news of which he carried to England two days earlier than the mail. The weight of the solid millions gradually transferred the ascendancy in the family from Germany to England, making London the metropolis of the reigning dynasty of Rothschild. Like the royal families of Europe, the members of the house* of Rothschild only intermarry with each other. James Rothschild married the daughter of his brother Salomon ; his son Edmond, heir-appa-ent of the French line, was united to his first cousin, the daughter of Lionel, and grand-daughter of Nathan Rothschild ; and Lionel, again — M.P. for London — - gave his hand, in 1836, to his first cousin Charlotte, the daughter of Chas. Rothschild, of Naples. It is unnecessary to say that, though these matrimonial alliances have kept the millions wonderfully together, they have not improved the race of Old Mayer Anselm, of the Red Shield. Already signs of physical weakness are becoming visible in the great family. So at least hint the French papers in their meagre uotices about the Rothschild congress at Paris. From all that can be gathered out of a wilderness of canards, thin faces, and thick fiction, it appears that the sovereigns of the Stock Exchange met in confereuce for the double purpose of centralising their money power, and widening their matrimonial realm. Iv other words, the five reigning kings, descendants, according to the law of primogeniture, of the sons of Mayer Anselm, came to the decision to reduce their number to four, by cutting off the Neapolitan branch of Charles Rothschild, while it was ) ; kewise decided that permission should be given to the younger members of the family to marry, for the benefit of the racejirejond tn© raug^ of

,fi rst cousinshi p. \ W! hat has ':! ed.« to theexclusion ofr the Neapolitan line of Rothschild seems to have been the 6OnßUiht Exercise of a highly biameaUle liberality, of in the annals of tlie family ;. Qharles, the prodigal aon of Mayer Anseim, actually persenJed, ia the year 1846, ten thousand ducats ; to the orphan" asylum of St Carlo, at j Naples, and the son and heir of Charles, j Gustavus, has given repeated signs of his incKrianiori to follow in the foot^ steps of his father. Such conduct, utterly unbecoming* of the policy of the house of Rothschild, could not be allowed to pass unnoticed ; and, accordingly — 'we quote the rumour of Paris journalism— the decheance of the Neapolitan line has been pronounced. However, Baron Gustavus de Rothschild is not to retire into private life, like the famous Charles V., with, only a cassock on his shoulders and a prayerbook in his hand, but is allowed to take with him a small fortune of 150,000,U00 francs, or about six millions sterling — a mere crumb from the table of the descendants of poor Mayer Anseim, who wandered shoeless through the electorate of good King George the Third. It is certain that no romance of royalty is equal to the romance of the house of Rothschild.