The House of Rothschild (116 page)

3
In 1862, James’s son Salomon James married Mayer Carl’s daughter Adèle. In 1865, Anselm’s son Ferdinand married Lionel’s daughter Evelina. In 1867, Lionel’s son Nathaniel (“Natty”) married Mayer Carl’s daughter Emma. In 1871, Nat’s son James Edouard married Mayer Carl’s daughter Laura Thérèse. In 1876, Anselm’s youngest son Salomon Albert (“Salbert”) married Alphonse’s daughter Bettina. Finally, in 1877, James’s youngest son Edmond married Wilhelm Carl’s daughter Adelheid.

4
The exception was Anselm’s daughter Sarah Louise, who married a Tuscan aristocrat, Barone Raimondo Franchetti in 1858.

5
Her fears may have been confirmed by the couple’s somewhat perfunctory honeymoon, which attracted adverse press comment.

6
Thus Nat and his wife wished to settle £10,000 in consols on Anselm’s daughter Hannah Mathilde on the occasion of her marriage to Wilhelm Carl.

7
Venison can be kosher, but not if killed in a hunt as this almost certainly was.

8
Macaulay reported after dining at Lionel’s in 1859 that “pork in all its forms, was excluded”; instead he was served “Ortolans farcis à la Talleyrand ... accompanied by some Johannisberg which was beyond all praise.”

9
“I hope,” noted Charlotte, “the differences may yet be settled, as in these times of religious excitement, quarrels between Christian clergymen and Jewish patrons of livings would be very disagreeable.”

10
Charlotte’s frequent use of the word “Caucasian” to mean Jewish is an unusual feature of her correspondence. The word was coined by the eighteenth-century anatomist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to describe one of five racial types he discerned on the basis of measuring skull shapes. As the others were Mongoloid, Ethiopian, American and Malayan, he clearly intended the category to include all European and Middle Eastern peoples.

11
These efforts were not universally appreciated. According to
The Times,
“The Synagogue of that city [Jerusalem], whose members are known for their deep aversion to every innovation, and to progress in general, have pronounced a sentence of excommunication against all Israelites who should participate either as collectors or donors, in the subscription now open in Europe for the purpose of... establishing at Jerusalem ... an extensive hospital and schools for adults and children of both sexes. Among the persons visited with this anathema are the heads of the different branches of the firm of Rothschild, who have subscribed 100,000 f. towards that charitable undertaking.”

12
An act of 1707 also made it possible for voters to be made to swear the same oath, though this was not rigorously enforced.

13
It is significant that Mayer had also been elected a member of Brooks’s Club in 1841. It was not until 1852 that his brother Anthony also became a member. The brothers were also members of the more overtly political Reform Club. In the same way, Alphonse became a member of the exclusive Paris Jockey Club in 1852 as well as the Cercle de l‘Union.

14
In the same year the old law against Jews owning property was repealed.

15
Salomons was duly re-elected as an alderman, this time for Cordwainer Ward, in December 1847 and went on to become Lord Mayor of London in 1855.

16
He promptly initiated a week of lavish dinners at the White Hart Hotel, drafting in a contingent of French chefs in a calculated appeal to the stomachs of his county neighbours. The local press reproduced the menu, commenting in awe that it had been “served in the best possible taste.”

17
He was one of three names submitted by Russell to the Queen: the others, as she noted in her journal, were a Colonel Fergusson and “another, whose name I cannot remember”—suggesting that Victoria did not attach much significance to the issue: RA, Queen Victoria’s Journal, Nov. 14, 1846. He was in fact Frederick Currie, Secretary to the Government of Bengal. Lionel may have regarded these minor imperial functionaries as unsatisfactory company to keep.

18
Unusually, the Rothschilds stipulated that the title would revert to Lionel’s eldest son if Anthony failed to produce a male heir.

19
It is worth noting that at this time Carlyle was romantically entangled with Lady Harriet Ashburton, the wife of Alexander Baring. However, Carlyle does not appear to have made his opposition to Lionel public, leaving that to papers like the
Morning Herald,
which referred to Lionel as a “foreigner,” and one of the Tory candidates, who declared Lionel’s proper place was as “one of the princes of Judah, in the land of Judah.”

20
In particular, he appears to have had a soft spot for Anthony’s wife Louisa, to whom he apologised for his earlier attacks in 1848. He dined with the Rothschilds in February 1850 (finding the women “very nice”) and by 1856—7 was in occasional friendly correspondence with Louisa. She appears in
Pendennis
as “a Jewish lady... with a child at her knee, and from whose face towards the child there shone a sweetness so angelical that it seemed to form a sort of glory round both. I protest I could have kneeled before her too...”

21
Lauch’s letter deserves quotation for the flavour it gives of the politics of the day: “To be candid—I will agree in what every body says viz: that you, dear Baron!
were returned by
the
Catholics
whose accession to your righteous cause
determined
your victory... it was a great wisdom on your part, two months ago to send for me and
not to
be ashamed humbly to ask me the favour to give you my assistance in the approaching struggle! I
resolved—even if you should not help me as I wanted it for my institution
to assist
you faithfully
and
fervently
—to
honour in your eyes
my quality of a Catholic Priest... My great plan from the beginning was to determine the Catholic Electors to vote for you
in a body
—and you cannot imagine what pains and troubles I had to come
to this
always acting upon them by
different agencies
and
seldom
personally influencing, to prevent prejudices to take hold of them. We
succeeded just when I began
to despair—because we had a most powerful opposition to
overcome
or to
elude...
All this whilst I was in hourly danger of being arrested for debts or seeing execution carried out on the premises of the
Institu
tion; likewise every word I have written to you on this head is perfect and sacred truth... Now I say all this to you only to add:
that you owe me nothing, that I expect nothing
and that the Catholic Agents expect
nothing from You,
That I take upon myself
every expense...
Honest and honoured I have
nothing
to ask
at this or any time, but that favour which I asked you, now a year ago,
when neither you nor I thought of an election Struggle—
I have done my duty to you...
and my heart
doubts not one moment
that you will do yours to me.” Lionel does not seem to have obliged on the scale Lauch had hoped for—though he seems to have put him in touch with the exiled Metternich.

22
It is worth noting that Disraeli made a second sketch of Charlotte’s character over thirty years later as Mrs Neuchatel in
Endymion.
Interestingly, he alludes to that peculiar bitterness in her character which became more pronounced as she grew older and hints at unhappiness in her marriage to Lionel: “Adrian had married, when very young, a lady selected by his father. The selection seemed a good one. She was the daughter of a most eminent banker, and had herself, though that was of slight importance, a large portion. She was a woman of abilities, highly cultivated ... Her person, without being absolutely beautiful, was interesting. There was even a degree of fascination in her brown velvet eyes. And yet Mrs. Neuchatel was not a contented spirit; and though she appreciated the great qualities of her husband and viewed him even with reverence as well as affection, she scarcely contributed to his happiness as much as became her ... [But] Adrian... was so absorbed by his own great affairs... that the over-refined fantasies of his wife produced not the slightest effect on the course of his life.” Inexplicably, Disraeli decided to make the Neuchatels Swiss by origin, so that Judaism is not touched upon. But their history (as custodians of émigrés’ wealth during the French wars) and the description of “Hainault house” make the model unmistakable.

23
According to Bentinck, Disraeli was counting on the Rothschilds acquiring Stowe from the bankrupt Duke of Buckingham “with all its Parliamentary influence”; he also believed Russell’s conduct to be aimed at uniting the Whigs and Peelites. The King of Hanover attributed Bentinck’s attitude to “his former haunts on the turf, and thus his connection with the Hebrews.”

24
Disraeli misunderstood the constitutional position, thinking that “if Rothschild were to go to the table & ask for the Roman Cath[olic] oath, wh: they co[ul]d not refuse him, that he co[ul]d take his seat. The words ’faith of a Christian’ only being in the oath of abjuration, from wh: the Romans were relieved”in 1829. As late as April 1848 he expressed the vain hope that the acceptance of the Jewish bill would unite the Conservative factions.

25
There was evidently a good deal of ill feeling between Mary Anne and Charlotte by this stage. While Lionel and Disraeli talked in the latter’s study after dinner, Mary Anne complained that her husband had “sich fur uns und unsere gerechte Sache während fünf Jahren seines Lebens aufgeopfert u. nur Undank sei ihm fur die gro
ß
en Bemühungen seines Geistes, seiner Feder u. seiner Lippen zu Theil geworden. Ich ärgerte mich, und konnte daher nicht schweigen, sagte ihr Mr. Disraeli habe nichts verloren und nichts eingebüßt.” A few weeks later, Lionel suggested that his wife ask Mary Anne “why Mr. Dizzy cannot come up to speak with me whenever he sees me; is there any reason why I should cross the room always to speak with him, he [gives] himself such airs.” This was the nadir of Rothschild-Disraeli relations.

26
In this fascinating letter, Russell sets out his own reasons for supporting emancipation—“I believe this country stands in need of God’s blessing and that blessing is granted only to the nations who uphold his chosen people in this their second dispensation”—and contrasts them with the motives of the Radicals who were simply “glad to fight at your expense one of their political questions.”

27
Manners had in fact dined with Lionel before being asked to stand, but Mayer seems to have guessed that he would be; evidently Disraeli was keeping Lionel informed of his party’s intentions. As Disraeli saw it, the erstwhile Puseyite Manners needed to stand primarily in order to convince the rest of the Protectionists of his political reliability. Manners was only one of numerous Conservatives who were happy to dine with the Rothschilds while repeatedly voting against their admission to Parliament.

28
On this motion, Disraeli voted with the majority, i.e., against his own party, though before the debate he introduced a petition against the admission of Jews to Parliament from some of his own constituents in Buckinghamshire, made virtually no contribution during the debate and supported a hostile motion from his own side that Lionel be asked directly whether he would be sworn to the three oaths. It was narrowly defeated.

29
This time Disraeli bravely reaffirmed his belief in the justice of emancipation, after a judicious defence of the House of Lords against Radical attacks.

30
Ironically, Lloyd George would direct very similar abuse at Lionel’s son Natty when he led opposition to the “People’s Budget” in the Lords.

31
A dissertation could be written about Charlotte’s “salon” at Piccadilly, if that is the right word to describe the various different social circles which her letters describe. The most important was of course the Rothschild family itself and related families (especially the Cohens and Montefiores). Occasionally admitted into this quite intimate milieu were the senior clerks and agents’ families (the Davidsons, Bauer, Weisweiller, Scharfenberg, and Belmont); and members of closely connected City families like the Waggs and Helberts. Apart from Gladstone and Disraeli, her political friends included not only the Liberals mentioned above but also Conservatives like Bulwer Lytton, the novelist and MP for Hertfordshire, and Lord Henry Lennox, MP for Chichester and Disraeli’s first Commissioner of Public Works. Also clearly part of the political circle was the editor of
The Times,
Delane. Overlapping but distinct was the diplomatic circle, composed of ambassadors and the members of the exiled Orléanist royal family. Socially on a par with this group were Charlotte’s grand lady friends like the duchesses of Sutherland, Newcastle and St Albans.

32
Even this temporary residence struck Macaulay as “a paradise”: Lionel told him he had offered £300,000 for the house and its eight or ten acres of garden, but had been refused.

33
The Paris houses of the 1850s and 1860s were Nat’s at 33 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, which he acquired in 1856; Alphonse’s at 4 rue Saint-Florentin; Gustave’s at 23 avenue Marigny; Salomon James’s at 3-5 rue de Messine; and Adolph’s at 45-9 rue de Monceau, bought from Eugène Pereire in 1868.

1
Born Israel Beer Josaphat, Reuter had begun his career as a clerk in his uncle’s bank at Gottingen, where he met the telegraph pioneer Karl Friedrich Gauss. In 1840 he started work for Charles Havas’s Paris-based
Correspondance Garnier,
which translated foreign press reports into French, and in 1850 moved to London, where he established the Reuter agency.

2
Cobden, still fulminating on behalf of the Hungarians, denounced it as an “unholy and infamous transaction”; in fact, like so many loans in this period, the funds raised were earmarked for railway construction.