MOTES OF THE MONTH. 301 



DEATH OF MR. ROTHSCHILD THE LOAN-CONTRACTOR. This ex- 

 traordinary person, who from very small beginnings attained eventually 

 to the possession of an enormous property, perhaps three, and three 

 only, being more wealthy than him in all Europe, and by reason of that 

 property was enabled to exercise a very powerful influence on inter- 

 national politics, has at length paid his last instalment due to nature. 

 He died at Frankfort on the Maine on the 28th of July, in his 60th 

 year. His remains, after having been sent home to his residence in 

 St. Svvithin's, were interred with great ceremony and every show of 

 respect from a very numerous retinue of mourners in the first class of 

 society on Monday the 8th of August. We extract for the informa- 

 tion of our readers a brief account of the distribution 'of his property, 

 we mean his actually amassed property, independently of that which 

 is still employed in the gigantic concerns of the house, whose head he 

 is no longer. 



" The will gives no statement of the amount of the property accumulated, 

 nor of the kind of securities in which it is invested. There are eight execu- 

 tors appointed under the will, namely, the four brothers of the deceased, 

 Mrs. Rothschild, one of his sons, his son-in-law, and Benjamin Cohen, his 

 brother-in-law. The executors are strictly prohibited from interfering with 

 any thing in their official capacity beyond the line of their duties as admini- 

 strators. The testator had given to each of his sons on their coming of age 

 25,000/., which the will directs shall be made up to 100,000/. in each case, 

 the eldest son, lately married to his oousin-german, having already received 

 his amount in full. The business is left to the three sons without any 

 distinction or preference, and the youngest son, not yet of age, is in every 

 respect to be placed on the same footing with his brothers on reaching his 

 majority. The three daughters of the testator are also each to have 100,000/., 

 this sum being already paid to the eldest, married to her cousin. The two 

 youngest, yet unmarried are to have the same sum paid, provided they marry 

 with the consent of their mother and brothers, and not otherwise. If they 

 remain unmarried they are to have 50,000/. each on reaching the age of 

 twenty-five, and on arriving at forty they are to have the other 50,000/., and 

 no reversionary claim whatever on the residue of the property. The will 

 throughout expresses the warmest affection for, and places the most un- 

 bounded confidence in, Mrs. .'Rothschild. She is secured an annuity of 

 20,000/., clear of all incumbrance, during her life, and also the family town- 

 house in Piccadilly, and the country-house at Barnsbury, with all their 

 appurtenances, without any condition. The possibility of her again marrying 

 is not once glanced at. The will declares that the testator had an interest in 

 all the houses conducted by his brothers on the Continent, and, they having 

 a reciprocal interest in the house conducted by him in London, that the joint 

 business shall in future be carried on as heretofore by his sons, in conjunc- 

 tion with their uncles, for five years certain from his demise, that the sons 

 shall be guided by the advice of their uncles, and enter into no new under- 

 taking on their own account without previously advising with and obtaining 

 the consent of their mother. The testator has bequeathed nothing to public 

 charities, servants, or dependents. He has entrusted the whole of this ar- 

 rangement to Mrs. Rothschild, to act upon her discretion, without any 

 control from the other executors ; there are very few legacies under the will, 

 and the principal one is 10,000/. to his brother-in-law and executor, Mr. B. 

 Cohen ; with about 500?. to each of the testator's sisters, and a few small 

 sums to others, not exceeding in the whole 15,000/. to 1 6,0007. Tokens of 

 remembrance to other friends and relations he leaves entirely to the discre- 

 tion of Mrs. Rothschild." 



M. M. No. 3. Z 



