171 



ROSTOPCHIN, FEDOR VASILEVICH. 



ROTTECK, KARL WENCESLAUS VON. 



173 



In Napoleon's bulletins Rostopchin was denounced as having 

 kindled the conflagration by means of three hundred incendiaries who 

 set fire to the city in five hundred places at once, and it was stated 

 that some hundreds of these incendiaries were taken and shot. In 

 some French historians there are numerous details of the event, 

 chiefly however taken from or founded on the bulletins. The belief 

 was for years unquestioned and uncontradicted in France. At length 

 in 1823 Rostopchin who had resided in Paris since 1817 published a 

 pamphlet entitled ' La Ve'rite' sur 1'incendie de Moscou ' (' The Truth 

 on the conflagration of Moscow '). " Ten years have elapsed," he com- 

 mences, " since the conflagration of Moscow, and I am still pointed 

 out to history and posterity as the author of an event which according 

 to the received opinion was the principal cause of the destruction of 

 Napoleon's army, of his consequent fall, the preservation of Russia, 

 and the deliverance of Europe. Certainly there is something to be 

 proud of in such splendid claims as these, but having never usurped 

 anybody's rights and being tired of hearing the same fable constantly 

 repeated I am going to make known the truth which alone ought to 

 dictate history." . . . "It would be unreasonable," he afterwards says, 

 " not to believe me, since I give up the finest part in the drama of our 

 times, and pull down the edifice of my own celebrity." The gist of 

 his statements is, that the fire was not produced by a preconcerted 

 plan, but by the patriotism of some isolated Russians, and the negli- 

 gence and violence of the French soldiers, who acted in the spirit 

 which was shown by Napoleon's acknowledged attempt to blow up the 

 Kremlin. " The principal feature in the Russian character," says 

 Rostopchin, " is disinterestedness and propensity to destroy rather 

 than give up to an antagonist to terminate a dispute with the words, 

 "' Then nobody shall have it.' In the frequent conversations that I 

 had with the shopkeepers, the artisans, and the lower classes of 

 Moscow, I often heard them say, when they expressed their fears that 

 the city would fall into the enemy's hand, ' We ought to burn it 

 rather.' When I was staying at the head-quarters of Prince Kutuzov, 

 I saw many persons escaped from Moscow after the conflagration who 

 boasted that they had set their houses on fire." It is singular that 

 when speaking on this head the Count does not advert to his own 

 destruction of his country-seat at the village of Voronov on the Kaluga 

 road a fact which admits of no doubt, for the French on arriving 

 there found a manifesto addressed to them in French, which was made 

 public at the time, and is reprinted in the collection of Rostopchin's 

 writings. "During eight years," the manifesto ran, "I have been 

 embellishing this estate, and I have lived here in happiness in the 

 bosom of my family. The inhabitants of this village, 1720 in number, 

 quit it at your approach, and I myself set fire to the house that it may 

 not be polluted by your presence. Frenchmen ! I abandoned to you 

 my two houses in Moscow, with furniture in them to the value of half 

 a million rubles here you will find nothing but ashes." Rostopchin 

 concludes his pamphlet, which is dated from Paris, March 5tb, 1823, 

 with the words, "I have told the truth and nothing but the truth," 

 avoiding, it will be observed, to assert that he had told " the whole 

 truth." " His tardy denial," remarks the writer in the ' Biographic 

 Universelle,' " bears no character of truth about it, and has convinced 

 no one." Such indeed appears to be the general opinion in France ; but 

 as Rostopchin's assertions are against the interest of his own reputa- 

 tion, as they come into collision with no established fact, and as he had 

 the reputation of a man of honour though a man of eccentricity, there 

 seems no sufficient reason to reject his testimony, and it will probably 

 bo accepted by future historians unless some evidence to the contrary 

 come to the light which is at present unknown. It is an important 

 historical point, of more consequence than the part that Rostopchin 

 took in the matter, that the conflagration was not the great national 

 act that Byron represented it : 



" To this the soldier lent his kindling match, 

 To this the peasant gave his cottage thatch, 

 To this the merchant flung his hoarded store, 

 The prince his hall and Moscow was no more ! " 



In the series of Rostopchin's proclamations to the peasantry of his 

 government, the last commences in a strange mixture of coarse humour 

 and fierce patriotism, which seems to have been natural to him. " The 

 enemy of the human race, God's scourge for our sins, the devil's 

 manure, the wicked Frenchman, has got into Moscow, and has given it 

 to sword and flame." Whatever might be the patriotism of indi- 

 viduals, it was evidently thought expedient to inculcate the belief in 

 the masses that the conflagration was the work of the French. 



In taking this notice of the pamphlet on the history of 1812, some 

 of Rostopchin's biography has been anticipated. His governorship of 

 Moscow ceased in 1814, and he accompanied the Emperor Alexander 

 to the Congress of Vienna. In 1817 he carne to Paris, where he lived 

 for some time at what had formerly been the residence of Marshal 

 Ney, Prince of the Moskwa, and while he was at that city in 1819 his 

 daughter Sophia was married to Count Eugene de Se"gur, grandson of 

 the count of that name who had been ambassador at St. Petersburg, 

 and nephew of the Count Philippe, who wrote the famous history of 

 the invasion of Russia. Rostopchin finally returned to Russia, and 

 died at Moscow on the 12th of February 1826. 



A volume of llostopchin's collected writings was published at St. 

 Petersburg in 1853 in Smirdin's ' Polnoe Sobranie Sochineny Russkikh 

 Avtorov' ('Complete Collection of the works of Russian Authors') ; 



they are chiefly connected with the events of his life, and derive most of 

 their interest from that circumstance. A vein of flippancy runs through 

 the French part of his writings, and a vein of coarseness through the 

 Russian. His daughter-in-law, Countess Elena Rostopchin, by birth 

 of the family of Sushkov, is a Russian poetess of some reputation. 



ROTHSCHILD, MEYER ANSELM, the founder of the wealth and 

 influence of the great commercial family of the Rothschilds, was 

 born at Frankfurt-am-Main about the year 1750. He was originally 

 intended for the Jewish priesthood, but was placed in a counting- 

 house at Hanover. He returned to Frankfurt, married, and com- 

 menced business in a small way as an exchange broker and banker. 

 His ability and industry procured him the office of banker to William, 

 Landgrave (afterwards Elector) of Hesse. During the time that the 

 Emperor Napoleon had undisputed possession of Germany, the land- 

 grave's private fortune was saved by the shrewdness of his banker. 

 Meyer Rothschild died in 1812, leaving to his five sons a large fortune, 

 boundless credit, and an unimpeachable character. Of these the eldest, 

 Anselm, settled at Frankfurt, Solomon at Vienna, Nathan Meyer, the 

 third, in London, Charles at Naples, and James at Paris. They 

 remained united, in accordance with their father's advice, and the 

 result has been that for nearly half a century they have taken the 

 leading part in all the financial affairs of England, France, Austria, 

 and most other kingdoms of Europe. The rise of the Rothschilds' 

 fortunes dates from the outbreak of the war with Spain in 1808, when 

 the resources of NATHAN ROTHSCHILD for making the necessary remit- 

 tances to the British array in that country were first brought into full 

 play. He had come to England in 1800, and had acted as his father's 

 agent in the purchase of Manchester goods for the Continent, and shortly 

 afterwards through his father he had large sums entrusted to him for 

 the Elector of Hesse Cassel and for other German princes, and these 

 he employed with such great judgment that his means began rapidly 

 to increase. His financial transactions pervaded the whole Continent, 

 and he came to be consulted upon almost every speculation and under- 

 taking. His brothers looked to his judgment on all matters of a 

 pecuniary character. He may be said to have been the first introducer 

 of foreign loans into this country ; for though such securities had 

 been dealt in before, yet the dividends being payable abroad, and 

 subject to a constant fluctuation in the rate of exchange, had made 

 them too inconvenient an investment for the multitude. It is said 

 that such was Mr. Rothschild's judgment and good management that 

 not one of those with whom he entered into contracts ever failed in 

 their engagements. His loan contracts however were not always suc- 

 cessful in the first instance; for example, he is said to have lost 

 500,000?. by Lord Bexley's loan or funding of Exchequer Bills; the 

 vast resources at his command however enabled him to bear these and 

 all other losses, which would have sunk a house of less gigantic means. 

 To such a height however did he carry his reputation for loan opera- 

 tions that it became almost a matter of rivalry between different etates 

 which should obtain his co-operation. He always avoided entering 

 into any money contracts with Spain or the Spanish settlements in 

 America ; he also refused to connect himself with the various Joint- 

 stock Companies of the day, with the single exception of the Alliance 

 Insurance Company, in the formation of which he took a leading part. 

 He was distinguished alike by his accuracy and correctness in matters 

 of business and his liberality of dealing with all who were brought into 

 the sphere of his monetary negociatious, and by his private and per- 

 sonal chai'ities, which he distributed on a large scale, more especially 

 among the poor of his own religion. He received letters patent of 

 denization in England in 1804, and in 1822 was advanced by letters 

 Imperial, dated Vienna, September 29, 1822, to the dignity of a Baron 

 of the Austrian Empire. This title however he never assumed, and 

 was justly more proud of his high commercial and untitled name. He 

 died at Frankfurt, July 28, 1836, leaving by his wife, the daughter of 

 Mr. Levi Cohen, a London merchant, three daughters and four sons. 

 Of the former, two are married to their cousins, and the third to the 

 Right Honourable Henry Fitz Roy, M.P. His eldest son, the Baron 

 Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, has been elected on four different 

 occasions to represent the city of London, but has never taken his 

 seat in the House of Commons, because as a Jew he cannot conscien- 

 tiously take the oaths ' on the true faith of a Christian.' His second 

 son, Anthony, was created a Baronet in 1846. 



ROTTECK, KARL WENCESLAUS RODECKER VON, was born 

 on the 18th of June, 1775, at Freiburg-im-Breisgau, which now belongs 

 to the Grand Duchy of Baden, but at that time was subject to the 

 House of Austria. His father, Anton Rodecker, was ennobled by the 

 Emperor Joseph II. under the name Rodecker von Rotteck, on account 

 of the eminent services which he had done to his country and the 

 emperor as perpetual dean of the Medical Faculty in the University of 

 Freiburg, and as one of the councillors in the board of administration 

 of Austrian Suabia. His mother, Charlotte Poirot d'Ogeron, a native 

 of Remiremont in Lorraine, is described as a lady of rare virtue and 

 attainments. Karl von Rotteck received a very careful education, and 

 as early as 1790 was admitted a student in the faculty of law in the 

 university of his native town. He took the degree of Doctor of Civil 

 Law in 1797, yet he always preferred history to law, and in 1798 was 

 appointed professor of history at Freiburg. 



Although he did not appear as a writer before 1811, except as the 

 author of a few minor productions, he nevertheless devoted all his 



