606 



MONTEFIORE, SIR MOSES HAIM. 



about $10,000,000 is silver. In all of the silver, 

 there is from 20 to 35 per cent, of its gross 

 value gold, chemically combined with it. One 

 fourth of the value of the product of the cop- 

 per-mines is silver chemically combined with 

 the copper. The lead would not pay for the 

 mining except for the silver it contains, and 

 its uses in collecting the silver and gold in the 

 process of smelting. The copper - mines at 

 Butte, with over $2,500,000 in their works 

 alone, are barely paying running expenses. A 

 very little further depreciation of their silver 

 contents, and that industry would be ruined. 



MONTEFIORE, Sir MOSES II AIM, an English 

 philanthropist, born in Leghorn, Italy, where 

 his parents were visiting, Oct. 24, 1784; died 

 in London, July 28, 1885. The earliest record 

 of the Montefiore family is a silk embroidered 

 curtain suspended before the Ark in the Anco- 

 na synagogue, bearing a Hebrew inscription, 

 which gives the date of the gift as 1630, and 

 the name of Rachel Montefiore as the worker. 



SIB MOSES HALM MONTEFIORE. 



Early in the eighteenth century, Moses Monte- 

 fiore settled in London, where his son, Joseph 

 Elias Montefiore (father of Sir Moses), became 

 a prosperous merchant. On leaving school, 

 young Montefiore was taught a trade, and was 

 first apprenticed to a provision-house, but in 

 early manhood he entered the London Stock 

 Exchange, his uncle having purchased for him 



the right to practice as one of the twelve Jew- 

 ish brokers licensed by the city. In 1812 he 

 married Judith Cohen, whose sister had mar- 

 ried Nathan Meyer Rothschild, and became as- 

 sociated with the Rothschilds in their financial 

 operations, with such success that in 1825 he 

 retired from business. " Thank God and be 

 content," was his wife's counsel. He had ac- 

 cumulated wealth in abundance, and could now 

 turn his mind to the dream of his life, the re- 

 lief of his suffering brethren in all lands where 

 political rights were denied them, and the al- 

 leviation of suffering humanity of every creed. 

 In 1827" he and his wife made their first 

 journey to Palestine. It is possible that the 

 abject condition of the Israelites there aroused 

 Montefiore to strive for their betterment. 

 Henceforward "the peace of Jerusalem" he- 

 came his battle-cry, and seven times he visited 

 the Holy Land. In 1837 he was elected Sheriff 

 of London (the Jews were still under civil dis- 

 abilities), and was knighted by the Queen, with 

 whom his relations were always 

 kindly, dating from the time when 

 she and her mother, the Duchess of 

 Kent, visited Montefiore's villa at 

 Ramsgate. But political and social 

 advancement had no charms for him. 

 In the winter of 1838 he undertook 

 his second journey to Palestine, with 

 the avowed purpose of introducing 

 industrial and agricultural schemes 

 among the poverty - stricken He- 

 brews. He secured the lively inter- 

 est of Mehemet Ali, who promised 

 the Sultan's furtherance of his plans, 

 but on his return to England a new 

 and more urgent matter claimed his 

 attention. The Jews of Damascus 

 were accused of using Christian blood 

 an old charge, which was alleged 

 against the early Christians by their 

 heathen persecutors and harrowing 

 details of outrages by the mob in the 

 East startled all Europe. Montefiore 

 traveled to Alexandria, and secured 

 the release of the accused Jews of 

 Damascus. Thence he proceeded to 

 Constantinople and obtained from 

 the Sultan, Abdul-Medjid, a firman 

 declaring the groundlessness of the 

 blood accusation, and affirming equal- 

 ity of the Jews with his other sub- 

 jects. On his return, Montefiore had 

 an audience with Louis Philippe. In 

 1846 Montefiore journeyed to Russia, 

 accompanied by his wife, to secure 

 civil liberty for his oppressed Rus- 

 sian brethren. Only slight concessions were 

 made by the Emperor Nicholas ; but Mon- 

 tefiore's visit was of profound significance for 

 the Jews themselves, as it gave them a 

 stimulus to social and educational reform. In 

 1858 the abduction of the Jewish lad 

 gar Mortara aroused the civilized world, and 

 Montefiore went to Rome in 1859. But Pope 



