married, in 1851, Madelina, daughter of Dr. Garden of Calcutta, but had no issue.
Mr. T. F. Squarey issued in 1882 ‘A Digest of the Judgments in Board of Trade Inquiries into Shipping Casualties, delivered by H. C. Rothery from 1876–1880, with a Chapter on the Procedure of the Court.’
Rothery was author of: 1. ‘Suggestions for an Improved Mode of Pleading, and of taking Oral Depositions in Causes conducted by Plea and Responsive Allegation,’ 1853. 2. ‘Return of all Appeals in Cases of Doctrine or Discipline made to the High Court of Delegates,’ 1868. This was printed by order of the House of Commons, and is cited in modern ecclesiastical cases as ‘Rothery's Precedents.’ 3. ‘A Defence of the Rule of the Admiralty Court in Cases of Collisions between Ships,’ 1873.
[Law Times, 1 Sept. 1888, p. 308; Times, 3 Aug. 1888, p. 10; information from Israel Davis, esq., M.A., barrister-at-law.]
ROTHES
ROTHES
ROTHES
ROTHESAY
ROTHSCHILD, LIONEL NATHAN de (1808–1879), banker and philanthropist, eldest son of Nathan Meyer Rothschild [q. v.], by his wife Hannah, daughter of Levi Barnet Cohen, was born in New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, London, on 22 Nov. 1808. After being educated at Göttingen, he entered his father's business, and on his father's death, in 1836, succeeded to the chief management of the Rothschild banking-house in England. On 16 June 1838 he assumed, by royal license, the dignity of baron of the Austrian empire, which had been conferred on his father. He possessed much of his father's ability. Although his three brothers were associated with him in the firm, he chiefly directed the firm's affairs, and under his guidance the London house maintained its influence in both England and Europe. During his lifetime his firm brought out as many as eighteen government loans. In 1847 he negotiated the Irish famine loan, and in his office was formed the British Relief Association for the Irish peasantry. In 1856 he raised 16,000,000l. for the English government, to meet the expenses of the Crimean war, and in 1858 he took up a Turkish loan of 5,000,000l. on the joint security of the French and English governments. He also played a prominent part in the operations for the funding of the United States national debt, and brought out several large loans for the Russian government. But he declined to take up the Russian loan of 1861, owing to his disapprobation of Russia's attitude to Poland. He actively co-operated with the Viennese branch of his firm in directing the finances of the Austrian empire, and with his cousin, Baron James of Paris, assisted in the construction of the Great Northern Railway of France. He was for many years a director of that company, as well as of the Lombardo-Venetian railway. At the close of the Franco-German war in 1871 Rothschild, at the head of a group of financiers, guaranteed the maintenance of the foreign exchanges, and thus facilitated the payment of the French indemnity. In 1876 his house advanced to the English government 4,080,000l. for the purchase from the khedive of his Suez Canal shares; the firm is said to have made 100,000l. by the transaction.
Meanwhile Rothschild took an active part in political and social life. Devoted to his race and religion, he continuously exerted his influence in behalf of his co-religionists, seeking for them freedom from persecution abroad and the full privileges of citizenship in England. In 1843 he co-operated with Sir Moses Montefiore [q. v.] in his efforts to ameliorate the condition of the Russian and Polish Jews. He did what he could to improve the position of the persecuted Jews of Roumania, and a letter from him in their behalf was read at the Berlin congress of 1878. He was a generous benefactor of the Jews of Jerusalem. In London he was a munificent supporter of Jewish institutions, and was for some time president of the great synagogue. But his charity was never confined to his co-religionists, and he showed practical sympathy with all manner of philanthropic movements.
The most striking incident in his personal history centred in his efforts to enter the House of Commons. In 1847 he was elected one of the whig members for the city of London, having Lord John Russell as a colleague, but, owing to his refusal as a Jew to accept the words ‘on the true faith of a Christian’ in the parliamentary oath, he was not allowed to take his seat. Since 1830 the House of Commons had five times passed a bill enabling Jews to take the oath in a
