The reports of their enormous wealth, continued for two generations,
have invested the Rothschild family with a, curious kind of public interest, which is only extended in part to other great millionaires. Otherwise we do not see why the death of Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, which occurred on Saturday last, should be treated as a public event. Though a Member of Parliament, he had made no mark in public life, and his residence at Waddesdon, in Buckingham- shire, is notable among great country houses only for the immense sums he spent in creating a park, huge trees being transported to it and replanted, and the unusual value of the pictures and bric-a-brac it contains. The Baron was a bean- ideal collector, possessing great knowledge, and being almost recklessly indifferent to price. Though not an English- man by birth, he was as kindly as the rich English gentleman usually is to his tenants and labourers, and being personally genial, his seat for Buckinghamshire was unusually secure. He is said to have left his collections of the Renaissance period, and all his jewellery of the fourteenth century, to the British Museum, a graceful acknowledgment of the hospi- tality which this country has for many years extended to his family and his race. It is curious to contrast the position of the Rothschilds here with that of their cousins in Paris, who may yet be among the victims of a St. Bartholomew.
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