THE MAGNIFICENT ROTHSCHILDS By Cecil Roth
Mr. Cecil Roth is a careful and thorough researcher, with a wide knowledge of the Jewish background ; but in The Magnificent Rothschilds (Robert Hale, I2S. 6d.) he has put his gifts to unprofitable use. There is nothing magnificent about his subject. The early Rothschilds acquired such skill in the handling of money that they forgot what it was for. Their charities had to be administered by a bureau. Their expendi- ture was gross, insipid, and tasteless. Simply out of anxiety for
the preservation of their accumulations, they established a system of intermarriage so narrow and unwholesome that the second Lord Rothschild had but four great-grandparents. Mr. Roth is more particularly concerned with the three brothers who cut so large a figure in society from the seventies until the war. Of these three, the first Lord Rothschild was an un- imaginative financier and an offensive man. Alfred was an elegant bachelor, whose life was one long endeavour to keep pace with his income. Leopold was an amiable patron of the turf. They lived in hideous houses, and gave fabulous parties ; but the magnificence of their lives is hard to find. - The book is adorned with the New-Court type of anecdote (" What is your security? " The British Government." " Tell Mr. Disraeli that the four- millions he requires will be placed to the credit of the Khedive tomorrow "). For those who enjoy the illusion of this sort of power, Mr. Roth's book will have a certain charm ; but most readers will find it profoundly depressing.
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