both houses to repress. It was the interest of this opposition to reduce the value of the scrip: and it succeeded. Day by day it lowered; and day by day was Mr. Goldsmid's fortune lowered with it. He had about eight millions in his possession, and with the depression of his fortune, his mind grew dispirited and disordered. Another circumstance occurred at this particular moment to increase his embarrassment. Half a million of exchequer bills had been placed in his hands to negotiate for the East India Company, and the latter, fearing the result of the contest on the Stock Exchange, claimed the amount. His friends did not rally round him as at such a moment and with such a man his friends should have done; and Abraham Goldsmid, dreading a disgrace which his sensitive and honourable nature magnified a hundredfold, after entertaining a large dinner party, destroyed himself in the garden of his magnificent residence in Surrey.

"This sad event created a sensation in the city, unparalleled by the loss of any single individual. The death of the great loan contractor was regarded as of national importance. Expresses were sent with the news to the king and the

Prince of Wales.

The funds fell three per cent. The journals united in eulogizing the man whose death they recorded. The jobbers of Capel

Court crowded in anxious enquiry. The merchants of the Exchange assembled before the accustomed time. The thoroughfares resounded with rapid questions, and hurried replies. Little or no business was done; and it is said the great question of peace and war never created a similar confusion. The jury recorded their opinion; and when the remains were carried to their home, the procession was followed by a crowd who, partaking of his charity in life, thronged to honor him in death. Sobs and suppressed moans attested their sorrow, and bore a fitting testimony to his worth. The high-priest and elders paid every distinction which the Mosaic ordinances allowed, but in conformity with the commands of the great law-giver, they withheld from him the customary rites; and unconsecrated ground received the remains of Abraham Goldsmid, the Hebrew suicide.t"

* Gentile writers erroneously, though invariably, style the Chief Rabbi, High Priest. They are perfectly distinct functionaries, and the latter does not exist at present.

66

† Francis's Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange."

Nevertheless his name will always be associated with Catholic philanthropy, ready munificence, friendly demeanor, mild and unassuming manner. The brothers of the deceased followed Abraham to the grave in the same suicidal Benjamin hung himself, and Francis

manner.

poisoned some say strangled-himself.

The Jews have a curious legend about the Goldsmid family, which betrays no small measure of credulity on the part of many English Hebrews even in this our day.* The legend is to the following effect :-A Baal Shem, an operative Cabalist, in other words a thaumatorgos and prophet, used to live with the father of the Goldsmids. On his death-bed he summoned the patriarch Goldsmid, and delivered into his hands a box, which he strictly enjoined should not be opened till a certain period which the Baal Shem specified, and in case of disobedience a torrent of fearful calamities would overwhelm the Goldsmids. The patriarch's curiosity was not aroused for some time; but in a few years after the Baal Shem's death, Goldsmid, the aged,

This story was told to the writer by several provincial Rabbies, as well as by many metropolitan aged Jews, with an air of an unshaken and firm faith in its truthfulness.

half sceptic, half curious, forced open the fatal box, and then the Goldsmids began to learn what it was to disbelieve the words of a Baal Shem. The greatest calamity, however, which some Israelites discover in the history of that family, is that one branch has altogether merged into the Christian Church, and that the remainder are the leading members of the Reformed synagogue. One of the latter has been created a baronet; in consequence, some say, of presenting ten thousand pounds to the London University.

VOL. II.

H

CHAPTER XI.

The Conversion of the Jews-An unpublished account-Dr. Haweis "The Bury Street Lecture Room"-Mr. CooperThe employment of the Laity amongst the Jews-A Rabbinical Bull-The effect-Dr. Hunter's last LectureExtracts from it-A Christian Jew re-organizes the Lectureship to the Jews-Mr. Frey induced to remain in England-His success amongst the Jews.

ABOUT the end of the last century, the conversion of the Jews began to interest the minds of many Christians. There exists a MS. memoir of a pious dissenting preacher, which contains an interesting account of the organization of a regular weekly lecture to be delivered to the Jews. The events connected with that lecture are deemed important, in the annals of Israel in this country, inasmuch as they are the forerunners of the present societies for promoting