Part 4 (1/2)

”Monday and Thursday mornings attend the Synagogue. Tuesday and Thursday evenings for visiting.”

”I attended,” he says, ”many meetings at the City of London Tavern, also several charitable meetings at Bevis Marks, in connection with the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue; sometimes pa.s.sing the whole day there from ten in the morning till half-past eleven at night (January 25, 1820), excepting two hours for dinner in the Committee room; answered in the evening 350 pet.i.tions from poor women, and also made frequent visits to the Villa Real School.”

In the course of the year he went to Cambridge and to Norwich, visiting many of the colleges, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and other interesting inst.i.tutions, and on February the 16th he attended the funeral sermon of his late Majesty George the Third (who died on the 29th of January).

He often went to his farm, near Tinley Lodge, and sometimes for special recreation to the English Opera, together with his wife and members of the family, always finding time for work and pleasure alike.

”Mr N. M. Rothschild,” he records in an entry, ”being taken ill, I stayed with him several days at Stamford Hill.”

Subsequently Mr Montefiore had some very important business in connection with a loan, and experienced much uneasiness, owing to a riot among the soldiers of the third regiment of the Guards, which, no doubt, affected the financial world.

He frequently went to the House of Commons and the House of Lords to ascertain the state of politics, and the progress of the Jews Emanc.i.p.ation Bill in particular; for the Roman Catholic Emanc.i.p.ation Bill, which, side-by-side with Parliamentary reform, and the demand for free trade, was at that time agitating the public mind, naturally prompted the Jews to bring before the House their own grievances. Mr Montefiore also visited the Female Freemasons' Charity, and generously supported the craft which, as has been said, has had a being ”ever since symmetry began and harmony displayed her charms.”

_October 30._--An important event in his financial career takes place: he gives up his counting-house.

1821 (5581 A.M.)--The first day of this year corresponding with the Hebrew date, Tebet 28, on which his father, he writes, entered into eternal glory, 11th of January 1804 (5564 A.M.), he repairs morning and evening to the house of prayer, offering up the customary prayer in memory of the dead.

”I visited his tomb, distributing gifts to the poor and needy, and on my return pa.s.sed the whole of the day in fasting and religious meditation.”

The next entries refer to his frequent visits to the hospital, ”Beth Holim,” going to see King George IV. at Drury Lane, dining with the Directors of the Atlas Fire a.s.surance Company at the Albion, going afterwards with the Lord Mayor of Dublin to Covent Garden Theatre to see His Majesty again, his excursions to the country, together with his wife, and their visits to Finchley Lodge Farm, where they sometimes pa.s.s the day together. On his return to London, he attends, as in the preceding year, the meetings of the elders of his community and those of the communal inst.i.tutions.

On 8th May they set out for Scotland. Of this tour Mrs Montefiore kept an interesting journal, which not only describes the state of the country and the mode of travelling sixty six years ago, but shows her good temper under difficulties, her grat.i.tude to Providence for the blessings they enjoyed, and for their safety after apparent danger, as also her keen appreciation of the beauties of nature and art. It contains, however, no information likely to be serviceable to the present generation travelling in Scotland.

In October we meet them again in London, in the House of Prayer, offering up thanks for their safe return from Scotland. During the rest of the year Mr Montefiore resumed his usual occupations, always combining the work of finance with that intended for the welfare of his community and charitable inst.i.tutions of all cla.s.ses of society, while Mrs Montefiore devoted herself to responding to every appeal for help commensurately with the merit of the case, comforting every sufferer by her kind acts of sympathy, and promoting peace and harmony among those whose friends.h.i.+p seemed likely to be interrupted.

An incident which, at the time, afforded Mr Montefiore special gratification, he refers to as follows:--

”I was present, on the Feast of Haunkah (the anniversary of the victory of the Maccabees), at a discourse delivered by the spiritual head of the congregation, in the College of the Spanish and Portuguese Hebrew Community. The interest was greatly enhanced by the completion of the study of one of their theological books in the presence of all the students. The latter evinced great love for their study, and appeared well acquainted with the subject to which the lecturer referred.”

Mrs Montefiore presented each student with a generous gift, as an encouragement to continued zeal in their work.

1822 (5582 A.M.).--He agrees to rent East Cliff Lodge for one year from the 15th of April, for 550 clear, and signs the agreement on 12th February.

On the eve of the Day of Atonement, in the presence of his a.s.sembled friends, he completes, by adding the last verse in his own handwriting, a scroll of the Pentateuch, for the use of the Synagogue, offering on the following day 140 for the benefit of various charitable inst.i.tutions of his community as a token of his appreciation of the Synagogue Service.

The depressed state of trade in this and the preceding year, owing to serious apprehensions of war, had caused a great diminution in the importation and manufacture of goods, so that much anxiety prevailed.

Referring to this subject, Mr Montefiore makes an entry to the effect that a statement had been made in high quarters by the Duke of Wellington, that peace would be maintained, in consequence of which, says Mr Montefiore, all the public funds rose.

1823 (5583 A.M.).--Opens with a joyous event in the family. His brother Horatio, on the first of January, marries a daughter of David Mocatta, thus allying more closely the two most prominent families in the Hebrew community.

_August 20th._--Mr and Mrs Montefiore leave England for the third time for France, Germany, and Italy.

The entry this day refers to something which happened to him seventeen years previously (1806), (for obvious reasons I do not give the name, which is written in full in the diary):--”N. N. robbed me of all and more than I had. Blessed be the Almighty, that He has not suffered my enemies to triumph over me.”

On their arrival at Rome they find Mr Abraham Montefiore very ill; much worse, Mr Montefiore says, than they had expected. His critical state induces them to remain with him to the end of the year.

About the same time, his brother Horatio was elected an elder in his synagogue: ”affording him many opportunities,” Mr Montefiore observes, ”to make himself useful to the congregation.”

1824 (5584 A.M.).--His brother Abraham continues very ill, but Montefiore can remain with him no longer, his presence being much required in London.