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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    OBITUARY.

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    Untitled Article

    £ 2 . r . Benjamin Golds m id .

    This melancholy part of our monthly labours is rendered more melancholy this month by our having to record two affecting instances of suicide—the crime £ nd reproach of our country . More instances might be brought forward , but we wish not to da . g into notice , unnecessarily , the unhappy persons who with such infaturati 6 n rush into oblivion ; and these cases will suffice to record the

    mania of the times , and to excite the reader ' s pity towards the subjects of this species -of desperation ^ and his prayer to the Almighty Preserver of men , that he may be kept from the * ' presumptuous sin , " the national , the * great transopressroii . "

    At his seat rri Roehampton , Mr . BENJAMIN GOLDSMID , one of the Jewish nation , equally distinguished for his © pulence and chaiities . *' The Goldsmids , of whom the late Benjamin and Abraham , who survives frim , are best known to the commercial

    world , are the sons of a respectable Dutch merchant , who brought them into England , when very young . At the usual age , they embarked in business , and by industry , ability , and probity , soon acquired great credit . Their Commercial transactions became extra * ordinarily great and extensive ; they Were the chief money-factors for the Government ; and their wealth was

    reputed to be prodigious . Mr . B . Goldsmid , with his brothers , adhered to the religion of his fathers , though without bigotry . He was the friend of his own people , and the patron of literature among { hem . In one instance , he is said to have given scandal to the rigid . J ews , by receiving the

    Prince of Welles , in a splendid manner , at Koehampton , during the time of the Jewish- sabbath . His complaisance to the prince , who is reported to have cho .-en the day of his visitj With an incousideration which , in any but a , prince , would have been culpable , was thought to be at the * expense of his relit ion .

    The benefactions of Mr . Goldsmid were by no means confined to the Jews . The Marine Society , the Uoyal Humane Societ > , the ha *>*> iula > and other charity *

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    ble institutions , partook largely of his bounty . He thus broke through a stubborn religious prejudice ; and some opulent Christians have followed his liberal example , by subscribing to the Jewish school . His charities were -not suspicious , for the Jews are not desirous of converts : unlike those of the

    Methodists to the Jews , which are done with a view to prosetytism . The good Samaritan was not a zealot . Mr . Goldsmid ' s establishment at Roehampton was princely . Many of the nobility were unable to vie with him in expense . He gave dinners to cabinet ministers . The Prince of Wales , as before observed , was his visitor . And

    he was once hoiroured with the company of the Royal Family at his villa , when the King introduced the brothers to the Queen as hi * friends . What a sad end to such a course of prosperity ! A rope I and a coroner ' s inquest ! Owing to some dause which we pretend not ^ to state , Mr . G . seems to have sunk

    for sonie time into a state o £ melancholy . In the beginning of last month , he executed , in the momentary absence of the servant that constantly attended him , the fatal purpose that he appears to have long meditated . He was found suspended in his bed oy a silkexveord , apd dead beyond recovery . By > management , the cause and manner of his death "were for some time

    stifled in the public prints , and the eoronerV inquest was unusually delayed . The influence by which this was effected is thought to have saved the life of more than one condemned criminal in the desperate case df forgery .

    The funeral scene of this companion of princes , and envy of nobles , was most humiliating . Such are the reverses of human alfairs—such the instability of that respect which is built chiefly on riches ! A hearse conveyed his body

    before day-light' to the Jews buryingground , in Mile-End , attended by a single mourning-coach and two or three servants . The Chief Rabbi refused him funeral rites— -and his ashe ^ , as if unworthy to repose with those ' of . his bre * thren , were tlnust junto a grave eutw * - *

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    C 278 y

    Obituary.

    OBITUARY .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1808, page 278, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2392/page/50/