with gifts of a million francs. For some years he regularly paid the deficits in the accounts of the Alliance, amounting to several thousand pounds a year. In 1889 he capitalized his donations and presented the society with securities producing an annual income of £16,000. On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the emperor Francis Joseph’s accession to the Austrian throne he gave £500,000 for the establishment of primary and technical schools in Galicia and the Bukowina. The greatest charitable enterprise on which he embarked was in connexion with the persecution of the Jews in Russia (see Anti-Semitism). He gave £10,000 to the funds raised for the repatriation of the refugees in 1882, but, feeling that this was a very lame conclusion to the efforts made in western Europe for the relief of the Russian Jews, he offered the Russian Government £2,000,000 for the endowment of a system of secular education to be established in the Jewish pale of settlement. The Russian Government was willing to accept the money, but declined to allow any foreigner to be concerned in its control or administration. Thereupon Baron de Hirsch resolved to devote the money to an emigration and colonization scheme which should afford the persecuted Jews opportunities of establishing themselves in agricultural colonies outside Russia. He founded the Jewish Colonization Association as an English society, with a capital of £2,000,000, and in 1892 he presented to it a further sum of £7,000,000. On the death of his wife in 1899 the capital was increased to £11,000,000, of which £1,250,000 went to the Treasury, after some litigation, in death duties. This enormous fund, which is probably the greatest charitable trust in the world, is now managed by delegates of certain Jewish societies, chiefly the Anglo-Jewish Association of London and the Alliance Israélite Universelle of Paris, among whom the shares in the association have been divided. The association, which is prohibited from working for profit, possesses large colonies in South America, Canada and Asia Minor. In addition to its vast agricultural work it has a gigantic and complex machinery for dealing with the whole problem of Jewish persecution, including emigration and distributing agencies, technical schools, co-operative factories, savings and loan banks and model dwellings in the congested Russian jewries. It also subventions and assists a large number of societies all over the world whose work is connected with the relief and rehabilitation of Jewish refugees. Besides this great organization, Baron de Hirsch founded in 1891 a benevolent trust in the United States for the benefit of Jewish immigrants, which he endowed with £493,000. His minor charities were on a princely scale, and during his residence in London he distributed over £100,000 among the local hospitals. It was in this manner that he disposed of the whole gross proceeds derived from his successes on the English turf, of which he was a lavish patron. He raced, as he said himself, “for the London hospitals,” and in 1892, when his filly, La Flêche, won the Oaks, St Leger and One Thousand Guineas, his donations from this source amounted to about £40,000. Baron de Hirsch married on 28th June 1855 Clara, daughter of Senator Bischoffsheim of Brussels (b. 1833), by whom he had a son and daughter, both of whom predeceased him. He died at Ogyalla, near Komorn, in Hungary, 21st April 1896. The baroness, who seconded her husband’s charitable work with great munificence—their total benefactions have been estimated at £18,000,000,—died at Paris on the 1st of April 1899.
For details of Baron de Hirsch’s chief charities see the annual reports of the Alliance Israélite Universelle and of the “Administration Centrale” of the Jewish Colonization Association. (L. W.)
HIRSCH, SAMSON RAPHAEL (1808–1888), Jewish theologian,
was born in Hamburg in 1808 and died at Frankfort-on-the-Main
in 1888. He opposed the reform tendency of Geiger (q.v.), and
presented Jewish orthodoxy in a new and attractive light. His
philosophical conception of tradition, associated as it was with
conservatism in ritual practice, created what is often known as
the Frankfort “Neo-Orthodoxy.” Hirsch exercised a profound
influence on the Synagogue and undoubtedly stemmed the tide
of liberalism. His famous Nineteen Letters (1836), with which
the Neo-Orthodoxy began, were translated into English by
Drachmann (New York, 1899). Other works by Hirsch were
Horeb, and commentaries on the Pentateuch and Psalms. These
are marked by much originality, but their exegesis is fanciful.
Three volumes of his essays have been published (1902–1908);
these were collected as Gesammelte Schriften from his periodical
Jeschurun.
For Hirsch’s religious philosophy see S. A. Hirsch, A Book of Essays (London, 1905). (I. A.)
HIRSCHBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province
of Silesia, beautifully situated at the confluence of the Bober and
Zacken, 1120 ft. above the sea-level, 48 m. S.E. of Görlitz, on the
railway to Glatz, with branches to Grünthal and Schmiedeberg.
Pop. (1905) 19,317. It is surrounded by pleasant promenades
occupying the site of its former fortifications. It possesses an
Evangelical church, the church of the Holy Cross, one of the six
Gnaden Kirchen for the Silesian Protestants stipulated for in the
agreement at Altranstädt between Charles XII. of Sweden and the
emperor Joseph I. in 1707, four Roman Catholic churches, one of
which dates from the 14th century, a synagogue, several schools,
an orphanage and an asylum. The town is the principal emporium
of commerce in the Silesian mountains, and its industries include
the carding and spinning of wool, and the manufacture of linen and
cotton fabrics, yarn, artificial flowers, paper, cement, porcelain,
sealing-wax, blacking, chemicals and cider. There is also a
lively trade in corn, wine and agricultural produce. The town
is celebrated for its romantic surroundings, including the
Cavalierberg, from which there is a splendid view, the Hausberg,
the Helicon, crowned by a small Doric temple, the Kreuzberg,
with walks commanding beautiful views, and the Sattler
ravine, over which there is a railway viaduct. Hirschberg was
in existence in the 11th century, and obtained town rights in
1108 from Duke Boleslaus of Poland. It withstood a siege by the
Hussites in 1427, and an attack of the imperial troops in 1640.
The foundation of its prosperity was laid in the 16th century by
the introduction of the manufacture of linen and veils.
Hirschberg is also the name of a town of Thuringia on the Saale with manufactures of leather and knives. Pop. 2000.
HIRSON, a town of northern France in the department of
Aisne, 35 m. by rail N.E. of Laon, on the Oise. Pop. (1906)
8335. It occupies an important strategic position close to the
point of intersection of several railway lines, and not far from
the Belgian frontier. For its defence there are a permanent fort
and two batteries, near the railway junction. The town carries
on the manufacture of glass bottles, tiles, iron and tin goods,
wool-spinning and brewing.
HIRTIUS, AULUS (c. 90–43 B.C.), Roman historian and statesman.
He was with Julius Caesar as legate in Gaul, but after the
civil war broke out in 49 he seems to have remained in Rome to
protect Caesar’s interests. He was also a personal friend of
Cicero. He was nominated with C. Vibius Pansa by Caesar for
the consulship of 43; and after the dictator’s assassination in
March 44, he and his colleague supported the senatorial party
against M. Antonius, with whom Hirtius had at first sided. The
consuls set out for Mutina, where Antonius was besieging Decimus
Brutus. On the 15th of April, Pansa was attacked by Antonius
at Forum Gallorum, about 8 m. from Mutina, and lost his life
in the engagement. Hirtius, however, compelled Antonius to
retire on Mutina, where another battle took place on the 25th
(or 27th) of April, in which Hirtius was slain. Of the continuations
of Caesar’s Commentaries—the eighth book of the Gallic war,
the history of the Alexandrian, African and Spanish wars—the
first is generally allowed to be by Hirtius; the Alexandrian war
is perhaps by him (or Oppius); the last two are supposed to have
been written at his request, by persons who had taken part in the
events described, with a view to subsequent revision and incorporation
in his proposed work on military commanders. The language
of Hirtius is good, but his style is monotonous and lacks vigour.
Hirtius and the other continuators of Caesar are discussed in M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Literatur, i.; also R. Schneider, Bellum Africanum (1905). For the history of the period see under Antonius; Cicero’s Letters (ed. Tyrrell and Purser); G. Boissier, Cicero and his Friends (Eng. trans., 1897).
HISHĀM IBN AL-KALBĪ [Abū-l Mundhir Hishām ibn Maḥommed ibn us-Sā’b ul-Kalb] (d. c. 819), Arabic historian,
