each £20 share. He was M.P. for Kidderminster. Heaven and the Court that ennobled him only know how and for what he obtained his title as Baron Grant. But the epigram concerning him circulated freely:
"Kings may a title give, |
The fellow died comparatively poor in 1899, owing to a series of actions in the Bankruptcy Court.
Having acquired family names of some sound, the Jews next aspired to become nobles, and it was not long before they obtained their desire. The Napoleonic wars had all but made Austria bankrupt, and if the title of Baron could be sold, and Jew bankers were desirous of purchasing, why not sell? Accordingly sold they were. A successful Jew tailor retires from London to Vienna, and struts the streets as Hochwohlgeborner Herr Baron, and puts a coronet on his visiting cards.
Some years ago the late Baron Stern[1] stood in the Liberal interest for a Kentish constituency. As he spoke at the hustings, some one in the audience shouted out: "Who are you? We want to know who you are?" Stern spread his chest invested in yellow nankin, and replied pompously: "I am a Baron, and mein fader was a Baron too." An interrupting voice from the audience came: "Pity it was that your modder was not barren also!"
We have among us in England as well a good sprinkling of Hebrews who seek to screen their Hebraic origin by adopting good old English or Norman names. I used to receive periodically circulars from money-lenders, Jews every one of them, who disguised their nationality by the assumption of noble, or at least honourable English names.
The story circulates that a certain Jew named Samuel, like the great prophet who anointed Saul to be king, aye and David also, received a call from Heaven: "Samuel! Samuel!" But, unlike his great forerunner and namesake, he did not reply: "Speak for thy servant heareth!" but answered from among the
- ↑ Created Lord Michelham.
