Francis Baring, both statesmen delighting to style the reputed possessor of two millions, on all occasions, “the prince of merchants.” There is another great house now flourishing in the City, of whose origin a still more extraordinary tale is told. One of the family is now a baronet and an M.P.; and yet the first of the line, he who laid the foundation of the fortune of his descendants, was a ragged street boy. A curious anecdote relative to Nathan Rothschild and Mr. Gompertz, not many years ago, found its way into print. Nathan (so the story runs) was leaning one day, early in the spring of 1824, against his favourite pillar in the Royal Exchange—long known as “the Rothschild pillar”—his hands in his pockets, when his relative, Gompertz, ran up to him in a high state of excitement. “Vat ish de matter?” queried Rothschild. Thereupon the other recounted, in gasps, how he had been applying for the vacant actuaryship of a large insurance company, and had been beaten in the competition. Though being admittedly the best candidate, on account of his religion, the directors declared they would have no Jew. Now Nathan, too, got excited. “Vat!” he cried, disengaging his hands from his pockets, and laying hold of his brother-in-law by the shoulders, “Not take you pecause of your religion! Mein Gott! Den I will make a bigger office for you than any of ’em.” And Nathan was as good as his word, founding not only a bigger company than any other, but appointing Mr. Gompertz actuary under the deed of settlement. Let me remark here, by way of parenthesis, that it is seldom, however, this kind of thing succeeds. A man who starts a business in a passion, merely to injure another, generally comes to grief. A remarkable illustration of this occurred, a few years since, in the case of the _Illustrated News of the World_. It was started by a gentleman who had long coveted the _Illustrated London News_, and had agreed, on one occasion, to purchase that paper of its original proprietor, the late Mr. Herbert Ingram. Negotiations had been carried on for that purpose, the price was named, and almost every detail was settled, when Mr. Ingram wrote to say that, on reconsidering the matter, he was determined not to part with the journal in question. The result was the establishment, in opposition, of the _Illustrated News of the World_, and the bankruptcy of the proprietor, who died hardly better off than a pauper. If Nathan Rothschild’s new venture succeeded, it was, under the circumstances, an exception to the general rule.