Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 6.djvu/62

32 Goldsmith, Lewis Goldstein, Joseph

casional lay preacher, at the West London Synagogue of British Jews, and was subsequently elected chair- man of the council.

In the general community the institutions in wliich he took most interest were; University College, of which he was treasurer in 1880-81 ; University College Hospital, of which he served as a mem- ber of council; and the University of London, of which he was vice-chancellor at the time of his death.

In 1878 Goldsmid succeeded his uncle, Sir Francis Goldsmid, Q.C., M.P., in the family honors and estates, in Sussex, Kent, Berks, and elsewhere. He filled many offices, among them that of deputy lieutenant for Kent, Sussex, and Berks; m.agis- trate for Kent, Sussex, aud Loudon; colonel of the 1st Sussex Rifle Volunteers, and honorary colonel of the 1st Sussex Artillery Volunteers; chairman of the Submarine Telegraph Company, and of the Imperial and Continental Gas Association; and director of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway.

His chief country-seat was at Somerhill, near Tun- bridge, once the home of Sir Philip Sidney. In 1868 he married Virginia, daughter of A. Philipson of Florence, by whom he had eight daughters. The entailed Goldsmid estates devolved upon Osmond Elim d'Avigdor.

Bibliography: Jew. Chron. Jan. 10, 1896; Jew. VTorM, Jan. 10, 189a ; The Times, London, Jan. 8, 1898.

J. G. L.

GOLDSMITH, LEWIS : English political wri- ter and agitator; born 1763; died Jan. 6, 1846. Educated in London, he was trained for the legal profession, but soon abandoned this profession for the writing of political pamphlets and satires. He started his career as an enthusiastic defender of the French Revolution. His first literary venture was an edition of Barlow's "Advice to tlie Privileged Orders in the Several States of Europe" (1792). This was followed (1801) by " State of the French Republic at the End of the Year 1800," a transla- tion from the French. In the same year he pub- lished "The Crimes of Cabinets, or a Review of the Plans and Aggressions for Annihilating the Liberties of France, and the Dismemberment of Her Territories. " So unpopular in England were the views which he held that the London booksellers scarcely dared to offer his books for sale. Being threatened with prosecution for this last work, he sought safety in flight, and went to Paris (1803). There he offered the French government the help of his pen against England. The offer was accepted, and resulted in the publication of an English journal at Paris — "The Argus, or London Reviewed in Paris."

But there were limits to his denunciations, and because he refused to do as his employers wished they negotiated with the English government to sur- render him in exchange for a French political pris- oner in England named Peltier. He continued to reside in France, however, and was taken back into the confidence of Napoleon, who employed him upon various secret missions. In 1809 he was con- veyed to England, formally tried for treason, and discharged. Embittered by the treacherous conduct of the French government, he started (1811) a Sun-'

day newspaper called the " Anti-Grallican Monitor," In which he denounced the French Revolution as vio- lently as he had formerly espoused it. He went so far as to propose the assassination of Napoleon. In his " Secret History of the Cabinet of Bonaparte " and his " Secret History of Bonaparte's Diplomacy," he brought the most serious charges against his former employer. In pursuance of his new policy he advocated the restoration of Louis XVIII. , and when this event took place that monarch rewarded Goldsmith with a pension for life. The latter part of his life was spent principally in Paris. He had one daughter, Georgiana, who became the second Lady Lyndhurst.

Bibliography : Didot, Biographie OenercUe ; J. H. Hose, Bio- graphical IHctifinary; Querard, ha France Litteraire; Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History, pp. 230-231 ;

Diet. Nat. Biog. J.

1. H.

GOLDSMITH, MILTON : American merchant and author; born at Philadelphia May 22, 1861. In 1877 he went to Europe and studied three years at Zurich. Goldsmith has written two novels : " Rabbi and Priest," 1891 ; "A Victim of Conscience," 1903, and in addition several librettos for comic operas and several dramatic pieces. He has also contributed short stories to newspapers and poems to the maga- zines. A.

GOLDSMITHS AND SILVERSMITHS :

The earliest descriptions of productions of the gold- smith's art refer to the work of Jewish goldsmiths. The Bible, which c(jntains these descriptions, gives also the names of the workers — Bezaleel b. Uri and Aholiab b. Ahisamach (Ex. xxxi., xxxvi.). Impor- tant as were their achievements, the Jewish gold- smith's art did not reach its height until the time of King Solomon. Although he used foreign skill to a certain extent in the making of the utensils for his house and for the Temple, yet Hiram, the overseer of the whole work, was of Jewish extraction, at least on his mother's side. Even after the downfall of the Jewish state Jewish goldsmiths were heard of everywhere. Thus the Talmud relates that the syn- agogue of Alexandria had a section reserved for gold- and silversmiths, just as for the other trades. It is also related of the Jewish tribe Kainuka' in north- ern Arabia in the sixth century, that it engaged in the goldsmith's trade and in money-changing (Gratz, "Geschichte," v. 84). In the eleventh cen- tury the Jewish goldsmiths in Languedoc bought the church treasure of Narbonne, and the tombstone of the goldsmith Joseph b. Joziz (1100) evidences the existence of Jewish goldsmiths in Spain ("C. I. H." No. 175). In the thirteenth century Jews carried on the goldsmith's craft in England (Jacobs, " Jews of Angevin England," p. 207; Levy, in "Jew. Chron." April 4, 1902), and toward the end of the fourteenth century there were Jewish goldsmiths in Avignon, in the county of Venaissin (Bardinet, in "Rev. Hist." 1880, Sept.-Oct.), in Navarre, where in the larger towns like Tudela and Pam- In. the Mid- plona they had their own shops (Kay- dle Ages, serling, "Die Juden in Navarra," pp. 59, 73), and in Lyons, whence, how- ever, they were expelled. The refugees from Lyons settled in Trevoux, whither they canied the art of