Pars about Notabilities.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 211, 4 September 1909, Page 13

Pars about Notabilities.

The announcement that four of Dickens' granddaughters received small pensions on the Civil List has created a feeling of j painful surprise among the admirers of j the great novelist. The matter (says a j London correspondent) will probably be taken up by the Dickens Fellowship, and I an effort made to supplement the some- j what slender income which these ladies have received from the Civil List. Regarding the Duchess of Sutherland's marriage, an interesting story has been j told. It is said that had it not been for I the superstition that thirteen is an un- j lucky number she might never have been ! the Duchess of Sutherland. One night ] when she was a girl her mother was giv- j ing a dinner party, when it was discovered that the company at table numbered thirteen. The future duchesß was I sent for in order to make fourteen. The j Marquis of Stafford, as the Duke was j then, was present, and he immediately fell ; in love with the fourteenth guest. j Little attention has been given to the work on which the late Marquis of Ripon ! most prided himself ( says an English ex- j change). The deceased Marquis, it is un- i derstood, found most satisfaction in what ! he did as a producer and distributor of : milk and butter. In the neighbourhood i of Studley Royal and in Ripon and Brad- j ford, dairy carts were to be seen bearing i the name of "The most noble the Marquis j of Ripon." It was not the part he played j in the settlement of the Alabama claims, ; the reputation he won as Viceroy of In- I dia, his record as a Cabinet Minister, nor ; the hubbub caused in Society by his join- j ing the Church of PvOme. but. his function ■ as a dairyman that yielded the deceased | peer the chief consolation of his declining j years. J j Quite appropriate, is it not? that the j statue to Sir Wilfrid Lawson which was , unveiled in London by the Prime Minister in July should have its back to the Hotel Cecil, and its face to the waters of the j Thames. It is not always memorials in r London in stone or bronze are placed with ] so delicate a taste. For instance, when the original cf the Queen Anne statue on Ludgate Hill was placed in position, the wits of the day noticed that it faced a much-frequented tavern, and had St. Paul's at its back. As one of them wrote: Brandy Nan, Brandy Nan, you're 'eft In the lurch; Your fnce to the gin-shop, your back to tne church. ! Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle, who ' has just celebrated his seventy-third birthday, is a direct descendant of one jof Nelson's favourite captains and best friends, Captain Frcmantle. Sir Edmund ! has recounted some amusing yarns of nis : experiences. For instance, Li Hung ! Chang, during the China-Japanese cami paign, asked him with due solemnity for j hovr much he would sell the British flag- ; ship, and continue to serve in her against the Japs.! Besides war service, he has j been in many perils either in saving life or through the chances of the sea. Once he just managed to get his vessel into | Trincomalee by burning weevily biscuits mixed with coal dust and tar. The new German Chancellor, like the old one, holds more than one office, and j draws more than one salary. As Chancellor he is paid £5000 a year, a figure which includes his entertainment allowance. He is also Foreign Secretary for the Empire, j however, and his revenue in that capacity is £2500 a. year. Moreover, he is a Prus- I sian as well as a German official; and though the post of Prussian Foreign Secretary is honorary and unpaid, the post of Prussian Prime Minister brings Herr yon Bethmann-Hollweg a salary allowance of £1800 and an entertainment allowance of £900 a year. Adding the figures together, we arrive at a total stipend of £10,200 per annum. Queen Natalie has decided to sell her property in Scrvia to the State for £ 100,000, and the greater part of this amount has been devoted by her to charitable endowments. By the disposal of the property, th* ex-Queen severs tha last material link that binds her to a kingdom so fateful to her husband and son. Queen .Natalie introduced croquet into Servia, and was noted as being a wonderfully graceful dancer. When she was a young girl she was out riding when the horse of her groom bolted, i The young Princess galloped in pursuit, caught the bridle of the runaway, and brought the animal to a standstill, whereupon the trenrbling servant besought her to have him shot for his carelessness in letting tho horse bolt. But the Princess only laughed and said, "Oh, if you only knew how funny you looked you would join a circus and make a fortune!" The early days of Mr. Asquith were passed in the busy Yorkshire town of Morley, where he was born in 1852. One of his childish recollections is of carrying a flag in a Sunday school procession and singing patrioticsongs. After two years at the Moravian Boarding School, he passed to the City of London School, and to the soundness of tho training he there received Mr. Asquith has more than once alluded with gratitude Wo have been told that "to have the privilege of reading a copy of the ' Times' at a local bookseller's appears to havo had a far greater fascination for him than playing at football or cricket," which indicates that his mind early in life showed its bent towards the serious side of things. By winning the Balliol Scholarship for the first time in the history of his school, Mr. Asquith achieved his first big success, and embarked on the brilliant career which Culminated in his acceptance of tha Premiership in 190 S. One day, when Queen Helena of Italy was out driving with the King, a little girl of four was led forward to hand tho Queen a bunch of Alpine flowers. Stooping to kiss the child, her Majesty noticed that she was blind. She was at, once taken into the carriage and driven to her mother's cottage. A doctor had said it was possible that the little one's sight could be restored by an operation, but tho mother was full of ignorant fears, and would n-ot consent. Of course, she yielded to the Queen's persuasions, and the child was sent to Turin, where an operation was performed with complete success. The ready part which Queen Helena took in the work of rescue druing the terrible | earthquake at Messina will long be remembered, and another incident in which she figured as a heroine occurred when her Majesty, the King, and a hunting party were sitting round a camp fire. An equerry, in a fit of bravado, took a flying leap over the fire, with the result thai ho set his clothes alight. All lost their presence of mind with the exception of the Queen, who promptly threw herself on the burning man, and so enveloped him in her skirts that the flames were extinguished, the victim escaping with severe burns.

Lieut.-General Kitchenerj the Governor of Bermuda, has been vastly overshadowed by his famous elder brother, "K. of K." Yet in his time he has done

useful work, and done it well. He was mentioned in dispatches for his service in the Afghan campaign of 30 years ago; and again for his direction of transport in the Dongola business of 1896 (the expedition which made his hrother a major-general,- a X.C.8., and other things). He had a hand in the smashing of the Mahdi, and also in smashing the Mahdi at the other end of Africa— Oom Paul to wit. Since then his work has been shorn of the accompaniment of the big drum, but it has been effective tor a' that.

The Earl of Minto, Viceroy of India, who celebrated his sixty-fourth birthday last month, can look back upon a life fuller of incident and honour than is vouchsafed to most men. After leaving Cambridge, he entered the Scots Guards. He was in Paris during the Communist outbreak in 1871, and three years later acted as "Morning Post" correspondent with the Carlist army. Next he was with the Turkish forces on the Danube, and then h P served in the Afghan campaign in 1879; two years later he was with Lord Roberts in South Africa; and in the following year sa,w fighting in Egypt. Then he was military secretary to the Governor-General of Canada, and in 1898 went to th e Dominion as Governor.

Apropos of the death of Don Carlos, the "Pall Mall Gazette" has some interesting observations. It may be remarkbd that the reigns of all the Carlist pretenders have ended not in death but in abdication, says the writer. Carlos V. abdicated in favour of Carlos VI.; Carlos VI. in favour of Carlos VII.; and Oarios VII. in favour of the present Don Jayme. The hea-d of the house claims to be King, ■not only of Spain, but also of France; and it is true that he is descended from Louis XIV., whereas the Due d'Orleans is only descended from Louis __V.'a younger brother. The objection Ls that Philip V. of Spain solemnly renounced all title to the French throne on behalf of himself and his descendants; but, on the other hand, it is a first principle of Legitimist law that no personal renunciation can deprive the descendants of any prince of their divine right. Such are the arguments for and against the oase of the Blanca d'Espagne, though the stability of the French Republic deprives them of their practical importance. Don Jayme, the new "Pretender," who is not likely to trouble King Alfonso's Government very much, is one of the few exalted personages who find it difficult to define their nationality. He was born at Vevey, but he is not Swiss. He passed his youth in France, where his ancestors had reigned, and he is not French. He received his military education at Vienna, and qualified for a commission in the K.K. Army, but he is not Austrian. And he is an officer of the Russian Imperial Guard, without being a subject of Czar Nicholas. When his motor was pulled up for exceeding the limit in the Champs Elysees, he probably found tbe reply •fco the formal question aa to his nationality somewhat hard to formulate. He is a man who likes to see things for himself. A couple of years ago he decided he would like to see how things looked in Spain. He managed to get across the frontier and to reach Madrid. He stayed in Madrid, too, for some days, and escaped recognition, except in the case of one or two of the faithiul. One night he saw, on the other side ot a quiet street, the protagonist of the party, j Mella. Don Jayme crossed over, came up , behind the other, and tapped hfcn on the I shoulder, in familiar greeting. Mella's surprise and emotion at 6eeing his chief in King Alfonso's capital nearly gave the visitor away. But Don Jayme crossed the frontier without any incident more untoward than this.