RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 86, 6 January 1930, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Cosmos.}, The one fatal thing to life is to Iwe one’s interest to it Mr. Bernard Shaw admits that he ie not the only pebble on the beach. Even here, as usual, he says something. Tho Duke of Westminster, now fifty years old, is to marry Loelia Mary, a daughter of Sir Frederick Ponsonby. This will make a grand total of three wives in just over a quarter of a century. The other two divorced him. His first wife, a daughter of the late Cornawallis West, married him in 1901. In 1919, she divorced him, and married an officer to the Royal Air Force. But the Duke of Westminster did not remain long without a wife. Barely a year later the daughter of Sir William Nelson took on the responsible position, just eleven days after her own divorce, from an army officer, had been made final. In 1924, she, too, filed a petition for divorce against the Duke, alleging unfaithfulness. It would seem that the second wife of the Duke knew her way about the matrimonial markets of Britain. Instead of leaving quietly without fuss she Installed herself and an army of retainers, at Bourdon House, Mayfair, and defied the Duke to eject her amid no little publicity to the Press. She stood out for an allowance of £15,000 a year. After considerable legal haggling a compromise was made with a mere £BOOO a year, and free board and lodging thrown in, at any hotel she might select, until the divorce proceedings were over. These took another two years, but before that time had elapsed the ex-Duchess had arrived to New York, set up house at Long Island, and was busy attending social functions. Most of us could rattle off the names of what we consider to be the six greatest men that have ever lived. For the most part they would be names that crop up frequently in our history books. Caesar and Charlemagne, certainly Napoleon, would be included amongst them. Possibly if It were an examination we shoud get full marks for our selection. It is doubtful, however, if H. G. Wells would have got even half marks. When asked for his opinion on the subject he chose not the great kings nor the great conquerors, but six gentle earnest men, at least one of them scarcely mentioned at all to history. “The test of greatness,” Wells explained at the time, “is not ‘what did he accumulate for himself’ or ‘what did he build up for himself to tumble down at his death’—not that at all, but this: Was the world different because he had lived? Did he start men thinking along fresh lines with a vigour and vitality that persisted after him?’ . ♦ » ♦

Wells selected Jesus of Nazareth for first place. In explanation he said: “He left no impress on the historical records of his time. Yet more than nineteen hundred years later a historian, like myself, who does not even call himself a Christian, finds the picture centring irresistibly around the life and character of this simple lovable man.” Buddha was chosen as the next greatest man, followed by Aristotle. Concerning the latter, Wells remarked: “He began a great new thing in the world. Before his rime men had asked questions about themselves and their world. He set them to classifying and analysing the information which their questions brought forth. That insistence on facts and the rigid analysis of facts was a big new step to human progress.” Wells turned down Napoleon with the words: “Napoleon could do no more than strut upon the crest of his great mountain of opportunity like a cockerel on a dunghill.”

So Asoka takes fourth place. He ruled a vast Empire from Afghanistan to Madras, and is little mentioned in our histories. His claim to fourth place arises, according to Wells, because he was the only military monarch on record who abandoned warfare after victory. He fought one brisk successful war and. then encouraged his citizens to study peaceful occupations instead of looking for other worlds to conquer. One Englishman is included in the list Roger Bacon—because he believed in-, experiment and prophesied, in A.D., not only the advent of steam ships and cars that may be moved without a draft animal, but even flying machines: “So that a man may sit in the middle turning some device ..y which artificial wings may beat the air ’’ Lincoln fills sixth place, because he embodied the greatness of the snirit of America, and because of his conviction that right must always prevail in the long run.

The Hanover Council has turned down the famous Guelph Treasures, offered them for half a million pounds. An earlier effort on the part of the Duke of Hanover to sell these treasures in the open market aroused indignant protest for fear they would go to America. Well may the people of Germany cling to these priceless art treasures, for they represent the pick of Europe at a time when the Guelphs and the Ghibellines between them practically owned half the country. The Guelphs, amongst others, supplied Dukes for Bavaria, Saxony, and Carinthia. ■ They founded the House of Brunswick and Hanover, to which, of course, the English Royal Family belonged before their name was changed to the House of Windsor Shortly after the war. The Guelphs and their antagonists the Ghibellines date back beyond the twelfth century. The history of these two families is. in fact, the history of Italy in the Middle Ages.

During the Italian campaigns in the reign of Frederick in the twelfth century his enemies became known as Weifs or Guelphs, whilst his own partisans took upon themselves the name of Ghibellines. Right through the Middle Ages the savage hatred between these two factions is written across the history books until they became synonymous with the supporters of Ibe Pope as against Emperors. About the sixteenth century these quarrels came to an end when France conquered Milan. By that time all sorts of curious customs had grown up round these opposing factions, and in. some cases thev may be seen to this day in parts of Europe. The Ghibellines, for instance, wore feathers in their caps on one side, whilst the Guelphs always wore them on the other side. The Ghibellines cut their fruit crosswise and the Guelphs straight down. The rose problem probably entered history thanks to the Guelphs and their opponents. The former wore red roses and the latter white. During these centuries of ruction the treasures o Italy and Florence came into the of tiio Guelphs and have remained with tiie House of Hanover ever since its foundation.