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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 296, 18 December 1869, Page 2

It is said", apparently on good authority, that at tbe, forthcoming .Council; the Pope will be. urged to relax the rule enforcing celibacy on the clergy, in the hope. of winning certain ordained members of the Anglican anil otlier Protestaut Churches.It is- ahsolutely painful to witness the utter grief to whicli some of the most " illustrious noble families in the old ,< country have lately come, and to see names .which have stood foremost on the page of their country's history for centuries dragged io the d.ust by unworthy" possessors. The London Scotsman says that the Duke ' of Hamilton has come to the resolution of selling that beautiful and important portion c of his patrimony, the Island of Arran, and ■ that the Marquis of Bute has offered £400,000 for the property ; but this offer, splendid as it seems, bias been trumped by Mr. Young, of Glasgow, of the Paraffin. Light and „M ineral, Company, who has bidden £450,000 for the island., .'No. better' proof could; be afforded of how very much descended.:; ;the Duke is from , his noble 7 ancestors than the fact of :his alienating an inheritance, .they, .derived, a title second-to none in Europe. What would" some 'of the old mail-clad barons, who called themselves Dukes of Ch'aterhault and Earls of Arran, and who rjjled like Princes in their native land, have thought, could ;they have foreseen that one of "their ■•■ descendants would, squander the magnificent estate they 'bequeathed him amongst blacklegs, and sharpers, and that a Glasgow manufacturer would rule the broad lands of the Hamiltons.? Why, even now it is almost enough to.bi;ing them back in indignation from th6ir graves; { '. y J'.y