PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7383, 18 July 1885, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

The Earl of Selkirk, who died very rich lately, left a year's salary to all employed on his estates. France has paid to M. Gounod a gratuity of £1000 in honour of tho fiftieth performance of bin " Tribut de Zamora" at the Grand Opera Houbc, This is one of the pleasant habits of an appreciative Gov ineut. ern " The will of General Gordon has just been proved in Loudon, the value of his personalty being sworn under £2300. He bequeaths the whole of the property to his sister Mary for life, and on her death among his nephews and nieces. The 1000 th anniversary of the death of Methodius, the apostle of Moravia, who invented the Slavonian alphabet and translated the Bible into the language, was celebrated oa Sunday, April 5, by a great national Slav pilgrimage. Alexauder 111. of Russia recently wrote (says tbo London Truth) to his sister, the Duchess of Edinburgh, that he was as anxious for peaoe as she was, but that she must remember that he might have to choose between war aud revolution. General de Negrier, tho French commander ate Tonquin, is said to be a man of extraordinary energy. He is known among_ the Chinese as Mao-Loin (General Go-Fast), lie spares neither his own limbs nor those of his soldiers. He was born iu Algeria. M. Brisson, the French Premier, ia said to be an Evangelical Protestant of marked purity of private aud public life, of unflinching integrity and rectitude, opposed to tho concordat, and to making tho Church an instrument in tho hands of the State. A distinguished Catholic lately at Rome says that the Holy Father has decided to send the G ldeu Rose privately to tho Kinpress of Germany, who, though not a Catholio, has quietly used her influence on many occasions to protect Catholic German subjects from persecution, and to smooth away the difficulties dividing the Empire from the Holy See. Tho unveiling took place recently of a reiducod though still gigantic copy of M. Hertholdi's colossal statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. It stands in the sloping and oblong garden in the Place dee Etats Unis, with its back towards the house still occupied by the Amcncau Minister, Mr. Morton, and its face towards tho centre of Paris. The Hon. John Naish, tho new Lord Chancellor of Ireland, is a Roman Catholic, the second of that faith who has been appointed to that office since the Reformation. tie is not of eminent legal ability, aud owes his appointment largely to his recent marriage with one of tho Dcase family, two of whom hold positions immediately around Lord Speucar, and who command considerablo political intiuen.ee. General Grant's birthday message was brief and simple : —" To tho various army posts, eocietiee, cities, public schools, states, corporations, and individuals, north and south, who have been so kind aa to send their congratulations on my sixty • third birthday, I wish to offer my grateful acknowledgment. The despatches have been so numerous and touching in tone that it would have been impossible to answer them if 1 had been in uerfeet health." An incident of the Royal visib in Ireland has att-raoted some attention. When the Royal train drew up at Ballybrophy station, an itinerant vendor of walking-sticks, with Cjreat difficulty, pushed close up to their Royal Highnesses. There was a rough attempt made to push him back, but the Prince beckoned him to come forward, and then asked him what he wanted. The man at ouea replied, "Nothing, your honour, but to ask your honour to tike a present of a Tipperary ritle," and, suiting the action to the word, he handed the Prince a stout blackthorn. The offering was accepted with pleasure, and the vendor was backing from tne Royal presence, when an aide-de-camp tapped him on the ehoulder and placed a sovereign in his hand as a present from the Prince. A gentleman on the platform offered the man twenty-five shillings for tho sovereign. He looked angry, and said, " No; not for twenty-five gold guineas either. I'll keep it for ever in token of his honour who sent it to me." The result waa that Prince Albert Victor gave tho aide-de-camp a Hovereign to purchase a Tipperary rifle for him, which he did, and bought one for himself, paying a second sovereign for it. The remainder of the man's sticks were soon bought up by persons on the platform at handsome prices.