PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9172, 29 September 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

-« — Sir John Gilbert has resigned the presidentship of the Society of Painters in Water-colours. The Queen has conferred the honour of knighthood upon Daniel Wilson, L.L.1)., ['resident of the University of Toronto, Canada. Cardinal Howard, who a short time ago was thought to be in extrtmix, and who received the last Sacraments of the Church, is now much better. Mr. Alexander Dumas has been created a Commander of the Legion of Honour, M. Sully Prudhomme an Officer, and M. Zola a Knight of the same Order. The two hundredth anniversary of the birth of the poet Pope was celebrated, on August Ist, at Twickenham, in the presence of a large gathering of spectators. Lord Deerhurst has joined the ranks of the peers' sons who have found congenial employment in the City. He has just become a member of a well-known firm of stockbrokers.

Dr. Chapman, editor of the Westminster Review, who is credited with having " discovered " George Eliot, lives most of the time in Paris. He is a venerable-loooking man, with long white hair and whiskers. Prince Louis Ferdinand of Bavaria has passed his final medical examination, qualifying him to practice as a physician. This is the second member of the Bavarian royal family who has joined the medical profession.

The Marquis of Donegal is an Episcopal clergyman and a Doctor of Divinity. He has just celebrated the eighty-ninth anniversary of his birth. The Marchioness is eighty-six, and they have been married sixty-seven years. M. Pasteur ought to be happy. He is the owner of fifteen Orders, only one of these being French. He is an honorary doctor of all the great universities of Europe, and a member of S3 learned societies. And with all these ho lives a very homely life. Lord Albemarle, the Waterloo veteran, is a small, spare man, with bright eyes. He wears a black velvet skull-cap. He is now eighty-nine years old, and is the so.e survivor of the eighty-four officers who sat down to the Duke of Wellington's last Waterloo dinner. He gives a reception every year on the anniversary of the "world's earthquake." The late Emperor of Germany disliked to hear anyone speak slightingly of women. When he was Crown Prince, an officer once remarked of a wounded comrade that he was "weeping like a woman." "Never make that comparison," said the Crown Prince with a frown. " Crying like an unweaned child would be better. Women have more fortitude than men."

It, is pointed out as an interesting historical fact that for the first, time in English history there are five cardinals of the Holy Roman Church resident in. England at the present moment, viz., Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster; Cardinal Howard, who is lying ill at Norfolk House, St. James'; Cardinal Newman, the Oratory, Edgbaston, Birmingham ; Cardinal l.evigerie, Archbishop of Carthage and Primate of all Africa; and Cardinal Moran, Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of Australasia. Among the students of the Middle Temple called to the Bar lately was Mr. Chan-Toon, a native of Burma!]. During his studentship Mr. Chan-Toon competed for the aright principal prizes open to law students, and gained them all. At a parliament of the Benchers of the Middle Temple a resolution has been passed offering their best congratulations to Mr. Chan-Toon on his most distinguished career as a student of the Inn. In forwarding the resolution to Mr. Chan-Toon, Sir Henry James informs him that to no other student of the Inn has a similar compliment ever been paid.

Mme. Astie de Valsayre, a lady equally famous for her hostility to M. Pasteur and her love of duelling and her audacity, lias just vainly petitioned a French Parliamentary committee to do her the favour of granting her the right of women to dress in male attire. The privilege has been tacitly conceded in exceptional cases, in those of George Sand, Rosa Bonheur, and Mme. Dieulafoy, the celebrated Persian explorer, for instance, but even Radicals hesitate to fo further, and Mme. Astie de Valsayre has eeen rudely informed that the matter does not concern politicians but the police.