ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9220, 24 November 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[from the society papers.]

There has been considerable speculation for some time as to who the anonymous donor of £10,000 for the Bristol Bishopric Endowment Fund was, but everyone took it for granted that it was a gentleman. We understand that the munificent gift cornea from Lady Frederick Cavendish., 5 who devotes so much time to visiting the hospitals and poor in the East End of London.

Lord Knutsford will (says Truth) have a fine run of patronage during the next year, as no fewer than seven colonial Governorships will be vacant within that periodNew South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, New Zealand, Jamaica, Ceylon, anil Cape Colony.

Miss Nisbett Hamilton, a great heiress, who during the last twenty-five years has refused dozens of suitors, from princes downward, was married on September 10 to Henry Ogilvy, younger son of Sir John Ogilvy. Nisbett Hamilton is a representative through her mother of two of th(} oldest and most popular families of Scob< land.

A Spanish general has left a handsome sum of money to found a refuge for girls. The qualifications of the lady refugees are —first, that they shall bo the daughters of military officers, and, secondly, that they shall be beautiful in face and figure. The reason given for the latter qualification is that in this wicked world beauty is exposed to many more perils than a homely face mounted upon an tin symmetrical figure. It will not be too easy to c.arry out the piojas founder's intention. At) what age will the candidates be selected? Pretty little girls have a provoking way oS not carrying out the promise of their youth; and the ugly ducklings arc apt to turn into very nice birds when their quill--feathers begin to grow. If the election is deferred until the promise of beauty has been unmistakably fulfilled, the perils against) which the good general has sought to provide will have been already encountered or surmounted. The pretty sister can generally take quite as good care of herself as the plainer members of her family. But, when the initial difficulties have been met) and the institution lias become a going concern, it ought not to be difficult to find gentlemen who will consent, for little or no reward in the way of salary, to act as resident officials.

The Prince of Wales (says "Atlas" in the Y\ orld) will soon find it absolutely necessary to make an appeal to Parliament) for some definite arrangement with regard to the pecuniary position of his family. Should he die, his children would be abso« lutely penniless, and though, no doubt, were such a contingency to arise, the House of Commons would behave generously, it is never safe to trust to such an off-chance. The Prince should get something 1 settled soon. The present moment? does not seem inopportune. The Government, with the support of the Liberal Unionists, could make a very good case for? the House and the country, and if such a thing as the consent of Mr. Gladstone were secured, with his support the matter might! be carried through. The Prince must surely have some trusted friend, or soma go-between with no political bias, who could approach the Government and Opposition, and try to arrange a modus vivemlL I have no authority for making any statement on the subject, but it need create no surprise were such a step taken by the Government during the autumn session as asking for some settlement with regard to the Prince of Wales' fortune and that of his children, nor is it likely that it will bo taken without the knowledge and support) of Mr. Gladstone. Should the Government) deem it a suitable time to bring forward a question which must be faced sooner or later we shall have a much more lively autumn session than passing the two or three humdrum measures we are promised and netting through with supply could ever afford. Every year the question of royal grants is becoming more difficult for any Government, however powerful, to grapple with; and if the present Government think they are strong enough to pass ! a measure dealing with it, and that it is prudent to do so, they are quite justified in attempting to put the future of the Prince of Wales' children on a satisfactory basis.

Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, who, under tiro name of Mdme. Isabel, carries on business as milliner and bonnet-maker in Bondstreet, paid a very valuable tribute to Girton College lately, when she told an interviewer that she attributed to her Girton training any clearheadness and capacity for business she possesses. This serves emphatically to stamp a Girton education with it £ s. d. value.

In a recent divorce case, tried in the North, the plaintiff was asked by the judge how it was that he and his wife had livi?d so unhappily together. His reply was naive, but decidedly to the point—"l don't desire to say much against the woman, my lord ; but if you will just live with her for a couple of months, I'm sure you'll grant me a decree." Strange to say, the judge declined the tes 4 ,

Lord Tennyson has come to the conclusion that, after a complete year of winter, there must be something very rotten in the condition of the English climate, which is by no means promising for the ensuing Christmas season. He has decided, therefore, not to run the risk of chill, and damp, and severe cold which prove so fatal to many persons of his age— will be eighty next yearbut to seek a warmer and more favourable atmosphere abroad. He will spend some months in the Riviera, whither he will be accompanied by Lady Tennyson. It is to be hoped that his expectations wil'l not be falsified, for it can be excessively cold and unpleasant in the Riviera.

The latest matrimonial announcement) from the other side of the Atlantic is the engagement of Miss Dottie Lerega to tho Duke of Newcastle. Mr. John Lerega is a well-known and, hitherto, fortunate operator in Wall-street. Mrs. Lerega,. in company with her daughte). is at present " doing the Continent," where the younger lady's beauty and costumes are a constant source of admiration. A cousin of Miss Lerega married Mr. Charles Pelham Clirrton, a cousin of the Duke, and it was ab their home that lie first met fiancee when staying in New York last winter. There is at least one fact that tends to discredit the rumoured engagement. Mr. Lerega's expenditure has kept pace with his income, and Dottie's "face is her fortune." Whether this dot will suffice for the Duke remains to be seen.

The Bishop of Manchester, when consecrating St. Augustine's Church, at Newton Heath, boldly attacked the subject! of marriage, creating much excitement) in some quarters. He said if we needed to see what was possible to people who had given up "God's rule," we had it before us "in the discussion which was taking place in a London newspaper upon the subject of marriage. Very many of the disputants in that strange controversy started from the assumption that we could determine the duties and responsibilities of marriage from our own ideas of what was expedient and possible, and of course the determination there is according as the man was pious or not, and moral or not. Those who had given up all sense of responsibility to God, those who had o-ivcn up their allegiance toChrist, were satislied to recommend temporary unions between men and women, which must lead to the corruption and oppression of woman and to the desecration and destruction of the home. Jesus Christ said, 'Let one man marry one woman, and as long as she lives let him not dare to divorce her for anything but immorality.' If that was he will of Gou, then we know what to da; and could see that all this gush was nothin better than foolish impiety, tending* clearly to the unsettlement of opinion, to the corruption of morals, and to national ruin."