NOTES AND' COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14326, 23 March 1910, Page 6

NOTES AND' COMMENTS.

ADMIRAL LORD FISHER. In a -character sketch of Lord Fisher, in the Review of : Reviews, Mr. Stead gives some interesting personal gossip about the distinguished Admiral. ' When the King, he says, went to yßeval Admiral Fisher was the life and soul of .the party. .1 have heard from one who '", was present that he charmed everyone by the gaiety of his conversation, and that he oven succeeded in achieving the impossible by bringing a smile to the face of the Empress of Russia. But what I should "most have liked to see was the [ dance which was improvised after the State banquet, when the band struck up the waltz in "The Merry Widow." The Grand Duchess Olga and Admiral Fisher danced with their hands behind, their heads, with all the brilliant company standing round the dancers, until they were tired. Then "Jacky" went on' deck, and by requests, which were commands, he the house by dancing a hornpipe in approved nautical fashion. Much of his language, he often says, "is quite unfit fop publication," not because of its profanity or ~{ts coarseness, for he is never either profane or coarse, but because it would_ get on people's :, nerves. ■>. Exeter . Hall, he used to say,..'would give him short shrift. ' So would many Salons, who frequent '■ what he irately .described-one 'day as the "gasworks at Westminster," where by quaint irony of fate he himself is now destined to hold forth. It will be interesting to see where he will sit. ; "I am no politician," he used to say;. "I have .voted consistently for both 'sides,, whichever gave most money for the navy." Fisher's autographs were always quaint and characteristic. When in a more ; royetering mood he ' would sign .'; himself, "Yours till hell freezes." In milder .moments it would be 'Hill' the angels ■■ smile upon us." ' Many of his sentiments sound somewhat pagan, and his. profession ,■ as a naval officer may seem to some inewjeist-

~:,;■ ■ , J —7~ : ent with a sincere acceptance of the Chris-: tian creed, with its exaltation of humility and its precepts of ■ non-resistance. ' But, like Lord Nelson, Fisher was taught from his 'youth up to "Fear God and honour the King," and he has never strayed ftom the ancient ways. " It" is well that he is a God-fearing man, { for ■■ other f fear he ;■ has never known. ; His religion is simple, hearty, and unaffected. .If he does riot exactly follow in the line of warrior saints Tike Cromwell;* Gordon, and; Havelock, he has ' never .. faltered in ' his devotion to the faith of his fathers with its instinctive reliance upon ' the all-sustaining, all-direct-ing Providence ,of God. '<