ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18275, 16 December 1922, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

Keferense to " passing on** tk peerage irooaUs the little, known fact that a peerag* cannot be resigned, and that although a man cannot be compelled to take bis seat in the Lords, there is only one way in •which he can evade the honour, that is by Act of Parliament. This was settled 300 years ago, when the House of Lords resolved that no peer of the realm can extinguish his honour either by surrender or any other conveyance to the King, and. although It was once possible to get rid of a peerage by attainder, even this process, the natural result of a sentence to death for treason or felony, is not available m the ultra-democrat of the present day, m\ it V3fin nhaliiihM in IB7G

Easton Grey, the Prince of Wal©3' hunting headquarters, Iks just outside the old Roman "White Walla," with it's relics of the Imperial army's occupation in Easton Grey Houas. Hard by etandß the famous Abbey of Malmesbury, where the first organ built in England was erected, and the first man to make a flying machine lived aa a monk. In trying his wings the pious inventor broke his legs. In the priests' room of the Abbey is a "Breeches Bible," but the ancient manuscripts were torn up as waste paper. The most "curious curiosity" m in tho verger's room —the oldest fire engine in existence.

Among the hostesses in Scotland this season will be no doubt Lady Violet Astor, of Meikleour, Perthshire. She is Lord Minto's sister, and was first married to ,Lord Lansdowne's younger son, Lord

Charles Mercer-Nairno, who fell in the war, and it is to his small son, now about ten, that Meikleour belongs. She married secondly Lord Astor's younger brother, Major J. J. Astor, of the Household Cavalry. Lady Violet Astor is. tho youngest of Dowager Lady Minto's three daughters, who are all very pretty. The second Lady Ruby Elliot, is now Lady Cromor, and the eldest, Lady IJileon, became Lady Francis Scott in tho spring of 1915.

Earl Spencer's death recently revived memories of the days when, as "Bradlaugh's Baby " and " Bobbie Spencer," and later as Lord Chamberlain, he kept the House of Commons and Society guessing what ho would do next. During a former of disturbances in Ireland he walked up and down Sackville Street, Dublin, as if it had been the street of that name in London. Cartoonist* seized on the height of his collars but these lacked the Gladstonian peaks. Little as Earl Spencer spoke when in the Commons, ens sentence of his will go down to posterity. In all the glory of his West End costume he' declared solemnly, " I am not an agricultural labourer." The House treasures such utterances more than a great Budget epeech.

When we read of famous modern millionaires like Henry Ford and Rockefeller we sometimes wonder how their fortunes compare with the rich men of antiquity. Here are some figures in this connection. It is known that Tiberias at his death left the equivalent of £25,000,000. Caligula squandered

it all in less than ten months. Julius Cresar was a good deal of a money-getter. He was worth nearly £22.000,000 before he got office, and a good deal more afterwards. Croesus is held up even to this day as a fabulously rich man, and yet £1,600,000 would cover his fortune in landed property. In addition to this, however, he had a large sunn of money and many slaves. Antony no doubt would have made his mark in the City. He owed £300,000 in the middle of March, hustled and got enough money to pay off -all his debts by the last of April. He squandered more than £14,000,000 of the public money. The sum of £400,000 was paid for his house. Seneca the philosopher, turned his philosophy into cash at a rapid rata. His fortune was upwards of £3,000)000.

Many yearn ago, when. Lord Rosebary was giving » dinner to some of hia tennants, an old man who eat next to hum helped himself to a huge piece of icecream. When he regained his breath he exclaimed, "Why, this pudding's froze!" Lord Bosebnry tasted a little from his own plate, and then, his face a wonderful study in genuine astonishment, remarked, ""Great Scott! So it is!" Surely an unrivalled instance of consumate tact!

The recent death of the Lord Justice Clerk was deeply lamented in Scotland, ■where he was recognised as a really great judge, and a man of exceptionally brilliant intellect as well as agreeable personality. Lord Scott Dickson had been eminently successful in all that he undertook —at the Bar, in public life, and on tho Bench. He may be said to have jumped at once into a great miscellaneous practice at the very beginning of his career, and his only formidable rival was his intimate "friend, the present Lord Dumedin, the one representing Glasgow and the west, and. the other Edinburgh and the eaßt. The son of a Glasgow doctor, Scott Dickson was a typical Glasgow man in many respects. When he entered the House of Commons in 1900 attendance at Westminister resulted in a large loss of practice at Edinburgh, but he recovered it almost at once when he lost his Beat in 1906. He sat again in Parliament from 1909 until 1915, when he was appointed X«ord Justice Clerk. A staunch Presbyterian, he had been for many years an elder of St. George's Church.