PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1959, 10 September 1891, Page 34

PERSONAL NOTES.

The new Ganon of Canterbuiy (Mr Duncan) is an .'Aberdoniari. So was the late Canon Robertson (of Canterbury), the author of the " History of the Christian Churoh."

Thomas Lake Harris, who played so unpleasant a part in the life of Laurence Oliphant, was not born in America, but in England, at Stratford-on-Avon, in 1823. He was therefore an American by residence only.

Boulanger is no longer the man on horseback. The man who came very near being dictator of France was recently warned by the police authorities of Belgium that they suspected him of stirring up labour disturbances in that country, and that if their suspicions should be verified, they would drive him out of their territories with scant ceremony. The brave general was very meek.

Mr Oswald Crawfurd has given up his pleasant post as consul at Oporto and £750 a year, in order to devote himself to literary work. It may be hopad that he will now be able to add to his reputation as a novelist. His knowledge of Portugal is almost unequalled, and his book on that country is recognised as a standard work. Mr Crawfurd will probably be heard of before long as a dramatist.

Sir Charles Russell is fluent, painstaking, excedingly alert of mind, and most forcible in speech. He is an Irishman, and has all an Irishman's love of being on what appears to be the weaker side, and of being upon the side that is in reality the stronger. Not that he cannot make a good fight against odds ; but he is happier when they are in his favour. — National Observer.

The youngest son of Lord Salisbury is intended for the diplomatic service ; hence his appointment as assistant private secretary to his fatiier^at the Foreign Office. Lord Hugh Cecil, who is not yet 21, has one brother, Lord Cranbourne, a politician ; a second, Lord William Cecil, a clergyman ; a third, Lord Edgar, a barrister; and a fourth, Lord Edward, an officer in the army. It is possible that Lord Edgar may enter the House of Commons,

Lord Charles Beresford, as will be remembered, pluckily assisted, not long ago, in saving Captain Conneau's gunboat, the Seignday, when she went ashore at Jbffa, but he will hardly be able to save Captain Conneau himself, for the latter has been deprived of his command by the Fiench Government, though a court-martial, presided over by Rear-admiral Rocomaure, reported in his favour. They say in Paris that the severe measure dealb out to Captain Conneau has been dictated, in part aD least, by political considerations. Captain Conneau, who has been 38 years in the French navy, is the son of Napoleon Ill's faithful medical attendant, Dootor Conneau.

Mr George R. Sims lives in a beautiful house overlooking Regent's Park. The interior is a veritable curio, for you cannot enter a room without coming across everything between a Zulu's shield and a penknife from the Sandwich Islands. Mr Sims is an extremely rapid worker, and says that all the characters introduced into his writings are " taken from life." He does a deal of work in the middle of the night. Paper and pencil are always near his bedside, and, should he wake up with a new idea, he doe 3 not wait until morning, buc down it goes. In this way some of - his most popular poems have been written. His office, in a corner of the house, has quite a business appearance. He employs a couple of secretaries, one of whom can speak 10 languages. The death of the octogenarian Father Ourci occurred recently at Florence. He was as distinctly a literary theologian as either Newman or Dollinger. JThough a Jesuit, he found it impossible to accept the dogma of Papal infallibility, and, like the great German polemic, was excommunicated. His numerous writings excited the liveliest attention, especially among the cultured minority of Englishmen and Americans who interest themselves in European affair 3. Curci persisted in urging on the Pope a policy of reconciliation with the Government and people of Italy ; and, at the same

time, m his famous work on "Christian Socialism," he advanced, with rare eloquence, the well-known scheme of social philosophy which such men as Maurice and Kingslrr used to advocate in England, and which the Pope himself has recently, to some extent endorsed in his Encyclical Letter. The goodness of Marie Roze in singing at small charitable concerts is well known, and the following will show that she has also a great deal of feeling. BeiDg asked one day to sing at a concert for the blind, she consented and though the weather was far from' nne, Mane Roze appeared adorned as though she were going to sing before some great people and not the blind. After the concert a friend asked her why, when most people could not see her, she had dressed herself so nne. » It is ]ust because they are blind " she replied "that I have come out so. Some of their friends who can see will be with them, and the blind will most likely ask, 'How does she look, and what is she wearing ? If they answered, •Oh I she has got a bonnet and an ordinary walking diess on,' they would surely feel very slighted. But if they said, • She is dressed very beautifully,' &c, they will go home, I think, pleased that I have taken so much trouble."

The recovery of the Marquis of Exeter from his severe illness, although gradual is also remarkable, so apparently hopeless at one time had his condition been. This strong vitality reminds us of the same characteristic which was shown by the noble Marquis' father toward the close of his life this toughness having possibly been inherited from Hoggins, the proud Salopian yeoman, whose daughter's romantic marriage to the grandfather of the present Marquis is well known to those who take an interest in reading those pretty tales which gracefully cloud the dawn of history. The pathetic lines which set out the dismay and surprise of the " Peasant Countess " when (she first caught a glimpse of the palatial residence of her husband, and subsequently found that she herself was mistress of Burghley, while the effect it had upon her health was that she fainted away and died, have caused many fluctuations of belief in the story. At any rate, it is veritable history that the " Peasant Countess " survived the first sight of Burghley for four years, and this seems a precious long time for the lady to be pining away. Quiz, a Glasgow paper conducted ont he lines" of The Bailie, contains an excellent portrait of Mr Archibald Maomillan, who is > more familiar to our readers under his pen nameof "JeemsKaye." In a notice of Mr Macmillan's career, Quiz says : — " It has been an open secret for some time now that Mr Archibald Macmillan is the author of the 1 Jeems Kaye but the pleasure has been reserved for ourselves of giving some biographical particulars and a view of the sonsie weel-faured face of the worthy coal merchant. It is not exactly in accordance with the portrait that fronts his popular books. No 1 Yon portrait of the douce, bien provost o' Stra'bungo is but the mask that Mr Macmillan dons when he sits down by the fireside at the evening's close and indites a letter to his friend The Bailie ; letters which have done so much for the popularity of our contemporary. Mr Macmillan, as his writings show, is geniality and good humour personified. He was born in Greenock in 1843, his father being a prosperous merchant of that town. By his 14th year his parents were both dead, and he then came to Glasgow to finish his education. Getting into a situation as a clerk he rese steadily step by step till now he conducts a large business on his own account as a commission agent. He married in bis 25th year, and for some time has resided with his wifa and family at a favourite Ayrshire coast town, travelling 60 miles daily to and from business 1 . In a large company our genial friend keeps in the background, but let him foregather with a friend for a twa-handed crack, or get ensconsed among a few old cronies, and he can keep the company lively with spontaneous jocularity or in retailing humorous incidents that have come under his observant eye. He has imbibed his love for the vernacular at the purest of streams, for his favourite author is the •Bttrick Shepherd ' and the Doric classics of ' Mansie Waugh ' and • Tammas Bodkin ' have many a time been his companions in his most delightsome hours. His articles are not the laboured effect of serious study but rather the natural outflow, in leisure moments, of one who is a keen student of men and of things, and who can give a decidedly humorous turn to his every saying."