PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2511, 30 April 1902, Page 65

PERSONAL NOTES.

— The Duke of Abruzzi, who reached the age of 29 on January 29, is not only distinguished in the annals of Royalty, but among •tho explorers of the world, by reason of the fact that he went nearer tho North Pole than anyone ha 3 ever done before, beating even Nansen's record in 1900. He has lost two of the fingers of his left hand by frost bite. — Since his retirement from Parliament Sir Henry M. Stanley has completely withdrawn himself from the public gaze, and, except on subjects of public utility unconnected with himself, his name rarely or never appears in the papers. Few men, however, in. their time have had more newspaper mention than the famous explorer, whose name as indissohibly linked with the exploration of Africa. He attained his sixtyfirst- birthday on January 25. — Few clergymen are in their own right lords of 3000 acres, but that is the enviable .position of the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, the xeetor of Lew-Trenchard, the famous author, ;who inherited the family estate 30 years ago, on the death., of his father, and presented (himself to the rectory of Lew-Trenchard ■when his uncl© died 21 years ago. In those 21 years Mr Baring-Gould 'haa made an enviable reputation for himself in the world of letters. He was 58 on January 28. .— M. Loubet on February 18 completed his third year as President of the French. Republic. There is an impression abroad that when M. Loubet departs froir the Elysee he will be succeeded by M. Paul •Deechanel. M. Deschanel is renowned for his sartorial splendour in an Assembly remarkable for its sartorial drabness (said a ■writer recently). The good taste in matters of attire, for which Frenchwomen are famed, is singularly lacking in their male relatives, but M. Deschanel is a notable exception to the rule. M. Deschanel has, then, one gift, that may carry him far—the gift of playing oratorioally on tho most responsive chords in his countrymen's breasts. There are great possibilities before him. A great career in the legal world has been that of Sir Edward Clarke, who was 61 on February 15. The circumstances under which 'he resigned his seat in Parliament will be fresh in the minds of most people, and there can be little doubt that when he chooses to return to the House of Commons he is sure of re-olection. He 13 one of the most successful barristers of the day, and if not always on the winning side he gives his opponents a great deal of trouble to beat him. There are few of tho important cases of his time with which he has not been connected. — Lord Dunmore, who has recently been very active and very successful in the recruiting ot Firicastle's Horse, is one of those representative Scotsmen, genial, robust, and popular, who go through the world giving and receiving knocks, without anyone being a pin the- worse. Lord Dunmore began ids career in the Scots Guards, and was ILord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria from 1874 to 1830. He has travelled a great deal in Kashmir, Western -Thibet, and South Africa, and has published several books about his wanderings. He lias been interested ig mines and a director of various city companies. He married one of the innumerable daughters of the present Lord Leicester, and his eldest eon, Lord Fincastle, is a Y.C. man. —If Sir William White surveyed the work Ire has done during his life on his fiftyeaventh birthday on February 2, he might well be a proud man, for to him the nation practically owes the navy as it exists at present, as he was the responsible designer of all the =hip 3 from October, 1885, till the end of last year. Nothing proved the strength of his character so much as the attitude he aaopted with regard to the new Royal yacht. Instead of shifting the responsibility for its initial failure on to those •who carried out his designs, as he might have done without discredit, he insisted on taking the whole responsibility on himself. There never was a more high-minded, honourable, and hard-working public servant than Sir "William. He is followed in bis retirement by the good wishes of all whose good opinion is worth having. It is stated that the exercise of the ecclesiastical patronage which falls to Lord Lonsdale is entrusted to the judicial hands of his kinsmrn, Mr James Lowther, M P., •whose Privy Councillorship dates from the limo (1878) when he became Chief Secretary for Ireland, but who is known to fame as ft leading nillar of the Joclaay Club aud as "chief judge" in the celebrated Durham case. No finer sportsman, exists than "Jimmy Lowther," nor one whose record en the turf is more honourable. There is sometimes a tendency to confuse him with <he Deputy Speaker, James William j Lowther, also a Privy Councillor and of a | judicial frame of mind. J. W. is first cousin to the Earl of Lonsdale. The Speaker's substitute and the earl have to go back to the eighteenth century to find an aucestor common to them and Mr James '. liowther — the best-known of the trio. — There is in some respects a striking j -.--bamblance between the careers of Lord ..-nadowne and Lord Dufferin, whose funeral -ok place on February 15, at Clandehoye. ">oth were Irishmen, both were of the Bame tmk in the peerage ; both were Whigs, oth held minor offices in Liberal Administrations, boti were Governors-general of Canada, both were Viceroys of India. In the end, one cliose diplomacy, the other politics. Henry Charles Keith FitzMaurice, lifth Marquess of Lansdowne, is the head of an ancient family, as may be inferred from the faci that none of his 11 peerages are of the United Kingdom. They date in order of creation from 1181 to 1784 ; his lordship's ancestors were Irish barons from the time of Henry 11. Since the days of George 111 the family has scarcely ever been without a representative in the Cabinet. The present peer's grandfather was one of tho favourite Ministers of Queen Victoria. — Almost every Englishman thinks himself a judge of horseflesh. The Ear.' of Lonsdale undoubtedly knows the difference •between a horse of stamina and an old .crock, and there is a "horsey" suggestion in his appearanae. His intervention in the remounts debate in the Lords caused a sensation in its way. The head of the House of Lowther and the chosen companion of ■Kings had never before (we believe) raised his voice in that Assembly. The earl, who is now in the prime of h'fe (45), has had an interesting career, and has always had a strong leaning towards spcrt. Some years ago he want out on a sort of Polar expedition, and on returning home took up seriously tho duties which fall to the lot of a, county magnate. Between him and the •Emperor William there has sprung up a HlQSfl frifcnrlaiijn <tYir] gfc grnat. military

manoeuvres of the German army Lord Lonsdale is always the guest of the Kaiser. In return his lordship has been able to give William EE some excellent shooting in "Westmoreland. The Emperor more than once stayed at Lowther Castle. — Baron. Burton is the great-grandson of the founder of the brewery which makes the world-famous beer yclept Bass. Indeed, Bass, Burton, Allsopp, and Guinness are as typically English words in the mouth's of foreigners as "god-dam" and "all right." Lord Burton is naturally proud of the beers he makes and of the town whence he took his title. His great-grandfather, William Bass, tmrchased in 1777 a house and land at Burton-on -Trent, where he built a brewery, and laid the foundations of the business which has now reached such enormous magnitude. The grandson cf William. Bass and father of the present peer was the late Mr Michael Bass, 35 years M.P. for Derby. Mr Bass acquired Rangemoor and allied himself by marriage with the ancient family of Arden. In the words of a peerage compiler, ho died "universally respected" in 1884—^though perchance Sir Wilfrid Lawson regarded him with tolerance simply because of his "invincible ignorance" on the teetotal question. Lord Burton (Sir Michael Arthur Bass) had been created a baronet (on Mr Gladstone's recommendation) two years before his father's death, and he was raised to tho peerage when the Home Rule Cabinet quitted office in 1886. Born in the year Queen Victoria ascinded the throne, he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. H© was a member of Parliament for various Staffordshire constituencies from 1865 until his elevation to the peerage. For the greater part of that time his father and his brother Hamar also sat in the Commons, and there were no better-liked members than the Bass trio. Between Lord Burton and the King there has been a friendship of long standing.