THINGS ENGLISH AND OTHERWISE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7292, 3 January 1902, Page 2

THINGS ENGLISH AND OTHERWISE.

a Im New Zealand we may, if we like, marry our deceased wife's sister, but according to a judicial decision in Cape Colony, any man out of matrimonial employment may, if he so pleases, marry his aunt. We dq not suppose many people in the Cape will care to take advantage of the law dn this respect, for though youths of very tender years sometimes conceive a grand passion for their., mother's or father's v sister, the passage of years, usually reduces the passion to an easily maaiiageable affection ere tbe youth arrives at a. matrimonial age. It is still a prohibition of Cape law that a man may marry his grandmother, but the prohibition might be removed without greatly endangering the morality of the community. The rewards bf Literature to those -who serve her with success are popularly supposed to be great. But the profits of a. successful authorship are as nothing to the profits that the successful man of business expects to tf make. The whole of the gross value of the late Sir Walter Besant's Estate was only £8812, and though no doubt this amount would have been muoh larger but for the liberality which he practised during his lifetime, yet even were it four or five time*, as great, it wo_tld be thought small for any man who was as successful in his own line as Sir Walter Besant was in his. Australians are not likely to be 'proud of the latest Australian victory. "Colonel" Arthur Lynch, who has just been elected for the red-hot . Nationalist city of Galway by a majority of 774 over Mr Horace Plunkett, owes his victory to his constituents' boasts that he organised and commanded the Second Irish Brigade which fought, or professed to fight, for the Boers. An old colleague of the " jouraalist, conspirator, and renegade" gives a picturesque character sketch in the " Express " of the " dreamer, poet, apd champion of lost causes," whom he describes as a youthful visionary^ tall, lanky, and typical Cornstalk in appearance, with a keen, hatchet-like face, high forehead and large, closely-set eyes, fiercely resentful of pressure that would keep him to the beaten path. According to the candid colleague, Lynch fell into the hands of the Fenians, and in 1894 went to the United States to help in O'Donovan Rossa's physical force campaign. On his return he talked passionately of bombs that could wr-e ck London) Bridge and be concealed in a cigarcase. He became marked "dangerous" by the special department of Scotland Yard which deals with dynaanitards, drifted to Paris, and finally became a colonel of a riff-raff of pot-valiant rebels.

Lord Rosslyn, whose plan to break the bank at Monte Carlo has been the subject of much ribaldl comment, but who, accord-' ing to yesterday's cablegrams, has won £4000 there by means of this system, was, only a matter of three years ago, in a position from Which all his mathematical knowledge wae powerless to extricate him. His ■ lordship's creditors at the . time required £9475 to satisfy them, and he could only produce £23 14s ld. So to the Bankruptcy Court he was taken, and an unkindly Registrar suspended his 'discharge for five years. However, al few weeks ago his lordship managed to find some £7500, and with this h-e proposed/ ito pay his creditors 12s in the £, or 14s in event of certain claims being reduoed. The annulment of the bankruptcy applied for by the trustee was, therefore, granted, and Lord Rosslyn was free to set out for Monte Carlo with his "system" and assistants, and whatever he wifis there, 'his creditors will have no claim upon it. Editing a newspaper in Germany is not exactly " all beer and skittles," especially if so be the editofiias to bring in the Kaiser's mime, but in th c Turkish Empire th* path of the journalist is, so to speak, one long stretch of broken 'bottles and thorns. Only the other day a .Salonika- journal was suspended for saying, with reference to the recent Royal tour, that " Europe rulers tra-' ■ vei to gain acquaintance -with* the world." The Sultan took this as a personal reflection. But even if the editor meant anything personal he really paid the Shadow a compliment. For whereas other rulers have to travel to "gain acquaintance with - the world," the Sultan is in the proud position of being able to sit at home and bring (about a visit of the fleets of the -.nations- whenever he desires ti little Concert. * . - ' We never knew, hefore that Auckland set itself up as the Holy City. Mr Edwin Palkndea-, however, in his " Log of ah i Island Wanderer," declares it is " the most •rcispectaWe city in the world." "Maybe (he -says) the climate has something to do with it (i.e., -the respectability of Auckland). The Auckland climate is, during the major portion of the year, th c softest, wannest, gentlest thing imaginable. It is as mild as the kia9 of a curate on the cheek of a spinster. To realise it adequately you should cling passionately to something and 1 think of crushed strawberries. I know not whether holiness is of the line and plummet, but if it be, Auckland is contracting for a race of angels." What will the " Canterbury Plains " have to say of the "Auckland angels" now in their garden of Eden? Or can it be that, Mr Pallander's gush is " writ sarcastic." Admiral Lord Hood, of Avalon, who died in November' after a prolonged illness, at the age of seventy-seven, came of a famous naval sitock. His father was grandson of the Captain Alexander Hood who joined' Captain Cook in one of -his world voyages, anidi grand-nephew of Vice-Admi-ral Sir Samuel Hood', who in the late years of the 18th and th© earlier ones of the 19th century carried forward the record of a family based/ on the exploits of the first Viscount Hood, hero of the " Glorious First of June." The deceased «pe§r .entered the Navy as a boy of -welfe*. hxid as* a middy of sixteen served with distinction on tbe coast of Syria in 1840 and with the Naval Brigade at Sebastopol. He next saw active ssrvice when in _ command l 'of the Acorn diiringihe China Was: of 1857 and 1858, aM iW#sre£ent at the capture of Canton. T&rdHorol was the recipient of many decofhfooA?^rad held many important appoint-or!-js^-tttiring his long naval career. He al-Mwie-cainp to Queen Victoria from i§ r 69 a SP*iB74, Director of Naval Ordnance, '$Al%f the Admiralty from 1877 to 1880, slfeV*%aval Lord! from 1885 until he Oviats*.iiaced on the retired list in 1889. He ~\rW> td'2 a. G.G.B. in 1889, and was raised lo c' t peerage in, 1892. Lord Hood leaves *-,<*-;> daughters*, but no heir to succeed! to ,V- ititle. ■ ' *'; ■ \ '■ " „ -..;'■-. ' '