WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 107, 15 May 1875, Page 15

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

Generalship of an Abe. — M. de Maisonpre was once a witness of "a single male ape of a large species finding his way within the walls surrounding the pagoda of Cheringhani, which enclosed a district claimed by tlie community of a smaller species ; for it appears that certain herds of them live together in this way, and assert their rights to the possession of particular provinces, and, if necessary, will take up arms to defend them. The trespasser was very quickly made to understand that he had got into an enemy's country. The alarm cry being given, numbers of the resident males put themselves into a posture of attack. Though the interloper was much larger and stronger than any of his assailants, he yet seemed to be aware that the contest would be unequal on a fair field, for he betook himself to a stratagem, and fled to an advantageous position on the top of the pagoda, which was eleven stories in height, and when faced about on the pinnacle of it, he saw a number of his enemies in force at his heels. His sagacity and generalship now proved the means of his safety. Being himself secure upon a narrow dome, he, taking advantage of his superior personal strength, instantly seized four of his furious pxirsuers, and as furiously hurled them down from the dizzy top. This exploit Avas sufficient to warn and intimidate the rest, and after a great deal of noisy clamor, they resolved upon a retreat, which they effected in safety, leaving the intruder revenged upon 'his perch. Here he took care to remain till the evening, when he was able to get clear off. Singular Fatality. — Alderman Thomas Carty, J.P., of Drogheda, died Borne time ago in the possession of enormous wealLh, in his lifetime estimated at £300,000. Dying intestate, a number of claimants appeared for his wealth. Five persons, all in previous indigent circumstances, were admitted by the Courts, the matter admitting of a plentiful crop of litigation, and several incidental suits are yet pending. Five of the claimants have since died. The only male claimant (a maternal cousin) was buried one day, and the only remaining husband of the female claimant's died the following morning. Their child, a son, died within a fortnight after he knew of the wealth he might have inherited. Physical and Mental Disease. — A writer in 'Chambers' Journal' speaks of the facts as decidedly noteworthy, that the common opinion that excessive mental occupation gravitates towards insanity, is not only not verified by facts, but'that, on the contrary, one of the foremost of living physicans doubts whether alienation of mind is ever the result of overstrain ; it is to physical, not to mental derangements, he thinks, that excessive work of the brain generally gives rise. Insanity, he points out, finds the most suitable material for its development among the cloddish, xineducatod classes, while the worst forms of physical diseases are originated .and intensified among the educated, overstrained brain-workers. Nuns Suffering from Hunger. — The * Oservatore Roniano,' of February 10, speaks of three convents in Rome whose nuns are now in want of food. Of one convent it says : " The Sisters now remain destitute of everything, even to articles of necessity." In the case of another convent, it quotes a passage from a letter written by one of the nuns, who says : " Take compassion on the unhappy situation to which this religious family is reduced, being brought to such misery through the scantiness of the pensions assigned to us and through the dearness of provisions, as to be obliged to beg for broken bread." Dr. Keneaiy's Son. — A writer in the ' Tasmanian Tribune,' speaking of a son of Dr. Kenealy, of Tichborne notoriety, says: — "This clever youth, whom the Lord Chief Justice complimented for having rendered his father so good and able service during the hearing of the heaving of the celebrated Tichborne case, takes an active part in the management of the ' Englishman. 3 The youth, it is said, gives promise of becoming a brilliant man, and if he be possessed of the forensic eloquence of his father, the name of Kenealy should be prominently before the people of England for many years to come." The English National Debt. — It may be interesting to many to know, not only the amount of the National debt, but the different epochs in which it has risen to its present enormous amount. In 1668, the debt Avas 664,000 ; by the wars of "William 111., it was increased by twelve millions ; by those of Queen Ann, twenty-three millions and half ; George 1., sixteen millions and a quarter ; George 11., to 1763, eighty millions two hundred thousand pounds ; during the American war, one hundred and eighteen millions and a-half ; during the French war, five hundred and nmety-one millions and a-half ; and during to the Crimean war, thirty-one millions and a quarter ; making a grand total of eiglit hundred and eighty-four millions ; so that the national debt may be computed at eight hundred millions. The Greatest M.P. of his Time. —It is a moral impossibility for Mr Gladstone to cease to be the Liberal chief so long as he is in the House of Commons. He is, as Peel was, incomparably the greatest member of Parliament of his time, the greatest orator, the most brilliant debater. It may be very well for the magnet to protest against the attraction to itself of the steel, and the power which Mr Gladstone exercises and must continue to exercise over those about him is magnetic. As a matter of fact it is probable that Mr Gladstone will relieve himself and his followers from tlie difficulty. It is true that the Queen

has once more offered Mr. Gladstone a peerage. It is true also that not only Her Majesty, but Mr Disraeli, as Prime Minister, has tendered the same dignity to Mr. Gladstone, and it is far from certain that Mr. Gladstone will refuse. Eventually he will, he must accept ib ; but we now speak of the inunediate prospect. Mr. Gladstone's eldest son is an excellent young man. He is wealthy and dull. He will never achieve distinction in the House of Commons, but he would comport himself at least respectably "in another place." The honour which Mr. Gladstone would accept more for his son than himself. We write with a very definito knowledge of facts, when we say that before many weeks are over Mr. Gladstone will have taken to himself that titular dignity with which he is already credited by the scribes of Gaul.— 'The World.' Choosing the English Pbime Minister.— The meeting of the Liberal members of Commons to elect a '* leader," has excited a good deal of sensation in England, and forms the subject of one of Mr. Bagehot's lucid articles in the last number of the ' Economist,' as the first open departure from a constitutional usage established ever since 1688, but which, as Mr. Bagehot points [out, |has really been extinct for some time, though its extinction has never been used in practice until now. That is to say, the ÜBage has been, ever since the revolution of that year, for the King to> select the person who should form the Cabinet and appear for the Government in the House of Commons, and the person selected accepted the place at first in any case, but more recently Jonly in [case he thought he could command the majority of the Lower House. In short, the King designated the leader of the House, and t the majority 'accepted him. As time wore on, the House threw up into prominence three or four persons, among whom the King found himself obliged by circumstances to make his selection, but still the selection was his. More recently, tfiie House really presented the only person whom he could select, but the choice continued to be his in appearance. Now, however, for the first time, even the appearance of deference to the royal authority is thrown off, and the party meets out of doors and chooses the man who must be Prime Minister if he comes into power, leaving the Queee no choice in the matter. In other words, the Premier is selected by a party caucus. Temple Bar, London. — This relic of the defences of the city proper, of London, much as it impedes the ever increasing traffic of tlie Strand and Fleet street, is dear to the hearts of the civic magnates, and, indeed, the citizens generally. It is the outward and visible sign of their priviliges, and Royalty must humbly wait, oven now at its portals, knock and ask permission, before proceeding in state to pass through or under it. Great has been the grief of the Tory element, and great the joy of the iconoclastic section, at the threatened demolition, "by sheer course of natural decay, of this time-honored vestige of civic rights, and numerous suggestions have been made looking to its removal and preservative reerection in some secluded nook like the Temple Gardens, or to Guildhall yard, for even if ib must come down, " the City " claimed and coveted its fragments. Just now, however, an inspired genius, in the person of Mr Ernest Turner, an architect, " comes to the fore " with a suggestion of salvation for the revered monstrosity. His design is to raise the present structure sufficiently high to admit of an arch of corresponding character being built beneath it. Two galleries are arranged over the lower arch, one providing a passage between the Temple and the Law Courts for tlie lawyery, and the other a thoroughfare across the street for ordinary pedestrians. They have discovered that there is little difficulty in the mechanical part of the plan, since, "in the United States," says a London paper, "large buildings are often raised by means of screw.jacks, for the pxu-pose of inserting a shop below, the family occupying the house as usual." They might have added tliat the whole affair is nob unfrequently moved a block or two away bodily, and that the work would have been done and forgotten while they are thinking about it, as it does not happen to be a statue erected to any eminent deceased — though in such a case the probability is, that in England the statue would be erected [and talked 'about — unfavorable afterwards — while here the statue would be talked about favorably firstthen neglected, and then forgotten. It is touching to read in Hannah More's letters of how old' Mrs. Garrick, the wife of the great actor, used to journey as many as twenty miles in cold weather to hear mass. In one of her letters Miss Hannah More says : What an example to us all is Mvs. Garrick. I never beheld such beautiful piety as hers. Last night she refused to accept a- dinner at the dowager Duchess of Somerset's, because she had to be up half the night in order to he in time at mass, which is celebrated in a chapel twenty miles away." This venerable lady died early in this century, and it was her boast that she had never missed mass but three times in her long Me through her own fault, and in her day it was a matter of considerable difficulty for Catholics to get to mass. Tlie great actoi\David Garrick, her husband, never intefered with her religious convictions, and took extraordinary pains so facilitate her going to church. Mrs. Garrick has been herself on tho stage in lier time, but was always a person of the highest respectability. Her house Avas the rendezvous of the leading aristocracy and wits of England> and she was, although self-educated, exceedingly well-informed. " Mrs. Garrick" said Miss More to her one day, " I am surprised that so clever a Avonian as yourself should remain a Catholic." " Dear friend, answered Mrs. Garrick, " the more I study, the cleverer, as you call it, I become ; and the cleverer I become tho stauncher Papist I am."