people the hear about.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 14, 6 April 1899, Page 24

people the hear about.

Mr. Justin M'Carthy has almost completed his volume of reminiscences, which will be published shortly.

Baron Brampton (formerly Sir Henry Hawkins) was sworn in and took his seat as a peer in the House of Lords on February 7. The new peer was introduced on the occasion by the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Russell of Killowen) and Lord Ludlow.

Sir Hubert Jerningham, K.C.M.G., signified his intention some time ago to resign the Governorship of Trinidad. Sir Hubert ia one of the numerous bani of Catholics who have passed through the diplomatic service to important administrative posts.

Mr. George Lisle Ryder. C.B , who succeeds Sir H. W. Primrose as Chairman of the British Board of Customs, is a member of one of the collateral branches of the Harrowby family. He is over sixty > ears of age, having been born in IS3B. He has been Piincipal i'ierk in the Treasury and Auditor of the Civil Lists. His brother, the Rev. Henry Dudley Ryder, is Superior of Birmingham Oratory.

Sir Benjamin Stone, M.P , who is an enthuiastic amateur photographer, visited Rome during the rieess, and received permission to inspect and photrgraph certain manuscripts and parchments which are stored among ihe archives of the great library at the Vatican. He peleeted and photographed a number of documents referring to England, and dating from the eleventh century, and he is now engaged in translating them. They will, doubtless be published, and ihe pho' ographs will probably be deposited in the British Mustum.

Mr R : cli.ird (latlinsr. the invcnlor of the famous gun which bears his name, was a dabbler in scitnee at the age of twelve years. Atth^ttime his father was puzzling over a machine for sowing cotton seeds ; but, try as much as he would, he could not perfect it, and at last, in a fit of dispair, he called in Richard to his aid. The lad listened atentively to the details of the proposed invention, fully p-rasped the difficulties, shut himself up in a room to think, <vnd in a little while suggested a way out of them. This was eagerly adopted by the elder Galling, with the result that the machine was perfected and became a great success.

It is said that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the new Liberal leader in the House of Commons, and whose relatives are all Consen atives. credits his Liberal instincts and opinions to an Irish employee of his father'c firm, who imbued him with progressive ideas while his opinions were as yet unformed. Entering the Ilousj of Commons in IMJ.S, he was in office inside three years. He has bt en a Chief Secretary for Ireland, rejoicing in the nickname of ' Sandbag.' at a time when it was a national duty with the Irish Party to bestow a nickname on their chief Parliamentary opponent.

It is interesting to note that the new Mayor of Belfast, Mr. Otto Jaffe. is a Germai. Mr. Jaffe was born in Hamburg in 1846, and went to Belfast when only twelve years of age. His father settled permanently in the Ulster capital in 1801, where he was widely known as a lance buyer of linens for the continental markets. Mr. Otto Jafl'e is very well known in New York, having crossed the Atlantic no fewer than fifty times on business connected with a Belfast firm. He has been a member of the Belfast Corporation for many y»ar3, and takes a great interest in its working, and he has done a deal to have the Council's finances placed on a secure footing.

Sir Thomas Grattan Esmonde, the Senior Whip of the Irish Parliamentary Party, has a Parliamentary experience of upwards of fourteen years. He was returned to the House of Commons for the first time in ISB3 as Nationalist member for South Dublin, for which he sat till 181)2, when, on his defeat by Mr Horace Plunkett, he was elected for West Kerry. Sir Thomas is still in the thirties, and had only entered on his twenty-th'rd year when he became for the first time a member of the House of Commons. He belongs to an old Parliamentary family, is the eleventh holder of a baronetcy created by Charh s 1., and is a great grandson of the celebrated Irish patriot, Henry Grattan, to whom he bears a very striking personal resemblance.

The Rev. Father Daignault, of the Society of Jesus, who had been recently in lie'and in connection with the Zambesi mission, has had a most interesting career both in the mission field, in which he has spent fourteen years, and before he joined the ranks of the Order to which be now belongs. Jn early life he adopted a military career, serving in the ranks of the Pontifical Zouaves. This car' er he abandoned in response to a vocation to serve God in a still higher and lofc:er walk of life, and towards the close of the sixties he entered the Jesuit novitiate, and in 1870 witnessed, while still a novice, the taking of Rome by the Italians, on which occa-

sion it fell to his lot to attend the soldiera who had been wounded in that deadly struggle. It can not be truthfully said that the traditions of apostolic simplicity of life have been lost in the United States (say the Air Vaiia) Many of our most eminent prelates and prominent priests We been remarkable for frugality and unostentation of all kinds , While disbursing large sums of money in religious works, they accumulated nothing for themselves. Their ideal seems to have been that of Cardinal Manning-to die without money and without debt* The firrt Archbishop of Oreson, though never a religious, observed poverty almost as strictly as a Franciscan : and the will ■ or the late ArchbMiopO row makes mention of no money except his life-insurance. There was no personal property to be accounted for by his executors. Ever an enemy of extravagance he directed that his funeral should be as simple as possible- no flowers and an inexpensive coffin.' Thus did 'the most respected citizen of Oregon ' die, illustrating the Church in death as in lite. Ballinrobe enjoys the distinction of b^ing, if not the birthplace at least the place where the most distinguished of American prelates - Cardinal Gibbons - received the rudiments of his early education. This eminent son of. the Church returned with his parents who belonged to the neighbourhood ot Ballinrobe where the future Cardinal attendel school taught by a teacher named Rooney. I saw the house where he lived with his father and mother (writes a correspondent), at present occupied by an old schoolmate of the Cardinal's, who conversed with me about his disting^tshed classfellow. The old Catholic church of Ballinrobe is now in ruins, with a tall, square tower in a pretty good state of preservation which contained, it is said, the first bell that tolled the death-knell of the penal laws. When the Cardinal was over on a visit some years ago he came to Ballinrobe, and renewed the scenes of his boyhood. He went among the poor people, sympathized with them! and manifested a deep concern for them all. The Cardinal commissioned the parish priest to let him know from time to time Swho were the most needy among them, saying that while he had the means none of them should be in dire want. Needless to »y the sifted Churchman ib loved and revered by his old friends and neighbours, and they inquire very anxiously from everyone cWin-from America about the Cardinal's welfare. They marvelled at his gentleness, kindness, and humble bearing going among them, hearing their troubles and sorrows-in fact, making himself for the time like one of themselves. A Paris correspondent writes as follows :— " Not a few English Catholic families will learn with regret the death, at the age ot ,A of Mrs Mary Gonzaga liowell, Superior of the Augustiman Conveni at Neuillv She was educated, I believe, at the convent which, til. 1860 was situated near the Jardin des Planter, and is admirably described by George Sand, who was a pupil there for three years S Howell took the veil in 1818, and in 1807 she was electee Superior in the place of her sister, Mrs. Louisa Howell, who resignec after holding office for fifteen years. While her predecessor had hac the onerous duty of superintending the removal of the convent froa a picaresque but somewhat dilapidated budding, uninterrupted 5 occupied for 220 years, Mrs Mary Gonzago Howell underwent th< 3of the war of I*7o. On August 2'J of that year the com munity 30 in number, quitted the convent on account of the prosper of a siege, and took refuge in a country house at feuco. near J antes hospitably offered by M. Angebault. There they remained til the following August, when they found that their almost new buildinf had been pillaged and profaned by the Commune. The school wa^ however, reopened. The pupils have latterly been and continue t< he most V French, and some of them have won high honours in th« State examinations. The 2~,0th anniversary of the Convent wa pplpbrated in ISS4. Mrs. Howell, who was re-elected every four years had the satisfaction of smng it nourish under her rule, and she earnec the warm affection both of the community and of the pupils. C.irdma Lan-enieux, Archbishop of Rheimx. formerly director of the convent paid^it a visit last year to compliment her on the jubilee of he conventual life, and on the completion of the third decade ot he