People We Hear About.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 43, 25 October 1900, Page 27

People We Hear About.

I'ninc is P.unkett. whose promotion from the Ministry at Bru-w. 1, io that of Vienna :■« pist officially announced, belongs to that br.n ■ ') ot- th, gr.Mt lu-h family of which the Earl of Fingall h the puMiit ii.al. They arc alU'.uholicn. and Sir Francis entered the diplomatic service niter leaving the Catholic College at Oscott in l^V.. when lv was only 20. By the way, although the Earl of Hopetoun's eldeßt son was two year,- old when his father became Governor of Victoria in 1889, sacral of the younger children of the house of Hope are natives of Victoria. Lady Hopetoun has the merit of being Irish, for she is a daughter of Lord Ventry, an Irish representative Peer, whose ancu-trol c-tate of Burnham is in County Kerry. His family name is r.veleigh-de-Moleyns, and he was once Colonel of the 4th Battalion of the Munster Fusiliers. He married a daughter of Nil John Blake, a well-known Irish baronet, and he owns 93,700 acres in Ireland and elsewhere in the United Kingdom, so that he id a considerable landlord. One of the very first decrees signed by the young King Victor Umniamul 111. (writes a Rome correspondent) has an interesting 1 story an a, bed to it. In ],m>:» a man named Gaetano Scinto was ■>< uteni id to death by the Criminal Court of Trapani for murder, but the sentence was afterwards commuted into one of hard labor for life. In spite of the repeated petitions addressed to the authorities by the convict's children and friends, who were all com met d of his innocence, the unfortunate Scinto has been in prison for the last .U years, six of which were passed in solitary confinement. A short time ago a priest made an affidavit before the Assize? of Trapani to the effect that a man on his deathbed had acknowledged himself guilty of the crime for which an innocent man had suffered such a horrible martyrdom, and that he wished this to be known. No time was lost in communicating this important declaration to the ' Guardasigilli ' or Minister of Justice, who at once submitted the facts of the case to the King. Needless to aay that Victor Emmanuel ordered the immediate liberation of the poor victim.

News from Vienna informs ub that the highest military court in Austria has just cashiered Lieutenant Marquis Tacoli and Major Count Ledochowsky, the former for refusing to fi^ht a duel when challenged, the latter for applauding his comrade's moral courage. Both these gentlemen, we need hardly remark are Catholics, and they made their practical protect against dsiclhng on the ground that it was prohibited by the Church and b> common -ense. Very little, if any, reference ('•ay'- the I) v 1/ riirunn ' ~) lni heon made since the death of Lord Ru^ell of Kiiloum to hisbn.ther tne eminent Jenuit, baruer Uusspll. at Dublin I lim 1- all tlip more surprising, as amongst all the di»r>ple« of Lo\ ola in the United Kingdom there is not, perhaps, one so protour il*' i 1 ndite. and w ith the exception of Father Bernard Wiujjian. ho * lr ■, lent 11s the well known ln«h Jesuit. And the dead -Chitf'-' btother 1-. not only famous as an ecclesiastic, he ha^ alt-o, perhaps, done more than any other than living to nurture the present literary revival in things Irish. As editor of the Irish Monthly he has been the means of bringing out such pleasing writers as Mis* Nora Hopper, Mif-p Katherine Tynan, Miss Rosa Mulholland, Miba Alice FlllF 111 long and others of less note. The Very Rev. A. B. Langlois, rector of St. Martin - rhnrch. Martinsville, United States, who died recently at the njv of ti'.i was known throughout the scientific world aa a bo'am^t of r.ire atta.nment, and whose minute studies of the flowers ot Louisiana have covered that field as completely as has been done in any other part of the world. For half a century he collected specimens of Louisiana plants, and though his own collections weie large, he also Bupplied museums throughout the world with th< characteristic flora of the region, and in recognition of hi^ work several

plants have been piven his name. He published several volumes on the Fungi of Louisiana, and one of his books is a standard in its line. Father Langlois was born and reared in France, and as all of his literary wory was done in that language his name is better known to the scientific bodies of Europe than to those in the United Stutes. Sir Frederick Darley, Chief Justice of New South Wales, celebrated on September 17 the 70th anniversary of his birth. The oeeamon was marked by congratulations, official and non-official, a,.d wni be permanently further graced by a portrait in oili which will be hung in the Supreme Court as the result of public subscriptions, rtir Frederick Darley was born in Leeson street, Dublin. His father was one of the six clerks in Chancery, and his grandfather held office as Lord Mayor, High Sheriff, and Chief Police Magistrate of the city of Dublin. Sir Frederick was educated at Dungannon High School (of which his uncle, Dr. Darley, afterwards Anglican Bishop of Kilmore, waa head master), thence entering Trinity College, Dublin, where in 1851 he gained his B.A. dpgree, and two years later was called to the Bar. For some time Sir Frederick was on the Munster Circuit, but was admitted to the Bar of New South Wales in June, 1562 In 1868 he was appointed to a seat in the Legislative Council. Later on he was Vice-Presi-dent of th« Executive Couucil, and represented the Government of Sir Henry I'urkes in the Upper House. In 1879 he, with Mr. M. H. Stephen, now Senior Puisne Judge, took ' silk,' and on the death of Sir James Martin accepted the Chief Justiceship. In ISB7 he waa knighted. When Sir Alfred Stephen resigned the Lieutenant (iovc'K.'i^hip. Sir Frederick Darley was appointed to the office. La^i \ .ir hu was raised to the dignity of K.C.M.G Sir Frederick ii likely to be the first State Governor under Federation.