People

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 37, 11 September 1902, Page 10

People

M. Paye, the doyen of the Academy of Science, Paris, has passed away He was an eminent &ciontist and a good Christian. A Sydney r> a P er states that of the 2172 numbers of the police force in New South Wales at the end of last year 351 were from Ireland, 320 from England, and 157 from Scotland, while 1314 were native-born. The circumstance is perhaps to be numbeed amongst 'life's little ironies' that Me-srs John and William Redmond were schoolfellowes at, Clongowes College of Lord de Fi eyrie, whose action e.gttinst Irish Nationalist members is attracting so much public attention. Salisbury stones are very numerous at present, which is only natural in English journalism. The point of them all lies in the careless dressing of the late Premier. It ia paid that Larty Gwendoline Cecil persuaded him to go to a very fashionable tailor, but when the new suit was donned it was as baggy and ill-fitting as any of its predecessors. In despair, her ladyship went h- rself to the tailor and made a complaint.. ' BuK your ladyship, 1 the master in extenuation, ' what can we do with a gentleman who insists on beirg fitted pitting down.' Lord Salis 1 ury in his retirement is probably taking very little interest in the statistics which have been compiled by careful jnurnali ts to show in how many ways his pprformancep concurred with those of other Premier". But in the number of days during which he held office, which are put al 5000, he bent the record of Victorian Prime Minister", Mr Gladstone was very n<ar the same number, howt ve>*, before he voluntarily laid down his oars. He had 4498 days to his credit, while Sir Uotert Peel could only count 1876 and Lor;} R(?ebery a modest 486. Even Loid Ab-rrietn in his Administration, had 774 days to lis credit. Regarding the late Mr William Johnston of Hallykilbeg, the 'Pall Mall Gsz<te' writes : ' He was so much a feature of rhe Hnusß of Comn ons tha* there ia no room for wonder at the wide? pn ad expression' of regret which the announcement of hisdesth has provoked. Not only was he a distinctive Parliamentary figure, but his personal attributes were unique. He was not only a type, but a survival. A fierce controversialist, he was one of the gentlest of mer>, and if his taunts were caustic, they were never ill-natured. All Irishmen loved nim, for he fought his foes squarely, ar>d re ferved his friends with more than fidelity. He held the sympathetic regaid of the Nationalists in the Hou i e of Commons to a remarkable degree, and one of the fmt messages of sympathy Chat went from the House to his relatives waß iv m Mr John Redmord. The bond of a common country nnited these two men in personal regard even while they were at arm's length in perpetual disputation.' When the late Mr John Br'ght was campaigning against Home Rule (says the 1 Catholio Timea') one of the arguments he

employed was that Irishmen were not good men of business. They are not good men of business when they know that a landlord will reap the bentfir, of any special exertions on their part, but give them fair scope and it will be difficult to discover better business men. Of the citizens of the United States who were known as 'The Big Four'— Mackay, Flood, Fi*ir, and O'Brien— three at least were Iri^h by birth. Mr Mackay, the la^t of them to paes away, was a native of Dublin. Even with many millions at his command he was still alert end energetic in business. With Mr Jivmes Gordon Bennett he laid two cables acro.«s the Atlantic in order to reduce thd cost of telegraphy between Europe and the "United States. He Hupplied funds for the founding of an English newspaper in Paris, and he was constantly engaging in French undertakings, in connection with which his name did nob appear. Mr Maokay knew how to use his great wealth judiciously. A Catholic, he was, so like many of his countrymen, a generous supporter of the Church, but if his charity was large, it wan exercised with keen discrimination. He took care to examine each case in which help was given, and thus his numerous benefactions were of genuine service to the recipients.