People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 21, 21 May 1903, Page 10

People We Hear About

The Holy Father has conferred the Knighthhod of St. Gregory the Great on Mr. John Boyd Harvey, of Tondu House, Tondu, Glamorganshire.

Surgeon-Ma jor-Qeneral William Roche Rice, M.D., C.5.1., late Director-General of his Majesty's Indian Medical Service, died on Friday, March 27. FatherJoseph B Ward, of Brighton, gave him the last Sacraments. The deceased was a member of a well-known Kerry family.

In a recent issue of the ' N.Z. Tablet ' we mentioned that Mr. John E. Kedniond, M.P., had forwarded a box of shamrocks to President Roosevelt for St. Patrick's Day. The President, in acknowledging the present, wrote as follows to Mr. Redmond : ' The shamrocks have come, and I thank you for them. You are very good to have thought of me. By the way, I have just been reading Lady Gregory's translation or paraphrase of the old i^rse epic, " Cuchulain of Muirmethne " — Heaven forgive me if my spelling is wrong— and I am delighted with it.'

In connection with the Land Bill it is interesting to read that the young Marquis of Conyngham, who will come of age this year, is the largest landowner in Ireland. Lord Conyngham 's estate, according to the last return issued, embraces 129,846 acres in Donegal, 20,059 in Clare. 9634 in Meath. and 38 in Limerick, and with nearly 10,000 acres in Kent, he has a grand total of 173,314 acres. Lord Conyngham, who will sit in the House of Lords as Baron Minster, lives at Slane Castle, Heath, the house where his ancestor entertained George IV. ' All the old beds in the county were begged and borrowed,' we read (sajs the 'Daily Chronicle') in the account of the Royal visit, and the Chancellor, we are told, ' was so bitten by fleas on the first night that he departed next morning in a rage.'

Tn an article on Paris correspondents, Mr. John Bell writes in the current issue of ' Cassell's Magazine " :—: — One of the most versatile of Paris correspondents is undoubtedly the representathe of the ' Daily Chronicle,' Mr Clifford Mi 11 age, who has represented his paper for twenty-five years. He was originally intended for the Catholic priesthood, and had a most successful collegiate career at Ushaw, Louvain, and Rome, in which city he became a Doctor of Philosophy. He, however, abandoned the idea of the priesthood, but still retained his religious convictions. He is a friend of most membets of the Vatican diplomacy (who were his college friends), and is generally looked upon by the Catholic hierarchy as the best-informed journalist on ecclesiastical matters.'

When Mr. Redmond first joined the Irish forces in the House, a Nationalist's opportunities for taking an actne part in the business were much more numerous than his lieutenants find them to-day. His own maiden speech was a very brief one, and was delivered under extraordinary circumstances. He was returned for New Ross — Sir Charles Ga^an Duffy's old constituency — on January 31, 1881 ; he took the oath and his seat on February 2, and was one of the batch of Irish members expelled on the e\ening of February 3 for declining to leave the Chamber on a division for the expulsion of one of their fellows. It was on being asked to withdraw that Mr. Redmond made his maiden speech. It was very brief, but cxp,ressi\e : 'As I repaid the whole of these proceedings as unmitigated despotism, I beg respectfully to decline to withdraw.' Then he was removed.

'Ihe death is leported of Mrs. Mary A. Sadlier, the well-known Catholic writer, who passed away at Montreal, Canada, on April ."> Although 83 years of age, Mrs Sadiier, up to a short time ago, was able to contin'tie her liteiary labors and at different times her personal reminiscences furnished material for interesting articles. Her long illness was borne with remarkable Christian fortitude. She retained possession of all her faculties right up to her last moments, and took, part in the different religious services. At her deathbed were Rev. Father Turgeon. rector of St. Mary's College ; Sir William Ilingston, and the members of her family. Mrs. Sadlier was the daughter of Francis Madden, of Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland, where she was born December 31, 1820. She began her literary life at the age of 16, and when barely 18 began to contribute to 'La Belle Assemblee,' a London magazine, published under the patronage of the Duchess of Kent. She left Ireland in 1814, and two years later married James Sadlier, of the firm of D. and J. Sadlier, publishers, of New York, Boston, and Montreal. Her life was largely spent in New York, and it is there that she did some of her best woik. One of her first works was a collection of traditional stories, published in Montreal, entitled ' Tales of the Olden Time ' Tn one of her numerous tales of Irish immigrant life and adventure, called ' Eleanor Preston,' theie are some sketches of Lower Canada rural life and scenery. Mis. Sadlier's literary works may be divided into three classes • Firstly, the historical Irish romance, of which ' Confederate Chieftains ' was most widely known, and considered the best of all her works; secondly, her didactic and religious works, original and translated, such as 'De Ligny's Life of the Blessed Virgin, 1 and ' The Life of Christ,' both from the French; and thirdly, a line of fiction, the romance of Irish immigration, in which she was considered unrivalled. Among the latter are ' Willy Burke,' ' The Blakes and Flanagans,' ' Con O 'Regan,' ' Eleanor Preston,' and ' Aunt Honor's Keepsake,'