People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 36, 3 September 1903, Page 10

People We Hear About

The Laetare medal of Notre Dame University, given each year to some one of the Catholic laity in the United States who is accounted to have rendered special ser 7,r ce ™ Church and country, was conferred, June 29. on Mr. Charles T. Bonaparte of Baltimore, Md.

Sir Hubert Jerningham, the Catholic diplomat, who is an ex-Governor of Trinidad, is to erect at Berwick-on-Tweed a handsome memorial to his wife, Lady Jerningham, by the sculptor Mr. Ingram. The memorial will take the form of a sitting figure in marble of Lady Jerningham, with a hound on either side. The base will be a granite drinking trough for horses.

The youthful Marquis of Bute has purchased a house in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, where he intends to take up his residence during part of ths year. This will gratify thje people of Edinburgh, as, curiously enough, the Scottish capital contains not a single house inhabited by a peer.

The German Emperor has ordered a kitchen to be fitted in the palace at Potsdam in order that his daughter, Princess Victoria Louise, may learn cookery. When issuing orders with regard to this kitchen th#. Emperor is reported to have said : 'My daughter must be, a model German housewife. She must understand how to fry a sausage, roast a joint, bake a cake. She must be a womanly woman of the good old-fashioned sort.'

Lord Llandofl, who was so prominent a speaker in the House of Lords on the occasion of the debate on the Coronation Oath recently, is, as many will recollect, thse Henry Mathews of political fame, who, by force of character and ability, rose to the position of Home Secretary. He is one of the ablest men in English political life.

Thomas F. Walsh, the Catholic millionaire of Washington, will entertain King Leopold of Belgium when that monarch visits the United States this year. Mr. Walsh is a typical American millionaire. He made his wealth out of the Colorado mines. lie was born in Ireland in 1851 and arrived in America at the age of 18. He went to Colorado soon afterwards, took up mining, and by industry and good luck accumulated a vast fortune. His income is said to be more than £300,000 a year. He has resided much abroad, especially in Paris, where he met King Leopold and initiated that monarch into American business methods, and. later became his partner in several ventures. The King has intrusted much of his wealth to Mr. Walsh for investment.

The following story is revived by th.B death of the Marquis of Salisbury :— One of the clergy in the neighborhood of Hatneld, who was an enthusiastic advocate of local veto, one day tried to awake his noble neighbor to the grave importance of the liquor question. Lord Salisbury listened, but the clergyman fe't that he had made no impression. ' Your Lordship,' he urged, 'would at least admit that an undue multiplication of publichouses in a place is an inducement to excessive drinking.' ' Really,' said Lord Salisbury, ' I am extremely sorry to appear unsympathetic, but I cannot admit even that. In this house— Hatfieid— there are forty bedrooms, but I never feel more inclined to go to sleep here than anywhere else.'

Mr. Balfour's recommendation, in his capacity a 9 First Lord of the Treasury to the Crown to confer a Civil List Pension on his political opponent, Mr. Justin McCarthy, on the ground cf his high literary attainments, will be appreciated as a gracious and chivalrous aot. Civil List pensions are now restricted to £1200 a year, and are conferred according to the terms of a resolution of the House of Commons of the 18th February, 1834, to ' such persons as have their just claimson the Royal beneficence, or who by the performance of duties to the public or by their useful discoveries in literature or the Arts have merited the gracious consideration of the Sovereign and the gratitude of their country. The pension, which amounts to £250 a year, operates from last October. Mr. McCarthy has, apart from his political services, done work of rare merit as a journalist and historian. Before Mr. McCarthy was a member of Parliament he occupied a seat in the Press Gallery, has distinguished himself on the floor, but he is the only one who became a leader of a party in the House.