People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 41, 8 October 1903, Page 10

People We Hear About

Cardinal Logue was the first Irishman in history to vote at a Papal Conclave (says the ' Leader '). In 1878 Cardinal Cullen was prevented by illness from taking part in the election of a successor to Pius IX. Cardinal biobons was the first American to enjoy the same high honor The first American Cardinal, Archbishop McCloskey of Mew York, reached Rome too late to participate in the election of Leo Xlil. Mr. Horace Plunkett, who was recently knighted, believes intensely in the future of Ireland, and in the last dozen years he has striven with great earnestness to promote co-operation and improvement in the methods of agriculture and industry. He offended his political friends the Unionists, by appointing Mr. T. P. Gill, an able Nationalist, to be secretary of the Board, and since they opposed and defeated him in South Dublin he has been without a seat. Sir Horace is a brother of Lord Dunsany. Sir Edward Levy Lawson, who has just been raised to the peerage by King Edward, is the proprietor of the London ' Daily ielegraph.' He is the son of the late J. M. Levy, one of the founders of the cheap press, and was born in 1833. Commencing his active career of journalism in 1851, he was prominently connected with the repeal of the paper duties, and dur ng the long period of his direction of the ' Daily Telegraph ' was responsible for the organisation and success of funds in relief of the cotton famine in Lancashire In 1860-65 and of the poor of Paris after the siege of 1870-71. With James Gordon Bennett he organised Stanley's great journey across Africa (1874-77) in search of Livingstone, whereby the Congo was discovered. ' M.A.P.' tells the following story of King Edward in connection with the death of Leo XIII. :— During the State visit of President Loubet to England there was a good deal of speculation as to what would happen in the event of tfhe Pope's death, and whether any of the Royal entertainments would in that case be curtailed or abandoned. The President himself, although the official head of a nominally Catholic State, seems to have carefully refrained from any expression oi feeling on the subject ; but it appears that King Edward, with his usual tact and decision, had already quite made up his mind. The Adjutant-General of the Army, .General Sir Thomas Kelly-Kenny, in an audience with his Majesty a day or two before tne great ball at Buciungham Palace, respectfully submitted that, as a Catholic, he would be prevented from appearing at the function in question, should i Pope die before the appointed evening. The King immediately intimated that in such an event the ball would not take place at all. In reply to a respectful representation that it would be difficult at the last moment to communicate this to the thousands of invited guests, Well, 1 said the King, 'if they do arrive at the Palace, they will just have to turn round and drive home again.' Lord Iveagh, whose gift of £50,000 to the Dublin hospitals in commemoration of the King's visit to Ireland, has been described as the ' richest Christian in the United Kingdom.' Some years ago an unauthorised estimate placed his actual fortune at £14,000,000, and it was also stated that he holds £2,000,000 of North-Western Railway stock. The famous Guinness brewery m Dublin was (says ' New Ireland ') bequeathed by Sir B. L. Guinness, the first baronet, to his two sons, Arthur and Edward, and he expressed the hope that neither would relinquish his interest therein. Shortly before Sir Arthur, the elder brother, was made Lord Ardilaun, he sold his halfshare to his brother, receiving, as rumor had it, a million sterling for it. But Edward, as sole owner, doubled the profits, and in 1886 the business was converted into a limited company, with a capital of £6,000,000, of which the greater part was the share of Sir Edward, now Lord Iveagh. He has given of his wealth with rare liberality for public purposes lie gave a quarter of a million for the endowment of bacteriological research, another quarter of a million for the housing of the poor in London and Dublin, and his minor benefactions— though they are only to be described in the relative sense— are many. Lord Iveagh bought the lamous Elvedon Estate some years ago, amd is also a London land owner.