People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 12, 22 March 1906, Page 10

People We Hear About

Sir James Matthew's retirement leaves the English Bench \ without >a single Judge appointed tlurmg Mr. Gladstone's administrations. Only one survives m Ireland—Chief Baron Palles, also a Catholic. Tho most Irish island in the West Indies is Montserrat, an English possession kfcown as ' Little Ireland.' All the old Irish "names are represented — Rjan, Reilly, Roach, O'Brien, and others — and borne by the vast majority of the 11,000 inhabitants. E\en localities aie known by the names of the owners of the neighboring sugar mills — O'Farrell's, Daly's, Furlong's, etc. Great} interest has been aroused, especially in the Catholic section of society in the United Kingdom, by the announcement of the engagement of Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuar.t, only brother of the Marquis of Bute, whose heir-presumptive he is, to Viscount and Viscountess Gormanston's only daughter. Lord Ninian is nearly twentyi-three, his fiancee, who recently acted as .one of the young Marchioness of Bute's bndesmaids, being about the same age. A remarkable feature of the new House of Commons will bp 'they (large nunubier of literary men and journalists among its members. Mr. A. E. W. Mason, the well known novelist, has been returned for Coventry ; Sir G. Parker, who has made the Canadian North-west familiar to the British public, is the member for Gra\esend ; Mr. Hilaire Belloc, whose ' Path to Rome ' entranced so many readers, represents Salford South. Other well known [writers in the newtllousic are Mr. 11. Paul, the well 'known 'historian, -essayist, and critic ; Mr. C. F. Masterman, and Mr. Henry Noiman. Mr. Joseph Patrick Nannetti, Member of Parliament for one of the divisions of Dublin, Lord Mayor of Dublin, and chief compositor of the ' Freeman's Journal, 1 was born in 1851, and is the son of an Italian sculptor and modeller. He was educated at the schools of the Christian Brothers, Dublin. He was apprenticed to the printing trade, and was afterwards employed in Liverpool, where he was one of the founders of the Home Rule organisation. Later he became secretary and afterward j) resident of the Trade Coaincil of Dublin, a member of the Corporation of Dublin and of the Port and Docks Board. Mr. Ililaire Belloc, the brilliant young writer, who has wrested South Salford, alter an exceedingly warm contest, from a powerful local brewer, has held a prominent lp lace in literature and journalism in recent years. He Is partly of French origin, and served for a time as a driver in the French, Artillery, as described in his ' Path to Rome.' After this experience he came back to England, and had a distinguished career at Balliol, wheie ne was the centre of an active group of Liberal undergraduates. After leaving Balliol he devoted himself to journalism and literature, and has long been known as a b-rilliant critic of recent ' Imperialism.' Lord de Clifford, who recently married an actress of the Aldwych Theatre, is the twenty-fifth baron of his house, the creation dating back to 129!), the first Baron, who was also Earl Marshal of England, falling at the Battle\ of Ban'n'ockbiurn. The present Barc_n, who is twenty-two years of age, succeeded his father twelve years ago ; >and as the title has several times been in abeyance (once in the 17th century for 86 years) for want) of a male heir, the introduction of new blood into the line by the latest holder of the title renders the marriage all the, more noteworthy. A correspondent of the Edinburgh ' Catholic Herald,' writing with reference to Lord Lovat, says : ' Lord Lovat '« grandfather Was a Catholic, but his greatgrandfather was not. He married a Miss Leslie, or Duguid-Leslie, of Balq/uhan, a lady of an old Catholic stock, who still inherit that property, as well as property in Derbyshire, which they got by marriage to a lady of the Eyre stock. These Frasers were descendants of the- Lovat stock through a son of Lord Lovat's, in the reign of Queen Mary. This son was Fraser of Knockie, near Fort-Augustus, not then built. lie married a lady who brought him the estate of Strickcrs, which in due time came by direct descent to Thomas Fraser, the son of the Catholic lady named Leslie. On the failure of the descendants of the Lovat of '45 (who was beheaded), Thomas Fraser succeeded by a deed of entail granted by the Hon. the Master of Lovat, who should have been Lord Lovat had the peerage not been attainted through his father's share in the rebellion. Thomas Fraser was gjrandfather of this Lord Lovat. He got the attainder removed and claimed the peerage, and in this way the family, which had been long Protestant, became again Catholic'