People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 1, 3 January 1907, Page 28

People We Hear About

Sir John Madden, Chief -Justice of' Victoria, - has been telling a Cork interviewer that his visit to Cork is the first' after fifty years' absence. He lived in Ireland till 1851. In my early youth, said ' Sir John, I was the play-fellow of Dr. Tanner, of the Irish Parliamentary Party, whose father' lived next door to my father at BlackrocK, but my father went to England in - 1851, an< I went there to live with him for a iUtle while, but- was sent to school in Beauch&mp, near Lille, in France, where I stayed for two .years. At the end, of 1856 I left for Australia- with - my father, and, mark you, he was a "Young Irelander, and an intimate friend of the gifted and eloquent Thomas Francis Mea/gher— Meagher of the Sword— and indeed you will get an idea of his political predilections and of- his patriotism when-- 1 tell you that he secured and - cherished as his dearest possession the sword of- Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a relic that 4s s.Cill kept by my family in Australia.

The- election 'ol Mr. -Stephen G-wymu for Galway , (says, the ' Freeman's Journal') has naturally turned the thoughts of liish patriots to the career of his, grandfather, the illustrious William Smith O'Brien, who held Mr. Gwynn as an infant in' his arms. „ Smith O'Brien's father was a gentleman of the Highest, and purest- patriotic' principles. He represented the County of Glare hi the Irish Parliament at the time^ of the Union, and- his wife was a sister of the Countess of the great Earl of Charleniont, the j Leader of the Irish Volunteers. Sir Lucius' O'Brien was" approached with the offer of a peerage and a bride in return for support of the Union— offers which he spurned with loathing abhorrence and indignation. Mr. - Whiteside in defending Smith O'Brien on trial for his life in Clonmel_ in 1848 referred to this . episode. He said that his ,clierit had heard from- the. lips of his father/ an Irish senator .whom bribes could not purchase, whom a peerage could not lure,- whom threats could not coerce „ to betray his country, that Ireland's Parliament had - been destroyed, and that its destruction had been compassed by a combination of force and fraud for which the records o,f history presented no parallel.

The new Lord Aruudell of Wardour is ' the Rev. -• the Hon. Everard Aloysius Gonzaga Arundell, who was born on September 6, 1834, educated at Stonyhurst, graduating B.A. at-" London University, lie is a secular priest, and is now^ resident •in- Bournemouth, being attached to the Mission of the Sacred Heart, Richmond Hill. His cheery and" affable manner to everybody, rich and poor, Catholic and nonCatholic " (says an English paper), -has s w,on- for him no' end of friends in all classes of the community. Interviewed, Father Arundell said -he hardly knew what his future arrangements would be. 'Of course, your- -lordship will be goiug away from us now?' 'Don't be too sure, of that,' replied his lordship. 'It does not follow by any means that I shall be leaving, you,' and added, ' Remember that the successor to the Baronetcy of Sir Wm. Heathcote, who was' a Jesuit priest, preferred to go on with his work amongst the poor and needy rather than take aver the management of the estate with its farms and lands. One thing is certain, whatever happens, I shall have nothing to do with ' the. estate at Wardour; in. fact,- it is left to the Lady Arundell for life. I shall have an allowance, and, of course, a seat in the House of Lords.'

,T-he election of Mr." Thomas Hughes as Sydney's Chief Magistrate for 1907 (says, the '^Freeman's J.ournal ') gives that gentleman a. record similar -.to the famous Sir , Richard Whittington, who was ' thrice -Lord ''Mayor of London.' Readers of this journal "are familiar with the advent of Mr. Hughes' into municipal politics in his native city. Reform' on progressive and creditable lines came in with him and such as he, . ami will continue so long as the citizens show the same hearty appiepiation of their efforts as. they -did at the recent, elections. The late Lord Mayor" signalized his tenure of office by an activity in the higher interests of Sydney worthy of all praise. He leaves the ■ Mayoral seat with a record which savors of no • single^ unpleasantness • deserving of permanent remembrance, and his last action in the election of his successor^ counts for chivalry in a quarter little remarkable for that quality. In. that successor the citizens' are assured of a career no less energetic sn' progress than that of Loicl Mayor Taylor, witlr the further assurance that to a superb ability for • finance * Mr. Hughes will add -a less sanguine attitude towards pet schemes and a thoroughly convinced mind on the subject of a Greater Sydney.