People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 7 April 1910, Page 548

People We Hear About

The Hon. Alexander Wilmot, M.L.C., of Cape Colony, who visited New Zealand a few years ago, celebrated his golden wedding on January 17 last at Wynberg. , He is one of the leading Catholics of the Cape. Much sympathy is felt with Lord Ninian CrichtonStuart in the loss of his little heir, a pretty little boy of three, who was an interested participator in the recent election contest at Cardiff, being driven about, to his great delight, in a carriage bearing the injunction, Please vote for Daddy.’ The t little canvasser ■ has succumbed to a chill caught on the exciting occasion. Rev. Father Matthew Russell has been editor .of the Irish Monthly since 1873, and Rev. Father Hudson began to edit the Ave Maria in 1875. The careers of these two veteran editors (says the Sacred Heart Review ) have been remarkable in other respects besides length of years. Perhaps no other living editor has done more than either of these men for the encouragement of Catholic writers and the improvement of Catholic literature. All Catholics (says the Sacred Heart Review) are familiar with the life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, whose virtues hallowed the thirteenth century, and who bore the beautiful title, ‘Patroness of the Poor.’ At the present day Europe has another noble lady whose name is also Elizabeth and whose charity towards the poor and the afflicted is very notable and very beautiful. 2 This is the new Queen of Belgium, wife of King Albert I. She studied medicine as a girl and was graduated with the degree of M.D. at Leipzig shortly before her marriage. She never practised, but she takes a direct and personal interest in the dispensary for poor consumptives she and King Albert founded some years , ago. She is one of the few women upon whom the Pope has conferred the Order of the Golden Rose. : ' ’ r-. r v ■ Mr. Hugh Law, M.P., who has represented West Donegal since 1902, is the second son of the late Right Hon. Hugh Law, formerly Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Born in 1872, he was educated at Rugby, and afterwards at the University College, Oxford, where he was the fellow-student of such other distinguished and interesting politicians and pundits as Belloc, Chesterton, and Phillimore. Mr. Law is one of the considerable number of Protestants who are members of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He represents, perhaps, the most Catholic constituency in all Ireland, and, although with him as with his friend, Swift Mac Neill, his Protestantism is an uncompromising quantity, he is a firm favorite with his constituents, and is invariably . nominated by the leading priests of his constituency. Mr. Law facetiously describes himself as a ‘ persecuted Protestant.’ A speaker of considerable culture, ease, and ability, his recent visit to Scotland has established him in an ■ enduring popularity among his fellow-Nationalists there, while among the Liberals in large industrial centres where he has spoken, he is regarded with no less cordiality. There passed away recently in London Captain J. J. Dunne, a man who played many parts in his lifetime. He was born in Queen’s County in 1837, educated at Clongowes Wood College, Dublin, and on the Continent, and, having joined the Army, served in this Dominion in the early sixties. Later on he travelled all over the world in search of sport and adventure. On the starting of the movement for self-government in Ireland, he became secretary of the Home Government Association, of which Isaac Butt, Q.C., was president. On the death of Mr. Butt in 1879 Captain Dunne was appointed Governor of H.M. Prison Service, and for several years was in charge of Castlebar Gaol. _ On leaving the prison service he settled in London as a jour-, nalist, and wrote for the Field. His book on How and Where to Fish in Ireland, by ‘Hi Regan,’ is well known to all anglers in Ireland. He also wrote Here and There Memories, by ‘ H.R.N.’ in which he recounts some of his experiences and relates many racy Irish episodes and stories. His daughter, Mrs. Golding Bright, is the novelist and dramatist, ‘ George Egerton.’ , In the following analysis the members of the House of Commons are classified according to their profession, and the principal mercantile and other positions they occupy: Bankers and financiers, 13 barristers (in or out of practice) and K.C.’s, 125: brewers, distillers and wine merchants, 13; builders, architects, etc., 8; civil and mining engineers, 11 colliery proprietors and coal merchants, 7; diplomatists and Government officials, 8; directors of public companies, 12 estate agents, accountants, and auctioneers, 7; farmers and agriculturists, 13; gentry and landowners, 56; iron masters and metal merchants, 13 labor representatives, 40; manufacturers and spinners, 51; medical profession, 9; merchants, 37; ministers of religion, 2; newspaper owners and journal-; ists, 38; peers’ sons and brothers, 45; printers, booksellers, and authors, 8; professors and lecturers, 12; secretaries, private and official, 10; steamship and ship owners and builders, 12; solicitors (in or out of practice), 30 shopkeepers and traders, 16 military officers, 44; naval officers, 2. In addition there are 1 commercial, traveller, 1 picture dealer, 1 pilot, 2 schoolmasters and tutors, 2 representatives of the motor-car industry, 3 railway and naval contractors, and 4 sharebrokers.