People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 12 May 1910, Page 748

People We Hear About

Presiding at a Horae Rule debate held in the InstituL on o 9 f * he Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, on March 17, Sir John Gorst said Home Rule was rapidly coming into the region of practical politics again. Without any disparagement of Mr. Asquith, he held that Mr. Redmond was undoubtedly the ablest leader in the House to-day, and had he been associated with one of the great English political parties, he would most probably have been Premier. Dublin will in future be the repository of Holbein’s famous painting of Blessed Thomas. More and his family Sir Hugh Percy Lane, who recently purchased it at Christie’s for 950 guineas, has been prominent in pro111u ■V I -®* H l ® revival i ll Irish art, and besides being a regular exhibitor of Irish pictures in London, has presented a modern collection to the city of Dublin. He is a director or the Dublin Municipal Art Gallery and a member of the Irish National University Council. . *■ Twenty of the Presidents of the United States, including Roosevelt, have been lawyers. Two, Washington and Harrison, were farmers, but their elevation was mainly due to their achievements in war. Only two professional soldiers, however, have ever filled the presidential chair—laylor and Grant. Johnson was a tailor before he became a statesman. Sixteen of the. Presidents were college . ua^es * . Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, hilmore, Lincoln, Johnson, Cleveland, and McKinley did not have the advantages of college training, but some of these graduated ,at the law.

Hitherto the Record Office in London, says the Morning I ost, has possessed no autograph of any English Sovereign earlier than Richard 11. Now, however, a member of its ,|,' vo: j li y?r ln .L Vatican archives, has found a letter of Edward 111 to Pope John XXII., dated about 1330, in which the King has written, as he says, with his own hand the two words ‘ Pater Sancte.’ His object in doing so, as he informs the Holy Father, is that the latter may know' in future that the King is really anxious to have granted any requests and recommendations made in a letter in which these two words in his own handwriting may occur. „ The discovery is, therefore, an interesting example alike of the Kings penmanship and of his diplomatic skill. Somebody has said of Mr. Hilaire Belloc, M.P., that he is one of the three cleverest young men in London.’ It is probably true. He is certainly one of the most interesting, and his waitings are a delight. At the general election in 1906 he was returned for South Salford, being again returned in the Liberal interest at the general election just over He carried his originality into Parliament with him, as has been shown in his speeches. He is a master of humor and irony, and is a fearless Catholic. He is 39 years of age, and the only son of Louis Swanitor Belloc, a French barrister. From the Oratory, Edgbaston, he passed to Balhol College, Oxford. As a French citizen —he only naturalised as an Englishman about eight years ago -he was called away from a scholastic career of exceptional brilliance to serve in his country’s array; he served m the Bth Regiment of French Artillery at Toul, Meurthe-et-Moselle. He subsequently began journalism in London, and was quickly known as one of the most brilliant accessions to London Letters ; contributing particularly to the Speaker and the Daily News.

Notre Dame University in selecting Dr. Maurice Francis Egan as the Laetare medallist for this year has recognised a Catholic writer, educator, and diplomat whose whole career has been an honor to the Church (says the Cat,iohc e V ' The Laetare medal is given in mid-Lent eveiy year to some Catholic American for distinguished service in art, literature, science, and philanthropy. Dr Egan from his very earliest days has been a valiant defender of his faith and exponent of Catholic truth. His pen has been ever ready to aid in providing a Catholic literature so sadly needed here, and that, too,' despite the fact that ins financial rewards would be immeasurably greater were he to cater to the general reading public instead of to a Catholic clientele. As a diplomatist he has also won renown. With the royal family and the people of Protestant Denmark the Catholic American Minister is immensely popular. Dr. Egan as a man in public life is a credit to the Church, and we are glad to note that the Church has honored him. Dr. Egan (says another AmenMav P 24 er iVS a w* IVe f ? Philadelphia, and was born on May 24, 1802. His father, Maurice Florent Egan was the grandson of mil Gerald Maurice Egan, Chevalier a? lorent, who was a descendant of the Chevalier McEghan—bravest of the brave Irishmen who fought with Laliy in India, during the reign of Louis XV. He inherits from bis father the Celtic humor and French suavity which made him the most attractive guest in the national capital. To his mother Margaret Mac Mullen, is due that deep S e S r e e iife and ***** t 0 d " ty which has character-