Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 351, 29 January 1903, Page 2

Personalities.

MINISTER AND BEBEL'SI SON. m was a rebel, is a splendid example of what the Boers may' become aa citizens of the Empire- He is Sir Wilfrid lander's • second man,' as loyal as his more famous colleague. The accession of Queen Victoria found Mc Tarte's father flghtieg British soldiers in Canada: to-day he is a Minister in a British Cabinet—' British to the core,' to quote the phrase of his own. A. prince of organisers, keen, aggressive, and brill i nut, Mr Tarte bore a lion's share of th.3 work which led up to the Liberal triumph at the 1895 elections, when Sir Wilfrid Laurier'B Ministry came iH after twentyfive years of Conservative government. Suoh exciting times have rarely been kaown at Ottawa as during the early days of Mr Tarte's membership of the House of Commons. Entering the House as a supporter of the Conservative Government, he assailed the corrupt elements in his party with an enthusiastic courage almost Cromwellian. Mr Tarte, the central figure of a great struggle at an inquiry which he secured, became a Libera], and the Laurier Cabinet has no more heroic or respected member now than he.

A LOBDLY ABCHEB, Lord Aylesford is figuring as Lord Warden of the Woodmen of Arden. Upon the outskirts of the forest which Shakespeare englamoured for all time, his seat, Packington Hall, is situated. The herd of black deer which roamed the park may be the descendants of those concerning which Shakespeare wrote in ' As You Like It.' Lord Aylesford himself has all his life been a keen sportsman. At Eton be was equally at home on the cricket field and. the river. When he failed to pass for a commission in the Army he went in for the practical study of the eminently practical science of brewing at Maidstone, and his first wife was a sister ef Mrs Hamar Bass. When the death of his brother in 1385 made him Lord Aylesford he took up his abode at Packington, and became Lord Warden of the aforementioned Woodmen. The society of archers, the oldest in the kingdom with the exception of the King's 13 idyguard of Scotland, was formed by the Lord Aylesford of a hundred and twenty years ago. An annual meeting is held to shoot for the silver arrow and other challenge trophies which the club possessess.

THE 'SILVER KING.' Mr John Wm. Mackay was a typical example of the successful emigrant, for he landed in the United States as a mere boy from Dublin, without means, influence, and connections, made a fortune in ten years, lost it, made others, became the dominant influence in important commercial enterprises, and died one of the richest men of the United States, if not of the world. An idea of his wealth may be conveyed by the fact that in 1873 he and his partner drew out of one of the Bonanza silver mines alone £30.000,000. The extraordinary fortune that attended him was due not less to his gifts of supervision than to his personal skill as a, miner, for even while money was accumulating rapidly he worked in the lower levels with the pick side by side with his employes. In 1878, with Mr Flood and Mr Fair, he established the Bank of Nevada, with headquarters at San Francisco, and six years later he joined in the enterprise which was to make his name familiar throughout the world, for then in partnership with Mr James Oordor Bannet, he initiated tho enterprise which crystallised into the Commercial Cable Company. In 1884 he laid two cables across the Atlantic from the United States to England and to the coast of France. He was a member of the Roman Catholic Communion, and had made liberal dispensation of his great wealth for ecclesiastical and charitable purposes. His great business capacity and remarkable energy made him one of the most noteworthy men in his country. Don Fernando di Colonna, Prince of Galatro, is his son-in-law.

THE CECILS. In the history of Fagland the house of Crcil bas long held a foremost place. In the days of the great Burleigh it produced, as now, two members of the family in successive generations to hold high office under the Crown Lord Burleigh practically rul d England uader Elizabeth. His second son, Bobert Cecil, became Lord High Treasurer, and within the fust two years of his reign James I. had advanced him to the rank of Earl of Salisbury. James not only liked Bobert Cecil but his house, and gently persuaded him to exchange Theobalds for Hatfield, which chen belonged to the Crown and had recent memories of Queen Elizabeth. Now, once more, after nearly three centuries, a Cecil succeeds a Cecil, though this time it is a nephew and not a son. There are points of family resemblance between the distinguished exPremier and tin Premier of to-day, the bulky marquis and the slender Leader of the House of Commons. Lord Salisbury's interest in party politics was always desultory, and his natural bent is towards seience. Mr Balfour has little of the fierce joy of conflict, and the epithet which—as 'Bloody Balfour'—lie shared with Judge Jeffreys, and with even less reason, some years ago, sounds comic today.

THE FBENGH PBEMIEB. M. Emile Combrs, who succeeded M. Waldeck-Eousseau as Prime Minister of France, is a man of retiring disposition, scarcely known outside the Senate, where he was often vice-president, and where for five years he has been the recognised leader of the Radical group. In spite of his sixty-seven years ' Pere Combes,' as he is called at the Luxembourg Palace, is vigorous and energetic. He is a whitehaired, wirv man, five feet three inches in height. His bright, sparkling eyes are half-concealed by gold eye-glasses, and he glides about at a rapid pace, often with a book or portfolio under his arm, like a little white mouse. His parents intended him for the Church, but he became first a village pbvsician, and later a schoolmaster. The formation of his Cabinet, which is the forty.first since 1871, was effect'd in the unprecedented period,of forty-eight hours. M. Combes is not a brilliant orator, but has a logical, businesslike way of stating a case that carries with it sympathy and.conviction. PBINCE ABTHUB. Though only nineteen aarMMfc agq, Prince Arthur of Connangh lfflMMfl l ? ° appearance of a finished soldier nKßPnead to foot in his Hussar uniform. No Hohenzollern of them all has a more military aspect, and his tastes accord with his traditions. He is the grandson, as everyone knows, of one of the ablest commanders of modern times—'the Bad Prince' Frederick Charles. He. in his turn, was nephew of the old Emperor William, and third in descent from Queefc Louis of Prussia, the loveliest and the most heroic figure of the German War of Liberation. By right of such ancestry, Prince Arthur of Connaught bears close resemblance to the present German Emperor as he was a quarter of a century ago.