ANNIVERSARIES IN 1913.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1675, 15 February 1913, Page 7

ANNIVERSARIES IN 1913.

A ; CALENDAR OF SOME NOTABLB .;•"■ ;.;■• VCBNTENARIES.;' -' '.; '; Although. 1913 is not particularly brilliant in its -calendar of notable anniversaries, several interesting and even great nnmCs will be brought to mind as the, month* unfold—names of sufficient fame in varying, spheres to call for. the,early, preparation of centenary honours (saya tho ''Westminster Gazette"). The;rocord (of literary',and political celebrities'who first saw the light in the thirteons; of any oentiiry is curiously scant. ■- But in, English literature,, at any. rate, there ara Laurence Sterne, whoso "Tnstram; ■ Shandy" . and "Sentimental Journey" are of bookshelf ■ classics, and William; Edmonstoune Aytoun, the author of ''Lays .of tho Scottish Cavaliers," and .hardly loss famous for his collaborations' with the late Sir Theodore Martin inthe."Bon Gaultier Ballads." V

> In French literature there willbo the bicentenary ■:■ of Diderot, the philosopher, novelist, and' the tercentenary,, of La Rochefoucauld, whoso memoirs and "maiims" ar*'also classics'in their way. , In Music the centenary of Richard Wagner will be, r of course, the outstanding Ovent, and,it will be interesting to observe that plans are completed in London and'tho leading musical centres of the provinces iter the' adequato commemora-' tion of the master of modern music, The great Italian,; Giuseppe Verdi,. was also born in 1813; and to the same year belong .Sir' George Macfarren,' the English composer,, who' was" for .many ■ years. head of the Royal Academy of Music end Vinoent Wallace, ,if he erratic Irishman whoso "Maritana' hag a outious enduring for music-lovers of a-certain class. (

In'pblitics, two names will recur in the New Tear; calondnr—lsaac Butt,' tho Nationalist leader, who is not without some claim to lx>' regarded as the Father., of the; Home Rule "movement,':"arid' Edward Cardwell, a mid-Victorian statesman, who waslrish Secretary 'in, 'Palmerston'S. last' Ministry and SecretaryVfor"-'Wif-'ln Glad-: stone's fiTst : Admirjstration. Cardwell' was the Haldano of :'CB, for although neither a distinguished orator nor a brilliant*'sdebat«r':hj wasiuseful as o/'solid, safe, and' sound man who had a very real capacity as an administrator, a eiit displayed both in the political reorganisationof tho Army, ahd.in tlia initiation of notallo reforms at the Boardof Trade, of which he was also Presidont for a while. • Other interesting anniversaries due during 1913 include Ihoso of David Livingstone, Sir Ifaao 'Pitman, whose memory shbrthand-writers all over •tho_world are preparing to honour! Jeremy Taylor, the famous Protestant dlvino) : Bishop Pearson, ono of the-: most distinguished occupants' of the Soo of Chester; and the Eov. Siark ipattison. .', .<;.',. „' Aniong'the principal events of the New, Year that -may be already -foreseen ■; are the opening of tho. Panama Canal, ttio celebrations of the restoration of the king-, Idom of tho Netherlands, and the assemb- ; 'ling iri London in August of delegates from all-countries to the seventeenth international Conaress of Medicino. .- ;