CHANGE IN ENGLISH SOCIETY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3583, 5 January 1883, Page 4

CHANGE IN ENGLISH SOCIETY.

A marked feature iv English life of late years has been the prominent part taken therein by the Roman Catholic aristocracy. Thirty years age they were a race apart. To-day they are not only everywhere, but the crone, de la crane in fashionable society. The splendid cortege of carriages, with servants and outriders in blue and silver, conveying the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk and their guests from Arundel Castle to Goodwood, was the linest thing of its kind seen ou any English race course this longwhile and attracted every eye, while in London Lady Howard of Glossop's dinners and Mrs Pereira's balls arc in point of sclectness the ny pl".x ultra of entertainments of their kind. A lady who has much to do with the Roman Catholic revival, if we may so term it, was Mrs Washington Hibbert,

uee Tichborne, whose magnificent balls Avere, tAvcnty-fivc years ago, the talk of the toAvn. Probably more Protestants and heretics have Avaltzed" and hobnobbed in her house than in any other in the land. Of course, too, the large dumber of "savclls" who have " gone over " to Rome has had its influence in°the matter, and the fact that many of the Roman Catholic grandees, finding that there was nothing more to be got by supporting the Liberals, went over to the Tories—with Avhom thej- all along had really much more in common —naturally commended them to the Protestant members of that party. The personal character of the Roman Catholic aristocracy stands extremely high, but there is, with the exception of Lord Acton, scarce a man among them who has made any mark in public or political life. Lord Bute takes no part in it, but is absorbed in personal interests. He is '' a great Count,'' and lives in princely style, and his Avifc —a first cousin to the Duke of Norfolk—fully shares his tastes for splendor.— ls.Y. Times, August 25th.