THE LATE EARL BEACONSFIELD.

Manawatu Herald, 26 July 1881, Page 4

THE LATE EARL BEACONSFIELD.

4*. Lord Beaconsfield has left a very small amount of money. Hughenden was purchased for him by a friend, and he paid this friend interest on the purchase-money, so that it was only his nominally. When Mrß Bridges Williams left him £40,000, most of thu was absorbed by the payment of debts. He had bought and furnished his house in Curzon street with the money paid to him for " Endymion." Considering the opportunities that he had to enrich himself, had he so pleased, the comparative poverty in which he died is as honourable to him as it was to Pitt. Lord Beaconsfield made an amusing mistake a few days before his last illness, as buried in thought ke entered the House of Lords. He abstractedly strolled up to the Ministerial bench and was about to take his old seat, as leader of the House, when he recognised Earl Granville already in possession. He immediately* retired and skirting the table took the seat opposite. The mistake created great merriment, Lord Beaconsfield himself heartily joining in the laughter. JLord Beaconsfield had two brothers — James, deceased, and Ralph. He never associated with any of his kindred, but he appointed James, in 1852, when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, a Commissioner of Ireland Revenue, the salary of which ia £2,000 a year, and his brother Ralph was, at his request, appointed by Lord Chancellor Cairns, in 1867, deputy clerk of the House of Lords, the salary of which is £1,290. They both, partioularly James, bore a strong likeness to their remarkable brother. The personal property of. the late Earl of Beaconsfield has been sworn under £77,000.

One of the saddest and most vexatious trials that oomes to a girl when she marries is, that she has to discharge her mother and depend upon a hired girt. Land and Water tells a curious story of an old conntry vicar of the sporting school. A marriage ceremony had been fixed, bnt it was a fine September morning, the clergyman loved'his gun, and so, forgetful of the mtAnentous knot he was to be the instrument of tying, he sauntered forth into the stubbles of his glebe. He had not been out long before he before he got a shot; but scarcely had he done so when he heard the well-known voioe of the parish olerk shout* ing after him : " Sir, the young people be ready, and be at the Churoh awaiting.' "Bleap me," saidthe old gentleman, "1 forgot; lil be there in a moment." He hastily picked up the partridge he had shot, and putting it in his pocket, he hurried tc the church; In the midst of the ceremony something was seen to ie flattering undei Jhis surplice,, and in a moment, to the astonishment of everybody, out from ita foldi flew the partridge, for it had been more stunned than lulled. "Ob, dear! there goes the bird," involuntarily exclaimed the vicar., "It's all right, sir," replied the clerk {J" sift cant get out, and she's gont into the squire's pew." The thinnest: sheet of iron that humar ingenuity ever succeeded in manufacturing was made in^*^l«% and wae indeed nothing but a goesjufaer.of whioh 4,800 Were require* to makeiiidUt hi thickneis.