INDIVIDUALITIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8338, 25 January 1913, Page 9

INDIVIDUALITIES

•'All tho ■world's a stage, And ail the men and women merely playor.V'

Au interesting little ceremony in the House of Lords one day last month was tho taking of tho qxth by Bishop Coro Dn his translation to Oxford. An earlier Bishop of Oslevd was a very famous figure in the House of Lords—namely, Bishop ‘Wilberforco, whose speaking Mr Gladstone - likened to that of Macaulay. Greville, who in 1846 received rather an embarrassing proof of tho good Bishop’s ■. care for the spiritual needs of his acquaintances, speaks with high.praise of'a great oration of AViiborforco’s against .slavery In tho House of -Lords, while ho doughty a controversialist as Lord Westbury boi*o testimony also to his iirowcss.

Tho death of Colonel Frederick Feel reminds the “Westminster Gazette of an instance in which*tho claims to disti not ion of a younger brother have been forgotten almost’ completely in the lustro of bis elder’s achievements. Colonel Peel was a grandson of tho Right Honourable Jonathan Peel, younger brother of Sir Jonathan Peel was horn in 179 U, and bccamo a Lieutenant-General in 1859. Ho sat in tho House of Commons for forty-two yours, and made what, in anj' other family, would have been considered a considerable name. In Pool’s Government of 1841 hc heid_a minor olhce, bub Lord Derby, in 1858, mado him Secretary lor War and a Cabinet Minister as a token of respect to the memory of Sir Robert.

Audrey Lady Petro, who is claiming tho Form vail peerage on behalf of her young daughter, is a daughter of a distinguished Anglo-Canadian divine, Br William Robinson Clark. After being vicar of Taunton and prebendary of Wells, Dr Clark took up his residence in Canada many years ago, and became widely known for his lectures and writings, both there and in the United States. It is thirty years since he began his long connection with tho University. of Toronto ns Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at Trinity College in that city. Before his daughter married tho fourteenth Lord Petro another daughter had married that peer’s uncle, the Hon. Albert Petro.

Tho best known instance in recent years of baronies which have been called out of abeyance by tho Crown in favour of ladies occurred in the cases of tho Countseses of Yarborough and Powis. In 1802, after a short abeyance, tbo Conyers barony was given to tho former, and in 1003 she got tho Fauconberg barony, while-the Darcy do Knayth barony went to her sister (tbo Countess of Powis) at tho same time. Also, when Lord Beaumont died in 1895, there was an abeyance of a few months till tho Crown.awarded tho succession to tho elder of his infant daughters.

Tho autumn number of the “Bookman ” contains two special articles on Whistler—ono by Air Joseph Pennell, joint author with Airs Pennell of the “ Authorised Life of Whistler,” and tho other by Mr G. S. Layard. Never were rho words “He being dead yet spoaketh ” better exemplified than in the caso of Whistler, writes Mr Pennell. “ Tho idle apprentice ” happily lived long enough to know that his placo was among tho great. Almost all his important canvases have been secured by the most important galleries, and his few great pictures still in private collections will bo acquired by other galleries as soon as opportunities offer. In portraiture, in bis noetdrnes and marines, ho is tho modern master; in etching ho is tho supremo artist of all time, and his pastels, water-colours, and lithographs arc among tho triumphs of tho art of otrr day, asserts Air Pennell. Aloroover, Whistler’s theories are accepted by thoso who uovor know ho propounded them as well ns by thoso who knew ho was right when ho uttered them. It is only nine years since ho died, and in that short time over sixteen books about him have been published. Mr Pennell in his article has something to say of a number of these. Air Bayard’s article is based on the “ Alemories of Whistler ” by Air T. R. Way.

“Tennyson,” says George Meredith, "was sensitive to criticism. I remember him saying to me once, as we wero walking from Orleans House down to tho river, ‘Apollodoms says I’m not a great poet.’ I wondered to mysoif who Apollodoms could be, till I remembered there was a certain man of the name of Giliillau, who wrote under tho name in an insignificant paper of those days, and I said, Why trouble your head with what Apollodoms says?’ He answered mo very gloomily, ‘Ho shouldn’t have said I’m pot a great poet.’ And I remembered, too, that ■another attack in a third-rate weekly paper, great as ho was caused Tennyson three nights of insomnia. No, sensitiveness like that is too dear a price to pay. I need not toll you that tho rogues never kept me awake.”

Says Air Sidney Low of Air Balfour:—“Ho has tho ease, tho polish, tho dignified, mundane temper, and tho courteous restraint of the great writers and artists of tho eighteenth century, with whom ho has so many points of contact. We do not wonder that ho finds more pleasure in this society than in that of a more recent period. His sympathetic interest in the intellectual and aesthetic development of tho nineteenth century diminishes, ho tells us, after the first third sf that cycle was passed.”

The resignation of Dr. Reginald Copleston, Bishop of Calcutta, on account of i!l-hcaith, occurs at a time when great developments in the organisation of the Church in India are contemplated. Tlio removal of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi will cause n rearrangement of some of the present dioceses, and if. as is expected, a now Seo of Delhi should he created, it is very probaMo that it would supplant Calcutta as tho scat of tho Metropolitan. Dr. Copleston was Bishop of Colombo from 1375 to 1002, tvlicn ho succeeded the present Dean of Manchester at Calcutta, while his successor at Colombo was his brother. Dr. E. A. Copleston.