SPLENDID ENGLISH WOMAN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 4 March 1907, Page 4

SPLENDID ENGLISH WOMAN

i The Baroness Burdett-Coutts was one] I(f those rale .personalities whom the would tun ill afford to lose. Her life was devoted to charity and relieving the sufferings of the poor. Inheriting at an early r.ge immense wealth, she used it well and wisely as a trust for the good of her fel-bw-men and not for mere purposes of selfsu. enjoyment. She was honored wit-h live special friendship of the late Queen Victoria, who, in recognition of -her charitable work and of hex noble solicitude fox the widow and the orphan, in 1871 bestowed upon her the rank of a peerage. Hhe was -a link with a now almost forgotten past, since -hor long life began while .-Japoleon was still a reigning monarch, and since she hod witnessed the Teigns of five Uritish Sovereigns. Full of years and ! honors, she passes to the grave amid the . son-row andl sympathy of a whole nation. i Seventy years ago Great Britain was

very busy asking the same question concerning two women: "What will she do with it?" The question appii'd to a Queen and a throne; to an heiress and a huge fortune. Queen Victoria had just come into tor great inheritance; Angela Georgina Burdett had come into the great fortune which reochtd hex from her grandfather the banker, via, the hands of Harriet Melion— the handsome actress who became the wife of that octognnarian Thomas Coutts, and died as Duchess of St. Albans. Britain was stirred by the news of such

i fortune falling into such young hands, inu almost held its breath. Nearly two mTlions starling in the absolute control >f a young girl of 23! In weight such a 'ortune amounted to thirteen tons and

seven hundredweight of solid gold. i\ot -aJI disinterested, however, Britain poured its woos into the ear of the heiress, and showed how easily trouble could be ended by Miss Buideit-Coutts merely signing her name. Suitors appeared, but seem to have had no chance of urging their suit. Madmen pestered her, cranks and impostors sought to waylay the heiress, i But- the question, "What will she do with it?" was soon answered. With "it" she would make the lives of others happy and kave her own memory sweet, Her charity began as soon as her fortune c&ine into her hands. Charles Dickens had laid tho foundation of his fame by his first tlireo books, and had aireadj proved himself the apostle of humanity, when Mies Burdett-Coutts accompanied him through the slums of East London—drcadrs before sluming became tho distraction or foible of fashion—and loosened her purse strings -to the needy and the forlorn.

Next she observed tie procession of tinselled and unhappy gaiety that passed her house in Piccadilly, and an echo of a great voice caught in the letter which Dickens wrote, and addressed simply "to a -woman," which was put into the hands of those who walk the night, inviting each to begin a fresh life in the home which Miss Burdett-Coutte had opened. "There is a lady in 'this town," the letter 6aid, "who, from the windows of nei house, has seen such as you going past at night, and ihas fch> hci heart bleed -to see you. She is what is called a great lady; but she. has lookd upon you with compassion as being of her own sex and nature, and the thought of such fallen women has troubled her. She has resolved to open a home. . . In this liome, which stands in a pleasant country lane, and where each may have her UtUie flower garden if she pleases, they will be treated with the greatest kindness; will lead an active, cheerful, and healthy life; will learn many things that it is good to know, and, being entirely removed from all who have any knowledged of th?ir past career, will begin life afresh, and be able to win a good name again." Miss Burdett-Coutts had now fully entered upon her charitable career. She. regarded her fortune as a trust placed in her hands by Providence for the benefit of humanity. Thenceforth her name became a household word, and almost synonymous with goodness. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children had its birthplace in her homo; waifs were snatched from the gutter; flowCT-gnrls and bootblacks were cared for; out-of-work weavers wore given money to emigrate, and their children looked after until they were able to send for them; the victims of choleia in the East End had

a special medical service organised for them, and all sorts of comforts and luxuries wore distributed among them wecli after -week; bishoprics w:re founded ir three continents; churches mie built ii London and the provinces; the. Dyaks o Sarawak were taught agriculture, and ii that distant island over which Raja.l Brooke rales a model farm created by he still flourishes; the Irish fishermen of Cap CleaT .received £IO,OOO from her purse t purchase boats and nets, and a wave o h<T fairy wand changed their conditioi from famine to one of more than comfort; model houses were built in the East End; a topographical survey of Jerasaleum was executed at her cost.

Considered merely as a grande .dtune, her life was of outstanding interest. She lived in five regions, and the girl-friend of Earl Grey and Lord Melbome, the protege of Wellington, lived to welcome the Tising statesmen of politicians of the reign of Edward VII. When she was invited to

join the. first London School Board, she replied that woman's work lay outside that of public bodies; but she lived to see "Suffragettes" clamor for votes and go to prison. Among the suitors for ,her hand was Comte d'Orsay, "the lost of the dandies" ; and in her twenties the rustics rrowded Tound the gates of Holly Lodge, Hjghgate—thee regardijd as in the. height (if the country—to tou-.h their aats when "the heiress" eame forth in lict spacious bareouohe. The very pages of "Ingoldsby ' bear her name, for she was the hist survivor of those eelebrites who figure in Barney Maguire's account of the Coronation, where the Rev. Thomas Barham set lu-r down as that swate charm* r, the female heiress, Anjaly Coutts." His Majesty once referred to her as "a

woman who, after my mothiT, is the most r-markahle in the kingdom." The lives of (he two ran side by side for many years: and, at the end, each liad answered, with a fulness that the questioners could hardly have contemplated, that question of 70 yuiTs ago: "What will she do with it?"— Da : ly Mail.