People We Hear About.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5, 1 February 1900, Page 21

People We Hear About.

Fir Henry Tiite, the head of one of the largest firms in the liriti^h Hugar trade, and honourably known for his liberal benefactions to education and other objects, and especially as the donor of the National (i.illery of I'.ritish art at Millband, and of many of the pictures it contains died in tho early part of December at his reHidciice at Streathaui common. London. He was in his eighty - firt-t year. The death is reported of Madame Leoreton-Uourbaki, who had been an inocpaiablt' companion of the En-mre"* Eugenic for over thirty yeary. She entered the service of the Empress in 1807, and accompanied her on the Ith of September in her flight from the Tulleries and by Trouville to England. Madame Lebreton-Bourbaki was in her second widowhood when she became reader to the Empress and was constantly with her in that capacity. Miss Aimie Lawrence, of New York, who was married in Paris at the Passionists' Church there to a Mr Douglas Walter Campbell, the Duke of Argyll's grandson, is a member of a Catholic family belonging to New York. There is a not remote presumption that some day the newly-made bride may be Duchess of Argyll, and in that event a likelihood of one of the Scots dukedoms coming to a Catholic inheritor would be practically assured. According to recent statistics published by the Salesians of Paris, the Order founded by Don Bosco, the ' St. Vincent de Paul ' of Italy, has at present charge of 350,000 poor children who are taught trades, as well as the three R's. There are twenty houses in France— at Paris. Marseilles, Lille, Toulon, Nice, etc. The house at Mcnilmonfant, near Pere Lachaise, is about to be enlarged for the accommodation of an additional 200 children aa boarderß. Don Bosco only died in 1888, and his disciples who form one of the youngest of the Ecclesiastical Congregations, are fast spreading all over the great centres of civilisation. The Congregation is ruled from Turin, where the Superior-General resides, and, as above hinted, is strongly represented in France. The following account is given of the founding of the Croix in Paris, a paper which has come prominently before the public of late. The Key. Pure Vincent de Paul Bailly, of the Assumption, preaching one day in a Paris church, was struck by the sparsity of his auditors. Especially was he struck by the few men present to hear him. Going outside afterwards he noticed the stream of life bearing in every direction men bu-y and full of action. 'My God, what a number of souls to saye — but how to get at them ?' thought the priest and religious in one as he stood and looked. 'How " Then he remembered that reading noondays i^ a personal need, and the taste for it a prevailing passion. 'We must write tor them,' he continued, ' since they will not come and listen to our preaching. We must supply food for their craving after reading. We must pit the good newspaper against the bad one ' Thu.* was conceived the idea of starting the Paris Croi.i Not long afterwards Pcrc Kailly praying one day in the basilica of Montmartre, then in a rudimentary state, saw his plan of starting a daily Catholic newspaper, take distinct form within his mind. Soon afterwards the first copy of the Croi.c was given to the public.

Sir William Harcourt recently completed his 72nd year. He is the oldest member of the late Liberal G-overnment now sitting in the House of Commons, being three years older than Sir Henry Fowler, and nine years older than Sir Henry Campbell-Banner man. Sir William entered Parliament when 41 years old. He is one of those who were first returned at the general election of 1868, and it may be noted that of members who were then elected for the first time not a dozen now have seats in the House. Sir Henry Camp-bell-Bannerman is one of them, and Lord George Hamilton another. Members whose experiences go back beyond this, 31 years afjo, can be counted on the fingers of the hand. It i=> not genprnily known that General Sir 0. F. Clery. now in command of an important division of the British forcea in South Africa, is connected w'th, or related to, mnny European royal houses. Towards the end of the last century General Clery's great grand-uncle, Henry Clary (the name was then spelt, is still pronounced, in that fashion), went to France and established himself as a large wine merchant at Marseilles. He had a daughter, Desiree Clery, who was rich and pretty. She refused the hand of a youDg and penniless artillery officer from Corsica. His name was Napoleon Buonaparte. Her sister married Joseph Buonaparte and became Queen of Spain. Desiree married Bernadotte, and thus became Queen of Sweden. Desiree's grandson is the present King of Sweden. Her great grandson is the Danish Prince who is married to the daughter of the Prince of Wales. The freedom of the City of London, whioh was presented to|Mr. Henniker-Heaton, M.P., in recognition of his services in securing Imperial penny postage, will doubtless act as an incentive to the member for Canterbury to push his campaign for cheap Imperial cables with redoubled vigour — if that be possible. Mr. HennikerHeaton, who is now fifty -one years old, is the son of LieutenantColonel Heaton, and belongs to an old Lancashire family. His father's death throwing his future into his own hands at sixteen, he went to Australia, where, besides rising to public influence aa a journalist, he amassed a fortune in stock-raising, and returning to England in 1881, stepped at once into official life in connection with the colonies. He first entered Parliament in 1885, and immediately took up that question of postal reform, which he has only relinquished with victory. Mr. Gordon Milne, writing to The Manxman from Thornfield, Thorny-road, apropos of some remarks in that journal, says : 'The late Right Rev. Dr. Gillis, D.D., Bishop of Edinburgh, has the distinguished honour of being the first non-Frenchman who preached the Great National Sermon and panegyric on Joan of Arc lin the Cathedral of Orleans about forty years ago. The late Dr. i (Jillis belonged to a family of Scottish emigrants, and he was ( brought up in the French-speaking province of Canada, and therei fore French was his native language ; besides he was one of the , most gifted and eloquent of men, and his panegyric of Joan of Arc ,is regarded even now as a masterpiece and a classic. Probably, however, the address of Archbishop Ireland, which I have also read and admired, was more practical, and therefore if anything could bring the French nation to a sense of its misdeeds, miseries, and , backslidings, and also rouse it to a high endeavour, the soulstirring discourse of Archbishop Ireland, delivered as it was in ; trumpet tones, was eminently calculated to effect that object and purpose.