People We Hear About.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 13, 28 March 1901, Page 10

People We Hear About.

The position of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom carries no salary. Lord Salisbury, therefore, draws no salary from the State. In the new British Parliament there are 140 lawyers, 65 gentry and land owners, 52 manufacturers, 24 merchants, 14 farmers, 33 journalists, 59 army officers, and 13 labor representatives. Labor cuts a small figure in the House of Commons. It is not generally known that the mother of Mr. George Musgrrwe, of Melbourne theatrical fame, ia a sister of the wife of the versatile M.P., proprietor and editor of London Truth, Mr. Labouchere. There were three sisters, all gifted and beautiful. One married Wm. Lyster, the old-time opera entrepreneur, one became Mrs. Labouchere, and the other Mrs. Musgrove. King Edward VII. has always had liberal leanings. He never liked Lord Beaconsfield (says the Dublin Freeman's Journal'), whereas he had a sincere admiration for Mr. Gladstone. Lord Rosebery is perhaps his most intimate friend among leading politicians, while Lord Carrington, who is in most respects a thoroughgoing Radical, has always been one of his very choicest friends. It is true he has not cultivated politicians overmuch ; but it is noteworthy that those with whom he haß been friendly are not on the high Tory siae, who had been for many years the sole depositaries of the confidence of the late Queen. Through the generosity of the late Miss Catherine Wolfe Bruce, the Jesuit astronomer, Father Hagen, director of Georgetown College Observatory, has been enabled to publish his atlas of variable stars on which he has been at work for seven years. A sum of £400 had to be met, even after the possible sale of such a publication had been taken into account. Professor Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory, very kindly called Miss Bruce's attention to the matter, and publicly declared that when the new work appeared, astronomers would wonder how they got on previously without ita aid. Professor Charles Villiers Stanford, who succeeds the late Sir Arthur Sullivan as the conductor of the Leeds musical festival, is a native of Dublin, and haa held the chair of musio in the University of Cambridge since 1887. In 1883 he received his doctorate of music from Oxford, and was afterwards Professor of Composition in the Royal College of Music and conductor of the Bach choir. Among Dr. Stanford's works are an opera, ' The Veiled Prophet ' the libretto of which is drawn from Moore's ' Lalla Rookh ' ; ' An Irish Symphony,' ' The Voyage of Maeldune,' 'Fifty Irish Melodies,' and old songs. The first day in January began the third century in which the venerable Dowager Lady Carew has lived, her ladyship having b?en bom at Holyhead (then little more than a fishing village) on the 2nd of December, 171*8. Her parents had fled to Holyhead but a few weeks before, to escape from the civil war in Ireland, crossing the Channel in an open boat. She lives at her charming place, Woodstown, in County Waterford, receiving visits from time to time from members of her family of the second and third generations, and from many of her old friends who live in the neighborhood. She is even yet a remarkably handsome old lady, and retains the stately, gracious manner for which she was always distinguished. The Dowager Lady Carew used to enjoy telling a story of her presentation at the Court of Louis Phillippe. She had taken with hi r to Paris a dress length of Irish poplin, which she had made up by one of the first modistes in that city. The dressmaker went into e( staples over the material, the like of which she had never bt fore seen, and prophesied that it would oreate quite a sensation at Couit. As Lord and Lady Carew were ascending the stairs leading to the rooms at the Tuileries, where they were to be received, she felt a slight pull at the skirt of her dress. Having been warned to ■ beware of pickpocketß,' she turned round quickly to see who touched her, and was surprised to see a very smartly dressed lady examining her dress with great curiosity. 'Je vons (l< ma rule mdle pardom, madame /' cried the stranger. ' But would you tell me of what your drese is composed ? I never saw anything like it before.' Of course, Lady Carew gratified her curiosity, adding that the work was first introduced into Ireland by French j Huguenot refugees.