People

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 18, 1 May 1902, Page 10

People

Miss ATmy Castles has two younger sisters who have really good voices;! also a young brother, George ■ Castles, who possesses a splendid tenor voice, an,d has great dramatic abilities. The whole family are intensely musical. Mr. Fra/njk Hugh O'Donmell lives i(n a flat in the West Central District o'fl London. He devotes himself principally to literature. His remarkable ' poem recently published, ' The Message of the Masters,' created a great sensation. He is at present engaged on a ' Life ' of Wolfle Tone, Princess Radziwill, who has just been committed for trial on a chiar"gie of forging Cecil Rhodes 's name, is editor of the Capetown weekly. ' Greater Britain.' She was bortn n 1858, her father being Count Adam Rzewnski, a Russian general. In 1873 she married Prince W. Radziwill. She is a very ' advanced ' woman, and besides her journalistic exploits has been guilty of three French novels. Lieutenant-General Paul, Lord Methuen, whose capture by the Boers was recently reported, hag his family seat at Corsliam, in Wiltshire. The house Is very beautifully situated in a most interesting part of Wiltshire. His Lordship's patronymic should be pronounced ' Methven,' or still more sharply 'Mevven,' and not ' Meth-yoo-en ' or ' Meth-oa' en ' as it commonly is. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Canada's Catholic Premier, who is reported to have b.een offered a Coronation peerage, amd even to have selected the ■ title of Lord Athabasca, after the locality of his birth, has been Premier of Canada since 1896, and was the first Frcnoh-Cajrxadian to hold that post, in which he succeeded Sir C. Tupper. A few weeks ago a deputation of French nuns were admitted to an au/dience with Leo XIII. Overjoyed at being able to offer in person their congratulations on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his pontificate, the Rev. Mother Superioress in charge of the deputation said :—: — ' Holy Father, we have been praying daily that you should reach the age of a hundred.' ' A hundred ! ' rejoined Leo XIII., 'now, why should you set a limit for Divine Providence ? ' Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, one of the ablest of the many able Irish politicians who helped to niake Austral Pan history in the early 'days, was 86 years old on April 12. Ho was a Minister of the Crown in Victoria nearly 50 years ago," and afterwards filled the position of Premier and Speaker. He draws a pension of £1000 a year from that State. The editor of one of the great' dailies of New York conceived the modest idea of writing; to the Queen- . Reg-ent of Spain, asking her to induce the yoamg King. Alfonso ;to send a short column of ' copy,' dealing with the causes and effects of the recent troubles at Barcelona. Accompanying the letter was a cheque for §10,000. The request was not entertained. The marriage of Lady Annabel Crewe-Milnes to Lord O'JSTeill, of Shanes Castle, revives a curiously romantic story with reference to the O'Neill family. The O'Neills, of Shanes Castle, or Eden-Duff-Carrick, to givo it its more idiomatic name (says the London correspondent of the ' Manchester Guardian ') were among the historic chiefs of Ireland John O'Neill, who died in 1739, -disinherited his eldest son Henry and left Shanes Castle to his second son Charles. The descendants of Chjarles became Earls O'Neill, and the last) of them died intestate in 1,855. The estates then devolved on the heir-a.t-

law, the Rev. William Chichesfcer, a clergyman in Dublin,, wfio was a descendant of the only daughter' of tlhe disinherited Henry. Thus the malevolent intentions of the ..implacable John were frustrated by fate, and his eldest son's descendants possess) their hereditary estates. Mr. Chichester assiumed his great grandmother's name of O'Neill in 1868 Bishop Wilberforce wrote thisi in his diary when staying at Shanes Castle : — '• A very fine place is the very least that could be said of Sh'anes. There is an estate of 65,000 acres in a ring, fence, and the demesne, lies gloriously along, the shores of Lough Neaghr— an inland sea which puts its Cumbrian competitors to. shame. A curious feature of the O'Neills' territory is that) there the population is Celtic and Catholic, in the very heart 'of .Ulster, and the prevalence of the name O'Neill among the laboring classes is a memorial of the time when Ireland as well .as ' Scotland boasted chiefs anld clans and feudal allegiances.' According to the recently-issued censSus returns (says the ' Lancet/ ) there are 169 male and six f ern/ale foreign pEysicians, surgeons, and general practitioners located in London. Of these there are nine male and one female Russian ; one male Russian Pole ; seven male, three female Swedes ,* two male Norwegians ? three male Danes ; four male Dutch ; one male Belgian ; 12 male French ; 32 male, one female Germans; three male Austrians ; eighti malo Swiss; three male Spaniards 1 ; one male Portuguese ; 12 male and one female Italians , two male Greeks ; three male Turks; two male Japanese; one male Asiatic; and 63 male Americans. The death occurred at Guildford early in Manch of Lieutenant-General John Patrick Redmond, C.B. He was the eldest son of the late Patrick Walter Redmond, of Rotoinstown House, County Wexford, and Pembroke House, Dublin ; also brother of the lateW. A. Redmond, M.P. for Wexford, and Mayor Walter Redmondt, and uncle of Mr. John Redmond and Mr. William Redmond, M.P.'s. Deceased saw lengthy and 'distinguished service in India, going right through, the Punj&uib campaign and Indian mutiny, being seriously wounded during the attack of foepoys on a magazine at Serozepore. lie received several decorations. A most extraordinary event will occur on April 1 (says a Lonldon, correspondent). The Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, will practicialljy become, although a Catholic, master of Westminster Abbey. All the customary officials are to be given a holiday, and the Duke will be in a position to exclude worshippers.. The services will be discontinued, and the choir granted leave of absence till the end of the month, when rehearsals will begin for the Coronation ceremonial in the adjacent church of St. Margaret. The whole matter is made the more strange because the Duke of Norfolk' is a< very rigid Catholic, and some years ago successfully established his i title to be declared owner of the chancel of the parish church of Arandel the consequence being that the Catholic service is conducted in the chancel, while on the other side of the brick wall the Church of England service is held in the same edifice, or at all events under the same roof.