People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 27, 2 July 1903, Page 10

People We Hear About

n.^ 1 , J ' F - .x. x - O'Brien, M.P., has resigned the post of Bntlin • a^d ct t a f!' y ° f UlitedU 1 ited Insh a S ue of Great dat^r "^f^w ' T ixn &^ understands that at an early fte kept his tour terms as a student for the Irish Bar . When Mr. Murrough O'JBrien, the Irish Land Pom h^bffierTh 1 *? 1 t th « .P ri °«JP^?ty of Thomond^rom ms bi other, the lost King, and surrendered it to Henry produced the late Marshal Mnc^oTi.Duc 5S MajSta throe^SF f and Lady ret ' c intend to s P end th « tached to the Legation at Frankfort when he 24 over 8 p f r- ag %i, He w Was "'bsequently removed to Ha n t o\ei, Paris, The Hague, and Naples. In 1857 he was S?creta at v i and t tW ° yy £ arB later ™» appoinlS oSSe^S fo i^3°: e a-nd^ a i SS 8 6 6 C 4 hai ? OO O O ordinary and Minister rienipotentiary to the ArStSe Republic. In the following year he w^ s appointe^MinS refill Und m 1884 MiniSt<?r PortugaL "He To be caricatured in ' Vanity Fair,' and to be the principal guest of the Vagabonds, the chief literary society of I^ondon. are now the hall marks of success and distinction. It is some years s.nce Mr T P O'CW nor flguredf Ig ured n ' Vanity Fair/ and qu.to recently' he was The principal guest of the Vagabonds. The dinner was meant to honor Mr O'Connor as now the greatest of living British journalists, and to celebrate the high charwte? and tho immediate and vast success of his new paper^ 11. s Weekly. The dinner took place in one of the argest banqueting halls o f the Hotel Cecil. From two 0 three hundred ladies and gentlemen, including all tie n °,?«t lianioS i ttmi) »R lh «>""»K« generation of-no-\ehsts poets, and jouin.ilist.s. Mere present, and Mr lettridge, the lainous short stoiy writer, was in the ,ia"'-f, ia "'-f ?lT SllaS " otk "^. the novelist, was f M n-n vlcG -, chaulmn Ml - Tettridge spoke warmly of Mr. O Connor's se.Mces to literature by his wellknown reviews, and especially of the debt which the younger generation owed him for his prompt and eeneious encouragement of thorn To Mr. O'Connor more than to any man, said Mr. l'ettnd K c. was due the better tone oi literary criticism in the journalism of to-day. Professor Bryce in his hook ' Studies in ContempoIsh I,!^m> P y ' *' ritin * » f I> , aimill - states that the lush leader, at the great and painful crisis of his career, consulted Cecil Rhodes as to the best course to cKdopt amd was adMsed by the South African poSbteus to ret .re for a tune. Professor Bryce bnngs out clear"? and sucenctly how n ulelv and almost diametrical y ia.nells gun itias and temperament differed from those that ordnunlv characte, ,se Ihe Celtic individuality^He did not loye speculation or the pursuit of abstract ruth,, nor had he a taste for literature, st.ll less a S light mlearn.ng for its own sake He had no grasp of constitutional questions j M his speeches all was dry direct, and piactical, witliout so much as a graceful phrase or a choice epithet JT,s only interests, outside politics, lay in mechanics and engineering, and in tho development of tho natural resources of his country His pr.de was so strong that it almost extinguished vanity larnell did not appear to seek occasions for display frequently neglecting those which other men would have chosen, seldom seeininp to he elated by the applause of crowds, and treating the FTo.ifo of Commons with eoual coolness, whether it cheered him or hooted ,at him He cared nothing for nnv social pompliments or attentions r.uely accepted an imitation to dinner, dressed with little care, and often in clothes whose st\le and color sooireil unworthy of his position.'