People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 33, 13 August 1903, Page 10

People We Hear About

Sir John Charles John Day, who retired from his judgeship in the Queen's Bench Division, England, in 1901, was 77 on June 19. He was born at The Hague, but his parents were domiciled at English-Batch, near Bath. Sir John Day was educated at Friburg, Down" side College, Bath, and London University.

The Geographical Society of Paris has conferred a "silver medal upon the Rev. Father Piolet, fci.J., in recognition of his monumental work on French Foieigu Missions during the nineteenth century. In another way Father Piolet has also been distinguished. Wmie in London in June he attended a Mansion House luncheon, where, it is pointed out by the ' Tablet, ' he was the first Jesuit who ever said grace.

The Duke of Norfolk was amongst those who signed the address of welcome and sympathy presented to the relugees from Douai. It is interesting to note that the Howard iainily were brought back to Catholicism by a famous student of Douai, Edmund Campion, the Jesuit, who was executed at Tyburn in 1581. Philip Howard,, Earl of Arundel, and ancestor of the present Duke ole Norfolk heard Campion in a public disputation with Protestant theologians in* the 'lower of London t and thereupon joined the Catholic Church. The Earl of Arundel died a prisoner in the Tower some years later.

The Key. Father Philip Fletcher, who read the address of welcome to the Benedictine monks at Charing Cioss Station, London, on their arrival iroru Douai, is tne brother 01 Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, who has represented mid-Sussex division in .Parliament for 25 years. lhe rev. gentleman was originally a curate in the Church ol England attached to one 01 the Key. Arthur Wagner's Ritualistic churches at Brighton, where he was immensely popular, cruelly on account of his self-sacrihcing work among the poor.

It may not be generally known, by the way, that Dr. Larkin, the Abbot ol the Benedictines who recently armed with his community and students in Londom, is the son of Irish parents. He was born at Bridgewater, in Somerset, 45 years ago, and was educated at Douai. lie received at the early age of 28, his degree of Doctor ol Divinity, alter public examination beiore a jury of 13 Cardinals at Rome, and is said to be the first Englishspeaking clergyman since the Reformation to have earned his degree in this manner. Before attaining the rank of Abbot he acted as missionary priest in Liverpool and elsewhere in the north of England.

The death is reported in our Home exchanges of Mr. T. W. Allies, who passed away at St. John's Wood, London, on June 17. Mr. Allies had reached the venerable age of 90, and died fortified with all the rites of the Church. Educated at Eton, where he obtained the Newcastle scholarship, and later at Wadham College, Oxford, where he was successively scholar and Fellow, and graduated in 1832, taking a first) class in classics,' he became a Church of England clergyman, and in due course was appointed to the rectory of Launton. Here he married, and for some time did excellent work. He was greatly influenced by the Oxford Movement, and especially by Newman's writings and letters, some of which were addressed to him personally. Advancing towards the Catholic Church, he wrote upon doctrinal subjects with a strongly marked Catholic tendency, and the famous Anglican Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Samuel Wilberiorce, was not slow to point out his inclination to diverge from Protestantism. The Bishop demanded from him a retraction or a satisfactory explanation. A long correspondence ensued, and Mr. Allies felt that neither in the conduct of it nor in the arguments used was the course taken by the Bishop such as should commend itself to his conscience. Travelling on the Continent and contact with eminent men, especially Cardinal Newman, whom he regarded as his pole-star, led to the conversion of Mr. Allied, who was preceded by his wife in that step. He was received into the Church by his friend the great Oratorian. For thirty-six years— from 1854 to 1890— he was secretary of the Catholic Poor School Committee, and visited various parts of England in connection with educational work. Rome years ago, feeling the advance of age, he retired into private life. Thenceforward he devoted himself to literature and spiritual preparation for the end. He was the author of a number of valued works, the chief being ' The Formation of Christendom,' in which he dealt with the subject in a truly philosophic spirit.