People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 42, 20 October 1904, Page 10

People We Hear About

Mr. Kemp, cousin of the Boer general of that name, has discovered a quarter ol a million of rnojiey in gold] buried by the Boer Government before Lord Roberts entered Pretoria The lucky finder will receive half the amount, the other half going to the British Government . A 'iVcs-t Coast paper is- responsible for the statement that nhon in England in JB(J7, attending the late Queen's Diamond Jubilee, Mr Seddon, if he had desired, could have been created a Knight Grand Cross ot the Order ol St. Michael and St. George, an honor conferred on Sir Wilfud Launer and Sir George Turner, and that m 1902 the same distinction was at his disposal, as also was a baronetcy. Madame Janotha (says our London namesake) recenvod iom the C^ucen at the end of the season the gold modal for Art and Science, previously conferred upon Madame; \lhani, Lady Halle, and Madame Melba. Ol the.se four ladies., tluee happen to be Catholics ; and the fou.it h, IMa'UAm-e Melba, is- the lirst to admit that she has to thank a Catholic choir m Australia for the opportunity (o tli*- <' wi ; fvr voice Su Rowland Bleiineibassett, whose resignation of the piesidcn.-y of the (Queen's College, Cork, has been announced, is U\v tourth baionet, having succeeded his father m J<Sl ( ), when he was not quite ten years of age. Ho is the head ot the Biennoiha-ssett family ot Kerry, vvheio they ha\e been landed i)iopnctors since tihe time of Queen Eh/abelh Sir Rowland repiesented his own county vi Parliament fiom 1<S&() to 1 Wsi hay ing previuasly been member lor Galway City fiom 18G5 to 1871. Veiy much the best-prov uled-for family in the world must be that of the Czar. The Grand Dukes, brothers, cousins, a.;id uncles ot Nicholas II , now some 35 or 36 in uiimbei, a,ie entitled, at birth, to an income of ,18,(1, <IUO a year out ot the Imperial estates. T(his income is, of eoiuse, largely increased in their miaturer yens by public appointments. Considerable as the total is, it is but a .small tax upon the Czar, who is t'lie owner ol over a quarter of the land in European Rusisia. j Accoiding to a cones'pondent of t.he ' Freeman's Journal, ' it was an liis'hman, Cathal Melag/hlin, better known asi Lluulcs Ala,ekh<u, who, on KVb.uaiy 11, 1741, fust, played in ' The Ale-it haul oL Yuiuce ' the typical Jew, such as Kembia>ndt might have parntcd, replacing t lie l>ailesq ; ue lepiesentation of Shy lock as hitherto given by Do^gett and others On that memorable night tne wails of Driny Lane echoed the thunders of applause which gieetcd Macklm's acting— another Irishman, Quin, as Antonio, also receiving his sihare. Interesting, too, is the lact that an Irish lady, Kitty Cluve, nee Rafter, was the Portia ot the iu»ht, who, m Uarcvh, 17>i3, was selected by Handel as the representative of Dahla in his otatono ot Sam^oh ' As is known, Pope protlaime'd MacKlm ' the Jew that Shakespeare drew.' In 1 in>), .Matkhn, ai the age of Do, was eng,aged by Daly at Smock Alley Theatre, 'Dublin, at £50 a night. It was cniy m 1788 that his memory began to fail, and the end came in May, 17K!), when he played Siiylock for tne last time, and was led oil the stage, never to return Maeklin survived till July 11, 17!)7, after a theatrical career of close on 70 years. r l ho late Baron de Kobeck, Rancor of the Cur'agh of Kildaie (says the ' Westminster Gazette '), though Swedish m name and title, had some of the best of Irish blood in his veiins His grandfather, after having fought with the French in Amorica against the Briti.<-\h in the V\ ar of Independence, became a naturalised British subject under a special Act of Parliament passed lor Jus benefit amd assented to by (Jeorge 111. Towards the clo-^c ot the eighteenth century the natlurahsed baron mained the daughter of Lord Gowran, belonging to the Fitzpati u-ks ol Os'sory, one of tlhe most distinguished of tho ancient tamilies ot Ireland. Lord Castletown of I pper Ossory is the present head of tihe Fitzpatricks. Baron de Robock's mother was a daughter of the Lord Cloneurry who was a prisoner on the clharge of high treason in the Tower of London when he succeeded to his father's title m 17!J9 Mr. Lawless, as he was at vibe time of his arrest, Was undoubtedly a United Irishman Jle had been the associate of Lord Fdward Fitzgerald, and he found the money for the defence of Father O'Coisjlcy, the Irish priebt who was executed as a rebel near Maidstone in 1798 After his accession to the Barony of Cloncurry he remained in the Tower for nearly two years. He was nrti'de a Baron of the United. Kingdom in 1831.

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