People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 48, 1 December 1904, Page 10

People We Hear About

Lord Northcote, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth, has jus.t entered on his 49th year.

General Stoessel, the hero ot the Port Arthur defence, has been variously described as a Swiss, a Hungarian,, and a Jew, but he is now stated to be pure Russian, lab gicLUdtathcr being General Ivan Stoessel, who served against Napoleon in 181i2. Nevertheless, the name betrays his Gieiman origin, lie is no aoiubt a descendant of one ot those numerous German or Swiss families which went to Russia in the time of Peter the Great.

A recerit letter by the late Sic William Harcourt to a Catholic correspondent contains (says the London

■ Tablet ') a .sentence which we are nappy to p,ut iuto prunt— ' 1 assure you you are mistaken when you say ot me tihat I "do not like Papistis." Amongst my dearest and most \alued friends are many of your communion, which represents so large a part of Christendom. Those whom I do not li,ke are the persons who, prolessing to belong to tihe Protestant Church of England, ttake all its benelits.and are unfaithful to its creed.'

Lord Charles Beresford, who £hep\herded the Baltic Squadron after its inglorious attack on the English Jisinng lleet, is a Waterford man, and is CO y)ears of age. He has been a naval officer for 47 years, for he was only 13 when he entered as a cadet on board the Britannia. Lord Charles once sat in the Commons for his native county.

According to the ' Daily News,' Mr. Michael Ltavitt, whose recent ly-putjli shed work, ' The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland,' has had a large sale on both sides of the Atlantic, intends to complete as sooh as possible- a new

volume dealing with the history of Fenianism as he lviiows it. Mr. Davitt joined the organisation when only a boy, and the consequence of his membership was the sentence ot penal servitude, in which he thought out the scheme of the Land Leaouc. Apart from his own knowledge, says the ' Daily News,' Mr. Davitt has had the unique advantage of ha\ino- access to all the papers beai ing on the sxibject which were left by tihe late James Stephens, the founder and Head Centre of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, as the Fenian organisation was called, who was one of the most daring consipiratoin the world has ever known. Two peaceful revolutions were the immediate Consequences of what Mr. Gladstone called 'the intensity of Kenianism '—one was the Larnd Act of 1870, and the other was the Disestablishment ot the State Churcih in Ireland.

Mr. Townsend M'Dermott, the father of the Victorian Bar, Who recently celebrated his 86th birth anniversary, was called to the Bar at Dublin when Daniel O'Conjiell was still practising He is brimful of reminiscences of the Liberator, ot Chief Justice Whitesijde, of Napier, of Smith O'Biien, of Charles Gavan Dully, and of other eminent men ot the time. He was present at the trials of O'Connell, O'Brien, and Duffy, and was personally acquainted with all the great men mentioned. In 1,851 Mr. M'Dermott came to Victoria, amd soon secured a largo practice. In one suit his brief was covered with 3000 guineas. During. Wie greater part of his fifty years' caieer vn that State he has been intimately associated with Ballarat, where he still resides, and, as he says himscli, l calmly awaits the end of a life which Providence has meicifully prolonged so long.' Mr. M'Dermott was at one time a leader in politics, and held office as Crown Solicitor. In the early and middle sixties he was one of the most prominent freetraders in the memorable struggle between free trade and protection.

The ' Westminster CJazette ' of September 28 has an interesting reference to William Vincent Wallace, the composer of ' Mantana ' and a number of other popular operas. it quotes the incidents of his adventurous career lrom Mr. J. F. Hogan's ' History of tlhe Irish in Australia.' A. native of Waterford, young Wallace was organist of Thurles' Catholic Cathedral at 16 and at 21 was a musical celebrity in Dublin. In August 1835, he emigrated to Australia, and became a sheep farmer in New South Wales, completely abandoning; music for a year or two. But he was discovered and brought to Sydney by Governor Sir Ricihard Bourke There he became a popular violinist and music teacher and it was in Sydney he commenced the composition of his famious opera, ' Mantana.' But he was a restless genius, .and he could never stay long in one place He gave concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide etc was captured by rebel Maoris in New Zealand, went on a cruise in a whaler, and was one of tftiree who escaped lrom a mutinous massacre, survived a steamboat explosion in America, was mixed up in a Mexican revolution and had numerous other strange experiences in India China, and Japan. '