People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 23, 8 June 1905, Page 10

People We Hear About

The ' Figaro ' states that the Minister for Foreign *" Affairs, acting on the suggestion of M. EHijardin Beaumety, Under Secretary of State for Fine ArtSj has just conferred the Cxoss of the Legion of Honor on Madame Adelina Patti. Mr. T. M. llealy, K.C., M.P., who has been co-opted a,s a Bencher of the Honorable Society of King's Inns, i<o the first representative of the popular movement who has* e\er found his way into that body. He is now one of tine recognised leaders of the Irish Bar, and his services are in great demand by litigants of 1 every shade of politics. Viscount Landaff, who has sat so effectively on M. Combes in the ' National Review,' was one of the great lawyers of the Victorian era. For many years preceding hits appointment as Home Secretary (1886) there were few, if any, causes celebres in which his powerful adv ocacy was not availed of by one side or the other, lie was botrn in Ceylon— his father was a Puisne Justice of Ceylon— but a Welshman by descent. He was raised to the' peerage in 1895. lie has just entered his eightieth year, and has never married. The Catholics of the British Empire are proud of him, and they have reason to be so. Constance Countess do la Warr, who has taken a house in Edinburgh, and intends Ao spend the summer thoie, is a con\ert to the Catholic Church, into which she was iccened last year. She has been twice married, and on both occasions to Anglican clergymen, her first husband having been the Rev. the Earl de la Warr, who died nine years ago, and her second, the Rev. Paul Wyatt, chaplain of the Sa\oy. Lady dc la Warr is of Scottish family, having been born a Cochrane-Baillie, sister of the present Lord Lamington, and of the Marchesa Y'ltclleschi, who has nist pmblisned an interesting book about the Stuarts. It may be mentioned that the wife of the present (the eighth) Earl de la Wiarr is also a Catholic, being a 'daughter of Colonel Tredcroft, and a niece through her mother of Lady Bute, Lady Loiidoiin, and L,«rty Ilerries. There is a movement on foot in Montreal to erect a monument to the memory of Thomas D'Aicy M'Gee in that city. D'Arcy M'Gee was born in Carlmgford, April H, 1X25, eighty 3 ears ago lie wont to America in IXI3, and at ninciteen he was editor of the ' Boston Pilot ' The anniversary of American Independence gave 3 oung M'Gee an opportunity ol displaying his oratorical powers, and his speech on the subject of Repeal pro\ed most successful, attracted the attention of O'Connell, and was characterised hv him as ' the inspired utterances of a young exiled Irish boy in America.' He soon after returned to Ireland to fill the position of Parliamentary correspondent of the ' Freeman's Journal.' He loined the Young Ireland movement, and became one of the most remarkable of that Party. But when the insurrection brake out M'Gee, on whose head a price was set, effected his escape to America in the disguise of a rncst He started a paper called the' Nation ' in New York, and subsequently established the ' American Celt ' in Boston. After a time he removed to Montreal, for which city he was elected M.P. in 1857, and gradually became one of the most prominent public men in Canadalie was assassinated in Ottawa on April 7, 1808. Tn his Young lieland days M'Gee was, owing to his dark complexion, locosely named ' Darky M'Gee.' Mr W. Redmond, M P., in an interview granted to an Adelaide newspaper representative, said : ' I was interested when I came to South Axistr^lia to fi,nd that its Governor hailed from the same part of Ireland as myself— the Coumty Wexiord. I know Sir George Le Il.inte's farmlv well, and though they were ntot Nationrahsts iru politics, tfrey were much esteemed by the pec/ple as being- lihcirnl-mnndad nieni'licrs of their class. Curiously enough, the last time I met one of tihe Le ITMnte family was whom I was imprisoned in Wcxford Gaol, under the Coercion Act Mr George Le Hlmte was one of the K\isitiTig nisUms of the p-ri^on, and I 'do not think he quite relished hian ing to inspect me, because he remembered the time when my father was a colleague of his on the Bench an/1 t.hcv ware both visiting justices bf tho 'gaol in Wcxford. Tho Le IT-umte famdlv have a fcoautiful home in Wexford, called Artramiond. Wexford people will no doubt, hear fiom me with interest that one of the Le Hlunte family is tne Governor of South AnsIralia- I n nij closely connected witih the County of Wexfoid in rlublic and private life, my father ha,ving represented WexforVl borough in Parliament fior years. My granldMitole also occupied ihe same position in Parliament, »anid a handsome monument has been erected to his memory.'