People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 27 December 1906, Page 28

People We Hear About

The death, has occurred in Paris of Madame ' Gounod, the widow of. the celebrated, composer, " aged seventy-seven.. She Vas the daughter of a professor of music. - . . - . Mr. T.. P. O'Connor, M.P., had an interview with' _ President! Roosevelt when he was " in America, renewed his acquaintance with Professor Gold-win Smith, and dined with Mark Twain, / the veteran humorist being as delightful as ever. " 7 Mr. Bourke Cochran, the eloquent Irish-American, and Miss Hanna, the daughter of a former Governor of the Philippines, are about, to be married. Recently Mr. Bounce Cochran gave "£IO,OOO for the development of industAes in his native town of Sligo.. Mr. Stephen Gwynn, the recently elected Member of Parliament for Galway, is a'Protestant Nationalist, and a grandson of William Smith. O'Brien. Apart from -his descent, he is himself one of the - most cultured of modern Irishmen ; a man who has achieved success in many fields:" lie has written some very charming novels dealing with the mystic side of Celtic character, and as a publicist his writings on matters ,of current interest have always commanded a wide circle of . ' admirers in Ireland. - - Lord Ripon, as Leader of the Upper House, - was one of the chief figures 'at the re-assembling of the Lords. - People with a taste for political prophecy are talking of Lord Ripon's coming retirement. It is' obvious that a man of eighty has not an immense'political future, but rumors of this withdrawal have been fiying about for so long that the public have ceased to pay much attention L.o them. Lord Ripon will be much missed in -politics;- -for he has been actively concerned in them ever since he became Under-Secretary • for War in 1859. -Almost always !in or .out of office^he. has made people respect his ability. Mr. Walter Townley and Jtfr. Esme Howard, who have just been- appointed , respectively British. Minister at Buenos Ayres and Councillor of the British • Embassy 1 a>t Washington, are both Catholics; and both, as it happens, converts to the Catholic Church. Mr. " Townley, -who As in no way related to the great Lancashire Catholic family of Towneley of Towneley (now extinct in the- male line), is married to a daughter of ■ the late Earl of Albjemarle, whose daughters followed their parents into ' the " Catholic Church, while- their sons remained Protestant. Mr. Esme Howard belongs to the family of the Howards •of Grey stone, in Cumberland, a Protestant, branch of the house, which stands next in remainder to- the Dukedom of Norfolk after Lord Howard of Glossop and his two sons. Viscount Guillamore, who celebated his sixty-fifth birthday recently, .is an_ O'Grady, : and, equally of course, a Standish of that ilk. He is the tWird. brother to bear the title -conferred upon his grand--father. Standish O'Grady, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, was on the Bench, a pleader remarked that a certain plaintiff had only the shadow of a title.' ' Then he must be an Irish Peer,' said Standish, who became one himself on his retirement. The first Viscount Guillamore it was who prosecuted Robert Emmet, as Attorney-General for Ireland, in 1803. Emmet's insurrection was itself the cause of this. The murder of. Lord- Kilwarden killed Emmet's enterprise a i» the outset, arid made a legal vacancy which placed the Attorney-Generalship at O'Grady's disposal. His son and successor, the present peer's father, fought with all, the valor of - his name at Waterloo. Lord Guillamore - is a ' bachelor. Lord Crafton, an. Irish Peer and. bachelor,, celebrated his -birthday the other day— his seventy-second,. He is more than ' the sn'adow of a title,' for he has- a seat in the House of Lords since 1873 as a Representative Peer for Ireland. He Hs usually described as the third baron, but is really the second/ the- first Lord in 'this, instance • having, parodoxically, . been a lady. -The title was conferred on Lady Crofton in1707, having been intended for her husband ; and -her 'son dying before her, 'the title descended "'' to the present Lord Crofton's father. 'The Croftons have been in Roscommon slince the days of Elizabeth, and survived the* terrible times, of the -seventeenth century, when cfne ancestor of the present peer spent himself in the cause of Charles I. Another was attainted by James 11., and lived, to serve his successors. -

Lan Maclaren once- wrote --as a Christmas greeting: ' Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hartl battle.'