SCOTLAND.
Contradictory rumours respecting the health of Mr. Macaulay are cir- culated. The Edinburgh Post announces that he will retire, and that Mr. Horsman will be started in his room ; while the Caledonian Mercury de- clares that " Mr. Macaulay, on the meeting of Parliament, in November, will enter on that trust to which he has been so honourably called."
Upwards of five hundred acres of flax have been raised this season in Fife, of the cleanest and yellowest in colour, from home seed one year from Rigs. The crop brairded unequally, owing to the drought at sowing- time, but afterwards sprang forward into a crop, generally speaking, above the average. Prices are ranging from 101. to 161. per acre, according to quality and length.
Dr. W. Macgillivray, Professor of Natural History in Marischal College, Aberdeen, expired at his own house there on Sabbath last, after an illness of some duration. Dr. Maegillivray was the author of many works in the above department of natural science, besides of biographies of men who had successfully cultivated it.—Edinburgh Witness.
A goods-train ran into a passenger-train at Monkton station, near Ayr : this was a flagrant case of " accident" by neglect. The passenger-train was stopping at the station as usual ; when the other train approached the danger-signals were up ; but the driver took no heed of them, and continued his course. A porter gave the alarm to the driver of the stationary train ; who immediately put on his steam ; but there was not time to avoid a crash. A carriage was smashed to pieces, and many passengers were hurt : one per- son received a concussion of the brain; another had a rib fractured ; and the cellar-bone of a third was broken.
Ball-practice baa been fatal to a soldier at Edinburgh. A party of the Seventy-ninth Highlanders were out at practice on Tuesday the gun of one of them hung fire ; but as two were examining the barrel, it suddenly ex- ploded, the ball entered the side of the looker-on, and killed him.
A girl seven years old has been drowned in a rivulet at Scarfakerry, in at- tempting to aid her brother, who had fallen into a deep hole while wading after eels. The boy got out alive.
Gretna Green marriages have so much decreased in number that the rival priests have taken to fighting for the custom of those " about to marry." Simon Laing has been fined by the Ecclefechan Magistrates for assaulting John Douglas, by beating him on the head and shoulders with a walking. stick. Laing and Douglas were rival " priests" ; one morning, Douglas was walking through Springfield with two couples he bad met on the arrival of the train from Carlisle",; when Laing came out of his house, and supposing, it is thought, that the persons wished to be married, he wanted to take the job out of Douglas's hands, thrust him aside, and struck him.
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