SCOTLAND.
Party politics run high in the Town Council of Edinburgh. There is a dominant party, which naturally domineers ; and as it is mysteriously mixed up with the support of the Forbes Mackenzie Act and the pre- vention of tart-selling on Sundays, it domineers sometimes at the expense of those who are not partisans of the act and see no irreligion in buying cakes at a stall. On the 4th Mr. Brown Douglas was unanimously elected Lord Provost. Mr. James Blackadder and Mr. William Forres- ter were reelected bellies, but for a third vacancy in the magistracy, which had been filled ad interim by Mr. Cassels, a division took place, when Mr. G. E. Russell, formerly City Treasurer, was chosen in place of Mr. Cassels by 22 votes to 14. The superseding of an interim magis- trate is an almost unprecedented event in municipal practice, and is to be accounted for in this instance by Mr. Cassels belonging to the minority of the Council, and having owed his election ad interim to the casting vote of the late Lord Provost, and by his having given offence to the "majority" by his strong remarks against the Forbes Mackenzie Act while as a magistrate reluctantly enforcing the celebrated " cookie " clause.
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