SCOTLAND.
"it is stated in certain quarters," says the Glasgow Argus of Monday, "that the communications opened up by the Nonintrusionists of this city with the Dean of Faculty are likely to lead to an arrangement of the case of the seven clergymen of the Presbytery of Strathbogie. The idea of deposing them, it is alleged, will be abandoned, and they will merely receive a rebuke at the bar of the Assembly."
We understand, says the Edinburgh Post, it is very probable that Sir John Campbell will again present himself for the suffrages of the electors of this city. The party who supported him on former occasions have resolved to support Mr. Gibson Craig ; who, we are told, will not again stand for Mid Lothian, as the Conservatives in this county indis- putably possess a great majority. We hear, however, there is no doubt Mr. Macaulay will again appear as a candidate for the city in the event of a dissolution. It is expected by some of the Whigs that similar mea- sures will be adopted on the occasion of a Parliamentary election to those which resulted in the election of Sir James Forrest to the Lord Provostship, and of Mr. Drysdale as Treasurer, by the joint aid of the Conservatives and Whig Churchmen.
The same paper says—" We understand from good authority, that in the event of a dissolution, a Conservative, who is likely to be acceptable to the electors of the Leith burghs, will offer himself to be their repre- sentative. His chance of success is so good, that in all likelihood Lord Advocate Rutherfurd will have to look about for another burgh to represent, if indeed he should continue in Parliament."
The public meetings in Scotland to petition for alteration of the Corn- laws and Import-duties have been—one in the Edinburgh Assembly Booms, on Monday, and a meeting of the Edinburgh Guildry on the same day ; a meeting of electors at Leith, on Tuesday ; and a meeting at Prestonpans, on Monday, to hear a lecture from Mr. Waugh, and to petition specially against the Corn-laws.
The meeting at the Assembly-rooms was unexpectedly divided in two. The Whig party, by whom it was got up, were forewarned by placards, that the working-people meant to assemble at twelve o'clock, to defeat them. They took measures to prevent it: they sent round private circulars, requesting their friends to muster at twelve o'clock ; and at that hour, headed by Sir James Gibson Craig, Sir William Hamilton, General Mayne, a few officers, a few of the Councillors, and some of the leading politicians of the town, they took possession of the platform and the ground about it, while the front-doors were kept closed till one o'clock. The working-men assembled outside at twelve, and when the doors were opened, in they rushed in a dense mass. The Whigs, to conciliate the Dissenters and Radicals, proposed that Mr. Black should take the chair ; and Mr. Black at once stepped for- ward and took his seat. It now turned out, however, that the Whigs had not played their game so surely as they had imagined. The working- men objected to their matter-of-course procedure, and moved that one of their own body, a Mr. John Watson, should take the chair. A scene of great confusion followed. The Whigs endeavoured to obtain a hear- ing, but without effect. At last it was understood that they agreed to take a show of hands upon the question as to who should be chairman ; but when it was declared against them, by not a very large majority, they still contested the decision. Mr. Watson moved towards the chair : he was forcibly repulsed, and the clamour was renewed. In the midst of the hurlyburly, the Whigs retreated to a smaller room, called the ante-room, and there held their Anti-Corn-law meeting. The Chartists kept the field. The chairman they had appointed took his place ; and Mr. Lowrey, a Chartist from Newcastle, after a sweep- ing attack upon the Whigs, moved a resolution-
" That from the past conduct of the present Whig Ministry,—conduct which has been throughout characterized by nothing but falsehood, imbecility, and tyranny,—we are convinced that any professions which they may now find it for their interest to make, are simply to raise public sympathy in their behalf, for the purpose of aiding them in a weakness which their own conduct has re- duced them to; and that we hereby declare an utter want of confidence in them as legislators."
Mr. Crawford, an advocate, endeavoured to talk the Chartists over ; and he moved an amendment to the resolution, approving of the aboli- tion of the Corn-laws, and stating that the meeting rejoiced that Go- vernment had taken up the question. The amendment drew forth a reply from Mr. Lowrey, more bitter than his first attack on the Whig Ministers. Here is a specimen— The Tories were brave devils, they were men of pluck ; the Whigs were low, sneaking scoundrels. To all the vices of the Tories, they added hypocrisy, the basest of all vices. They had lost power, not by the neglect of the people, but for neglect of the people. Had they carried out the spirit of the Reform Bill, they would have stood in a proud position that day. Mr. Crawford talked of the Poor-law as a philanthropic measure; but if its doctrine was true, that a man ought to be able to keep a wife before he married her, why did they pro- pose to give Prince Albert 50,000/.? (Loud cheers.) Let him keep his wife, and he (Mr. Lowrey) would keep his. Then he talked of the spread of intel- ligence ; but he would remind them that the working-classes were actuated by the feelings and motives which excited other men : if they were ill-used, they would be revenged, the same as the rich. And who made the charge of igno- rance? why, the same Ministry that voted 70,0001. for the Queen's stables , and 30,0001. for the education of the people. (Loud cheers.) The original resolution was carried by a considerable majority. One reporter of this meeting says, that if Mr. Crawford had stuck to the
subject of the Corn-laws, without attempting to defend Ministers, he might have carried an Anti-Corn-law amendment.
The Town-Council of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce also met on Tuesday, and passed petitions in favour of the Government project. The Chamber of Commerce take the eight-shil- lings duty as a step to total abolition of the Corn-laws.
At a meeting of the Directors of the Glasgow Anti-Corn-law Asso- ciation last week, it was resolved, in accordance with the mode of action prescribed at the recent Free Trade demonstration in that city, to petition the House of Commons in favour of a repeal of the Corn laws and of a revision of the Import-duties.
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