A correspondent of Thursday's Times, who signs himself "Scotus," asserts
that Mr. Goschen's defeat in Edinburgh was due to some implied promise of Mr. Gladstone's to accept Scottish Disestablishment in case Scotland threw off Mr. Goschen and those who opposed his Irish measure. We do not in the least accept this explanation of the riddle. Mr. Gladstone certainly never implied, in the speech referred to by "Scotus," anything more than be had implied in the House of Commons when com- menting on Mr. Finlay's Bill,—namely, that he could not approve that Bill. And as for underground hints and insinuations, we utterly disbelieve that they were given, and do not think that they would have produced the effect attributed to them even if they had been given. The simple truth is, that Mr. Gladstone's personal influence in Edinburgh and in Midlothian generally is something magical. Edinburgh veered round because it pre- ferred even to be wrong with Mr. Gladstone, to being right with any one else.
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