24 APRIL 1880, Page 2

Scotland has sent up seven Conservatives to the new Parlia-

ment and fifty-three Liberals. The seventh Conservative is furnished by Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities, Aberdeen apparently furnishing the larger number of Conservative votes. The Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrew's have returned again the Liberal candidate, Dr. Playfair, by a rather narrow majority of only 74 (2,522 against 2,448), while the Conserva- tive majority for Mr. Campbell in Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities is no less than 381. Thus all the Uni- versities return Conservatives, excepting the University of London and the united Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrew's, and only the University of London shows any- thing like a decisive Liberal victory. Clearly, either the higher education is not, on the whole, a liberalising influ- ence, or else a liberalising influence is favourable to Toryism. We believe the explanation to be that when educated people form themselves into anything like a caste, they contract caste prejudices, like most other castes, and begin to say to them- selves that "this people, which knoweth not the law, are cursed."