KINFA.RDINESHIRF.—The Sheriff of Kincardineshire has divided that small county, with
not more than 700 voters, into six polling dis- tricts. [The query is, where did he light on six ? There are but one town and three villages in the county.]
WIGTON BIIIIGHS.—A keen contest is at present going on for these burghs. The candidates are Mr. Edward Stewart, the present mem- ber, and Mr. M'Taggart, recently a merchant in London. There is something very peculiar in this struggle : Mr. Stewart has voted con- sistently with Ministers on all the divisions on the question of Re- . form, and his name is amongst the majority on Lord Ebrington's
motion. We happen also to know, that when it was proposed to disfranchise the Wigton Burghs, and to throw them into the county, the project was principally defeated through Mr. Stewart's exertions. We say nothing at present as to whether this ought to have been done; but the successful stand made by Mr. Stewart, undoubtedly gives him peculiar claims to the support of those whose franchises he was so in- strumental in preserving ; and yet, singular as it may seem, Mr. Stew. art is encountering the most bitter opposition from the inhabitants of Stranraer—from those who arrogate to themselves the title of thorough Reformers ! Mr. M'Taggart, the candidate put forward by the Stran-
raer electors, is, we believe, eminently respectable as a private gentleman; but he is not a Reformer, or, if he be one, his conversion is exceedingly recent ; and there is nothing in his addresses to the ekc- tors that can lead any one to infer that he has laid aside his Tory prin.. ciples. Some few years ago, he stood for the Stirling district of Burghs, under the patronage of Lord Castlereagh, against Mr. Prim.. rose, brother to Lord Roseberry. This is the only public appearamee made by Mr. M'Taggart ; and on the strength of it, the citizens of Stranrner give him their suffrages, in opposition to the claims of that gentleman to whom they are mainly indebted for the power to vote..... Correspondent of the Globe.
[The Globe's correspondent, we think, is mistaken in saying Mr. M' Taggart stood for the Stirling boroughs in opposition to Mr. F. W. Primrose. The opponent of that gentleman, in 1819, was a little Highland man, named Campbell, who was sent down by Lord Mel- ville ith a certificate of sound principles in his pocket. Mr. Camp- bell was so utterly incompetent, that he could not frame even a sentehee of thanks to the electors, on the election being decided in his favour. The return was challenged, and declared void, in consequence of Campbell's having bribed a Councillor, the son of one of the Baillies, and a clerk in one of the Government Offices here. Mr. Primrose was elected the next time without opposition; he sat a very few weeks, the Parliament having been dissolved in the ensuing February by the death of the King. He did not stand in the election of MO; when Mr. Downie, of Appin, was returned. It is possible Mr. M' Taggart may have been nominated in the second election, and that we may have forgotten the circumstance : there was no contest. The first election of Mr. Primrose cost his brother 21,0001.]
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