SCOTLAND.

Mr. Adam Black, M.P., and Lord Advocate Monerieff, M.P., addressed a stormy meeting of their constituents, on Monday, at the Music Hall, Edinburgh. Two thousand three hundred persons were present; one half received their representatives standing, waving hats and hurrahing; the other halt indulged as profusely in hooting and hissing. The Lord Provost occupied. the chair, and nominally presided. Mr. Black said he would not imitate the example of some of his colleagues in the Commons and make a long speech; he would not have addressed them at all if it had not been that some of them suspected him of want of courage to defend his public conduct. He voted in favour of the French Treaty and the Customs, because he believes it will promote the prosperity of sixty millions of people. He thinks the tendency of mutual intercourse is of much more importance than the extension of commerce and inter- change of commodities. The next important measure was the repeal of the Excise duty on paper. The first reading was carried by 63 in March; the second by only 9; but, if it had not been for the Scottish members, it would have been lost by 11. The Lords did what he is con- vinced was an unconstitutional act ; he argued it was a "gigantic innovation." The question of the Customs' duty on paper was converted into a question of want of confidence; if it had been lost, the Ministry would have resigned. It was only carried by 33; the whips on both sides exerted themselves to the utmost. Coming to the Reform Bill, Mr. Black defended his course upon Lord John Russell's bill ; the franchise was not a right but a trust ; a mere machine for the purpose of contributing to good government. Mr. Potter, the leader in the London strike, declared that the workmen could influence 600,000 men in the kingdom. Mr. Black will reduce the county qualification to 101. per annum rental, and give votes to forty-shilling freeholders.. He defended, at great length, his conduct in reference to the Annuity-tax Act brought in by his colleague. Mr. Moncrieff had even a worse reception than Mr. Black. The Lord Advocate is the author of the obnoxious Annuity-tax Act, which seems to have roused a portion of the constituency to madness. He described the measures passed by the Government relating to Scotland, and for more than an hour he vindicated his conduct as to the Annuity- tax Act. He concluded a very masterly defence of his conduct in the mattf.r by saying-

" I value the honour of the position I hold as the representative of this great community more than I can tell you, and there is no exertion and no sacrifice, consistent with honour and integrity and self-respect, that I would not make to retain it ; but when I know that I have now settled a contro- versy of thirty years on principles that you often and often struggled to maintain, but which have proved unsuccessful in so many abler hands than mine, I can only say i that, with whatever feelings I may look on my past Parliamentary life there s one part of it I shall always remember with gratification, and that is that I was mainly instrumental in passing this Annuity-tax Bill.

Mr. William Chambers proposed a vote of thanks to both members. An amendment was moved requesting them to resign ; the meeting was very evenly balanced, but the Lord Provost declared the motion carried.

Haddo to the earldom, a vacancy is caused in the representation of the county of Aberdeen, Two candidates are already in the field—Sir Alexander Bannermann, who comes forward in the Liberal Interest, and as a supporter of Lord Palmerston's Government, and Mr. Leslie, of War. tie, who avows Liberal Conservative principles. Both gentlemen are well known in the county, and the contest promises to be a keen one.

The Glasgow Garibaldi Italian Fund Committee, who sent upwards of 25001. to aid the Liberator of Italy, held an entertainment in the City Hall on Thursday week. Mr. Buchanan, M.P., addressed the meeting, defending the position taken up by the subscribers who had been pro- nounced as promoters of rebellion, as conspirators banded together for an illegal purpose, endangering the peace of the realm-

" When, in May last, the subject was brought before the House, I con- fess I listened to the progress of the debate with much anxiety. On the one hand, it was not pleasant to hear the character of the heroic leader who had just landed at Marsala assailed with coarse invectives, and denounced as a brigand2 a filibuster, and an assassin ; on the other hand, it was not very reassuring to listen to the course of a learned debate in which the law was laid down by the most competent authorities, and the subscribers to the Garibaldi Fund declared liable to prosecution for the crime of conspiracy. Even the Solicitor-General took up our defence on such narrow grounds as afforded small consolation. At lengilh, however, some light began to dawn on this dreary debate. I think it was the Attorney-General who, after agreeing with his learned brethren, doubted whether it would be possible to get a British jury to return a true bill on an indictment for conspiracy, even if the Crown officers should be desirous of a conviction. That was a great point gained. But by and by Lord John Russell arose, and, throwing aside the narrow technicalities of the lawyers, raised the debate on broader prin- ciples. It is not permitted to the Foreign Secretary, trammelled by his official position, and conscious that every word which he utters will be com- mented upon throughout Europe, to declare freely his own opinions. But, with all thew disadvantages, Lord John Russell spoke in a strain worthy of a British statesman, worthy of the House of Commons, and worthy of the traditions of his own historic name."

Mr. Buchanan ran over the history of Garibaldi from his first appear- ance upon the stage of European affairs, to the last effort in Italy ; and notwithstanding that a noble Lord had branded Garibaldi as a filibuster, a cut-throat, and an assassin, Mr. Buchanan and the Garibaldi Com- mittee glory in their name as Garibaldi's friends. Mr. Dalglish concurred in the sentiments of his colleague. The following letter was read from Garibaldi's son, now receiving his education in this country-.-- "New Brighton College, December 1. "My Dear Sir—I regret much that I shall not be able to accept the very kind invitation which you have sent to me from the Committee for the soirée at Glasgow on the 21st of December. I feel very grateful for the honour you have done any father in paying him so high a compliment, and also for your generous assistance of the Italian cause. I hope some day to visit Scotland, and to thank my father's friends at Glasgow for their great kindness.

" I am, dear Sir, yours truly obliged,

" RICCIOTTI GARIBALDI. "B. IPTear, Esq."

Margaret Hannah, recently sentenced to death at Edinburgh, for the murder of her infant, will not be executed ; the Queen has commuted her sentence to penal servitude for life. No female has been executed for an offence of this description for aeveral years.

As Detectives Brown and Thomson were passing along Gallow Gate, on Saturday, they observed William Smith, a "land-shark," in company with another suspicious fellow. Suspecting that Smith might have something upon him belonging to some one else, they adroitly, took him into a close unobserved by his companion. On searching Smith's pockets, they found eight counterfeit florins upon him, and conveyed him to the police-station. The detectives then proceeded to Smith's house, and there they found a complete set of coining apparatus, which had apparently been recently in use. They had just overhauled the house when the other man came in, and owned the apparatus. He was taken into custody along with Smith's wife. He gave the name of John Thomson, remarking that that was only one of his names, and the name he had generally seen in the newspapers referring to him. The florins are good imitations of the genuine coin.

The goods train from Carlisle, arriving in Glasgow at four a.m. on Tues- day-, while shunting off some waggons at the Paisley station, was run into by the goods train which left Glasgow at four a.m., upsetting the tender of the one and the piston and gearing of the other. The cause of the accident is yet unexplained, but it must have arisen either from the want of signals or from giving a wrong signal. The telegraphic wires were out of order from severe weather, and no communication could be had either with Glasgow or Kilmarnock, and the 7.20 a.m. train was despatched from Bridge Street as usual. It was stopped half way to Paisley, and the state of matters was ex- plained ; the passengers made the best of a bad bargain, and enjoyed them- selves as much as they could on a neighbouring loch. The line was cleared in the course of a few hours, and the usual traffic resumed.

On Monday last, two.young men, named James Bell and Alexander Wil- son, colliers, were killed iu No. 1, or Store Pit, Gartaherrie Ironworks. They had both gone down early to begin work, and it seems the firemen, whose duty it is to inspect the works and report their safe or unsafe con- dition from fire or any other indications of danger' had not been forward, or, if so, had not examined that portion of the pit. It was, therefore, the duty of the men to have waited till the firemen returned and reported the state of the workings. This they did not do, and while on them way to commence their labours their lamps ignited the foul air which had collected, and the result was an explosion, by which they were both instantly killed.

Our contemporary the Scotsman reports upon the severity of the weather; observations taken at several points indicate that this has been the coldest week experienced in our modern Athens. But some compensation bas been gained, for skating and the national game of "curling" have been abun- dantly enjoyed. Householders, however, complain of frozen water-pipes ; some of frozen gas-pipes and meters. Observations have been noted on Christmas eve and day at 40 and 30 below zero: at one point as low as 8'. On Monday, at Messrs. Cowan's mills at Penicuick, the mercury fell 14° below zero; at Linlithgow, 110. Mr. Lewis Roy, jun., of Kelso, reports that his thermometer was sii° below zero on Monday morning, and on Tuesday night was 3° above zero. The Ordnance Survey have supplied their observations to the Scotsman, showing the daily maximum and minimum reaohed by the thermometer since the present snow-storm and severe weather commenced. The thermometers are fixed outside windows having an eastern exposure, but are protected by being placed in wooden boxes ; the observa- tions were taken every morning at haU-past 9 o'clock, and embrace the pre-

vious 24 hours :— • Maximum. Minimum.

39 312 361 28 377 30 35.6 285 357 256 325 27 294 11 212 116 29.7 13

The gas-meter at the South-Western Station at Glasgow would not work in consequence of intense frost on Monday and Tuesday, and caused the rail- way authorities to communicate on Tuesday evening with the City of Glasgow Gas Company, who thereupon sent a man to remove the meter and connect the railway pipes with the company's main. This was immediately done; but next morning several parties about the station felt a very strong smell of gas, apparently coming from the gas-vault or cellar. A gas-fitter was sent for, and he proceeded below to discover what was wrong. No sooner did he open the cellar door than a dense body of gas rushed out, caught light at a jet a few yards distant, and exploded with a report which was heard more than 1000 yards off; and shook houses at 400 or 600 yards distance, awaking the sleepers. The gas-fitter was much burned about the face and hands, but made a most miraculous escape from being killed. Just at the time of the explosion the Greenock express-train was about to start, and, most fortu- nately, all the passengers, with the exception of one, bad received their tickets, and were seated in the train waiting its departure. Alter knocking down the substantial arched walls of the gas-cellar, and also those of the coal- cellar, the great volume of gas, proceeding upwards, dashed up a large por- tion of the flooring of the booking-office, singeing the hair of the clerk, carrying the passenger literally off his feet, and placing him outside the door without injury. The porter 11 ho stands at the bottom of the first-class stair had his leg broken, and a policeman was also slightly injured. The c.arent of gas then rushed through the left luggage-room, at the South-east end of the first-class stair, blowing the whole of the room, which was only a tem- porary erection, to pieces. It then dashed to the ground a huge iron gate at the left, of about three tons weight, which has been sadly injured ; and next, proceeded up the recently-erected gangway between the luggage-room and the platform of the station, spreading destruction as it went. The gangway itself was greatly broken up, and the roof torn off. At the head of the gang- way, after knocking the door in pieces, the current seems to have exhausted itself in that direction, as it did no more damage there.

December.

Tuesday, lath Wednesday, 19th Thursday, 20th Friday, 21st Saturday, 22nd Sunday, 23rd Monday, 24th Tuesday, 25th Wednesday, 26th