SCOTLAND-.

As Mr. Macaulay, the President of the Edinburgh Philosophical In- stitution, could not attend to open its winter session on the 2d instant,

this place was filled by Sir John lately one of the Commissioners to the Army in the Crimea • who delivered an introductory lecture on some matters relating to the working classes. Sir John admitted that education, bookish education, is an indispensable want; but be contended that the social defects—intemperance, uncleanliness, improvidence, bad management—neither books nor school education could counteract these bad habits. That counteraction must be sought in other directions. Might not instruction in the guidance and management of the common affairs of life be made a part of the ordinary course of the school? Might not a teacher for example, make his more advanced pupils understand how much-might 'be done, to the -ordinary working lifetime of a man-, by small

weekly savings—explain the accumulation of interest, the advantages of savings-banks, of insurance, of small Government annuities, and the various means within their reach of making provision for the future—the advantages of a regular settlement of all accounts, and the immediate in- vestment of every available balance, however small ? Might he not enable

pupils of riper age to comprehend the relations of employer and employed, and the identity, where rightly understood, of their apparently conflicting interests ?

Then Sir John touched on the effects upon the national character pro- duced by the division of labour ; to which his attention had been particu- larly directed by the circumstances of the British army in the Crimea. The minute subdivision of labour has a tendency to carry men back to a condition analogous to barbarism.

Each person can do only one thing. Everything else is done for him by persons whose sphere of action is perhaps as limited as his own. Now

a part, and not an inconsiderable part, of the sufferings of the British army in the Crimea during the last winter, arose from this very cir- cumstance. He believed there never was a better army. He did not believe that there ever was actually brought together by any country

an army of the same numbers that could have stood against it on the field of battle. Yet, with all their indomitable courage and energy in action, and all their fortitude and high moral bearing, most of them were in some respects very helpless fellows. Few of them could handle a spade or a mattock with any dexterity ; fewer still an axe or a saw, a hammer, or a trowel. Few of

them could even mend their own clothes tolerably, and fewer still could

mend their own shoes; they were bad cooks, and all, except the old soldiers, bad hands even at lighting a fire. In short, they could hardly turn their

hands to anything except fighting ; and that, it must be admitted, they could

do as hardly any other men could. He had spoken of their want of skill in cooking ; his hearers might perhaps desire to know what they had to cook. When he left the Crimea, the soldiers' rations consisted of the following articles—one pound of meat daily, fresh and salt on alternate days ; one pound of good biscuit, or one pound and a half of fresh soft bread

daily ; from half a pound to a pound of fresh vegetables, or an equiva- lent quantity of preserved vegetables, daily ; two ounces of rice or barley daily ; one ounce of coffee or one quarter ounce of tea daily, on alternate days ; one and three-quarter ounce of sugar daily ; two half gills of rum daily, and one half gill more when in the trenches, with lime-juice, and additional sugar daily, given as an antiscorbutic, and sufficient to make half a gill of rum into good punch. This, all would admit, was a very ample daily supply, and to men who knew how to make the most of it would have been luxurious : but this our men certainly did not. Now,

that kind of helplessness in our soldiers arose from the similar helplessness

of the classes of our population which furnishes the recruits. The minute division of labour in a highly civilized community reduces the individuals

of whom it is composed to a condition as helpless, whenever they are sepa- rated from it and thrown upon their own resources, as if the arts of civilized life had not yet been invented. Sir John remarked on another effect of the division of labour—its tendency to narrow and cramp the intellect, and produce that stolid in-

difference to everything intellectual that marks a certain portion of our

population except in manufacturing towns ; and he urged the necessity of systematically counteracting this pernicious tendency. At the close

of his lecture he adverted to the war ; pointed out bow it has dissipated Russian prestige, and roughly shaken that instrument of policy the super- stitious belief that Russia was destined to acquire universal dominion.

He trusted she would soon be convinced that a better destiny is in store for her—to subdue her deserts, civilize her population, improve her own Government, respect the rights and liberties of other countries and the public law of Europe.

The Administrative Reform Society appeared by proxy at Glasgow:last week ; its deputation comprising Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Jacob Bell, and two or three old "League " agitators. A meeting was held in the City-hall; the Lord Provost in the chair. The Administrative Reformers made speeches, and resolutions in furtherance of their views were adopted.

At the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, Mr. Robert Philip, lately Provost of Leith, was convicted of a criminal assault upon a girl under or about the age of puberty, and of indecent behaviour to another little girl. Mr. Philip is a widower, sixty-five years old ; he was one of the leading citizens of Leith, and reputed to be wealthy ; he took a prominent part in the benevolent and religious enterprises of Leith ; he was Provost at the time when the charge against him was first brought forward, but was forced to resign by the opinion expressed at a public meeting. The girls were re- spectively ten and twelve years of age. The trial occupied twelve hours : as usual in such cases in Scotland, the public and reporters were excluded till the Jury had retired. The Lord Justice Clerk pronounced the sentence, condemning the prisoner to be transported for fifteen years. Philip exhi- bited great fortitude and self-possession throughout.

A young militiaman had previously received a similar sentence on plead- ing guilty to assailing a little girl.