SMOOTH SAILING: LUCKY TOM MACAULAY.

" WEIAR' are ye gaun, Sawney ?" said the proprietor of a Clydesdale orchard, to a schoolboy whom he confronted crawling into it through a gap in the hedge. "Back again," replied young hopeful, coolly and deliberately commencing his retreat. Thus is it with Edin- burgh Whig-Radicals whenever the Whigs detect them crawling into the precincts sacred to electioneering organization. When we directed attention, lately, to the insurrectionary attitude as- sumed by the Edinburgh Whig-Radicals, we knew and foretold that all would pass off quietly. To be sure, had the frightened Whig- lings of the Parliament-house kept up that "scraighing" at their disturbers which they commenced so vehemently, we could not have been answerable for the issue : but as soon as ADAM BLACK stilled the tumult, and quietly asked the intruders where they were going, there was clearly nothing for it but to move "back again."

Accordingly, the "gracious DUNCAN" NPLAREN, the Annuity. tax martyr RUSSELL, &C. &c., after having forced the Whigs to dis- band the old "Aggregate Committee," are, when the new Com- mittee is to be appointed, as the Newmarket-men express it, "nowhere." All their vapouring ends in permitting the Whigs to reappoint the old Committee-men, (mimes the few independent Liberals thinly scattered among them,) with unlimited powers of selection and nomination. A clever and well-timed letter from Mr. TAIT, (which, as curiously illustrative of" the manner in which these things are managed at Edinburgh," we have reprinted in a previous page,) lays bare to public view the way in which this was effected in one ward, and the process is similar in all the rest. Two or three weeks ago, the Edinburgh Whig-Radicals professed to be indignant at the protracted existence of a self-appointed Committee—they demanded that its successors should have their powers and functions precisely limited and defined : but, the Whigs having postponed the evil day for setting about these reforms, the virtuous indignation of the recusants grows cool and evaporates during the interim ; and the Whigs avail themselves of their lachesse to give their privately-packed Committee the appearance of public sanction. To those who do not know the parties, this looks very like collusion : to us, who do know them, it is only another instance of the wretched pusillanimity and indecision of the honest politi- clam of Edinburgh. Mr. MACAULAY, who seems for some time back to have been "under hiding" from his constituents, may venture among them

now. The public of Edinburgh have something more important to think about than such a trifle as the election of a Member of Par- liament. Be he Whig, Tory, or Radical, the first object in life of

an Edinburgh citizen is to promote the adornment of his good town at the least possible expense to the inmates. In the halcyon days of the Thirty-three, structures were commenced upon a scale far beyond the limited wealth of Edinburgh ; and when the founda• tions were fairly laid, a grant was obtained from the public purse through the MELVILLE interest. When that great much-cow the public began to yield less freely, sundry attempts were made to persuade Scots in every quarter of the earth, that to contribute to the adornment of Edinburgh was their first duty. The "National Monument" being projected upon too colossal a scale, has proved a fimilure ; but the " Scott Monument" is a promising speculation ; and, encouraged by this success, the Modern Athenians have started a" Wellington Monument," in name of which to levy fresh contribu- tions. Under the feint of doing honour to the Duke, they are beg- ging in all directions for a new ornament to their city and fresh food for their vanity. Like their less-decorously dressed ancestors of old, "though they may sometimes gie each other a stab with a dirk or a slash wi' a claymore, yet they ay join in the lang run against a' whilk him parses in their pockets and breeks on their hinder en's." Universal harmony at this moment pervades Edin- burgh in anticipation of the coming tribute. The BLACKS and the Boseswoons, the IluvrEns and the PETER ROBEIITSONS, the SIIORTREDES and the DicK LAI:Imes, cordially meet day after day to compare notes on the filling-up of the subscription-lists. No times these for squabbling about such trifles as political principles. The Tories do not wish to be troubled with a contest before the general election, which they think impending. The 'Whigs, ever thankful for the smallest mercies, are glad to walk the course on any terms. The Whig-Radicals, always resolute to be sternly virtuous "the next time," arc glad to see the public mind bent upon another object. In short, every one is resolved not to in- terrupt the progress of the subscription in the first place, and to pretend that all this harmony is in honour of the Queen's honey- moon in the second. " Let not our strife disturb the gentle dame," growls the civic Glenalvon, (Sir JAMES (IBSON CRAIG ; ) and his Norval, (PETER ROBERTSON') unlike the fierce prototype, touches his nose with the fore-finger and winks acquiescence.

Surely it is plain sailing in such a halcyon sea. When we christ-

ened Mr. Mnenuraic "lucky Tom," some years ago, little could we foresee the whole extent to which that sobriquet should become applicable. Lucky TOM has no public meeting to fear except the hustings one ; when both Whig and Whig-Radical will hasten to protest that noise from the non-electors is a matter of course and not to be regarded. (Time was when these worthies used a dif- ferent language.) The rest of his hours will be agreeably enough spent, breakfasting and lunching with the hoodwinked electors, and

dining with the illuminati. At the forenoon jollifications, he will only need to retail the fag-ends of Court jokes picked up on the

occasion of his visit to :Windsor ; and describe the nuptial apart. ments at Buckingham Palace, which of course he will take care to inspect before he Foes down. In the entire unbosoming of the confidential symposia of the evening, more important matters will be touched upon. Sir JAMES GIBSON CRAIG, momentarily re- laxing to a smile, will allude to the march stolen upon hint by Mr. BLACK when Mr. MACAULAY was first brought forward, and forgive it in consideration of the nominee being now a Cabinet Minister. Mr. BEACH will take credit to himself for having foreseen that Mr. MACAULAY'S return for Edinburgh must necessarily lead to his in- troduction to the Cabinet, and will protest that no other earthly consideration could have induced him to take such a liberty with Sir JAMES. And Mr. MACAULAY, in the ebullience of his gladness, will suggest, that although all his friendly supporters cannot hope to attain the high dignities conferred upon Sir JAMES the Great, on the left hand of the chairman, and Sir JAMES the Little, on his own right hand, yet there can be no ground for refusing to them that honourable title now bestowed by public acclaim upon him- self—that of "a poor Knight of Windsor." And to consolidate the universal harmony, Mr. M‘LAREN Will address the Whig leader in the words of Brutus- " Oh, Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb

That carries anger as the flint hears fire; Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, And straight is cold again."

Sorely does it grieve us that stern duty should enforce upon us the discharge of a task which may damp these genial hours. The present lull cannot endure. The Edinburgh Tories leave their Whig rivals unmolested on this occasion, only to serve their own purposes. They will soon be in the field again. The consciences of the Whig-Radicals, (" a' body "—that is, every Scotsman—says Daddie Rattan, "has a kind of a conscience : it's like the nap o' ane's elbow, it gie's a diunle sometimes,") although prone to slumber when the deed's a-doing, will be up in arms as soon as it is com- pleted, scaring their owners from slumber. The approaching elec- tion is the last quiet one the Edinburgh Whigs are to have—the last in which they arc to have their own way. Uneasy fore- bodings of this truth already cross their minds, if we may judge by the cat-like spittings of the Scotsman and Mercury at Mr. TAIT, and the six mortal columns devoted last Sunday to a so-

lemn exposition of that gentleman's misdeeds by a Metropolitan ally. The wassailers of Edinburgh seem to be haunted in their air-built halls by the same distracting humming which disturbed Lamia in her scorning gorgeous palace a short time before the sceptic stared her back into her real form. The Edinburgh

Whig Coterie is about to be stripped of its power, as Lamia was ; and by the same simple process—the letting in the light of truth upon it. Mr. TAIT has shown it in its true form, and this exposure it cannot survive. The Whig Coterie has hitherto ruled Edinburgh by the trick of being first in the field with its can- didates—of representing itself as the body of the Liberal electors, and of denouncing, as one who by divisive courses sought to break up the Liberal ranks, every man who complained of its encroach- ments. Mr. TAIT'S letter shows that the Coterie is not the public;

that the Aggregate Committee is the creature of the Coterie not a

body appointed by the public ; that any individual or half-dozen individuals in Edinburgh have as good a right to take the initiative

in election matters as the Coterie or its tail " the Aggregate." In classical English, "committee" means a smaller body selected from a more numerous, as better fitted for action : in the Edin- burgh patois, it means a more numerous body set forward by a less numerous to give their proceedings the appearance of publicity. The Edinburgh Whigs argue that all business must be transacted

in " committee :" and this is true when " committee" is taken in the English sense, but false when taken in theirs. They abuse the Edinburgh public by giving a dirty trick a respectable name. They employ what BENTHAM would have called the fallacy of " erroneous designation."

The Edinburgh public is led by the nose by the Edinburgh Whig Coterie in consequence of a confusion of ideas. The whole constituency choose the Member, but the whole constituency can- not select the most eligible candidate. The only assurance of

free choice lies in the admission of all candidates to have their claims heard. Every candidate is at the outset unknown to the

majority. Even when he is brought forward by a body, that body must be a minority in the first instance ; and if the majority allow this minority, by exciting a morbid flair of' disunion, to induce

them to refuse to listen to time claims of others, they necessarily become the minority's cat's-paw. Unless liberty be given to every individual to come forward himself or bring forward another as

candidate, there is not the necessary latitude of selection. The only thing the great body can do' is to decide in the last instance upon the claims of all who come forward. If it attempts to deter- mine beforehand who shall and shall not be candidates, it assumes a task to which it is incompetent. The selection must in this ease be made by a minority, subject to the personal biasses and partial information of that minority. Coteries everywhere avail themselves of this necessity, and, by inducing the public to concede to them the power of limiting the number of admissible candidates, lead it to transfer to them the real power of election. Coteries are stand- ing conspiracies against ability and independence. No Edinburgh man can be £0 blind now as not to see that this has been and is the case in his city. The election of Members of Parliament has been and is in the hands of the half-dozen who pack the "Aggre- gate Committee." The functions of that Committee have all along been limited to canvassing : the nomination has been with the half-dozen or one who appointed them. The necessary consequence of such an arrangement is, that Edinburgh has been for years, and still continues to be, without an efficient representative. The ob- ject of the Coterie is to secure the election of the Member who can be of most use to themselves. Official men, who can pay the "gratuitous services" of their counsel and law-agents with Sheriff- ships and places in the Register Office, or pension ()lithe incapable nephew of a leading citizen with post under the Board of Stamps, are the men for the Coterie. On the other hand, the men for the citizens at large are those who, not having their time en- grossed with official duties can attend to the local business, and who, not being trammelled by official connexions, can utter freely in Parliament the opinions and wishes of themselves and their constituents. The fruits of Coterie nomination for Edinburgh have been, a liberal dispensation of Government patronage among the Parliament-house Whigs and the North Bridge clique—an entire neutralizing of Edinburgh opinion on the floor of the House of Commons, and the necessity forced upon the inhabitants of Edinburgh when any affkir of local interest was before Parliament, to employ the agency of any Members except their own. As long as this state of atfitirs was known only to the citizens of Edinburgh, it would have been endured : but, thanks to Mr. TAIT, it is now known everywhere, and their vanity will set them to rectify it. We have a better guarantee than the professions of Mr. M'LAREN that something will be done at next election. Perhaps even at that which is now impending. The Edinburgh Anti-Corn-law Association is sending delegates to Manchester: we trust sonic member of' the League will tell these gentlemen, that although their presence is a service to the cause, a good shaking-up of Lord MELHounisE's Swiss Mr. MACAULAY, at the hustings or elsewhere, will be a service of much greater moment. Again, there is a kind of Central Board of the Voluntary Church- men in Edinburgh we see it announced that certain Ministerial lawyers are about to take part in the "no-intrusion" meetings of the Established Clergy in Edinburgh : we trust the provincial Voluntaries will remind their representatives in that city, of the duty incumbent on them to demand an explanation of this fast and loose policy, before they support the Whig candidate. These are questions of more interest than the purification of the pestilen- tial quagmires at Restakig and Coltbridge : but after all, it will no way astonish us if the question regarding time modern expansion of the gurdez reau system be found of more weight in the Edinburgh election than those weightier matters of the law. The physical sense of smell has been more rapidly evolved in Edinburgh than the moral.