SCOTLAND. Another Judge of the Supreme Court-in] Scotland Ins departed—Lor4'
Robertson. He dropped down suddenly and expired, in his. Own house- at Edinburgh, on, Wednesday; The news speedily reached the-Court-of Session, and the Lord Justice Clerk, unable to procced.with the cause before him, closed the court. Mr. Patrick Robertson was-called-to- the-bar- in 1815, and raised to the bench in 1843. lie was an able lawyer cele- brated also as a social humourist, and in his later years surprised the world by an unsuspected-vein-of.elegant poetry.
Since Lord Jeffeey's decease in 1850, no fewer than nine of the thirteen Judges of the Court of Session, then on the bench, have died, besides three appointed since 1850. These twelve Judges were Jeffrey, Mac- kenzie, Moncreiff, Lord President Boyle, Fullerton, Medwyn, Cuning- hame, Cockburn, Robertson, Dundrennan, Anderson, and Rutherfurd ; the three last-named having been appointed subsequent to Lord Jeffrey's death.
The vacancy caused by the demise of Lord Rutherfurd will be filled up on the meeting of the whole Court on Tuesday next, by the elevation of Mr. Craufurd, Solicitor-General of Scotland ; who will take the title of Lord Ardmillan, and who will be succeeded in his present office by Mr. Thomas Mackenzie, Sheriff of Ross and Cromarty.
The annual meeting of the United Industrial School Society took place in Edinburgh last week. Lord Murray presided; and Bailie Kay, Lord Neaves, Mr. W. Smith, Mr. Black, Mr. Forbes of Medwyn, the Dean of Guild, and Dr. Lee, took part in the proceedings. Lord Murray ex- ' plained, that difficulties beset the most important part of their under- taking, the providing of food for the children. Prices are so high, and it is so desirable to receive as many poor children as possible, that the friends of the Society would be called upon for larger subscriptions. In other respects the condition of the school is improved. At any hour during the morning, visitors may see the Scriptures in the hands of the children ; the ordinary version in the bands of the Pro- testants, the Douai version in the bands of the Roman Catholics. Many persons had attacked them, and by pious frauds had tried to put them down ; but it is now acknowledged that the attempt had failed, and the only contention now between the schools in Edinburgh is to try who shall do the most good. Bailie Kay showed, that since 1847 the juvenile commitments had decreased from 250 to 57. In 1851, the average num- ber of criminals of all classes was 702 ; in 1854, 386. Lord Neaves es- pecially insisted that there should be no monopoly of charity ; that poor Protestants and poor Catholics alike should share in the benefits of the society.
At the annual meeting of the Bible Society held recently in Edinburgh, Lord Panmure, the chairman, supplied a correction of Mr. Bright's Roch- dale speech anent the Emperor Nicholas and the Bible. No mention of the name of Russia occurred in the Society's report. Once, indeed, Rus- sia cherished and admitted the Scriptures : the Emperor Alexander coun- tenanced the labours of the Foreign Bible Society, established one in Russia, and caused the Bible to be translated into Russ. Mr. Bright had said that the Emperor Nicholas is friendly to the circulation of the Scriptures it is true, be alto wed the edition of the translation permitted by the Emperor Alexander to be exhausted ; but he permitted no further edition to be struck off, and no further circulation of the Bible in the tongue of his country men ; and he had done all he could to limit the co- pies to the Greek Church, which looks up to him as its father and its God. These facts Lord Panmure had ascertained through Mr. Robert Haldane, the Secretary of the Society ; and they are the simple truth. A portion of the Fins and other inhabitants of Finland, and the German Lutherans, have access to the Scriptures ; but that was one of the condi- tions on which they yielded up their country. But how had the Em- peror treated the Moraviens settled in the Crimea ? They went there to cultivate the soil and convert the Kalmucks ; they made some way ; but when the harvest of converts began to thicken, the Greek Church with their Emperor stepped in, and refused to allow them to teach any farther unless they would teach the religion of the Greek Church. The conse- quence has been, that the Moravians still cultivate the soil, but they have ceased to make converts.
"They do these things differently in Scotland." The authorities at Edinburgh have held to bail Mr. Rowbothani, the manager of the North British Railway, and Mr. Seater, the assistant locomotive superintendent, as well as the usual herd of subordinates, in relation to a recent fatal " acci- dent" on the railway.
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