SCOTLAND.

Between four and five thousand persons assembled in front of the hustings at Perth on Thursday last, to nominate candidates for the re- presentation of their great county. Mr. George Drummond Stewart first appeared, accompanied by Mr. Fox Maule, Mr. Robert Steuart, and several Whig landowners. This party vas received with enthusi- astic cheers. Mr. Home Drummond took his station on the hustings amidst groans, hisses, and shouts of' " The Spy system I " from his op- ponents. Ile was accompanied by Sir John Richardson, Mr. Campbell of Monzie, and other gentlemen of Conservative opinions.

The preliminaries baying been gone through, the Honourable Fox Meade presented himself, to propose Mr. Stewart. He contrasted the open and manly manner in which Mr. Stewart had met the electors everywhere, with Mr. Drummond's reluctance to show his face. But "time Tories had uniformly played the same sneaking and cowardly game." Mr. Motile described Mr. Stewart as every way worthy to re- present the county : one of the most prominent of the enumerated qualifications being his zeal in Mr. Music's cause at a Ihrmer contest for Perthshire. He stated Mr. Drummond's disqualifications- " When I beard that Mr. Drummond had offered himself as a candidate for yew suffrages, I asked it' there were not upon the records of the country transactions in which he was prominently concerned, and which were im- peached in Parliament by a Member of the House of Commons ? Individuals were tried at that time, and I now come to the case in point, to the trial of Andrew 3PKittlay in the High Court of Justiciary ; for, I believe, administer- ing unlawful oaths. Those who placed him at the bar of that court found it necessary to get stronger evidence against him than they could well procure ; and they selected a man of the name of John Campbell, said to have been en- gaged in the illegal proceedings that were alleged to have been carried on : they placed him under the tutorage of' the Procurator-Fiscal of Glasgow for rt time ; they afterwards brought hint to Edinburgh, kept hhn in time Castle there, and still further prepared him for being a witness against M'Kinlay. They threatened himself with prosecution if he would not give evidence against Mg:inlay. They prepared him for giving evidence, and then put him into the witness-box. Among other prelimitinry questions put to a witness in Scot- land, is one to the effect, whether the witness has received, or been promised, a reward for giving testimony; and upon this question being put to Campbell, he at :het declieed to answer; there was a struggle en his breast whether he should sacrifice the prisoner, and at last he replied that he had b'en promised a reward for giving his evidence. It is unnecessary to detail whet Campbell subsequently stated m consequence of this admission. The Crown Lawyers were forced to abandon the case—this was the result. If Campledl had been simply promieed personal protection, I should not have brotteht the matter forward at all• but he swore that promises had been made to get- him into the Excise, to give 'him means to carry hitn out of the country, &e.; and with the knowledge that if, after receiving these pro- mises, he said he had been promised no reward, he would have been guilty of perjury, and that the prisoner would. have been, therefore, convicted on per- jured testimony—with the knowledge of all this, the public prosecutor pro- duced the man as a witness. Twentv-three years have elapsed since this trial took place, and it is truly painful tor rue to recur to it, aa it concerns Mr. Drummond; but he having come out from private life, and solicited a great public trust, our minds are eaturally and irresistibly driven back to it ; and it unnecessary for me to saw that the Advocate-Depute engaged at that trial is the Tory candidate on this occnsion. I now dismiss this part of Mr. Drum- mend's conduct, and leave you to form your opinions respecting it."

This statement elicited loud cheers from the multitude of Mr. Stewart's supporters.

Mr. Stewart's nomination having been seconded by Mr. W. Harris, Mr. Campbell of Monzie proposed, and Mr. Smith of Deanston seconded Mr. Drummond, amidst much i interruption.

Mr. Stewart then came forward. Ile avowed himself a supporter of the "present Reflyrming Governnteut," a zealous Protestant, and an advocate for giving "the power of de:ermining the acceptability or the reverse of presentees wholly to the congregation."

Mr. Drummond promised his best services to the country if elected, as he was confident he should be by a very decisive majority. With reference to Mg:inlay's trial, he mi!:,t env that he lied not expected to he called upon by a gentle:nen of Mr. Fox Maule's rank and knowledge for a defence from so nonsensical a charge. He utterly denied that Campbell had been " tutored," or thut any offer save the usual one of protection had been made to him. The same offer was made to wit- nesses on the late trial of the cotton-spinners. •

Mr. Maule did not coesider the explanation satisfactory. The charge was, that Campbell received such promises as prevented him front swearing that he had received no promise of reward.

Mr. Drummond asked Mr. Mottle, whether if any taint were on his character, the Stirliugsbire Whigs would have supported him at a subsegeent election ? The fact was, that Campbell, when in Edinburgh Castle, had received slips of paper in rolls of tobacco counselling him to say that he had been promised rewards. o show of hands was taken ; and the meeting dispersed with groans for Mr. Drummond. The polling commenced on Friday ; and at the close of that day Mr. Drummond had secured a majority of 458, as appears from the fol- lowing table of votes given at the different polling-places.

FINAL STATE OF THE POLL.

Perth Drummond

253 _7

Stewart 18 74 Dunkeld Drummond... .. 179 Stewart 124 55

Crieff Drummond 277 Stewart 146 — 131 Doune Drummond 412 Stewart 180 — 232 — 492 Bridge of Earn Stewart 167 Drummond 161 6 Blairgowrie Stewart 189 Wcem Drummond

175

Stewart 139 Drummond 125 14 — 34

71-58

Total polled—Drummond 1586 Stewart 1128 2714 Mr. Stewart's friends held a meeting on Friday night, and perceiving that they had no chance of success, informed Mr. Drummond's Con. mittee that Mr. Stewart had retired from the contest.

When Lord Stormont defeated Mr. Fox Maule in 1837, the numbers were, on the close of the second day's poll—

or Stormont 1464 Meade 1379 Majority 85 A well-informed correspondent has sent to us, from Perth, some in- teresting particulars of the contest and of the causes of the Whig defeat.

"Perth,7th Nareh1840.

" The contest between Mr. Home Drummond (Conservative) and Als George Drummond Stewart (Whig) for the representation of' this county, has terminated in a manner the most humiliating and disastrous the the Whig party. The polling, which was to continue yesterday and to-day, closed, at the request of the Whig agent, at four o'clock yesterday afternoon, when there was a majority for Mr. Home Drummond Of 458; and had the polling been allowed for this day, there is no doubt the majority would have been increased an additional hundred. This defeat is the more signal, as the whole weight and the direct influence of Government were given to the Whig candidate; the Honourable Fox Malik, Under Secretary of State, and Mr. Steuart of Alderston, a Treasury Lord, having abandoned their posts in Parliament to aid in the canvass and election. It is needless to add, that great is the joy, loud the rejoicing of the Conservatives, at the triumphant success of their well-devised schemes.

" The Whigs exhibited in the course of the canvass their characteristic pliancy of principle. Aware that ' our youthful Queen ' and. the ' Reform Bill ' had become stale claptraps for electioneerin,g purposes, they swelled the popular hue and cry of the High-fliers of the Church of Scotland about the • -Veto ' and Nou-Intrueion.' Every national interest was thrown in the shade, to give exclusive prominence to what is at present accounted by clerical fanatics the interest of ' our Zion.' Meetings of ministers and other Kirk partisans were held to consider the ' duty of the friends of the Church among the constituency ' with reference to her spiritual liberties,' es these may be affected by the county election. Those meetings were opened with prayer, and usually closed with a recommendation in favour of the Non-In- trusion candidate. Mr. Stewart, though describing himself, in his address, as Episcopalian, and asserting that he looked on the ' right of patronage as a sacred trust for the spiritual interests of the people at large,' went the whole hog with the Radical and now rebellious Anti-Moderates. His promises were of the most ample and unqualified breadth ; and, in consequence, ministers be- came his zealous auxiliaries, and canvassed their parishioners in such Amps°. dical strains as the following- " 11,rget whether you be ilhig or Try : he is man, a Cheistion, and a PreRhytertnn. Mil you mai:, .fr fear of fours, or fount desiritto smiles of dying 91C11, tyfrain from 0.1 Ming to THE HELP OF THE Loan " The patrons, however, as the issue of the struggle indicates, were more than a match for the parsons. One or two of the latter, from the overpower- iug strength of their Tory predilections, on the day of election turned tami ; whieh perfidy has opportunely served hapless and balked Whigs as an excuse for their defeat. They are averse to admit that the " Yorkshire of Scotland" is now as completely in the hands of Conservative landlords, as it would have been in the hands of Whig landlords provided only their acres had been as numerous. Nor is it likely they will acknowledge, though this contest has afforded us palpable evidence of tire fact, that the popularity of Whiggery is for ever gone. The allusion of Mr. Fox Mettle from the hustings, to the Government of which lie is a member, elicited no othersigusbut those of disapprobation ; Whigs and Tories are now six and half tt-dozen. The greatest fidling-off of votes in favour of' the Liberal candidute ' were at the polling-stations of Blairgowrie and the Bridge of Earn, where the independent feline of' the populous villages of Illairgowne, Abernethy, and Auchterarder record their suffrages. The Dis- senters, in spite of sundry indiscreet attempts to influence them, to a consi- derable extent remained neutral and declined voting. Lord John Russell's Finality declaration bad a cooling effect upon all right-minded Reformers; and the pert observations of the same great statesman on Mr. Duncomhe'a mo- tion on the 61Ni:et of Church-rates, and his aristocratic indifference towards the victim of a State Church in Chelmsford Gaol, have had an effect not lee adverse to Whig ascendancy upon the minds of the enlightened friends of civil and religious liberty."—A. B.

The Glasgow Herald's correspondent at Perth mentions some notice- able incidents of the contest— Must people imngined Clint, in the neighbourhood of Perth, where the Non-lntrusion Committee held its sittings, the Conservatives would suffer a serious loss from elo kat agitation. The fact has turned out quite otherwise. At the Perth station, 1 am int...wined, three ministers of the Established Church and one layman voted against Mr. Drummond, on the special ground that he did not go the full length on the Non-lntrusion question. This seems to have been the utmost extent of the lose at the Perth station. But then there was a positive gain, which fiar more than compensated this loee. I am assured, upon good authority, that in the parish of Scone alone. which is quite near Perth, the Conservatives gained no less than twenty-eight votes, partly by electors voting for them who had formerly been on the other side, and partly

by a body of' twenty-two Radical Dissenters refusing to go to the poll, iu order

to mark their disgust at the conduct of these clerical politicians, The seine thing happened in other quarters. At Dlairgowrie, one gentleman succeeded in taking to the poll ten Dissenters, who at last election supported the Whigs, and one and all of them voted for the Conserve ives. The conseqte nee has been a most extraordinary decrease of 'W big votes at the Bridge of karn, ).gawrie, and other stations, which at former elections were considered the e-re5at strongholds of the Liberal cause. 4, The most curious part of the whole affair is the conduct of Dr. William Thomson of Perth. You will recollect he was the Chairman of the Non-In- ion Committee that issued the resolutions against Mr. Drummond; and I tunderstand Ile was most active in his exertions, both personally and in writing, to prevail on his clerical friends to support Mr. Stewart. Yet on the night before the election, he declared himself satisfied with Mr. Drummond's expla- nations on the hustings, and, did not vote at all !" The Glasgow Argus accounts for the defeat much in the same way-

" Great numbers of Radical and Dissenting electors throughout the county refused to vote, having been disgusted with the statements of Mr. B. Steuart as to the probable pace of Government on the subject of Non-Intrusion. When to this is added the fact, that at the last registration the Tories placed se- veral hundred new voters on the roll, while the Liberals were exceedingly apathetic, the large majority for Mr. Drummond is easily accounted for."

The Edinburgh Observer, though a Liberal paper, rejoices at the de- feat of the Non-Intrusionist candidate ; and says that had Mr. Stewart come forward as "a Whig and a Reformer,' leaving the Non-In- trusionists to fight their own battles, his position on the poll would have been very different. The %flowing remarks from the Aberdeen Herald of Saturday est point to the influence which Non-Intrusion may have upon another important seat in Scotland-

" What would Lord Melbourne's Whig advisers think—if the Church question is to be used for electioneering purposes—of a union of Tory Anti- Vetoists with decided Liberals to return independent Members, who would re- sist the encroachments of the wilt party in the Kirk, and help to oust the Government that had pusillanimously yielded to them ? Such a thing is not only possible, but exceedingly probable. 1 he Church question is regarded us of vital importance; and sensible inert have such a horror of the supremacy of the mad clergy, that they will sacrifice any thing rather than endure it. To give the General Assembly such legislative powers as it claims, would make Scotland a place which no quiet, well-disposed, moderate person could live in. * ° *

a The Non-Intrusionists are boasting that the Member for the city 'goes the whole hog with them.' We trust this is not the case. Mr. Bannerman must know that three-fourthe of his constituents—that, in fact, nearly all of them who have the slightest influence, utterly repudiate the Non-Intrusion humbug. And surely he has more good sense then put any trust in the four- teen parsons who have been trying to get up a Popery-phobia, and who, as soon as lie had served their turn, would tind a pretence, in his Irish Church polities, for voting against him. Beside-, is he prepared to abandon the support of the

Dissenters iP Is Ile willing to di-gust the moderate Churchmen, who are his most zealous supporters ? We hear it said that a meting of the Liberal

electors, who are opposed to the men,' is to be hell, to -adopt resolutions

remonstrating with Mr. Bannerman, should there be any truth in the state- ments of the`'Non-Intrusionists. But we have no doubt the whole story will turn out to be a mistake. Mr. Bannerman may wish to have the question set- tled, but he is too honest and upright to join any such unprincipled party as the high. flying Churchmen."

It is impossible to mistake the drift of these hints. They are intended as a friendly warning to Mr. Bannerman, of the risk of dalliance with the Non-Intrusionists, while the shrewd writer makes-believe to disbe- lieve that he had been guilty of such folly.