The Scotsman seems nettled at our article of last week
as to the choice of candidates for the University constituency oaf Glasgow and Aberdeen, and in trying to pick holes in our facts falls into error itself. We had said that "the two Scottish constituencies first called upon to elect Members after the minus mirabilis of house- hold suffrage were those of the counties of Dumfries and of the politically united Universities of Aberdeen and Glaagow." The Scotsman replies that " Clackmannan and Kinross, the Hawick boroughs, and the Wigtown boroughs were first called upon to re-elect Mr. Adam, Mr. Trevelyan, and Mr, now Lord Young." Nv doubt ; but in the first place, these re-elections were merely formal re-elections, in which no political contest took place ; and next, the vacancies occurred in 1868 itself, not in the year after, which was the year we spoke of. The Rentreirabin3 vacancy also took place in 186$, though it wets not flhle& up t41, January, 1869.
The Scotsman says that the Caithness election preceded the election for Glasgow and Aberdeen, which is true; but it is not true that the vacancy occurred sooner, for the vacancy and candidatures for the University preceded the vacancy for Caithness. But in fact,— and this was our point,—the two elections named were the first real contests, as distinguished from "walks over the course," after the elections of 1868. Picking holes of this invisible kind is poor work for the Scotsman, which used to show a certain
(4.1.breadth of purpose even in its animosities.
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