SCOTLAND.
Sir Culling Eardley Smith has got into disgrace with the standing com- mittee at Edinburgh to promote his future election. He had expressed himself in favour of Sunday trains: his committee called upon him to retract that opinion; but he refused to do so, or to pledge himself to legis- late for the repression of such trains. In their anger, his committee have now dissolved their connexion with him, and even disbanded themselves. [By so doing, they have eschewed an idle labour with a mortifying issue; for the last registration, we are informed, has placed Mr. Macaulay's return at the general election more than ever secure. Mr. Gibson Craig's was never in jeopardy.]
We can tell the Directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, on very satisfactory authority, that the discussion on the Sunday trains has excited the attention of the Government, and that the new Railway Board will be called upon to take certain measures to render illegal the stoppage of railway passenger traffic in Great Britain on any day of the week.— Glasgow Argus.
The Directors of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures have just made their annual report. They refer with approbation to Sir Robert Peel's policy of last year; and advocate the removal of restrictions on the importation of mahogany, the reduction of the duties on tea, and the substitution of sugar for grain in breweries.
At a meeting of highly influential persons in Glasgow, on Wednesday, a memorial to Government was adopted, praying for removal of the prohibi- tion against the use of sugar and molasses in distilleries and breweries.
At a great meeting in the same city, on Tuesday, a committee was ap- pointed to collect and administer a relief fund for the destitution in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
The enormous influx of destitute Irish into Glasgow has become a se- rious matter. Even now, the assessment for the present year exceeds by 19,0001. that of last year. At the only day set apart by the Glasgow Pa- rochial Board for hearing new applications, the doors are besieged by a dis- mal crowd of 1,200 or 1,300 starving wretches, rendering the street im- passable. A member of the Committee describes the scene-
" The sight of such a multitude was perfectly appalling, consisting as it did of all kinds of characters. The aged, the infirm, who had newly left a fever ward, the sturdy beggar, the prostitute, the drunkard and idler of eve7 name, children in the arms and at the feet, were all mixed in one motley multitude. The con- tamination which followed such a gathering, both moral and physical, was enough to condemn it. I have the authority of some of our district surgeons for saying that disease is propagated by this means. The atmosphere of the hall into which they were pent up for a whole day was horrible."
The applicants have many of them to stand for twelve hours, nearly suffocated, before they can be heard. A fortnight ago, a child died in the crowd; and on another day a woman was carried in so exhausted that she could not answer the questions put to her. The Night Asylum is always over-crowded; but the Irish still keep up the siege, and can only be re- strained by the Police from a forcible irruption.
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