SCOTLAND.
Reports from the moors and forests form one of the most important items in the Scotch journals. On the whole the sport seems to have been good. In B n hire it is described as being "pretty fair," some noble shots making large bags. In Aberdeenshire it has been fully above the average for some years past." In Morayshire the moors are in "good condition." In Forfarshire there is a "decided improvement in the quantity of the grouse : all healthy." From Inverness and from the West of Scotland the accounts are not so favourable. Wet weather has spoiled sport.
The reports from the deer forests are full of stories of successful shoot- ing. This kind of sport seems to have approached perfection.
Mr. George Combe, the phrenologist, died at Moor Park, Surrey, on Saturday, in his seventieth year. He was the son of a tolerably well-to-do tenant farmer, and was born in Edinburgh, October 21, 1788, the fourteenth child and sixth son of a family, numbering seventeen in all. Mr. Combe was bred to the law, and practised as late as 1833. But his fame will rest not on his labours as a lawyer, but on his labours as a phrenologist, and his work on the "Constitution of Man," which has reached a circulation only short of the Bible," "Pilgrim's Progress," and " Robinson Crusoe." In 1816, he was introduced to Spurzheim at Edinburgh, and he soon fell in with his teaching. In three years Combe published" Essays on Phrenology," and in seven years he had begun the "Phrenological Journal." The "Constitution of Man" did not ap- pear until 1828. In 1833 Mr. Combe became a lecturer' and at the same time he took unto himself a wife Cecilia, daughter of Mrs. Siddons. Three years after he competed unsuccessfully with Sir William Hamilton and Isaac Taylor for posssession of the Edinburgh Chair of Logic and Meta- physics. Since that time Mr. Combe has published many works, in- cluding a life of his brother, Andrew Combe. 7l1fr. Combe had long been failing in health. The Scotsman of Monday, having just heard of his death, pays this tribute to his memory. "In the deep regret with which this announcement will be received by all his friends, we have double cause to join, losing as we do at once a highly valued personal friend, and one of our most able and esteemed contributors. Mr. Combe had, as was his annual custom, left Edinburgh early in summer, and paid visits to several of his friends and connexions in the south of England, the mild and equable climate of which was peculiarly' beneficial to his delicate constitution. He had profited in health and spirits by the change ; and a week or two ago went to the hydropathie establishment of Moor Park, Surrey, not as a patient but for the sake of the agreeable resi- dence, and of the pleasant society which he knew, from former experience, was generally to be found presided over by his friend Dr. Lane. The wea- ther, which had been very warm and fine, shout a fortnight ago became somewhat leas so, affecting Mr. Combe unfavourably. It was only, how- ever, within a week that he was considered decidedly ailing; on Thurs- day or Friday last his malady, an affection of the chest, left no hope of recovery, and he expired on Saturday morning. Mr. Combe had been more or less of an invalid for several years, and in his particu- larly delicate state of health, the fatal issue of anything of the nature of acute disease could not be unexpected by any of his friends. Still less could it be so by himself ; he knew well the frailty of his tenure, and though conscientiously careful in all that conduced to the preserva- tion of such moderate share of health as he enjeyed, had long held himself prepared to rest from the labours of a worthily laborious life. Ho had attained the threescore and ten years winch is set down as the common term; that he did so was undoubtedly due, under Providence to his strict obedience to those laws of physical and moral wellbeing, the knowledge and ,practice of which his works have done so much to extend and enforce. His life was in all points a wonderful example of the sound- ness and beneficial influence of the practical precepts of his philosophy ; but it was only those who enjoyed and were honoured by his friendship who really knew how thoroughly compatible that philosophy was with the exer- cise of every amiable and generous feeling. 'Those who knew him most in- timately the best appreciated the depth and soundness of his moral nature ; Ins intellectual powers and position are before the world. Throughout a very wide circle—a circle not limited to this country only, but extending to Continental Europe and America—the announcement of Mr. Combo's death will be received not merely as telling of the departure of a man in many re- spects one of the most remarkable of his generation, but as of the loss of a kind, considerate, zealous friend. And the news will also sadden very many, far and near—citizens of Edinburgh or dwellers in other and it may be distant lands—who have experienced the ready and unassuming hospital- ity which, in spite of always feeble health, he exercised with a catholicity of welcome daily, we fear, becoming more and more rare amongst us."
The poor sufferers by the failure of the Western Bank of Scotland are to be relieved by a public subscription. Many of them are women, some children, a few old men. They have been suddenly deprived of their incomes, and reduced from competence to poverty. At present the sum subscribed is 50001.
A careful examination of the statistics of whiskey drinking under the well known Forbes Mackenzie Act shows the Scottish Press that more 'whiskey has been consumed since the act passed than was consumed in a similar period before the act passed, and this in spite of the increased price of the fiery sprit caused by an increase of duty.
Much painful excitement has been felt in Edinburgh by the arrest of Major Yelverton, the second son of Lord Avonmore, on a charge of bigamy. He has been admitted to bail on a bond of 10001. The ease against him, as at present stated, is that he had married Miss Longworth, an Irish lady whom he first met as a lady nurse in the Crimea. The marriage was per- formed in Ireland by a Roman Catholic priest, and its validity is doubted, but it is beyond doubt that the parties lived together at Edinburgh, and travelled on the Continent as Mr. and Mrs. Yelverton. In June last Major Yelverton, leaving his supposed wife in Paris, went to Eelinburgh, and was there married to the widow of the late Professor Edward Forbes. The first wife quickly followed, and hence the charge of bigamy.
The Reverend William Smith, of the United Presbyterian Church, Ban- nockburn, has been drowned while bathing at Aberdeen. He was warned not to go far out as a dangerous cross current swept along the shore. He - seems to have trusted too much to his power as a swimmer, for he went too far out, got into the current, and sank before a life-boat, quickly manned, could reach him.
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