NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE settlement of our Municipal elections, which for the time made a stir in all the corporate towns, anti the conclusion of the spirited though to us unintelligible contest at Cambridge, have given the country breathing-time to look about for new objects of home interest. It now seems to be admitted that the results of the Corporation elections were, in far the majority of cases, to the advantage of the Tories. This additional proof' of the growing disfavour of the Ministers with the town population, gives fair
warning of their fate at the next general election. Their dis- interested and judicious newspaper supporters have been endea- vouring to comfort then v for their defeat in the towns and in Cam- bridge University, by a victory on their side in the Rectorial elec- tion for the University of Glasgow. The Duke of WELLINGTON has been beaten, two to one! This indeed sounds like a triumph worth boasting of; but, unluckily, it is only a sound " signifying nothing." The Duke of WELLINGTON was not in the field—he was known to have expressly refused to stand: even had the Duke, however, come forward and been worsted, it would have been no test of political opinion. While .Ministerial journals talk of this affair as of some conse- quence, the Tories represent it as a trifle. When Sir Ronmer Praos and Lord STANLEY and Sir JAMES GRAI1AM. were elected, each party spoke about the matter as the other does now. The history of the question is as follows. A good many years ago, Mr. K1RKMAN FINLAY, while Lord Rector, was accused by the students of sacri- ficing their interests ; and, instead of being returned a second year, he was by the juvenile electors unceremoniously dismissed. The preliminary canvass was cleverly and spiritedly carried on by the boys opposed to him. Looking about for a more faithful cus- todier of their privileges, the younkers found no encouragement from public men of the Tory party, then in close league with the Kirk and the Professors ; and were thus, without any very decided political predilections, thrown into the arms of the Scotch Whigs. JEFFREY, Ilitouonam, Castennue &c. one after another accepted the office of Rector—half-patronizing the election as a good exer- cise for lads who might afterwards be called upon to take part in the political warthre—half amused at the grave earnestness of " the young monkies." The thing was always treated as at least hallo joke. But that "full solempne man" Sir ROBERT took it in dead earnest. With the boys it was from the beginning little more than a wayward defiance of the constituted authorities. They thought it a fine thing to be Whigs when the Tories were in power, and they thought it just as fine a thing to be Tories when the Whigs were in power ; and the bustle of a canvass, and the excitement of speechifying and hurtling, are just his pleasing to little men as to grown children. One day the lads arc Whigs, another Tories, a third Non-Intrusionists ; just in the same manner that after reading Rob Roy they catch the tartan fever, and after reading Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life they become Cameroniaus. Their college politics are the momen- tary effervescence of the imitative propensity of ingenuous boyhood: they have no root in knowledge, and neither decide the polities of the man nor count for any thing in the sum of public opinion. The fashion of the day among the young collegians is to be High- Church, and they have been shabbily served by Sir JAMES GRA- his Rectorial capacity; and these circumstances combined were enough to throw them into the scale of Lord BuEanas.nax who is personally a fitvourite ill Glasgow. A Non-Intrusion vic- tory it can scarcely be called, seeing that the supporters or Dr. ClIALMERS in the late Divinity Professor canvass, after keeping him in the field fbr some time, dared not go to the poll. A Whig victory it can scarcely be called, seeing the relation in which the 1\ lug Non-Intrusiontsts (ot whom Lord Bitovna !MANE is one) stand to the Whig leaders in Edinburgh. We suspect, however, that the Duke of 1VELLINGTON'S place on the poll will open Sir Roaster PEEL's eyes to the fallacy of " Boys—the source of legitimate power."
Ireland has been very tranquil of late. The Agitator is in mo- dest retirement at Darrynane Abbey, whilst the Rent is collected throughout the length and breadth of the island. The yield of this year's harvest to the Liberator promises to surpass the average of former seasons, though it is likely to fall short of the sanguine ex- pectations of hiariends. In some places the amount is less than before.
The Repeal culture, which was so assiduously applied, has not been attended with results equal to the promise. Now it seems to languish altogethbr during :1Ir. O'CosNei.L's retirement. The National Repeal:Association continues to meet weekly ; but the proceedings have no interest. Son Jo IIN is an indifferent substitute for the great DAN. Those of the Repeaters who can find the means are purchasing and putting on their frieze Repeal liveries, made at Dewsbury in Yorkshire, as a means of encouraging the manufac- tures of Ireland. %Father MaTnew contributes to this satisfactory mode of spending their money at this season of the year, by swear- ing in thousands at Dublin to abstain from whisky. The HonEN- 1.011E of Temperance promises shortly to try the efficacy of his miracle-working powers on his countrymen in St. Giles's.
Among other matters going on in Ireland, are the coming, Par- liamentary elections for the counties of CaCeov and Mayo. There seems to have been a great lack of energy and unity of purpose among the Repeaters and Liberals at this crisis. The discord occasioned by the Repeal-agitation has probably contributed to this effect. Candidates have at length been f,oind to contest both
counties with the Tories; but the latter had the start, and the re- sult in both cases remains in doubt. Mr. O'CoNsELL is unusually apathetic, at a time when the result of the two elections may almost turn the balance in the House of Commons against his prott'sgs the Whig Ministers.
