SCOTLAND.
The gain of the Tory party in Haddingtonshire on the registration of 188,5 was 48; in the last registration 34—together 82. What are the Reformers about? The whole country will cry shame upon them, if t*reugh neglect or cowardice they lose such a man as Mr. Ferguson for their Representative.
In Peeblesbire, the Tory gain is 24. The Scotsman says, in re- fbrence to this county, that there has been a large creation of mush- room voters—among them a Beresford and a Fowler from Ireland ; but that the Liberals still feel confident of their power to turn out the Tory Member, Sir John Hay.
Mr. Balfour, the present Member, will, in the event of an election, be opposed by Frederick Dundas, for Orkney. The contest will, in all probability, be an unusually keen one. Political feeling runs, if possible, still higher in Orkney and Shetland than in Caithness.
Until we are informed of the final decisions of the Courts of Re- view, affirming or reversing the judgments delivered in the Registration Courts, it will be impossible for us state accurately the general loss or gain of either party, Whig or Tory, over Scotland. But the Regis- tration Courts sufficiently indicate the probable results of another general election. This is a subject, in our opinion, which is treated by all public journals with a very silly want of honesty and candour. The Liberal cause may be equally damaged on the one hand, by nourishing over-confident expectations in a quarter where there is no ground for them, or on the other hand by refraining, through a false timidity, from announcing, manfully and unreservedly, dangers and difficulties where they exist. Now in the Counties there will, in the event of a general election, be a considerable change. The shires of Roxburgh and Mid Lothian will certainly return Liberal Members, and along with these two Selkirkshire might also be joined. Stirlingshire would be the scene of a close struggle ; but if every man does his duty, it should not be hard to unseat Mr. Forbes. In Peeblcsshire the issue of the con- test—which will also be a warm one—cannot be dogmatically prede- termined, and, we confess, we have our misgivings. A long pull and a strong pull would undoebtedly oust the Chisholm from Inverness- shire ; and the great Caithness Rat ought to be forced to sneak off with his tail—if he have one—between his legs, provided Reformers are true to their cause and to themselves. Our readers will observe, that these fore-named counties all now rejoice in Conservative Repre- sentatives. Let us see the shires where the present Whig Members are threatened by the enemy. In Argyllshire we feel obliged to re- gard the idea of any alteration as an amusing fable ; but East Lothian, perhaps, should make us wear a somewhat more serious visage. That Perthshire will remain stanch, we believe ; but however much it would grit ve, it would not astound us, were it to renew its intimacy with the Knight of the Broken Pledge. Over Lanarkshire a storm is brewing which might have been avoided so easily that we can find no excuse for those who have most unnecessarily undermined their own stability. We shall only add at present, that Aberdeenshire and Kin- cardineshire have been too long regarded as the unassailable property of the adversary. Buteshire is in the undisturbed occupation of the Tories, solely because certain ducal Whig proprietors are inert and in- different. Linlithgowshire and Berwickshire need only worthy can- didates to demonstrate that the feelings of the constituency at large are not precisely in harmony with those who now are supposed to speak their sentiments in Parliament.—Caledonian Mercury, Sept. 19.
Great distress, almost amounting to famine, prevails in the islands of Barra, Lewis, Harris, and Uist.
Previous page
