SCOTLAND.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 178, 16 February 1860, Page 4

SCOTLAND.

A great banquet in honour of Lord Brougham was given by the citizens of Edinburgh on Oct. 26. It was a highly successful meeting. The General Council of .the University of Edinburgh met on Oct. 28 to elect a Chancellor of the University. The election lay between Lord Brougham and the Duke of Buccleugh. The committees of the two candidates had had an eager struggle; and at one time the issue was dofbtful. The votes were, —for Dol’d Brougham, 654 ; for the Duke of Buccleuch, 419; majority for Lord Brougham, 235.

On the same day, Sir John M‘Neill was elected at Edinburgh assessor to the University Court. I-lis opponent was Lord Neaves.

On November 12 the University of Edinburgh elected Mr. Gladstone as Lord Rector.

Lord Neaves was the rival candidate. The election of Lord Hector of the University of Glasgow took place on Nov. 15, when Lord Elgin was chosen by a majority of all the Nations; the total numbers being, Elgin, 553 ; Disraeli, 411.

The Forbes Mackenzie Commission has held its final sitting at Edinburgh, having examined upwards of 750 witnesses. Sir Jas. Fergusson, Bart., has been the victorious candidate for the seat in Parliament, vacated in consequence of the death of Lord James Stuart, He defeated Mr. Campbell, the Liberal candidate, by 46 votes. During the last fortnight of October the north of Scotland was visited by storms of snow, wind, and rain of such severity as is but rarely experienced at that period. Up to the 21st of October the weather had been comparatively fine. On the morning of that day, however, snow began to fall very heavily, and by night it lay in many places eight or nine inches deep. This was succeeded by a keen frost and further snow, and the severity of the weather may in some measure be calculated from the fact that two men in their prime, who had occasion to be travelling in the night-time, perished in the storm —the one in Banffshire, the other in Aberdeenshire. On the 26th the snow changed into a perfect hurricane of rain and wind. A atal accident occurred on the evening of that day near Aberdeen. Two farmers and a cattle dealer were driving home in a gig from a sale which had been held in the neighbourhood. They had to ford the Ury, which is usually a gentle stream .some seven •or eight yards wide, but which was now swollen to a perfect .orrent. Owing to the darkness of the evening they did not perceive their danger until (hey had advanced too far into the water. In a few minutes they were swept down the current,. One of them reached the bank, the two others and the horse were drowned.

At a meeting of the Edinburgh Town Council on Nov. 4, Mr. Francis Brown Douglas was unanimously elected Lord Provost, Professor Forbes, who at present fills the chair of. natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, has been appointed principal of the United College of St. Salvador and St. Leonard, in the University of St, Andrews. At a meeting of the Brougham Committee, held at Edinburgh on the sth November, it was proposed, and unanimously carried, that the election of Lord Brougham as first Chancellor of tho University be permanently celebrated by the institution of a “ Brougham Club”

A great banquet was given to the 78thj Highlanders at Naim on October 18. Sir E. ’Colobrooke, M.P. for the county of Lanark, delivered a very important speech to his constituents at the county town on the 18th of October. It contained some severe strictures on the policy we have lately been pursuing in China. Sir Johp Bowring has been lecturing oh China in Edinburgh, under the auspices of the Philosophical Institution.