Scotch News.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 896, 10 April 1877, Page 3

Scotch News.

The G-Aelic language is dyiDg out, though Htill used in 200 parishes in Scotland for preaching, and though spoken by probably 250 000 people. It is well-known that it is doomed, and it is equally well known that no greater barrier exists to a young man going out to the world than the fact that bis speech is strongly impregnated by the Gaelic language. —Report of meeting 'Dundee Advertiser. 1 Mr David Meldrum, Craigfoodie, near Dairsie, Fifeshire, who died recently, has beqeathed nearly the whole of his estate, between £30,000 and £40,000 in value, to the Free Church College. He has also left a few small legacies. We bear that the bequest contains instructions to accumulate the rents of his estate of Craigfoodie till the burdens are cleared off, and then to make it over to trustees for behoof of the New College, Edinburgh. The free rental is about £1000 a year, but to clear off the burdens and defray the duty to Government, some time will be required, so that several years will elapse before this handsome legacy will be available for the College. A meeting of the A nti- Vivisection Society was held on Wednesday night in the Queen- Btreet Hall, Edinburgh — Mr M'Laren, M.P, in the chair. Dr Childs, of London, delivered a second lecture on vivisection. The audience was small, but upwards of a hundred students occupied the- back part of the hall and disturbed the meeting to such an extent that the speakers could not be heard at the reporters' table. The Chairman, in anim? adverting upon the conduct of the students, remarked that they had done much to hurt their own interest ; and Dr Duff declared that he had not received such usage at the hands of slaves and idolaters in Africa as Dr Childs had been treated with that evening. He further described the conduct of the students as barbarous, and held that they bad done much towards the spread of anti-vivisectionist views. The ' Catholic Directory' for 1877 gives some very interesting particulars respecting the present position of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world, and particularly in England, Wales, and Scotland. It appears that there are now in Scotland 160 priests and 239 public churches, chapels, and "stations." These " stations," which are very numerous in Scotland, are places which have no resident priest, but which are attended occasionally from a distance, and have not a weekly service. The figures for 1877 show an increase in Scotland over those given in the preceding year of 16 priests and six churches, chapels, and stations. Adding England and Wales, the increase in churches in the year is 21, and the increase of clergy 64. The number of Roman Catholic Peers is 36, of whom 26 bave seats in the House of Lords. There are 47 Roman Catholic Baronets, 7 Roman Catholic members of the Priry Council, and 50 Roman Catholic members of Parliament, all of whom represent Irish constituencies. The Dundee New Cattle Markets have just been completed at a coßt of between £50,000 and £60,000. The Rev. James Barclay, of Canonby, who ib leaving that parish for Linlithgow, was presented with a gift from the local Working Men's Association and the Football Club, and in acknowledging it, he said that some of his best friends bad dissuaded him from taking an active part in the Football Club as being unlike the part of a "minister. He could not see it in that way. He had never had cause to regret having formed the Club, and if he had it to do he would do it again. He was proud of their success that after two seasons' play they had not beep beaten. general ever felt more proud in returning with a victorious army than he did when returning with the Club from Carlisle. At a late meeting of the Law Committee of the Dundee Town Ccuncil the Convener brought under the notice of the Committee the terms of the late Mr and Mrs Ogilvie's deeds of mortification for the education of boys and girls of Dundee, The deed which was understood to "regulate the bequest was that of Mrs Ogilvie, and the intention would seem to be education in a secondary class school, as the boys to be admitted to its benefits had to be able to read and write. The funds, he believed, would now amount to £20 000 or upwards, and as it was twenty years from Mrs Ogilvie's death the bequest won hi cqme into operation. The meeting agreed to recommend the Town Council to ioQuire into

the uYaiter 'f wjtb the "view of having th bequest given effect to. - ' 7 \*) The Scotch are a sober nation, bu they can get drunk occasionally, and i appears from a record just issued tha during the year ending the 30th of Juri< last, 54,330 persona were taken in chargi in Scotland for being drunk, of whom however, it is fair to say that 31,14( were simply incapable, and only 23,184 were disorderly; as well as drunk. O these drunkards Glaßgow claims 15,23] cases, and the neighboring burghs ol Oovan; Mary hilly and Patrick contributt 1982 cases between- them, making a granc tbtfcr for Glasgow' >of 17,213. These ar« all j returned x under the head of " incapable," there being no such charge ac drunk and disorderly in the Glasgow Pojice Act. It is, however, difficult tc believe that 17,213 persons could have drank themselves into a condition of such incapability that they were none of then capable of disorderly behaviour. ' Edinburgh contributes 6925 incapable and disorderly drunkards, and Dundee 3807. The town of Aberdeen shows well on the list with only 596 of both classes; Green, ock gives 2464; Leith, 1991; Paisley, 1603 ; Port Glasgow, 923 ; Hamilton, 763 ; Kilmarnock, 735 ; Ayr, 699 ; Stirling, 671 ; Dumfries, 631 ; Forfar, 268 ; Montrose, 227 ; Brechin, 190 ; Arbroath 76; Broughty Ferry, 27; Kirriemuir, 16; Dunfermline, 170; and other places in Fifeshire, 452. The total for the county of Aberdeen is 415. Perth County numbers 768/ and Perth city, 226. The county of Kincardine gives a total of 122, and Kinross County 5. To the town of Lerwick alone belongs the honor of having no drunkards, of any variety, to figure on the list. The Tay Bridge will be the longest in the world, connecting two populous and thriving counties between two and three miles apart, and forming an important link iv direct railway communication from Aberdeen to London. It is anticipated that the Tay Bridge will be ready for locomotives and trains passing over it frouj the coast of Fife totbat of Forfar— shire in the month of August next. One great achievement makes another easier of accomplishment. The construction of the Tay Bridge has suggested the curious idea of leading over a supply of water to Newport, the pipes to be laid along the bridge. Sir William Thompson, the President of the Physical Science section of the Bri tish Association, at Glasgow, last month, told an attentive and admiring audience how, in a recent investigation of the United States Telegraph Department, he saw and heard Elisha Gray's splendidlyworked electric telephone actually sounding four messages simultaneously on the Morse code, and equally capable of Bounding yet four times as many with very moderate improvements of aetaii ; how he saw Edison's automatic telegraph delivering 1015 words in 57secs. ; how, in the Canadian department, he heard " To be, or not to be ?" recited through the electric wire ; and how, scorning monosyllables, the electric articulations rose to higher flights, and gave audible passages taken at random from New York newspapers, such as " The Senate has resolved to print a thousand extra copies;" 'The Amencans in Jiondon have resolved to celebrate the coming Fourth of July," and a number of other utterances. "All this," Sir William continued, "my own ears heard spoken to me with unmistakeable distinctness by the thin circular disc armature of just such another little electro- magnet as this which I hold in my hand. The words were shouted in a loud and clear voice by my colleague, Professor Watson, at the f&r end of the line, holding his mouth close to a Btretcbed membrane carrying a little piece of soft iron, which wa« thus made to perform, in the neighborhood of an electric magnet, a circuit with the line, motions proportional to the Bonorific motions of the air."