Scotch News.

Bruce Herald, Volume X, Issue 912, 8 June 1877, Page 3

Scotch News.

-■»■ The great fast wanted in Scotland, remarks the 'Lancet,' is abstention from drinking. . Mr James Smith, the oldest member of the Dundee Police Force, died at the advanced age of 87 years. He has been 36 years in the Dundee Police, and ten years as a constable at Montrose. The question of Disestablishment was discussed lately by the Free Presbyteries of Dundee and PaJßley. Both adopted overtures asking tbe Assembly to petition 1 for immediate Disestablishment. A silver and ivory mounted cane, presented to '• Bailie " Mackay by Sir Walter Scott, is now the property of a gentleman in Montreal. While "Bob Roy" was being played at the Academy of Music there, Mr Felix Morris, who enacted the part of the prince of Glasgow magistrates, used the valuable relic during the performance. A correspondent of the ' Oban Times,' | writing from Lochiel Head, says that a cod of enormous size was captured there a few days ago. The length of the cod over all was Oft. 2-J-in. * its circumference, 3ft. 2}in. The oldest fishermen say that they never saw sucb a monster taken there before. In the Dingwall parish church, on a recent Sunday, on the precentor proclaiming the banns of a proposed marriage, a respectably-dressed young woman stepped forward, protested against the marriage, laid down a shilling on the precentor's table, and retired to her Beat. Negotiations have been proceeding for some time at the treasury to grant £80.000 as a supplement to a like amount subscribed by the public for new buildings devoted to the science schools of the Uni**ersity of Edinburgh. The negotiations have been successful, and the Treasury will recommend votes for £SO,OOO in four yearly instalments of £20,000 each. — London Correspondent of Scotsman. One morning, near the '* wee short oor ayont the twal," a certain minister in a rurul district in the county of Lanark imagined he heard a burglar afc work on the roof of his manse. On a narrow inspection, his reverence was certain enough that the rascal on the housetop was busy 'stripping off the lead. He hastened into the house for his old friend the flint gun, and charged her with a heavy shot ; then, coming to the front of tbe house, and as near the object of his ruffled temper as be could get, Bbouts out— "Come down, sir, or I will shoot you dead !" Having repeated the same threats several times without getting any response from above, he adds — " Here ie at you then; once, twice, thrice!" and then fires. Next moment the poor unfortunate lawbreaker was sprawling in the agonies of death at the minister's feet, who stood terrified, with his deadly weapon in h's hand, but stammered out these words — " I told you I would shoot." But, io, in stooping over his victim to ascertain if he was " clean dead," he discovered that he had Bhot his wife's favourite bird, the old peacock ! — 'Mail.' An extraordinary will, executed by an old joiner who resided until his rectnt death iv the Calton, Glasgow, has been published. The old man belonged to a peculiar sect called- the RankiniteSj who claim, to be lineal descendants of tbe lost tribes of Israel, and who keep very much by themselves, and meet in a clubroom in Greenvalerstreet. After disposing of hi§ tools, &c, in language whicb, though amusing enough, is too long to quote, the tpatator proceeds to give the following directions regarding the dispcfsal of his .body : — " Now, with regard to the body some prefer cremation and their bodies put into an urn ; others agaiu their bpdifs to be pu*t down to mother earth. It is my will tbat my body shall not be disposed of either the one w&y or the other ; but I do hereby appoint the Bankinit?3 to deliver my body after death to Mr Samuel Brown, naturalist, Glasgow, who will take the skin from off my body and have it properly Btuffed, so that I may look like life, and have me placed in a chair in a corner of our club room, with my felt hat on and a tumbler of sherry in my hand, hoping that I may be sitting there for many years to come amongst the descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel. I also hope tbat the remains of my body may be respectfully consigned to mother g r arth by my brethren the Bankinites." Could anything be better than tbe following "improvement" of a minister of Arran, who was discoursing on the carelessness of his flock. " Brethren, when you leave the church, just look d.own at the duke's swans; they are vera bonny swans, an' they'll aye he sooipipg about an' aye dookin' doon their heads laving tbeirsels wi' the clear water till they're a drookit j then you'll see them sooming to tbe shore, "and they'll gie their wings a bit flap and they're dry again. Now, my friends, you come here every Sabbath, an 1 I lave you a' ower wi' the Gospel till you are fairly drookit wit. But you just leave an' awa' hame, and sit doon by your fireside, gie. your •wings a bit flap, an' ye're as dry as ever again,"

Arrangements have been come to with Mr J. B. Hamilton of Leny to feu his estate of Bardowie, situated in the parish of Baldernock and county of Stirling. This estate has an ancient history, and the feuars &ie to have the right of fishing and boating on the far-famed Bardowie Loch, which nearly covers 100 acres of ground, and round which a fine carriage driye is to be made. The distance between Glasgow and Bardowie is five and a-half miles by tbe Possil Boad, and about the same distance by the Balmore Road. The Kelvin Valley Bailway, in course of construction, passes through the estate, and the proprietor has secured a right from the railway company for a station when required. Miss Ann Maxwell Graham, the daughter of a Glasgow merchant, has left a sum of -£4600, divided among several well-known charities in Glasgow, ■£500 going to the National Lifeboat Institution for Scotland, and £300 to the Church of the Waldenses. The residue of the estate, which will amount to about £20,000, is to found a charitable society for the relief of such persons of the name of Maxwell or Hutcheson, or husbands or wives, or descendants from these names, being Protestantß, who may be in reduced circumstances, and for tbe education, including the higher branches, of such children bearing the name of Maxwell or Hutcheson, being Protest.ants. According to a German writer on Egypt aa it is, that country both flows with milk and honey and swarms with locusts, in the shape of Englishmen and Scotchmen. Not only are the Pashas M'Killop and Gordon all powerful in their own spheres, but the best departmental posts are occupied by the countrymen of those two officials, nor one of whom will condescend to take less than £800 a-year, while everyone is prudent enough to insure his salary being paid in advance. The moment, too, he establishes himself, he finds berths for his nephews, cousins, and poor relations generally. I So pliable a prince as the Khedive can > surely be induced to throw open his I Civil Service to competition. A great point with Edward the Naturalist (eaysbisbiographer) was his sobriety. For thirty-six years he never entered a public house nor a dramshop. He was not a teetotaller. Sobriety was merely his habit. Some of his friends advised him to take "a wee drap whisky" with him on eolef nights, but be never did. He himself believes that had he drunk whisky he never could have stood the wet, the cold, and the privations to which he was exposed during so many years of his life. When he wont out at night his food consisted for the most part of plain oatmeal cakes, and his drink was the water from the nearest brook. A severe accident occurred at Galashiels to a young lady named Miss Delisle, a member of Strange & Wilson's Spectral Operatic Company. Just before the performance closed for the night, and 1 without warning, a large mirror (Oft. Oin. by 7ft.) suddenly burst and broke into fragments away from its frame, and fell with a crash on to the stage. Miss Delisle was seated, or in a recumbent position below the mirror at the time, and a large portion of tbe shattered mirror struck her on the face and shoulder. Her face was frightfully cut, the glass striking her immediately across the nose, breaking i the bone in two, and deeply indenting a i mark and cut in the face. The cut on the shoulder was long and deep, and ! required to be sefved. The performance ' had been specially under the patronage of the Provost and Magistrates, and Provost Hall and the entire audience got greatly alarmed and excited as they saw the lady lying on the stage groaning and the blood flowing freely. The Laird, of Millhiddle was a very severe game preserver, and watchful. But notwithstanding all bis precautions an old crofter, a tenant of hia, managed to snare not a few hares and rabbits. " The pitcher that goes often to the well will be broken at last," and so it proved in this case — " almost, not quite." One morning one of the laird's keepers espied two "beasties" snared in the old crofter's turnip field, and had uot lopg retired to an adjoining wood to await the course of events when our old friend made his- appearance upon the scene. Thir^king there was no danger he went to " girn" No 1, where he found a large hare not yet dead. But as he was * bending down, with his back to the wood, to put hu end tp "-ill pussy's troubles, he sees with " the tail of his eye," the burly form of the keeper rising from behind the bush where he had been hid, It was too late to retreat. He must make the best of a bad job. Unloosing the hare he gave it a kick which sent it spinning along the drill. At the same moment the keeper's band was on his shoulder, and the keeper's voice said—'- Aye, my man, what's this ye have been doing?" "Doin'?" returned the innocent old man. " What hae ye been doin' yersel' ? You and the Laird o' MillhiddJe may alloo jev haves an' rabbits t' paster at lairge on my lan, but I'm d d if yell tether them amon' my neeps; noo see." The np\y* pa'fish church of Sorbie, Wigtownshire, erected at a ooßt of £2500, was opened for divine service one Sunday lately, While the parishioners were waiting for the doors to be opened a melancholy event occurred, which caused intense excitement. Captain Bryce, while chatting with a friend, fell down without a moment's warning, and died on the spot. Deceased was in excellent spirits when he left Garliestown at .10 o'clock. He was about sixty years of age, owned property in the village, and was much esteemed. The organist of the church and the wife of one of the principal farmers were found dead in their respective bedrooms last* week, and this third sudden -death in a email community naturally caused an excitement almost painful in its intensity,