FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18748, 29 December 1922, Page 7

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

A LETTER TO SCOTTISH EXILES. Written for the Otago Daily Times. Bt Robekt S. Angus. EDINBURGH, November 16. Now I hat the general election is over, and the worst as well as the best is known, wo are free to turn from the tumult and tho shouting to oUr own affairs. The contest has been a ravelled and yet an unexciting business, for there has been no clear dividing line between the parties, except that all the others were opposed to Labour, and yet the electors have not been seriously alarmed by tho attempts to depict that party as an immediate danger. To that is mainly due tho measure ol success it has attained. Now the bill-posters are busy covering up the photographs and the programmes of the candidates. The successful are packing their poitmanteaus for London* and tho defeated are consoling themselves on having put up a good fight. In Scotland the contest was, on tho whole, carried out in good spirit. The only disturbers of the peace were the Communists, who in Dundee attempted to prevent; Mr Churchill being heard, and in Central Edinburgh rendered Mr William Graham the disservice of trying to break up Sir George M’Crae’s meetings. Business people are glad to have the turmoil o'ver before the Christmas trade begins, and manufacturers are hopeful that with political uncertainty removed the sigflis of reviving trade will be stimulated by a period of that tranquility which the Prime Minister has made his watchword. OUR. REPRESENTATIVE PEERS. Alongside tho big. general election we have had one of our own in Edinburgh, carried on without speeches, completed within an hour, without expense to the candidates and their friends, and conducted with a quaint ceremonial within a Royal Palace. 1 refer to the meeting of the Scottish peers to elect 15 of their number to sit in fho House of Lords during tho next Parliament. As there arc about four places for every five candidates, and as practically all the electors *are‘ of the same political party, the competition is personal rather than political. Generally all the retiring members are re-elected, and those Scottish' peers who do not hold a United Kingdom title have to wait till a vacancy is caused by death or old age. Lord Mar—on no account to be confused with the Earl of Mar and Kellie, for tho two have had a long-standinj- . genealogical feud—has announced that he docs not seek re-election. This is not surprising, since he has attained tlie ago of 86 aiid has to spend most of his time in the south of France. It is probable that either the Ear! of Airlie or Lord Balfour of Burleigh will bo elected in hi? stead. • EARL OF BALFOUR AND HIS TENANTRY. Last week tho tenants of the Earl of Balfour assembled, at Whittinghame to con-' gratula‘o their laird on the honours recently bestowed upon him. Circumstances have compelled him to be something of an absentee landlord, for he has been a member of. the House of Commons for almost 50 years, and during 35 of these he has in the forefront of political leadership. But seldom an autumn has passed without his spending a month or two among his own people, and even when he has been away Whittinghame has been a meetingplace for his brothers and sisters with their spouses and numerous families. Thus the relations between tho mansion-house and the tenantry' have been maintained. The Yvhitj,inghanie -estates are among the best and the best managed in the country, .and the people on them, though many of them differ politically from their laird, are proud of tho place he has filled in (ho nation s affairs. DISSOLUTION HONOURS. Before leaving political affairs I should say a word or two about the Scots in the list of dissolution honours. Sir Joseph Maclay’s peerage is a further recognition of his services as Shipping Controller and of his fidelity as a Lloyd George Liberal, and it will give great satisfaction to evangelical and religious circles in the west, where they have rather missed a peer ,ot this sort since Lord Overtoun died bir John 'Gilmour and Sir William Sutherland are made members of the Privy Council as a reward for their services in toe junior ranks of the Ministry- Mr J. W. Pratt is knighted on the occasion of bis retirement from political life-* valedictory honour which must taste a little cittei to the recipient for ho has not keen, * . success his. friends expected, affd,, .lie,, figs . “thrown in his hand” at a comparatively early age. Ex-Provost Wood of Patrick, long a stalwart in the Tory ranks, is also knighted. To Ihese names I should add that of Dr B. E. Terry the Wra-nist ot Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral. Through his mother, ft native of Dunbar h« is half a Scot, and a cousin, of tintstrict Wesleyan Mr Walter Runciman. It is a pilv we cannot have his assistance in the much-needed improvement of our »-cot-, tish •cluircji music. V MUNICIPAL PROMOTIONS. The various town councils have been busy this week filling up the provostships., bailioships, and convenersluos which have fallen vacant, On!v one of the important civic .chairs had to be filled Aberdeen—and there Lord Provost- Meff has consented 16 serve for other three years. The Treasurership of Edinburgh has been filled, after a stiff contest, by the appointment, of Mr Stevenson, who has been a controller for many years. Indeed, but- for Inc fnct that he is a strong “Pussyfoot he might bv this time have been Lord Provost. An odd incident occurred in Brechin where one oL the nominees for a-, hailie s chain voted for, lus -onporiotit, (who, voted for himself), and thus brought about his own defeat by one vole. ST ANDREWS LORD RECTOR. Keeping up their literary tradition the students of St. Andrews have chosen Mr Kipling as their Lord Rector m succession to Sir James Barrie. Hie latter in his address had much to sav about Ins familiar Maconochie. Perhaps Mr Kifitmp will tell the lads and lassies of I h e .«: al l® fc g°' vlli something about his friend M Andrew, for whom he wrote the hymn, or about some of the other Scottish engineers he has known or invented. ABERDEEN U.F. COLLEGE.; Professor James Stalker has officially announced that he docs not desire . his name to be considered in . connection with the Principalship of Aberdeen United Free Church College, vacant through the death of Dr, Iverach. He feels strong enough to continue the work of Ins chair, but at the age of 75 he is convinced that it is neither in his own interest nor that of the church that he should assume new responsibilities—a view that is difficult to challenge Accordingly the chances are that the new principal will he Professor Cairiisa nephew of the late principal of that name The vacancy raises again the question whether it is worth while maintaining, a divinity hall at Aberdeen with four or five professors and a staff for a- dozen or twenty students. Hitherto all suggestions for its abolition have been stoutly opposed on the ground that it is important to have the ministerial training cf the church represented in the north. But as a business proposition the arrangement is indefon- ** DARWIN’S GRAN DP-ON FOR EDINBURGH. A strikin'’ - illustration of the growing tendency to'"appoint Englishmen to Scottish chairs-—a healthy process it wul ho generally agreed—is furnished this week by the selection of a srfandson of Charles Darwin for the new Chair of Natural Philosophy founded in Edinburgh in memory of Professor Tait, Mr Darwin has had a distinguished career, as a. student and a lecturer d Cambridge University, and is one of, the foremost investigators in problems of X-rays and similar mysteries. His colleague as teacher of natural philosophy will be "an old fellow-student in the person of Professor Barkla, Both men are in the early forties, and should add lustre to the .department which Professor Tait made world-famous. A ROBERT FKRGUSSON MEMORIAL. Attention is directed to the fact that except for the “simple stone” which Burns erected in Canougate Churchyard, Edinburgh has no memorial of Robert Fergnsson. one of her most gifted and unfortunate' sous. The omission,is one which might well be supplied by some of the Doric societies which have recently been formed—not (hat it would atone for the neglect- of (lie “poor high-soaring, deep-falling. gifted and misguided young man” as Carlyle called him—but, as a recognition of what this generation directly and-through his influence on Burns owes to Fergusson. Stevenson, it will be remembered, was keen to see n monument to his “unhappy predecessor” on tho ‘‘causey of Auld Reekie.” A BUSY ARTIST. Scottish, art- has to deplore this week another heavy loss, by the death of Mr Robert Ma-cgregor, R.S.A.. one of our; oldest and best.”known painters. Born in Yorkshire, whore his father was settled, young Maegregor was trained as a patterndesigner, but at the age of 25 he abandoned, that for tho painting of pictures. He had' the remarkable, and I believe unique, record of contributing to every exhibition of, die

Scottish Academy from 1874 to 1922. £■ work kept a high standard to tho end. fl GLASGOW P.S.A. I ,1 doubt whether there is anything JafM world quite like the gatherings which tal place every Sunday afternoon in Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow. That buildinl as my readers know, holds it is crowded weekly by audiences wlicj dj semblo to hear popular lectures and a lit* music. Tho mainspring of the movement! Mr Walter Freer, who is tire curator-'-I the Corporation’s Halls, and whose offitjl duties are limited to care of the fabtl and arrangements for their letting. 'Hie m ganisatiou of these gatherings is a effort on his part. He has a rare kri&J of roping in the biggest and the busiest I men, as may be gathered from the fal that in the middle of a'general election H captured Sir Robert Horne. Mr Freer tall the chair himself, and carries through tnj meetings with a bustling cheerfulness whig is much appreciated. Sir Robert Horn chose “Ambition” as his topic, and byrefel ence to tho Prime Minister and_ his tui predecessors—all men of humble origin, win neither rank nor fortune to aid them—Ural trated his theme that now, more than eypj a career is open to talent. Sir Robert wa too modest to mention as another instaiiil his own achievement of rising from a model ate practice at the Scottish bar to a most ‘place in public life Within tho spaa of five years. Mr Freer’s effort is groauj appreciated by his fellow citizens. j ARCHIE FORBES'S WIDOW DEAD.'j Almost unnoticed, tlie widow of Arch] bald Forbes, the famous war correspondent has died in Aberdeen,, where she had liyd quietly for many years. She was an Amen can by birth, but after her husband’s deaf settled down in his native ooufttry, and .mad) herself greatly beloved by her unostentaUgif benevolence. L; dSI