EDINBURGH. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT)

Otago Witness, Issue 726, 28 October 1865, Page 16

EDINBURGH. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT)

25th August. Queen Victoria, with all her family, has been in Germany for two or three veeks ; and she will to-morrow uncover a statue to the late Prinre Consort, raised by a national (German) subscription. The Queen has taken a deep interest in all the monuments erected or proposed in the ! United Kingdom to the memory of Albert. the Good, as he has been justly named ; and in Scotland, she was present at the inauguration of those at Aberdeen aud Perth, and in both casps the provosts had the honor of knighthood at her hands. May her domestic relations always be as happy «s her people know them to be. < Alfred, the second son, was, on the 6 h instant, proclaimed successor to his uncle, the reigning Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, on his attaining his majority. He is very much liked, both in his pro'ession and wherever he has spent any time in his studies or otherwise. While in Edinburgh for the most part of a year, he was vtry highly esteemed ; and a sight of his smiling happy face, while out diiving in his brougham, made to both old and young a cheerful su l jeet of ta'k and chat of an evening, Prince William of lle«se, a younger brother ot the husband of Princess Alice, stayed with Alfred at Ilolyrood for some tiny ; and as his British Highness likts sport (I may mention, in parenthesis, that he frequently appeared in the Tennis Court in Rose street, and on one occasion came oft with a blackened eye from an unlucky stroke of •one of the players), he proposed a rat hunt with ferrets. His enquiries after the ferrets, led both young gentlemen on horseback to the collier village of Bonnyjig, near Lasswade, where they had been told some pitman kept and would part with the article. Like other country places, more than one person of the same name was among its inhabitant?, and of course they found their way to the wrong house, •where the better -half, upon hearing her husband's name mentioned, and a wish expressed to know if he kept ferrets, replied, " Eh, no, in ma tack o'm !" Imagine the effect of this short and gruff sueeco, in "the broadest Edinburghshiiv di llect — tack, with the longest "a" ever heard— and how the two young lads looked at each other, laughing perplexedly, and to their repeated questions getting the same answer, and then good humouredly riding off, minus what they wanted, as fsr as Bonnyrigg was concerned. I may mention tlut in going to the class-rooms at the College, he walked up and down the Canongate, until, upon one occasion, a drunken old beldame threw herseif in his way and attempted to embrace him, and he e\er afterwards used his carriage. At Ilolyrood House, and as a pendant to the general parliamentar}' election, we had an election of representative peers for j Scotland during the month. What a dreadfully slow, formal business it was. Doors were opened an hoar before the time of meeting ; and after a spectator waited out that, two more mortal hours were spent in seeing thirty gentlemen pive their votes— a dozen ot them voting for themselves. Flesh and blood couldn't stand it, and about one half of ihe audience retired — most unmannerly, I suppose, it would be reckoned — long before the affair was brought to a close. Sentimentali-m is great upon an " aristocratic bearing," but really our Scotch noblemen are mostly very plain; one, with a dukedom, hiiling from ; a port on our east coast, looked like a respectable landlord of a second class hotel. ' The manly form and genial face of the : late Duke of Atholl (the best known noble- i man in Scotland) would Le missed ; and ' bis name recalls to me that the foundation stone of a monument to his memory, was ■ laid at Logierait, near the centre of the ' family property, with masonic honors, a < fortnight ago ; the Right Worshipfol the ; Grand Master of Scotland, and deputations ' from all quarters — even as far north as ; from Cromarty — attending. The memo- ' rial takes the shape of a Celtic cross, with 1 bronze statues surrounding, and from its i elevation on a mound, called Tom-na- ' Croich, will be a conspicuous object in the 1 landscape. The weather during the pro- - cession and ceremou)', was very unfavor- j able — the rain pouring in torrents, but her ! Grace the Duchess Dowager made up, as far as she could, for this, by entertiining the whole masonic visitors, the committee 1 of subscribers and her friends, to a magni- 1 ficent entertainment called a dinner, but i which was liker the funeral least, in the i famous old times, of some gallant highland i /chief. One of our Edinburgh freemasons was in Atholl at the time, and to be in lull ' •costume, required his cocked hat lor the i ceremony. He telegraphed to his spouse i here, to " send on my cocked hat with Mr ;" which message these clever fellows, i -the telegraphic clerks in our metropolitan : office, sent out as "send on my cooked 1 ham ;" and on a pretty large parcel came, in a greasy paper, by the friend named in 1 the message, and was carefully delivered to • ■the expectant of a gorgeous hat, waiting ;

at the railway station, on the morning of the ceremony; and since then it is dangerous to refer, even in a distant way, to anything hammy, in the presence of the worthy brother. A story has been going the round of the papers, that the steward of the Duke oi Buccleuch, named "Woodburn, had died and left his employer his whole fortune, named as L 30.000, and that the duke hnd considerately provided for the widow an annuity of L5OO, the testator having had no children. The paragraph was naturally the subject of some remark; but it turns out to be incorrect. The personal property is said to be L7OOO, from which some legacies are to be paid, the widow having a Lferent interest in the remainder, and the Duke enjoying all at her death, and likewise being sole executor. The case is an illustration of the old proverb, "those | who have muckle get aye mair." I am reminded of the melancholy death of Lord Francis Douglas, aged 19, t^e second eon of the late Marquis of Queensberry, which occurred in an attempt to scale the Matter-horn, iv Switz rland. He was one of a party attempting the conquest fif this hitherto " Virgin" peak, which they had accomplished, and were descending, when he and two of his companions with a guide fell 4000 feet, and were dashed to pieces. His father's death created a painful sensation in Sotland some years ago. In the shooting season, he went out with a fowling piece ; and hU absence at night caused his family to search for him, and they found him lying in the middle of a field dead, shot through the head with his own weapon, and not without a suspicion that the act was suicidal. In this dull season of the year, when political and ecclesiastical, corporate and national tonics of discussion are laid aside in favor of the seaside, or the Dublin Exhibition, or some other pleasurable excitement, the composition of the new Imperial Parliament, or the incidents in the election of its members start up to occupy attention. Among such incidents may bo mentioned : That at Ashburton in Devonshire a Scotchman gained the seat, Robert Jardine of Castlemilk, Dumfriesshire. At the previous election in the same place, out of 279 elec:ors, 91 voted for the then ■winning member and 90 for the def-ated candidate. Lord Dunc-in, whom Forfarshire men of ten years ago rmy remember as a boy of 14, contested South Warwickshire, and lost. Sir John Pakington was returned for Droitwich, it is said at an expense of sixpence for a c b to the railway station : he walked in the forenoon to the Town Hall, delivered his speech to the electors, was chosen swtbout \ opposition, shook hands with the Mayor \ and his friends, sent lor his cab, and briefly \ finished the jub. I suspecteven Colonial sim- t plicify cannot beat that. For the House of c Commons t^ere are ISO new members; 83 retired voluntarily of the old members, c 97 were rejected, and 13 changed their s constituency. At least 81 are not mem- a bers of the E^tablibhed Church — Eoman r Catholics, 38 ; Independents, 15 ; Uni- s tarian*, 13 ; Jews and Quakers, 4 each ; J United Presbyterians, 3 ; Free Church- r men, 2; Weskyan, 1; Baptist, 1. There s is one blind — Professor Fawcett of Cam- i bridge, one of the members tor Brighton ; c and already one member is dead — Mr c Treherne, for Coventry. The Duke of c Devonshire, ia the new House, has three \ sons and a brother ; the Marquis of We^-t- 1 minster, two sons and a nephew ; the Duke a of Bucdeuch, the Marquis of Salisbury, - and the Earl of Derb)', each two sons s The railway interest will have a singular s command m the Hou«e of Commons. Al- s ready L 400,000,000 of capital is invested a in it throughout the country, and half of ii the representatives in Parliament, it is i reckoned, are heavy shareholders and di- 1: rectors. Every day shows that in the 1 management of the principal lines in the & country, the belief is that to carry a few r. passengers at high rates is easier than to I earn the same profits by carrying many passengers at a low rate. When a struggle r. comes ior cheap fares for the public, like v. that of 30 years ago for cheap postage — c and come it must — there will he a hard ( battle in the House of Commons, and c heavy opposition to outvote or conciliate, t Everybody will be well protected save the t general public, which will find when too i late, that it has committed its interests to a the representatives of a monopoly, com- t pared with which the old monopoly of pro- f tective duties ■was harmless and insigni- a ficant. There were some comical points t in the elections, and in Berkshire, when t the eldest son of the Earl of Craven y sought the suffrages ot the elector?, he r hegau his address on the hustings thus — t " Gentlemen, lam in favor of 'the Go\ crn t ment that have governed this country for p the last six years, and I am of opinion — I a am opinion — should be upheld." At this £ point the noble orator looked into his hat, is and a spectator ventured on the apposite p remark — "You're got more in your 'at h than you have in your 'ed, governor." S After another word or two, the invitations s to bring the paper out of the hat were too c loud to be resisted, and the candidate com- in plied, with the explanatory word, " It's air n

very fine ; if you think it easy, just come up and try." His lordship being asked " Who's your hatter ? " replied with inimitable repartee, " Who's yours ? " Amidst ro3r«i of laughter, his friends beside him tried to give him an idea or two, but he frankly said — " I don't care : I don't want to speak." When somebody in the crowd suggested — "Give us a scng, then, Governor !" After bungling on, he fell in with the word " developed" on his manuscript, and fairly broke down, saying — " Well gents, I'm no speaker, but I iutend to vote straight." A. Mr Bouverie had introduced this extraordinary aspirant for parliamentary honors, as " thoroughbred, and no hair about his legs ;" but the young man was a losing horse in the after contest. I must, however, clo^e these incidents, only observing that atWeymoutb, a notoriously corrupt borough, for the two seats there were four candidates — two liberals and two conservatives The voters were asking L3O, L4O, and even L7O each, when a committee-man suggested that one of each party should withdraw ; which was done, and the " incorruptible" were sold. Rather a neat thing in electioneering. Since last mail left, Pritchard the murderer was hung at Glasgow. A cast of hi 3 head was taken for the Edinburgh Phrenological Society ; and of his right hand, for the Ethnographical Society of London. Before this Society a paper was read some time ago on the length of the thumb, or its first phalange, I forget which, in criminals. The Society, though young, has brought itself into notice by a variety of discussious on ethnography and cognate subjects, such as the rank of the negro, the origin of species, &c, — among the rest, this idea of the formation of the thumb in the criminal classes. Being taken up by the general newspapers, it became at the time a fruitful subject for leaders when other matters gave out; and a writer could as easily discourse from his own thumb or those of his neighbors, in the event of any peculiarity. The Society is evidently now taking up this question with some seriousness from their making j an effort to get the example at Glasgow. The Pall Mall Gazette, a young London evening print, hid a hea^y article on Scotchmen worshipping notorious characters, and the worse the more made an idol of, from a statement whijh appeared in print that the doorsteps of Pritchard's house had been all chipped away as remembrances or souvenirs. A capital reply was given by a dweller in the street, who said that he 'saw all the people who came with hammers and other tools, and they were all English tourists; and if it would be any more consolation to the Cockney writers in the London papers, the wretch to be hung was an Englishman and the executioner was another. In Glasgow, this month, there has been a fatal ca a c of poisoning, and of a very strange nature. An old Irish woman had a child unwf-U, and sent out of a Sunday morning, to what is called an herbalist's shop, for a half- penny worth of magnesia. She mixed up what she got with a little milk and gave it to the child, who drank some, but refused to finish it. The mother, unwilling to lose anything, swallowed the , child's leavings, and shortly after, both be- • came unwell, and so much so, that on a , doctor being called, he stated that they were suffering from poisoning by arsenic. ; The child rallied, but the mother died, ( after lingering some days; and the herbalist —named William Arbuckle, of 144. Main ( street, Gorbals— was apprehended. He . showed the jar, from which he had been , j selling arsenic for magnesia, for four years; ; and those who know how much magnesia , is used among poor folks, when a child is ( ill, can only guess at the number who must have been poisoned these four years back. ( \ The contents of the jar, when analysed, { I showed that a coarse kind of arsenic com- j i posed the whole mass, and the seller will , be tried at next Circuit Assizes. < How ignorant the officials appointed by . political influence are, in the commonest , matters, is well illustrated by the following case. What are called the Inclosure ( Commissioners, in London, have re- } , cently got power to lend money ( to landed proprietors in Scotland for 5 drainage, cottage building, and other improvements ; and Scotch proprietors I are anxious to take advantage of this, to have better house accommodation for their laborers. The Commissioners J approve, but demand as a, preliminary that l the cottages shall be built cf briek — a ma- i terial which in most parts of Sc&tland J would be costlier than stone, and without l repairs would not last one-fifth of the ' time. Of course, the proprietors reject * the terms, and the cottages remain unim- J proved, because some of the Commissioners jj are convinced that stone houses are damp. ■* Sir George Grey, the Home Secretary, it l is said, has taken the matter up, and may possibly persuade obstructives to take a a holiday in Scotland, and see first what a t Scotch cottage now is, and then what a c stone cottage may be made. One may v easily undertake to say that the prejudice \ in iavor of baked mud as a building i material would not last in their minds t

seven days. The honourable baronet has been in Edinburgh this week, and I hope has been enjoying himself. Two very amiable Edinburgh Univernity men have died during the month, William Kdmondstone Aytotin, Professor of Rhetcic and English Literature, and John Donaldson, Professor of the Theory of Music. The first-namtd, a great wit and fine poet; the latter an advocate at the Scottish bar, but long in delicate health; and both much reeretted among a very wide circle of friends. The Rhetoric chair was founded about a hundred yeara ago, and has always (1 believe) been held by a member of the Faculty of Advocates. There are a host of candidates in the field, the chair being in the gift of the Crown> and Sir George Grey's presence here just now will enable him personally to judge of the feeling on the subject and as to who may be thought the fittest man — the Home Secretary having all these gifts in his hands. First in the field was the name of Dr. Daniel Wilson, who holds the c >rresponding chair in. the University of Toronto, Canada, an appointment in the gift of the Crown, to which his book on " The Pre-historic Annals of Scotland," helped him. He is brother of the late lamented Professor George Wilson of Edinburgh, and himself may be remembered by old townsmen in Otago, as keeping a print shop in West Register street here, a considf rable number of years ago. Since his residence in Canada, his greatest work, "Pre-historic Man: Researches into the Origin of Civilisation in the Old and New Wo- Id,'' has been published in this country, and has been noticed with the highest commendations by critics and scholars. A memorial on. his behalf has been signed by the Lord Provost, and various influential parties. John Nicol, of the corresponding chair in Glasgow University, is also in the field. Alexander Smith, the poet, Secretary to the Edinburgh University; John Skelton, a parsed advocate of 1854, and a writer in .Frazer's Magazine, under the cognomeu of " Shirley ;" George M'Donald, & ) poet of no moan order ; and various others who have no chauce, are all candidates. But the man who is reckoned the safest is the Rev. Dr Hanna, son-in-law and nioirrapher of Dr Chalmers It is said he bas long been uncomfortable in his present position in the Free Church, both m his collegiate clnrge (along with Dr Guthrie), of Free St. John's, and his connection with the bod}'. Possibly on this point there is more said thau there is any foundation for, but a great many who are interested in the successor to Aytoun's chair, would be heartily pleased by the appointment of Dr Ilanna. He is an English scholar of great taste and refinement, and there was displayed by his present congregation but a poor appreciation, of hi 3 abilities, when alternately occupying; the pulpit with Dr Guthrie, that the house was crowded at one service, and literally almost deserted at the next. Though Dr Guthrie has not been preaching for a long time, he has not resigned bis pastoral connection, anl about a dozen attempts to get another minister have fdiled, on account, it is said, that should the worthy doctor ever again occupy the pulpit regularly, the third minister would share the fate of the second. The second attempt to draw the Rev. Donald Fraser, from the High Church in Inverness, has failed. I hear that his congregation, to the amount of upwards of 1300, signed a memorial, requesting him to stay, arid offering him at the same time a stipend of a thousand pounds a year; and at the meeting of the Presbytery of Inverness this week, M r Fraser declined, which w°.s acquiesced in by all parties concerned. For th<j other chair— Theory of Music — endowed by the late General Reid, and ia the gifr of the University Court, the only name of any consequence yet mentioned is John Hullah, of popular concert fameSundry Scotchmen are also candidates, and 'as the patrons number seven, there will,'no doubt, be a keen contest. In the newspapers this morning, the death of Hugh Miller's mother-in-law ia announced ; her son, Rev. Thomas Fraser (once of Tester, East Lothian) is now settled in Guelong, Victoria, I believe.

CORE FOR THE CIIOLKKA. — Powdered hellebore, taken as snuff, is named by Dr Ponowski, of St Petersburg, as an infallible cure for cholera, if only the patient can begot to sneeze some eight or ten times. If the snuff produces no effect, the cass is honeltss. The doctor has bsen moving the different ambassadors to send his remedy to Alexandria. The French would take" no notice of him ; but Mr Lumley has made a memorandum of the subject to Earl Ruase.l, and he has passed it on to the College of Physicians. The Irish Government have despatched an eminent veterinary surgeon from Dublin: to London to investigate the nature of thecattle plague, with instructions to report without delay on the b^st means of preventing its introduction into Ireland, or, if it should have entered the country, of arresting its course.