SCOTLAND.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 207, 6 September 1860, Page 3

SCOTLAND.

The Glasgow papers announce the death of Mr. Alexander Graham, of Lancefield on Monday. Mr. Graham, says th e Glasgow Herald, was throughout life a firm, and stanch supporter of.. Whig piiiiciples, and was among the.foremost in every Reform movement. 7"he June day festival at Heriot’s Hospital, Edinburghf was celebrated 4th/June in the usual manner. 7’he Lord. Provost said, that Geo. Heiiot was remarkable for daily persevering and laborious iudustry, for le.tl worth and genuine principle, and for beneyojenco. In consequence of tlie:e qualities the Go-vernors-were, enabled to support and educate 180 boys in all branches of instruction in the hospital, besid.es some 3000 children in the out-door schools in various quarters of the city. For this the name-of Geo. Her'ot was embalmed in the hearts of the. inhabitants of Edinburgh. , Crops of ail descriptions are> looking well with the (xception of wheat, which ;iu some places, is'thin Hay is selling; at -Is 6d per stone of 22 lbs. With the exception of a.short, period’ in 1847, fat cattle and sheep have not been higher I'or many years. • ; .

Vital Statistics of. Stirling.;—Brain Diseases among Children ~Of 89 deaths in Stirling from diseases of the -brain since 1855, about' 5Q were of children under ten years of age. During.the early years of life the development of both the physical and mental powers is very rapid, and the susceptibility of impresiims in childhood, and the duration of their effects is too inuoh underrated. Take the brain /as an.example of this rapid development; for it is with it we have here to do. . Within the first two years of life this organ doubles its weight, and attains its 1 full growth at the .end of the seventh year. When such a process of development is goings on there is peculiar l ability to disease, inaccordance with the. law wh'cii obtains in every other organ, “ ibi irrilatio, u'i fluxus so that nothing, calculated to excite o; waste, but, on the coutrary, everything, suited to nourish and build up, should be the ru e. Now, it is a very common error qf the pa eat, observing the first seeds of g u us in his child, to force them on at the expe .se of ibe body ; ; but only to lay them with him : in an early grave. Especially is this t > be avoided in children in whom there is the least coisump-. tive tendency; for too oft-n. ; has the-spark-which might’'long, have remained 1 Tent been kindled into the fatal, flame, by, tb s injudicious vanity. Still, the parent Is not'always to be blamed In the. child himself there is often developed a morbid desire for learning, which no warning.can abatean,appetite that grows the more it is indulged ; until.the-body can no (longer-.endure! the .tax. tipi) imposed by the overloaded . mind, and either gives, way entirely, or -tho nervyus system, suffers a shock from, which it never recovers., Sonn-times nature wisely interposes, stupefies the . iutellect, remleis, it unfit, for longer action, and thus allows tile body ' to recruit and-regain strength; In. children of a .consumptive tendency, this V undue..exercise 0f,,, the mental faculties is‘a. fertile source of hydfocephalus and other, head affections. Let it be borne in mind, then,.that the function of the brain during the, first, years of life is not so much to act as the organ of the intellect,vas to control the motor power of the organism; so that, instead of straining the reasoning faculties ajt

that period, which are then but feeble, let the perceptive powers, which are acute, have full! scope, anti the 'child, when he enters school, Will enter it with a vigorous mind in a vigorous body, fitted to profit by the instruction he is to receive. —From i.'i excellent pamphlet by fir. G. Hill, an the Vital Statistics of Stir - ling. Lord Brougham’s Installation as. Chancellor of /Edinburgh University took place on the 18th May. The honorary degree of LL.Di was conferred on Lord Colonsay ; Dr. /Stokes, Professor of Physic in Dublin University; John Forster, late editor of the London Examiner ; Dr. Sharpey, Professor of Anatomy in College, London ;t Dr. Win. Peeves, Trinity Chllege,'Dublin ; Dr. W. Miller, Professor rf Chemistry, King’s College, Loudon; and Wm. Fairbairn, Manchester. Thereafter Lord Brougham delivered an address which occupied about two hoiii'3 in'the delivery. Towards its close the noble lord appeared to be much exhausted ; and his voice became so weak as to be heard with difficulty in the more remote parts of the liall. Yet every sentence was listened to with the utmost attention. 2’he address has been published,"with notes, from one of which we extract the following on the Scottish lan-

guage,- “ 2’he pure and classical language of Scotland must on no account be regarded as a provincial dialect, any more than French was so regarded in the reign of Henry V., or Italian in that of the first Napoleon, or Greek under the Roman empire. Npr is it to be in any manner of way considered as a corruption of the Saxon; on the contrary, it contains much of the old and genuine''Saxon, with an intermixture from the northern nations, as Danes and Norse, and some, though a small portion, from the Celtic. But in whatever way composed, or from whatever source arising, it is a national language, used by the whole people iu their early years, by many learned and gifted persons throughout life, ami in which are written the laws of the Scotch, their jtir tlicial proceedings, their ancient history, above all, their poetry. “ There can'be no doubt that the English language wonld greatly gain by being enriched with a number both of words and of phrases, cr turns of expression now peculiar to the Scotch. It was by such a process tha- t ' >, ''? Greek became the first as we written as spokeo-' 3 r^ can ,fc e f or aiao " meni^sx that the Scotch has less claim _—«trrfiis partial adopiiou than the Doric had to mingle with the loniau, or the JEolic with the Attic. • “ Would it not afford means of enriching and improving the English language, if full and accurate copies of approved Acotch words • and phrases—those successfully uSBJ by the best writers both in prose ami verse —were given, with distinct explanation and reference to authorities ? 2'his has been done in France • and other countries, where some dictionaries accompany the English in some cases with Scotch synonymes, in others with varieties of expression.”