The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-03 00:00:00

stollanb.

ELECTORAL REFORM Was discussed at a public
meeting held last week in the Queen-street Hall,
Edinburgh. The object proposed was to extend to
Scotland the forty-shilling freehold held as a qualifi-
cation in England. Three resolutions were proposed
and passed. The first, moved by Baillie Black-
adder, and seconded by Councillor Gorrie, declared
it to be the opinion of this meeting that at the
earliest possible period the principles of the
" Registration of Voters' Act for the Burghs of Scot-
land," passed last session, should be extended to all
the counties of Scotland, in the same manner in
which they now exist in the counties of England.
The second resolution was moved by the Rev. Dr.
Begg, and seconded by Mr. Mitchell, of Dalkeith ;
it declared for the extension of the English forty-
shilling freehold qualification to Scotch counties.
The purport of the third was that the rights of pro-
prietors in English cities and burghs to vote for
county members, or " knights of the shire," upon
property other than that occupied by themselves, or
on which they are qualified to vote for city or burgh
members, constituted an important electoral privilege
of England, the extension of which to Scotland was
justly demanded. Mr. Adam Black, M.P., then
addressed the meeting, briefly stating the course
which was adopted with the bill passed last session,
and adding :

After what has been stated to-night, T am decidedly of
opinion that we have the same right to the privilege of the
forty-shilling freehold vote that the people of England
have. But T would not rest my claim upon that. l am
convinced that we could not find better voters than the
sturdy forty-shilling freeholders. These men I hold to be
the most intelligent and independent in the counties, and
therefore best able to exercise the franchise. I place
great value upon the moral effect of the measure upon the
people. I think it would be desirable that our cities should
have the same privileges as in England. In the first ses-
sion I think we may be able to carry the Registration Bill.
That is one thing the Lord Advocate is determined to
carry. If we succeed in that, we may see how much more
we can contrive to carry.
AT THE POST-MORTEM INQUIRY into the causes of
the death of Mr. Hugh Miller, all doubt upon the
subject was removed, and it became clear that the de-
ceased had destroyed himself while in a fit of
insanity. The following conclusion was come to
by the medical gentlemen :
The cause of death we found to be a pistol•shnt through
the left side of the chest, and this we are satisfied was
inflicted by his own hand. From the diseased appearances
found in the brain, taken in connection with the history of
the case, we have no doubt that the act was suicidal, under
the impulse of insanity.
A few lines to Mrs. Miller, found written on a folio
sheet. lying on the table beside his corpse, corrobo•
rate this view :
Dearest Lydia,—My brain burns. T must have walked;
and a fearful dream arises upon me. I cannot bear the
horrible thought. God and Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ have mercy upon me. Dearest Lydia, dear children,

THE PRESS.

farewell. My brain burns as the recollection grows.—My
dear dear wife, farewell, Iluott MILLER.
It appears that for some weeks past Mr. Miller had
been subject to horrible visions, and used to have
paroxysms of agony when they came over him. He
had been hard at work of late every night upon bis
new treatise on "The Testimony of Rocks," and had
overtaxed his brain. On the Monday before his
death he sent for Dr. Balfour and said:—

My brain is giving way. I cannot put two thoughts
together to-day. I have had a dreadful night of it. I
cannot face another such. I was impressed with the idea
that my museum was attacked by robbers, and that I had
got up, put on my clothes, and gone out with a loaded
pistol to shoot them. Immediately after that I became
unconscious. How long that continued I cannot say;
but when I awoke in the morning I was trembling all over,
and quite confused in my brain. So thoroughly convinced
was I that I must have been out through the night, that
examined my trousers, to see if they were wet or covered
with mud, but could find none.

On Tuesday Dr. Balfour an d Professor Miller con-
sulted, and ordered immediate and absolute disconti-
nuance from all work. On the same night Mr. Hugh
Miller's unfortunate death occurred. He had retired
into his sleeping-room—a small apartment opening
out of his study. The horrible trance must have
returned, and all that can now be known of what
followed is to be gathered from the facts that next
morning his body, half dressed, was found lying
lifeless on the floor' the feet upon the study-rug, the
chest pierced with the ball of the revolver pistol,
which was found lying in the bath close by.
The bullet had perforated the left lung, grazed
the heart, cut through the pulmonary artery at its
root, and lodged in the rib in the right side. Death
must have been instantaneous.

After the judicial and medical inquiry on Friday
Professor Miller took the pistol to the gunsmith
from whom it had been purchased by Mr. Miller in
July, 1855, in order to ascertain how many shots bad
been fired, and how many were still in the chamber.
In the master's absence, the foreman, Thomas
Leslie, an old and experienced workman, received the
pistol from Professor Miller, and unfortunately, in-
stead of taking off the chamber, he looked into the
muzzle, holding the hammer with his fingers while
he turned the chamber round to count the charges.
The hammer slipped from his fingers, struck the
cap, and the charge in the barrel exploded. Pro-
fessor Miller, still standing outside the counter, ex-
claimed, "That's a narrow escape! " but unhappily
it was nct so, for as the smoke cleared away he saw
the poor man's head gradually droop and his body
then fall lifeless on the boor. The charge had
entered his right eye and penetrated the brain.
Leslie was a steady, trustworthy man, and had been
twenty-five years in his present employment. He
has left a widow and a family of eight children.

SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON, we believe, has
been invited to a public dinner at Glasgow on the
10th instant, being the day following his installation
as Lord Rector of Glasgow University.