The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-20 00:00:00

SCOTLAND,

EDINBURGH, MARCH 18.
The Scotch peers met in Holyrood Palace yester-
day, for the purpose of electing a representative peer
in room of the late Lord Rollo. The peers present
were the Earls of Haddington, Lauderdale, Leven,
Selkirk, Viscount Stormont, Lords Rollo, Colville,
Gray, and Polwarth. They unanimously elected
Lord Gray, of Gray, Forfar, and of Kinfauns Castle,
Perth.

At Wick, on Friday week, all was quiet, and the
town supplied with provisions from the country as
usual, under the influence of somc seventy bayonets.
The spirit and state of feeling of the people, however,

was as unsatisfactory ►s possible. The leading man
is a Chartist enthusiast, a carpenter, utterly unin-
structed, but gifted with a great memo:-y and fl.iw of
words. Ile can call out or ,Aend home, at a word, the
whole Istouriag-class populati.on of the town. lie ha-
ter counsellor a clever writer, esoployed by the Tory
party to do their work from 1;33 to 1837, ulti-
mately cast-off with his accounts unpaid; and on this
account (the bulk of the landowners being Tories)
owing a deep grudge to every one -who owns an
itcre of land. The lower classes have been thrown
into the hands of these men by the short-s4"hted self-
ishness of the fish-curers, who, after encourst•ing the
unthrifty babits of the fishermen for rears, to serve
their own ends, tried to throw the burden of sup,oort-
ing them off their own shoulders on the failure of the
fishing and the potato crop. The ten-pounders, to 0,
ander the influence of panic, though they hate ant.
fear the Chartists, tampered with them to obstruct all
exports of food and keep down prices. Notwith-
standing the statements in the Times, there are larger
stores of meal and grain in Wick at this time than
were ever before seen there. Meal, up to the 15th
instant, was retailed there at 2s. 6d. and 2s. Bd. a
stone—at least 23 per cent. under the price elsewhere.
Work is abundant in the neighbourhood. In the
county 60,0001. has been borrowed under the drainage
act for the express purpose of providing work, and the
parties who haveundertaken the drainage,unable to tie
native labourers, will be forced to bring in Irish. let
on a Friday (the market-day) at Wick, sti ung, healthy-
looking fellows may be seen loitering at corners,
utterly idle, or dogging for hours an obnoxious corn-
dealer. Before the soldiers and the sheriff came in,
the country-people who brought eggs, pork, and other
supplies to Wick, were obliged to carry them home
unsold; glad to be permitted to do so, for some of the
more daring obstructives would take out their knives,
and ask if they would take two inches of steel for a
pound of pork or a dozen of eggs. The indiscrimina-
tion of the Destitution Committee in Edinburgh is
contributing its quota to the sources of mischief in
1 Wick. The free passages to the south, in search
of labour, which ought to be afforded and
urged upon the acceptance of the destitute
Ilighlanders, are thrown away upon the labourers
of Caithness, who can all have fair employ-
ment and fair wages if they will work. In Wick
(on Friday the 12th inst.) free orders were given to
men who had 21. to 41. in hand from the employers
who were rendered incapable of prosecuting the
drainage they had begun by the desertion of these
labourers. One man, who had lately got 601. or 701.
by his wife received one of these orders. It is lament-
able to see the funds so much required in the destitute
districts thrown away in a district which has escaped
the visitation ; thus seconding the tendency of cause-
less panic, fostered by designing men, to transform
the improvident into lawless rioters.
The Lord Advocate's Registration Bill, like the
minutes of the Council of Education, bids fair to be
opposed by those who either have not read it at
all, or who, having read it, have failed to do so intel-
ligently. The conservative papers are opposed to it,
and not one Scotch paper, even on the ministerial
side, has said a word in its favour. Yet the subject
deserves to be placed fairly before the Scottish com-
munity. Objections are urged to the system of regis-
tration, the mode of defraying its expense, and the
exclusion of parish schoolmasters from the office of
registrars-local. The first two are advanced by theo-
rists; that which relates to the schoolmasters has the
more substantial character of an " interest" opposition.
The "schoolmaster interest" cannot be yielded to in
this. Contemporaneously with registration reform,
the state seeks to accomplish educational elevation ;
and, as the two objects are reconcileable, why should
they be made antagonistic? Is the Privy Council to
hold out golden baits to keep the schoolmaster within
doors? and is the Lord Advocate to hold out similar
inducements for him to leave his school, and betake
himself to alien avocations? Already the school-
master, in the capacity of poor-law inspector, which
he so frequently fills, has to visit the poor, send
medicine to the dying, and coffins to the dead. If, in
addition, he is to register the baptised, the married,
and the buried, what time will be left him for teach-
ing? " Your Scotch schoolmaster is poorly paid."
Granted. But here you have the Privy Council will-
ing to augment his income, provided he shows himself
apt to teach ; and how is the proposal received ? Why
his friends wish him to grasp at offices which must
render him incapable of exerting himself in his own
legitimate sphere.

Tn• BEAD Ativz.—Our readers, say. the Glasgow
Chronicle, will recollect that, about eight weeks ago, we gave
an account of a suicide committed by a female in the water
above Hutcheson-town-bridge, and of the recovery of the
body a few days afterwards somewhere near Govan. The
wife of a dyer, residing i• Hutcheson-town, but who was
separated from her husband some years ago, on account of
her intemperate habits, disappeared about the same time,
and the body, when discovered, answered the description of
the dyer's wife so well, that he immediately applied to a
friendly society, of which be is a member, and obtained the
society's 31101/111011 (41.) to bury his supposed wife, which he
did with every due solemnity. Although a staunch teetotal-
ler, he was so overjoyed at getting rid of one who was a thorn
in his side for so long a time, that be even broke his pledge,
and has be. n in the habit of taking his drops occasionally
since. Bat, alas, on Monday last, while sitting comfortably at
his dinner, who bounced in but his own identical spouse, whom
he buried, as he supposed, eight weeks ago ! The consterna-
tion which so unwelcome a guest caused is more easily ima-
gined than described. The housekeeper fainted, and it was
with some difficulty she was brought to, and the husband's
eyes almost jumped out of their sockets ; however, in a short
time, order was restored, and, after a little explanation from
this visitant from the invisible world, they recovered from
their panic. It appeared that, instead of throwing herself
into the Clyde as was supposed, she repaired to a neighbour-
ing town, where she bed remained until the date of her re-
appearance. The unfortunate husband sorely laments his
loss, es he must new refund the 41. which he obtained to
bury her.