The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-07 00:00:00

SCOTLAND.

EDINALTROH, NOV. 4.
The contest for the civic chair has terminated
abruptly and taus:peat dly. On the 2nd inst. Mr. R.
Chambers addnmed a letter to his supporters, in which ha
says:
liming beeline saddled to-day that I was brought too late no the
held to lave any but a narrow thaw of annum, and being smeared
that a tautest weed thus be Induced, in winch mush bitter feeling
would be engendered, I bare come to the resolution►
of withdrawing,
although with deep regret far the disappointment MOM it will

CO 013,111221,14p1pinia • • --
Toll Whorls g is the official amount of the proceedings
at the nomMag of the conveners of stostedtteas in the
interest at Kr. Chambers, held on the eveslite of the 2nd, at
whelk his bear el retigestim wee predated :
The artester, winds Wet yid* be bed received that smalas
Wm Mr. Chembree, witbkwieby es a andldels. as he cceiskkred
that his lons, et seam won ma, la temommes
the petal at Mei he lot bees Merted. Mr. A
lessiama afterwards
attended eke seethem tel Monied this reselettan The meeting
entirety dyed eon the rorasne rairml by Mr. Cherabers for this
res .:utles. 64 rem Or resift id the isswela "MA had shoal been
ends in the Yeast Wadi. they hit codes saddest of Mr. Mem-
bers's 'mem

This event leaven the provoetahip in the hands of the gen-
tleman whom the SCOISMOSI terms " the inevitable
Mr. Johnstoo ;" for thoegh Bailie Melville Is coquetting for
an invitation to become a candidate, nobody thinss of him
rationally. The Scotsman with sound judgment frankly ad-
mits thst this neat has placed the suisectarian liberals of
Edinburgh in en awkward position. " Instead," it is said
in this day's Bunsmary, "of having to day, according to a
well-snared bops, to report the triumphant progress of Mr.
Ito- ert Chembers's candidateship, we have only toconfees its
unfortunate and rather ridiculous conclusion. The Scots-
man gees on to admit that "the parti preirs have reason to
triumph, and to declare 'We are 'hobs with our own
petard'—put to rout by our own candidate." The Scotsman
attributet the result entirely to the working of sectarian
bigotry :
A cry w got up, or Joined he, by certain of our very loudest libe-
ral, and voluntaries that Mr. Chambers should be excluded from the
provadahip on the mound that they were not satisfied that all his
opinions accorded with theirs—drawing their insinuation
l'eoe:t4urgeoppeeed tendency of a book which they newer reed and he
never wrote. We should have liked to have " had It out " with some
el our old Maeda—sot by coodeecending to refute the sactuatlos, waft
even by pole beg to the unlenpesched excellence of the accused in all
the Madam of Bally end eltisenshlp, but by letting It be seen of all
men hew inespabis the downers are of understanding the prie-
d* of whkb they are the loudest probscas, or else
how prompt they are to forget it whenever their own
been shears from onfik4 to Mildew. It would have
bum worth while properly to mutate if they sad we have been
labouring so keg to get the principle of religious hstolenume and
exclusion removed from laws and Inetitutloas, may that It might be
curled Into driest by the ISM intolerable and degreding—beeame
mars amide= and andensed—laMramentalky el individnah end
cliques. If religious opinion le to be a disquallneation for civic dike
and honours, we would rather that the rule should be defined and
applied by the British Queen, Lords, and COOIIOOII4I, than by Dr.
Csedliehes and Bailie Stott.. We could submit with lees seem of
humiliation to edicts of Intolerance ',sued from St. Stephen's than to
Muse concocted in any Edinburgh back-shop.

The Scoinnan appears to be of opinion that the more narrow.
minded and soured satin of the free church will be the
principrl gainers by thin event :
As to the sow inevitable Mr. Menton, we have nothing more to
my, and naeldeg to amp. Foram yeses probably he and whoever
ehe the OsdWthes may treat him ea amietants, are our approved
good Staten; gad sleet we moot make a better o it, we shall re-
vereroe at kart by Anne theetemes that are about to be.
I may say, IMtliwat fear of eentradictiJn, that all the really
well lammed liberal WWII of peace among our citizens
regret this coaclualcm ad the contest. Mr. Chambers, by in-
dulging his good-natared aversion to squabbles so fez as to
withdraw from a contest he bad commenced, has gives en-
=ement to the most acid of our Pharisees to persist, by
log end misrepresentation, to frighten all who diuent
from them oat of the field.

There is nothing else stirring here except the publication I
of the following correspondence, which is curious u showing
how implicitly the citizens of Edinburgh have been hitherto
socustosaed to follow their whip and tory loaders:
To John Stewart. leg., W.L. la, Fordsotreet, ediabsegli, Nor. 3,
IMlL—Dear dir,—Varies eneesees geemmals beaky appeared In
the eeespems espreag as arnutemest some to latur the eon.
swirealus god Ilhersl parties to the 11/th Munk*. Ward ems Haan
age. end %SI: It Mr. J. T. Gordon (now the Mr.
Augusts WA., haring been parties think., I to ink
whether the he its Import —That the COMORTSUVO piety
in Mare theta vetoes four, and the liberal two ot the six
Cameleer, repremillegthe ward, without 0000ilai; which arrange-
ment Mike wee to pet en end to the .meet ebb* Yer some
years bed asmeted. ruse!) to the annoyance d eintors in the ward.
—I remain, LANDAU,.
Nov.
To Memel Foil
answerto 16. Inilheirest. Edinburgh,
et tide
I beg Mistiest yea that the import of thuyear arrangldlerement wee=
in your letter.—l remain, Ike, Joss 91M1T.
Some years ago Messrs. Gordon and Maitland were
wry juvenile barristers, acting in behalf of the whig coterie.
Yet these unfledged politicians were allowed to fix, " world
without end," the number of whig and tory councillors who
should be returned for a certain ward, liberaily allowing the
opposite party double the number they took to themselves.
Yet all the while they and their employers were calling the
independent liberals " t-ry-radiads." From the above cor-
respondence, I infer that the Edinburgh whigs and tories
consider the above bargain binding in perpetuity. Perhaps
its publication may induce the electors to throw both parties
overboard—that is, if their clergymen permit them.

THE CaAarfar PSTIVION.—At a meeting at Aber-
deen, the ether day, to hear a Lecture from Mr. Temps
O'Connor, the representative from that city to the national
convention (Mr. bhirren) entered upon a number of charges
against Ur. O'Connor and his " creatures" in the national
ceaventioa." Among other revelations was the following :
Yr. Caney was present in the Lend Office when Mr. O'Con-
nor came In to ask what number of names were at the na-
tional chartist petition. The reply was, that the signatures
were "less than two millions." On hearing which, Mr.
O'Connor said—" By God, I have stated to the country that
there will be five Whams of signatures at it, and I'll declare
it yet! They will never count the signatures—they did not
do so in the Nee of Duneombe's—and yen all know that
that petition contained leis than three millions, which was
the numlor that it was represented to the country to con-
tain." Mr. Cuffey made this statement in the assembly, in
rerof Dixon and M'Orath, two of Pearges's agents.
hirron made other charges against Mr. O'Connor, to
which that gentleman essayed to reply, but he never an-
swered the one mentioned above.—Abereleas Herald.