The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-14 00:00:00

SCOTLAND.

fluiveraoe. Ocr. 12.
Contrary to anticipation, the Hebrew chair in the
Edinburgh University has been conferred on a die-
:enter. The election, which is vested in the town-
courcil, took place to-day, when Mr. Macdowell,
classical teacher, Edinburgh, was appointed by a
majority of ten. The other candidate proposed was
Mr. Liston, brother of the celebrated surgeon. The
votes stood Macdowall 20, Liston 10. Mr. Liston is
a licentiate of the established church, while Mr.
Macdowall belongs to the free church. Since 1732
all the occupants of this chair have been clergymen
of the establishment, and for the previous century of
its existence the exceptions to this practice were
few. It remains to be seen whether the established
clergy will acquiesce in the appointment ; if their
newspaper organs are to be depended on, it will be
opposed in some shape or other.
Largely as we have dealt in fever statistics, they
have only been quoted for periods of weeks and
months ; and heoee, although the currency of disease
has been impressed on the community, the full extent
of its ravages has never been fully brought before
the public. There are 17 district surgeons in Glas-
gow, who have had under their care, from Ist January
till Ist October, 1817, no less than 16,595 fever
patients, being nearly an average of one thousanl to
each. This is a large number positively, but by com-
e parison with former years it distends enormously.
' Thus, during the corresponding periods in 1811, 1845,
1846, not taken separately, but added together, 1. e.
the total of the twenty-seven montla included in the
computation, the whole cases amounted only to 15,396.
Thus the nine months of 1847 already gore, have ex-
ceeded the aggregate of the first nine months of the
1 three preceding years by 1,11,0 cases. Allowing six
I visits to each case, the district surgeons have, during
the nine months in question, paid 99,570 visits. The
results may easily be anticipated. Since January
three of the surgeons have died of fever, two are at
present ill, one has recovered; while, of the rest, all
of them hare had fever previous to the present
year: the man who, after this, grudges the salaries of
medical men is surely to be pitied as a very narrow
cheese-paring economist. The good work of cleaning
houses is still going on, 299 have been the number
purified last week ; but till public wells are more
I multiplied, the masses should not be blamed for filthy
habits ; of 812 closes in Glasgow, 490 have none of
those facilities for health and longevity.
'But despite of fever, filth, and short supplies of
water, Glasgow appears to have been flourishing
during the period to which the returns apply. Whilst
the general revenue of the country for last quarter
exhibits a falling off, the customs duties of Glasgow for
the same period shows an increase of 22,059!. 19s. tid.
The Leith returns have not yet been made public, but
doubtless there will be an augmentation there too.
Alas, however, for the natural facilities of the metro-
politan port! its " engineering difficulties" are so
great that many thousands will require to be sunk in
the sea before its harbour can compete with opposing
havens. Although the new pier alreadyprojects some
three thousand feet into the Forth, it will require an-
other thousand feet before the end of the prolonged
terminus will stand 81 feet in low water.
Edinburgh also furnishes its quota of statistical
reckoning—crime being the burden of its figures—but
there is nothing worth noticing except that whilst
432 persons were convicted in the police-court, 374
were discharged for want of proof: the cause of this
is said to be the difficulty of getting two witnesses to
swear to the guilt of a criminal.
Donaldson's Hospital, it is said, is after all about to
be opened for the maintenance, lodging, and educa-
tion of 200 (each) boys and girls. The directors should
at least have made some effort to emancipate them-
selves from the folly of immuring 400 poor children
in a gothic palace of 270 by 257 feet. What a pre-
paration of poverty for struggling with the world !

DEATH OF THE GIPSY KINO.—Will Faa, the Rim
king, died at Kirk-Yetholm last week, the old man having
attained his 96th year. He is the last of the Faa tribe, and
his successor, who is named Biyth, lacking the blood royal,
at least by direct transcaiuion, will wield the sceptre by
sufferance. Faa kept his crown tolerably unsullied, having
never been in gaol during his lone lire. The great Scotch
hosoff of the tribe is and has been the parish of Yetholm,
but the race is gradually dying out, or assimilating with
other classes, and, m a short time, will live only in the
pages.of "Guy Manacling." Derneleugh has 'oral attrac-
tions in the pages of the novel, but seen in Yetholm selling
pottery, end making horn spoons, the Egyptian visages lose
their romance, and share the common fate of all enchant-
ment when divested of distance.

CELTIC DESTITUTION.—After paying our own poor-rates
(says the Glasgow Argus)—poor-rates Aggravated in amount
by the number of Highlanders sent among us from the
cleared mates—we subscribe to make roads and fences for
men who derive large incomes from their property, and pay
to their paupers a maximum allowance of 10s. a year. They
will tell us that they are deeply burthened ,—to this the re-
mark lately made by Mr. Ellice is an answer that cannot be
met or confuted : the land is there, and the rents are drawn,
whoever gets them ; let those rents be burthcned, mall others
in the kingdom are, with the keeping of the poor who live
upon the lands. As a commentary on this, it has been well
said by the Scotsman, that " Somebody or another draws at
least 676,0001. of rent from the three counties in which the
distress is prophesied "—a prophecy, by the way, which
seems likely to he postponed for the present season; but
which will undoubtedly come to pans in 1848, when the
Highlander knows that the Lowlander has agreed to honour
his drafts to the extent of 114,000/.
RAILWAY FIRIL—On Thursday morning, a range of
navvies' huts on the Caledonian Railwa), about three miles
front Moffat, took fire, and burned with such rapidity that
most of the inmates had some difficulty in escaping from the
comflegration, while three children were accidentally left to
their fate, and perished. Two women were likewise severely
burned. _

ROBBERS' or A POLICE SUPERINTENDENT.—RI May
last, Captain Raining, of the Elinburgh city pore*, went
to England for the benefit of his health. He proceeded to
Brighton, and while there a 501. note belonging to him was
stolen from the parlour of the house in which he resided.
Information was forthwith given to the superintendent of the
Brighton police, who was actively engaged for several weeks
in endeavouring to discover the delinquent. Payment was
stopped at the Bank of England, and the theft made known
to the banks in England, Scotland, Ireland, and France.
Notwithstanding these and other measures, no trace
could be got either of the note or of the thief,
and the captain gave up all expectation of ever re-
ceiving back his stolen money. He had in his service at
this time a female, who was considered an honest
servant, and who, on the family preparing to return to Scot-
land wished to leave her place. However, Captain Heisting,
who began to think she must know something of the mis-
sing property, induced her to remain, and she continued in
his service till about ten days ago, when she showed a great
anxiety to leave her situation and live with her mother in
Fife, which she was allowed to do. A few days passed,
and on Wednesday last week Captain Haining received in.
formation from Dunfermline that a SOL note had been pre-
tented in payment of some groceries, ate shop in that town,
by two women. The shopkeeper's suspicions had been
awakened, and he lodged infonries,...r. with the superinten-
dent of the Dunfermline police, who took possession of the
note, end commenced en investigation, which led him to
discover that the woman who had sent the note to the grocer
had once been in the service of Capt. Heisting. On Friday
the captain identified the note as the one he bad lost, and
his late servant confessed that she had stolen the note when
at Brighton, and had kept it concealed in her stays the
whole time.