The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-27 00:00:00

EDINBURGH ELECTION.

On Thursday the election of a Member to serve in Par-
liauo
nt for the City of Edinburgh took place at the Cross,
with the usual formalities. No opposition being antici-
pated, the assemblage of the public was much less than
usual on such occasions ; and, consequently, there was
little excitement. The utmost order and decorum, how-
eve- , prevailed throughout the proceedings.
Atte, the usual formalities had been gone through, the
Sheriff declared Mr. Macaulay duly elected. Mr.
_Macaulay returned thanks in a short speech, when the
crowd d,spersed, the whole proceedings not having lasted
quite an hour.
DINNER TO MR. MACAULAY.

In the evening a large body of the friends and supporters
of Mr Macaulay entertained him at a public dinner in the
etieterloo Rooms. Nearly 500 persons were present, being
as many as the room could accommodate; but the Commit-
tee state that the applications for tickets were nearly double
that number. The Lord Provost occupied the chair, and
ras supported on the right by the Right Hon. T. B. Ma-
caulay, the Earl of Buchan, Rev. A. Bennie, Councillor
) Macaulay, Adam Black, Esq., C. J. F. Orr, Esq., W. S.,
Joseph Gordon, Esq., W. S., Archibald Thomson, Esq.,
R. IL.ndyside, Esq., Advocate, John Veitch, Esq., of
Woodside ' • and on the left by Sir T. Dick Lauder, Bart.,
Thomas Maitland, Esq., Advocate, Andrew Millar, Esq.,
De, Maclagan, James Denham, Esq., Assistant Clerk of
e essiou, Robert Hunter, Esq., and W. Mackenzie, EN.
of Muirtown. The Solicitor-General acted as croupier,
' and was supported by Sir Charles Menteath of Closeburn,
Bart., R. Thomson, Esq., Advocate, Robert Bell, Esq.,
Advocate, Procurator for the Church, and Duncan M'La-
ren, Esq Grace was said, and thanks returned by the
I Rev A. Bennie.
After the usual preliminary toasts, the Chairman gave
1 gr Tee health of the Right Honourable Thomas Macaulay,"
wh:ch was responded to with the greatest enthusiasm.
prig', 2,lecetneee was received with deafening cheers.
He said--My Lord Provost and Gentlemen, I thank you.
1 If I possessed a far wider command than Ido of the artifi-
' cial and ornamented modes of returning thanks, all my
I expressions of gratitude must have been already exhausted
during my pres=et visit to Edinburgh. For the kindness
I have this night received, I have only again to repeat that
! I tender you my thanks. But I can truly say now, as I
said in the morning on the hustings, it is far more on
public than on private grounds that I rejoice at my
i reception this day. I did not indeed expect that on the
city of Edinburgh the arts of calumniators or of incendia-
„ees would make any very serious impression. Yet I
f cannot but say that I entertain some apprehensions,—not
toot the great majority of the electors of Edinburgh would
he affected by these misrepresentations; but knowing, as
I die. the strong religious feeling, and the ardent attach-
ment to the Protestant religion, for which this capital has
fo- centaaries been famed, I did entertain some apprehensions
i that the cry of ' No Popery" would make some impres-
. sine here—sounded as that cry has been, with singular
vehemence and pertinacity, by writers who are a scandal
to litters, and preachers who are a scandal to religion.—
Therefore it was, as in all my deal-
-1 (Great cheering.)
I 'rigs with sou, arid in all my dealings with every other con-
esSeuent beds, with which I have been connected, it has al-
!ways' been my object to address myself straight to those
point. where I thought error and prejudice might exist;
thei efore it was that, when I appeared before you two days
ago, I thought it my duty directly to encounter those feel-
toga, - The kindness which I then received, and the en-
,
I quis,,sir which you then displayed, I shall never forget.
i.I feel :ha(, in acting as scu have done—l feel that, in
1 tuening• ,t deaf ear, es you have done, to those who
would raise the cry of " No Popery," you, the people of
Seo:land, hate promoted not rnere:y the public into-
; res•, but pre-eminently your own. Do not deceive
1 yourvelvea. Do not imagine that the spirit of intoler.
ante seeker only one victim. Do not imagine that the
rights of conscience, being violated in one quarter,
' ill be held sacred in every other.—( Cheers.) Rernern-
issea the history of thee,: measures which greatly en-
gs
eteed the limits of tengious liberty. The repeal of
the leeit Act was the signal for Catholic emancipation. I
in a Is:‘v months after the disabilities of the Pro-
. •estant L'issenter were removed, the disabilities of
the Catilolas- followed. As was the progress, so will
ne rep-ow ess,,en surely be.—( Loud cheers.) Replace
Vie fetters of the Catholic, and you will soon see the
foyers of the; Protestant Dissenter replaced.—(Cheers.)
The truth is, that that section of the High Church
party of England, who are most loud and clamorous
ii the repeal of the Act which gave emancipation to
i lee Catholic, notoriously regard with equal aversion
tf, e Act w 6 The sameh tolera e
tes the Protstant Dissenter.—
( Cheer,. ) persons who complain of the pre-
,' ~ -t Government for administering the Catholic &nen-
' 'A-olia. 'Wu Act according to its spirit, are those who, as
‘e'l they had the power, have done their best to pre-
: seen!al" lie repeal of the Test Act from being administered
i ~,,
cat. ling to its spirit ; and if they had the will we should
i. r
,'et an English Presbyterian, Independent, or Bap-
i tn'ssteeleveted to the bench, or to any other place of public
Truitt
' ' __(L cud cheats.) You members of the Church of
.
gezeeinei eve uld greatly deceive yourselves if tou imagined
• ii,,,t, because you have emoluments, and the name of an
Establishment, the party whom I have designated the High
Church party, regard you with any toleration. To them the
Kok itself is a Secession ; its orders and forms are denied
all validity : and while able and pious men among you
erre. some for the claims of an Establishment, and others
fe• the elaims of Dissent, the eersoes of whom I speak
regard you as all Dissenters alike. While you argue for
end against church extension, they tell you that you have
no church to extend.— ( Immense cheering.) Whoever is
i miiiiter with the writings and speeches of that party knows
•,ers, i.vhile the Catkolics are, with them, idolaters, you are,
h. their phrdse, Samaritans, Your national worship—that
000.„it and solemn worship, endeared to you by the heroic
1 ,tregsrltt aid seferings ef your ancestors, is spoken of as
4 sit UllhOi) off;erie,fr on Mount Gerizim.—( Great cheering.)
The name of
&ismer commands respect in their estima-
,
1
tine compared with the name of Knox. Those parts of
sour history on which they love to dwell, are those parts
.ei hich relate to the old times when tyrants attempted
1 to force upon Scotland an ecclesiastical polity and ritual
1 which she abhorred. Their sympathies are reserved for
that execrable Government, which employed the sword
) and the halter, and the frightful torture of the boot, to
protect the prayer-book and the surplice—which drove
4 our fa'hers from the habitation of men to sing their psalms
and listen to their preachers on the brown heath of the
1 mountains, with their swords by their sides.—(Loud
I cheer; ) In the estimation of these men, the great blot
I of the revolution was, that the Episcopal Church of Scot-
, land was sweet away ; and the memory of William 111.-
1 that memory which is pronounced to be glorious and im-
I mortal, when contemplated in connection with the de-
, gradetion of Deland, becomes at once infamous when they
see it irr cotineetien with the religious liberty of Scotland.
j Tee 11;i:tole—the union between England and Scotland,
il
_which may God for ever bless, as he has blessed it, and
keep the two great nations indissolubly joined in the
ie same free he teutions, and under the same paternal throne,
I —that Union is the object of their abhorrence. because
1 in that Union is recognised the Presbyterian Church of
k Scotland. Such is their language even now; and "if
jthese things be done in the green tree, what shall be done
in the dry ?"—( Great cheers.) This is the language
.vhieh they cannot refrain from holding when your alliance
is necessary. When they implore your aid to persecute
\
ethers, they cannot conceal that they are burning to per.
~cute ye urselves.—( Hew, hear.) But observe when
say this. I speak not very ?ay from it—l speak not of the
whole Conservative party. I well know that there are
i many honourable, wise, and good men, whose apprchen-
-1 ,eone—l !treaty they are unfounded—have been driven—l
1 -rust it ie bat for a time— to range themselves on the same
,jee with the enemies of all reform. Ido not impute these
I
„pinions to the leaders of the party. These opinions, I
I et confident, find no sympathy with the great general to