The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-14 00:00:00

2HE FORTHCOMING GOVERNMENT
REFORM BILL.

The following circular has been addressed by the
Poor Law Board to the clerks to the guardians in
all the northern boroughs :
" Parliamentary Borough of . Sir,—l am directed
by the Poor Law Board to request that you will have the
goodness to procure for the use of her Majesty's Government
a return of the male persons resident within the above-named
borough, or within seven miles thereof, who were assessed to
the last poor-rate in any parish within the borough, at the
gross estimated rental and rateable values of £5 and under
£6, of £6 and under £7, of £7 and under £B, and £8 and
over. The object of the board is to ascertain with the
greatest possible accuracy, the number of male persons resi-
dent within the Parliamentary borough, or within seven
miles thereof, who are assessed to the poor-rate as occupiers
of tenements within the borough, the gross estimated renta I
and rateable value of which are severally at or above £5,
(A printed forms with instructions, is attached.) In add!
tion to the above returns you are requested to obtain,ft
information of the board, the following returns :—The nun
ber of tenements n ithin the Parliamentary borough which,
under the Small Tenements Act or any local Act, are rated
to the owners instead of the occupiers; and, when the
sasessment is under a local Act, the sum at -which the owner
becomes rateable instead of the occupier. Seeondfy the
total amount of parochial rates and assessed taxes which a
tenement of the gross estimated rental of £5, V, £7 and £.3
respectively, would be liable to pay in each parish within
the borough, taking the last year as an average.—ll.
FLE3IING, Secretary."
The instructions state :—lt is to be observed that
the number of men only is required. All women
entered in the rate-book are therefore to be excluded.
It is to be observed that it is only the number of
persons resident within the Parliamentary borough,
or rather within seven miles thereof, that • re-
quired. Any person, therefore, who may be as-
sessed in the rate-book in respect of a tenement
occupied by him within the borough, but who does
not reside within the above-mentioned limit,
ought to be excluded from this return. It is only
the number of persons assessed at or above £5 that
is required. All persons, therefore, who are as-
sessed in respect of tenements the gross es-
timated rental and rateable value of which are
below L5,-ought to be wholly excluded froM the
return. When several persons aro jointly assessed
in respect of a single tenement, they should be en-
tered as separate occupiers of zenements, calculated
at a proportionate part of the whole value of the
single tenement. Thus, if A, B, and C, are rated
jointly for a tenement the gross estimated rental
of which is £2l, and the rateable value of which is
£lB, each of these ought to be entered as occupiers
of a tenement at a gross annual rental of £7 and
rateablevalue of £6. If either of them be a woman,
or resides more than seven miles from the Parlia-
mentary borough, such occupier ought to be
wholly excluded.

RECTORSHIP OF EDINBURGH UNI-

VERSITY.

The first election of a rector by the matriculated
students of this university was made on Saturday.
The polling took place in the class-rooms of the
College between eleven and one. The students
having tickets 1 to 100 voted in one class-room,
101 to 200 in a second, and so on up to the thir-
teenth hundred, but those enrolled in the Divinity
halls (66 in number) voted separately, thereby
making 14 polling places. Two of the professors
conducted the voting in each class-room, and
.the
students severally presented their matriculation
ticket and one class ticket, and gave their vote.
As thexotes were delivered the students went out-
side, and gathered gradually in the Quadrangle,
and long before the hour of closing the poll a large
multitude was assembled to wait the announcement
of the result. The Quadrangle for nearly an hour
presented a very lively scene from the grouping,
crowding, jostling, and struggling that took place;
as the moving mass gathered round any person
whose superior cognisance of the proceedings going
on rendered him better able than the rest to anti-
cipate theresult. Each party were engaged indus-
triously in spreading hopeful rumours, and some-
times the attempt was made, in sport, to put up
announcements more or less conjectural of the
result. The supporters of Lord Neaves were elated
with the tidings that the divinity students, with
one exception, had voted for their candidate ; hut,
on the other hand, the rumour of majorities, greater
or less, for Mr. Gladstone in most of the polling
places, made the friends of the latter still more
sanguine, if not, indeed, certain, of triumph.
Amid the moving crowd there was an almost inces-
sant discharge of fireworks whichfrom the daylight
were not very perceptalde in their approach, and
were somewhat startling in their detonating
powers. The poll was closed at one o'clock, and
the registering professors then assembled in the
Senate-hall to compare and sum up. the 14 lists.
Meanwhile, the excitement outside was immense,
and was brought to a height, ,shen the following
result was announced by placard .

For Mr. Glad,tone
For Lord Weaves
Mnjority for Mr. GlAtiNtone —ll6

643
527

The result was hAiled with immense enthusiasm
by Mr. Gladstone's supporters, and the defeated
party nl,o gave free expression to their feelings.
An attempt was made to hold a meeting in the
Chemistry Class-room, the largest in the Univer-
sity, hut the do.-4rs were closed, and the chairman
of *Mr. Gladstone's committee then from a somewhat
dangerous altitude on the wall addresse&those of
his fellow-students who had gathered beneath ex-
pressing his delight at the result, and intimating
that a telegram bad been immediately transmitted
to Mr. Gladstone notif3ing his election. It was
nearly an hour before the excitement subsided
and thilistudents dispersed.