The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-11-20 00:00:00

ELECTION OF LORD RECTOR

The election of Lord Rector took place yesterday, and we
subjoin the result of the vote in each of the nations into which
the electors are divided. The candidates, as our readers are
aware, were the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Breadal-
bane, and Sir Astley Cooper :

NATIO GLOTTIANA
Marquis of Breadalbane
Sir Astley Cooper . .
Duke of Wellington

NATIO ROTHSEIANA.
Marquis of Breadalbane
Sir Astley Cooper
Duke of Wellington
NATIO TRANSFORTHANA
Marquis of Breadalbane
Sir Astley Cooper
Duke of Wellington

N ATI° LOUDONIANA
Marquis of Breadalbane
Sir Astley Cooper
Duke of Wellington

TOTALS
Marquis of Breadalbane
Sir Astley Cooper
Duke of Wellington
Majority for the Marquis of Breadalbane, 143
Majority over both the other candidates 43
—Scottish Guardian of Tuesday.
The extraordinary and unlooked-for result may be easily
explained in a few words. _

The Duke of Wellington has been no less than three
times solicited to permit himself to be put in nomination
for the rectorship, and has positively declined accepting
the honour, in consequence of his being ChanCellor of
the University of Oxford, and his unacquaintance with the
constitution of the Scottish universities. In opposition to
his repeatedly expressed sentiments, the noble duke has
been dragged into this election by a few vain lads of the
Peel Club, and without the sanction of either the conser-
vatives of the university or of the city. As it was known
that the duke would not accept, only a few votes were
recorded for him, and these only by the silly dupes of the
party to which we have referred. The enthusiasm in fa-
vour of the duke among all classes of the students, and of
members of every shade of political sentiment, was great ;
and had the refusal of the duke not been known, the " hero
of a hundred fights " would have been elected by the almost
unanimous voice of the university. The boys of the Peel
Club—the Johnstones, the Camerons, and the Waddells
—are now extinguished, and the high-minded and patriotic
members of that society will in future honour their great
leader, Sir Robert Peel, without their association. The
letters transmitted to the duke—a round dozen and more,
we have heard—would, we have no doubt, be consigned to
the flames by his secretary, and would never meet his grace's
eyes. Sir Astley Cooper would have been elected lord rector
but for the stupid vanity of the Peel Club. The enthusiasm
displayed by his supporters has been unprecedented in the
annals of rectorial elections, and reflects the highest honour
on the medical members of the university, who have, for
nearly four centuries, only once before come forward and
taken a part in the election of a lord rector. Dr. Burns was
the first professor to record his vote for Sir Astley, and he
was enthusiastically cheered for his dignified and honourable
decision. The Marquis of Breadalbane owes his election
entirely to the division among the conservative party, many
of whom were so disgusted at the pushing of the rectorship
on the Duke of Wellington, that they did not vote. The
election will be regarded by the whigs as a triumph, and also
those wild men of the kirk, the non-intrusionists ; but the
election of such a whig to succeed Francis Jeffrey, Sir James
Macintosh, and Lord Brougham, can add but little to the
dignity of their party. The Marquis of Breadalbane will be
rejected next year by the medical members of the university ;
and it is to be hoped that by that time the Peel Club will
have " seen the error of their way." The celtic periods of
the Highland chief, possessing neither Ossianic sublimity
nor Demosthenic fire, will receive such a welcome from the
togati and the non-togati as will teach him and his party
their insignificance.