SCOTLAND.
The Young Men's Protestant Society of Edinburgh recently called Mr. Macaulay to account for being absent when Mr. Spooner moved the omission of the item in the Civil Estimates for the payment of Roman Catholic chaplains in prisons. They asked for reasons, and an explanation, so that "the strong feeling of dissatisfaction entertained by aU__the true Protestant electors of Edinburgh" might be removed. Mr. MacaulaT made this reply-
" I was absent from the division which you mention because my health did not suffer me to venture out late. I am most sensible of the indulgence which has been shown to me by my constituents ; and I assure you that I would instantly Vacate my seat if I thought that they generally wishedme to do so. But it would be disingenuous in me not to add' that if I had been able to attend the House, I should certainly have voted, and probably have spoksat in favour of the grant to the Roman Catholic chaplains of gaols, and Maio'. Mr. Spooner's motion concerning Maynooth. It is impossible for me to believe on your authority that all the Protestant electors of Edinburgh are surprised and indignant because I did not vote against the Government on these points. The Protestant electors of Edinburgh, when they did me the high honour to elect me to represent them, knew well what my conduct had seen in times of .great religious excitement, and yet they did not think it necessary to require. from. me any assurance that I should act in a manner afferent from that in which I had always acted. The young men in whose name you write are, I presume, too young to remember the passing of the maynooth Bill for 1845. If they will take the trouble to inform themselves u, my votes and speeches on that occasion, they will not, I believe, think it necessary to ask me for any further explanation."
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