The Scotsman is very angry with the Spectator for denying
that Scotland has, since the Reform Bill, sent first-rate men to Parliament ; and produces a long list of names in disproof, in- cluding Francis Jeffrey, the Right Hon. James Abercromby the Speaker, Lord Campbell, Lord Macaulay, Lord Moncrieff, Lord Cardwell, Lord Aberdare, Mr. E. Ellice, Sir J. Fergusson, Mr. Grant Duff, Mr. Joseph Hume, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Trevelyan, and many more. • Our contemporary rather wastes his wrath. We had no intention whatever of "lecturing Scotland," which is politically the soundest of the Three Kingdoms, and still less .of decrying most excellent and useful public servants; but only of pointing out a fact which Scotchmen should alter, if they can. We maintain that the fact was correctly stated. We intended ty"first-rate men," men who rise to rule, and who so sway Parliament, that they are by themselves powers, elevating the -country which produced them ; and not one of those mentioned were, if so considered, more than second-rate, if we except Lord Macaulay, whose greatness was displayed in another field. Lord Cardwell, who might have been Premier, and Mr. Trevelyan, who may rise far beyond his present level, are both of them Englishmen, and do not come within the meaning of our para- graph at all. It is most creditable to Scotch constituencies to send up such men, but they do not yield to Scotland as a separate entity that additional weight which she desires.
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