SCOTLAND.
A public meeting, called by the Lord Provost and Town-Council of Edinburgh, was held at the Music Hall, on Friday, to pass resolutions condenming the sentence of death passed by Judge O'Neal!, in South - Carolina, on John Brown, for aiding a female slave to escape. Among those present were Sir James Gibson Craig, Sir James Forrest, several of the local authorities, and many ministers of religion. In the absence of the Lord Provost, Baillie Urquhart filled the chair. The speakers were earnest in their strictures ; but generally the remarks were not of aufficient novelty to claim a share of our preoccupied space. One of the most fervid-speakers was Dr. John Ritchie, who said that the sentence came home to himself-
" If Brown has been justly condemned, I deserve to be hanged; for I aided in the escape, final and perfect, of two male slaves from their Brazilian master in " this city, and of two female slaves from a mistress of Jamaica, who, in the neighbourhood of Peebles, was treating them as slaves. In this did I wrong? 0 that I could lead every slave in the Southern States 'slick west' to Wil- , berforce in Canada. I'd do it, though their emancipation was to be followed up by my execution."
Dr. Ritchie quoted several passages from Scripture ; which ought to prevail with text-quoting Judge O'Neall. One seems very apposite-
" I find the law as to slavery thus laid down, as if it had been made in anti- cipation of Brown's very case. Deuteronomy xxiii. 15, 16—' Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant n ho has escaped from his master unto thee. Healiall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best : thou shalt not oppress him.'"
The proposed resolutions were carried unanimously.
An Elgin paper of Friday reports rough weather in the Highlands-
" The snow-storm which commenced about the 1st February has continued in the Highlands almost unbroken until now (Friday.) In the low country along the shores of the Moray Frith, it soon disappeared ; but as you receded from the coast line and began to ascend into the Alpine districts, the depth of snow and the intenzity of the frost gradually increased, till y ou reached the Cairn- gorum range, round which the snow has lain, in its greatest depth, for the last seven weeks. During the whole of this time these elevated regions have had all the appearance of a Polar n inter. Wednesday was the first really fresh day among the hills. A great deal of the snow has melted from the fields and . lower slopes of the hills; but this slow disappearance has been accomplished solely by the heat of the day, as the nights were generally frosty, with new ad- . ditions of snow. It has been a very trying time for the flocks; which, in the majority of cases, are reduced to great weakness, and a good many have died."
An alarming mischance occurred at the Adelphi Theatre in Glas- gow, on Friday night-
" About ten o'clock," says the Glasgow Herald, " while the afterpiece was 'being performed in the Adelphi Theatre, a person who was employed as a watchman about the place, but who was formerly a substitute Police-officer, wishing to convey information to some of the Fire-Brigade that there was a fire in Glassford Street, most foolishly and improperly called out, in the pit of the theatre, the words Fire—engineer The exclamation had quite an electri- cal effect, for the audience, conceiving the theatre to be on fire, took the alarm, and made a rush to the doors, which were soon crowded in such a manner that egress was almost entirely prevented. This increased the alarm ; and the result was, that one man was pushed over the front of the gallery, several others . threw theniselvea from the same part of the house into the pit, a few were knocked down and trampled on, others were cut and bruised, and many lost their bats and greatcoats, or got their clothes torn in the crush. The most frightful consequences were at one period imminent ; for, during the confusion, the gas-lights were in some way or other extinguished, and the throwing of the house into darkness had the effect for a time of increasing the uproar, para- cularly in the gallery. The manager and stage-managers, however, did every thing in their power to reEstablish order : when they had exhausted their voices almost, and all to no purpose, they addressed the terrified spectators through speaking-trumpets, to endeavour to allay their fears ; but it was some time, notwithstanding, before tranquillity could be restored."
One young woman in a delicate condition was very ill from hustling and fright ; and a young man died from concussion of the brain.
• The Ayr Advertiser relates a most strange accident to a child, and _still stranger preservation- " On Tuesday last, while a child was amusing itself on the brink of the stream that drives Barns lint-mill, Girvau, it toppled off the bank, and, un- observed, was carried along by the current to the sluice ; where its tiny person stuck at the aperture, preventing the passage of the water. The miller, finding his mill going lazily, fancied he had scrimped her of water ; and going out, raised the sluice, which be bad no sooner done than the body of the child, till then unseen, was noticed to pass under it, and to float towards the water- wheel; where destruction seemed impending, and where rescue was out of the question, from the impossibility of stopping the mill in time. The child in a second or two had passed under the wheel, and almost as quickly afterwards was pounced upon by the miller; who carried it into his house, apparently life- less. The hearty miller,' however, was not to be so easily baffled in his hu- mane exertions: well-applied thong and spur brought Dr. Robertson almost immediately, who followed up the miller's rubbing with hot flannels by other restoratives; and eventually, the child looked up and smiled, and may live to bless them both."
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