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Mr. George Anderson, the junior member for the city of Glasgow, was born at Liverpool in 1819, and is thus in his 52d year. He is a son of George Anderson, Esq., of Luscar, Fifeshire, by his marriage with Miss Rachel Inglis. His father, who had been in early life in the navy, was for some years managing partner of the firm of Messrs. Dennistown & Co. at Havre and New Orleans, from which he left to be manager of the one branch of the old Glasgow Bank (with which the same house was largely connected) at Kirkcaldy, of which town he was afterwards for many years the highly-respected Provost.

Mr. Anderson was educated partly at Havre, partly at the High School of Edinburgh, and subsequently at the University of St. Andrews. On coming to Glasgow in 1841, he entered the concern of Alex. Fletcher & Co., flaxspinners, St. Rollox, and was latterly managing partner of that extensive manufacturing establishment, employing nearly 2000 workpeople; and through his experience there, during 25 years, he acquired that knowledge of the grievances and wants of the working classes which has enabled him to legislate for them since. Mr. Anderson had never taken any part in Municipal affairs, but he had in other ways always done his fair share of public work. The Polytechnic Institution, the Fine Art Exhibitions that preceded the present Institute, the Art Union, the Philosophical Society, the Lock Hospital—of all of these he had been an active promoter or director. In connection with the West of Scotland Angling Club, of which he was a zealous member, he had successfully introduced the grayling into Scotland—an achievement in acclimatisation worthy of being remembered. While President of the Glasgow Skating Club he published a treatise on the art of skating, which is still the most popular manual on the subject, and has, we believe, reached a third edition. In 1859, on the starting of the Volunteer movement, Mr. Anderson took an enthusiastic part, and was among the original officers of the 4th Lanark, with which corps he has continued, being still its senior major; while he has repeatedly advocated, in the House, the claims of the Volunteers to increased assistance as an economical measure for national defence.

His candidature for the City of Glasgow, in 1868, was promoted by the local branch of the Reform League, conjointly with the trade delegates, who held a conference to deliberate on the matter. Previous to that time, our junior member was well known among the proletariat for his well-timed efforts to effect the abolition of the arrestment of wages. In 1852 he started the subject of wages arrestment by a series of letters in the Reformer's Gazette, Daily Mail, and Herald. The subject had long been felt to be a sore grievance and rock of offence among the working classes, and periodical agitations had taken place without leading to any decided action. From the very first Glasgow took the initiative in seeking to modify or get rid altogether of a law which pressed with greater severity on the lower orders than, perhaps, any other enactment that ever found its way into the Statute Books of Scotland. The late Neale Thomson, of Camphill, gave great assistance in that agitation, and a very exhaustive and able pamphlet on the arrestment of wages was published by Mr. Anderson in 1853, which led to the appointment of a Royal Commission; but though the report was entirely favourable to Mr. Anderson's views, nothing came of it, as under the £10 franchise the small shopkeepers were too strong for them, and the work which they had been sanguine of completing in 1854 was left for himself to do alone in 1870. Mr. Anderson wrote frequently on the currency question. His most recent production (published in 1866) was a pamphlet entitled "The Reign of Bullionism"—having previously read a paper on the subject of the Bank Acts to the Social Science Congress at Manchester—in which he advocated a national issue of note currency, and the abrogation of the Bank of England charter, and all other banks' monopoly. His literature was not all, however, of so practical a character; not long before he had edited, jointly with Mr. J. Finlay, a volume containing fifty of the best of the poems written on the centenary of Robert Burns—one of his own, which had been highly commended at the Crystal Palace competition, being among them. The volume is, perhaps, the most fitting tribute to the memory of our national poet that has appeared, and we believe it is now out of print.

In the education question Mr. Anderson had always taken a keen interest. Besides lectures and papers to the Philosophical Society, the Educational Institute, and the Social Science Congress he published two pamphlets pointing out how utterly worthless the half-time education clauses of the Factory Acts had proved, and urging compulsory education, or, in default of that, a quasi compulsion in the form of an educational test, in place of an age test, for youthful labour. He also came prominently before the public on the occasion of an agitation which took place in 1867 in reference to the subject of an education bill for Scotland. It will be remembered that two parties in the city sought to influence the Government of the day for different ends. One party was composed of the religious, while the other represented the unsectarian element, and by both memorials were sent to Parliament urging the claims of Scotland to a more comprehensive system of national education. Mr. Anderson, of course, espoused the cause of the unsectarian party, who went in for compulsory education; and he addressed a meeting in the City Hall, at which several resolutions approving of an unsectarian as opposed to a religious scheme of education were passed by a considerable majority of those present. The Reform Bill of 1868 gave Glasgow a third member, and Mr. Anderson was fixed upon as the most suitable representative of the interests of labour. His candidature, which as we have already indicated, had been invited by the Reform Leaguers and Trades Delegates of the city, was warmly supported by the working classes. A three-cornered constituency, the electors of Glasgow could only vote for two candidates; and as there was a Tory in the field, in the person of Sir George Campbell, it became a rather nice question as to how the three Liberal candidates were to be returned. The Liberal party were equal to the emergency. They agreed to vote for the two lowest candidates on the list throughout the polling, irrespective altogether of personal predilections or sympathies in favour of either. In this way the battle was won in the Liberal interest, and Glasgow vindicated her claim to be esteemed the most Liberal constituency in the kingdom. At the close of the poll, the return was as follows:—