DR CANDLISH READS THE LETTER. 181 



that very night. The following day Mr Dunlop and I 

 met with Mr Paul and a few friends, and either then, or 

 within a day or two thereafter, it was agreed to ask Mr 

 Miller to become editor of the Witness newspaper, then 

 about to be started. We had been looking out for an 

 editor. Whenever I had read the manuscript, which 

 was, I need not say, that of the Letter to Lord Brougham, 

 I came at once to the conclusion that we had found the 

 man. So did Mr Dunlop when he had read it. The 

 thing was thus immediately and enthusiastically settled/ 

 The Letter to Lord Brougham was at once published. 

 Hugh Miller has left behind him no more masculine, 

 idiomatic, close-knit, or melodious piece of writing, nor 

 is any of his productions more strongly featured with 

 the characteristics of the man. He opens with a glow- 

 ing, yet nowise fulsome, tribute to Lord Brougham. 

 ' I have been no careless or uninterested spectator 

 of your lordship's public career. No, my lord, I have 

 felt my heart swell as I pronounced the name of 

 Henry Brougham/ He then makes an admirable 

 point by referring to Brougham's prowess as a Par- 

 liamentary Reformer and the relative capacities of Scot- 

 tish communicants, on the one hand, to elect members of 

 the British Parliament, and, on the other, to choose their 

 parish ministers. ' Surely the people of Scotland are not 

 so changed but that they know at least as much of the 

 doctrines of the New Testament as of the principles of 

 civil government, and of the requisites of a gospel minis- 

 ter as of the qualifications of a Member of Parliament ! ' 

 His argument on behalf of the Church and her congrega- 

 tions he bases upon the original constitution and dis- 

 tinctive character of the Church of Scotland. ' I read in 

 the First Book of Discipline (as drawn up by Knox and 

 his brethren), that " no man should enter the ministry with- 



