192 EDITOR. 



been speedily arrived at by the Evangelical leaders in 

 the capital of Scotland, but the proposal was not imme- 

 diately made to Miller. A note reached him from Mr 

 Robert Paul, manager of the Commercial Bank in Edin- 

 burgh, an ardent non-intrusionist, requesting him to 

 visit Edinburgh 'in the course of the summer,' in order 

 that he might be ' brought into communication with 

 some gentlemen/ who thought that his talents could be 

 employed ' in some literario-Christian objects ' as Mr 

 Paul, with cautious indefiniteness, puts it. There is no 

 hint of a newspaper, no allusion to the Church question, 

 but, under the circumstances, Miller may have read all 

 that between the lines. 



Mr Ross, his judicious and friendly superior in the 

 Bank at Cromarty, acquiescing in the arrangement, he 

 proceeded, in company with Mrs Miller, to the south. 

 They resided with Mr Paul. It was the third time 

 Hugh Miller had come to Edinburgh. The first time, 

 he was in quest of employment as a journeyman mason ; 

 the second, he wanted to qualify for the post of banker's 

 clerk; he now (1839) found himself ' looked upon as a 

 lion a sort of remarkable phenomenon/ The leaders of 

 the popular party in the Church welcomed him as a valu- 

 able ally. ' There was, of course/ writes Mrs Miller, ' a 

 famous dinner party, at which we were introduced to 

 Dr Cunningham, Dr Candlish, Dr Abercromby, and 

 others.' The precise nature of the enterprise in which 

 it was proposed that Miller should be engaged was now 

 explained to him, but Mr Paul found that the business 

 could not be got forward so speedily as might be wished. 

 Hugh still had his doubts, his hesitations, his fears. 

 Though his nature was stirred to its inmost depths by 

 sympathy for the cause of the Church and the people, 

 and though the success of his Letter to Lord Brougham 



