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CHAPTER IV. 



THE DISRUPTION. 



IN writing the history o any event or series of events 

 an author is inevitably influenced by the point of 

 view which he has taken. It would be possible to draw 

 up an historical account of the French Revolution with- 

 out mention of the Paris newspapers of the period. 

 These had no official, formal, technical connection with 

 the occurrences of the time, and from the dynastic point 

 of view, or the Parliamentary point of view, or the 

 official point of view, it would be easy to delineate the 

 Revolution without naming them. If a just account, 

 however, of a great historical transaction involves a de- 

 scription of those agencies which, assisting its progress 

 and modifying its character, contributed mainly to make 

 it what it was, the omission of all mention of the Trench 

 press in a history of the French Revolution, would be a 

 capital mistake. When the movement which resulted 

 in the Disruption of 1843 and the creation of the Free 

 Church of Scotland is contemplated from the ecclesiastical 

 point of view, it is possible, without any intentional in- 

 justice, to overlook the importance of the part played 

 in it by Hugh Miller. The Courts of the Presbyterian 

 system, though the congregation is represented in them 



