'THE TEN YEARS' CONFLICT.' 237 



by the lay elders, are essentially Church Courts, and the 

 clergy constitute their preponderating element. It was 

 in these courts that the battle of the Church, in its 

 formal and technical aspect, was fought ; and one who 

 took part in their discussions, and subsequently wrote an 

 account of the movement, might think that, when he had 

 detailed what took place in Presbytery, Synod, and Gen- 

 eral Assembly, with mention of corresponding occurrences 

 in the Court of Session and the British Parliament, and 

 occasional glances at the chief public meetings and the 

 most notable pamphlets, he had presented a just and 

 adequate view of the historical transaction which he 

 undertook to depict. Such is doubtless the fair explana- 

 tion of a circumstance which has often been the sub- 

 ject of remark, namely, that, in a well-known history, 

 entitled ' The Ten Years' Conflict/ distinguished on the 

 whole by lucidity, vigour, and animation, the name of 

 Hugh Miller is conspicuous by its absence. An eloquent 

 passage is quoted in that work from the Letter to Lord 

 Brougham, and the author, Dr Robert Buchanan, has 

 never hesitated to acknowledge the importance of the 

 service rendered by the TFitness and its editor to the 

 Evangelical party ; but Miller nevertheless felt that, in a 

 history of the origin of the Free Church, he ought to 

 have been named. The book was put into his hands 

 for review, and with characteristic magnanimity and can- 

 dour he reviewed it favourably. 



At the time when Hugh Miller undertook the editor- 

 ship of the Witness, the sympathies of the people of Scot- 

 land had been td but a comparatively slight extent awaken- 

 ed and secured for the contending Church. A vague but 

 potent impression swayed the public mind that the agi- 

 tation was a mere clerical affair. I can still recollect how 

 this notion would crop up in the small talk of the day. 



