256 EDITOR. 



[Strictly Private and Confidential '.] 

 LETTER 



HUGH MILLER, 



EDITOR OF THE ' WITXESS,' 

 TO 



DR THOMAS CHALMERS ; DR ROBERT GORDON ; DR R. S. CANDLISH ; DR WIL- 

 LIAM CUNNINGHAM ; DR JAMES BUCHANAN ; THE REV. THOMAS GUTHRIE ; 

 THE REV. JOHN BRUCE; THE REV. JAMES BEGG J THE REV. ANDREW GRAY 

 OF PERTH ; THE REV. ALEXANDER STEWART OF CROMARTY ; ALEXANDER 

 DUNLOP, ESQ. ; ROBERT PAUL, ESQ. ; J. G. WOOD, ESQ. ; AND JAMES BLACK - 

 ADDER, ESQ. 



* GENTLEMEN, 



' IT is with much pain, and not without much 

 serious deliberation, that I avail myself at this time of 

 this peculiar mode of addressing you. My communica- 

 tion, however, though a printed one, is strictly con- 

 fidential : the gentlemen named above are the only in- 

 dividuals who receive copies ; and such has been the 

 amount of precaution taken in passing it through the 

 press, that it is even more, not less, private in its present 

 form, than if it had been simply engrossed by a clerk. 



* In one certain quarter the Witness Newspaper has 

 of late given extreme dissatisfaction. Influential gen- 

 tlemen of the Parliament House, and gentlemen whom 

 the influential gentlemen influence, have indignantly 

 thrown it up ; and such has been its effect on the nerves 

 of Dr Candlish, that he never opens it now " without a 

 feeling of dread lest something untoward should be in 

 it." The Papers of the editor evince, the Doctor is clear, 



