268 EDITOR. 



liberty of asking, whether a standing so independent of 

 the parties within the Witness establishment did not 

 bear a too obvious reference to the exercise of an influence 

 from without, and to the favourite centralization scheme ? 

 I may be permitted to ask further, as the " tact, taste, and 

 delicacy "of Mr Somers did not prove quite what had 

 been expected, whether Dr Candlish's proposed Parlia- 

 ment-House Editor be a man known in the republic of 

 letters, or one who has yet to give his first proof of liter- 

 ary ability ? I must speak my mind freely ; I am on 

 my trial ; and, be it remembered, that I address myself 

 not to the public at large, a la Sorley, but to a select few 

 of the wisest heads and soundest hearts of the Free 

 Church. I injured no one by the stand which I made 

 on this occasion ; had I not made it, I would have greatly 

 injured both my partner and myself, and degraded my- 

 self to a position which no man of a right spirit could for 

 a moment submit to occupy. I injured no one ; but I 

 must say that the part I acted seems never to have been 

 pardoned me. Are there men among us who, though 

 they have perhaps principle enough to forgive an enemy, 

 have not magnanimity enough to forget a disappoint- 

 ment ? * 



* 'The following extract from an outline, by our man of business, 

 of Mr Wood's document, may serve to illustrate its character : 



'" Clause third provides that arrangements shall be made for the 

 copartnery publishing the Scottish Herald, or some similar weekly news- 

 paper in connection with the Witness, at the present price of the He- 

 rald, viz. threepence, and to engage the present Editor of the Herald 

 as its Editor, and Sub-Editor of the Witness; and from this obligation 

 the Company cannot be relieved, until they shall have satisfied the 

 Committee that the undertaking cannot be continued without certain 

 loss to the Proprietors of the Witness, after a trial. The Committee's 

 consent is also declared to be necessary in dispensing with the services 

 of the Editor of the Herald as Sub-Editor of the Witness ; and the 

 copartnery are again taken bound, at the sight of the Committee, to 

 allow a good. and sufficient salary for the Sub-Editor of the Witness ; 



