PAMPHLET. 269 



' I became, I have said, a Proprietor of the Witness 

 on ordinary business terms. The printing material, in 



thereby investing the Committee with the absolute power of determin- 

 ing what is ' a good and sufficient salary/ without regard to the Com- 

 pany's idea of the matter. Another obligation laid upon the Company 

 is, that in the event of their obtaining the consent of the Committee to 

 discontinue the Herald, they shall be bound to permit the Editor of 

 that paper to carry it on upon his own account, if he shall be disposed 

 to do so. [At page 14] it is declared that, for the better regulation 

 and carrying on of the said business (of printing and publishing the Wit- 

 ness and Scottish Herald newspapers), the Company * bind and oblige 

 themselves to implement and fulfil the whole conditions of the above- 

 quoted minute, and to make payment of the penalty of 500, in the 

 event of their not implementing the whole or any one of said condi- 

 tions.'" And the following is the opinion given us for our guidance by 

 our man of business, regarding the legal consequences of the entire 

 document : " The effect of such a contract would be to divest the co- 

 partnery o every vestige of control over their own business, and to 

 throw it wholly into the hands of the Committee ; whilst the only con- 

 ditions attached to the loan of the 1000 to Mr Johnstone were, those 

 which provided for the maintenance of the principles of the Paper and 

 for the repayment of the loan." 



' I must further mention here, that to these strange terms I had 

 strongly objected by letter, in Mr Fairly's name and iny own, ere they 

 had yet been embodied in the document, and existed but in a Minute, 

 said to be that of the Committee ; and that Mr Wood at once sustained 

 my objections as just and reasonable, but proceeded, notwithstanding, 

 to frame the document founded on the Minute, without intimating to 

 me his intentions on the subject, as if no such objections had ever been 

 made. The following paragraphs form part of my letter : 



' " And, first, with regard to the Scottish Herald : We find it stated 

 absolutely that it should be published at its present price. Now, it 

 occurs to us that it could be only necessary to do so, so long as there 

 is a competing paper in the field at the same price, or so long as the 

 competitor does not advance his price. Suppose Harthill's paper were 

 to come down, just because its price proved not remunerative, the 

 clause binding us not to advance ours might, in such circumstances, 

 have but the effect of bringing the Herald down too ; and this at a 

 time when the removal of our rival gave us a chance of keeping it up 

 by an advance of price. 



' " What we desiderate, in the next place, is, that we should not be 

 held bound to keep up the Herald unless it proved a fair speculation, 

 in a business point of view. Profit we do not expect, but an unvaried 

 return of loss we cannot bind ourselves to incur. A simple fact may 

 place the matter in a strong light. Within the last quarter of a cen- 

 tury no fewer than eleven papers have been started in Edinburgh, and 



