PAMPHLET. 273 



of the Committee whether the terms of Mr Wood's 

 document were in reality theirs, and if so, to have done 

 with them at once. I was taking, said the Doctor, much 

 too serious a view of the matter. Wood was my friend, 

 and a good fellow ; but, of course, a lawyer, who did 

 things in the stiff, strict, professional style. His con- 

 ditions were really nothing, it was with friends that I 

 had to deal. I stated to the Doctor the terms which 

 Mr Wood had in so strange a style rejected, and asked 

 him if they were not fair. Oh, certainly, he replied ; 

 nothing can be more fair; but the difference between 

 you and Wood is a mere misunderstanding, and it will 

 never do to let it come to a serious quarrel, by laying it 

 formally before the Committee. Now, of course, in all 

 this Dr Candlish may have acted simply the part of a 

 peace-maker between Mr Wood and me, irrespective of 

 the merits of the point at issue. It may have been a 

 perfectly indifferent matter to him, on at least his own 

 account, whether I submitted the matter to the Com- 

 mittee or no. He perhaps sent for me on this occasion, 

 and borrowed time from his sermon to converse with me 

 (for 'twas on a Saturday), on Mr Wood's account alone. 

 At all events, in consequence of what he recommended, 

 I did not appeal to the Committee ; I merely submitted, 

 as I have already said, Mr Wood's document, through 

 Mr Fairly, to a man of business, instructing him at the 

 same time to draw out another, on what I deemed more 

 reasonable terms. The man of business did so ; and his 

 paper, on being submitted by Mr Wood to Mr Dunlop 

 for his professional opinion, was pronounced by the lat- 

 ter gentleman to be a not unfair embodiment of the in- 

 tentions of the Committee. It is with great pain that I 

 have thus adverted to a transaction, the remembrance of 

 which still lies heavy upon me ; but circumstances de- 



VOL. II. 18 



