PAMPHLET. 279 



will observe," says Mr F., "from the state of the Paper 

 to-day, that it was impossible to find room for the 

 twentieth chapter of your Impressions. I am sorry that 

 our efforts to please, by giving a full report of the Com- 

 mission, have had a very different effect. There have 

 been a good many grumblers about the Publishing Office 

 to-day, who say they would like an outline of the busi- 

 ness much better than a full report, and would willingly 

 wait the publication of the Monthly Statement for such 

 documents as Dr Candlish's speech [Report] on Educa- 

 tion. I suspect that now, when the great excitement is 

 over, a succinct outline of ecclesiastical affairs, in a well- 

 selected general newspaper, would be more acceptable to 

 the greater part of our readers, than a Paper almost 

 entirely filled with heavy reports. A question may 

 occur occasionally to fill the public mind, and it would be 

 well to give full scope to all such ; but I have found 

 that our very full reports of the ordinary Church busi- 

 ness have, for some time back, attracted no notice except 

 to be grumbled at for their length, and have failed to 

 defray the extra expense of getting them up." 



' Now, there is a meaning in this little bit of fact, 

 which the proprietors of the Witness cannot afford to 

 disregard. Dr Candlish, in his present scheme for im- 

 proving the Paper, suggests that "occasional Supple- 

 ments ought to be given, if required." Certainly the 

 necessities of the Paper require them : in the course of 

 one fortnight I reckoned up no fewer than nineteen 

 columns of ecclesiastical reports and intelligence, which 

 appeared in no other Edinburgh Paper.* And the 



* ' In the two last Witnesses alone, that of Saturday the 9th and that 

 of Wednesday the 13th instant, there are upwards of fourteen columns 

 of Free-Church-speech reports, which are to be found in no other 

 Edinburgh newspaper. 



