290 EDITOR. 



remind some of the gentlemen whom I now address, that 

 the place which I occupy as Editor of the Witness was 

 not of my seeking, and that I entered upon its duties in 

 weakness and great fear, thoroughly convinced of the 

 goodness of the cause, but diffident indeed of my own 

 ability to maintain it as it ought to be maintained, 

 against the hostile assaults of well-nigh the whole news- 

 paper press of the kingdom. Little did I think, after 

 reading Lord Brougham's speech in the Auchterarder 

 case in my house in Cromarty, and then passing a sleep- 

 less night, brooding over the state of great peril in which 

 the Church that I loved was placed, that the result of 

 my cogitations should have had the effect of leading me, 

 by a " way which I knew not," into so peculiar a position. 

 Once there, however, I found myself in my true place ; 

 and I trust I may be permitted to say, that I have striven 

 to perform its duties not without reference to the Pro- 

 vidence whose hand I recognized in the entire transaction. 

 I have been an honest journalist. During the seven 

 years in which I have edited the Witness, I have never 

 once given expression to an opinion which I did not con- 

 scientiously regard as sound, nor stated a fact which, at 

 the time at least, I did not believe to be true. My faults 

 have no doubt been many ; but they have not been faults 

 of principle ; nor have they lost me the confidence of 

 that portion of the people of Scotland to which I belong, 

 and which I represent. And possessing their confidence, 

 I do not now feel myself justified in retiring from my 

 post. Dr Candlish and his Parliament-House friends 

 are not the ministers and people of the Tree Church of 

 Scotland; nor do I recognize the expression of the 

 Doctor's will in this matter as a call to me in Providence 

 to divest myself of my office, in order that the Free 

 Church Press may be made the subject of a centralizing 



