296 EDITOR. 



with great animation on behalf of Miller, dwelling on 

 the absurdity of officious meddling with such a man, 

 and asking, with peremptory, leonine glance, ' Which of 

 you could direct Hugh Miller ? ' 



There seems to have been a kind of understanding 

 among the members of the Committee who were present 

 at the meeting that the copy of the letter which each 

 possessed should be destroyed. Dr Begg tells me that he 

 c went honestly home and destroyed his ;' but the under- 

 standing must have been vague, or several of the mem- 

 bers of Committee were absent, for there is no doubt that 

 a plurality of copies exist, and Dr Bruce is known to 

 have declared, with characteristic emphasis, that he set 

 far too high a value upon his to think of burning it. 



No accurate information as to what had occurred 

 reached the general public ; but an indistinct conviction 

 pervaded the Free Church that Hugh Miller had vindi- 

 cated the independence of the Witness against Dr Cand- 

 lish, and the lay element in the Church against the clerical. 

 It was clearly understood that the opinions of the Witness 

 would be those of its editor, and that the weight and 

 worth of his independent judgment were guaranteed 

 against all extraneous influence. After being shaken a 

 little by Parliament-House defection, the paper pursued 

 its career of prosperity. 



Though Miller triumphed, the memory of the fray 

 rankled deep in his heart to the last, and its result on 

 the whole, even to the paper, was melancholy. He 

 had imbibed an invincible repugnance to handling 

 the Free Church questions of the day. Resolute to 

 speak no man's mind save his own, and shrinking from 

 the bitter necessity which he knew to be entailed upon 

 the frank utterance of his own sentiments, he became 

 shy of Church matters altogether, made it his aim to 



