ISOLATION OF THE "WITNESS." 297 



afford scope, in the columns of the paper, for an expres- 

 sion of opinion, in speech and letter, by rival parties, 

 rather than to influence either in leading articles, and 

 sought for himself a more congenial sphere in science 

 and literature. In these views his partner, Mr Fairly, 

 entirely acquiesced, and held it, after Miller's death, not 

 only to be due to his memory, but to be advisable on 

 other grounds, to maintain the same policy in the con- 

 duct of the paper. The independence of the journal had 

 been vindicated, once and for ever; the clergy never 

 came near the Witness Office ; but, after all, it was iso- 

 lation rather than independence that was attained, and 

 there was a gaunt and desolate feeling about it. What 

 it must have been to Hugh Miller is not easy to realize. 

 Mrs Miller thinks that about the sum of it is that it 

 broke his heart. But even the successor of Hugh 

 Miller in the conduct of the Witness, for whom I am 

 qualified to speak, found the position sometimes peculiar. 

 A brief illustration will show what is meant. 



The liberty of every Free Church in the United 

 Kingdom was directly or indirectly threatened by the 

 attempt of Mr MacMillan of Cardross to induce the 

 Court of Session to punish the Free Church of Scotland 

 for excluding him from her ministry. The most in- 

 fluential Edinburgh newspaper tried to make it appear 

 that Mr MacMillan's plea against the Free Church was 

 strictly analogous to Sir William Dunbar's plea against 

 Bishop Skinner, Primate of the Free Episcopalian Church 

 of Scotland, when the Bishop visited, or attempted to visit, 

 Sir William with ecclesiastical censures. The question 

 was the key of the Free Church position in a legal point 

 of view, for if the Reverend Sir William Dunbar, on the 

 one hand, and the Primate of the Free Episcopalian 

 Church of Scotland, on the other, had consented to plead, 



