HIS PROTESTANT ZEAL. 301 



a tower of strength for the Free Church, and had he seen 

 her in danger, he would have rushed to the rescue as in 

 those days of young and proud enthusiasm when he 

 addressed his Letter to Lord Brougham ; but his mind 

 dwelt with brooding anguish upon the isolation into 

 which he had been thrown, and on the whole, in its 

 incidents and its results, we may pronounce this quarrel 

 with Dr Candlish the unhappiest occurrence of his life. 



One word must be added, to obviate misconception. 

 Though Hugh Miller belonged to the school of sternly 

 anti-Popish Scottish religionists, and had no mercy 

 for Roman Catholic Bishops, he recoiled from the 

 acrid extravagance and toothless bigotry of those self- 

 elected representatives of Protestant zeal, who band 

 themselves into associations, publish hateful prints, make 

 Protestantism a laughing-stock in Parliament, and on the 

 whole render considerable, though contemptible, service 

 to Archbishop Manning and the Pope. Miller honoured 

 the intention of these poor creatures, and went with them 

 as far as he could. Though few of the anti-Popish ar- 

 ticles in the Witness were from his pen, he permitted a 

 great number to be inserted by an eloquent and popular 

 contributor, and any one who glances over the old files of 

 the paper must be surprised that even Miller's genius 

 could render it acceptable to readers with those perpetual 

 doses of anti-Popish harangue. Nevertheless the bigots 

 were not satisfied. The Witness was pronounced luke- 

 warm in the Protestant cause. A new paper, called the 

 Rock, Miller called it a trap rock, was started, and 

 for a limited number of weeks or months the craziest 

 Protestant champion in Edinburgh could not complain 

 that ' the banner ' was not held high enough. Miller 

 had that hatred of Popery which seems constitutional to 

 Scotchmen of strong religious instincts, it has always 



