THE < CHAPEL CASE: 269 



man and leader of those Cromarty citizens who were, in 

 matters parochial, like-minded with himself. Questions 

 which, seen from this distance, may seem to be mere 

 illustrations of the infinitely little, became topics of 

 agitating concern for him, and called him, pen in hand, 

 into the field of controversy. 



The ' Cromarty Chapel Case ' has vanished from the 

 thoughts and recollections of almost every living man, 

 but, in the summer of 1831, it was profoundly interest- 

 ing to Hugh Miller. The minister of the Gaelic Chapel 

 in Cromarty had petitioned the Presbytery of Chanonry, 

 that he should be either assigned a parish within the 

 bounds of the parish of Cromarty, or a collegiate charge 

 with the Rev. Mr Stewart. By granting the petition, 

 the Presbytery would have done one of two things, 

 placed all Mr Stewart's parishioners under the authority 

 of the pastor to be associated with him, or disjoined 

 one half of the parishioners from Mr Stewart altogether 

 and handed them over to the petitioner. The latter had 

 not been in any sense chosen as their minister by Mr 

 Stewart's congregation ; they had chosen Mr Stewart, 

 and were exceedingly well pleased with him ; they pro- 

 nounced therefore almost unanimously against the pro- 

 posed arrangement. As the petition, in the event of its 

 being pushed forward by its promoters, would ultimately 

 come before the General Assembly of the Church of 

 Scotland, a legal gentleman of Edinburgh was employed 

 to prepare the way for its favourable reception by writing 

 it up in an Edinburgh newspaper. Hugh Miller re- 

 plied, as 'the representative of nearly eight hundred' 

 of his fellow-parishioners. The style of his letter is cer- 

 tainly equal to the grandeur of the occasion. It is ' the 

 cause of civil and religious liberty ' which he advocates, 

 and he is willing c to dare the worst in defence of either.' 



