1 3 2 JilSEN B V FERSE VE RANGE. 



Treasury and the Family Treasury ; but it remained for one 

 of his own proteges, Mr. Alexander Strahan, to give even a 

 broader and more distinct impulse to this type of literature in 

 the different magazines Good Words, Sunday Magazine, and 

 Day of Rest — all of which we owe to his genius and enter- 

 prise. 



The question of spiritual independence was beginning to 

 agitate the breasts of the people of Scotland, The patron 

 of the parish of Auchterarder, Lord Kinnoul, had presented 

 the Rev. Mr. Young to the charge. Only three individuals 

 in the congregation had signed the call, three hundred had 

 distinctly declined that he should be their pastor, and forty 

 had remained neutral, and in this case the presbytery refused 

 to sanction the ordination of Mr. Young. The Court of 

 Session decided against this conclusion of the presbytery, and 

 in May 1839 their decision was confirmed by the House 0/ 

 Lords. He wrote a pamphlet on the Non-intrusion con. 

 troversy, which spread his fame, and became an introduction 

 to the leaders of the movement in Edinburgh. 



In 1839, Hugh Miller found himself in Edinburgh for the 

 third time. The first time he had come as a journeyman 

 mason in search of work, the second time to qualify himself 

 for the bank agency, and the third time he arrived with his 

 reputation made, and at the request of Mr. Robert Paul. He 

 was introduced to Dr. Cunningham, Dr. Candlish, Dr. Aber- 

 cromby, and others, and finally he was offered the editorship 

 of a projected Non-intrusion newspaper, to be called the 

 Witness. In spite of the confidence in his own powers which 

 his recent success might have inspired, he was doubtful for a 

 time of accepting it; but eventually he did so, and it was 

 arranged that the Witness should start at the beginning of 



