66 FAMOUS SCOTS 



'"An' it's perfectly true, ilka word o't. They're nae 

 better o' the ae han' nor incendiaries, wan'erin' here an' 

 there to raise strife amo' peaceable fowk ; and syne their 

 harangues a clean perversion o' the constitutional law, 

 an' veelint abuse o' the institutions o' the countra." ' 



How many specimens of that style of 'calm and 

 temperate article ' were produced in the North, no one 

 with a recollection for either history or for humour need 

 recall at this hour. Somewhat later, Miller could say 

 in The Witness that in a few days he had clipped out of 

 the papers what he had seen written against such a man 

 of position and courtesy as Mr. Makgill Crichton of 

 Rankeilour in the course of a fortnight. It amounted 

 to eleven feet six inches when pieced together, and was 

 for the most part gross abuse and vulgar personalities. 



The hour, then, had come and the man. Miller 

 was invited to Edinburgh to meet the leaders of the 

 Evangelical party, and he was offered the position of 

 editor of the newspaper, which started its first issue on 

 January 15, 1840, appearing bi-weekly upon Wednes- 

 days and Saturdays. At the end of the bank's financial 

 year, he was presented by his fellow-townsmen with a 

 breakfast service of plate, and the presence of his uncle 

 Alexander was to Miller a circumstance of peculiar 

 satisfaction. In a few days later he was seated at 

 the editorial desk. For sixteen years he was with un- 

 diminished success to edit The Witness. But here we 

 pause. The conflict in which he was to engage calls for 

 a special chapter. The question has been approached 



