90 FAMOUS SCOTS 



The scene so often described had best be given in 

 Miller's own words, as at once affording a capital 

 specimen of his editorial style and as the work of 

 an eye-witness. We abridge from his leader of 

 May 20 : 



' The morning leve'e had been marked by an incident of 

 a somewhat extraordinary nature, and which history, though 

 in these days little disposed to mark prodigies and omens, 

 will scarce fail to record. The crowd in the Chamber of 

 Presence was very great, and there was, we believe, a con- 

 siderable degree of confusion and pressure in consequence. 

 Suddenly, whether brushed by some passer by, jostled 

 rudely aside, or merely affected by the tremor of the floor 

 communicated to the partitioning, a large portrait of 

 William the Third, that had held its place in Holyrood for 

 nearly a century and a half, dropped heavily from the walls. 

 " There," exclaimed a voice l from the crowd, " there goes 

 the Revolution Settlement." For hours before the meeting 

 of Assembly, the galleries of St. Andrew's Church, with the 

 space behind, railed off for the accommodation of office- 

 bearers, not members, were crowded to suffocation, and a 

 vast assemblage still continued to besiege the doors. . . . 

 The Moderator rose and addressed the House in a few 

 impressive sentences. There had been infringement, he 

 said, of the constitution of the Church, an infringement so 

 great, that they could not constitute the Assembly without 

 a violation of the Union between Church and State, as now 

 authoritatively defined and declared. He was, therefore, 

 compelled, he added, to protest against proceeding further, 



i The ' voice ' of this now famous utterance was William Howieson 

 Crauford, Esq. of Craufurdland. 



