CHAPTER IV 



IN EDINBURGH LAST YEARS 



1 In close fights a champion grim, 

 In camps a leader sage.' 



SCOTT. 



* WE have had,' says Dr. Guthrie in a letter dated 6th 

 September 1839, 'a meeting about our newspaper. 

 Miller, I may say, is engaged, and will be here, I ex- 

 pect, in the course of two or three weeks. His salary 

 is to begin with 200, and mount with the profits of 

 the paper. I think this too little, but I have no doubt 

 to see it double that sum in a year or two Johnstone 

 to be the publisher, we advancing ^1000, and he will 

 need other two. I am down with Brown, Candlish, and 

 Cunningham for ^25 each. A few individuals only 

 have as yet been applied to, and already ;6oo of the 

 ;iooo has been subscribed.' His household he left 

 behind him in Cromarty for the time, and he lodged in 

 St. Patrick Square. Fortunate was it for the people that 

 at the right time its ear should have been caught by such 

 a writer, one whose voice in the arena was at once 

 recognised by the individuality of its tone. The Edin- 

 burgh press had long been held by the Moderate party, 



