106 FAMOUS SCOTS 



was due that lamentable quarrel with Dr. Candlish 

 which he carried to his grave, and which perhaps 

 broke his heart, for he was what Lord Cockburn 

 had called their mutual friend Murray Dunlop, 'the 

 purest of all enthusiasts ' and though Miller triumphed 

 absolutely, yet it was not in human nature to forget 

 that the attack was, however sincere, an attack upon 

 cherished convictions. 



There can be, therefore, no good now in minimising 

 the fact that Dr. Candlish, in his zeal to secure a 

 political and tempting opportunity against the Tory 

 party, was led to enter on a quarrel with Miller. The 

 action really amounted to a motion of no confidence 

 in his editorial management. He proposed to cen- 

 tralise the Church press, and to secure the intrusion of 

 a sub-editor on the existing staff, and the conversion 

 of the paper into an explicit and active party organ. 

 But by this time Miller had become one of the pro- 

 prietors, by undertaking to pay back by instalments the 

 thousand pounds advanced by Johnstone to the sub- 

 scribers, with the interest, year by year, of the unpaid 

 portion till the whole debt should be extinguished. 

 The most objectionable feature was the proposal to 

 secure the services of some smart Parliament House 

 ' able editor.' The Witness had been accused of ' pre- 

 ferring Protestantism to Macaulay, and damaging 

 the elections.' In this was shown the cloven foot, for 

 it was an attempt to run the paper for the Whigs, and 

 to render it the organ of the legal lights of the Parlia- 



