146 FAMOUS SCOTS 



the work which he accomplished as a leader-writer and 

 as an exponent of popular rights we have the unhesitat- 

 ing estimate of Guthrie : ' The battle of Christ's rights 

 as Head of the Church, and of the people's rights as 

 members of the body of which He is the Head, was 

 fought and won in every town and a large number of 

 the parishes of Scotland, mainly by Hugh Miller, 

 through the columns of The Witness newspaper.' Of 

 it he himself, in the closing sentences of the Schools and 

 Schoolmasters, could say with modesty that it took its 

 place among our first-class Scottish newspapers, and 

 that it numbered among its subscribers a larger per- 

 centage of readers with a university education than any 

 other. Nor would he, perhaps, have considered it as 

 among the least of his journalistic successes that his 

 name and connection could win for the elder Bethune, 

 at the close of his wintry day, the proposed editorship 

 of the Dumfries Standard, which would have done 

 much to have brightened the life of his old fellow- 

 contributor to Wilson's Border Tales had not the poet 

 been removed before him by death. 



In science there are stars and stars, to borrow the 

 adage of Thackeray upon men. There are stars that 

 are fixed. In his own line of geology, as an inspira- 

 tionist, we think his name will not soon pass away. 

 There may be defects of knowledge, but there is no 

 defect of spirit ; and here we cannot do 'better than set 

 down the opinion of his friend, Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 who has a connection both with Miller and with 



