A SUMMER RAMBLE AMONG THE HEBRIDES. 45 



aven the worst of times, if one look no higher ; and I, as I 

 had no opportunity of mixing in the contest, or of declaring 

 my views respecting it, might be regarded as an unpledged 

 man. But the principles of the Evangelical party were my 

 principles ; and it would have been consistent with neither 

 honour nor religion to have hung back in the day of battle, 

 and suffered the men with whom in heart I was at one to pay 

 the whole forfeit of our common quarrel So I attended the 

 Convocation, and pledged myself to stand or fall with my 

 brethren. On my return I called my people together, and 

 told them how the case stood, and that in May next I bade 

 fair to be a dependent for a home on the proprietor of Eigg. 

 And so they petitioned the proprietor that he might give me 

 leave to build a house among them, exactly the same sort 

 of favour granted to the Roman Catholics of the island. But 

 month after month passed, and they got no reply to their pe- 

 tition ; and I was left in suspense, not knowing whether I 

 was to have a home among them or no. I did feel the case 

 a somewhat hard one. The father of Dr MTherson of Eigg 

 had been, like myself, a humble Scotch minister ; and the 

 Doctor, however indifferent to his people's wishes in such a 

 matter, might have just thought that a man in his father s 

 station in life, with a wife and family dependent on him, was 

 placed by his silence in cruel circumstances of uncertainty. 

 Ere the Disruption took place, however, I came to know 

 pretty conclusively what I had to expect The Doctor's 

 factor came to Eigg, and, as I was informed, told the islanders 

 that it was not likely the Doctor would permit a third place 

 of worship on the island : the Roman Catholics had one, and 

 the Establishment had a kind of one, and there was to be no 

 more. The factor, an active messenger-at-arms, useful in rais- 

 ing rents in these parts, has always been understood to speak 

 the mind of his master ; but the congregation took heart in 

 the emergency, and sent off a second petition to Dr MTher- 



