the six days of creation as synonymous with six periods, and sublimed them into representative visions of the progress of creation. 'Rightly understood,' says Miller, speaking of Genesis, 'I know not a single truth that militates against the minutest or least prominent of its details.'
In the meantime, in 1845, 'The Witness' became the joint property of Miller and his business partner, Robert Fairby, and its sentiments henceforth diverged from those held by the leaders of the free church. In politics Miller was an 'old whig,' or independent liberal 'whig in principle, tory in feeling' and his political independence gave, in the words of the 'Scotsman,' 'dignity and character to the newspaper press of Scotland.' In education he supported the national, not the sectarian, view, and favoured no such narrow restriction of subjects as some of his co-religionists adopted, and in 'Thoughts on the Education Question' (1850) he outlined a scheme now substantially law. Conscious of the growing power of the masses he advocated, besides education, a moderate extension of the franchise, the abolition of entail, and the curtailment of the game laws. He exposed and denounced the Sutherlandshire clearings and the intolerant refusal of sites to the free church, but he countenanced no vision of clearing the proprietors. To chartism he was hostile, strikes he discouraged, and he accepted a poor law for Scotland with regret, deeming it to have been rendered necessary by the inefficiency of the old church administration of relief. Puritan in temper, he deemed Ireland in need of education and protestantism, and the grant to Maynooth he would gladly have seen converted into a grant to science.
In the words of Dr. John Brown, Miller was the 'inexorable taskmaster' of his own energies, and with characteristic tenacity he worked on at his newspaper or his books when he needed rest. The seeds of the 'stonemasons' disease' had been sown in his constitution in early manhood, and his frame was subsequently weakened by repeated attacks of inflammation of the lungs. Under the strain of bodily illness his intellect suddenly gave way, and on the night of 2 Dec. 1856 he died by his own hand.
Miller's features were rugged, but his calm, grey eyes and pleasing smile softened their austerity. His voice was gentle. Not mixing much in general society, he reckoned himself a working man to the end, but he carried himself with much natural stateliness. There is an early calotype by D. O. Hill, which though not very distinct in its lineaments, and certainly too aggressive in its expression, is more suggestive of Miller's strength of character than any other likeness. A portrait by Bonnar belongs to the family. A bust, by William Brodie, is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
Miller's chief works, other than those mentioned, are:
- 'The Whiggism of the Old School, as exemplified by the Past History and Present Position of the Church of Scotland,' 1839.
- 'Memoir of William Forsyth,' 1839.
- 'The Two Parties in the Church of Scotland exhibited as Missionary and Anti-missionary,' 1841.
- 'Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland; or the Traditional History of Cromarty,' 1850.
- 'The Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland,' 1854.
- 'Geology versus Astronomy; or the Conditions and the Periods; being a View of the Modifying Effects of Geologic Discovery on the Old Astronomic Inferences respecting the Plurality of Inhabited Worlds,' Glasgow [1855].
- 'Voices from the Rocks; or Proofs of the Existence of Man during the Paleozoic Period,' 1857.
- 'The Cruise of the Betsy; or a Summer Ramble among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides,' ed. by W. S. Symonds, 1858.
- 'Essays,' ed. by P. Bayne, 1862.
- 'Tales and Sketches,' ed. Mrs. Miller, 1863.
- 'Edinburgh and its Neighbourhood, Geological and Historical,' ed. by Mrs. Miller, 1864.
[Life and Letters of Hugh Miller by Peter Bayne, 1871; Miller's My Schools and Schoolmasters; personal knowledge.]
MILLER, JAMES (1706–1744), playwright, son of John Miller, rector of Compton Valence and Upcerne in Dorset, was born in 1706. He went to Wadham College, Oxford, in 1726, and was to have been bred to business, but entered holy orders. While at Oxford he wrote a satirical comedy, the 'Humours of Oxford,' by which he made many enemies. Some of the characters were thought to be designed for students and heads of the university. On leaving Oxford he was appointed to the lectureship of Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street, and made preacher of the private chapel, Roehampton, Surrey. The 'Humours of Oxford' had been successfully acted at Drury Lane 9 Jan. 1730, on the recommendation of Mrs. Oldfield (who took the part of Clarinda, with Wilks as Gainlove and Cibber as Ape-all), so he took to dramatic writing to enlarge his income (Genest, Account, iii. 250). But by this occupation Miller offended the bishop from whom he had expectations, and when soon afterwards he published a satirical poem in which a character appeared that was
