of the affair; but, from less to more, a faction was begotten, and
grew to head, and stirring among the inhabitants of the town, not
only with regard to the putting of new seats within the old walls,
but likewise as to the power of the magistrates to lay out any part
of the public funds in the reparation of the kirk; and the upshot
was, a contribution among certain malecontents, to enable Mr
Threeper to consult on all the points.

As in all similar cases, the parties applying for legal advice were
heartened into a plea by the opinion they got, and the town-council
was thrown into the greatest consternation by receiving notice that
the malecontents were going to extremities.

Two things I saw it was obligational on me to urge forward; the one
was to go on still with the reparations, and the other to contest
the law-suit, although some were for waiting in the first case till
the plea was settled, and in the second to make no defence, but to
give up our intention anent the new-seating. But I thought that, as
we had borrowed the money for the repairs, we should proceed; and I
had a vista that the contribution raised by the Smeddumites, as they
were caller, would run out, being from their own pockets, whereas we
fought with the public purse in our hand; and by dint of exhortation
to that effect, I carried the majority to go into my plan, which in
the end was most gratifying, for the kirk was in a manner made as
good as new, and the contributional stock of the Smeddumites was
entirely rookit by the lawyers, who would fain have them to form
another, assuring them that, no doubt, the legal point was in their
favour. But every body knows the uncertainty of a legal opinion;
and although the case was given up, for lack of a fund to carry it
on, there was a living ember of discontent left in its ashes, ready