'I have been waiting for you at the inn for an hour past. Never mind! get in now.' The Laird in his gig had driven up during the negotiation with the proposed catechist. He now caught up Mr. Geddie, and left Joseph in the middle of the road to pursue his reflections. CHAPTER XXXII. _CHANGES_. Three weeks passed after the sitting of the Congregational Council which had agreed that there was a 'fama clamosa' in the parish. The Presbytery had sat with closed doors to consider the case. It had adjourned, and met again to further consider, decide, and order under the circumstances. Enquiry into the facts, and such like trifles, would come later, when the evidence for the prosecution was matured. Clearly there could be no defence until there was an indictment, a defence in its very nature being a reply; and until the thesis of accusation could be formulated, there was nothing to reply to. Wherefore Mr. Brown could not be heard either in person or through his friends at this early stage of the proceedings. Still he was suspected, though not formally accused; and, although he possessed the common right of all men to be deemed innocent till found guilty, he was by no means in the position of an innocent man. The immortal interests of the Free Church adherents in the Parish of Kilrundle were at stake, and could by no means be left for a single day exposed to the influence of a perhaps improper person. He had been notified to discontinue his duties till further notice, and another young man had been sent to fill his place, as well as (but these were his private instructions from the leaders and wire-pullers who guided the Presbytery's movements) to act as amateur detective in ferreting out evidence for the prosecution, which, singularly enough, was yet too defective to warrant bringing the case into court. There is no power like a democracy for precipitate and arbitrary action. The units composing it so fully realize their authority, and so like to exercise it; while, being many, and co-ordinate, they have little or no sense of individual responsibility. They propose, vote, and order, each in obedience to his individual whim or impulse, and imagine that they are doing great things; but it is the body corporate, the official abstraction, which is left to bear the blame when justice or policy miscarry. In this respect, if in no other, the one-man power has the advantage, the king or bishop is personally identified with each transaction of his reign, and when a failure occurs he feels himself personally discredited; he has therefore the strongest incentive to walk circumspectly, that he may not have hereafter to retrace his steps, while with popular assemblies, a reversal of policy or a change of front is immaterial, so long as the majority has its way.