Chapter 23

On the disruption of the church of Scotland the members of that church in Tasmania were involved in serious disputes, which terminated in the resignation of several of their clergy, and the formation of separate congregations. The free and residuary Assemblies opened a correspondence with the colonies, demanding to know to which part the colonial ministry adhered. The opinions of the local clergy were divided; but they concurred in a general expression of regard to the principle of church independence, and their satisfaction that they themselves enjoyed the liberty for which their brethren were obliged to contend,--thus leaving to inference their religious connection, and giving no ground to call in question the ecclesiastical status and revenues conferred by the church act. This answer was considered by the free church evasive; and its more ardent supporters on the spot pronounced the course of the local presbytery jesuitical and dishonest. They affirmed that the church of Scotland alone was entitled, by colonial law, to state support; and that the retention of its emoluments was a virtual adherence to its principles. This discussion has been extremely fertile of controversies; but the general reader would not be likely to enjoy them.

Should the reader infer from the record of ecclesiastical divisions that the colonial temper is intolerant, he would be greatly mistaken. The laity, often even the clergy, have given evidence of their charity in friendly sympathy and generous assistance. The rights of conscience are generally understood and respected; and although many are prepared to liberate the churches from dependence on the state, but few would desire to establish invidious distinctions. The tendency of colonial life is to annul the prejudices of European society, and to yield to every man the position which may be due to his talents and virtues. This feeling is, however, found compatible with religious predilections. One hundred clergymen, many wholly sustained by the people, labor to diffuse their views of Christianity in the various districts of the island; and the emigrant population are usually in attendance on their teaching. The census is an imperfect index of actual strength, the smaller sects exerting proportionately more influence. When the claims of prescriptive authority are finally exchanged for a reliance on moral power these discrepancies will disappear, and a vast apparatus, already supplied by the state and private zeal, will bring within reach of every colonial family some form of Christian doctrine. The tendency of small communities is not unfavorable to the progress of religious denominations. The only interruption to the monotony of life is found in the church: the only association which can be readily offered to strangers is provided by the religious bond. Opinion acts with increased power where the social inequalities are slight. Thus, in the United States of America every extravagance of sentiment is tolerated; but there a man of no religion is suspected, shunned, and left to solitude.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 204: _Lang's History of New South Wales_, vol. ii. p. 258.]

[Footnote 205: An organist of St. John's Church, Launceston, refused to play, and was sentenced to punishment; but was restored by the intercession of the clergyman.]

[Footnote 206: _Macarthur's New South Wales._]

[Footnote 207: "Sir George Murray maintained that this country was bound to provide the means of religious instruction for the people of our colonies: at the same time he begged to say, that so far from approving the maintenance of any exclusive system in the colonies, he thought any such system there, _bad_ and _dangerous_. He was of opinion that parties of all religious persuasions were equally entitled to support, and he deprecated the exclusive establishment there of any one church above all others."--_Parliamentary Debate_, July 13, 1832.]

[Footnote 208: 30th September, 1833.]

[Footnote 209: "I would also earnestly recommend that provision be made for the schools, in which the children of persons of different religious tenets may be instructed without distinction, on the plan now adopted in Ireland. The means of education being secured, I shall feel disposed to leave it to the voluntary contribution of the inhabitants to provide for churches and clergy. To aid all where the creeds are various seems impossible, and a partial distribution of the public funds appears nearly allied to injustice."--_Despatch of Sir Richard Bourke, respecting land in Port Phillip, October_, 1835.]

[Footnote 210: Despatch, November, 1835.]

[Footnote 211: Minute, 1836.]

[Footnote 212: _Rev. J. Lillie's Letter to Rev. W. Hutchins_, p. 13.]

[Footnote 213: Arthur's minute, 1833.]

[Footnote 214: "The whole of the objects which the congregation desired to maintain, are very clearly to be gathered from the second resolution, and these appeared to consist in maintaining their connexion with the church of Scotland by law established, and the control which belongs to ecclesiastical courts of the national establishment over the minister as well as the congregation; for it is evident that all grants are made to them as a part and parcel of the community of the _national church_ of Scotland _as by law established_: and it is only in that character that they have claims on the government, any more than the catholics, wesleyans, independents, or unitarians."--_True Colonist_, May 29, 1835.]

[Footnote 215: "Accordingly we find that the majority, if not all, the protesters are not members of the church of Scotland, being either burghers, anti-burghers, independents, or episcopalians, and as such opposed to the Scotish church."--_True Colonist_, May 29, 1835.]

[Footnote 216: "The assembly instructed the committee for the colonial churches to insist on the fair and full execution of the laws at present existing, and on the insertion in any new enactment for the government of the colonies, such clauses as will unequivocally place the churches in connexion with the church of Scotland on a footing as favorable with respect to holding property, receiving a share of government grants, and having their procedures in matters ecclesiastical carried out with as prompt effect, as are enjoyed by those branches of the church of England recognised in the same."--_Lillie's Letter_, p. 35.]

[Footnote 217: _Lillie's Letter to Rev. W. Hutchins_, p. 9.]

[Footnote 218: "I cannot see why the national legislature may not determine what will be the established church of the colony, with just as much propriety as it determines what shall be the prevailing law. A separate and integral part of an empire at large, can have no right to do this. As soon might a number of Cornish men insist upon their right to have introduced the peculiar laws and customs by which the mining operations of the county are regulated."--_Letter of Archdeacon Hutchins to Rev. J. Lillie._]

[Footnote 219: "But let me tell you, Scotland is not asleep to her rights and privileges: she is still the same independent dame she ever was.... The instant you touch her religion, or presume to put indignity or insult upon her venerable church, either at home or abroad--a church from whom she has received so many benefits, and who has grown old and grey headed in her service--her proud and independent spirit rises. She appeals to her _marriage_ contract--her articles of union; and if I mistake her not, she will sooner retire to her mountain freedom, and her 'single blessedness,' than consent to have them violated. _Nemo me impune lacesset_, is still Scotland's motto."--_Letter of Rev. J. Lillie to the Rev. W. Hutchins_, p. 18.]

[Footnote 220: _An Appeal to the Friends of the Church of England, in behalf of their Brethren._

The extreme difficulty may be inferred from the following:--"Fully agreeing with you as to the necessity of such an appointment (at Norfolk Island), I have used every endeavour to find a clergyman of the church of England, qualified for the office; but I regret to inform you that I have not been successful, and the archdeacon has been equally unfortunate. I have, therefore, felt it my duty to institute inquiries in other quarters."--_Lord Glenelg_, 1835.]

[Footnote 221: _Evidence before the House of Commons_, 1837.]

[Footnote 222: Excepting Dr. Browne and Rev. R. R. Davies.]

[Footnote 223: Lord J. Russell's despatch, 31st December, 1839.]

[Footnote 224: Finance Minute, 1845.]

SECTION III.

The education of the people, every where a question of difficulty, has been not less so in Tasmania. In the elder colony seminaries for the more opulent classes were projected at an early period. In 1825 the church and school association formed a boys' grammar-school. In '29, Dr. Lang, who had been at issue with the Anglican clergy on this as on other subjects, prevailed on the home government to authorise the loan of £5,000, to be repaid by Scotch mechanics, to be conveyed at Dr. Lang's risk, and employed in building a college. Prior to this date Dr. Lang had been concerned in the foundation of the Sydney College, of which the first stone was laid, but ecclesiastical difficulties prevented its vigorous encouragement. Vast controversies followed this revival of learning. The government voted considerable sums for the education of the settlers' sons; but the secretary of state objected to the expense, and ruled that the scholars did not belong to a class entitled to gratuitous instruction.[225]

In this colony Colonel Arthur had established a superior school (1834), under the governorship of official persons. The episcopal system was to rule: the children of others were eligible, provided they submitted to catechetical instruction. The plan of the school was suggested by Dr. Broughton, and was calculated on the idea of an ecclesiastical relation to the colony, which subsequent enactments disturbed. Colonel Arthur found serious obstacles in carrying out the scheme, and he suffered it to drop. The Rev. Mr. Rusden was nominated first master; but the question of religion was again fatal to its success: the school sunk into a private establishment.

The project of Colonel Arthur was succeeded by another more extensive in its aim. Sir John Franklin addressed Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, describing the religious elements of the colony, and requesting the arrangement of details for the future management of an establishment. The great difficulty was still the ecclesiastical relations of the settlers. Dr. Arnold suggested a double chaplaincy, and a religious education rather than a merely secular system; and recommended that the head master should be permitted to take orders. Mr. G. P. Gell, of Cambridge University, was nominated principal.

In 1840, the legislative council sanctioned the establishment of a college and the erection of buildings. The cost was variously estimated from £12,000. The Queen's school, intended to be afterwards a preparatory institution, was first formed. The denominational leaning of the college awakened considerable opposition. The Roman catholic vicar-general declared that the authorised version of the scriptures was a mutilation, and compiled to suit the views of the translators; that catholics could not pray with protestants; and urged other objections, not new to theologians, but which appeared outrageous to a colony accustomed to a liberal intercourse. The presbyterians prayed for religious equality, and other sects joined in the general aversion to an episcopal institution at the public cost.

The government, by the advice of Mr. Gell and the archdeacon, selected New Norfolk as the college site. On the 6th of November, 1840, the foundation-stone was laid by Sir John Franklin, assisted by the members of council and heads of departments, and by Captains Ross and Crozier, of the antarctic expedition. "The college was dedicated to Christ,--intended to train up Christian youth in the faith as well as the learning of Christian gentlemen."[226] The night following the ceremony, thieves overturned the foundation, and stole the inscription and the coins. But difficulties more fatal beset the institution. The pride of equality and the ambition of pre-eminence, not less than tenderness of conscience on either side, prevented a compromise. In private life concessions are found compatible with the utmost zeal, but the rivalry of churches has never been adjusted. The Queen's school, the pilot institution, was not more successful. At an expense of £1000 per annum twenty-three scholars (1843), for the most part children of government officers and opulent shopkeepers, were educated. The institution was broken up by Sir E. Wilmot; and a petition, signed by great numbers, requested the erection of a school on a more comprehensive basis. This memorial being remitted to the secretary of state, Lord Stanley replied (1846) that, when established, a proprietary school would receive from the crown whatever assistance the public resources might justify. The direct interference of the government in the education of the higher classes thus terminated.

The schools for the working classes were originally controlled by the government. Mr. P. A. Mulgrave, many years chairman of quarter sessions, arrived with the appointment of superintendent. This office was, however, filled by the senior chaplain; and until 1838 the schools were exclusively episcopalian. The altered policy of the crown, in reference to religion, suggested a change in the organisation of the schools. A letter, written by Sir Wm. Herschell, was transmitted by Lord John Russell, detailing the system at the Cape of Good Hope, and recommending the British and Foreign system for colonial adoption. On this plan schools were established in 1838, subject to a board nominated by the crown. It was intended to comprehend all denominations. The clergy of the Anglican church were from the first hostile to comprehension. Archdeacon Hutchins demanded that if an exclusive system were no longer attainable, a fixed sum should be divided among the different denominations, to be expended in separate schools, in proportion to the money issued under the church act. The laity in general, however, did not object to the union of all sects on the plan proposed; and to the last the British system was supported by a considerable majority, including clergymen of every sect, both protestant and catholic.

In New South Wales an attempt was made to establish the Irish system, the school books of which were sanctioned by the chief prelates of the protestant and catholic churches in Ireland. The protestant bodies were, however, averse to the exclusion of the "entire scriptures," as a discreditable compromise, and met the project with decided resistance. A committee, of which one half were episcopalians, organised under the sanction of Bishop Broughton, called on the laity to exert themselves in the "holy cause"[227] of opposition to the project of Sir Richard Bourke; and they succeeded in its defeat: but when, after their victory, they met to collate their plans for further action, the meeting was abruptly terminated by Dr. Broughton, who declared that he could co-operate in no scheme not framed on the recognition of the episcopal catechism and clerical superintendence. Denominational schools were, therefore, established, and those abuses arose inseparable from a plan which makes men the assessors of their own pecuniary claims.

A committee of the legislative council recommended the establishment of a general system, on the plan of Lord Stanley (1844). They alleged that by the denominational system more than half were left uneducated, and that the thinness of population, the diversity of opinion, the inferior character of the schoolmasters, and the great expense compared with the benefit secured, enforced the importance of a general and comprehensive scheme. Sir George Gipps warmly seconded these opinions, but was compelled to yield to the strength of the opposition offered by the clergy, and which no concession short of ecclesiastical control was deemed sufficient to remove. The agitation of this subject for several years has lessened none of the difficulties which attended it, and it remains a vexed question for solution by future legislators.

When the British system was established in Van Diemen's Land, masters were sent out by Lord John Russell, at the colonial cost. The schools were, however, regarded with increasing aversion by the episcopal clergy. Messrs. Lock and Fry, the last a clergyman and the author of a work on apostolical succession, visited the schools to report on them. They saw, or thought they saw, laxity, sectarianism, and partiality; and they gave the results of their enquiries in a copious publication. On the arrival of the Right Rev. Dr. Nixon this book was placed in his hands. He petitioned to be heard by counsel against the British system. His request being granted, he delivered an earnest address, in which he not only opposed the principle of the school, but reiterated many of the statements of Messrs. Lock and Fry. The Board of Education had, however, forwarded minute contradictions to these allegations; and Governor Wilmot resolved to support the schools until, on a full consideration of the adverse testimony, the secretary of state should otherwise determine (1843). Lord Stanley recommended the appointment of a commission of enquiry, which was accordingly confided to three episcopalian laymen, who acquitted the schools of most of the imputations of their former visitors. But the seals of the colonial-office had fallen into the hands of Mr. Gladstone. This event was fatal to the British system. The scholastic minister professed to examine elaborately the principles of colonial and church education, and came to the conclusion that a scheme of biblical instruction, confided to various teachers of uncertain creeds, was too little for the churchmen, ought to be too much for the catholics, and could only be agreeable to independents. He argued that church teaching includes all that a church believes, and that its inculcation was necessary to meet the fair requirements of religious liberty. Acting on a suggestion in his despatch, Sir William Denison granted a fixed sum per head to the denominational schools, dissolved the board of education, and appointed as inspector the son of the illustrious Arnold.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 225: Lord Glenelg's despatch, 1836.]

[Footnote 226: _Sir J. Franklin's Narrative_, p. 77.]

[Footnote 227: Address of Committee.]

SECTION IV.

The claims of the churches on the treasury (1838) soon threatened the government with serious difficulties. It was resolved to increase the revenue by prohibiting colonial distillation. This trade had been often interrupted by the ordinances of the governors, but when the crown ceased to purchase wheat at a high fixed price it was deemed unfair to the farmer to restrict the local market for his produce. Duties were imposed, but they discriminated between sugar and cereals, and between colonial and imported grain. This distinction offered ample opportunity for evasion. The distillers employed these various articles at their own pleasure, and paid the lowest duty. Colonial spirits were sold as foreign; and the permits of the police-office covered the transit of quantities greater than they specified. From £5,000 to £7,000 were annually lost. The bill introduced to extinguish the trade was resisted by Mr. W. E. Lawrence and other leaders of the country party. They objected both to the suppression of a lawful trade and the injury inflicted on those who had embarked their capital. The government proposed to include in the bill a provision for the indemnity of the distillers, leaving its amount to be settled by a committee. To this Chief Justice Pedder strongly objected. The government was unwilling to entrust to a jury the claims of the distillers, as proposed by the chief justice; and, not wishing to delay the law, passed it without granting any security beyond admitting the equity of compensation.

The laxity of the distillation laws had enabled the manufacturers to realise double profits, by graduated duties, mostly paid under the lowest denomination. Their gains during the past could not be questioned; but Sir John Franklin was persuaded that it would be ridiculously profuse to pay an indemnity for the loss of profits rated by the success of an illicit trade. A resolution passed the council, "That any applicant having been proved, to the satisfaction of this council, to have been in the habit of distilling contrary to law, has, by such practice, destroyed any claim he might have otherwise had to compensation." To ascertain this fact a "feigned issue bill" was brought into the council. It simply referred the question of illegal distillation to the jury, without assessing their claims. The right of the distillers to compensation was, however, so indisputable, and the retrospective action of the bill so liable to objection, that it was generally opposed; and, by the dissent of the lawyers, the treasurer, with all the non-official members, rejected by the council. The attorney-general, Mr. Macdowell, impressed with its injustice, informed the governor that he could not support the bill; in this resolution he had been fortified by the strongly expressed opinions of his colleague, Mr. H. Jones, the solicitor-general, who denounced its principle as utterly iniquitous and unprecedented: but on the resignation of Mr. Macdowell, Mr. Jones accepted his place, and voted for the bill: defending his conduct by stating that he had expressed his former opinion in ignorance of its details. The public indignation was excited by this apparent perfidy, for which Mr. Jones atoned by a speedy resignation. The financial success of the suppression was mentioned by Sir John Franklin in exulting terms. The law is, however, regularly violated when grain is low. Private stills have supplied spirits more than usually deleterious; and the revenue has shown a decline. The rights of the distillers were recognised by the home government, and their unsettled claims, to the amount of £7,431, were paid in 1843.

The duty of a member of the government to support, at all events, the measures of his chief, was asserted by the secretary of state. If his conscience would not permit his acquiescence, he was expected to resign. Thus, while his oath bound him to advise, as a legislator, according to his convictions, his interest, as a public officer, compelled him to submit to the impulses of another. From this condition the chief justice was excepted,--a condition hard to an honorable man and unfair to the colony. However plausible the reasons for distinguishing between an official duty and a conscientious belief, public morality abhors them; and Mr. Macdowell is entitled to the colonial remembrance, as one among few who have refused to support a measure because unjust.

The extensive land sales, combined with the demand for labor (1840), induced Sir John Franklin to promote emigration. The impression was general that transportation to Van Diemen's Land would cease; such had been announced as the policy of the crown. A vessel was dispatched to Adelaide, where many were suffering severe distress. The New Zealand emigrants were also dissatisfied, and many found their way to colonies where wages were high. This course was inconvenient, and excited great indignation among employers in South Australia, who prevailed on the government to pass a law intended to check emigration to Van Diemen's Land.