from his opposition to the
practice of all the chief persons in the colony making a profit by the
sale of spirits,[122]--or from his dislike of the New South Wales
Corps,--or from his own harsh and tyrannical conduct,--whether, in
short, we listen to Governor Bligh's admirers or enemies, thus much is
certain: he was excessively unpopular with a large and powerful party
of men in the settlement. Without entering into the particulars of the
extraordinary treatment to which his Majesty's representative in that
distant colony was subjected, it may be sufficient to state that, in
consequence of the imprisonment of Mr. Macarthur, an old officer, and a
rich and influential settler, great disturbance was excited, which ended
in the seizure of the governor's person, and in the occupation of his
office and authority by Major Johnston, the commanding officer of the
New South Wales Corps, who assumed the authority of lieutenant-governor
in January, 1808, and issued some proclamations ordering various changes
among those in authority. In one of these proclamations a day of
thanksgiving is appointed to be kept for the recent transactions; and in
the same precious document the Rev. Henry Fulton is suspended from
discharging his duty as chaplain to the colony,[123] because, whatever
may have been the faults of his former life,[124] like most other
clergymen of the Church of England, on most other occasions, he had at
this time stood fast to his loyalty.

[122] Still later the following evidence was given upon a trial: "The
governor, _clergy_, officers, civil and military, all ranks and
descriptions of people bartered spirits when I left Sydney,--in May,
1810." What a handle do such practices give to those that love to
"despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities."--_Jude_ 8.

[123] Here is an example of the need of a bishop in every colony of any
size or importance. What right or power had a usurping military officer
to suspend from clerical duties _one_ of the _two_ or _three_ clergymen
who were then in the settlement, and that without any crime alleged, any
trial, or proof of his misdemeanour? Would not a bishop, to stand
between the mighty major and the poor chaplain on this occasion, have
been a guardian of "civil and religious liberty?"

[124] Respecting these, see the assertions in Ullathorne's Reply to
Burton, page 6.

The confusion resulting from the seizure of the governor was lamentable
inde