might find
its excuse in a place like Hobart Town, where so many thousand souls,
the majority of them in a very unhealthy state, have been formerly left
in the charge of one pastor. But instead of praying the Lord of the
vineyard for more labourers, and endeavouring themselves to furnish the
means of supplying these, men have rushed, self-sent, or sent only by
others having no more authority than themselves, into the field of
pastoral labour. And while we lament the confusion that has ensued,
while we rejoice in whatever good may have resulted from unauthorized
preachers, we members of the Church of England are compelled by truth to
acknowledge, that, if other men have been led astray by their eagerness
and ignorance, we have been not less culpably misled by our slothfulness
and apathy. Accordingly the marks of our needless divisions are every
where manifest; and like the noxious weeds which sometimes hang about
the roots of a noble tree, so are these transplanted together with our
best institutions into our colonies. In the chief town of Tasmania are
to be found separate places of worship for Roman Catholics,
Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Independents.

[145] See Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 51.

[146] See Mr. M. Martin's Van Diemen's Land, p. 274.

[147] The following specimen of the evil art of stirring up the
discontent of those that are suffering under the dispensations of
Providence, is taken from an old newspaper, published in Hobart Town in
1835. It may be stated, that in the very same paper we are informed that
the drought had recently been so great that scarcely a cabbage, or any
other vegetable but potato, was to be obtained in the town. Of course
water was scarce, and precautions had been taken by the Governor to
preserve some at a place whence the shipping were supplied; but this
careful conduct of their ruler is thus held up to the abhorrence of
the people. "Why," it is asked, "do not the people drink the ditchwater
and be poisoned quietly; it is quite enough that their betters should
enjoy such a luxury as pure water." And how often in England do we see
this sort of trash printed by those _dealers in knowledge_, the
newspaper-writers, who sometimes argue as though all the credit of
prosperous occurrences belonged to the _people_ of a country, and all
the disgrace and responsibility of misfortunes and trials were to be put
off upon its _rulers_! How often are