ficer then comes to the fence, and reads part of the prayers, and that
takes, may be, about a quarter of an hour, and _that is all the religion
that we see_."[194]

[194] Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 260.

Urged by appeals like these, which no heart could well resist, Judge
Burton reprieved the convicted prisoners, until the whole case should
be laid before the government, and at least religious consolation and
assistance might be obtained for those who were to suffer capital
punishment. Eleven of the prisoners were afterwards executed, but not
without having been visited by ministers of religion, who were sent for
that express purpose from Sydney. The kind and christian judge exerted
himself in behalf of the outcast population of Norfolk Island, "that
modern Gomorrah," as it has been called; and, as usual, improvement in
bodily comforts or morals was much more willingly undertaken by those
in authority than spiritual reformation. His advice respecting the
propriety of diminishing the number of prisoners confined together
was speedily attended to. His efforts to procure religious reproof,
instruction, and consolation were not so soon successful; they were,
however, nobly continued, and at length both Protestant and Roman
Catholic chaplains were appointed to the island. But this great object
was not gained without _giving offence_. Strange that any party could
take offence at efforts of this description, and stranger still that
men professing a general regard for religion, and avowedly possessed
of consciences exquisitely tender, and of charity unbounded, should,
notwithstanding, object to the conscientious and charitable efforts in
the cause of religion of which we have just been speaking! However,
these impotent struggles have signally failed, and now there are clergy
both of the English and Roman Church in Norfolk Island, while the moral
condition of the prisoners there is stated to have improved greatly. In
1837 the Rev. Mr. Sharpe was removed thither, at his own request, from
Pitt Town in New South Wales, and his labours and ministrations are said
to have been useful and effectual. But even here, in this effort to save
some of Christ's lost sheep, the unhappy circumstances of our penal
colonies were manifested. When Mr. Sharpe was removed to Norfolk Island,
a larger and more important sphere of usefulness, his little parish
on the Hawkesbury, was for a time left without a pastor. And thi