o opposite boded no good from the measure
to the Church of England; and, certainly, from the strange way in which
this law has been carried into operation, so far as that communion is
concerned, the Government are not to be thanked for any favourable
results that have followed. Through the activity of the members of our
Church, both at home and in Australia, an increased supply of churches
and of clergy has indeed been obtained; but this has, in most instances,
literally been wrung from the ruling powers; while the only boon
that was freely given,--a most valuable boon, it is willingly
acknowledged,--was the appointment of a bishop instead of an archdeacon.
However, the value of the boon thus obtained was lessened by the
disregard shown by Government to the wants of the Church in Australia.
The Bishop returned from England, after his consecration in 1836,
_alone, without being accompanied by a single clergyman_, because, while
Roman Catholic priests and Presbyterian teachers were still eligible to
receive, and did receive, the aid of government, the Church of England
was to remain as it was, notwithstanding its pressing wants and
increasing numbers. All allowances towards the expense of the passage,
or residence, or means of support for any additional clergymen, were
refused. During five years, from 1832 to 1836, the number of chaplains
continued to be the same, except in 1833, when there were only fifteen
instead of sixteen in the estimates; and this was not because no
increase was needful,--for when an outfit of 150_l._, and a yearly
salary of 50_l._ were generously furnished to twenty clergymen by the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in consequence of the extreme
necessity of the case, every one of these were instantly employed. A
subscription, amounting to 3,000_l._ was at this time raised in England
in behalf of the Church in Australia, and when the Government perceived
that public opinion was awakened in its favour, and that they had
succeeded in giving their friends and supporters a tolerably good start,
they at length agreed, with the tact peculiar to them, to place the
Church of England (at least nominally) upon the same footing with the
two other "grand divisions of Christians."

[215] Bishop of Australia's Letter to the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, August 18, 1838.

Now, therefore, the same assistance in outfit, and the same amount of
salary proportioned to the numbers of the cong