ing. So, too, must the refusal, in
1841, of a piece of land for a site of a church and parsonage in the
wild district on the banks of the Morrumbidgee, containing 1,200 souls,
dispersed about over a very extensive range of country.

[216] See Bishop of Australia's Charge in 1841, p. 10.

[217] On November 9th, 1838, Sir G. Gipps wrote to Lord Glenelg, stating
that "he was happy to say there was no want in the colony of clergy of
_any denomination_!" It was only in December 1837 that the Bishop of
Australia had requested eighteen or nineteen _presbyters of the Church
of England_ for as many places as had actually complied with the
government rules, and not more than half the number had, in the interim,
been supplied.

Another example of similar conduct has occurred since the change of
ministry at home, which would, it might have been hoped, have infused a
better feeling into the colonial authorities. At the end of 1841, the
Bishop proposed to erect, in certain spots, small wooden churches, as
the only means of obtaining churches at all; trusting, that after these
had stood forty or fifty years, they might be replaced by buildings of
a higher and more lasting character. The average cost of these humble
little buildings was to be from 100_l._ to 120_l._; and they were
intended for very poor districts; but since the outlay did not amount
to 300_l._, the Government would give nothing, and no effort was made
to introduce a modification of the law (supposing that to have been
needful) in order to meet such cases. Instances to the same effect might
easily be multiplied. In New South Wales land is comparatively cheap,
and a horse is an indispensable necessary for a clergyman; but no part
of the government grant is allowed to be spent in purchasing more than
an acre for the site of a church, and half an acre for a house and
garden. "To extend the latter allowance to any quantity of land from
which an income might be derived, would increase the emoluments of the
minister, at the public expense, beyond what the Act contemplates;" so
the Bishop of Australia was assured by official authority in 1836. But
enough of these miserable instances of state-peddling in ecclesiastical
establishments. "There is no semblance," to use Mr. Gladstone's words,
"in any part of these arrangements, of a true and sound conception of
the conscientious functions of government in matters of religion."[218]
May we venture to hope that the