e need of creeds and
catechisms in imparting religious instruction, nevertheless, as he
agreed entirely with them in the matter which was at issue,--the
propriety and necessity of using the Holy Scriptures in religious
teaching,--he complied with their request, presided at their meeting,
and signed their petition. He also presented a petition from himself on
the same subject; for the Government had so contrived to shuffle between
the Archdeacon and the Bishop, that Dr. Broughton, who had very recently
been consecrated, could, just at the time when the education scheme
was to have passed, claim a seat in the legislative council in neither
capacity. It so happened, that by an official neglect at the
Colonial-office in London, no patent, including the Bishop as a member,
had been forwarded to New South Wales; so when he reached Sydney, he
found himself excluded from his seat in the council during the whole
time in which this matter was under discussion there. The plan appeared
to be successful; 3,000_l._ was devoted towards establishing the new
scheme, and an honoured name, that of "National Schools," was pilfered,
and bestowed upon those that were projected in Sydney. But, in this
instance, high principle and popular feeling were united against the
Irish scheme; and as it began with a blunder at the Colonial-office, so
it proved to be little better than a blunder throughout. The schools
proposed were never established; and since that time the Roman Catholics
have made a different sort of attempt to gain educational power, by
obtaining separate sums for their own schools, and swamping the members
of the Church of England, under the honourable but much abused
appellation of Protestants, in the general quagmire of heresy and
schism. However, this second effort, which was made with the sanction
of the Government, was defeated chiefly (under Providence) by the zeal
and ability of the Bishop; and whoever is desirous of seeing a noble
specimen of clear reasoning and manly eloquence, will be gratified and
improved by reading the Bishop of Australia's speech upon the occasion
of this scheme having been proposed by Sir George Gipps in the
legislative council. Certainly, when we consider how admirably
Bishop Broughton demolished Sir George Gipps's scheme, we must own
that the tact was very acute,--or at least the _mistake_ rather
_suspicious_,--which shut him out of the legislative council when
Governor Bourke's plan was in agitation