entered upon the discharge of his episcopal functions. But what was the first object which met Bishop Broughton's eye on his arrival? A Roman Catholic Bishop with a numerous train of popish priests and catechists, sisters of charity, &c. The Right Rev. Dr. Polding had been advised, doubtless, that it was expedient that he should appear in New South Wales as the first Bishop, and accordingly, while Bishop Broughton was in England urging his fruitless remonstrances at the Colonial Office, he took his departure for the colony. But he went not alone at the very time that Bishop Broughton was refused assistance, Bishop Polding received it to the extent of his desire.

Can there remain any doubt, after these statements (and they are no more than a sample), that Romanism has been unduly fostered in New South Wales? And when we read the recent note of Lord John Russell on transportration, and found that none but Irish, i. e. Roman Catholic convicts, are for the future to be sent to that colony, can we come to any other conclusion than that in process of time it will become a Roman Catholic community? And then we should like to see how Sir Richard Bourke's "equitable footing" principle would act.

It is lamentable, however, to observe the highest of all human concerns thus dealt with by our expediency statesmen. In the case before us, one of the chief objects of concern, is the provision made for the support of the clergy, which is, as we have seen, awfully deficient.

We cannot conclude this part of our subject with the spirit-stirring and eloquent appeal of Mr. Justice Burton, in consequence of whose representations the two societies, before alluded to, have again come forward and liberally contributed to the establishment of a college in the neighbourhood of Sydney, for which the site has already been given by a pious individual. We recommend the whole to the attentive consideration of our readers.

Our remarks and extracts on this part of the subject have extended to so great a length, that we are obliged to treat more cursorily than we could wish the other important portion of Mr. Burton's statement. The religious education of the young, is only inferior to the religious instruction of the people in any community but in a community like New South Wales, where the temptations to vice and the examples of the vicious are so powerful and alluring, the religious education of the young becomes an object of increased importance. That the Government, therefore, should take an especial interest in the matter is not to be wondered at: the wonder would have been, had the ruling powers neglected to pay attention to it. We find accordingly that the State, confiding in the Clergy of the national Church

had, up to the date of Sir Richard Bourke's despatch, committed into their hands the almost exclusive direction of the education of the poor and destitute. They had likewise, to a considerable, though not sufficient extent, furnished the means for this purpose. On the whole, under the management of the Clergy and the Church and School Corporation, the schools for the education of the poor and destitute children were in a satisfactory state. No complaint was made by parents on account of the religious instruction afforded, nor was any dissatisfaction felt that the direction should be in the hands of the clergy. We must charge Sir Richard Bourke with the heavy guilt of having first unsettled men's minds in New South Wales on this point; and of having introduced religious dissension into the schools of that colony. Not satisfied with "laying the foundations of the public religion" in the colony, by his novel scheme of relieving it from the pressure of one Established Church, by calling into existence three Established Churches, it seems that he was desirous, likewise, of laying the foundations of public education on an equally novel principle. Taking for his example the system of education introduced, in a luckless hour, into Ireland by Lord Stanley, he proposed to apply it to New South Wales. He forgot, however, the different circumstances of the two communities. Lord Stanley's plan was founded on the principle the erroneous principle of getting such portions of the Bible read in schools as the Romish Priest would allow ; thereby conceding the priest's position, that the whole Bible was unfit for general perusal. Sir Richard Bourke's principle was to take away the Bible from those who had been accustomed to read it without restriction, and to substitute for the unmutilated word of God selected portions, in which no creed should be taught, no particular truth inculcated. In fact, Sir Richard committed the grievous sin—he would not even call it blunder— of endeavouring to deprive a Protestant community of what they prized equally with their daily bread. With this intent, he gave notice that, on a certain day, all Government aid would be withdrawn from the existing schools; and that new schools would be established in conformity with his plan, in which the religious instruction should be of such a nature, as while it professedly excluded religious creeds of every kind, should yield the very point for which the Romish Church had all along contended, and mutilate the Bible according to her wishes and designs. Here, however, Sir Richard Bourke was destined to encounter an opposition which he little expected. His local Act for un-churching the Church of England, had for its supporters all who departed from her doctrines: so far the despoiling Act was popular. But

there were religious communions in New South Wales who valued their Bible more highly than they prized any blow which the governor might strike against the Church. To the immortal honour of those communions, be it said, they buried at once their feelings of enmity and rivalry, and one and all, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Independents, (Socinians only excluded) gathered round Bishop Broughton, and fought the battle of Protestantism nobly and successfully. True, Sir Richard carried his measure through the council by an unfair and dishonourable artifice; and by taking advantage of a legal quibble, he deprived the Lord Bishop of his seat in that assembly, so that his lordship was obliged to appear there as a petitioner, where, of right, he should have been a judge.

The influence of the Bishop would, it was imagined, have had an effect upon the votes of the council: nor can we doubt that Sir Richard Bourke would have had considerable difficulty in carrying his measure had the Bishop been present in the Legislative Council. We do not think that one member at least would, one day, have been found making a speech out of doors, calling upon his hearers not to suffer themselves and their chidren to be deprived of their birthright, the Bible, and on another have come to the council and voted for that measure which would have deprived thousands for ever of that very birthright. We think that the presence of the Bishop, who would, in that case, have been a witness of both acts, would have deterred any man from such cringing and time-serving inconsistency. But be that as it may, the Bishop was excluded, the measure was passed, the money was voted, but the schools were not established! Sir Richard Bourke, to whom popularity was as essential as the air he breathed, dared not carry into effect his own matured measure. A lesson had been read to him which he would not easily forget; and he left New South Wales without "laying the foundations of public education" on his new and improved principle of discarding the Bible from its schools. We recommend our readers to notice particularly the whole proceeding as clearly narrated by Mr. Justice Burton, whose opinions on this important topic are as sound as his opinions on the subject of the Church, and may be of beneficial service to those who are now engaged in a somewhat similar contest with "liberal statesmen" in this country.

We are glad to be able to add that an attempt of Sir George Gipps, the present governor, to introduce the British and Foreign School system has likewise failed; so that in New South Wales the education of the youth of the Church of England at present remains under the influence of the Clergy of that

Church. But for how long? Let our readers judge from the principles avowed by the governor when that subject was under discussion in the council, and which will cause them as much surprise as we have felt in the perusal. Is this a governor, we ask, appointed by her Majesty's advisers? and are these principles in accordance with instructions from home?

"There is another subject on which I wish to say a few words. Upon looking round this table, I cannot help being struck by the fact, that there are thirteen members of one denomination of Christians, and only two others. I do not make these observations for the sake of inducing gentlemen to sacrifice their opinions for the purpose of shewing their generosity, but to remind the council that they sit, not as representatives of any particular sect, but as the guardians of the whole community. When I made this remark, a few days since, the Right Rev. Prelate said, that we are in no other position than that of Parliament-that there is no greater majority of members of the Church of England in this council than there is in the Houses of Lords and Commons. He was quite correct; but I draw a different conclusion from that fact to what his lordship does-I draw a caution from it, for of all the evils that now afflict the mother country, is there one that is not to be traced to this fact-cannot all the calamities, all the dissensions, all the differences, every thing that makes us moan for England, be traced, or are they not traceable to the fact, that the majority of the members of Parliament belong to one religious denomination, and have legislated to preserve the dominancy of that denomination? May God Almighty, I sincerely pray, so guide your minds as to avert this evil from this your rising land. This, gentlemen, comes much nearer to your feelings than mine. Soon after my arrival in this colony, I stated, in answer to one of the addresses presented to me, that I had a greater stake in this colony than lands or possessions, but it is not to be denied, gentlemen, that my interest is transitory-I am but a sojourner in the land, I shall not establish my posterity here. I have but one child, and him I hope to settle in the land of my fathers; but you are fathers, you may be termed the patriarchs of the land, and the interests of your children and your children's children may depend upon your vote this day, whether or not the system of religious equality so happily established shall be carried out, or whether this your adopted land shall be marred by the plague spots of religious dissension. I will now, gentlemen, take the sense of the council upon the first resolution."

We should give our readers a very inadequate idea of Mr. Justice Burton's work, did we not tell them, that it embraces the present state of religion and education in New South Wales in every light in which it can be viewed. We have a detached account of the number and stations of every minister of religion of every denomination, of the various congregations and communicants, of the districts which are unprovided with religious instructors, and of the probable wants of the colony in this respect,

for some years to come. We have, likewise, a full account of the different schools and their efficiency-of the institutions for the education of the higher and middling classes, of the colleges -for Sydney has its colleges, so called-and even of the private schools. There is no information which an emigrant can desire in this respect, which is not to be found in Mr. Burton's book; and when we consider the unquestioning confidence which may be placed in every, the minutest statements, we are assured that a more valuable work, as regards that colony, has not yet issued from the press.

As might have been expected from a gentleman in Mr. Justice Burton's station and religious principles, the condition of the convict population occupies a considerable share of his notice. There is an affecting, though painfully affecting picture of the religious destitution of Norfolk Island, the penal settlement of New South Wales; and a narrative of an atrocious conspiracy, the result, in some measure, of such destitution, which took place in that island-the guilty parties to which Mr. Burton had the painful task imposed upon him of trying and sentencing to death. It is a narrative full of horror, but of such intense interest that we could not shut the book until we had read the whole, though it harrowed up our feelings at every step. What will our readers say of a Government which allowed 1,200 adults, twice and thrice convicted felons, judged at each conviction worthy of death, to be confined on an island without a single minister of religion, without the semblance of the ordinances of Christianity! Yet such was Norfolk Island at the time of Mr. Justice Burton's melancholy visit, and such it might have continued to this moment but for that visit. A clergyman of the Church of England and two Roman Catholic priests have since been stationed there: the priests being two, on the true Romish principle, that, singly, they would be deprived of one of the rites of their Church, viz., the confessional.

The condition of the convicts in the gaols and that of roadgangs, is only less deplorable than those on Norfolk Island. The latter are seldom blessed with the presence of a minister of religion, and the former have only such attendance as the overburthened clergymen in Sydney and the other towns can give consistently with justice to their other duties. Mr. Burton has pleaded most earnestly and eloquently for this outcast population, both in his works and before the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. We trust that his representations will reach the proper quarter, and be taken into consideration by the Government, who alone can alleviate the evil.

Here, in the want of religious instruction, is to be placed