arge funds are provided by the
State for Church purposes, and where he is beyond the reach of the
public opinion of England, exercises a very great and irresponsible
authority. If a zealous man, of extreme views on points of doctrine,
the clergy of the diocese, looking to him alone for advancement in
their profession, are apt to echo his sentiments; and the wide folding
doors of our mother Church, which she flings open for the reception of
so many, to use Milton's words, 'brotherly dissimilitudes that are not
vastly disproportioned,' are contracted, to the exclusion, perchance,
of some whom it were desirable to retain in our communion. If, on the
other hand, he be a man of but moderate piety, ability, and firmness,
the importunity of friends at a distance, who may wish to provide for
dependents or connections, and other considerations which need not be
enumerated, may tempt him to lower the standard of ministerial
qualification, of which he is, of course, the sole judge. It requires
a person of much Christian principle, and singular moderation,
discretion, and tact, to administer powers of this nature well. I have
every hope that the bishop whom you have sent us will prove equal to
the task. For the sake of humanity and civilisation, as well as for
the interests of the island, I fervently trust that I may not be
disappointed in my expectations on this head.

The complex and thwarting currents of interest and opinion that may exist
in a colony respecting the maintenance of a State Church are well
illustrated in the following extracts:--

Very soon after I arrived here, I felt satisfied that the conflicts of
party in the colony would ere long assume a new character. I perceived
that the hostility to the proprietary interests, which was supposed to
actuate certain classes of persons who had much influence with the
peasantry, was on the decline. Should a state of quiescence prove
incompatible with the maintenance of their hold on their flocks,
analogy led me to anticipate that the Established Church would, in all
probability, become an object of attack.

Considering the facility with which the franchise may be acquired, it
is not a little remarkable that the constituency should have hitherto
increased so slowly. This phenomenon has not escaped the notice of the
opponents of the union of Church and