ple of dispatch: the governor took the
chair, the report was read, the resolutions passed, and the meeting
dispersed within ten minutes. With such celerity were pious labors
finished in those days.
The erection of the archdeaconry in favour of the Rev. W. Scott, in
1824, was the result of his visit to the colonies, as secretary to
Commissioner Bigge, whose reports were attributed to his pen. His
alleged hostility to the emancipists excited resentment, and detracted
from his usefulness. When delivering his charge at Hobart Town, the
governor required the attendance of all officially connected with the
government, whatever their faith. New South Wales was within the diocese
of Calcutta, but the relation was nominal; yet the newspapers did not
think a visit from Bishop Wilson improbable.
The Rev. John Youl, formerly a missionary at Tahiti, was the chaplain of
Port Dalrymple. His labors were divided between George Town and
Launceston, and until his arrival no clergyman had ever visited the
northern districts of the island.[133] In 1819, he made a tour, and
baptised sixty-seven children, and married forty-one couple; many of
whom were recognised as such before his interposition.[134] He was
accustomed to call his congregation together by the sound of an iron
barrel, which was swung to a post, and struck by a mallet; or he
announced his arrival by walking through the settlement in his canonical
dress.
Launceston was destitute of a clerical resident until 1824, when Mr.
Youl returned with the establishment from George Town. The people were
sometimes weeks without a service, and three years without a clergyman.
Shortly after, during a visit of the governor, the church was crowded;
an event said to be unparalleled in the history of Launceston. The
church was a wooden building of small dimensions: sometimes occupied as
a court, sometimes as a temporary sleeping place for prisoners;
sometimes as a stable.[135]
The disposition of Mr. Youl was amiable, and his professional reputation
unblemished: placed in a station of little promise, he cultivated the
minds and affections of the young, and discountenanced vices he could
not extirpate.
The first Roman catholic priest established at Hobart Town, was the Rev.
Peter Connolly. Less polished than his protestant friend, Mr. Knopwood,
he was not less genial in his temper: the pastor of a people drawn
chiefly from the Irish peasantry, he well understood their character. He
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