ordship landed June, 1843, and on 23rd of that month opened his
ministry in the words of St. Paul--"I am determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ." The venerable senior chaplain, on the 27th
of the same month, conducted the bishop to his throne; pronouncing the
words of inauguration--"I assign to thee this chair or see episcopal,
and place thee in the same, in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ." Twenty-one years before Dr. Bedford commenced his pastorate in
the same place; the first permanent ecclesiastical edifice erected in
Van Diemen's Land, and now known as the cathedral of St. David. Beside
the endowment of the diocese made by subscriptions contributed in
England, an act was passed giving the bishop a salary independent of the
estimates,--a distinction not enjoyed by other clergymen.

It would not be possible to invest with general interest the details of
ecclesiastical affairs. The relation of the churches with each other,
involving principles of colonial government, demand a transient notice.
The position of the episcopal church was anomalous and perplexing. The
forms of procedure were derived from its practice, where its supremacy
was established by law, and moderated by the crown. The patent of the
see gave the bishop authority to try and punish delinquents; but the
colonial law recognised no such tribunal as an ecclesiastical court, and
patents were no further valid than they were in harmony with local acts.
The governor could give ecclesiastical preferment to episcopal ministers
without the sanction of the see, and maintain a clergyman in defiance of
his bishop. For this ecclesiastical anomaly the growth of circumstances
required a remedy, and its discussion brought the bishop into collision
with a large section of his clergy, the governor, and with other
denominations. The bishop withdrew the license from certain clergymen
who had been charged with serious irregularities: these offences were
not investigated with the formalities usual in England; and the
clergymen dismissed questioned the legality of their deposition. One
appealed to the supreme court, but the judges held that the withdrawment
of a license was within the province of the bishop; another obtained his
salary from the treasury, the governor having refused to recognise the
revocation. These proceedings were differently viewed by the episcopal
clergy. Some, in the neighborhood of Hobart Town, remonstrated against
the power