ented him
with a testimonial, and an address most gratifying, amid the general
obloquy, and showing a feeling most honourable to themselves. Every one
who cared for the cause of virtue at home, especially Wilberforce,
Simeon, and Mrs. Fry, wrote encouraging letters to him; and Lord
Bathurst, on receiving a despatch from Macquarie, full of charges against
the chaplain as man, magistrate, and minister, sent out a commission of
inquiry, which, coming with fresh eyes from England, was horrified at the
abuses to which the Australian world was accustomed, found every word of
Mr. Marsden's perfectly justified, and at last extracted the following
confession from Colonel Macquarie: "The Governor admits that Mr.
Marsden's manner to him has been constantly civil and accommodating, and
that nothing in his manner could provoke the Governor's warmth. The
Governor admits his qualifications, his activity, and his unremitting
vigilance as a magistrate, and in society his cheerful disposition and
readiness to please." The report of this commission resulted, among
other more important consequences, in the unsolicited grant of 400 pounds
a year additional stipend to Mr. Marsden, "in consideration of his long,
laborious, and praiseworthy exertions in behalf of religion and
morality." This was only fitting compensation on the part of Government,
for the accusation of avarice had brought to light how many schools and
asylums, the proper work of the Government, had been built, and were
being maintained, out of the proceeds of the farm which had prospered so
excellently.

As long as Macquarie continued in office, Mr. Marsden was out of favour,
but Sir Thomas Brisbane, who came out in 1821, was friendly with him, and
knew his value, insisting on his returning to the bench of magistrates.
He did all he could to avoid it, till the judges and almost every one in
the colony so urged him to accept that he yielded; but in 1824 a case
occurred in which a rich and insolent culprit was severely punished by
the Paramatta bench, and contrived to raise such an outrageous storm that
Sir Thomas Brisbane, who, if better disposed, was more timid than his
predecessor, dismissed the whole five magistrates. The offender's wish
had been merely to overthrow Mr. Marsden, but this was found impossible.
The whole fury of the colony again rose against this fearless man, and
accusations absolutely absurd were trumped up. One was that he allowed
his windmill to work