Death of Duaterra--Trials of Mr. Marsden in the Colony--Libel of
Philo-free--Letter to Rev. George Burder--To Dr. Mason
Good--Sympathy of his Friends in England--Congratulations of the
46th Regiment, and Mr. Marsden's acknowledgment--Letters of Lord
Gambier, Rev. C. Simeon, and Mrs. Fry.
It was not to be expected that a career of unbroken success and easy
triumph should crown the infant mission in New Zealand. Reverses and
delays were to be looked for; they were in the nature of the work
itself; and for such trials Mr. Marsden was prepared. But he had
scarcely arrived at Paramatta before he was involved in sharper
conflicts. No doubt they were a part of God's discipline of love: for if
Paul required "a thorn in the flesh" lest he "should be exalted above
measure," meaner disciples may surely expect to meet with stern rebuffs,
in their career of usefulness and honour; and they will even learn to
accept them with a thankful and a joyous heart.
The first discouragement was the death of Duaterra. Mr. Marsden had left
him sick; and four days after his departure he expired, surrounded by
his heathen countrymen, from whose superstitions, even to the last, he
was by no means free. "He appeared at this awful moment," Mr. Marsden
writes, describing his last interview, "not to know what to do. He
wished me to pray with him, which I did; but the superstitions of his
country had evidently a strong hold upon his mind; the priest was always
with him, night and day. Duaterra seemed at a loss where to repose his
afflicted mind; his views of the gospel were not sufficiently clear to
remove his superstitions; and at the same time he was happy to hear what
I had to say to him. What horrors do these poor people suffer when they
come to die!" His favourite wife, Dahoo, was inconsolable; and while
Shunghie and his near relatives cut themselves with knives till the
blood gushed out, she sought and found an opportunity to put a period to
her own life by hanging herself, at a short distance from the body of
her husband. None of the natives, not even her relatives, appeared
shocked or surprised. "Her mother," Mr. Kendall wrote, "wept while she
was composing the limbs of her daughter; but she applauded her
resolution, and the sacrifice which she had made for the man she so
tenderly loved. Her father observed her corpse without any apparent
concern. I could not discover a tear at the time it was brought before
him. Two of her brothers smiled on the occasion, and said, 'it was a
good thing at New Zealand.' It is common for women to act thus when
their husbands die; they think that they then go to them." Mr. Marsden,
for a time, was almost overwhelmed. "I could not but view Duaterra, as
he lay dying, with wonder and astonishment; and could scarcely bring
myself to believe that the Divine Goodness would remove from the earth a
man whose life appeared of such infinite importance to his country,
which was just emerging from barbarism and superstition. No doubt but he
had done his work and finished his appointed course, though I fondly
imagined he had only just begun his race. He was in the prime and vigour
of manhood: I judge his age to be about twenty-eight years. In
reflecting on this awful and mysterious event, I am led to exclaim, with
the apostle of the Gentiles, 'Oh the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his
ways past finding out!'"
He was indeed a noble specimen of human nature in its savage state. His
character was cast in the mould of heroes: at the very period of his
death, after ten years of as much privation, danger, and hardship as
nature could well bear, his courage was unsubdued, and his patriotism
and enterprise unabated. He told Mr. Marsden with an air of triumph, "I
have now introduced the cultivation of wheat into New Zealand; New
Zealand will become a great country; in two years more I shall be able
to export wheat to Port Jackson, in exchange for hoes, axes, spades, tea
and sugar." He had made arrangements for farming on a large scale, and
had formed his plan for building a new town, with regular streets, after
the European mode, on a beautiful situation which commanded a view of
the harbour and the adjacent country. "I accompanied him to the spot,"
says Mr. M.; "we examined the ground fixed on for the town, and the
situation where the church was to stand." Had he lived he would have
been the Ulysses of his Ithaca--perhaps its Alfred; and nothing in his
whole life gives us a juster idea of Mr. Marsden's sagacity and keen
perception than the fact of his singling out Duaterra, a sick and
apparently dying common sailor on shipboard, and training him to be a
powerful instrument, in God's hands, for the civilization of New
Zealand.
Other trials followed the death of Duaterra. Fresh wars broke out. One
hostile tribe encamped in sight of the mission premises, and, no longer
restrained by Mr. Marsden's presence, threatened, not indeed to expel
the missionaries, but to kill and eat them. For months together the
affrighted band kept watch night and day; their children were laid to
sleep in their cots dressed, to be ready for instant flight, and the
boat was always kept afloat, with its oars and sail in readiness. The
storm blew over, and they remained stedfast at their posts. Soon
afterwards, the Wesleyan Methodists established their important and
successful mission in the island, and the missionaries gained strength
from each other in society and mutual counsel. The first Wesleyan
missionary, the Rev. Samuel Leigh, was well known at Paramatta, and Mr.
Marsden viewed his labours with thankfulness and hope; but the reports
which reached him from time to time of the difficulties to which the
missions were exposed still added much to his anxieties.
And now a series of persecutions began, which, while they never cowed
his brave spirit, harassed and disturbed him more than those who were
acquainted only with the outward features of his strong, dauntless
character would have readily believed. It is greatly to his honour that
all the sufferings to which he was exposed--newspaper libels, official
misrepresentations, and personal abuse--arose immediately out of his
endeavours to raise the morals of the colony, and to protect the unhappy
women who came out as convicts, and were at that time exposed by most
iniquitous neglect to still further degradation.
Just before his departure for New Zealand, he had addressed an official
letter to the governor, calling his attention to the present state of
Paramatta and its neighbourhood, as far as it related to its public
morals and police, and especially with regard to the female convicts, of
whom upwards of one hundred and fifty, besides seventy children, were
employed in a government factory there, and whose condition, as far as
we can venture to describe it, may be gathered from the following
passage. The scene is painful; it is the dark side of our colonial
history; but those who will not listen to these recitals can know but
little of the obligations which society is under to such men as Howard
and Samuel Marsden, or to heroic women, such as Mrs. Fry. In his letter
to the governor he says:
"The number of women employed at the factory is one hundred and
fifty; they have seventy children. There is not any room in the
factory that can be called a bed-room for these women and children.
There are only two rooms, and these are both occupied as
workshops; they are over the jail, and are about eighty feet long
and twenty wide. In these rooms there are forty-six women daily
employed, twenty spinning wool upon the common wheel, and
twenty-six carding. There are also in them the warping-machine,
etc., belonging to the factory. These rooms are crowded all the
day, and at night such women sleep in them as are confined for
recent offences, amongst the wheels, wool, and cards, and a few
others, who have no means whatever of procuring a better abode.
The average number of women who sleep in the factory is about
thirty in the whole. Many of these women have little, and some no
bedding; they all sleep on the floor. There is not a candle or
bedstead belonging to the factory. I do not deem it either safe or
prudent that even thirty women should sleep in the factory, which
has been crowded all day with working people; the air must be bad
and contagious. Were the magistrate to compel even half the number
of women, with their children, to sleep in the factory which
belong to it, they could not exist. Not less than one hundred and
twenty women are at large in the night to sleep where they can."
He urges upon the governor the necessity of at least providing lodgings
in barracks for these poor creatures. "When I am called upon," he adds,
"in the hour of sickness and want to visit them in the general hospital,
or in the wretched hovels where they lodge, my mind is often oppressed
beyond measure at the sight of their sufferings.... And if their dreary
prospect beyond the grave be viewed in a religious light it far exceeds
in horror the utmost bounds of human imagination. As their minister I
must answer ere long at the bar of Divine justice for my duty to these
objects of vice and woe, and often feel inexpressible anguish of spirit,
in the moment of their approaching dissolution, on my own and their
account, and follow them to the grave with awful forebodings lest I
should be found at last to have neglected any part of my public duty as
their minister and magistrate, and by so doing contributed to their
eternal ruin. So powerful are these reflections at times that I envy the
situation of the most menial servant who is freed from this sacred and
solemn responsibility, namely, the care of immortal souls.... I am of
opinion that no clergyman was ever placed in so painful and trying a
situation as far as relates to the moral and religious state of the
people committed to his care. I see them devoted to vice, and infamy,
and extreme wretchedness while living, and when they come to die
suffering all the horror of mind and anguish of spirit that guilt can
possibly inspire, without the means of applying any remedy in either
case.... I humbly conceive it is incompatible with the character and
wish of the British nation that her own exiles should be exposed to
such privations and dangerous temptations, when she is daily feeding the
hungry, and clothing the naked, and receiving into her friendly, I may
add pious bosom, strangers whether savage or civilized of every nation
under heaven."
The governor courteously replied, acknowledging the receipt of his
letter; but no further steps were taken; and after waiting eighteen
months "without the most distant prospect of obtaining relief for the
female convicts from the colonial government," he sent a copy of his own
letter, with the governor's answer, to the British government at home.
By them it was submitted to a select committee of the House of Commons,
when, in 1819, the state of our jails came under the consideration of
parliament, and was afterwards printed in their report; Lord Bathurst,
the colonial secretary, having previously submitted it to Governor
Macquarie, requesting his opinion on the several matters it contained.
Great exasperation followed; it seemed for a time as if the whole
colony, with scarcely an exception, had risen as one man to crush the
principal chaplain, who alone had dared to expose its profligacy and to
check its abuses. The storm indeed had begun to mutter around his head
before Lord Bathurst's communication was received. The "Sydney Gazette,"
which was under the immediate control of the governor, was allowed to
publish from week to week the most scandalous libels upon his character.
At length, a letter appeared signed Philo-free, which Mr. Marsden
suspected, and at length discovered, to have been written by the
governor's secretary; it was aimed not merely against himself--this he
could have borne in silence--but against the conduct and the moral
character of the missionaries in the South Sea Islands, whose
reputation he felt it his duty at every hazard to protect. He therefore
appealed to the laws for shelter and redress, and two successive
verdicts justified the course he took. There were at the time many, even
of his warm friends, in England, who were almost disposed to blame him
for a too sensitive and litigious spirit. But when the whole case lay
before them, the wisest and the mildest men absolved him from the
charge, and heartily approved his conduct. In the place of any comments
of our own we will lay before the reader, in his own words, some of Mr.
Marsden's views upon the subject. They will see the principles by which
he was actuated, and they will learn with amazement how great the
difficulties with which the friends of missions have had to contend from
their own countrymen. The first letter is addressed to the Rev. George
Burder, and was read, as appears from the endorsement it bears, in the
committee of the London Missionary Society, July 10th, 1818, having been
received on the 25th of June.
"Paramatta, Dec. 9, 1817.
"REV. SIR,--I wrote to you very fully by Mr. Hassall, and informed
you what state I was in at that time. Since that period I have had
many hard struggles to maintain my ground. A very shameful attack
was made upon me and the missionaries in the South Sea Islands by
the governor's secretary, in an anonymous letter which he
published in the Sydney Gazette, and of which you are already
informed. Since my last I have brought the secretary to the
criminal bar for the libel. Every means were used to pervert
judgment that the cunning and art of certain persons could exert.
After three days' contest, I obtained a verdict against the
secretary. This was a matter of much joy to all who loved the
cause of religion, and also to the colony in general. The trouble,
anxiety, and expense of the trial were very great, as I had only
truth on my side. When I had got a verdict I hoped to enjoy a
little quiet, but the next Gazette in the report made of the
trial, being so false and scandalous, and casting such reflections
on me and my friends, I was compelled to appeal to Cæsar once
more; and last Tuesday the cause was heard before the supreme
court, when I obtained a verdict again. The supreme judge, Justice
Field, is a very upright man, and acted with great independence in
the cause. A verdict was given in my favour to the amount of
200_l._, with costs. The expense to the secretary will not be much
less than 500_l._ None can tell what I have suffered in my mind
for the last five years, on account of the missions, from the
opposition of those in power.
"I must request the Society to use their interest with the British
government to check those in authority here from exposing the
missionaries, and those connected with them, to the contempt of
the whole world by such scandalous anonymous publications as that
of which I complain. I have been very anxious to leave the colony
altogether, from the continual anxiety I have suffered, and the
opposition thrown in the way of every measure I have wished to
promote, for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ among the
heathen."
Yet he had, in truth, no ground for this despondency. St. Paul laid the
foundations of flourishing churches amidst "a great fight of
afflictions;" what wonder if one of the greatest of Protestant missions
in a later age should share in trials from which "the churches in
Macedonia and Achaia" were not exempt? The letter proceeds thus:
"I am very happy to inform you that all goes on well at the Islands,
notwithstanding the contests here. I have forwarded to you, by this
conveyance, all the letters; from them you will learn the affairs of the
missionaries: I hope all the brethren have joined them. Four thousand of
the natives can now read. I send you one of Pomare's letters to me. Mr.
John Eyre has translated it. You will see what the views of the king
are. He is now writing a dictionary of his own language, and one of the
chiefs is employed at the press. I am very sorry they did not meet the
king's wishes with regard to the printing press, and set it up at
Tahiti, where he lives; taking it away from him was unwise.... The main
work is done now, as far as respects the planting of the gospel. Their
native idols are burned in the fire, and many have 'tasted that the Lord
is gracious' amongst the inhabitants. They sing, and read, and pray, and
teach one another, so that there can be no fear that religion will be
lost in the Islands again. The work has evidently been of God, and he
will carry it on for his own glory. They will now also have their
vessel, by which means they can visit the different islands and Port
Jackson. I should wish much to see them turning their attention to
agriculture, etc., so as to induce habits of industry among the natives,
so that the natives of the Society Islands may rank with civilized
nations." The letter closes, after a minute detail of the affairs of
their missions, with an appeal, which, even at this distance of time,
must be read with pain, and which nothing short of mental agony would
have wrung from such a pen. "I rely with confidence on the Society for
their support and protection. Unless his Majesty's ministers will
interfere, I may expect similar attacks from the same quarter. If this
should be the case, it cannot be expected I should remain in the colony
to be ruined in my character, circumstances, and peace of mind. The last
seven years have been very dreadful. A solitary individual cannot
withstand the influence of those in power, armed with such a deadly
weapon as the public papers, and every other means of annoyance at their
command. I have written on the subject to Lord Bathurst....
"I remain, rev. Sir, yours affectionately,
"SAMUEL MARSDEN.
"To Rev. George Burder."
In the same strain he writes to his friend Dr. Mason Good, inclosing the
letter of Philo-free, and other documents. Amongst other threats,
representations to the archbishop and the bishop of London had been
muttered in the colony, with a view no doubt of inducing them to
withdraw him from his post. "Should you learn," he says, "that any
representations are made to the bishops, and you should deem it
necessary, I will thank you to send them the documents I have
transmitted, or any part of them, for their information. I should also
wish Mr. Wilberforce to be acquainted with them, if you will at any time
take the trouble to lay them before him." Then turning to brighter
objects, he has the following remarkable passage:
"With regard to New Zealand, I must refer you to the Rev. Josiah
Pratt, (secretary to the Church Missionary Society). Great
difficulties have opposed the establishment upon that island; but
I hope they will all be overcome in time. We have sent two young
men to England, as we think this will greatly tend to enlarge
their ideas, and prepare them for greater usefulness in their own
country. I have no doubt, but that New Zealand will soon become a
civilized nation. If I were inclined to become a prophet I should
say, that all the islands in the South Seas will afford an asylum
for thousands of Europeans hereafter, and New South Wales will
give laws to, and regulate, all their governments in the course of
time. The gospel, humanly speaking, could not be planted in the
South Sea Islands, unless our government had established a colony
in New South Wales. The British government had no view of this
kind when they first formed the colony. How mysterious are all the
ways of Divine Providence! yet may the Divine footsteps be traced,
if we mark attentively what is passing in the world. God, the
Governor of this world, orders all things according to his
infinite mind, and all things well."
He soon had reason to adopt a happier strain. The trial was severe, the
more so perhaps from the ardour of his own temperament, which, no doubt,
required the chastisement, which became in the highest sense a blessing
both to himself and others. Writing to the same friend, 3rd October,
1818, he says: "When I take a retrospect of all that has passed in this
colony since my return, I see, with wonder and gratitude, the Divine
goodness overruling the wills and affections of sinful men, and making
all things unite in promoting his glory. 'Philo-free' will not be
without its benefit to the great cause. Had this libel never appeared,
the character, constitution and object of the Church, and London
Missionary Societies would not have been known in this settlement for
many years to come; nor would they have gained the friends which they
will eventually do here."
Letters of congratulation flowed in rapidly, both on account of his
missionary exploits in New Zealand, and of his personal triumph in New
South Wales. We can afford only to give a specimen of each; the one to
show how the successes of the gospel thrilled English Christians with
joy in the infancy of missions; and the other to exhibit the warm
affection with which the great missionary leader of the southern seas
was regarded by his friends at home.
"From William Terry, Esq., "Hull, 7th May, 1817.
..."The account, you gave in your letter, as well as those sent
to the Church Missionary Society, which appeared in the
Missionary Register, were very gratifying to all who have at
heart the prosperity of Zion. I have felt peculiarly interested
in the journal of your voyage to New Zealand, and when at our
(St. John's) church the Old Hundredth Psalm was sung, I felt much
elevated in praise to our Almighty Saviour, that at the same
period of the year, and exactly two years before, you had been
enabled to proclaim the glad tidings of his salvation, and to
commence with the same divine song upon the heathen shores of New
Zealand. God grant that it may be the dawn of a brighter day:
that the Lord of all may be adored by all the uncivilized world;
that the Sun of righteousness may arise and go on to shine with
increasing and transforming light and influence upon them, and
upon all others who are yet sitting in darkness and in the shadow
of death! May he bless all human attempts to promote so glorious
a cause, and particularly your own zealous efforts; and may he,
for the sake of the same, continue, if it please him, your
valuable life for many years to come. I know, from the arduous
post which you occupy, that your time must be entirely filled up,
and that you can find very little leisure for a correspondent
like me, who can render you little or no service.... Our esteemed
friends, the Rev. Messrs. Dykes, Scott, Clarke, and Foster, are
all very well, being in mercy continued yet to this highly
favoured town. Mr. Scott has obtained the living of St.
Margaret's since the death of Mr. Barker, and has engaged an
excellent curate, a young man of high birth of the name of
Sibthorpe, who seems very faithful, and will, I hope, be
abundantly useful. May the Lord bless you and your young family
with all temporal and spiritual blessings! And may he bless and
direct all your zealous endeavours to promote his cause among the
heathen, and to spread the knowledge and saving influence of his
truth to all within your influence!"
Dr. Mason Good, writing on the subject of the libel, under the
date of April, 1818, says: "The triumph you have gained is indeed
complete ... persevere, then, my dear friend, in the same good
and great and magnanimous course. The eyes of the world are upon
you, and what is more, the eye of Him who governs the world, and
will never fail to give efficacy to his own instruments, and
ultimate success to his designs. To this time, however,
notwithstanding all the terrible threats that have been thrown
out against you, not a single syllable of complaint has arrived
from any one; do not therefore let your spirits fail. Depend upon
esteem and support at home, for your perseverance and manly
conduct have produced a very deep and popular sensation in every
quarter in which you would wish to stand well."
In addition to these gratifying testimonies from home, Mr. Marsden
received a public mark of approbation from the officers of the 46th
regiment, then stationed in the colony, who with a high and chivalrous
sense of what was due to one who single handed had so long maintained
the cause of truth and righteousness, stepped forward to offer their
tribute of respect. He replied as follows:--
"To Col. Molle and the officers of the 46th regiment.
"Paramatta, 16th Oct. 1818.
"GENTLEMEN,--I had the honour to receive your public letter under
date 14th May, 1818, and nothing could have given me more real
gratification than the very handsome manner in which you have
communicated your kind and friendly sentiments to me on the issue
of the trials I instituted against the author of the libel,
'Philo-free.' I beg, gentlemen, to return you my most grateful
acknowledgments for the honour you have done me, and to assure you
that this mark of your good will to me, in bearing your testimony
to my conduct, will ever be held in the highest estimation by me;
and I trust I shall retain to the latest moment of my life a
grateful sense of your favour to me as an individual, and at the
same time never forget the public service you rendered to this
colony from the time you landed to the day of your departure, by
your firmness and gentlemanly conduct, as British officers, and by
your good and prudent example as members of the community." After
these expressions of gratitude he turns aside to remark upon the
former condition of the colony, and the services which the 46th
regiment had rendered in the cause of virtue. Proud as this
regiment may justly be of honours won in far different scenes, it
will not, we are assured, nor will its countrymen, regard with
other feelings than those of high satisfaction, the following
tribute to its moral worth and character. May every regiment in
the British army deserve a similar eulogy from men who, like Job
of old, and we may add, like the chaplain of New South Wales,
'know not to give flattering titles.'
"When you first arrived in New South Wales every barrier against
licentiousness was broken down, every fence swept away. There were
a few, and but a few, who resolved to stand their ground, and
preserve that line of conduct which the wisest and best men
consider essential as marking the distinction between the good and
the evil."
And again: "Had you not arrived in New South Wales and acted the
honourable part you did, the few who were marked for future conquest
would not have been able to have stood out longer, but must have either
yielded to superior force, or have withdrawn from the colony. Some would
not have had strength of mind sufficient to have carried on a perpetual
warfare against such an unequal force, and thus would not have been able
to meet the expense of continued resistance. You just arrived in time to
turn the wavering balance, and to inspire the desponding with hopes."
A vote of thanks, in the most cordial terms, was also presented to him
at the anniversary meeting of the Church Missionary Society, at the
Freemasons' Tavern, in 1819. It would have been presented to the annual
meeting of the previous year, but it was a mark of respect which had
never yet been paid to any individual by the Society. "The
circumstances, however, which have lately transpired," so writes his
friend, Dr. Mason Good, who was a member of the committee, "the severe
and important battle you have fought, and the triumph you have so
gloriously achieved, have induced the Society to step out of their usual
routine on this occasion, and to show, not only to yourself, but to the
world at large, the full sense they entertain of the honourable and
upright part you have taken, and their unanimous determination to give
you all their support. I agree with you most fully that your contest has
not been a personal one, but that the important objects of the Society
have been at stake, and that the victory you have obtained is of more
importance to the cause of virtue, honour, and true religion, and more
especially to the cause of Christian missions in Australasia, than to
yourself."
We shall conclude our notice of these painful conflicts with two
letters, the one from Lord Gambier, the other from the venerable Simeon.
The former breathes the warm heart of a sailor and the mature wisdom of
an experienced Christian. And thus while British soldiers were ready to
acknowledge the integrity of Mr. Marsden, the navy, as represented by
one of her great heroes, stood forward likewise in his behalf.
"DEAR SIR,--I was happy to hear of your health and welfare by your
letters to me of the 22nd January and the 5th March, 1817, which
came to my hands in due time, though they were rather longer, I
believe, in their passage than is usual. I deeply lament with you
that your very zealous and arduous exertions to extend the kingdom
of our gracious Lord, and to diffuse the knowledge of the glorious
gospel of salvation among the inhabitants of the dark regions
around you, should meet with the spirit of opposition from the
persons in the colony whom you naturally would look to for
support and assistance. And very grievous indeed it is that you
should stand almost alone and single in a work of charity that
exceeds the praises of human language to express its excellence
and blessed effects upon the race of mankind. Mr. Pratt will have
informed you that a special meeting of the committee of the Church
Missionary Society was held last month for the sole purpose of
deliberating upon the communication you have made to him of the
state of the affairs of the Society, and the disgraceful letter
that appeared in the 'Sydney Gazette,' signed 'Philo-free.' The
result of the committee's consultation was, that your letters on
this subject should be referred to the consideration of the
vice-presidents of the Society, requesting them to take such
measures as they deemed most advisable to relieve you from the
distressing and painful situation in which you were placed. I had
the satisfaction of being present at the meeting of the
vice-presidents; the bishop of Gloucester and Mr. Wilberforce were
of the number. Mr. Pratt was also present, and as he will
communicate to you the judgment that we passed upon the occasion
it is unnecessary for me to add anything thereto; but I cannot
forbear to express to you the admiration I entertain of your
conduct, your zeal, perseverance, and unremitted exertions in the
blessed and glorious cause in which you are engaged. May our
gracious Lord be your shield; may his powerful arm protect you
against all your adversaries, and enable you to overcome them all
with the weapons of a Christian warfare, meekness, patience,
faith, and charity; and may he lay them all at your feet.! May his
grace be sufficient for you, and give you strength to go on as you
have done in his service, to the glory of his name and to the
salvation of the heathen nations around! You have achieved great
things in New Zealand. May the seed you have sown there be like
the grain of mustard, and grow to a large tree; and may you
finally receive the bright reward of your labours, and have that
blessing pronounced upon you, 'Well done, good and faithful
servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' There is a fine
field for missionary labours in New Zealand, and I anticipate the
happiest consequences to the race of men in that country from the
establishment you have made among them, and I think it very
probable that they will make more rapid progress in the knowledge
and practice of Christianity and civilization than any heathen
nation to whom the gospel has been preached. May you live to see
this verified!
"With cordial and earnest wishes for your health and prosperity, I
remain, dear Sir, with sincere regard,
"Your faithful and humble friend and servant,
"GAMBIER."
Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, wrote to him in the same strain of
encouragement:--
"Dec. 15, 1819.
"Last summer I was at Hull, and saw Mr. Scott and other of your
friends and relatives. It was a joy to me to see how ardent was
their love towards you. I commissioned Mrs. Scott to tell you, in
general terms, that your character and cause were duly appreciated
by the government and by the House of Commons. I take for granted
that Mr. Wilberforce has given you particulars. It was from him
that I was enabled to declare the general result.
"I am overwhelmed almost with work. Eleven volumes will be out in
the spring. The first six will make their appearance in less than
a month; it is of the same nature as my former work, though
distinct from it. It is on all the finest passages from Genesis to
Revelation. It is entitled 'Horæ Homileticæ,' as being homilies
for the assistance both of clergy and laity."
In this age of "reformatories," when the treatment of our prisoners has
become a popular question, it is impossible to read without deep
interest such letters as the following. Mr. Marsden had taken up the
cause of the degraded female prisoners in New South Wales. Mrs. Fry in
England hears of his benevolent exertions, and hastens to express her
joy; and thus she writes to the prison-philanthropist of the southern
world:--
"Mildred's Court, second month, 11th, 1820.
"RESPECTED FRIEND,--I have received thy letters, one sent by
Deputy-commissary-general Allan, and the other written some time
before, but only arrived within a day or two of each other. I am
sorry that I happened to be out when Deputy-commissary-general
Allan called, but I hope soon to see him, and to consult with him
as to the steps best to be taken to improve the condition of the
female convicts in New South Wales. Much influence has already
been used here, and the subject has been brought before the House
of Commons. I some time ago obtained a copy of thy letter to the
governor of New South Wales, and the information contained in it
has been much spread in this country, and it is quite my opinion
that some beneficial alterations will in time take place; but the
present parliament being so soon to be dissolved, owing to the
death of the king, I fear will retard their progress; but much is
doing in this country, and I trust that much is likely to be
done. Many of us are deeply interested in the welfare of the poor
convicts as to their situation here, and their voyage, and when
they arrive in Botany Bay. And if life and ability be granted us,
I trust that much will in time be accomplished; but all these
things require patience and perseverance, which I hope we shall be
endowed with, both here and on your side of the water. I am sorry
thou hast had so many trials and discouragements in filling thy
very important station, and I cannot help hoping and believing
that thy labours will prove not to be in vain; and even if thou
shouldst not fully see the fruit of thy labours, others, I trust,
will reap the advantage of them, so that the words of Scripture
may be verified, 'That both he that soweth and he that reapeth may
rejoice together.' I consider myself greatly obliged by thy
valuable communications, and I think it would be very desirable
that thou shouldst let us know exactly what sort of place is
wanted for the women, and what would be its probable expense, as
it would enable us more clearly to state what we wish for. And I
should think our government would give the necessary directions to
have the work done. I remain, etc., thy friend, ELIZABETH FRY."
Through such toils and conflicts our predecessors of the last generation
passed, before they could lay effectually the foundations of those great
principles of humanity and justice in the public mind, which are now
yielding their abundant fruit.