In no country in the world is the legal freedom of conscience more firmly
established than in Australia. All Churches and sects are absolutely
equal in the eyes of the State; and any attempt to upset this equality
would be resented, not only by the united forces of all the other
denominations, but even by a majority of the only two Churches--the Roman
and Anglican--who would ever dream of aiming at supremacy. But thorough
as is the repudiation by the great majority of the community of the
principles of State aid or control of religion, the two Churches which I
have just mentioned occasionally raise their voices against secular
education by the State, and make spasmodic appeals for State
contributions to their denominational schools, which, however little
likely to succeed, are not altogether without a rational foundation. But
this is the utmost limit which State recognition, or rather the cry for
it, is ever likely to reach.
In times past the Church of England has struggled to regain the position
she formerly held in the older colonies; but now whatever efforts she
makes in that direction are confined to the ambition of being _prima
inter pares_--a position which is vigorously and even bitterly attacked
by the other Protestant sects whenever she either tries to assert it or
has it thrust upon her. These ex-Dissenters have a lively remembrance of
the yoke they endured in the old country, and even now that the spirit of
supremacy has so completely died out, they spring up to do battle against
any formality that recalls it to them. Thus, a few years ago the whole
colony of South Australia was convulsed on the question of the Bishop's
right to follow the Governor and precede the Chief Justice at official
ceremonies, and peace amongst the devout was only restored by the
Bishop's graceful relinquishment of a position to which his legal right
was undeniable. Even now the title 'My Lord' as applied to Bishops acts
as a red rag on many ex-Dissenting bulls, and they are as jealous of the
slightest official preference of the Church of England as if their
dearest religious liberties were therein involved.
Legal and even official equality do not, however, always mean social
equality; and the Church still retains a superior social position, a
shadow of her departed State authority, which to some of her old
competitors--especially the Congregationalists, Baptists, and
Wesleyans--is the more galling because they are totally destitute of the
means of assailing it. Happily, through the wise conduct of the Bishops
of Adelaide and Melbourne in meeting ministers of other denominations on
a common platform, whenever the cause of Christianity or of good and
right in any way can be served thereby, and in showing sympathy with them
in a multitude of ways, this unreasonable jealousy is losing ground and a
better feeling springing up; but there are yet too many colonists that
have felt the disabilities of Dissent in the old country who are unable
to put on the armour of forgiveness, or rather of forgetfulness in the
new. The enemy has lost his sting, but they will not allow him to live on
the remembrance of his past greatness without a reminder of his present
impotence.
This impotence is in all ways, except socially, a certain reality; for
while the ex-Dissenting bodies have thriven and waxed numerous and
powerful upon the bread of independence, the Church has languished for
want of her accustomed prop. Accustomed, not only to support their own
ministers, but also to pay tithes and Church-rates for the benefit of
their rival, the ex-Dissenters have simultaneously had their burden
lightened and, for the most part, their incomes increased by the change
of country. Besides this, they have to a certain extent felt themselves
put upon their mettle to show their superiority to their old master, and
thus they have put their best foot foremost, with the good result which
always attends such efforts. Their ministers, better paid, and holding a
higher social position than in England, have naturally become a superior
class of men as a whole to those in the old country. Every day they are
advancing, towards a higher standard of education and manners. Nor has
the gain in education and position been accompanied by, as far as I can
see, any loss in earnestness or deterioration in work. No one sect is
sufficiently preponderant to admit of that.
The friendly competition between them has been beneficial to them all;
and, in spite of rivalry, the spirit of toleration between Protestant
sects is thoroughly observed. Unfortunately, this toleration is not
extended to the Roman Catholics. Their doctrines are so directly in
opposition to the prevailing democratic and Protestant spirit of the
community, that they have come to be regarded as Ishmaelites, if not as
Amalekites, occupying ground which ought to belong to the faithful. An
Anti-Popery cry would at any time command success; and numerous and
influential as the Catholics are, directly they begin to assert their
influence all the other religious bodies unite to counteract, and end by
suppressing it. For a spice of intolerance in this respect, and for a
general Philistinism in its views on all subjects, Australia is indebted
to the middle-class Protestant sects, who form the most important element
in the community; but to them also, in a large measure, it owes its
political and social stability, and all those standard moral qualities
which are the only safe foundation for a superstructure of intellect.
Because I have spoken so warmly of the good influence which the
ex-Dissenting or Protestant sects have exercised in Australia, it must
not be supposed that the Church has been altogether a laggard. Probably
no section of the English clergy has worked harder and more manfully than
that which has been stationed in Australia. It is no fault of theirs if
their sphere has been limited and their good influence less effective
than that of their rivals. But they have been labouring under the
misfortune of being unsuited to the people and circumstances amongst whom
and which they live and work. Their sphere has lain almost entirely
amongst the upper and lower classes, and it is neither of these that
governs Australia. Where they came into contact with the middle class,
the power in the land, they have been placed in the position of the round
man in the square hole. The men of the middle class have asserted their
social equality to, if not their superiority over, their clergy; and this
an English gentleman finds difficulty in admitting, still more one who
considers himself the minister of God to the people, rather than of the
people to God. The Thirty-nine Articles do not admit of his recognising
the orders of his nonconformist brethren as equal to his own, and this
has been set down to pride. Altogether, the Anglican clergyman has been
put in a false position, to extricate him from which is taxing all the
tact of so politic a prelate as Bishop Moorhouse.
The habit of paying no direct stipend to their clergymen in England has
led to a reluctance to contribute good salaries for their support out
here, where they must rely solely upon such support; and the lowness of
salaries, if not the hardness of the work, has made the Anglican clergy
in Australia as a class inferior to their English brethren. Of course the
clergy still contains a large proportion of gentlemen within its ranks,
but on the score of ability I fancy the ex-Dissenters have the advantage.
Recognising this, Bishop Moorhouse is endeavouring both to shame
Churchmen into raising the stipend of their clergy, and to procure for
the congregations not only English gentlemen, but as far as possible
hard-working, practical, broad-minded men. He has a difficult task before
him, for already there are plenty of colonial clergymen who are either
inferior to nonconformist ministers in cultivation, or stubborn adherents
to a _régime_ which is impossible in Australia. These weeds must be
pulled out before you can sow fresh seed; and yet it is hard to call men
weeds who are serving the Church according to the best of their lights,
faithful, hard-working men, or conservative old gentlemen, who are doing
or have done a great deal of good work, and whose failings cannot be
attributed to any fault for which you can morally reproach them.
The Church is slow to adapt itself to colonial life. Amongst a
preponderating lower middle-class element Nonconformity, or rather what
is better known as Protestantism, is very popular. Low Churchmen find
they can get a better sermon at the chapel, and can be hail-fellow-well-met
with their pastor in these extraneous denominations. Thus the Church
loses many of its former adherents, and while Anglicanism still remains
the religion of the upper class, it can in no way pretend to be that of
even a majority of the community.
The Roman Catholics are on a different footing. For them no compromise is
possible, and they cannot as Roman Catholics but be a state within a
state. From time to time the priesthood incites them to aspire to
political power, but hitherto none of these aspirations have borne
practical effect, except in strengthening the hands of their adversaries.
At present they are agitating more or less vehemently in each colony for
State support to be given to their schools, declaring that it is
monstrous that they should be made to pay for a secular education of
which their religion prevents them from taking advantage.
At first a section of the Anglican party, comprising nearly all the
clergy, joined in this cry, but it became so evident that the bulk of the
population was determined not to return to the old system, that they are
beginning to desert the Catholics, and are now more wisely and with
better chance of success attempting to amalgamate with the other
Protestant bodies to obtain the admission into the State schools of
religious teaching on a broad Protestant basis; i.e., of all the
doctrines which are held in common by all Protestant denominations
(except the Unitarians), to the exclusion of all doctrines on which the
different sects differ. The bulk of the Dissenters are, I fancy,
indifferent to any junction with the Church of England, and would just as
soon have no religious teaching as what they call a 'pithless jelly-fish'
religious teaching. But on this point I think public opinion is
undergoing a change, and the formation of a Protestant party probable.
The Catholics would consider such a concession as infinitely worse than
the existing purely secular system. The omission of true doctrine would,
as regards them, amount to an assertion of false; and on their side in
opposing the Protestant party will be the Jews, the Freethinkers, and a
large number who would rather have no religious teaching than any quarrel
over it, and who are fairly satisfied with the existing state of things.
If the Protestants ever become strong enough to win the day, it can only
be at the expense of establishing a Catholic grievance so strong as to be
exceedingly dangerous. The fact that all parties are now out in the cold,
satisfies a rough-and-ready conception of justice with which the
politician has always to reckon, but that all the Protestants should get
a concession, of which it is impossible for the Catholics to avail
themselves, would be manifestly unfair. Political expediency and justice
seem to be alike against the claims of the Protestant party, unless it be
resolved to grant aid to Roman Catholics and Jews only, which is a
possible, though not very consistent, solution of the question.
Ritualism is unknown, though the word is often applied to the one or two
High-Church services in the capitals where the choirs wear surplices, or,
worse still, where there are candles on the altar--a word which is almost
as much objected to as priest. Broad and Low are decidedly the prevailing
phases of Churchmanship, and every year the Broad is gaining upon the
Low; the Low element consisting of those who were brought up in England,
the Broad of the generation which has been born in the country. As this
begins to predominate, the barriers between the Anglican Church and the
other Protestant denominations will be lowered, and in course of time the
differences between them will be reduced to preference in the mode of
conducting service. The first step towards this was taken by the Bishop
of Melbourne some two years ago in forming the Pastoral Aid Society, the
object of which is to provide religious services in outlying districts in
the bush, where there are not sufficient settlers of either the
Episcopalian or Presbyterian Churches to make it possible to supply a
minister of either. The Society arranges that services should be held in
these districts alternately, according to the rites of each Church, and
that they should be visited alternately by ministers of each.
This system has proved of enormous value in keeping religion alive in the
bush, and paved the way for an experiment not long ago in Melbourne
itself, which has met with such general approval, that it may be said to
mark the commencement of a new era in the Church of England, and even in
ecclesiastical history. With the consent of the Bishop and of his
church-wardens, Canon Bromby invited a Presbyterian minister--Rev. Chaos.
Strong-to read the service and preach in St. Paul's Church, he himself
taking Mr. Strong's pulpit. This precedent is certain to be largely
followed; and it is easy to see that the courtesy which is extended to
Presbyterian ministers will before long be extended to those of the other
Protestant denominations, and that exchanges of pulpits between them all
will become frequent.
Churches abound in every Australian city, especially in Adelaide, where
they are so numerous as to excite the ridicule of the less devout
Victorians. I forget how many there are; but, at any rate, they bear a
very small proportion to the public-houses, against which I think they
may fairly be pitted. Still, there are plenty of them; and no sinner will
easily be able to find an excuse for not going to church in the
non-representation of his particular sect. When I say 'churches,' I am
using the term in the official and colonial sense, for the word 'chapel'
stinks in the nostrils of a Dissenting community, and many of these
churches are not much bigger than an ordinary dining-room, and, having
been built for profane purposes, have no external odour of sanctity
beyond a black board, whereon you are informed, in gilt letters, that the
building belongs to whatever sect it does belong, and that Divine Service
is held there by the Rev. So-and-So at certain hours on the Sabbath. But
from this you must not suppose that the two older churches have a
monopoly of the religious buildings which can properly aspire to that
name.
For the most part, ecclesiastical architecture is rather a weak point
with these newly-confirmed religions; but in Melbourne, with the
exception of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, they possess far the finest
churches, and in Adelaide and Sydney their edifices are at least
imposing. The Roman Catholics., however, carry off the palm. In both
Melbourne and Sydney their cathedrals are of grand proportions. In all
three cities their other churches are large and lofty. The Anglicans have
small cathedrals at Sydney and Adelaide; but, in spite of their including
a majority of the wealthiest individuals in the colonies, they find a
great difficulty in raising money for building purposes.
As far as my experience goes--and I have 'sat under' the principal
ministers of each denomination in each town at least once--the preaching
is, for the most part, very poor. There are certainly two or three
exceptions; but 'what are they,' one is irreverently apt to exclaim,
'among so many?' The shallowness and often halting pace of these
discourses is doubtless due, in large measure, to the colonial love of
_extempore_ preaching. For sermons read out of a book public opinion of
all denominations in Australia has the greatest contempt. Like English
lower middle-class communities, again, they like a good pronounced type
of doctrine from the pulpit. The lower regions are popular; but most
successful is the denunciation of the people over the way who bow down to
wood and stone, and commit sundry other iniquities for which Protestants
are in no fear of being indicted.
As you notice a man's general appearance and manner before you can form
any idea of his character, so I have described churches and denominations
before entering seriously into the question of religion. If
Churchmen--who will probably form the majority of my readers--cannot but
be grieved at the picture I have drawn, of the condition of the
Australian Church, they may at least take comfort when I state that the
preponderating feeling of Australian cities is essentially Christian,
according to the received meaning of the word. The citizens are, for the
most part, of a distinctly religious turn of mind. They may not be,
and--except in Adelaide--are not, such good church-goers as at home; but
they have not drunk of the poison of infidelity, nor eaten of the sweets
of indifference. Amidst the distractions of colonial life this could
hardly have been the case, but for the Puritan origin of so many of the
more influential among them, and the healthy competition between the
various sects, as well as the freedom from State control and interference
already alluded to.
As in social matters Melbourne may be regarded as the extreme type of
Australia, so in religious matters Adelaide affords the easiest text to
preach upon. Essentially lower middle-class, Nonconformist and Radical in
its origin, South Australia might well claim the title of the New England
of the Antipodes. Even to the present day, it preserves signs and tokens
of the Principles on which it was founded: its progress having been the
gradual and healthy growth of a Pastoral and agricultural colony,
undisturbed by the forced marches of gold-mining. In Adelaide
middle-class respectability is too strong for larrikinism, and imparts a
far healthier social and moral tone than obtains in either Melbourne or
Sydney; but for these advantages the little town pays the small but
disagreeable price of Philistinism. Want of culture, Pharisees, and
narrow-mindedness find a more congenial home there than anywhere else in
Australia; but, to my mind, these are a cheap price to pay for the piety
and real goodness which they cloak.
The Adelaidian may be unpleasantly conceited and self-satisfied in
religious matters, but then he is kind and hospitable, religious and
moral, and not so sophisticated as the Victorian, who is probably a more
agreeable person superficially. Yet in neither Melbourne nor Sydney can
religion be said to be wanting. It is kept more in the background than in
Adelaide, and there is not so much of it as in the smaller town; but the
religious character of all three, taken either singly or together, will,
I think, compare favourably with that of any other modern city or cities.
Sabbatarianism is fast on the decline. The Sabbatarians are still noisy
and determined enough to keep the majority of our public libraries,
picture galleries, etc., closed on Sunday, but this is more from public
indifference on the subject than from any general feeling that they ought
to be shut. This becomes evident from a visit to the suburbs on a fine
Sunday. All the world and his wife in private carriages and buggies,
carts and omnibuses, even on Shanks's pony, come away for an airing; and
if the weather only allows of it, there are many of these holiday-makers
who make a day of it, leaving their homes early in the morning, with but
a few who return to evening service.
On the other hand, the Sunday is soberly kept. In the less strict
families music is allowed, but never cards or games of any kind. The man
who proposed such a thing in Adelaide would be _anathema maranatha_.
The general feeling, is, that the Sunday was made too wearisome in
England to be supportable in a common-sense community; and Sabbatarianism
is gradually losing ground day by day, as fast as the keeping up of
appearances will allow. There was a great outcry on one occasion because
the Governor of Victoria travelled on a Sunday; but this was rather
because there is a general feeling that unnecessary labour should as far
as possible be avoided on a Sunday, than from Sabbatarianism in the
ordinary sense of the word.
Morality has so long been connected with religion that it is difficult to
treat of the one without more or less trenching upon the province of the
other. But there still remains something to be said on this score. The
commandments which are most freely broken in Australia, are _par
excellence_ the third, and then the sixth, in its minor sense of crimes
of violence in general. Young Australia makes a specialty of swearing.
High and low, rich and poor, indulge themselves in bad language
luxuriantly; but it is amongst the rising generation that it reaches its
acme. The lower-class colonial swears as naturally as he talks. He
doesn't mean anything by it in particular; nor is it really an evil
outward and visible sign of the spiritual grace within him. On the
prevalence of larrikinism I wrote at length in a former epistle.
Drunkenness comes next on our list of vices. That Australians as a nation
are more drunken than Englishmen, I do not believe to be the fact; but
what is undeniable is, that there is a great deal of drunkenness amongst
those who may claim to be considered the upper classes here. An English
gentleman of the present day, whatever his other sins may be, does not
get drunk, because it is 'bad form,' if for no better reason. If in
Australia we were to exclude as 'outsiders' all the leading colonists who
are in the habit of intoxicating themselves--to say nothing of the chance
customers--'society' would dwindle down to nearly two-thirds its present
size. But there has been a very appreciable improvement in this respect
during the last half-dozen years, and the tone of public feeling on the
subject is gradually approximating to that of English society. The old
colonists are not of course expected to change their habits in their old
age, but with the young generation there is less tippling, and port,
sherry, and spirits are being replaced by claret.
Of drinking as apart from drunkenness I have already said enough. The
seventh commandment is one of those unpleasant subjects which one must
deal with, and which one would yet prefer to leave alone. Generally
speaking, one may say, that while our upper and lower classes are, if
anything, rather worse in their morals than in England, we make up for
the deficiency by a decided superiority amongst the middle--both
upper-middle and lower-middle--class. Conversation is perhaps coarser
here; but whatever may be the reality, the moral standard generally
accepted is superior to that of London. Such immorality as exists is
necessarily of a coarser and more brutal type. In Melbourne, especially,
the social sin is very obtrusive. Sydney has of late been acquiring an
unenviable notoriety for capital offences, and it is not advisable for
ladies to walk alone in the streets there at any time of the day. On the
other hand, in Adelaide no woman who does not give occasion for it need
ever fear that she will be accosted.
Larrikinism is certainly a troublesome phase to deal with; but burglaries
are exceedingly rare, and it may fairly be said, that life and property
are more secure in the Australian capitals than in any European towns of
the same size. As in all large cities, the scum or dregs of the
population gradually localizes itself, and thus becomes easier of
control, even though it may increase in amount. And here, Adelaide has an
advantage in being seven miles distant from its seaport, which naturally
retains a large portion of the noxious element. Melbourne has two
disadvantages, which tend to make it the sink of Australia--firstly in
its metropolitan character and central position, and secondly in the
admission of a large number of bad characters at the time of the
gold-diggings. Sydney, of course, retains traces of the old convict
element--an element, however, which must be acknowledged to have
contributed to the good as well as to the bad qualities which are
peculiar to New South Wales.