li®il 
 
THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 From the Library 
 of the 
 
 Diocese of Springfield 
 Protestant Episcopal 
 
 Church 
 
 Presented 1917 
 
 B 
 
 T9934b 
 
I 
 
 » 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/lifelaboursofrigOObood 
 
THE LIFE AND LABOURS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RIGHT REV. WILLIAM TYRRELL, D.D. 
 
sjesrni jo kiuihm 
 
 3H1 30 
 
 AUVHan 3 HI 
 
! 
 
 ! 
 
 
THE LIFE AND LABOURS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Right Rev. William Tyrrell, d.d. 
 
 FIRST BISHOP OF NEWCASTLE , 
 
 NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. R. G. BOODLE, M.A. 
 
 VICAR OF CLOFORD, SOMERSET, 
 
 FORMERLY EXAMINING CHAPLAIN, AND CANON OF NEWCASTLE, 
 COMMISSARY OF THE LATE AND OF THE PRESENT BISHOP. 
 
 THE BISHOP’S HOUSE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 WELLS GARDNER, DARTON, & CO. 
 
 2 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. 
 
T9934--C- 
 
 TO MY BRETHREN 
 
 THE CLERGY AND LAITY 
 
 OF THE DIOCESE OF NEWCASTLE, NEW SOUTH WALES, 
 
 2Tf)i's ft! cnt oft 
 
 OF THEIR FIRST BISHOP, 
 
 WHO 
 
 FROM HIS CONSECRATION TO HIS DEATH 
 LOVED THEM, 
 
 AND GAVE ALL THAT HE HAD AND WAS FOR THEIR 
 SPIRITUAL GOOD, 
 
 IS, 
 
 WITH ALL AFFECTION AND RESPECT, 
 
 DEDICATED . 
 

 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 These pages have been written at the request of some who 
 worked with the devoted Bishop of whom they speak, and of 
 others who desired that some record should be preserved of 
 one, who through an Episcopate of thirty-one years remained 
 immovably at the distant post to which he had been called. 
 
 He gave himself so entirely to his own peculiar work, and 
 so studiously avoided public notoriety, that few in England 
 know his name. Yet all Churchmen should be interested in 
 the workings of the Colonial Church ; and Englishmen should 
 follow in heart those of their fellow-countrymen who have 
 gone out from among them to make a home in the far-off 
 regions of “ Greater Britain. ” 
 
 There is an especial interest in watching beginnings, in 
 observing how out of a state of chaos order gradually appears ; 
 how human civilisation and skill give form to brute matter, 
 and mould the elements of an infant nation : how the Church 
 of Christ comes on its blessed mission to leaven the worldly 
 mass, to subdue the evil, and transform and elevate those 
 who receive it. 
 
 In the work of the Church in a Colony there are espe- 
 cial difficulties, conflicts, failures. Schism — with its atten- 
 dant corruption of doctrine — pre eminently weakens the 
 power of the Church to convert the world, wastes energy,* 
 
 * In one township, well known to the writer, the Ministers of seven 
 differing bodies worked in, and pulled asunder, a population for which 
 two Clergy working together would have sufficed. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 and enables the State in legislating to eliminate Religion from 
 the work of Education. Then there is the paucity of Clergy 
 to do their work over an enormous area, and the still more 
 serious evil of the lack of devoted and steady men from 
 England to till up their ranks : while unfit men in some cases 
 contrive to obtain good testimonials, and are only found out 
 when they have done serious mischief to the cause of Christ. 
 
 Yet in the midst of all these difficulties, it is found that 
 wherever earnest and steady ivork is done on the lines of the 
 Church’s doctrine and fellowship, blessing and success seem 
 to be granted more perceptibly than in many an English 
 Parish. 
 
 When Bishop Tyrrell was called and appointed to his 
 newly-formed Diocese, transportation, with all its manifold 
 demoralisation, had only just ceased : the very work of 
 Colonisation in the Hunter River District was only twenty- 
 seven years old : the Clergy were very few in number, and 
 in by far the larger portion of the Diocese there were none : 
 no organisation existed : the haziness and error respecting 
 the Christian Faith, which were exhibited in England during 
 the Gorham case, were only intensified in the Colony. As to 
 the support of the Church, it was both insufficient and pre- 
 carious ; and no idea was entertained of the possibility of 
 its being maintained in any considerable degree by its own 
 members. 
 
 The task which lay before Bishop Tyrrell was, while learn- 
 ing the conditions of an entirely new state of things, to supply 
 some measure of Christian teaching and worship over an area 
 large enough to make many men sink back in hopelessness. 
 To procure Clergy ; establish and support Church Schools, 
 and provide teachers out of unpromising material; and at the 
 same time to maintain a constant struggle against Govern- 
 ment and Parliament in favour of Religious Education. To 
 promote the building of Churches, Parsonages, and Schools, 
 in all directions. To Educate the Laity in the duty of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 supporting tlieir Clergy, and erecting the buildings required. 
 To establish and maintain a Book Depot in some degree worthy 
 of the name. To lay the foundation of some endowment for 
 various Church purposes ; and, as time went on, to organise 
 a Diocesan Synod ; and take his part in the formation both 
 of a Provincial Synod for the Colony of New South Wales, 
 and a General Synod, embracing the Dioceses of the various 
 Colonies of Australia and Tasmania. 
 
 If besides this it is said that Bishop Tyrrell procured, and 
 by his purse aided, the subdivision of his Diocese, and the 
 formation out of it of the two Sees of Brisbane and Grafton- 
 and-Armidale, it will be acknowledged and felt that this was 
 work enough to be accomplished in one Episcopate. 
 
 With what restless energy, and with what measure of 
 success, all this was carried out, I have here attempted to give 
 some idea. I am very conscious with what imperfections — 
 easily perceivable by those who worked with him to the end 
 — I have realised my attempt. But at least I hope that those 
 who read this sketch will feel, that in the first Bishop of 
 Newcastle the Mother Church sent out from her bosom a 
 man, trained in one of her Public Schools and Universities, and 
 in the quiet work of her country Parishes, fitted by constant 
 yet unobtrusive self-denial, indomitable perseverance, a heart 
 full of love to God and man, and careful cultivation of his 
 powers of mind and body, to grapple with the difficulties of 
 laying the foundations of the Church in a distant land. 
 
 Of his life up to his call to the Episcopate only the most 
 scanty information has been obtainable. For the thirteen 
 years following I have drawn on my personal recollections 
 as his Examining Chaplain : and to the end of his life, 
 as one of his Commissaries in England, I received letters 
 from him almost monthly. In his letters, however, he was 
 not discursive, but kept very closely to the business in hand ; 
 so that there is little to be found in them of his opinions 
 respecting contemporary events and persons. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 viii 
 
 I must acknowledge most gratefully, on behalf of myself 
 and my readers, the assistance kindly given by the Secretary 
 and Officials of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 
 who placed one of their rooms and their correspondence at 
 my disposal. I have also the pleasure of expressing my 
 obligations to the Rev. W. H. Hoare, the Rev. Prebendary 
 Burney, the Venerable Archdeacon Child, Mrs. A. E. Selwyn, 
 and Miss Scott. 
 
 The Bishop’s letters to the Secretaries of the Newcastle 
 Church Society published with the Reports, and his annual 
 Addresses to his Diocesan Synod, have been of great value. 
 I have by no means exhausted them : they may still afford 
 useful material for a history of the formation and working of 
 Synods in the Australian Dioceses. 
 
 Cloford Vicarage, 
 
 April 6th , 1881. 
 
 st. james’s church, morpeth. 
 
ERR ATA . 
 
 Page 48, 4th line of note, for “ W. D read “ W. B.” 
 
 ,, 1 13, line I, for “leave ” read “ left.” 
 
 ,, 143, 1 8th line, for “promoted ” read “ promotes.” 
 
 ,, 143, 18th line, for “ remedied ” read “remedies.” 
 
 ,, 172, 13th line from bottom, before “ only ” given. 
 
 ,, 174, 2 1st line, for “ sureties ” read “ secretaries.” 
 
 ,, 195, 1st line, before “ might ” and . 
 
 „ 202, 4th line, before “ Synod ” term. 
 
 „ 213, 1 8th line, for “ too carefully had ” read “ had too carefully.” 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Early Life — School and College Days. 1807 -1832 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ordination — Aylestone — Burnham— Beaulieu. 1 832- 1 847 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Call to the See of Newcastle — His Consecration on St. 
 Peter’s Day — Leaving his Native Land — The Voyage 
 out. 1847 ....... 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Arrival at Sydney — His Reception — Work of First Year — 
 Acquaintance with the People and their Wants. 1848 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Work of all kinds — Loss of Property in England — Troubles in 
 Diocese of Sydney — Habit of Early Rising — Bad Tidings 
 from England — Methodical Arrangement of Time — Ex- 
 tracts from Diaries — Training of Candidates for Holy 
 Orders. 1 849 ...... 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Need of Organisation, and Preparation for it — Provision for 
 Religion and Education, how originally made — Thwarted 
 
 b 
 
CONTENTS . 
 
 by Religious Divisions and increasing hostility of Govern- 
 ment — How met by the Bishop in the Project of a General 
 Diocesan Society — Visitation Journeys. 1850 . . 69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Conference of the Six Bishops at Sydney — Their Recommenda- 
 tions and Suggestions — Meeting at East Maitland, aided by 
 Bishops Selwyn and Nixon — Formation of Newcastle 
 Church Society — Sermon of the Bishop — Objects of the 
 Society. 1850, 1851 . . . . . 85 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Missionary Voyage to Melanesian Islands — A rough passage — 
 
 The Bishop in New Zealand — Sails with Bishop Selwyn 
 for the Loyalty Islands and New Hebrides — Visit to 
 Mar£— A day of Peril at Mallicolo — Reading during the 
 Voyage — Return to Morpeth. 1851 . . .100 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Gold Discovery — Excitement in the Colony — Effect upon 
 
 Church works. 1851 . . . . .116 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Feeling the Way towards Diocesan[Sy nods— Departure of Bishop 
 Broughton for England — His Death — Bishop Tyrrell on 
 the Royal Supremacy — Vacancy of the See at Sydney. 
 1852-1854 ....... 122 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Growth and Progress of the Newcastle Church Society — The 
 Bishop’s manifold exertions the Cause of its Success — The 
 Society’s Receipts — Diocesan Depot well started, and well 
 carried on — Aborigines of Australia ; no Mission to them 
 in the Diocese. 1851-1859 . . . . .138 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Events from October 1852 to end of i860 — Church and Sydney 
 University — Bishop Selwyn working with the Bishop of 
 Newcastle — Diocese steadily at work — Bishop’s care for 
 his Clergy — Arrival of Bishop Barker — Need of Clergy — 
 Canonries founded — First Division of Diocese — Dislike of 
 writing about his work — Endowment of See — Arrival of 
 Bishop of Brisbane — Visitation of Metropolitan — First 
 Visitation of reduced Diocese . . . .154 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Second endeavour to constitute Synods — Parliamentary Dicta- 
 tion resisted — Bishop Patteson Consecrated for Melanesia— 
 
 Plan for further subdivision "of Diocese of Newcastle — 
 Abolition of State Aid — The Bishop prepared to meet it — 
 Troubles and Encouragements — St. Alban’s Church, Mus- 
 well Brook. 1858-1864 ..... 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Synods organised at last — The Synod Bill — An Enabling Bill — 
 
 First Diocesan Synod — The Bishop’s Address : What is a 
 Christian Church? — The Colonial Church and the Crown — 
 Difficulties caused by the action of the Dioceses of Sydney 
 and Goulbourn — Their desire for Government control — 
 
 Their jealousy of the due Authority of Provincial and 
 General Synods over Diocesan Synods — Important Letter 
 of Sir W. Martin — Bishop Tyrrell’s Reply to Bishop Tait 
 of London. 1865, 1866 .... 197 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Disappointments and Sorrows — Bishopric of Grafton -and- Armi- 
 dale — Death of the Rev. W. W. Dove — Bishop Sawyer 
 drowned — Church Society merged in Diocesan Synod — 
 Visit of Bishop of Lichfield — Discussion of important ques- 
 tions — Dr. Turner’s arrival completes the second subdivision 
 of the Diocese. 1866-1869 . . . . 
 
 219 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xii 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Plans for Endowment— Lay Readers — Third Session of Second 
 Synod — Westminster Abbey Scandal — Visitation of the 
 Manning — Eirst Session of Third Synod — Second Session 
 of Third Synod — Provincial Synod — Formation of General 
 Synod — Visitations — Deaths of Rev. A. Glennie, Bishop 
 Patteson, Mrs. Gardner. 1870-1872 . . . 239 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Address of Synod after twenty-five years of Episcopate — Death 
 of Dr. Traill — Difficulty of removing a Scandal — Death of 
 Mr. Francis White — Endeavour to supply Religious In- 
 struction to Children of Government Schools — Difficulties 
 not to be met by General Alliance with Sects — Retreats for 
 Clergy — The Bishop’s last presence in Synod — Increasing 
 infirmities — Looking forward to the end. 1873-1877 . 262 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 From the First Summons to the Call to Rest, August 1877 to 
 March 1879 — Attack of Paralysis — Cheerful Resignation — 
 
 Work resumed — Bishop Selwyn’s Sympathy — Death of 
 Bishop Selwyn — The Bishop’s Liberality — His Will, and 
 Endowment Scheme — Address of Sympathy from Synod — 
 
 The Church Militant — Hope of a Coadjutor — Mischief of 
 a False Telegram — An Australian Drought — Not my will, 
 but Thine — The Call to Rest . . . .288 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Retrospect — His habits — Miss Scott’s Reminiscences of him — 
 Newspaper notice of him — In Memoriam, by Mrs. A. E. 
 
 Selwyn . . . . . . .311 
 
London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY LIFE SCHOOL , AND COLLEGE DAYS. 
 
 1807-1832. 
 
 “We are at school through this strange life of ours, 
 
 We pass like children through their teaching time ; 
 
 Training in lowly trust our highest powers ; 
 
 Learning by common things truths most sublime.” 
 
 — R. E. J. A. 
 
 William Tyrrell, the subject of this Memoir, was born in 
 the city of London, at the Guildhall, on the 31st of January 
 1807 ; and was baptized on the 1st of March following, in 
 the church of St. Lawrence Jewry — well known in later 
 years for the help it afforded to the spiritual needs of busi- 
 ness men. His father held the office of City Remembrancer ; 
 his mother, Elizabeth, was a grand-daughter of the cele- 
 brated optician Dollond ; and William was the youngest of 
 ten children, all of whom grew up to maturity. 
 
 While the claims of business allowed the father to bestow 
 upon his family only that general care which a high-principled 
 Christian parent will always give, the wise and conscientious 
 mother, full of vigorous common sense, was moulding the 
 minds and characters of her children not only by her teach- 
 ing but by that precious domestic influence, which, like 
 sunshine and pure air, works so silently and effects so much. 
 
 A 
 
2 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1807. 
 
 How carefully and successfully she laboured for them was 
 seen in the conscientious and useful lives of most of them. 
 
 The family characteristic seems to have been unostentatious 
 thoughtfulness for others, and a painstaking devotion of them- 
 selves to do well whatever work they took in hand. 
 
 John, the eldest, became eminent as a conveyancer. His 
 book on the law of real property is a standard authority on 
 the subject. One of his pupils was Lord Hatherly, who 
 says he “ found him an admirable tutor.” 
 
 George became a captain in the Havy; and, in his later 
 years, helped his brother, the Eishop, in the many matters of 
 business connected with his affairs in England, besides assist- 
 ing the passage of clergy and the consignments of books. 
 
 Frederick rose high in his profession as a surgeon, and 
 was especially noted for his skill as an operator. 
 
 Timothy, a solicitor in his father’s office, never married, 
 but laid out his life to do acts of kindness for others. Among 
 these, he placed a house of his, at Herne Bay, at the service 
 of any clergy who were overworked and needed change and 
 sea-air. He had designed that this should develop into a 
 home for superannuated clergymen, as well as a rest for weary 
 ones ; but he died before his plan was fully matured. 
 
 The elder of the two daughters, Ann, became an associate 
 sister in connection with several nursing sisterhoods — one of 
 them in Spain ; and she often took her turn in the work of 
 St. John’s sisterhood, attached to Xing’s College, London. 
 For many years before her death she resided at Ilfracombe. 
 Like other members of her family she lived in a quiet, un- 
 obtrusive style, spending little on herself, that she might 
 give more to God; first occupying a little cottage by the 
 side of the tiny stream, the Wilder, and afterwards the larger 
 dwelling of Sunny cote near the parish church. From both 
 of these houses there was, while she lived in them, a constant 
 radiation, in many directions, of kindly and thoughtful works. 
 The establishment and maintenance of a school in the neigh- 
 bouring hamlet of Hele was one of these ; and to it she 
 devoted her time and exertions as well as her money. An- 
 other good work, by which she will always be gratefully 
 
1S07.] 
 
 EARLY LIFE. 
 
 3 
 
 remembered at Ilfracombe, was the establishment of a cottage 
 hospital. Before the foundation of this there was no hospital 
 nearer than Barnstaple, eleven miles off. Miss Tyrrell at 
 first took two cottages which she threw into one, and pro- 
 cured a careful nurse and such comforts and appliances as 
 various kinds of sickness and injury require. By and by, 
 after accumulating funds for some years, she built a large 
 well-planned cottage hospital in a more airy situation, which 
 was rendered more complete in course of time by the help of 
 others, who contributed to the fitting up of wards which 
 she had built. 
 
 To the last days of her useful life she cared, as a sound, 
 earnest churchwoman, for the spiritual as well as temporal 
 wants of the patients. The building, with its plot of ground 
 attached, is now made over to trustees, and still lovingly 
 watched over by her surviving sister, of whom it is impossible 
 to say more here than that her dear brother, the Bishop, was 
 cheered by her letters and helped by her purse in his diocesan 
 plans to the end of his life. 
 
 In a family circle which had such members young William 
 Tyrrell grew up. Mrs. Tyrrell, like a true Christian mother, 
 desired to keep her children bound to home as well as to 
 each other by the holiest of ties. When many of them had 
 gone out into the world, she would draw them all together at 
 Christmastide, that they and their parents might partake the 
 Holy Communion together. The Rev. Samuel Smith, who 
 was appointed to the curacy of St. Lawrence Jewry in 1827, 
 says of her : “ She was a very nice person, and had great 
 influence with her children. She always reminded one of 
 our Saviour’s beautiful similitude, — the hen gathering her 
 chickens under her wings. Long after her sons were grown 
 up to man’s estate, and wherever dispersed, she made a point 
 of assembling them to partake of the Holy Communion on 
 Christmas-day.” 
 
 From the bosom of such a home William Tyrrell was sent 
 to school, first under Dr. Valpy at Reading, and afterwards 
 as a day boy to Charterhouse, then enjoying popularity under 
 the somewhat strict discipline of Dr. Russell, and distant 
 
4 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1818. 
 
 from his father’s residence at Guildhall not more than three- 
 quarters of a mile. That was before the days of cabs and 
 omnibuses, before even the present building of the General 
 Post Office existed; and as the young boy, with his books 
 in strap, went daily to school along Cheapside and Alders- 
 gate Street, and entered the quiet gate-closed area of Charter- 
 house Square, he encountered none of that seething turmoil 
 of traffic through which the young Londoner must now make 
 his way. 
 
 His name first appears in the sixth, or lowest, form in 
 1818, when he was eleven years old. He was always a 
 quiet, painstaking boy, and, as such, was a favourite with 
 Dr. Bussell; but the place which he held in the annual 
 examinations does not imply any remarkable cleverness. 
 In his leisure hours he showed a fondness for arithmetic and 
 puzzles ; and when his lessons were prepared for the next 
 day, he would often play a game of chess with his mother, 
 so that he became, even when young, somewhat more than a 
 tolerable chess player. 
 
 Before he left the Charterhouse his father took a country 
 house at Kew, the garden of which ran down to the 
 Thames ; and here he had abundant opportunities, of which 
 he availed himself, of becoming a good oarsman, as he was 
 already a good cricketer. One of his mother’s ambitions at 
 Kew was to be rowed by her eight fine, well-grown sons 
 on the river, on those peaceful days when the whole family 
 could be brought together. Here the Selwyns were near 
 neighbours of the Tyrrells ; but the two future Bishops 
 did not become acquainted with each other until they met 
 at Cambridge. 
 
 In 1826 William Tyrrell went up to St. John’s College. 
 His brother John, seventeen years his senior, accompanied 
 him instead of his father, who was unable to spare the time. 
 Being intimate, as a lawyer, with Mr. William Selwyn, he 
 hoped to have received for his brother an introduction to 
 his son George Augustus, who, though two years the junior, 
 was already in residence ; and he felt hurt at the time that 
 it was not offered. When afterwards the young John i an s 
 
1S26.] 
 
 SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 
 
 5 
 
 became, as they soon did, fast friends, Mr. Selwyn explained 
 that, being ignorant of William Tyrrell’s principles and char- 
 acter, he was unwilling to expose his son, through his intro- 
 duction, to an influence which, for anything he knew, 
 might not have been good. No introduction was needed : 
 the two young men had too much in common not to gra- 
 vitate towards each other; and a friendship soon began, 
 which lasted and mellowed until Bishop Selwyn’s death at 
 Lichfield in 1878. 
 
 The only authentic sketch of William Tyrrell at Cam- 
 bridge which I have been able to procure is from his bosom 
 friend, the Rev. W. H. Hoare, with whom he was contem- 
 porary at St. John’s. 
 
 “ It was always expected in college that Tyrrell would be 
 high in mathematical honours : his abilities in this line were 
 very evident ; and his going to Trinity for his private tutor 
 confirmed the impression that he was anxious to make what 
 proficiency he could. But his place in the college examina- 
 tions scarcely warranted the expectations that were formed. 
 
 “ Between him and his tutor, the Rev. F. J. Martin, a man 
 greatly esteemed among his contemporaries, grew up the 
 greatest possible friendship. But with all the advantage 
 this friendship gave him, it began soon to surprise his friends 
 that Mr. Tyrrell seemed more or less preoccupied by subjects 
 which he had nearer at heart than even his mathematics. 
 He was, in fact, collecting the materials for a very extensive 
 library, rich in the works of the Fathers and old English 
 divines : and he gave more time to the study of these 
 works than was compatible with the promise he had given 
 of the highest mathematical honours. It does not appear 
 that in this he disappointed himself, or lamented the course 
 which his studies had taken. 
 
 “ His sound and excellent judgment, a self-possession be- 
 yond his age, and a certain easiness and quiet assurance of 
 manner, made his company to be sought and his influence 
 felt, among men of much higher standing in the University 
 than himself ; while among his equals he soon became popu- 
 lar by his love of athletic sports, particularly cricket and 
 
6 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1829. 
 
 boating, for both of which he had all the requisites of a 
 strong and active frame, kejA well under the control of pru- 
 dent and regular habits. 
 
 “ He was not in the University eleven, a place which was 
 thought then to interfere with the regular hours of study ; 
 nor was he in the eight, which then first contended with 
 Oxford in the University boat-race. Hone the less did he 
 spend a great deal of time pleasantly in less pretentious con- 
 tests on the cricket ground and on the water. An instance 
 may recal to some who read this a rather exciting occasion, 
 when the crews of Trinity and St. John’s having challenged 
 one another at cricket, St. John’s in the second innings 
 went in for 256 runs. By the help of Tyrrell, and the 
 pluck of W. F. Beadon, the coxswain of the ‘Lady Mar- 
 garet,’ who went in last, the score was exactly pulled off ; 
 and amid the vociferous cheers of Parkhurst Piece, a tie 
 was proclaimed. 
 
 “ It w~as at that time a sure passport to fame to belong to 
 the crew of the ‘Lady Margaret.’ This crew furnished the 
 first captain of the Cambridge eight in the inter-university 
 races : and under his auspices the ‘ Lady Margaret ’ main- 
 tained the supremacy on the river for upwards of a year. 
 The crew consisted of 
 
 W. H. Hoare, — bow , 
 J. E. Shadwell, 
 
 H. Snow, 
 
 William Selwyn, 
 
 S. Banks, 
 
 W. Tyrrell, 
 
 G. A. Selwyn, 
 Stralian, — stroke. 
 
 W. F. Beadon, coxswain. 
 
 “ Mr. Tyrrell was a great admirer of what was beautiful in 
 nature ; and in his rambles in the Long Vacation, always led 
 the way in exploring the beauties of the country, and in 
 making light of difficulties. He always made pleasant com- 
 pany ; and with his pupils in after days he often showed the 
 same vein of quiet fun which marked him in earlier life : 
 and this without impairing in the least the force of his 
 advice or the effect of his influence. He took the greatest 
 interest in all the public questions of the day ; but seemed 
 naturally to shrink from extreme views on all questions ; 
 
i83i.] 
 
 SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS, 
 
 7 
 
 so that liis mother would say of him, ‘That is just like 
 my moderate William.’ ” 
 
 He was a great walker : and on one occasion, as is men- 
 tioned in the life of Bishop Selwyn, the two friends walked 
 from Cambridge to London without stopping, the greater 
 part of the walk having been done in the night. 
 
 In 1831 his college life ended, and he came out fourth 
 senior optime. 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OR DINA TION A YLES TONE — B URNHA M BE A UL IE U. 
 
 1832-1847. 
 
 “Think not of rest ; though dreams be sweet : 
 
 Start up and ply your heavenward feet. 
 
 Is not God’s oath upon your head, 
 
 Ne’er to sink back on slothful bed, 
 
 Never again your loins untie, 
 
 Nor let your torches waste and die, 
 
 Till, when the shadows thickest fall, 
 
 Ye hear your Master’s midnight call?” 
 
 — Keble’s “ Christian Year.” 
 
 For a short time after taking his degree Mr. Tyrrell was 
 ■undecided as to a profession. His father saw no prospect 
 of his obtaining an incumbency, and therefore rather dis- 
 couraged him from taking Holy Orders. Having two brothers 
 lawyers, he began the study of law ; and although that 
 study soon came to an end, it was not without its influence 
 on him in later life. Eut his own strong bias was towards 
 the ministry of the Church. 
 
 In 1832 his father died : and on the 23d of September 
 in that year, when above twenty-five years of age, he was 
 ordained Deacon at Buckden, by Bishop Kaye of Lincoln, 
 and licensed to the curacy of Aylestone, near Leicester, with 
 a population of about 500. 
 
 On the very day of his ordination, his family suffered a 
 second bereavement in the death of the fifth son, Charles, an 
 architect. Among the elder brothers, who each bore their 
 part in this time of trouble, Timothy’s active kindliness is 
 especially singled out by the mother in her letter to William. 
 “ Timothy seems to have everybody else’s affairs to settle, 
 and everybody seems to lean upon him.” But the mother’s 
 heart turns to William as her son of consolation. He had 
 
1832.] 
 
 ORDINATION. 
 
 9 
 
 not been able to be with the family either at the death or 
 funeral of his brother, and she writes to him : — 
 
 “Hastings, October i st, 1832. 
 
 “ I am sure you will be anxious to hear about us, and I 
 thank you for your long and welcome letter to me. It was 
 most comfortable to my feelings in every way, for after 
 hearing of poor Charles’s sudden death, I almost dreaded 
 to think about my other absent children, lest I should be 
 thinking about the dead instead of the living. I try to 
 trust to God’s mercy and goodness to spare to me the rest of 
 my children ; and I implore His Holy Spirit to give me a 
 proper resignation to His holy will. For I feel that wdien I 
 say I am resigned to Charles’s loss, this resignation proceeds 
 more from a feeling that he is released from his pain and 
 care, than from a resignation to the Divine will. This I 
 am sure is not quite right ; and therefore I must try and 
 correct my feelings, and put them into a proper course. If 
 you w r ere here you would help me. As it is I must pray for 
 help to do what is right. Poor Charles was laid by the side 
 
 of his father on Friday He died at Deptford. 
 
 Frederick thinks the disease must have been coming on for 
 at least two years, and that no known art could have cured 
 it. If amidst all your new duties you can find time to write 
 to us, very glad shall we be to hear from you.” 
 
 To these new duties he settled down at once with that 
 quiet determination that was natural to him, and with a 
 strict self-denying rule of life as to food, sleep, exercise, 
 and various kinds of work, which left no time to be frittered 
 away uselessly. Besides his regular parochial duties in 
 wdiich he had much to learn, he had pupils residing with 
 him, and devoted himself to a severer course of theological 
 and other reading than most men find time for after their 
 Ordination. 
 
 On the 2 2d of September 1833 ^ was admitted to the 
 Priesthood by Bishop Kaye, and he worked on at Aylestone 
 for five years more. Little can be gleaned about him during 
 
10 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1834. 
 
 those years, fully occupied as they were with study and the 
 unobtrusive round of his immediate duties. Several letters 
 from his friend G. A. Selwyn show how cordial and deep was 
 the affection they bore to each other. One of these letters is 
 dated, “ Eton, July 15th, 1834,” in which he thanks his 
 friend Tyrrell most touchingly for a letter of sympathy which 
 he had sent him on the occasion of his first bitter family 
 sorrow, the death of his younger brother Thomas, a promis- 
 ing scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. This affliction is 
 mentioned on the 20th page of the first volume of Bishop 
 Selwyn’s life. The letter is here given, not only for its own 
 sake, but as one of the links which bound these two warm 
 hearts together in joy and sorrow for fifty years. 
 
 “ My dear Tyrrell, — Pray accept my heartfelt thanks for 
 your most kind and Christian letter, which I found here on 
 my arrival. It is needless to say that I feel to the full the 
 truth of the consolation contained in it ; and I hope that I 
 have been enabled to apply it. I have never lost a near 
 relation before. When I first received the intelligence I was 
 surprised that I was not more affected. I began to think 
 that there must be some lack of <SToojy yj, some morbid apathy 
 in my heart, which prevented me from mourning while 
 others were mourning. But I was soon comforted by finding 
 that this was not the case. For I would rather sorrow every 
 day, than be too hard-hearted to sorrow at all. I found 
 that the pause of insensibility was only the delay of the 
 heart in learning what it never knew before, the nature 
 and qualities of grief. The lesson was one of bitterness ; 
 but it was quickly and effectually learnt. And I felt how 
 salutary it was in its operation, and how truly it may be 
 said, that sorrow brings us nearer unto Cod. 
 
 “ When I saw you in the coach I did not know that you 
 knew all that had happened, and could have told me more 
 than I then knew myself. You might have stopped my 
 journey ; but I am glad that you did not ; as I have had a 
 melancholy satisfaction in visiting my brother’s last abode 
 on earth, and the place where he sleeps in death. I find 
 
I §34-] 
 
 AYLESTON. 
 
 1 1 
 
 now that my brother Charles wrote word that the funeral 
 was to take place on Tuesday the 8th, and that he himself 
 should return to London as soon as possible. I went to 
 Wales under the impression that my brother had died at 
 Abergele, and was still unburied ; whereas he had been 
 buried several hours before I heard of his death. I actually 
 met my brother Charles between Woburn and Lathbury. 
 The mails stopped side by side to exchange coachmen ; we 
 were both outside, and yet never recognised one another. 
 I went on to Chester, stopped at the very inn at which my 
 brother died (the Feathers), with my name on my carpet- 
 bag and on the way-bill, and yet nobody told me a word 
 about the real state of the case. 
 
 “ At Chester I met my father’s clerk, who had left London 
 a day before me, but having gone by way of Birmingham had 
 been detained on the road. We started together for Abergele 
 at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, and arrived at i a.m., and with 
 great difficulty awakened the people of the inn, and inquired 
 for Pensarn, my brother’s cottage. It was about a mile from 
 the inn, and close to the seaside. The way led through the 
 churchyard in which I thought that my brother’s grave must 
 then be open. We called up a woman at a farmhouse, and 
 were directed to the cottage. Though it stood within a 
 hundred yards of the sea, we could not even at that time of 
 the night catch the sound of the smallest ripple. 
 
 “ After some waiting, we roused the maid-servant, and 
 inquired for my brother. She could scarcely speak English, 
 and all that we could collect was that my brother left the 
 house on the Thursday before. Here was a new difficulty, 
 for at that time I had no other idea than that my brother 
 had died £t Abergele. At last she made us understand that 
 W. Richardson was still in the village. To his lodging she 
 guided us ; and to my relief we saw a light in the window : 
 for though it was now 2 a.m., they were still sitting up in 
 compliance with the odious Cambridge custom. 
 
 “ From him I learnt all the particulars of my brother’s 
 departure, and that he had been buried the previous day. 
 
12 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1834. 
 
 I returned, grieved and disappointed, to my sofa at the inn, 
 for the bedrooms were all occupied. 
 
 “At 6 a.m. I rose and went to the cottage, where I found 
 everything lying as if its former occupant had been still 
 there. All his books, most of which had once been mine, 
 were in the rooms. The manuscript note-books which he 
 had made at my suggestion, but with far greater industry 
 than I could attain : every object was familiar to me, and 
 therefore everything excited painful recollections. 
 
 “ When my melancholy task was accomplished, I returned 
 to Chester, and heard from the physician, Dr. Thackeray, all 
 the particulars of my brother’s last illness. No one seems to 
 have anticipated so speedy a termination of his sufferings. 
 On the morning of Friday, I went to the cathedral, and had 
 scarcely entered the aisle before I was struck with a fresh 
 inscription. I went to the spot, and found as I expected : 
 
 Thomas Kynaston Selwyn, Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 died July 5th 1834, aged xxii. 
 
 I thought of the lines in Moultrie’s beautiful poem in the 
 Etonian : — 
 
 ‘ One hurried glance I downward gave, 
 
 My foot was on my brother s grave.’ 
 
 While standing on the spot I became sensible that service 
 was being performed, and went to the door of the choir to 
 listen : at last I fancied that I caught the words — ‘ We 
 commend to Thy fatherly goodness all those who are any 
 ways afflicted.’ I say fancied, because as it was Friday 
 morning this prayer is not usually read; but, perhaps, at 
 Chester the Litany is a separate service ; you may well sup- 
 pose that my heart and voice responded Amen, both for 
 myself and my parents. At 8 a.m. I left Chester by the 
 mail, and after holding converse with John Bunyan almost 
 all the way to London, arrived at Richmond at 9 a.m. on 
 Saturday. You will be glad to hear that I found my family 
 much more resigned and tranquil than I had expected. 
 has been the greatest sufferer, but he also has felt the 
 
IS34-] 
 
 AYLESTON. 
 
 13 
 
 force of those consolations, which you have truly called the 
 greatest of all. Pray give my kind regards to your sister, 
 and believe me your very affectionate friend, 
 
 “ G. A. Selwyn.” 
 
 A few lines from Mr. Tyrrell’s mother in the early part of 
 the same year show how the same loving maternal counsel 
 which had helped to mould his boyhood, still follows him 
 in his twenty-eighth year. “ Now, adieu. Go on as you 
 have begun, and you will be happy, and that will make 
 me so.” 
 
 One who was with him as a pupil about the last two years 
 of his residence at Aylestone writes : — 
 
 “ My memory of him is only connected with the curacy of 
 Aylestone, where I was one of his three or four pupils before 
 I went up to Oxford. I look back with great gratitude to 
 him, for I learnt more in those two years spent under his 
 roof than in any other two years of my life. Not that I can 
 say that he was a good teacher, or that he had any sjDecial 
 power of imparting knowledge. He gave me strictly his 
 hour in the day, but he did not impress me with any idea 
 that he was fond of teaching. He took pupils in order to 
 enable him to carry out a plan of study which he manifestly 
 laid down for himself after he left Cambridge. What he 
 once told me about Dr. Hook was evidently guiding him in the 
 course he was pursuing. The then new vicar of Leeds was 
 said to have given it as his advice that a young clergyman 
 ought to devote ten years in a quiet country parish to the 
 careful study of theology, and that then he would be fit to 
 undertake the cure of souls in any sphere. Mr. Tyrrell 
 appeared to be following his advice. Up early, late to rest, 
 there he was at his books, reading from a sense of duty. He 
 set us pupils a good example of what it was to be a student. 
 We met at meals, and one or other of the pupils sometimes 
 accompanied him in that brisk constitutional, which was 
 also as evidently taken from a sense of duty. With regard 
 to parochial work, there was a certain stiffness of manner 
 which showed that he had not been accustomed to much 
 
M 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1S3S. 
 
 intercourse with the poor. His sermons were most carefully 
 written, but they were too much overladen with the sound 
 theology he was studying for country people to understand. 
 The lectures he gave sometimes in St. Margaret’s, Leicester, 
 were, however, much appreciated. 
 
 “ It was my intercourse with a man who was always 
 setting a mark before him in life and aiming at it with 
 steady resolve, which led me away from my boyish idleness 
 to a little more love for books. Although the lot of my life 
 drew me away from ever seeing him again, I look back 
 upon him now, through all these intervening years, with the 
 most profound respect, as an example of how one ought to 
 carry out a plan previously determined upon. I do not 
 know how he succeeded in overcoming a defect, of which we 
 pupils were very conscious, when he became excited. But I 
 w r ell remember what pains he used to take in reading out 
 loud in his study. He would stand by the hour before his 
 desk and read aloud, with careful enunciation, passages out of 
 some standard work of theology, in order to cure a hesita- 
 tion in his speech. He seemed to be always on his guard 
 lest he should be overtaken by some obstinate word which 
 refused to pass pleasantly over his lips. You, who know 
 him, will not be surprised to hear that those keen dark eyes 
 and that commanding presence, and the knowledge that he 
 was a hardy and accomplished athletic, all helped to call 
 forth a youth’s admiration for a manly, conscientious, reso- 
 lute student.” 
 
 On the death of his rector he quitted Aylestone, and was 
 licensed to the curacy of Burnham, near Maidenhead, at that 
 time in the diocese of Lincoln, but since then more fitly 
 attached to that of Oxford. Letters, which followed him 
 from his old parishioners, show that his studies and his 
 tutorial work had not made him neglectful of his parish- 
 ioners. And if there was a natural shyness to be overcome, 
 and a stiffness in his manner that seemed chilling at first 
 sight, his sense of duty carried him over the one defect, and 
 the warmth of his affections and ready sympathy thawed 
 the other in the heart to heart intercourse of pastoral visita- 
 
BE A ULIEU. 
 
 1839-] 
 
 15 
 
 tion. One of these letters is from the master of Aylestone 
 school, who writes to him : — 
 
 “ It is a general sorrow among ns that you ever left us. 
 The whole village experiences the loss of the greatest earthly 
 
 friend that was ever in it The school, thank God, 
 
 seems to go on with tolerable regularity ; but I feel greatly 
 the loss of your assistance. And in the parish the cry is 
 very general that we shall never have another Mr. Tyrrell. 
 There seems to remain among us a love and regard for you 
 that I cannot describe.” 
 
 About the same time the father of one of his pupils, who 
 had just closed his son’s eyes, writes : — 
 
 “ I cannot retire for the night from the scene of our afflic- 
 tion without writing a few lines to express the deep sense 
 
 we entertain of your kindness to poor dear . To have 
 
 sown the good seed in his mind at an early period must at 
 this moment prove the purest satisfaction to your own bene- 
 volent heart. And that he should have died in a manner 
 worthy of the Christian precepts in which he was instructed 
 and the example afforded, is to his afflicted friends the only 
 consolation their sad bereavement at present admits. Accept 
 from us, therefore, our warmest thanks and most sincere 
 acknowledgments, with the assurance that, as the dear friend 
 of our beloved son, and as a Christian minister, you have 
 contributed, we humbly hope, not only to his temporal peace 
 and prosperity, but to his eternal welfare.” 
 
 Mr. Tyrrell’s tenure of the curacy of Burnham lasted for 
 less than a year. 
 
 In 1839 the Duke of Buccleuch presented him to the 
 rectory of Beaulieu. He had been gradually moving south- 
 ward : his next move was to be to the southern hemisphere. 
 Well did his new parish deserve its name. Beautiful in its 
 situation on the banks of the Hampshire Exe, separated by 
 the Solent from the Isle of Wight, whose blue hills bound 
 the southern view, and surrounded by the beeches and oaks 
 of the Hew Forest, with tangled woodwalks, tempting the 
 pedestrian who loves the quiet beauties of nature, it was a 
 very paradise to a man of Mr. Tyrrell’s studious and peaceful 
 
1 6 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1839. 
 
 disposition and strong athletic frame. His parish, which 
 extended over an area of some twenty-eight miles in circum- 
 ference, with a population of about 1000, afforded him con- 
 stant occupation in visiting; and he was able to get his 
 regular exercise, which he considered a daily duty, either in 
 going to a cottage lecture in the outskirts, or in a round of 
 visits nearer home. In those days he was an indifferent 
 horseman, a fact which those who knew his riding powers in 
 his Australian diocese would hardly have suspected. So he 
 took all his exercise on foot, and might frequently he seen 
 striding along at a swinging pace from one end of his large 
 parish to another. Afterwards, when the call to go out to 
 Newcastle came, he set himself diligently to become a good 
 horseman. At Beaulieu he soon won the confidence and 
 affection of his people by his own loving care for them. 
 
 On being visited by a friend soon after his appointment 
 to the parish, the first thing he was anxious to take him to 
 see was an alteration he had effected in the distribution of 
 the seats in church. And he pointed with great glee to 
 three or four front rows of seats, which he had got appro- 
 priated especially to the use of the older parishioners, who 
 were thus enabled to hear better, and also to take rank as 
 elders among the people. Between the services he had a 
 Bible class for the same old people in the vestry. In a 
 remote part of the parish he speedily prepared a humble 
 building, where he collected his poor, and brought to their 
 own doors the ministrations of the Church. His house, as 
 well as his heart, was always open to the needy, and he had 
 ever a ready ear for all who sought counsel and direction 
 from him. 
 
 About that time the Church in England was beginning to 
 feel the thrillings of a call which has aroused her to a deeper 
 sense of God’s presence within her and of her own conse- 
 quent responsibilities. Her faithful sons had been toiling in 
 their successive generations to maintain those truths which 
 her formularies had all along professed; while, if we look back 
 into the last century and the first quarter of the present, we 
 catch sight of them, dotted along, like lights shining in 
 
i839-] 
 
 BE A ULIEU. 
 
 17 
 
 a dark place ; and besides these, many of her children 
 had been nourished at her bosom in humble, unobserved 
 holiness; but the fact and the necessity of the corporate 
 life of Christ’s people were scarcely, or but dimly, recognised, 
 A profession was made of belief in “ the Holy Catholic and 
 Apostolic Church,” the “ Communion of Saints,” and “ One 
 Baptism for the remission of sins ; ” but, for the most part, 
 there was little perception of the deep truths these words 
 contained. The Kingdom of Heaven, the Church of Christ, 
 through which graces and gifts flowed to its members, 
 seemed, in its spiritual character, but little like “ a city set 
 on a hill, which cannot be hid.” 
 
 Statesmen thought, as some fancy even still, that the 
 Church derived her being and powers from the State, 
 and that she was little more than a peculiar kind of educa- 
 tional or lecturing body ; useful for the purpose of enforcing 
 morality among its citizens, with or without the sanctions of 
 a world unseen. In the Erastian view of the Church Bishops 
 were of little value except as the traditional heads of 
 Dioceses, as being favourable to a monarchical form of 
 government, or as maintaining the hold the Church had 
 on the higher ranks of society, There was but a very dim 
 perception of the necessity of their Order for the spiritual 
 life of the body. 
 
 As for the Colonies, or missions to the heathen, if some 
 enthusiastic persons were interested in them, it was enough 
 that a few clergymen or teachers were sent out from 
 England. What more was needed if their sole duty was to 
 preach or instruct ? 
 
 As far back as 1638, Archbishop Laud had designed to 
 send a Bishop to Kew England, but the troubles at home 
 prevented his plan from being carried out, Another attempt 
 was made by Lord Clarendon after the Kestoration, but that 
 also was thwarted. At various times up to 1784 Churchmen 
 in America, and Bishops and others in England, had -warmly 
 urged the appointment of Bishops for our American brethren, 
 but party jealousies and political fears at home, and the 
 objections of dissenters on the other side of the Atlantic, 
 
 B 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1833. 
 
 stifled every endeavour. Not until the States were inde- 
 pendent were Bishops consecrated, Dr. Samuel Seabury, a 
 Clergyman from Connecticut for that See, by Scotch Bishops, 
 and two years later two Clergy, elected in Pennsylvania and 
 New York for these Sees, at Lambeth. 
 
 It was only slowly after this that Bishops were consecrated 
 for the Colonies; for Nova Scotia in 1787, Quebec in 1793, 
 Calcutta in 1814, Jamaica and Barbadoes in 1824. Through- 
 out England’s widely-scattered colonies, where there was no 
 Bishop, the few Clergy struggling with overwhelming diffi- 
 culties, were supposed to be under the Bishop of London. 
 It is well to look back on those days, remembered by 
 many who are still living, that we may thank God for what 
 we see now. 
 
 One of the earliest calls which roused English Churchmen 
 from their heavy slumber was the publication, by a fellow 
 of Oriel, then helping his aged father as a Curate in a Glou- 
 cestershire parish, of Keble’s “ Christian Year.” It appeared 
 when Mr. Tyrrell was little more than a freshman at Cam- 
 bridge, in the summer of 1827. Its very character, as a 
 companion to the Prayer-Book, procured for it a wide circu- 
 lation. And that it was written in a devotional and not in 
 a controversial spirit, and was full of poetic beauty, opened a 
 way for it into many hearts which would otherwise have 
 rejected its teaching. 
 
 “ A verse may find him, who a sermon flies, 
 
 And turn delight into a sacrifice.” * 
 
 “ Veluti pueris absinthia tetra medentes 
 Cum dare conentur, prius oras pocula circum 
 Contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore, 
 
 Ut puerorum oetas improvida ludificetur 
 Labrorum tenus ; interea perpotet amarum 
 Absinthi laticem, deceptaque non capiatur : 
 
 Sed potius tali facto recreata valescat.” t 
 
 In 1833, the year when Mr. Tyrrell was admitted to the 
 Priesthood, Mr. Keble preached his assize sermon at Oxford 
 
 * George Herbert’s Church Porch, 
 f Lucretius de Kerum Natura, lib. i. 935, 941. 
 
1833 -] 
 
 BEAULIEU . 
 
 19 
 
 on “ National Apostacy,” driving into many a heart, already 
 opened by the “ Christian Year/' the truth that the Church 
 is no creature of man, but was founded by Christ Himself, 
 and consecrated by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. In 
 the latter part of that year that remarkable series, “ The 
 Tracts for the Times,” began, in which, in spite of a few 
 imperfect statements, or misstatements, inseparable from 
 everything human, and especially to be expected in a conflict 
 with long-cherislied popular errors, there were so many vital 
 yet forgotten truths enunciated, that in all directions minds 
 were being opened and hearts stirred to their very depths. 
 Month by month these truths were reproduced and expanded 
 in sermons, catechisings, popular tracts, reviews : so that 
 many who had never seen the Tracts, and not a few who had 
 been taught to distrust their teaching, found in those same 
 truths the truest guides to a holy life, and learned that union 
 with the Church meant union with the Great Head of the 
 Church, and not a partisan adherence to a merely human 
 society. 
 
 I hope I may be pardoned if I take the liberty of quoting 
 the temperate words of the late venerable Sir John Coleridge 
 in his memoir of Keble. He says : “ It is in my opinion 
 mere prejudice to deny that the cause of true religion and of 
 the Church of England reaped great advantages from the 
 circulation of the ‘ Tracts/ One must have been a quiet and 
 attentive observer of the state of the parochial Clergy, and of 
 the English Church generally, before they were issued, to be 
 a competent judge of this. Making every allowance for 
 exaggeration, the change for the better is great, and to be 
 observed not so much in bright instances here and there, as 
 in the general tone of feeling and conduct, in the higher 
 appreciation of what the profession requires of its members, 
 and the larger and more distinct acknowledgment of duty. . . . 
 It will be equally prejudice, as it seems to me, to deny that 
 incidentally some evil flowed from them. . . . But after all, 
 and now that we can look back in comparative calm on the 
 movement, I believe its general effect on the Church, in its 
 Clergy as well as Laity, often to be seen operating on those 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1840. 
 
 who are least conscious of it, and least willing to acknow- 
 ledge it, must be pronounced a subject of the deepest grati- 
 tude to its Great Head.” 
 
 Concurrently with this movement at home, and much aided 
 by it, there was felt, with a force that could no longer be 
 resisted, a call on the Church to send out Bishops to the 
 Colonies. It was perceived more clearly each year that the 
 Church’s missionary obligations could no longer be discharged 
 by sending out merely Catechists, Deacons, or Priests ; and 
 the rapid increase and diffusion of population in existing 
 colonies, as well as the formation of new ones, made it 
 abundantly clear that a strong and determined effort to supply 
 the want must be made without delay. 
 
 On the 24th of April 1840, Bishop Blomfield of London, 
 who had taken counsel with Mr. Ernest Hawkins, of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, addressed a letter to 
 Archbishop Howdey, recommending the formation of a fund 
 “ for the endowment of Bishoprics in the colonies and dis- 
 tant dependencies of the British Crown.” Very shortly after- 
 wards the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge voted 
 a sum of ^10,000, to be placed at the disposal of the Arch- 
 bishops and Bishops for this purpose ; and the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel followed with a vote of ^£7500. 
 In April in the following year, at a meeting convened by the 
 Archbishop, the Colonial Bishoprics’ Fund was formed ; and 
 the first of the long series of Bishoprics which have been 
 endowed by its assistance was that of Hew Zealand. 
 
 When George Augustus Selwyn had obeyed the call to 
 go out to that see, which will ever be connected with his 
 memory, he at once turned to his old and tried friend, Mr. 
 Tyrrell, and asked him in the letter which follows to accom- 
 pany or follow him shortly as his Archdeacon. 
 
 “Eton College, Windsor, July 20, 1841. 
 
 “ My dear Tyrrell, — After some delay my future course 
 of life is at length in all appearance decided, and I am 
 designatus as Bishop of Hew Zealand, an appointment which 
 my brother would have received, but for obstacles which did 
 
iS 4 6] 
 
 BEAULIEU. 
 
 21 
 
 not exist in my case. You will easily believe how many 
 feelings of various kinds this sudden call has awakened 
 within me. To be placed in a position to be a means, under 
 God’s blessing, of establishing a new branch of Christ’s 
 Church on a spot where nature seems to have lavished her 
 stores, and where man, even in his unredeemed state, is a 
 4 noble savage,’ must be enough to fill my whole heart with 
 wonder that God, through His Church, should have chosen 
 such a feeble instrument as myself for such a work. But, 
 my dear Tyrrell, we have so long thought and felt together, 
 that I have some hopes, unreasonable perhaps, that you will 
 feel with me in this instance. I know that you have fixed 
 yourself where you are, and are content to remain. This is 
 as it ought to be. For myself I can say, with a safe con- 
 science, that no desire of change has ever been permitted to 
 influence my course in the Ministry. But if I invite you to 
 consecrate your well-regulated powers of mind, your exten- 
 sive reading, and, among other qualifications, your physical 
 strength to the same cause, in the support of which I feel that 
 I can be content to live and die : will you go with me as one 
 of my Archdeacons ? I do not mean immediately ; for you 
 must be married first, and I must provide some place to 
 receive you — for at present the Capital of Hew Zealand is a 
 camp of settlers’ tents. But will you let me enrol you in the 
 staff, which I trust will hereafter be recorded (not for praise, 
 but for example’s sake) the founders of the Church of Hew 
 Zealand. Believe me your affectionate friend, 
 
 44 G. A. Selwyn. 
 
 44 P.8 . — Martin of St. John’s is chief judge of Hew Zea- 
 land.” 
 
 His friend seemed to think that marriage was a necessity, 
 but such an idea does not seem even to have crossed the 
 mind of Mr. Tyrrell. He weighed carefully the call made to 
 him, but did not see it to be his duty to accede to it. For 
 six more quiet years he worked on in his pleasant Hamp- 
 shire parish. Ho time was wasted : all was carefully mapped 
 out, with a conscientious eye to his duties, between his 
 
22 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1846. 
 
 parish, his study, and his pupils. And, which is more to the 
 purpose, he steadily adhered to the plans he laid down. 
 
 At the end of 1846 he gave up his pupils, with the view 
 of devoting himself more entirely to his parish and his study. 
 Had his wish been carried into effect, many of his powers 
 would have been left undeveloped. He had energy, which 
 would have been cramped in a country parish, however exten- 
 sive ; and yet his habits and tone of mind would scarcely 
 have fitted him for working successfully in a dense popula- 
 tion. As far as appears, he had no idea of a call to a colonial 
 Bishopric. Nevertheless, in a few more months the call came, 
 which summoned him to the work, to which all the remainder 
 of his life was devoted, with a rare consistency of purpose, 
 and which gave full scope for all his powers of body and 
 mind. 
 
 What view he took of a call to any ministry in the Church 
 was shown on a subsequent occasion. Two friends, who con- 
 sidered him eminently fitted for a particular post, had men- 
 tioned him in the quarter where the patronage was lodged. 
 Hearing of it he wrote to one of them : “ It is hard for kind 
 intentions to meet with disapproval ; but I must assure you 
 
 that your and ’s communications with have much 
 
 annoyed me. I am perfectly sincere, when I say, that few 
 things would pain me more than to have received my mission 
 to any spiritual office through the solicitations of friends. 
 Such is with me a simple matter of duty, and I could have 
 no comfort, either in my present Office, or in any other con- 
 nected with the cure of souls, if I did not feel that I had 
 been called to it by those in authority, whose call, as the 
 ordering of Providence, I esteemed it a duty to obey. So, 
 on any future occasion, pray let such efforts be spared ; while 
 I would desire both of you to be assured that I am not 
 insensible to the kind motives from which you have 
 acted.” 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CALL TO THE SEE OF NEWCASTLE. 
 
 1847. 
 
 “ Oft have I read of sunny realms where skies are pure at even, 
 
 And sight goes up in lucid air, and earth seems nearer heaven : 
 
 And wheresoe’er you lift your eyes, the Holy Cross, they say, 
 
 Stands guardian of your journey by lone or crowded way. 
 
 — Keble’s “ Lyra Innocentium 
 
 The noble-minded William Grant Broughton had gone out 
 to Australia as Archdeacon in the year 1829, and had found 
 that fair land, with its vast capabilities and glorious skies, a 
 very sink of moral and spiritual pollution, infecting the 
 towns, and spreading in all directions in the far-off bush. 
 The Church, whose office it was to be the purifier of the 
 land, was a body, or rather disjointed members without 
 a head ; forced to look for its Bishop, first to London, and 
 latterly, with even less advantage, to Calcutta. Questions 
 were arising of the greatest importance, in which the 
 effects of a false step might be felt for years ; yet the 
 Bishop who was to direct, mediate, or correct, and give 
 corporate unity to the whole, was thousands of miles away : 
 communication with him was difficult and tedious ; he must 
 be ignorant of many of the circumstances of cases on which 
 he might be asked to decide ; and before any answer could 
 be received the time for beneficial action might have passed. 
 
 To procure a remedy for these evils, the good Archdeacon 
 came to England to press upon the attention of the authorities 
 the grievous state of affairs ; and in 1836 he was sent back to 
 Sydney, Bishop of Australia. This was a great step gained. 
 But when Episcopacy had now become more than a name in 
 the Colony, it was felt that a See, parts of which were farther 
 
24 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1847. 
 
 from the Bishop than Constantinople from London, needed 
 division. 
 
 In 1840, the formation of a Bishopric in South Australia 
 had been contemplated ; and Bishop Broughton, in a letter 
 to Mr. Ernest Hawkins in 1844, proposed a still further sub- 
 division of his enormous Diocese, on the ground that even 
 after he was relieved of all the country west of the district of 
 Port Phillip, the present Colony of Victoria, there would 
 remain to him a tract of country “ actually settled, and which 
 must therefore be traversed by the Bishop, containing about 
 eight or ten times the area of the United Kingdom.” 
 
 Again and again did he urge upon the home authorities 
 the erection of tAvo new Bishoprics ; and offered to resign 
 out of his Episcopal income ^500 a-year to each. At length, 
 in 1846, the long desired subdivision was made. The 
 Bishopric of Adelaide in South Australia was endowed, as was 
 that of Cape Town, by the piety of Miss Burdett Coutts. 
 In Port Phillip, Melbourne received ^£500 per annum out of 
 the revenues of the Mother See. Bishop Broughton’s reduced 
 Diocese was named from Sydney. And the new Bishopric 
 to the northward, which was also to be endowed with ^500 
 per annum out of the sum hitherto paid to the Bishop of 
 Australia, was to take its name from Morpeth, a town at the 
 head of the navigable portion of the river Hunter. 
 
 It was soon perceived that although Newcastle was not so 
 conveniently situated for the residence of the Bishop, its 
 capabilities for growing into commercial importance entitled 
 it to take precedence of Morpeth ; and a Bishop was accord- 
 ingly sought in England for the Diocese of Newcastle. 
 
 For some months the search was unsuccessful ; and on the 
 1st of March 1847, the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, secretary of 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, wrote to Bishop 
 Broughton : — 
 
 “ My Lord, I have again to express my mortification at 
 being unable to announce any appointment to the Diocese 
 to be formed out of the northern counties of New South 
 Wales. The delay has been greater than I had any reason to 
 anticipate.” 
 
iS47-] 
 
 THE CALL TO NEWCASTLE. 
 
 25 
 
 But the search for a fitting man to he first Bishop of 
 Newcastle was drawing very near to a successful end. Nine 
 days later the Archbishop of Canterbury (Howley) wrote to 
 Mr. Tyrrell : — 
 
 “Lambeth, March 10, 1847. 
 
 “ Key. and dear Sir, — On the foundation of new Sees in 
 the Colonies it is particularly desirable to place very efficient 
 Bishops at their head, as the future prosperity of the Church 
 may probably be greatly affected by the proceedings of the 
 Prelate who first presided over it. My inquiries respecting 
 the Bishoprics in Australia have been the occasion of your 
 name being mentioned to me by such persons and in such 
 terms as leaves no doubt on my mind of your possessing the 
 recommendations requisite for this high office, which opens a 
 wide sphere of usefulness in the service of the Church. The 
 qualifications required, in addition to those which every good 
 Clergyman possesses, are discretion, temper, and practical good 
 sense, together with one, the absence of which has made 
 many learned and good men very much less useful to the 
 Church than they might otherwise have been — moderation, 
 such moderation, I mean, as is consistent with regard to truth 
 in respect to Theological doctrines. The Bishopric at present 
 disengaged is that which is fixed for a district in the north of 
 Australia, and which will probably take its denomination 
 from Newcastle, one of the principal towns. Being rather 
 indisposed to-day, I am unable to write more at length. Mr. 
 Hawkins will give particular information if you desire it. — 
 I remain, Rev. and dear Sir, your faithful and obedient 
 servant, W. Cantuar.” 
 
 Here 'was offered ample scope for all the talents which 
 God had given him, and which he had been exercising and 
 improving in subordinate spheres of duty ; and the call came 
 to him from his highest ecclesiastical Superior. Mr. Tyrrell 
 therefore signified his readiness to go. On the 24th of March, 
 the very day of the month on which, thirty-two years later, 
 his heavenly Master called him from his stewardship to 
 Himself, Archbishop Howley writes again to him : — 
 
2 6 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1847. 
 
 “I lose no time in informing you that Her Majesty has 
 been graciously pleased to approve of your being appointed 
 to the Bishopric of Newcastle in Australia. This gives me 
 great satisfaction, and I trust that the blessing of God will 
 be on your Ministry in this most important charge, and 
 further all your endeavours for the establishment of an 
 efficient Clergy, and the advancement of pure religion in the 
 Colony.” 
 
 Six days later Mr. Hawkins wrote out to cheer Bishop 
 Broughton by informing him : — 
 
 “ I can now officially announce the appointment of the 
 Rev. William Tyrrell, ... at present incumbent of Beaulieu, 
 Hants, to the Bishopric of Newcastle. Mr. Tyrrell was an 
 intimate friend of Bishop Selwyn, and is most highly esteemed 
 in his present parish. . . . He is unmarried. . . . The con- 
 secration will probably take place on Whit-Tuesday in West- 
 minster Abbey.” 
 
 His consecration being determined on, Mr. Tyrrell at once 
 began to arrange his plans for quitting his parish, and pre- 
 paring for his future work. He had already given up his 
 pupils ; and now, among many others whom he was to quit, 
 his servants were a special care. One of these had been his 
 mother’s trusted servant when he was but a child, and since 
 1836 she had been his own housekeeper. Of her his old 
 pupil, wdio contributed the reminiscences of his life at 
 Aylestone, writes : — 
 
 “ There is no recalling my private tutor without bringing 
 back to mind his faithful assistant, Mrs. Gardner ; and very 
 interesting it is to find how true master and servant kept to 
 each other through life. When he was chosen for Newcastle 
 he said to her, ‘ I am sorry, Gardner, to have to tell you that 
 I am going to Australia, and so we shall have to part.’ She 
 did not observe the notice to leave in the last part of the 
 announcement, but replied, 4 Then, sir, we must pack up at 
 once, and be ready to be off.’ She could not think of letting 
 4 Mr. William ’ go alone so far.” 
 
 Owing to various obstacles the Consecration was deferred 
 till the 29th of June, the Feast of St. Peter ; when four 
 
iS 4 7-] 
 
 THE CALL TO NEWCASTLE. 
 
 27 
 
 colonial Bishops were consecrated — three for the Australian 
 dioceses of Adelaide, Melbourne, and Newcastle ; and one, 
 the Bev. Robert Gray, for Cape Town. The Archbishop was 
 assisted on the occasion by the Bishop of London (Blomfield) 
 and the Bishops of Gloucester, Winchester, Chichester, and 
 Lichfield. 
 
 Bishop Blomfield preached the sermon on St. John xxi. 
 15. It was a great occasion, and the preacher made the 
 most of it. He showed how Christ had delegated His Pastoral 
 Office to His Apostles, and by the terms of His commission to 
 their successors in all ages ; that the apostolic succession had 
 been preserved unbroken in the Church of England, and that, 
 therefore, her Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, might go forth 
 in full assurance that the Lord’s presence would be with them 
 in the arduous work to which He sent them. He pointed 
 out, from the early history of America and other colonies, 
 that Clergy and people, without Bishops, could not flourish 
 as branches of the Church of Christ. He spoke thankfully 
 of the improved spiritual state of the Colonies since they had 
 obtained Bishops to fill places, like Timothy at Ephesus and 
 St. James the Less at Jerusalem, not as the sole , but the chief 
 authority in their Dioceses ; and he concluded with an affec- 
 tionate appeal to the four Bishops-designate to feed their 
 distant portions of their Saviour’s flock from fervent love to 
 Him, kindled by the sense of His love to their own souls. 
 
 Scarcely was the sermon ended and the Consecration service 
 commenced, when “ the sun burst out in brilliant splendour, 
 lighting up the gray pillars and vaulted roof in glorious 
 richness.” 
 
 Need it be said that for the next thirty-one years St. 
 Peter’s day was kept by Bishop Tyrrell as a solemn anni- 
 versary of heart-searching and devotion ? Within a month 
 he wrote to one who had promised to go out with him : “I 
 hope that you, like myself, have now almost had time to rea- 
 lise the great change in our duties and prospects : and that 
 obedience to the call of duty is not even now without its 
 fruit of calm devoted peace.” 
 
 His time was now fully occupied with the duties conse- 
 
28 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1847. 
 
 quent on leaving liis parish, collecting a little band to accom- 
 pany him, attending frequent meetings, and preaching sermons 
 in widely-distant parts of England, collecting funds for pre- 
 sent needs, and arranging with a Committee for providing 
 annual subscriptions to the young Diocese for five years. 
 
 One of the members of this Committee was Joshua Watson, 
 “ the benefactor of all his brethren. ” He wrote to him a 
 week before he sailed : — 
 
 ‘‘The Lodge, Daventey, September 10, 1847. 
 
 “ My dear Lord Bishop, — I have all along, from the 
 moment I heard of your noble self-devotion and surrender 
 of all home ties to your Master’s call (though His earthly 
 Minister), to serve Him in another hemisphere, deeply re- 
 gretted that our respective circumstances did not allow us 
 more frequent and more familiar intercommunications. 
 And this regret is not, you may well understand, my dear 
 Lord, in any degree lightened by the feeling, that with this 
 brief farewell must end, on my part, all hope of correspon- 
 dence with you on matters of deepest absorbing interest to 
 all true sons of the Church. 
 
 “ At my age, with more than three-fourths of a century 
 passed over me, it were worse than idle to expect that any 
 such correspondence should be vouchsafed to me. Yet I am 
 not willing, therefore, to let go all hold upon your kindly 
 recollections : but hope that you will allow my little packet 
 to bring me occasionally to your notice ; and, if I might so 
 say, to a place in your prayers. The packet, small as it is, 
 your Lordship will perceive is of two parts. The smallest, 
 which, I trust you will graciously accept, is a poor token 
 from the editor for yourself, and reverence for your Office : 
 the other portion, as an offering for the use of your staff on 
 the voyage, in such way as your Lordship may see fit. I 
 had the pleasure of writing to the Metropolitan (Bishop 
 Broughton) so fully by the ‘ Kelso,’ that I will not trouble 
 your Lordship with more at present than my best wishes for 
 a happy voyage, and my earnest assurance that the Divine 
 blessing may be upon your labours by sea and land will be a 
 
1 84 7-1 
 
 THE CALL TO NEWCASTLE. 
 
 29 
 
 continued prayer of, my dear Lord Bishop, — your Lordship’s 
 faithful friend and servant, Joshua Watson. 
 
 “ P.S. I only do not make an offer of future service for the 
 reason already alluded to : hut if opportunity he graciously 
 permitted, your Lordship will know how thankfully I shall 
 avail myself of it.” 
 
 At last the bustle of preparation was nearly over. Satur- 
 day the 1 8th of September was the day appointed for em- 
 barkation. And, as those who frequent the daily Service of 
 the Church so often experience, the morning lessons for the 
 day brought a special message for those who were being 
 sent forth to encounter unknown difficulties on the other 
 side of the world. In the first lesson occurrred Haggai’s 
 words of encouragement : “ Who is left among you that 
 saw this house in its first glory? and how do ye see it 
 now ? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing ? 
 Yet now be strong, 0 Zerubbabel, saith the Lord ; and be 
 strong, 0 Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be 
 strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work : 
 for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. According to 
 the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of 
 Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you : fear ye not.” * 
 And at the end of the second lesson our Master’s own words 
 said : “ Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or 
 sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for 
 My Name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall in- 
 herit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last ; 
 and the last shall be first.” f Such were the sacred words of 
 encouragement and warning that kept recurring that night, 
 amid the dashing of the waves and the creaking of the ship, 
 to those who were leaving their native land for Christ’s 
 work ; like some strain of Handel’s, which, through the vary- 
 ing waves of a grand chorus, comes thrilling in again and 
 again with its familiar notes. 
 
 At 2.30 that Saturday afternoon the last friends were 
 
 * Haggai ii. 3-5. Old Lection ary. f Matt. xix. 29, 30. 
 
30 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [iS47- 
 
 waving their hands from the boat which was taking them 
 back to the shore; and the good ship “Medway,” 653 tons, 
 not half the size of the ships that now make the voyage, left 
 Gravesend, with all her sails set, and bending to the strong 
 westerly breeze. 
 
 The Bishop’s party consisted of his two examining Chap- 
 lains, the Revs. Henry Offiey Irwin, late Curate of Park 
 Street Chapel, Grosvenor Square, and the writer, late Vicar 
 of Compton Dando, Somerset; seven Candidates for Holy 
 Orders ; his excellent housekeeper, Ann Gardner, who was 
 invaluable to him as long as she lived ; a schoolmaster and 
 schoolmistress ; a gardener and a groom who had been with 
 him at Beaulieu, with the wife and children of the former, — 
 twenty in all. The Bishop had provided that the simple 
 fittings of the cabins should be such as would be of service 
 on the arrival of the party in Hew South Wales. Each had 
 a narrow iron bedstead, ship drawers, a washstand conver- 
 tible into a table, and a folding-chair ; so when they arrived 
 at the unknown land, they might find themselves in posses- 
 sion of what was essential, but with no superfluities. His 
 own bedstead, on the Procrustean plan, was no larger than 
 the others, though he was considerably the largest man of 
 his party. On this he ever afterwards slept, and on this, 
 after thirty-two years of unremitting labours, he died. 
 
 The day after sailing, the “ Medway ” experienced a trouble 
 which so often besets outwardbound ships from the Thames, 
 — strong westerly gales, which did well enough to the Horth 
 Foreland, rendered it impossible by any tacking to get down 
 Channel : so she was forced, after getting nearly to Dover, to 
 run back to the Downs, where she lay detained for five tedi- 
 ous days. She was, however, mercifully saved from the fate 
 of a barque lying near her, which was driven ashore in the 
 gale on Sunday night, and getting off into deep water went 
 down by the bows, barely allowing those on board time to 
 take to their boats. 
 
 On that first Sunday the Bishop and his Clergy found 
 some difficulty in getting through one Service. The pre- 
 valent sea-sickness accounted for the rest. In a few days 
 
1 8 4 7 ] 
 
 THE CALL TO NEWCASTLE. 
 
 3i 
 
 all were well seasoned, and liad found tlieir sea legs. And 
 then a regular plan of work was commenced, which con- 
 tinued with little interruption to the end of the voyage. 
 
 Matins and Evensong were said daily in the cuddy. The 
 Sunday services w r ere held for all the passengers and crew on 
 the main deck, and Holy Communion was celebrated monthly. 
 For reading the Bishop took the two eldest Candidates as his 
 own pupils ; and the other five were divided between the two 
 Chaplains. The Captain, with the full consent of the other 
 passengers, allowed the use of the cuddy for an hour after 
 Matins for a general lecture given to the Candidates by the 
 Bishop and his Chaplains. After which each had his own men 
 in his cabin for a certain time each day. So well did the 
 Bishop keep his party employed, that some who were quite 
 sure that they could never read on board ship, found them- 
 selves after a few days more steadily at work than they had 
 ever been in their lives before. A good deal of reading was 
 got over privately in preparation for the coming years in which 
 it was foreseen there would be abundance of distraction. 
 And thus, with the novel sights of flying fish, sharks, dolphins, 
 whales, Portuguese men-of-ivar , and the various unwonted 
 birds, from the tiny sooty petrel to the great white alba- 
 tross poised astern, with its motionless wings and its bright 
 watchful eye, the voyage passed pleasantly enough. One 
 of the Bishop’s sermons, preached from Ephes. v. 15, the 
 epistle for the twentieth Sunday after Trinity, on making a 
 good use of time on board ship, was especially valuable to 
 those wdio heard it, illustrated as it was so well by his own 
 example. Many a young passenger, both male and female, 
 is permanently demoralised during the long voyage to the 
 southern hemisphere by want of firmness to resist the idle- 
 ness of ocean life, and of faith to continue habits of devotion 
 under the entire change of the surroundings which begins from 
 the first stepping on board. Things were not quite so bad 
 then as in those earlier days, when it used to be said, that 
 those who went to India left their religion at the Cape, and 
 could not find it when they came home again. But if the 
 unsettling influences of a voyage are allowed to work un- 
 
32 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1847. 
 
 checked, the emigrant is less fitted to resist the temptations 
 of colonial life thanwhen he left home. In this respect the 
 Bishop’s words were very useful, and set some who heard him 
 on practically “ redeeming the time.” And thus they landed 
 with principles strengthened instead of weakened by their 
 time of ocean leisure. 
 
 The voyage was unusually tedious as far as the Equator, 
 which was not crossed until the fiftieth day. There was, 
 however, this compensation, that some lovely views were 
 obtained of the Canary Islands. And eyes, that had seen 
 nothing but sea and sky for weeks, were refreshed by the 
 soft lights and deep shadows that passed over the cloud- 
 belted peak of Teneriffe and the rugged cliffs of Palma. 
 Ten days later the bold volcanic masses of the Cape Verde 
 Islands were reached. And as disease had carried off nearly 
 all the poultry on board, the Captain went ashore at Brava, 
 where he procured fowls, with the welcome addition of 
 bananas, guavas, and oranges. Some of the Bishop’s party 
 gladly accepted the Captain’s invitation to accompany him 
 ashore ; but the Bishop himself declined : characteristically 
 preferring the unbroken regularity of his day’s work to the 
 indulgence of a not unnatural desire to see for once in his 
 life a strange island. 
 
 Brava is a Portuguese settlement. A few dwellings and 
 the Custom House are dotted about the little semicircular 
 landing-place. And from thence a steep ascent over bold 
 irregular masses of rock leads up nearly two miles to a 
 gorge, which opens with a slight downward slope into a 
 little basin three-quarters of a mile in diameter, looking 
 like the crater of an extinct volcano. On three sides fine 
 abrupt peaks rise up into cloud. And in this hollow, the 
 little village, with its Church and the houses of the 
 Governor and parish Priest, lies screened from the fury of 
 the Atlantic storms. The houses are not contiguous : each 
 stands in its own little plot of garden ground, surrounded by 
 evergreens and fruit trees. 
 
 The parish Priest was visited. But conversation was the 
 difficulty. English or Portuguese, the languages of the two 
 
i-s 4 s. ] 
 
 THE CALL TO NEWCASTLE. 
 
 33 
 
 Clergy, were out of the question. An attempt ^vas made in 
 Latin. But here the difference of pronunciation was an 
 obstacle, and the conversation hung fire. At last a pencil 
 and paper were produced, and a Latin conversation was 
 briskly carried on in writing, to the satisfaction of both the 
 tongue-tied men. 
 
 The poor CaptaiiTs mission was not altogether successful. 
 The boat had shipped several seas ; and the sailors had put 
 in the fowls so carelessly that many of them were drowned 
 before they reached the ship. 
 
 After another fortnight of light winds the Line was 
 crossed ; and, with the exception of a few days, the re- 
 mainder of the voyage was prosperous. Fair winds and a 
 good log have a 'wonderful effect in quickening the specu- 
 lations of all on board ship as to plans in the rapidly 
 approaching future. In the frequent consultations in the 
 Bishop’s cabin, and during the daily walks with him on 
 deck, the state of the Church in the Colony and the plans 
 for future work were eagerly discussed. Before he left 
 England he had proposed to himself to start a Diocesan 
 College as soon as possible after his arrival : now the days 
 were fast approaching when he would have to act instead of 
 theorise. And calling to mind what he had heard of the 
 difficulties which beset Bishop Broughton’s College from 
 paucity of pupils and lack of funds, and reflecting upon the 
 exertions and expenses necessary to provide Clergy for the 
 enormous area of his own Diocese, he began to express 
 serious doubts as to the wisdom of spending any energies in 
 the early days of his work upon a scheme which seemed pre- 
 mature. 
 
 The first Australian land sighted was Cape Otway ; two 
 days later "Wilson’s Promontory was passed ; and after 
 coasting along the stretch of Ninety-mile beach, Cape Howe 
 was doubled, and the good ship steered northward, to run up 
 the eastern seaboard of New South Wales. 
 
 It need not be said how eagerly each feature of the bold 
 and forest-covered country was scanned, or how fast imagi- 
 nation stretched on to the work to which the little party 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1848. 
 
 was called. But there was still need of patience. In the 
 last days of her voyage, as well as at the beginning of it, 
 the “ Medway ” was retarded by contrary winds. Three 
 evenings she tacked away to the eastward, and three 
 mornings the hills of Wollongong were in sight as she 
 tacked hack to the coast. On one of those days, when she 
 was labouring against a northerly wind, the “ Penyard 
 Park,” homeward hound, met her in full sail, having on 
 board Mr. Cotton, who was returning to England from his 
 work in New Zealand. 
 
 At last a dark line was seen astern on the horizon, the 
 welcome southerly breeze came on; and early on Sunday 
 morning, the 16th of January 1848, Bishop Tyrrell and his 
 party passed between the grand sandstone heads of Sydney 
 harbour. 
 
 After a protracted voyage of seventeen weeks any land 
 would have been a pleasant sight. But those who know 
 that exquisitely beautiful harbour can understand the delight 
 with which all eyes gazed upon the scene which opened out 
 before them. There was the bold rocky entrance on either 
 side, sloping by degrees into bays fringed with the whitest 
 sand ; the many wooded promontories dotted with villas ; 
 the little islands, brightly green from the rains which had 
 lately relieved the exhaustion of a three years’ drought, 
 leading the eye on through seven miles of varying beauty 
 to Sydney, with its Churches rising among streets and public 
 buildings, where but seventy years before the first wooden 
 huts of the convict establishment were erected in the bush. 
 Away to the west the scene was backed up by the softened 
 outline of the Blue Mountain range. Overhead the eye 
 looked up into a cloudless sky of intense blue, such as Eng- 
 land never sees, and the perfectly transparent water almost 
 equalled in colour the sky above. 
 
 About 8.45 Government House was passed, and off 
 Campbell’s wharf the anchor was let go, and the voyage 
 was ended. 
 
 A Christian Bishop could not have desired a better 
 welcome ; — the bells were sounding for the Morning Service. 
 
I S48. ] THE CALL TO NEWCASTLE. 35 
 
 Two of the Sydney Clergy appointed by the Bishop came on 
 board ; and, conducted by them, Bishop Tyrrell and some of 
 his party went to the temporary Cathedral of St. Andrew’s ; 
 and the writer with the remainder to St. James’s Church. 
 In both congregations special thanksgivings were offered to 
 God for the mercies of a safe voyage, without one death or 
 even accident, and the Holy Eucharist was celebrated. And 
 full hearts, not unmindful of those they had left in the land 
 of their birth, rejoiced to “ sing the Lord’s song in a strange 
 land.” 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ARRIVAL AT SYDNEY — WORK OF FIRST YEAR . 
 
 1848. 
 
 “ It is the heritage of the Church to find difficulties, and to magnify the grace 
 of God in overcoming them .” — Speech of the Bishop of Oxford , Wilberforce t at 
 Salisbury . P. 267. 
 
 When the “ Medway ” arrived, Bishop Broughton was absent 
 on a Visitation ; but he had left a note of cordial welcome, in- 
 viting Bishop Tyrrell to make any use of his house, and had 
 given directions that all means of information as to the Diocese 
 of Newcastle should be placed at his disposal. As for the 
 Clergy and Laymen of Sydney, nothing could exceed the 
 hospitality with which they received the new arrivals, and 
 laid themselves out to help them in every way. 
 
 The first necessity was to dispose of ail the party that had 
 just landed. And three vacant Cures in the valley of the 
 Hunter supplied the means of doing so. Morpeth, twenty 
 miles from the mouth of the river, had a Church and Par- 
 sonage, but had never yet had a resident Parish Priest. This 
 was fixed upon as the most suitable place for the Bishop’s 
 temporary residence. 
 
 Thirty-five miles farther up was the township of Singleton, 
 where there was a Parsonage and School, but no Church ; and 
 thirty miles beyond it, Muswell Brook, which had a Church 
 as well as a School and Parsonage. After a little consultation, 
 Mr. Irwin was destined for Singleton, and I for Muswell 
 Brook. On the Wednesday Mr. Irwin, with the greater 
 number of the party, went up temporarily to Morpeth, and 
 the rest followed by the end of the week. 
 
 In the meantime the Bishop of Sydney had returned, and 
 
i8 4 8.] 
 
 ARRIVAL AT SYDNEY. 
 
 37 
 
 was delighted to find in liis fellow -worker one so capable in 
 mind and body, and so evidently resolved to throw himself 
 heart and soul into the work to which he had been called. 
 
 In a few days he presided at a joint meeting of the Diocesan 
 Committee and the Church of England Lay Association, to 
 give public welcome to the new Bishop. In the address of 
 the Diocesan Committee, read by the noio Metropolitan 
 Bishop, amidst words of congratulation and hope, it was 
 said : “ This instance of the division of a Colony into several 
 Dioceses we would regard as an indication that the Episcopate 
 will in future be made commensurate with the necessities of 
 the increasing population of the Colonial Empire, and the 
 practicability of its efficient superintendence.” Nor was this 
 a vain expectation. There was good reason for believing 
 that where there had been a healthy growth there must be 
 life, and that where there was life further growth might be 
 expected. When those v r ords were read in St. James’ infant 
 schoolroom there were four Bishops in the whole of Aus- 
 tralia, three of whom had only just arrived ; now there are 
 eleven.* 
 
 In the address of the Lay Association allusion was made to 
 the labours that awaited the new Prelates, and to the “ bless- 
 ings likely to spring from the concurrent creation of three 
 additional Bishoprics in a territory the vast extent of which 
 is, for the most part, unmarked even by parochial features, 
 and within which a large and dispersed population is to be 
 found, rarely participating in, and in not a few cases alto- 
 gether destitute of, the ministrations of the Clergy.” 
 
 In the course of his reply to the address read by the 
 Metropolitan, the Bishop of Newcastle said : “ Be assured 
 that your cordial welcome to the land of # our future labours 
 has affected and encouraged me more, far more, than I am 
 able to express. . . . The hope is confidently entertained by 
 many in England, that in the Colonies, and not least, I trust, 
 
 * Sydney and its three offsets, Goulbourn, Bathurst, and North 
 Queensland ; Newcastle, the parent of Brisbane, and Grafton-and-Armi- 
 dale ; Melbourne, from which Ballarat has been formed ; and the two 
 as yet undivided Sees, Adelaide and Perth. 
 
3 : 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 in this our Colony, the blessings of an increased Episcopate 
 will be so manifest as to react upon the mother country, and 
 produce an increase of the Episcopate there.* Let us en- 
 deavour not to fall short of what is thus expected of us.” 
 
 Replying to the lay address, the Bishop said : “ I have ex- 
 pressed my gratification at finding a body of influential Lay- 
 men united as you are. I rejoice to think that you value the 
 privileges of the Church, and that you feel the responsibility 
 which lies upon you of imparting those privileges to others. 
 You wish to extend the Communion of the Church, and 
 therefore you rejoice at the arrival of another chief Pastor 
 of the Church with his additional Clergy. Allow me to 
 remind you that the extension of the Church depends quite 
 as much upon you as upon us. Your holy lives will ever be 
 the most irresistible argument to persuade others to join our 
 Communion.” 
 
 Nearly a fortnight was well spent in consultation with the 
 Metropolitan, in making the acquaintance of the leading Clergy 
 and Laity, and in mastering the outlines of the work before him, 
 a work which, the more it was contemplated, showed more 
 clearly that it required an unflagging and many-sided energy in 
 him to whom it was committed. The nominal extent of the 
 Diocese was from the river Hawkesbury on the south to the 
 2 ist parallel of latitude on the north; and from the Pacific 
 on the east to the boundary of South Australia, the 141st 
 degree of longitude on the west, — about 800 miles by 700. 
 The portion actually settled was 500 miles by about 250. 
 British “ squatters ” had pushed out to the extremities of this 
 enormous area in search of pasturage for their flocks and 
 herds ; and shepherds or stockmen, in some cases with their 
 wives and children, were thinly dotted about. Some of these 
 '“were respectable emigrants; not a few* were restless ne’er-do- 
 weels who had done badly in the old country and thought they 
 might “do better somewhere else ” — in most of such cases a 
 
 * Now we may thankfully acknowledge not only the benefits which 
 several suffragan Bishops are to existing Sees, but the formation of the 
 new Bishoprics of St. Alban’s, Truro, and Liverpool, as well as the pro- 
 spect ere long of one at Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
 
iS 4 S.] 
 
 WORK OF FIRST YEAR. 
 
 39 
 
 vain hope ; and many were convicts who had served their 
 time and were socially “ free,” but were, to say the least, of 
 low moral tone ; a large number of them being of unbridled 
 habits, further corrupted by their associates in crime, 
 brutalised by the harsh and unjust treatment they had re- 
 ceived from their masters, as assigned servants, and carrying 
 deterioration among those with whom they were thrown 
 together, who had not like themselves been previously steeped 
 in crime. On the alluvial lands along the courses of the 
 rivers there were agricultural settlers. And there were the 
 three larger towns of Newcastle, East and West Maitland, 
 on the lower Hunter; Brisbane, 500 miles to the north, and 
 some twenty lesser towns and villages. 
 
 To work with him among a population thus sown broad- 
 cast over more than 125,000 square miles, Bishop Tyrrell 
 found only twelve Clergy on the spot, and he had brought 
 two out with him. Could these have been equally distri- 
 buted over the Diocese, each would have had a district 
 of nearly 9000 square miles in extent. But of necessity the 
 larger number were occupied in the more populous districts, 
 and enormous tracts were as yet unvisited. Such were some 
 of the facts which the Bishop’s inquiries in Sydney elicited. 
 He had lived several months in the few days which had 
 elapsed since his landing, and wrote on the 28th of January : 
 “ Since you left me here I have been in an incessant whirl, 
 and I shall be very glad to be quiet for a time at Morpeth. 
 Your next letter may be directed to me there, and I shall 
 hope soon to be able to see you.” 
 
 On Sunday the 30th of January, which was his forty- 
 first birthda} r , he was installed in what, by courtesy, was, 
 and still is, called “the Cathedral” at Newcastle. Christ- 
 church is beautifully situated at the entrance to the Diocese ; 
 for even up to the present time there is hardly a practicable 
 land route from Sydney, so rugged is the country between 
 the two cities. From the wharf, where the steamer stops 
 on its way up the Hunter to Morpeth, the Church is but 
 half a mile distant. You had better not look up at it, but 
 rather reserve yourself for the beautiful view from the top 
 
40 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1848. 
 
 of the hill. Standing at the tower door, which by the 
 Government Architect was placed at the east end, you look 
 eastward over the broad expanse of the blue Pacific. 
 Sweeping gently outward to the left, the coast-line stretches 
 to the north towards Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, and 
 the Clarence river, in the direction of the far-off district of 
 Moreton Bay ; while to the right, the successive headlands 
 of sandstone recede gradually for sixty miles south to the 
 heads of Sydney harbour. If we turn to the north- 
 westward, the Hunter stretches up through the richest 
 alluvial soil, bearing its abundant crops of lucerne and 
 maize, with, at intervals, productive vineyards and oran- 
 geries. In the distance the eye falls on hills rising towards 
 the heights of Mount Royal, the parent of the Williams, 
 Alleyn, and Paterson, tributaries of the Hunter ; while 
 to the west of these succeeds the bold Liverpool range, 
 with its trap-rock formation, which at Pandora Pass trends 
 to the south. This is the dividing range between the 
 rivers which run their short course eastward to the 
 Pacific, and those which flow westward through more than 
 a thousand miles by the Darling and Murray to South 
 Australia. 
 
 The view from Christchurch Cathedral, in its extreme 
 outlines, takes in a considerable part of what is now the 
 twice-reduced Diocese of Newcastle. On the day when 
 Bishop Tyrrell gazed upon it, after his Installation, it formed 
 a very small part of what was entrusted to his care. 
 
 On arriving at Morpeth he went at once to the Par- 
 sonage, there being no Episcopal residence. An infinite 
 number of small details connected with settling all his 
 party, and receiving the many English packages from 
 Sydney, required his attention daily. But without delay 
 he began his triple work, as Parish Priest of Morpeth, as 
 director of the reading of the two senior Candidates, whose 
 Ordination would take place in six weeks ; and, as Bishop, 
 making the acquaintance of the neighbouring Clergy, and 
 learning the condition of their parishes. His plan was to 
 spend the approaching season of Lent in hard work in 
 
iS 4 S. ] 
 
 WORK OF FIRST YEAR. 
 
 4i 
 
 Morpeth and its neighbourhood; to procure, if possible, a 
 house for himself as Bishop ; to maintain correspondence 
 with various parts of his Diocese by letter in the meantime ; 
 and then to visit as much of it as he could by the end of the 
 year — a tolerably full paper of agenda. 
 
 He discovered in a few days that the state of things in 
 most of the parishes was very unsatisfactory. 
 
 According to the provisions of the Church Act, sums of 
 money had been granted by Government for the erection of 
 Churches, Schools, and Parsonages, on the understanding that 
 the rest of the amount would be provided by subscription. 
 The Sydney Diocesan Committee had given its aid ; some 
 of the more honourable local subscribers had paid what 
 they had promised ; but many had refused to aid, or had 
 neglected to fulfil their promises : so that, in some cases, 
 buildings that were begun had been abandoned ; while others 
 had been finished with borrowed money, to repay which no 
 attempt was made ; the interest being met, year by year, 
 by pew-rents or subscriptions. It is but right to say 
 that the whole Colony for some years had been passing 
 through a period of severe monetary depression, which had 
 ruined many ; and that anything like prosperity was very 
 slow in returning. The Bishop of Sydney, speaking of one 
 of these deserted buildings, said that when, a few years 
 before, he was asked to lay the foundation of St. Clement's 
 Church, Falbrook, there were six or seven gentlemen of the 
 neighbourhood standing round him, any one of whom was 
 considered quite able to have provided the entire cost of the 
 erection. The walls had been carried up but a few feet 
 when the times of trouble came. Most of the proprietors 
 left the district ; no subscriptions were attainable ; and it 
 was not until the Bishop of Newcastle had been seven years 
 in the Diocese that it was possible to finish it ; and then in 
 a far less costly manner than had been originally designed. 
 Writing from Morpeth on the 5th of February 1848, the 
 Bishop said : “ I am here in a perfect whirl of business, with 
 scarcely a moment free from intruders. And certainly the 
 situation of our Church, both at Morpeth and at Maitland, is 
 
42 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1848. 
 
 most unsatisfactory. Every Church and building belonging 
 to the Church is encumbered with debt.” Apart from the 
 straitness of the times, there was a very general paralysis 
 of the disposition to give. In the case of most of the colo- 
 nists it had not been called into exercise in the mother 
 country : they had seen Churches, Schools, and Parsonages 
 which existed before their birth, or had been provided 
 without their aid ; and in the Colony they looked for the 
 same privileges without the thought of exerting themselves 
 to procure them. They looked first to the Colonial Govern- 
 ment, then to the Church Societies, then to the most wealthy 
 settlers or officials ; and now that they had a Bishop, he would 
 of course open the stores, out of which the deficit would be 
 provided. Well ! so he did, erelong ; but not exactly as 
 they had expected ; he did it by teaching them that they 
 were not debarred from the privilege, nor released from the 
 duty, of giving according to their own means. But this 
 education, in every way so productive of good to them, cost 
 much labour, and made large demands on that perseverance, 
 wisdom, and forbearance which he possessed in so large a 
 measure. 
 
 These Church wants were discovered more and more as 
 months and years passed on ; but by degrees funds grew out 
 of the people themselves, the Bishop helping as well as 
 teaching them to contribute. 
 
 Before leaving England he had assisted a friend in need 
 by putting ^6000 into his business. One of the first letters 
 he received after his arrival in the Colony announced his 
 friend’s entire failure and his own heavy loss in consequence. 
 This of course implied a very serious crippling of his means 
 of working, yet there was nothing in his manner to indicate 
 to those who saw most of him that anything untoward had 
 happened. Duties had to be done, and were energetically 
 done ; his anxieties he laid before his God, and went forward. 
 
 Another trouble which met him at the beginning of his 
 work was the death of one of his Clergy, Mr. Gregor, of 
 Moreton Bay, who was drowned while bathing. It was not 
 the loss of a personal friend, for he had never seen him; 
 
1848.] 
 
 WORK OF FIRST YEAR. 
 
 43 
 
 but tlie loss of one of tlie small body was a serious matter, 
 especially as the district was a large one, and 500 miles off. 
 Happily he was enabled to induce the Clergyman who had 
 been at Singleton, and was leaving the Diocese, to go up 
 there and take temporary charge of the district. If to all 
 this it is added that in many townships there were no 
 schools, and those that existed were in the most unsatisfactory 
 state, it is not to be wondered at that, in a postscript to a 
 letter written to me at this time, he said : — 
 
 “ My head is nearly splitting from the number of things 
 I have to think of. It will be a great treat to me to pay you 
 a visit. ” 
 
 "With Lent he began daily Morning Service; and on the 
 second Sunday in Lent, the 19th of March, held his first 
 Ordination, at which he admitted to Deacon’s Orders the two 
 senior Candidates, one of whom he kept with him. Eeing 
 thus partially relieved from parish duties, he was somewhat 
 freer to give himself to the work which was opening in all 
 directions. He did not trust to meetings and general 
 statements ; but, with a ubiquitous activity, dropped a word 
 of advice or encouragement wherever he saw a chance of 
 arousing or directing those who might aid in the good work. 
 Parochial visiting was not so carefully done as it was after- 
 wards ; and one of the daughters of a neighbouring Clergyman 
 remembers his calling during his first days, and saying he 
 wanted the young ladies to do something for him ; to 
 “sketch out a plan of the parish, putting down every 
 cottage, and marking the name of the family residing in 
 each, as ‘Church/ ‘Wesleyan/ ‘Presbyterian/ or ‘Koman 
 Catholic/ as the case might be. We thought it a formidable 
 business, but he said he would give us time, several months 
 if we liked. I remember we had to go to many houses for 
 the first time. Eut as we found out our people, it dimly 
 dawned on us that he had asked us to do this more for our 
 own sakes than for any information that our plan would give 
 him. I hope the lesson was not lost upon us.” 
 
 He could use austerity where he thought it needful, when 
 he saw that the conscience was very sound asleep and would 
 
44 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1848. 
 
 not arouse at a gentle call. But he trained many more by 
 gentle ways, very often partly doing a thing himself, and 
 encouraging the slow, untaught, or timid, to get under weigh 
 by finishing what he had begun. 
 
 The masters of the few Church schools that he found 
 were, most of them, very inefficient. To improve matters, 
 he would not only ride out and give the teaching himself 
 in the form of an examination, as a pattern to the master ; 
 but afterwards, without snubbing or dispiriting him, would 
 give him such advice, and send him such books for his own 
 reading, as set him going in a better way. During this Lent 
 he learnt much as well as taught much, by having special 
 week-day Services in the parishes and little settlements 
 around, and talking to the people. 
 
 During the week before the Ordination he consulted his 
 two Chaplains as to the advisability of purchasing, as the 
 Bishop’s residence, a large unfinished house beyond Mait- 
 land, Aberglaslyn. They rode out to see it : but it was a 
 pretentious building, inconveniently placed for himself and 
 for his Clergy, and altogether unsuited for what should be the 
 centre of the business of the Diocese : and so, as no eligible 
 house could then be found, the idea was abandoned. In a 
 few weeks Mr. Close, who had received from the Government 
 the land on which Morpeth was built, sold him his own 
 house ; and retired for a while to the large wood-built bunga- 
 low which he had put up when he first settled at Morpeth. 
 There he remained for a time, until he had completed a house 
 on a piece of land adjoining that which he had sold to the 
 Bishop. 
 
 Edward Charles Close was a man whom the Bishop and 
 the Church could ill have spared — a kindly, conscientious, 
 high-principled Christian gentleman, ever forward in good 
 and useful works. In early life he had served under the 
 Duke of Wellington in India and in the Peninsula ; and 
 in one of the seven engagements named on the seven clasps 
 of his medal, he had vowed, while lying down with his regi- 
 ment under heavy fire — himself untouched among his dead 
 or wounded comrades — that if, by God’s mercy, his life were 
 
1 84S.] 
 
 WORK OF FIRST YEAR. 
 
 45 
 
 spared, lie would build a Cburcli as soon as liis means should 
 enable him to do so. 
 
 In the year 1817 Mr. Close arrived with his regiment, the 
 48th, in New South Wales, and, in 1821, received a grant of 
 land which he had selected, on and around the present site of 
 Morpeth. 
 
 He had not forgotten his vow. For a while church-build- 
 ing was impossible. He had settled in the unreclaimed bush : 
 there was not then a single Clergyman on the Hunter river : 
 nor was there one until 1831, when the Kev. C. P. N. Wil- 
 ton was placed at Newcastle : followed three years later by 
 the Rev. G. K. Rusden, who was appointed to East Mait- 
 land, two miles from Morpeth. 
 
 But Mr. Close did what he could. Just and kind to his 
 convict servants, which was far more than could be said of 
 many of the masters of those evil days ; he felt himself 
 responsible for their good; and he assembled them for 
 prayer on the Lord’s-day. He opened a Sunday school for 
 the children of those around him, and, with the members of 
 his family, taught in it ; and when any were sick or dying, 
 he was found at their bedside, giving and administering 
 remedies because there was no doctor, and reading to and 
 praying with them, when there was no Clergyman. 
 
 In those days the Government not only gave a site for a 
 Church when required, but also a grant towards the erection 
 of the building. But when the time came that Mr. Close 
 was able to perform the vow made in his time of danger, he 
 gave wholly what he had promised — the Church and the site 
 also. For the Parsonage a money-grant was given; and 
 though others had failed to contribute their proportion, Mr. 
 Close did the part which fell to him. 
 
 In Zanzibar a Church consecrates ground which was once 
 the slave-market. Bishop Tyrrell acquired a house for the 
 See already consecrated by the good Christian example which 
 had been some time shining there, “ like a light in a dark 
 place.” 
 
 Before the Bishop started on his first journey up the Hunter, 
 he was cheered by receiving a letter of affectionate greeting 
 
46 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1848. 
 
 from his old friend the Bishop of New Zealand. It is 
 dated — 
 
 “ Schooner ‘ Undine,’ Nelson Harbour, 
 iStk April 1848. 
 
 “ My dear Brother, — The news of yonr arrival at Sydney 
 reached me at a place which yon never heard of, — Iniang, 
 near Anaitenm, one of the New Hebrides. . . . But now, 
 as I lie at anchor near a vessel which intends to sail to- 
 morrow, I send across the seas those fervent good wishes 
 which I hope one day to express in person ; or, if not, to 
 make them the subject of daily prayer for your welfare and 
 the prosperity of your Diocese. It is, indeed, a wonderful 
 Providence which has linked us together through life. . . . 
 Every day convinces me more that the life of a Colonial 
 Bishop may come nearer to the happiness of a Parish Priest 
 than would be possible for one of our Order in England. 
 Instead of that state which destroys sympathy and 
 
 begets ill-will, we may live in the hearts of many of our 
 flock, as we did, I trust, when we were only Shepherds of 
 the second class. My last two days have been spent in 
 intercourse of this character with honest country settlers ; 
 dining with one, and supping with another ; and among the 
 village schools which, in this healthful and moral popula- 
 tion, already give promise of a great and godly nation. And 
 though there are drawbacks everywhere, in the form of 
 schism and opposition and calumny, yet nothing seems to 
 shake the firm and growing hope of future love and har- 
 mony with my people. ... I speak of these blessings be- 
 cause I trust that you will meet with the same : not that I 
 doubt your spirit of perseverance even under adverse cir- 
 cumstances ; but that, if you should find your Diocese not like 
 your own dear little Beaulieu, you will look forward to the 
 day when, out of the elements which seem without form and 
 void, you will see beauty and order growing up, till patience 
 has the fruit of its work in as much perfection as God sees 
 it good for us to enjoy. We shall meet, I hope, at Sydney, 
 at the summons of our Metropolitan, and talk over a thou- 
 sand subjects of interest. 0 qui complexus , et gaudici 
 
i S 4 S. ] 
 
 WORK OF FIRST YEAR. 
 
 47 
 
 quanta ! . . . Success to all your wanderings. God bless 
 and guide you. Your affectionate friend and brother, 
 
 “ G. A. — New Zealand.” 
 
 And now, for the greater part of the remainder of this 
 year, the Bishop w r as “in journeyings often.” He set 
 himself a hard task — to go over nearly the whole of his 
 Diocese and acquaint himself with the people and their 
 wants. 
 
 In those days there was not a railroad in all Australia. 
 To Moreton Bay and back there was a steamer touching at 
 Newcastle twice a week : but every mile in all other direc- 
 tions he had to travel on horseback ; and an excellent 
 horseman he was, however little he had ridden in England. 
 To gain some idea of his labours at this time, I look 
 at his itinerary, as contained at the end of a letter I 
 received from him, and see that on the 4th and 5th of May 
 he rode out to two places about eight and ten miles down 
 the Hunter Valley and back. Then, after one day’s work at 
 Morpeth, four days w T ere spent in a journey up the Paterson 
 and the Williams, where the Passion flower hangs on the 
 bushes by the river’s bank ; to w T ork at Paterson, Dungog, and 
 Clarence town. After one day more of work at Morpeth, he 
 started on his Visitation of the Upper Hunter. Announcing 
 his coming, he writes : “ Would you meet me at Falbrook 
 on Monday the 15 th, about twelve o’clock. Mr. Irwin will 
 accompany me so far on my way from Singleton.” (To 
 Singleton he had ridden the day before from Morpeth, thirty- 
 five miles.) “ I should then accompany you back to Muswell 
 Brook ” (thirty miles that day) ; ‘ £ remain with you that night, 
 ride on with you to Scone on the Tuesday on a horse which 
 you must provide for me, and return to Muswell Brook that 
 night” (thirty-two miles) ; “remain with you on Wednesday, 
 taking part in your Evening Service ; and on Thursday, ask 
 for your company to Merton, where Mr. Cooper will meet 
 me, and conduct me on to Jerry’s Plains ” (about thirty miles 
 more). “ This will be a nice little visit, and allow me some 
 nice opportunity of chat with you. I do not Confirm on this 
 
4 S 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1848. 
 
 visit; but when I hope to visit you again in August. — 
 I remain, my dear sir, your sincere and attached friend, 
 
 “W. Newcastle.” 
 
 Very pleasant and very improving were these “ opportuni- 
 ties of chat,” separated, as the Clergy were, far from each other. 
 A good ride with the Bishop was looked forward to as a time 
 of refreshment, and left one stimulated to fresh exertion, 
 often with counsel which cleared up some difficulty, and with 
 the encouragement of hearing how the good work was pro- 
 gressing in other quarters. 
 
 On this first visit the Bishop w 7 as met four miles out of 
 Muswell Brook by some twenty horsemen, who came to wel- 
 come and escort him into their pleasantly situated little tow T n. 
 He was not fond of demonstrations, and would have preferred 
 riding quietly up to the Parsonage : but was pleased at the 
 good-will shown to himself and the respect paid to his 
 Office. The welcome then given was not a mere excitement : 
 for, in common with many other parts of the Diocese, Mus- 
 well Brook has since consistently shown a steady and increas- 
 ing zeal, and a readiness to work with the Bishop for the 
 common good. 
 
 The next day was occupied in riding to Scone to make 
 acquaintance with the Rev. John Morse, who, a few years 
 before, had come out with his family from the parish of 
 Huntley in Gloucestershire. 
 
 After two more days fully occupied in the Church and 
 the school, and in making acquaintance with many of the 
 poorer as well as the richer inhabitants of Muswell Brook 
 and its neighbourhood, the Bishop rode to Merton, a small 
 township twelve miles off, where, after Service in the little 
 wood-built “ Court House,” he stirred up the slumbering ener- 
 gies of the Building Committee of the Church. The bricks 
 had been made some time before ; and there the work stood, 
 without any apparent prospect of advancing. The Bishop 
 talked over ways and means with the treasurer, Mr. George 
 Blaxland ; encouraged him and the Committee by the pro- 
 mise of help; and the work was soon set going and the 
 
i3 4 3.] 
 
 WORK OF FIRST YEAR. 
 
 49 
 
 Church eventually completed. But the treasurer did not 
 Jive to see it. Rather more than a year after this he was 
 killed by the overturn of liis carriage as he was driving 
 down the steep bank of the river Hunter opposite to his 
 own house. May we not trust that the proceedings of 
 that day at Merton were a blessing to that strong, healthy, 
 business-like settler, which neither he nor the Bishop could 
 foresee. The Bishop’s sermon is mentioned in a journal of 
 that time as “ a striking one,” on the text, “ Thy Kingdom 
 come ! ” The renewal of the discontinued work began in con- 
 sequence of that day’s proceedings; and when the sudden 
 call came, the servant was found to be engaged with others 
 in doing something for his heavenly Master’s service. 
 
 After spending one night with the Rev. J. Cooper at J erry’s 
 Plains, where were the foundations of a stone Church (to this 
 day unfinished), and giving encouragement towards the com- 
 pletion of a nice little Church in another part of his district 
 at Wark worth, he returned at the end of six days’ good work 
 to Morpeth. His next anxiety was to look after the most 
 northerly cure of his Diocese, Brisbane ; which he had now 
 placed under Mr. Glennie who had been ordained in Lent. 
 For this he started by steamer from Newcastle after ten busy 
 days at Morpeth. The month he spent there was incessantly 
 occupied in arranging the details of the work to be done in 
 that overwhelming district, and in frequent personal inter- 
 course with the chief settlers and inhabitants. He was then, 
 and afterwards, painfully sensible of the evils of entrusting a 
 large lone cure, far away from all clerical aid, to a Deacon; and 
 allowed himself to make such an appointment only to avoid 
 the still greater evil of leaving the district absolutely unpro- 
 vided for. 
 
 Reaching Morpeth at the beginning of July, he allowed 
 himself one month of what might have been supposed to be 
 rest at home, but what was really one of incessant labour, 
 clearing off arrears, and keeping abreast of the fresh duties 
 and emergencies which each day brought him. 
 
 The first of August found him again at Singleton, on his 
 promised Confirmation tour up the Hunter. He took nearly 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1848. 
 
 the same route as before, only on this occasion extending his 
 visitation to Murrurundi, under the Liverpool range, forty- 
 five miles above Muswell Brook ; and on his return avoiding 
 Merton, and riding directly to Jerry’s Plains. This journey 
 occupied about ten days. I was not surprised to receive from 
 him a letter, dated August 1 5th, saying, “ I reached home in 
 safety, but with both my horses nearly knocked up.” And 
 for himself ; “ my wrist is fairly aching with my continued 
 writing.” Early in September he was distressed by the death of 
 Mr. Ison, one of the Candidates for Ordination he had brought 
 out. There was much that was lovable in his character and 
 disposition. But soon after his arrival consumption had 
 showed itself, and for several months he had been sinking 
 rapidly. The Bishop says, “ Poor Mr. Ison was released 
 most easily and happily on Monday evening, the 4th ; and I 
 followed him to the grave as chief mourner yesterday ; it 
 was a melancholy scene.” 
 
 Again the Bishop was on his journeys, this time to the 
 southern part of his Diocese. On the day he wrote he was 
 starting to the house of a respected settler at Mount Vincent, 
 Mr. W. Knox Child, who had, by his own and his sons’ labour, 
 erected a wooden Church. Thence he went on to the beauti- 
 ful, though out-of-the-way district of Brisbane Water, where 
 at that time there was no Church. On the 1 7 th of September 
 his Ordination Examination began : and three Candidates 
 were ordained to the Diaconate. 
 
 There was still the large district of New England un- 
 visited. So, after a few days at home, he started to make 
 acquaintance with that part of his Diocese, and much of the 
 country between it and the coast. It occupied the greatest 
 part of October and November. And on the 27th Decem- 
 ber he writes to one of his old Johnian friends, the Rev. 
 W. H. Hoare, whom he had appointed his Commissary in 
 England : — 
 
 “ At the end of last month I returned from my long jour- 
 ney on horseback of 1200 miles ; in high spirits on account 
 of the good which I was enabled to do ; but certainly, to 
 my good housekeeper’s dismay, somewhat worn and thin. I 
 
I S48. ] 
 
 WORK OF FIRST YEAR. 
 
 5i 
 
 was away nearly two months ; and you can scarcely imagine 
 the wear and tear of such a journey. Not only is there the 
 riding, forty, fifty, sixty, or even seventy miles in the day ; 
 but Service in the evening, when you get to your place 
 of rest : sometimes a second Service in the middle of the 
 day ; and some few times a third Service. And then the 
 stretch of mind required to ascertain the extent of spiritual 
 destitution and neglect in each place, and to look into the 
 characters, and find out the opinions, of those you wish to 
 influence : ending in your deciding what is best and what 
 is practicable to be done. And then, without offending, 
 to point out the evil, and persuade them to apply the prac- 
 ticable remedy. I have fortunately been long in the habit of 
 pursuing trains of thought closely during my walks about my 
 parish, and I am able to do this also on horseback ; so that in 
 these rides the mind is really more worked than the body. 
 For three weeks of this time I was in the important district of 
 New England : and, I hope, effected these important improve- 
 ments : — 1. I have persuaded almost every settler or squatter 
 to have family prayers in the evening. 2. To have Service 
 on Sunday, and read a sermon out of a book, which I will 
 approve and provide. 3. To superintend a lending library 
 for all the men and shepherds on his station. And 4. to 
 unite with all the other settlers in this vast district for some 
 common Church purpose ; which this year is to be for the 
 definite object of building a nice Church in the Township of 
 the District, Armidale. And then next year I shall hope to 
 make them continue their efforts for a more indefinite object, 
 namely, for my Diocesan Church Fund or Society, which is 
 to minister to the general wants of the Diocese.” 
 
 The Bishop reports that the state of nearly every settler 
 at that time was almost one of insolvency. The shepherds 
 drawing high wages and squandering them recklessly at the 
 end of each half year, or year, in excess of drink : a state of 
 things ruinous to all alike. 
 
 About the same date I received a letter from him, in 
 which he speaks of being “ overwhelmed with accumulated 
 correspondence.” And early in December he writes : “I 
 
52 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1848. 
 
 have just been under severe discipline, not of illness, thank 
 the Lord, but of self-discipline ; changing the habit of ten 
 hours’ daily riding to the same amount of daily reading and 
 writing.” 
 
 In the midst of all his labours his habitual generosity and 
 thoughtfulness for others, especially his Clergy, peeps out. 
 One of his Clergy had just lost a horse, on one of his journeys, 
 from colic. The Bishop writes about Christmas-tide : “ I 
 am sorry to hear of the loss of your horse ; because such a 
 loss is of serious importance. This I can remedy, and feel 
 that it is not only a pleasure but a real duty to do so. And 
 therefore during the first week in the next year I will have 
 twenty pounds placed to your account. . . . This, my New 
 Year’s gift, you must consider and receive as accompanied 
 with every good wish and earnest prayer for your present 
 and eternal happiness.” 
 
 About the same time he had heard of one having had 
 several severe attacks from over- work. So he writes a letter 
 full of concern, and urging all prudential measures. He 
 says : “I have always considered it a matter of paramount 
 duty to ascertain what my powers of endurance and of 
 exertion were ; and then with much care to do all I could 
 with safety and judgment, so as to ensure, by God’s blessing, 
 a continuance of my powers.” 
 
 This, by the way, is a very good illustration of the KoMifug 
 by which he endeavoured to direct his own life. What he 
 did he did, not at random, but with an aim. He arranged 
 his business and his recreation, such as he allowed himself, 
 by measure and weight. He got as much out of himself as 
 he could, frequently to the extent of very severe exertion and 
 exhaustion. Yet, that he might not be laid up unnecessarily, 
 he took all care of his health. As a duty he would have 
 headed the Balaclava charge ; but he would have taken care 
 to see that it was a duty ; and that he was not throwing 
 away unnecessarily and foolishly the life and strength God 
 had given him for His service. 
 
 At the close of his first year in his Diocese, Bishop Tyrrell 
 had visited almost every part of it, had made himself 
 
IS 4 S.] 
 
 WORK OF FIRST YEAR. 
 
 53 
 
 personally acquainted with its w T ants in every direction, 
 wants of Clergy, Churches, schoolmasters, Parsonages and 
 schools ; and w r ants of the means of supplying all these. 
 During his long rides he had plenty of subjects on which to 
 exercise his “ habit of pursuing trains of thought ; ” fixin 
 clearly in his mind what was to be done, and endeavourin 
 to hit out plans for doing it. 
 
 to to 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 WORK OF ALL KINDS, NOT UNMINED WITH TROUBLES. 
 
 1849. 
 
 “ The Bishop is one who should be the friend, the helper, the guide of his 
 brethren. In toil the foremost to undergo it; in danger the boldest to face it ; 
 in self-denial setting the example of endurance. And I thank God that we need 
 not refer back to the earliest times for examples of such men and such lives.” 
 — Bishop Wilberforce upon the Extension of the Episcopate in the Colonies, 1853. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell’s second year was chiefly occupied with work 
 at Morpeth and its neighbourhood. He was now settled in 
 the house which he had purchased for the See. His succes- 
 sor, whenever he might follow him, would not find himself 
 houseless. If he had been offered his choice in the whole 
 Hunter district, he could not have found a spot so well 
 suited for the Bishop’s residence. Within ten minutes’ walk 
 of the steamers’ wharf, and with the high road to the interior 
 passing the grounds, it was accessible from all quarters, and 
 the postal communication was regular. Here in after years 
 many a squatter, on his way to Sydney, would stop to pay 
 his respects, or to make some communication in reference to 
 Church matters in his neighbourhood. And Clergy or school- 
 masters arriving from England were able to walk up to his 
 house as soon as they landed, and were not obliged to travel 
 some miles in a strange country to find the Bishop. 
 
 The situation is on a ridge some sixty feet above the 
 Hunter, beyond which stretches a broad, alluvial flat, rich 
 with maize and lucerne, and backed up by the hills through 
 which the Paterson finds its way. Erom the orangery behind 
 the house many a cask of oranges has been despatched to Par- 
 sonages at a distance, and at the garden gate the Bishop would 
 scramble oranges and distribute grapes among the Morpeth 
 
1 849] 
 
 WORK OF ALL KINDS. 
 
 55 
 
 school children on their annual feast-day, when his large 
 field rang with laughter and was alive with merry games. 
 The Church, with the Parsonage on its south side, were about 
 one hundred yards off; and this year the Bishop built on the 
 north side of the Church a School and master’s house, with 
 additional rooms, which, as his plans were developed, became 
 the Diocesan book depository. 
 
 Until Trinity Sunday the Bishop was still Parish Priest of 
 Morpeth, but at that time the two Deacons of his first Ordi- 
 nation were admitted to the Priesthood, and two Candidates 
 were ordained to the Diaconate. This relieved the pressing 
 needs of Moreton Bay and provided a Priest for Morpeth, 
 without by any means setting the Bishop free from ordi- 
 nary parish work. There was more than enough for one 
 to do, especially an inexperienced man. And then the work 
 of quietly raising the tone of duty in all the neighbouring 
 towns, by helping with additional Services in the Churches, 
 or in the little settlements for ten or more miles round each 
 town, gave abundance of occupation. 
 
 On the principle that work begets work, the long jour- 
 neyings of the preceding year were now bringing in an 
 abundant crop of business. Schools had been started in 
 places where there had been none before, and more were 
 continually being set on foot. Some masters resigned, others 
 were superseded as inefficient. In England the Clergyman 
 of each parish, or a Committee, or both, look out for the 
 needed masters ; and these can readily be obtained from 
 Training Colleges or by advertisement. But in the Dioceses 
 of New South Wales there were no Training Colleges, and 
 no supernumerary masters. The Clergy had too much to 
 do in their enormous districts to look beyond them. So 
 that unless the Bishop undertook to provide masters for the 
 schools, as well as Clergy for the districts, none would have 
 been obtained, or only such as would have been worse than 
 none at all. 
 
 He therefore, willing to undertake anything for the good 
 of the Church that others did not, or could not do, kept him- 
 self acquainted with the needs of each school in his Diocese, 
 
56 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1849. 
 
 and looked in every direction for teachers to supply the 
 vacancies. How much labour it cost him to do so will never 
 be known ; but those may form some conception who have 
 had to sift the qualifications of candidates for such posts : 
 especially when they consider that most of the candidates 
 that offered had never received any special training ; so that 
 something like an individual examination was necessary in 
 each case — the result being frequently rejection, and a renewal 
 of the weary search. 
 
 Considering the difficulties which beset him, it was sur- 
 prising how many good and useful teachers he obtained. 
 The work of improving teachers who were not up to the 
 mark, and preventing those that were efficient from deterio- 
 rating where the surroundings were adverse, kept him ever 
 on the alert with counsel or aid. This was very laborious : 
 but it had one good effect, — that it kept the life-blood of the 
 Diocese in perpetual circulation. Bishop, Clergy, teachers, 
 children, continually felt themselves parts of the same living 
 body. And if some sleeper received a shake, and did not go 
 off in irritation or in the sulks, he was sure to find the real 
 benefit of the wise, thoughtful counsel administered ; and he 
 became not only a better worker, but more closely attached 
 than before. 
 
 In the dearth both of Clergy and schoolmasters, Bishop 
 Tyrrell adopted a plan which helped both needs. When a 
 Candidate offered himself for Holy Orders, who had not 
 received a University education, he, in several cases, offered 
 him to a Clergyman as a teacher of a primary school : and 
 often the Cleric took his embryo Clerical brother into his 
 house. If he showed himself able to manage a school fairly 
 and to influence the children for good, he was sent to read 
 with one of the senior Clergy ; and then, if he proved fit, he 
 was eventually ordained. This plan both provided several 
 good men to meet the needs of the schools, and afforded an 
 excellent opportunity for quietly ascertaining a man’s real 
 character before accepting him as a Candidate for Ordination. 
 Several men failed under the trial, and the Church was saved 
 from the mischief that would have resulted from their Ordi- 
 
1 349 ] 
 
 WORK OF ALL KINDS. 
 
 57 
 
 nation : others passed well through it, and have proved 
 eminently fitted for the work of the Ministry. 
 
 Many other details besides those connected with schools 
 pressed upon the Bishop. The erection of Churches, Parson- 
 ages, and school buildings, where the Clergyman was not able 
 to manage the work, cost him much time and thought. As 
 he employed no secretary, whatever was done in the way of 
 correspondence was done by himself. In the unformed and 
 shifting state of Colonial Government and law, and in the 
 entanglement of questions which concerned the Church work- 
 ing under the novel difficulties of its Colonial existence, new 
 ideas had to be taken in, and many perplexities to be un- 
 ravelled, if the Diocese was to be guided aright. He speaks 
 of this, his unobserved but most laborious homework, in a 
 letter to his friend, the Kev. W. H. Iloare : — 
 
 “ Morpeth, May 4, 1849. 
 
 “ Since my arrival in this Colony, and especially since my 
 return to Morpeth after my long Visitation tour in November 
 last, I have been incessantly at work : and felt it was abso- 
 lutely necessary to devote myself entirely to my official 
 correspondence until it was cleared off. I do not know 
 whether you have ever been at work twelve, thirteen, 
 and fifteen hours a day, and yet seen your work accumulate 
 upon you. Such has been my case ; and for the last four 
 months I have been obliged to give up everything like sys- 
 tematic reading, and have devoted the hours of each day to 
 the task of making myself acquainted with the full particu- 
 lars of the cases sent to me for decision. It has been neces- 
 sary to sift again old principles, to learn accurately the laws 
 and regulations of the Government, to ascertain the real 
 wants and real intentions of parties ; and it has not only 
 seemed, but proved, an almost endless task. You will per- 
 ceive that I have had two courses open to me in transacting 
 this official business. I might have said to persons of expe- 
 rience in such matters : You know all the routine of such a 
 business, which I do not ; you are acquainted with all the 
 minute forms and regulations of the Government, do you 
 
53 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1849. 
 
 therefore manage the business for me, or advise me what to 
 do. There was another course open to me : — to make myself 
 acquainted with all the bearings and particulars of every case : 
 to learn myself (with how much difficulty you can scarcely 
 imagine !) the rules and laws and forms by which the Govern- 
 ment regulates its proceedings : and, in short, in each case to 
 make myself master of all the details of facts, while I can- 
 vassed afresh the soundness of principles, and thus at last 
 was enabled to decide and act on my own well-informed 
 judgment. The former course would have been incalculably 
 the easiest ; and would certainly have left me much time for 
 home correspondence. The latter seemed to me incalculably 
 the wisest : though it has taken up every moment of my 
 time. I have now the satisfaction of feeling that I am really 
 master of the principles and particulars of my Diocesan 
 work : while I enjoyed last Friday, for the first time, the de- 
 light of seeing my pile of unanswered official papers reduced 
 to nothing.” 
 
 At this time he received tidings from England of a heavy 
 pecuniary loss; which was the more felt, as it seriously 
 crippled his projects for the good of his Diocese. He had 
 invested nearly the whole of what remained of his private 
 fortune in some gas shares. In the panic which prevailed at 
 the end of 1848 and the beginning of 1849, the Company 
 broke. And he says in a letter to Mr. Hoare : “ You will 
 hear with regret that the greater portion of my private for- 
 tune has been utterly lost.” 
 
 This was the second heavy loss he had experienced in 
 fifteen months. In reference to this last news his Diary says : 
 4 ‘Friday, April 27. Sad letters to-day from England. 4 Why 
 art thou so cast down, 0 my soul, and why art thou so dis- 
 quieted within me? 0 put thy trust in God.’ An evening 
 of greater comfort than I could expect after the receipt of 
 such letters from England. My position as Eishop of this 
 Diocese seems one of peculiar difficulty : for there are no 
 resources. Let me then labour in faith, and be content 
 with the day of small things.” And the next day, after 
 writing to England, he says : 44 1 hope that, strengthened 
 
I S49. J 
 
 WORK OF ALL KINDS. 
 
 59 
 
 from above, I liave been enabled cheerfully to give up 
 all that the Lord has been pleased to take away. ‘ Thy 
 will be done on earth as it is in heaven/ implies not only 
 obedience, but submission. ... It will now be my 
 bounden duty to keep clear of promises for the future; 
 as I really have not the means to fulfil them. Do Thou, 
 O Lord, enable me to influence others, and attract them 
 to Thy Church ; that their affections and means may be 
 bestowed upon her. . . . May I learn the great lesson of 
 doing the most with the little means afforded me.” 
 
 Well ! so he did. His Episcopal income was ^83 o, and 
 half of that, in many ways, with much thoughtfulness how 
 to do the best, he gave to God. And it was found true, that 
 “there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.” 
 
 Doctrinal troubles in England found their echo in Hew 
 South Wales, and caused great disquiet for a time. Shortly 
 after the arrival of the Bishop of Newcastle, two of the 
 Sydney Clergy seceded to the Church of Rome ; and their 
 act of schism brought, as usual, much false accusation and 
 obloquy upon those who believed in the Divine origin of 
 the Church of England and the Catholicity of her doctrine, 
 but had no more thought of becoming Romanists than of 
 becoming Presbyterians. Two of the most learned and ex- 
 emplary of the Sydney Clergy, now growing old in a loving 
 and faithful service of the Church, were long worried by 
 calumnies arising out of these secessions. Bishop Tyrrell 
 and his party were already marked out for their share of 
 misrepresentation by the fiction which preceded their arrival, 
 that they were coming out as a body of monks, founded on 
 the fact that they were none of them married. But good 
 hard work was an excellent spiritual tonic to those who were 
 objects of the attack : and, by degrees, the many little bits 
 of false accusation alleged against them died out, and were 
 forgotten. 
 
 Greater mischief was stirred up in the year following by 
 two young Deacons, Irish by birth and education, who, unhap- 
 pily, thought it their mission to attack the Church's Baptismal 
 service and the teachings of the Catechism founded on it. 
 
6o 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1849. 
 
 This attack, so far as its authors were concerned, would 
 have been insignificant. But a cry, no matter by whom it 
 is raised, becomes a source of mischief when, like the cry 
 against St. Paul at Ephesus, it coincides with the ideas of 
 many who will take it up and swell it. The doctrinal errors 
 which, on English soil, found their support in Mr. Gorham, 
 and in those who, in varying degrees, ranged themselves on 
 his side, found many supporters in the miscellaneous popu- 
 lation of the Colony : and the bitter zeal with which the} 7 
 espoused the cause of these ill-instructed young men induced 
 the Bishop of Sydney to invite his brother of Newcastle to 
 come down and give him his counsel. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell writes from Sydney to the Rev. Ernest 
 Hawkins : — 
 
 “ July 10, 1849. 
 
 “ I am now in Sydney, having been called hither to aid 
 and support the Bishop amid the perplexities which surround 
 him. There is but one opinion as to the wise and forbearing 
 conduct of the Bishop through these troubles. And I think 
 they will all eventually turn to the advantage of the Church. 
 But I entreat you to be very careful as to the character and 
 disposition of those whom you may send to Sydney — for 
 these young men have done much harm. If there could be 
 found one or two superior men who would answer the Bishop’s 
 appeal as printed in your last Report, it would be a great 
 benefit to the Church. I am sure there is no sphere of 
 labour, in which devotion, experience, and sound mind and 
 heart, could produce a greater amount of good. 
 
 “ The more I know of the noble Bishop of Sydney the 
 more I respect and venerate and love him. And truly grate- 
 ful am I for the great advantage of having had such a guide 
 and director on all occasions of doubt and difficulty.” 
 
 The storm was allayed after awhile ; and the chief reason 
 for referring to it here is because this visit not only gave 
 help to the Church in Sydney, but reacted very beneficially 
 upon Bishop Tyrrell himself. Still a young Bishop, and 
 feeling the burden which oppressed him in combating the 
 
1 849-] 
 
 WORK OF ALL KINDS. 
 
 6 1 
 
 many difficulties of liis own Diocese, he hardly perceived how 
 much ground he was making. But when he threw himself 
 into the troubles of the sister Diocese, and perceived the help 
 he was enabled to give both to the Bishop and the Clergy, 
 he began to feel his growing power ; and this cheered him 
 and gave him confidence. On the 29th of June he wrote to 
 me in the midst of his labours : “ I have been so incessantly 
 occupied with the distressing Church events at Sydney, that 
 I have not had time to reply to your last letter.” 
 
 In October, writing to the Bev. W. H. Hoare, he says: “My 
 work for some time has been so incessant, my anxiety about 
 my Diocese so absorbing, my thoughts so intently and oppres- 
 singly fixed on the wants of the Church here, that even during 
 the hours of comparative leisure there has been a kind of 
 morbid inability to draw off my mind from these subjects, 
 and to occupy it in writing to my dearest friends. During the 
 last two or three weeks, however, there has been a delightful 
 change. I feel now that I really begin to understand the 
 true position of our Church. I have been able to realise its 
 wants and weaknesses, its difficulties and dangers ; and can 
 now, manfully, with the Divine blessing, plan and labour for 
 its safety and advancement. This happy effect has been in 
 a great measure produced by the Bishop of Sydney and the 
 most valuable of his Clergy having called upon me to give 
 them my counsel and support amid their trials and difficulties. 
 In giving comfort I have found it ; in searching after the 
 causes of their perplexities and in giving counsel for their 
 cure, I have, from the grateful thanks I have received, ac- 
 quired greater confidence in the completeness of my know- 
 ledge and the prudence of my plans.” 
 
 Early rising and the methodical arrangement of each day 
 enabled him to accomplish an amount of work which, when 
 its many-sidedness and the minuteness of many of its details 
 are considered, would have made many men hopeless of 
 getting through it. Often up at four — he seldom rose later 
 than six. “I am enjoying,” he says, “the full feeling of 
 freshness and vigour from early rising this morning ; having 
 been at work soon after four. One inducement for so early 
 
62 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1849. 
 
 a movement was to write to yon in time for this morning’s 
 post.” 
 
 His Diaries bear constant witness to his early habits. 
 Sometimes, when an anxions or difficult subject was pressing 
 for solution, he would awake and strike a light at two 
 o’clock in the morning, read, or think, or make notes for 
 half an hour or more, and after a few more hours of sleep, 
 rise again for good at some hour between four and six o’clock. 
 Hot unfrequently in summer time he would be walking 
 in his garden at five o’clock, with his Greek Testament, 
 with which, after his morning prayers, he always began his 
 reading. 
 
 During the month of May — the Australian winter — when 
 the day does not dawn until half-past six, there are entries, 
 “ Began my reading at five.” On May 30th, an Ember day, 
 “Up at four. Morning Service in Church at 7.3a” On 
 another day, when he records that he rose at 5.20, and was 
 dressed at six, his comment is, “ May I not waste so much 
 time ; surely half an hour is sufficient to lend to the poor 
 body.” 
 
 His ordinary custom was to go to bed early, and allow 
 himself six or seven hours’ rest, according as he found it 
 necessary to recruit his strength; but when he got the chance 
 of a good talk with one of his Clergy in his own Parsonage, 
 or at Morpeth, or at the time of an Ordination week, hard 
 talking frequently went on until 1.30 or 2 in the morning. 
 O11 Trinity Sunday, when two Priests and two Deacons 
 were ordained, his first entry is, “Rose after three hours’ 
 rest.” These were exceptions , to which he did not object, 
 under an especial press of work, either in his own case or 
 that of others ; but he knew too well the necessity of suffi- 
 cient brain-rest to allow the exception to drift into a habit. 
 After a day of fatiguing work he writes : “ Thought much 
 of the most advantageous method of dividing my time ; and 
 resolved, with the Lord’s aid, to test by experiment what 
 is best. Let there be no pretence of giving so many hours 
 to study and so few to sleep, but let me strive to do what 
 will give me the greatest power of using my faculties. Try 
 
WORK OF ALL KINDS. 
 
 1849.] 
 
 63 
 
 first how much sleep is necessary, whether six or seven hours, 
 and then order the day accordingly.” 
 
 One of his time-tables for the arrangement of his day 
 was : — 
 
 
 Hours. 
 
 Time spent in 
 Devotion and 
 Work. 
 
 Rise .... 
 
 4 
 
 
 Devotions 
 
 5 to 6 
 
 I 
 
 Divinity 
 
 6 „ 8 
 
 2 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 8 „ 9 
 
 
 Divinity 
 
 9 » 11 
 
 2 
 
 Diocese 
 
 11 „ 2 
 
 3 
 
 Dinner and Exercise 
 
 2 „ 6 
 
 
 Diocese . . . 
 
 6 „ 9 
 
 3 
 
 Devotions 
 
 9 » 10 
 
 1 
 
 Rest 
 
 10 „ 4 
 
 12 
 
 When alone, he usually read poetry during his meal times. 
 Tea was but little interruption to whatever was in hand ; 
 and the time of exercise, when not spent in his own garden, 
 was most commonly occupied in visiting in Morpeth, or riding 
 to one of the neighbouring districts. In his Diary there are 
 many entries of visits paid to the poor of Morpeth. Such 
 as, “ Called on Mrs. Nicholson, the washerwoman ; the Con- 
 stable’s ; Mrs. Johnson, the fishwoman, the latter a good 
 little woman, and my visit and talk with her seemed to take 
 me back to Beaulieu.” 
 
 His review of his own life was regular and strict. There 
 was a daily note of any omission or shortcoming, a daily 
 renewal of purpose, and as constant a bringing of these omis- 
 sions and purposes to the Fountain of pardon and strength. 
 When he had administered a well-merited rebuke to a tricky 
 builder, he accuses himself of want of meekness towards him, 
 and prays for more meekness under provocation. Thinking 
 of his responsibilities as Bishop, he says : — 
 
 “ Many very serious thoughts about my Diocese, and how 
 
6 4 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1849. 
 
 it can be ordered for the best. The difficulties very great, 
 and make me very anxious. May I be enabled by the most 
 careful employment of my time to fit myself for the dis- 
 charge of all my difficult duties, as Overseer of this Diocese. 
 
 . . . Let there be also much serious careful meditation. . . . 
 Friday in each week to be kept as a day of seclusion and 
 fasting, and devoted to preparation for the Sunday. ... 0 
 Lord, give me wisdom to go in and out before Thy people, 
 and to train up an earnest efficient Clergy. Grant this in 
 the Name and for the sake of Jesus Christ.” 
 
 One of Bishop Tyrrell’s most anxious cares was to train up 
 Candidates for Holy Orders. A few years later he writes to 
 one of these, who had originally come out as a settler : — 
 
 “ With the certainty that you will find in Mr. Irwin all 
 the direction, and prudence, and example, which you could 
 desire, I commit you to his care with the greatest satisfaction. 
 And I feel assured that you perfectly understand how much 
 your future usefulness and happiness will depend upon the 
 use you may make of this invaluable period of preparation. 
 That the Lord may confirm you in all your purpose of good, 
 and bless all your exertions, is the prayer of yours very faith- 
 fully, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 The Bishop’s idea of training an efficient body of Clergy 
 extended far beyond the training before Ordination. The 
 less it was possible to insure a full and efficient training 
 beforehand, so much the more necessary was it to continue 
 counsel and guidance afterwards. And as the young Clergy 
 had no experienced Rector to advise them, and no clerical 
 neighbours to consult, the Bishop watched anxiously over them 
 with a fatherly care both for their own improvement and the 
 good of their flocks. As soon as they entered on their 
 Ministry they found in him a sympathising fellow-worker ; 
 and his frequent visits to all parts of his Diocese gave 
 him full opportunity of talking over their work and their 
 difficulties, and pointing out their errors. 
 
 In November 1849 revisited the Liverpool plains, 
 where he had lately placed a young Clergyman. A group of 
 
i §49-] 
 
 WORK OF ALL KINDS. 
 
 65 
 
 Cliurcli buildings bad been planned, and were in progress : 
 but the system of visiting the widely-scattered settlers had 
 to be arranged. Those who have had experience of such 
 work — a work of great interest and importance — know how 
 much tact and earnestness and watchful regard for oppor- 
 tunities are needed to conduct it with success. 
 
 The Bishop spent a week with his young Cleric ; holding 
 services with him each evening, and staying for the night at 
 the different chief establishments. When he left he asked 
 him to send him, from time to time, an account of what he 
 was doing, and of his perplexities. To such accounts he 
 always gave careful answers. 
 
 Thus in some degree he remedied the serious evil of placing 
 young men in charge of large bush districts, a practice only 
 justified by the hard law of necessity. Mistakes made were 
 rectified by counsel which was readily given, or by the 
 Bishop’s own influence on his next visit. 
 
 The following extracts from letters to a Deacon, several 
 years later, will illustrate this feature in his careful Overseer- 
 ship : — 
 
 “Bev. and dear Sir, — I have received with much plea- 
 sure your letter of the 23d of February. . . . Your plan of 
 
 opening a school in for two days in the week is very 
 
 satisfactory ; and you must tell Mrs. how pleased I am 
 
 to learn that the proposition has been, and the cheerful 
 endurance of the labour will be, hers. It is voluntary self- 
 denying labour for the good of others, which ever brings down 
 upon ourselves an hundredfold return of blessings. Doubtless 
 you will also find your work materially assisted by such an 
 arrangement. I will most willingly send you a supply of 
 books and slates ; but you must send me word how they 
 can be forwarded to you. . . . Owing to some mistake in 
 Sydney, the stipend has not been so arranged that you can 
 draw for it every month. The arrangement will, however, 
 be made in the course of a few weeks. In the meantime 
 only let me know what you want, and how it can be re- 
 mitted to you ; and I shall be most happy to advance any 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1849- 
 
 sum necessary for your convenience and comfort. It is at 
 the first settling in a district that you must expect many 
 expenses which will not occur again ; and many Clergymen 
 have, I know, been compelled to obtain money thus, at the 
 commencement of their ministerial course, in ways which have 
 proved a sad burden to them for years. Do not therefore he 
 anxious on this point, or provide for your wants in any other 
 way hut through me. Only give your time and thoughts 
 and heart to your duties, and it will he a real pleasure to me 
 to provide what is necessary for you. Let me hear from you 
 soon again. And with my very kindest remembrances to 
 
 Mrs. , believe me to remain, Lev. and dear Sir, very 
 
 faithfully yours, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 The next month he gently finds fault with the same 
 Deacon for an error of judgment. 
 
 “ I have received your two letters, and have delayed 
 
 answering them until I should see Mr. , which I have 
 
 done this morning. Do you keep copies of your letters 
 to me? Pray do so, as men of real business, whether 
 secular or spiritual, soon find that they can never fully under- 
 stand, or safely interpret, an answer, unless they are able to 
 refer to the document to which it is an answer. Now to the 
 several points mentioned in your letters. . . . With respect 
 to the person you recommend as master for our school, you 
 have committed two errors, which I plainly tell you of ; as I 
 shall always do, whenever you, as we all must at times, 
 commit them ; simply that they may be corrected and 
 amended for the future, ist. The Church should never 
 advance a step which she w T ill have to retrace. Every step 
 forward should be taken so wisely, and with such previous 
 thought and preparation , that it may be permanently held. 
 It is not, therefore, wise to think of a master for a Church 
 school until a house has been provided for him. And my 
 
 meaning, when talking with you about a master at , has 
 
 always been that a house must be permanently procured 
 before he could be appointed. Persons will make an effort 
 to supply a want before it is supplied, which they will never 
 
1849.] 
 
 WORK OF ALL KINDS. 
 
 (7 
 
 make afterwards. Bear tliis always in mind. 2d. This 
 person — from your own short account of him — is not at all 
 a fit person to he one of our schoolmasters. Pray, remember 
 that the success of our schools, with the whole weight of the 
 Government and Council against us, depends upon their 
 superiority ; which must, again, depend mainly upon the 
 master. Moreover, in your case, we must more especially 
 have a master of high moral and religious character, as we 
 
 hope he may he able to continue the service at when 
 
 you are away. . . . You w T ill find that the real burden and 
 responsibility of erecting the Church buildings will rest upon 
 you. And you must be prepared to encounter it, persuading 
 the other members of the Committee to take a nominal part 
 in it now and then. That is, you should induce them to 
 meet, now and then, and sanction and appear to forward the 
 matter ; while the real forwarding will rest with you. . . . 
 
 “ There is one more subject about which you ask advice, 
 namely, the Services in your journeys. Your own judgment 
 will be sufficient to guide you, with the following suggestions : 
 — "Whenever you have an appointed Service, I would always 
 use the complete Church Service ; also at any house or 
 station in the evening, when the family and servants are 
 assembled. But when you call at places unexpectedly, or 
 collect a few together without previous appointment, you 
 might shorten the Service according to your discretion. You 
 will soon find that more good is done by the whole Service 
 read by you in your surplice , whenever such Service would 
 not be, from the time and company, obviously out of place. 
 
 “ With respect to responses. When necessary, I always 
 make them myself for the congregation, and sometimes read 
 all the verses in the Psalms, even if one or two indifferent 
 readers are attempting to do so. ... I remain, my dear 
 Sir, faithfully yours, W. Newcastle. ” 
 
 To the young Clergy such assiduous training was invaluable. 
 To all the letters of their Bishop, and still more his visits, 
 were always felt to be a blessing ; they brought refreshment 
 to hard-worked men, comfort under depression, the removal of 
 
68 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1849- 
 
 some difficulty, fresh, plans for the good of the Church, and 
 the stimulus of the hearty and cheery example of a man who 
 bent his whole energies to the discharge of his duties, and 
 never spared himself : and when working by yourself in 
 your district, bearing the burden and heat of the day, you 
 could not feel alone. You felt that your Bishop’s interest 
 and heart were with you ; and that you and he were going 
 on as fellow-labourers under the Good Chief Shepherd. 
 
 Writing to one who had followed to a self-chosen grave 
 an unhappy student who had been entrusted to his care, he 
 says : — 
 
 “ My very dear Sir, — Your letters relative to your late 
 distressing charge reached me at Moreton Bay ; and shocked 
 as I was at the sad news, yet I can assure you that my pre- 
 vious fear of the possibility of such an event, which had 
 more than once occurred to me, lessened the blow. I now, 
 at the earliest opportunity, write a few lines to convey to you, 
 not only my truest sympathy with all your feelings of dis- 
 tress, but also my warmest thanks for your willingness in 
 undertaking so anxious and harassing a duty, and for the 
 devoted carefulness with which you have performed that 
 duty even to the close. Be assured, my dear friend, that 
 bitter as such seasons may seem when our harassed feelings 
 have not recovered their wonted calm, yet the remembrance 
 of the faithful performance of such duties will afford a lasting 
 satisfaction, which in some measure will repay for all we 
 may have endured. That this may be the case with you, is 
 the earnest wish and prayer of yours most sincerely and 
 affectionately, W. Newcastle.” 
 
( «9 ) 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 NEED OF ORGANISATION, AND PREPARATION FOR IT. 
 
 185°. 
 
 “ Went ye not forth in Prayer? 
 
 Then ye went not forth in vain ; 
 
 The Sower, the Son of Man, was there, 
 
 And His was that precious grain.” 
 
 — Author of “ The Three Wakings 
 
 The time was now coming when, out of the labours of the 
 first two years, organisation was to begin on a more general 
 scale. Many districts had been provided with ministrations 
 which had hitherto been lacking. All parts of the Diocese 
 had now felt the presence of the Bishop. From him they 
 had received encouragement, pecuniary help, and teaching. 
 He had penetrated large tracts, where no Clergyman had 
 ever been seen before ; and had taught them the invaluable 
 lesson of exerting themselves to do something, at least, to 
 supply their own spiritual needs and those of their immediate 
 neighbours. The next endeavour would be to make the 
 various parts of the Diocese feel and act as one. 
 
 A Diocesan Synod had been talked of. There were many 
 anomalies and many deficiencies, for which a well-organised 
 Synod would have been the remedy ; but at that time neither 
 Bishop, Clergy, nor Laity, were ready for it. And although 
 its actual formation has been spoken of as tardy, yet the 
 years of delay were years of preparation, which enabled it, 
 when formed, to act more intelligently and steadily than 
 would have been possible at an earlier date. 
 
 At present something preliminary was required ; and what 
 was actually attempted will be better understood if we 
 
70 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1850. 
 
 state how the support of the Church and Education had 
 been hitherto provided. 
 
 In the earliest days of the Colony the first Clergyman, 
 the Rev. Richard Johnson, who laboured alone for more than 
 six weary years, and the few additional Clergy who were 
 added at long intervals, were paid by the British Govern- 
 ment as Chaplains ; no revenue being derivable from the 
 Colony itself, the population being, to a great extent, convict. 
 But in 1780, the second year from its foundation, George 
 III. had, in order to provide for future growth, instructed 
 Governor Phillip that, whenever a township was marked out, 
 400 acres of Crown land should be set apart for the Clergy, 
 and 200 for schools. These lands, almost valueless at first, 
 would become increasingly valuable with the increase of the 
 population. 
 
 In 1826, under the Governorship of Sir Ralph Darling, 
 George IV. appointed a body, called the Corporation of 
 Church and School Lands, to take charge of all lands which 
 had been so set apart, and to divide the income arising out 
 of them into two portions, of which one was to be applied to 
 the improvement of the property and to the creation of 
 Churches, Parsonages, and Schools; and the other to the 
 maintenance of the Clergy and Schools of the Church of 
 England. Had this system continued, and been so worked 
 as to stimulate the liberality of Churchmen, while it helped 
 them to provide for the ever-growing needs of the Colony, it 
 would have done great, if not unmixed, good. But religious 
 divisions, that wide-spreading taint of our national blood, 
 came in the way. A large number of Roman Catholics from 
 Ireland, Presbyterians from Scotland, and Wesleyans from 
 England, were fellow-colonists with Churchmen : and, by the 
 advice of Sir Richard Bourke, the charter of the Corporation 
 was revoked in 1833, the property taken back again by the 
 Crown ; and, in lieu of it, an annual payment of ^30,000 
 was made and divided, according to the census returns, be- 
 tween the Church of England, the Roman Catholics, the 
 Presbyterians, and the Wesleyans. On the separation of the 
 
IS50.] 
 
 NEED OF ORGANISATION. 
 
 7i 
 
 Colony of Victoria from New South Wales* this sum was 
 reduced to ,£28,000, and the portion appropriated to the 
 Church of England was no more than enough to pay to the 
 existing Clergy of the Dioceses of Sydney and Newcastle the 
 salaries guaranteed to them. 
 
 Thenceforward there was nothing available for building 
 Churches and Parsonages ; and although more Clergy were 
 required to divide the enormous Cures (some of them as large 
 as two or three good-sized English counties), not a shilling 
 was available from the Government grant ; nor would the 
 grant ever be increased. There were even intimations 
 that' it might, as in later years was the case, be taken away 
 entirely. 
 
 The grants for Church Education were quite as little to be 
 relied upon. When the Colonial Government got into its 
 power the “ Church and School Lands/’ it soon began to 
 discourage schools connected with the Church, or with any 
 religious Communion. It could not wipe them out at once ; 
 but it adopted what it called “ National Schools,” schools on 
 the Irish plan, in which no definite Creed was taught. On 
 these it lavished grants of public money ; while it doled out 
 to the “ Denominational ” schools a niggard supply ; and then 
 taunted them with inefficiency, in the hope of either induc- 
 ing their supporters to give them up, or of obtaining a pre- 
 text for eventually abolishing them. Had not the Bishop of 
 Newcastle maintained a long hard struggle for them, they 
 would soon have been extinguished by the unfair treatment 
 of the Government. Bravely did he labour, under great 
 difficulties, to improve them and keep them in an efficient 
 state. But again the curse of religious discord played into 
 the hands of his opponents : and it was too evident that 
 Church Schools were in danger, unless in some way they 
 could be made independent of Government aid. There 
 was an annual grant of ,£300 from that open-handed helper 
 of the Colonial Church, the Society for the Propagation 
 
 * The district of Port Phillip was erected into the Colony of Victoria, 
 July 1, 1851. 
 
72 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1850. 
 
 of the Gospel. But, besides that, a considerable and in- 
 creasing sum was needed, if the Church was to attempt to 
 fulfil her mission ; and for that no existing source was avail- 
 able. 
 
 At the opening of the year 1850 the Bishop invited 
 three of his Clergy to consult with him. In summoning 
 them he said, “This first meeting I mean should be a 
 beginning, to teach us how we should consult for the good of 
 the Church, and we might settle at it subjects for future 
 thought and deliberation, rather than expect much of actual 
 decision.” Several subjects were proposed for consideration. 
 
 1. How to deal with a particular case requiring discipline. 
 
 2. Buies for the Denominational Board of Education. 3. 
 What part we should take in reference to the “ National 
 Schools.” 4. How the services of the Laity could be em- 
 ployed, and their interest aroused in Church matters. 5. 
 The supply of Clergy. 6. The formation of a Church So- 
 ciety. The discussion of each of these subjects bore some 
 fruit in subsequent action. But the last, which had much 
 in common with the two preceding it, produced the most 
 important and permanent effects on the Diocese. 
 
 The formation of a General Diocesan Society, which 
 should provide for additional Clergy, aid to schools and 
 to other works necessary to the efficiency of the Church, 
 was a means of uniting the sympathies and energies of 
 the whole Diocese, which commended itself to those who had 
 met in council. This plan having been settled, its accomplish- 
 ment was to be prepared for during this year. Those whom 
 the Bishop had called into council were to do their part 
 in their own districts, while he himself undertook, as was 
 his custom, the far more laborious work of preparing the 
 whole Diocese. 
 
 Again he visited all parts of it ; but this time he was no 
 stranger. Some at least would listen to one who had stirred 
 in them long-dormant thoughts, and held out hopes of better 
 things, especially since they found him unsparing of his 
 labour, free from self-seeking, and always ready to help, and to 
 obtain help for, those who would bestir themselves. He set 
 
1850] 
 
 NEED OF ORGANISATION. 
 
 73 
 
 himself to lay before them simply and clearly the actual 
 state of the case ; that it was useless to expect from Govern- 
 ment any more help for the support of Clergy than it then 
 gave ; that the grants which the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel was able to make were quite inadequate to their 
 needs ; that the subscriptions for five years, which he had 
 asked for when he left England, would soon cease ; and that 
 his own means — much smaller now than they had been 
 before his heavy losses — could in no degree make up the 
 deficiency ; hut that there was a mine, as yet unworked, of 
 growing productiveness, their own united exertions. The 
 burden, which would he too heavy for a few, would be com- 
 paratively light to the many. 
 
 They had already cleared off the debts, each in their own 
 neighbourhood, upon their Church buildings ; and in places 
 where no buildings had existed, they had, under his encourage- 
 ment, made a beginning. For each building so cleared of 
 debt, or begun, he had provided ever ready assistance ; 
 and he did not now suggest to each district that they 
 should provide the full stipend for their Clergyman. He 
 made it clear that, as a matter of plain justice, the Govern- 
 ment grant for Clergy, confined as it was to the few 
 places to which it was appropriated, must be made a benefit 
 to all. The grant, by which some places were helped, 
 was in part provided by the imposts on those who could 
 obtain no aid. Therefore it was mere justice that the 
 favoured districts should pay over for the good of their 
 brethren part of what they received ; and that those, and 
 those only, who voluntarily raised among themselves, 
 according to their means, some sufficient portion of their 
 Clergyman’s stipend, should be entitled to a share in the 
 fund thus provided. 
 
 To provide and distribute such a fund, and one that 
 should meet other Church needs, was the object of the 
 Diocesan Society, for the formation of which a meeting 
 would hereafter be held. The Bishop was indefatigable in 
 explaining this wherever he went, both in conversation with 
 individuals and at meetings held in the districts which he 
 
74 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1850. 
 
 visited. And there was abundance of time for ventilating 
 the whole subject before the time for action should arrive. 
 
 His plan of action in reference to a scheme for the whole 
 Diocese was the same as that of which he writes to one of 
 his Clergy a few years later respecting a large district. 
 
 “ Experience has shown me that if I wish to settle in the 
 best manner the Church arrangements of any district, it is 
 much better to travel through the district, and have the 
 opportunity of conversing with the principal settlers at their 
 houses, before the final meeting is held at the Township, 
 which gives the public sanction to what is done.” 
 
 It was mainly owing to the Bishop’s well-considered and 
 repeated explanations and statements, both before the forma- 
 tion of the Newcastle Church Society, and on many subse- 
 quent occasions, that the scheme succeeded so remarkably 
 and proved of such great usefulness. The Laity saw clearly, 
 both what was wanted, and the absolute necessity of exert- 
 ing themselves if these wants were to be supplied. They 
 found that their Bishop took them into council in what he 
 purposed to do ; and thus they understood what they were 
 about, and they joined in w r hat they felt was as much their 
 own matter as his. 
 
 But while stirring up the Laity to provide funds for the 
 support and extension of the Church, he did not relax his 
 efforts for the Spiritual life of the Body. In the early part 
 of this year he carefully attended to the districts round 
 Morpeth ; and when Lent was over, and he was preparing 
 for his journey ings, he records in his Diary : — 
 
 “ Lent has been to me this year a season of much 
 satisfaction ; we have had Prayers every morning in our 
 Church at Morpeth — and the congregation has been com- 
 paratively numerous and constant. . . . Indeed, by the 
 Lord’s blessing, I may hope, and many assure me, that a 
 more religious spirit and greater attachment to our Church 
 has been shown, and much improvement is in many ways 
 manifest. Every one of our Churches is now out of debt, 
 and much underground work ” (a kind of work of which he 
 did a large amount) “ has been accomplished. In the Lord’s 
 
1850] 
 
 NEED OF ORGANISATION. 
 
 75 
 
 good time may His Church in this Diocese be edified and 
 beautified so as to become a praise upon earth. ” 
 
 Before starting for the North, he made a shorter Visitation, 
 by Raymond Terrace, to Stroud ; where — after heavy riding 
 in a long continuous rain, which poured down, like sheets of 
 water parted, not into drops, but small streams — he was 
 much cheered by all he heard and saw. His ride thence to 
 Dungog was over the most broken country, exhausting for 
 man and horse, with high abrupt ridges intersected by deep 
 ravines, down and up which many a horseman would have 
 declined to venture. But nothing short of an impossibility 
 stopped the determined Bishop of Newcastle, when his duty 
 lay before him. In allusion to the old familiar neighbour- 
 hood of his early life, he describes that journey as being like 
 “ riding over the tops of the houses of Fleet Street, with 
 every fourth house taken away, which,” he says, “ it may be 
 imagined would be no easy work.” At Dungog he had not 
 yet placed a Clergyman, so his attention was confined to the 
 school, where he spent two hours. On his arrival at Mor- 
 peth at eight o’clock, after such a ride of fifty- four miles, he 
 at once went to call on “ poor Mrs. Johnson, who was much 
 better in mind and in health.” And then sat up till two a.m., 
 preparing for a necessary visit to Sydney the next day. His 
 visit was one of business ; and he says, “ I had a long con- 
 ference with the good and excellent Bishop. It was a great 
 satisfaction to me to receive advice and clear information on 
 many points of importance. I was pleased to find that he 
 approved much of the school rules,” the outlines of which 
 had been sketched at the meeting in January. 
 
 Five days later he was starting on his long northern Visi- 
 tation, at six o’clock, in a foggy and wet morning, with sixty- 
 six miles before him as his first day’s ride, and records in his 
 Diary : “ As I left my door, after bidding farewell to my faith- 
 ful English servants and leaving my blessing with them, I 
 commended myself to the care and protection of Him, who 
 orders all things in heaven and earth, and has promised to 
 make all things work together for good to those who love Him, 
 and strive to serve Him. ... I earnestly desired also wisdom 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1850. 
 
 to go in and out before the people committed to my spiritual 
 care ; that wisdom which is from above, pure and peaceable 
 and gentle. ” He reached Muswell Brook by moonlight that 
 evening, after some hours’ work done on the way at Singleton 
 and Falbrook. 
 
 The next day was Sunday ; and he records, “ Mrs. White 
 of Edinglassie and her daughter were among the Communi- 
 cants, and I spoke to them after Service. Mrs. White is 
 anxious that one of her sons should be educated for the 
 Ministry.” She was then a widow with seven sons and two 
 daughters. Her wish was granted. After a few years of 
 preparation, one of her sons came to England and went to 
 Oxford. Ordained in England, that he might acquire the 
 experience of a large English town, he was recalled by the 
 Bishop in i860, before the expiration of his Diaconate, to fill 
 the vacant post of Muswell Brook. Thus the mother had her 
 son as her own Parish Priest. A few years later it was neces- 
 sary to build a new Church for the enlarged population ; and, 
 as a thank-offering for mercies granted to them, Mrs. White 
 and her family contributed largely towards the erection of 
 what the Bishop afterwards called “ the model Church of the 
 Diocese.” It was built from a plan of Sir Gilbert Scott’s, 
 and, besides many loving gifts, including stained glass, a 
 stone pulpit, font, encaustic tiles, and altar, cost ^*12,000. 
 And from it goes up the Church’s daily sacrifice of prayer 
 and praise. 
 
 On this, as on other journeys, the Bishop kept an accurate 
 account of each day’s work ; the objects he had in view in 
 each place, its wants and difficulties, the progress or back- 
 wardness of the districts, the promises he made, and the 
 directions he gave. He laid down rules for the employment 
 of his own time, “ that,” as he says, “ the long period of 
 travelling may be spiritually improving to myself and my 
 Diocese.” Eor this purpose he contrived to secure two or 
 three hours a day, at any house where he slept, for what his 
 hosts supposed was much-needed rest after the fatigues of his 
 long journeys ; but really for reading and writing, or planning 
 work. Being away from his books, he made the more use 0 f 
 
IS50.] 
 
 NEED OF ORGANISATION. 
 
 77 
 
 his English Bible; his long thoughtful readings of which, 
 without note or comment, he speaks of as a great and growing 
 “ delight ” to him. Recording his chief object at this time, 
 he says, “ Let me strive to unite all the members of the 
 Church in the great work of supplying means for the support 
 of the Clergy, and the educating our children under the 
 superintendence of the Clergy of the Church. May the Lord 
 bless and prosper my endeavours.” 
 
 On this journey he met with an accident, which, though 
 by God’s mercy it resulted in no serious mischief, added 
 much pain to the weariness caused by his punctuality 
 in keeping all his appointments. He had visited through 
 the district of Liverpool Plains and Hew England as far 
 as Tenterfield, on its northern boundary. Hence he was 
 working his way to the south-east down the Clarence 
 River to Grafton, whence he was to return to Armidale 
 for the Consecration of the Church, and then to go north- 
 ward again to Brisbane. At the head of the Clarence River 
 District fresh horses were provided for him to rest his own 
 tired ones, which had already carried him and his groom 
 more than 400 miles. Having rested at a cattle station while 
 the saddles were being changed, he mounted the horse 
 provided for him ; but the animal, as he himself relates, 
 “ Certainly seemed very wickedly disposed, insomuch that 
 
 Mr. led him some little w r ay, patting and coaxing 
 
 him. Such entire confidence do I place in all those who 
 offer to provide for me, that I did not at all suspect that the 
 horse was a dangerous one, and that I should require all my 
 skill to sit him. We had proceeded a very little way, when 
 he suddenly stopped in a trot, kicked and ‘ bucked,’ and off 
 I came in an instant, over his head. It was the most severe 
 fall I have ever had. I fell partly on my head and partly 
 on my left shoulder, and when I got up felt very faint and 
 much shaken. Mr. Child (the Clergyman who had come to 
 meet him) gave me his arm, and my faintness and numb- 
 ness soon went off.” The Bishop was in much pain, but he 
 ordered his saddle to be put on his own tired horse, and rode 
 on twenty miles more at a good quick pace, finding the 
 
7S 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1850. 
 
 shaking movement of the horse very painful, but thankful 
 that no bone was broken, and that his work was not hindered, 
 as he feared it might have been. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell was a good rider, and might have felt some- 
 what humiliated by his fall. But his host, vexed beyond 
 measure that his buck-jumping horse had caused the accident, 
 mounted him himself. Is it to be wondered at that the 
 Bishop records, “We had not gone far before the horse 
 bolted past us without his rider, and on looking back I found 
 
 Mr. , who is one of the best horsemen in the Colony, 
 
 on his feet preparing to catch his horse. It appears that 
 the horse again stopped while going at a good pace, and 
 
 Mr. was off before he knew where he was. This, of 
 
 course, excused my bad riding.” 
 
 The Bishop’s credit as a horseman was unsullied, though 
 his body was full of aches. The next morning he rose after 
 a painful and unrestful night. 
 
 “I was not,” he says, “ quite sure that the bones of my 
 shoulder were all right ; still I began to wash and dress, 
 though my movements were very slow. The difficulty of 
 getting off my shirt was laughably great. And I could not 
 but remember the Indian chief and the jersey, as described 
 by Captain Cavendish.” 
 
 After breakfast he began business with his host, arranging 
 for the stipend of the Clergyman who had been lately 
 appointed, and anxious to make him understand the prin- 
 ciple upon which the Church should be upheld, not as a 
 useful instrument for civilisation, but “ as the Divinely 
 appointed means, and therefore the best and safest path to 
 Heaven.” 
 
 It was a week-day, and the Service was at eleven o’clock. 
 “ Much pains was taken by Mr. Child to prepare for Service. 
 We had a large congregation assembled. What a singular 
 scene it was ! A Bishop and one of his Deacons ministering 
 in the best room of the master’s house to a large number of 
 those employed by him, of all Communions, of many countries; 
 and the seeing them all not only attentive, but absolutely 
 riveted, many females crying, tears in the eyes of many of 
 
1850.] 
 
 NEED OF ORGANISATION . 
 
 79 
 
 the men, especially some of the later exiles, and this con- 
 tinued through a discourse of nearly an hour’s length.” 
 
 After the Service he returned to his room for four hours’ 
 writing, and observes, “Everything in the garden and in 
 the house shows the man of taste, and it is very pleasing to 
 see such care and nice arrangement amid all the dirt and 
 slovenliness of the Colony.” 
 
 A few days later, as he is still pursuing his way down the 
 Clarence River to Grafton, he obtains a glimpse of the mis- 
 cellaneous character of the settlers by calling at the house of 
 
 the Baron and Baroness , roughing it in the bush. The 
 
 Baroness and her sister were at home, and they refreshed 
 the riders with some oranges from their garden. They had 
 lately suffered a severe loss by a fire which had consumed 
 much of their stores, but were bearing their discomforts 
 cheerfully. 
 
 On arriving at the house of the Commissioner, who had 
 taken Mr. Child in until a Parsonage could be built for him 
 at Grafton, he found Mr. Child’s books in the room appro- 
 priated to him : and he records, “ With delight read much of 
 the Greek Testament.” And the next day, “ Read some of 
 the Greek Testament. How refreshing to have this precious 
 Book after some few days of deprivation ! ” And the day 
 following, “Again read much of the Greek Testament, so as 
 to feel assured that I shall not fall behind in my usual 
 amount of reading during my long absence from home, as I 
 have not with me a Greek Testament, having left it in the 
 care of the Rev. E. Williams at Tamworth.” 
 
 On Whitsunday the Bishop was at Grafton, but as no 
 Church had yet been built, the Services were held in the 
 Court House. It was quite full, but “ the very appearance 
 of the congregation showed that most of them had been out 
 of the habit of worshipping together. Scarcely any responses 
 were made ; and, probably from the inconvenient nearness of 
 the forms, it was difficult to kneel ; as very few, indeed, even 
 attempted to show their real participation in the spirit of the 
 Service.” In the afternoon he Confirmed, and found the con- 
 gregation most attentive and serious. “May I remember,” 
 
So LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1850. 
 
 he adds, “ that the Christian covenant is perpetual, never 
 to he forgotten, either in life, death, or eternity.” 
 
 Four days brought the Bishop back to Armidale ; and on 
 Trinity Sunday, the 26th of May, he consecrated the Church 
 in the Name of the Blessed Trinity, at that time the northern- 
 most Church of the Diocese, with none to the south between 
 it and Scone. Three of his Clergy were all that could be 
 present. 
 
 The next morning, taking leave of Mr. Child and Mr. 
 Williams, and dismissing them with his blessing, he started 
 on his journey towards Brisbane, Mr. Tingcombe, the In- 
 cumbent of Armidale, accompanying him part of the way. 
 Journeying in New South Wales is not so tedious, nor so 
 expensive, as in South Africa. With a good springy horse 
 one gets over the ground far more quickly and pleasantly 
 than in a heavy waggon with a span of oxen. There is 
 scarcely ever any need of camping out ; for you travel where 
 there are settlers ; and they are always most hospitable both 
 in lodging the traveller, whether Cleric or Layman, and in 
 taking care of his horse. Nor is there any need of carrying 
 provisions : at any hut you may visit, tea and damper, and 
 frequently eggs or meat, are offered. Indeed, publicans 
 often decline to receive payment from a Bishop or Clergyman 
 on duty. 
 
 When the Bishop reached Brisbane he found there was 
 Church work to do there and at Ipswich, which occupied him 
 nearly a month. He greatly enjoyed staying, as he did for 
 the greater part of the time, at Newstead, the house of 
 Captain and Mrs. Wickham. He was particularly fond of 
 little children, and he mentions in his Diary repeatedly the 
 pleasure they gave him. He says of the little daughter of his 
 hostess, “ Much friendly conversation with my little friend, 
 Miss Ella, acting the Duchess opposite to me.” Another 
 day : “ Walked back to Newstead, and had a very pleasant 
 evening, little Ella sitting on my knee and asking all 
 possible questions.” And it was a matter of triumph, when 
 he had taken tea with a Clergyman and his wife, to report, 
 “ Their little boy, Cyril, getting over his shyness, and 
 
1350 .] 
 
 NEED OF ORGANISATION . 
 
 Si 
 
 making friends with me.” At another time, when on the 
 Dartbrook, he says : “ Eose at five, writing and arranging 
 everything for my journey before seven. I then went out 
 into the garden with the little boy, Ernest, and especially to 
 see his garden which was up the hill.” 
 
 One day his ever-ready love for little ones gave grievous 
 offence to the small object of his admiration. He was talk- 
 ing to a lady, when the door opened, and the nurse led in a 
 little boy, with curling hair and merry blue eyes, and the fat 
 white neck and rounded arms set off by a black velvet dress. 
 “ What a little picture ! ” was the Bishop's involuntary 
 exclamation to the pleased mother. In a moment all was 
 changed ; a sudden cloud came over the young bright face ; 
 and to prevent a burst of tears, of which no one could 
 imagine the cause, the good aunt snatched up the child and 
 carried him off. Outside the door all the trouble burst forth. 
 “ He called me a picture, and I ain't a picture ; a picture 
 can’t speak, and I can,” said the injured little man. Even a 
 Bishop is not infallible, he had spoken “in a tongue not 
 understanded of the people.” 
 
 After a service at a bush-hut, to which shepherds and 
 their families had come from a neighbouring station, he 
 observes, “ It was indeed a moving sight to see so many 
 children, and to feel how few were the means of grace which 
 they had within their reach.” It was this genuine love for 
 children, working with his deep conviction that the baptized 
 little ones were Christ’s lambs entrusted to the care of the 
 Church, that gave such energy and perseverance to his 
 endeavours to multiply Church schools throughout his 
 Diocese ; and to ward off the repeated attacks of the Colonial 
 Government to force on the Colony, first the Irish National 
 system of a maimed Christianity, and afterwards its natural 
 outgrowth, the secular system. 
 
 The attacks on the Church's doctrine of Baptism were 
 still troubling some minds, and at various houses at which 
 he stayed during his northern Visitation his counsel was 
 sought. There are indications of this in his Diary, but the 
 notices are of so general a character that they do not show 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1850. 
 
 clearly what exact teaching he gave. He had so salutary a 
 dread of controversy without holiness, of wrangling for that 
 which men would rather prove argumentatively than live by , 
 and the state of the population generally was so low, re- 
 ligiously and morally, that he avoided, perhaps in too great a 
 degree, the clear enunciation of doctrinal truths which party 
 spirit opposed. Some of his entries are as follow : — 
 
 “ Conversation at about some of the subjects which 
 
 have caused so much dissension in the Church, as Baptismal 
 Begeneration, Absolution, and other points, which are so 
 much misunderstood. Oh that the members of our Church 
 would carefully search out what is the truth, and realise it, 
 and practise it ! And then endeavour to reclaim others. 
 This would be wisdom and charity, and tend to the purify- 
 ing of the Church. May I thus live, by God’s grace, myself, 
 and so lead others to the same holy obedience, to the same 
 anxious love for the souls and bodies of those about them.” 
 
 “ Mr. was not at home. He appears to be a Low 
 
 Churchman, as it is called, and to be a contentious, dispu- 
 tatious person.” 
 
 “ After breakfast some conversation with and 
 
 about Baptismal Begeneration. Bead some portions of 
 Bishop Bethel’s book, and explained what seemed difficult.” 
 
 “ Considered the subject for my morning sermon, being 
 most anxious to preach on the subject of Church Principles, 
 and yet I almost fear lest such a subject should be misun- 
 derstood and do hurt. Preached on Ephes. iv. it, 12.” At 
 an early part of this Visitation he puts down what he con- 
 sidered ought to be the kind of sermons preached to these 
 very mixed congregations, to whom he could speak but 
 once or twice. 
 
 “ As I am to-morrow to preach to the members of our 
 Church at Armidale, it may be well to consider what object 
 I should propose to myself in my sermons during these 
 Visitation tours ; what effect I should desire and strive to 
 produce. It would seem judicious to avoid all mere points 
 of controversy, for the congregations are likely to be very 
 mixed. And the bringing forward at present matters of 
 
1850.] 
 
 NEED OF ORGANISATION. 
 
 S3 
 
 difference would only tend to alienate, if not exasperate, 
 those who hear me. It is, I am more and more convinced, 
 most desirable, and indeed necessary, to attack the feelings 
 by kind advice and moving appeals, before you aim at expos- 
 ing errors or reconciling differences. Let your hearers feel 
 that you have benefited them by your Christian counsel, and 
 then they will listen the more readily to statements which 
 may convince them of past error. 
 
 “ Again, it must not be my aim to become a mere popular 
 preacher, and to have numbers come to me from all Com- 
 munions because my sermons are exciting and moving, and 
 bring before them nothing to offend them. For then, instead 
 of being the Bishop of this vast Diocese, I should only be 
 like an exciting preacher, whether Churchman or Dissenter, 
 and be encouraging itching ears — the sad error of attending 
 Divine Service for the pleasure and excitement which it 
 affords. 
 
 “ During these my early Visitations it will be desirable to 
 dwell in moving terms on some of the great Gospel truths, 
 so that all who hear may, by God’s grace, have their con- 
 science roused, and be brought to feel that they have sadly 
 neglected their known acknowledged duties. Thus each 
 hearer may feel himself benefited, and carry away to his 
 home something that he may think of and dwell upon here- 
 after ; and, by the blessing of the Lord, the leaven thus intro- 
 duced may in time leaven the whole lump. Thus all will 
 feel that, by the Ministers and Bishop of our Church, religion 
 is not made a dry repulsive thing, but that the highest 
 affections of the heart should and may be enlisted in its 
 cause.” 
 
 This Visitation ended about the middle of July, when he 
 returned by steamer from Brisbane, having ridden 1500 miles. 
 He had perceived the importance of having some Clergyman 
 of experience in that distant part of the Diocese, therefore, 
 after the September Ordination, at which he ordained two 
 .Priests and two Deacons, he appointed Mr. Irwin to Brisbane, 
 and filled his vacant place at Singleton with one of those 
 newly ordained. 
 
84 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1850. 
 
 Writing to the Kev. E. Hawkins about the willingness of 
 bis Clergy to co-operate in bis plans, be says : — 
 
 “ We are all working together, not only with zeal and 
 spirit, but also with that cordial and affectionate unity of 
 feeling and purpose, that I verily believe there is not a single 
 one of my Clergy, young or old, that would not do anything, 
 or go anywhere, that I desired.” 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONFERENCE OF THE SIX BISHOPS AT SYDNEY — FORMA- 
 TION OF THE NEWCASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 1850-1851. 
 
 “The Church and State are distinct societies, with distinct scopes and ends. 
 But this does not at all imply that that state of the case was always seen. On 
 the contrary, it is only comparatively recently that it was distinctly seen or 
 apprehended. For many ages, Church and State were practically one body in 
 people’s minds in this sense, that sins against the one ranked also as sins against 
 the other. The membership of the two bodies coincided ; the two bodies were 
 not distinguished ; their provinces and scopes were not.” 
 
 — Mozley’s University Sermons , p. 9. 
 
 At the end of September 1850 Bishop Tyrrell had gone to 
 Sydney, at the summons of the Metropolitan, to take part in 
 the first Synod or Conference of the Bishops of Australasia. 
 The members of the Synod were : — 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Wm. Grant Broughton, Bishop of Sydney, Metropolitan. 
 The Rt. Rev. George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand. 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Francis Russell Nixon, Bishop of Tasmania. 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Augustus Short, Bishop of Adelaide. 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Charles Perry, Bishop of Melbourne. 
 
 The Rt. Rev. William Tyrrell, Bishop of Newcastle. 
 
 The Church in their Dioceses had become a large and 
 growing body; and it was evident that, to preserve order 
 within it, to provide fur its vigour and unity in action, 
 and its extension, an authority was needed, which at present 
 was not to be found. 
 
 The Letters - Patent of the Crown, by which Colonial 
 Bishops were at that time appointed to their Dioceses, pro- 
 fessed to give jurisdiction : but on any occasion when there 
 
86 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1850. 
 
 was need to exercise that jurisdiction, it was found to be 
 powerless ; and proved to be the staff of a bruised reed, which 
 broke and pierced the hand that would use it. Bishops 
 might stop the Government salary of any Clergyman by with- 
 drawing his license : but if this were done ever so justly, it 
 was easy for malcontents to raise against them a cry of arbi- 
 trary tyranny ; and other power they had none. Changes 
 were needed to enable the Church, under its new conditions, 
 to adapt its working to its needs ; and for this it required 
 a living authority, which had not yet been called into 
 existence. 
 
 In England, the confusion caused by the Gorham judg- 
 ment called forth the Diocesan Synod of Exeter in June 
 1851, under the presidency of the learned and brave Bishop 
 Phillpotts ; and, after a while, the Convocations of Canter- 
 bury and York were awakened from their long trance. But 
 the new circumstances in which the Australasian Dioceses 
 found themselves pressed them to move first ; and their 
 Bishops, trained as they were, at a time when the light of 
 primitive truth was being thrown upon the imposture of 
 Erastianism, saw that however enthralled she might have 
 been, the Church was neither a creature of the State, nor a 
 society of human origin, developed out of men’s supposed 
 religious yearnings, but the Kingdom of Christ, deriving her 
 authority from Him. 
 
 The mists of generations did not clear away at once, nor 
 have they cleared away yet. Both Bishops and Clergy had 
 much to learn, and had to make their way as best they 
 could, through partial knowledge and inevitable mistakes ; 
 while the fears, and suspicions, and strong prejudices of 
 many of their lay brethren against the spiritual origin and 
 authority of the Church caused opposition and hindrance 
 in the work. This is not to be complained of. The slow 
 growth of a vigorous life is more healthy and lasting than 
 that which has experienced no obstruction, and never had its 
 vitality put to the test. 
 
 The Bishops at Sydney were in conference for a month, 
 from the 1st of October to the 1st of November. Having 
 
i$5o.] 
 
 CONFERENCE AT SYDNEY . 
 
 S 7 
 
 chosen Bishop Tyrrell as their secretary, they prefaced their 
 proceedings by a resolution not to exercise on that occasion 
 the powers of an Ecclesiastical Synod, in consequence of 
 doubts existing how far they were inhibited by the Queen’s 
 supremacy from doing so. 
 
 The Canons of 1603-4 are acknowledged to have gener- 
 ally a binding force on Bishops and Clergy, but revision of 
 them is desired. 
 
 Provincial and Diocesan Synods of Bishops and Clergy, 
 and Provincial and Diocesan Conventions of the Laity, are 
 recommended. No questions affecting the Temporalities of 
 the Church are to be decided without the concurrence of 
 the Conventions. 
 
 Church membership, giving a title to all the Ministrations 
 of the Church, is to be secured to those baptized in the Name 
 of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, on the condition 
 that they are conformable to the Doctrine, Government, Rites, 
 and Ceremonies contained in the Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 None but Communicants are to be eligible as members of 
 the Conventions. 
 
 Discipline is to be exercised over Bishops by the Bishops 
 of the Province ; over Clergy by the Diocesan Synod ; over 
 Laymen by private admonition, by repelling from Holy 
 Communion, according to the Rubric, and in the last resort 
 by Excommunication, which would release the Clergy from 
 the obligation to use the Burial Service over them. 
 
 Clergy are not to be removed from a permanent Cure, 
 except by a sentence pronounced before a Diocesan Synod. 
 But, considering the work of the Colonial Church, it is desir- 
 able that Candidates should place themselves at the disposal 
 of the Bishops for a certain term of years, being ready to 
 serve wherever the Church has need of them. 
 
 Under the head “ Liturgy,” among various suggestions 
 and directions, an apology is given for the use of the Offertory 
 Sentences, and the Prayer for the Church Militant, accord- 
 ing to the Rubric, which tells of the controversies of the 
 times. The Bishops “ are of opinion that no Clergyman can 
 justly be suspected of holding opinions at variance with the 
 
83 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1850. 
 
 sound teaching of the Church, in consequence of his com- 
 plying with the Rubric ” respecting them. These words 
 were not unnecessary, and that they were not only shows 
 the ignorance and misrepresentation with which those had 
 to contend who were at that time endeavouring to restore to 
 the members of the Church their forgotten inheritance. 
 
 Warnings are given against the solemnisation or contract- 
 ing of marriage within the prohibited degrees. Solemnisa- 
 tion in such case is declared to he a “ violation of the law of 
 the Church. Those who contract such a marriage are liable 
 to be repelled from the Holy Communion.” And while all 
 marriages contracted in conformity with the laws of the 
 State, if not contrary to the laws of the Church, are allowed 
 as valid , the Bishops press upon all members of the Church 
 of England the duty of being married in no other way than 
 according to the Rites of the Church. 
 
 To relieve the “ perplexity of pious and thoughtful men,” 
 five of the Bishops state thoughtfully and clearly the doc- 
 trine of the Church as to the Regeneration of infants in 
 Holy Baptism. Unhappily the Bishop of Melbourne, while 
 professing his agreement with the conclusions of his brethren, 
 so as to accept it as his “ firm belief that infants do receive 
 in Baptism the grace of Regeneration ,” preferred to state 
 his own views separately : and yet, if words have meaning, 
 this u firm belief ” might have enabled him to go with them 
 in all they stated. 
 
 With one firm voice the six Bishops refuse to join any 
 system of “ erroneous, defective, or indefinite religious in- 
 struction,” such as they consider the scheme which the 
 Government was thrusting upon the country to be. But 
 while discountenancing an evil system , they would not 
 neglect the care of the lambs of Christ’s flock, which were 
 entrusted to them by Him. They point out that, where a 
 Church school cannot be established, it is the duty of the 
 Clergy, in communication with their Bishop, to remedy, as 
 far as possible, the evils and defects of the schools to which 
 their parents may send them. While ready to welcome such 
 aid to higher education as the establishment of the Sydney 
 
1850.] 
 
 CONFERENCE AT SYDNEY . 
 
 89 
 
 University might give, they stoutly objected to its secular 
 teaching being given in such a manner as to withdraw 
 Church students from the Collegiate rule of the Church. 
 
 The last subject under the deliberation of the Sydney 
 Synod was the formation of the Australasian Board of Mis- 
 sions, whose work should be the evangelisation of the 
 heathen of Australia, and of the islands of the Western 
 Pacific. 
 
 Who does not know how energetically the latter mission 
 has been taken up by George Augustus Selwyn, Coleridge 
 Patteson, who received at Nukapu his enrolment in the 
 noble army of martyrs, and John Selwyn, his father’s worthy 
 son ? As for the mission to the heathen of Australia, encom- 
 passed as it is with peculiar difficulties, it can only be said, 
 with humiliation, that in Eastern Australia it has not been 
 entered upon to the present day. 
 
 It is well known who it was that struck the keynote of 
 this last recommendation of the Synod ; but he shall speak 
 for himself in a letter to his dear friend, Bishop Tyrrell. The 
 letter has no date, but it must have been written some time 
 between the middle of April and the end of May 1850. 
 
 “ Jengen, New Caledonia. 
 
 * ‘ Lat. 20 0 40' S. East Coast. 
 
 “My very dear Friend and Brother, — I waited till 
 the 1st of April in hopes of hearing something of your move- 
 ments, and of the time fixed for the Provincial Synod at 
 Sydney. But hearing nothing either from you or our 
 Metropolitan, I was obliged to sail for these islands, to bring 
 back my tender tropical plants to their own congenial tem- 
 perature before they could be blighted by the chilly damp of 
 a New Zealand winter. 
 
 “ It might have thrown back the work some years if the 
 first impression had been unfavourable. As it is, I thank 
 God that I am carrying back my five Melanesian scholars 
 full of health and spirits to their own country and relations ; 
 to spread, I believe, a good report of all that they have seen 
 
9 o 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1850. 
 
 in New Zealand, and to induce others by their testimony to 
 trust themselves hereafter to our care. The same hoys who 
 cried at leaving home now cry at parting from us. By their 
 help we have made some beginning in the knowledge of the 
 manifold dialects, which will be the great difficulty of the 
 mission work in these islands. 
 
 “Now that I have entered upon this subject, which you 
 will easily see is uppermost in my thoughts, I will tell you 
 what I should have proposed if we had met in Synod at 
 Sydney, and which may be carried out by general consent 
 whether we meet or not. It is to establish a Provincial 
 Board of Missions for the six Australasian Dioceses, having 
 especially for its object the evangelisation of New Caledonia, 
 the New Hebrides, the Loyalty Islands, the Solomon Islands, 
 New Britain, New Hanover, &c., &c., in fact, all the dark 
 islands contiguous to Australia. 
 
 “ I am prepared, so far as God may give me strength and 
 ability, to take the duties of Pioneer; and so far as local 
 knowledge is concerned, I can contribute already a tolerably 
 accurate acquaintance with the field of work over all the 
 islands of the south of Lat. 17 0 30' and to the west of 
 Long. 170° E. 
 
 “ In the midst of your own necessities, which, I have no 
 doubt, are urgent, will not your Diocese and you receive a 
 prophet’s reward, if you make of your handful of meal a little 
 cake first for those whose necessity is even greater than 
 thine ? Pray think of this ; for I feel as one who has dis- 
 covered a mine of gold; and in the spirit of friendship I 
 write to invite your Diocese to take shares in this venture, 
 which cannot fail to be profitable. I have written also to my 
 Metropolitan, as Joab did to David, to tell him that the gates 
 of Eabbah are ready to be opened, that he and you may come 
 down, lest I take the city of waters, and it be called after my 
 name. There is scarcely anything which would more dignify 
 our first Synod than the establishment of such a Board of 
 Missions, with a field of practical work ready opened for 
 its occupation. Pray think of this, and let me know your 
 opinion. 
 
IS50. ] 
 
 CONFERENCE AT SYDNEY. 
 
 9i 
 
 “ I long to meet you either at Sydney or at Auckland ; but 
 no distance can prevent me from remaining your very affec- 
 tionate Friend and Brother, G. A., New Zealand.” 
 
 That his old friend responded to his call we shall see 
 shortly. At present we may return from Sydney to the 
 Diocese of Newcastle and its Bishop. The opportunity of 
 having the Bishops of New Zealand and Tasmania among us 
 was too good to let slip. Hitherto we had been working on 
 among our own immediate duties, each, whether Bishop or 
 Clergy, in his wide and engrossing sphere of labour; too 
 much occupied with our own charge to look beyond it. 
 Now came the opportunity of feeling our union with other 
 Dioceses. 
 
 From Sydney the Bishop wrote to me : — 
 
 “ November 4, 1850. 
 
 “ I have been so incessantly engaged that I have not been 
 able to write to you as I desired. The labours of our Synod 
 are, however, brought to a conclusion ; and my great object 
 is now to make as much use as possible of the presence of 
 my brother Bishops, and especially of my dear friend the 
 Bishop of New Zealand. On Wednesday night I return to 
 Morpeth ; the Bishop of New Zealand accompanies me ; the 
 Bishop of Tasmania will follow us at the end of the week.” 
 
 The Bishop of New Zealand came with his old friend to 
 Morpeth, and remained with him more than a week, preach- 
 ing for him at Morpeth and at other neighbouring Churches. 
 And on the 13th the two Bishops rode down to Newcastle, 
 where Bishop Selwyn preached a sermon, long remembered 
 by those who heard his thrilling words, from Joel ii. 28. 
 
 On Thursday the 14th Bishop Nixon of Tasmania arrived 
 from Sydney, and there was a celebration of the Holy 
 Eucharist in the morning at St. James’ Church, Morpeth, 
 when those of the Clergy and Laity who were present com- 
 municated with the three Bishops. In the afternoon a large 
 meeting was held in the Court House at East Maitland, and 
 
92 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [rSso. 
 
 there the Bishops and some of the Clergy explained the 
 greatness of the work committed to the Church, and how 
 much its extension and prosperity in their newly settled 
 land depended upon the fervent zeal and steady co-operation 
 of its members. Churchmen had their duties whether the 
 State chose to grant or withhold assistance. To concentrate 
 and direct their efforts, a Society, embracing the chief needs 
 of the Church, was proposed, an outline of its constitution 
 and objects was sketched, and it was announced that rules 
 would be drawn up and submitted to a meeting to be sum- 
 moned in five months for the formation of the Society. 
 
 Before the meeting separated an address of respectful 
 welcome was presented to the two Bishops, who had come, 
 not to pay a “ visit of mere friendship,” but, in the spirit of 
 Christian brotherhood, “ to cheer a brother Bishop and the 
 flock entrusted to his charge.” 
 
 The address concluded: “We would desire above all 
 things to render our humble thanks to our Merciful Father, 
 that while sin and infidelity are arousing themselves through 
 the world, He has graciously stirred up to new life our Branch 
 of the Church. We consider it no small sign of His good- 
 ness towards us that six Bishops of the Church of England 
 have been allowed to meet and take counsel in the Diocese 
 of Sydney; and three to assemble in this Diocese where, 
 within the memory of man, the Word of God and the Name 
 of Jesus Christ were unknown.” 
 
 The sum of ^22, 14s. was offered at the close of this 
 meeting, which within the next few months was increased 
 to ^200 by collections in different districts. And this first- 
 fruits of the united action of the Diocese of Newcastle was 
 added to the much larger sum raised by the wealthier Diocese 
 of Sydney, and employed in the purchase of the “Border 
 Maid” as the Mission Ship. 
 
 The Bishop speaks in his letters of the comfort and sup- 
 port he had received from the consultations with his brethren 
 in the Synod at Sydney, and from the visit of Bishops 
 Selwyn and Nixon to his own Diocese. And he went on 
 with his work vigorously as before. 
 
1S50.] 
 
 CONFERENCE AT SYDNEY. 
 
 93 
 
 He had been longing for the arrival of some Clergy from 
 England to meet pressing wants. One at length arrived, a 
 gentle, holy-spirited man; hut he ought not to have left 
 England for the labours of Colonial work. When he landed 
 he was in the last stage of consumption. The Bishop ex- 
 presses his disappointment in a letter written a fortnight after 
 the meeting at Maitland. “ You will he sorry to hear that 
 Mr. Swan, who has arrived and is now at Morpeth, has only 
 come to die here ; and I am nursing him in the full expecta- 
 tion that a few days will bring his life to a close. With this 
 sad disappointment at present teaching me how little reliance 
 can he placed upon what our good friends may do in Eng- 
 land, I can scarcely venture to expect that the two others 
 who are coming will he very efficient. However this may 
 he, I am afraid you must not expect for the Cassilis District 
 more aid at present than Mr. Kemp can afford you.” 
 
 A few weeks later he writes : “ This last fortnight I have 
 had another Clergyman from England arrive, and he and his 
 wife and three children have been residing with me. . . . 
 He will he placed at Dungog, having the charge of the 
 Williams Eiver. Yesterday I had one of my good days 
 work ” (he went to Dungog on Saturday to do duty there 
 on Sunday), “ and yesterday I went to join him, settle all 
 necessary business, and bring him hack to Morpeth. I rode 
 seventy miles and had six hours of business, in which time 
 I saw all the principal persons of the district, and settled 
 with them about their contributions towards their Clergy- 
 man’s stipend ; persuaded those who were at a previous 
 meeting to reconsider their unwise decision, and change it as 
 I wished. I saw and purchased a Parsonage with twenty 
 
 acres of land, and brought Mrs. T in safety to Morpeth. 
 
 . . . Thus a very happy arrangement has been made, though 
 I feel somewhat weary to-day.” The Bishop needed the 
 work of the Church Society to provide funds ; for he says in 
 the same letter : “ I expect in a few days the announcement 
 that a third Clergyman has left England. . . . The having 
 these Clergymen is a work of faith, for I have not from any 
 public sources a shilling provided for their stipends ; we must 
 
94 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [i8 S i. 
 
 obtain it by our exertions here. — Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 sincerely and affectionately yours, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 In such exertions be himself took a large share. Now 
 he began to promote and take part in meetings in many parts 
 of the Diocese, in preparation for the general one which was 
 to be held in April. He writes : “As I am very anxious that 
 these district meetings and the Committees which may be 
 formed at them should be as successful as possible, I purpose 
 to get to Singleton on the 18th of March to attend the 
 meeting there, and if possible to proceed with you to Muswell 
 Brook, that I may give you the same assistance on the 19th. 
 Perhaps, therefore, you will make arrangements for this ; 
 and, if it be not inconvenient, come to Singleton on the 
 1 8th, as I think it very probable you may have arranged to 
 do. . . . The good effect of our Morpeth meeting still 
 remains.” 
 
 He announced an intended journey for the early part of 
 the following year. This, and other short journeys, a meet- 
 ing of the Provisional Committee, at which the rules of the 
 society to be proposed at the General Meeting were settled, 
 the Consecration of Merton Church, and Lenten labours, fully 
 occupied him until the 26th of April, when the meeting was 
 held at which the Newcastle Church Society was actually 
 formed. 
 
 At the Service held in St. James’ Church, Morpeth, on the 
 morning of the meeting, the Bishop’s sermon urged the 
 principles on which the Church Society should he founded. 
 
 From the text, Ephes. iv. 3, he shows that St. Paul sets 
 forth a doctrine , and a duty resulting from it. The doctrine 
 is that Christ’s people are “one Body” with “one Spirit.” 
 “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body . . . 
 and have been all made to drink with one Spirit.” And in 
 this Body there is “ the Divine appointment of the Ministry 
 of the Church by Christ Himself.” For “Christ gave some 
 Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some 
 Pastors, and Teachers ; for the perfecting of the Saints, for the 
 work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ ; 
 
IS 5 I] 
 
 THE BISHOP'S SERMON . 
 
 95 
 
 till we all come (not in but) unto the unity of the Faith, and 
 of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, 
 unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. ” 
 
 The duty arising out of this doctrine is that of “ union, ” 
 “ living in peace and love, as a society joined together by the 
 strongest ties to feel and act as members of the same Body, 
 having a deep interest in each other’s well-being.” 
 
 The difficulties in the way of this union of heart and 
 action arise from the natural tendency to strife and vain- 
 glory ; fondness for our own plans and modes of action, 
 aptness to imagine or detect defects in any complicated 
 system, and to think that we can avoid these defects by some 
 wise plan of our own. 
 
 “ How natural if we have received good ourselves, or seen 
 some friend derive manifest good from other than the 
 appointed means of grace, to value what has thus been 
 made useful in a particular case , to the disparagement of 
 what has been duly appointed, and, in numberless other 
 cases, blessed for good in the Church.” 
 
 “ Truly, then, it is a difficult duty, and therefore a high 
 grace ; it is the mark of the spiritual, and not of the natural 
 man, to overcome prejudice and control self, and live and act 
 as a meek, forbearing, humble member of Christ’s Body the 
 Church.” 
 
 But, wuth all its difficulties, “every endeavour, every 
 effort, made for this purpose will be amply repaid. Every 
 difficulty in the way of Church union which we overcome 
 will be in our own persons an advance towards spiritual 
 perfection ; for it will be the subduing of some infirmity or 
 prejudice of the natural man, or the attaining, by the Lord’s 
 aid, some grace of the spiritual man. And as regards the 
 increase of God’s glory, and the edification of His Church, 
 S and the diffusion of His Gospel, this principle of Church 
 union, of united efforts in preference to individual exertions , 
 is of the greatest importance.” 
 
 “ That such a body as the Church has been appointed 
 from the first by our Lord, will be a sufficient proof to every 
 humble and devout mind that it affords the best and most 
 
96 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1851. 
 
 effectual means for the conversion of the heathen and the 
 perfecting of the Saints.” 
 
 “ Who is there among us that has not at times felt the 
 indescribable support of such a principle of conduct ? We 
 are inquiring perhaps for the path of duty, saying in our 
 hearts, ‘Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.’ And the Lord 
 does speak to us through His Word ; and we stay ourselves 
 upon His appointment, trusting to His blessing and support. 
 If He should say to us, ‘ Come/ we cqme willingly to any 
 post of irksome or self-denying duty. If He say, ‘ Go/ we 
 go cheerfully to our appointed sphere of duty, even in the 
 most distant lands. If He say, ‘ Do this/ we brace ourselves 
 to the work, however difficult or dangerous it may seem. 
 
 “Eelieve me, there is no greater support than this re- 
 liance on the appointment of God. 
 
 “If, then, we believe our Church to be God’s appointed 
 instrument for effecting spiritual good in this land and 
 Diocese, we should cling to it, and earnestly desire to labour 
 in cordial union with it. How much, then, should this be 
 our desire, when we can clearly see that the united efforts of 
 Christian brethren are beyond all comparison more efficacious 
 for good than the separate action of individuals ! It is to 
 call into action this united feeling of Christian brotherhood, 
 that I ask your assistance this day in forming a General 
 Church Society for this Diocese.” 
 
 Addressing the Clergy and Laity separately, the Bishop 
 proceeded : — 
 
 “Upon you, my reverend brethren, much will depend. 
 Upon your zeal, your gentleness, your wisdom in winning 
 souls to Christ, your wise training of your flocks in that 
 faith which worketh by love. . . . What is there that our 
 united zeal may not, by God’s blessing, effect? That we 
 are thus united is indeed my comfort and joy. Yes, amid 
 the anxious cares connected with my duties there has been 
 granted to me, by the goodness of the Lord, one unfailing 
 source of comfort and encouragement, I mean the cordial 
 united spirit in which we have all laboured together, as 
 members of the same Gospel of Peace. All of you, it is my 
 
1851.] 
 
 THE BISHOP'S SERMON. 
 
 97 
 
 joy to say, whether you formed part of that little "band 
 which came with me from England to labour here, or 
 whether you had been labouring in this Colony for years 
 before my coming, have shown the most cheerful acquies- 
 cence in every suggestion I have made, in every wish I have 
 expressed. This our working together with one heart and 
 one spirit has lightened all my cares, and has given me the 
 happy assurance that our labour will not be in vain in the 
 Lord. 
 
 “ And now, my Eeverend brethren, I ask your aid in spread- 
 ing this blessed unity of heart and purpose among all the 
 members of the Church. The Laity, as well as the Clergy, 
 should learn to consider themselves as members of the same 
 family, as one united brotherhood ; looking each one, not 
 only on his own things, but also on the things of others, 
 cheerfully bearing one another’s burdens, and anxious to 
 impart to others the blessings and privileges which they 
 themselves enjoy. . . . The only caution I would desire 
 to give you is this : Hot to be discouraged at the little 
 apparent good you may at first seem able to effect. You 
 will agree with me, that our success in this work will not 
 be shown so much by the amount of money support which 
 may be obtained, as by the real feeling of Christian charity 
 and brotherhood which we may hope, by God’s blessing, 
 to arouse. 
 
 “ And what exertions do I ask of you, my brethren of 
 the Laity ? I ask of you assistance and support, more diffi- 
 cult and more precious than I have asked of your Ministers. 
 I ask of you to prove the truth , the excellence , the Divine 
 appointment of our Church; and then to hold fast that 
 which is so truly good. I ask of you to be sincere and 
 faithful, and constant in your use of her means of grace, 
 that you may profit by them and esteem them precious ; 
 and therefore desire , in the spirit of Christian charity, to 
 impart the same blessings to your brethren. I ask of you, 
 first, to let your light so shine before men that they may 
 see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in 
 Heaven ; and thus confess and report that God is in you of 
 
 G 
 
9 8 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1851. 
 
 a truth. I would ask of you, next, attachment to that 
 Church in which you have been thus blessed, and a deep 
 sense of the duty and 'privilege of working with it and by it 
 for the spiritual good of others. 
 
 “ And how much is there to encourage you in this work ! It 
 is God’s work, and will prosper in His hands. Either with 
 our aid or without it Christ 1 s Kingdom will advance , till 
 the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the 
 Lord and His Christ. 
 
 “Nor is the present state or future prospect of the Church 
 among us without encouragement. During the period that 
 I have been among you as your Eishop, the work of the 
 Church has gone on so quietly and peaceably, with so little, 
 I am glad to say, of public notice or excitement, that many 
 suppose but little has been done to advance its character and 
 influence. 
 
 “ Some, however, wall have seen with joy the gradual, 
 though silent, progress of good : new districts formed, and 
 Clergymen appointed to them, and a growing reality in the 
 pastoral superintendence of each district. . . . Thus more 
 than three years have passed, leaving behind them feelings 
 of gratitude and thankfulness : of gratitude for the invariable 
 kindness I have received ; and of thankfulness for the silent 
 steady progress with wdiich the Lord has blessed our 
 Church. . . . 
 
 “ I now ask your cordial co-operation to-day in forming a 
 General Church Society, and in promoting through it the 
 great objects which the Church has in hand. . . . 
 
 “And may we not all derive great encouragement in our 
 labour of love, and expect a peculiar blessing upon it from 
 this bond of peace, which will unite us together in one 
 heart and spirit ? If the Lord has appointed His Church to 
 be the 4 light of the world’ and ‘the salt of the earth,’ then let 
 us endeavour by means of that Church to enlighten the 
 darkness of ignorance and to stay the corruption of sin ; 
 for God will put honour on His own appointed means of 
 good. . . . Let us, then, give ourselves to the v T ork in the 
 spirit of Faith and Charity and Prayer.” 
 
IS 5 I.] 
 
 FORMATION OF CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 99 
 
 At the meeting which followed the rules drawn up by the 
 Provisional Committee were adopted, and the Newcastle 
 Church Society was fairly launched. 
 
 Its objects were five : — 
 
 1. The promotion of Education — primary or advanced. 
 
 2. The formation of a Book Depot. 
 
 3. The Erection of Church Buildings. 
 
 4. The Maintenance of Clergy. 
 
 5. The Support of Missions. 
 
 For each of these there was a distinct fund : and a sixth 
 fund was added, called the General Fund, which might be 
 applied to any objects, at the discretion of the Committee. 
 It was provided that in each of the districts there should be 
 an Association, and the Committee of each District Associa- 
 tion might apply to local purposes two-thirds of all sums 
 received by them under the heads 1, 2, and 3 ; and should 
 remit the balance, with the full amounts contributed for the 
 Clergy, Mission, and General Funds, to the General Society. 
 
 How the Society progressed, in spite of fears and difficul- 
 ties, must be mentioned later on. Its formation gave the 
 Bishop a breathing time. It was an important stage in his 
 labours for the Diocese ; and he now prepared for his absence 
 for a time from the Colony — his only absence during an 
 Episcopate of more than thirty-one years. 
 
( 100 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MISSIONARY VOYAGE TO THE MELANESIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 X851. 
 
 “ There are who roam 
 
 To scatter seeds of life on barbarous shores.” 
 
 — Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets. 
 
 • 
 
 When tlie six Bishops who met in Synod at Sydney com- 
 mended to the Church the formation of the Australasian 
 Board of Missions, it was a matter of course that the Origi- 
 nator of the idea, the Bishop of New Zealand, should he 
 appointed to take the leadership of the Mission to the Islands, 
 commended as they had been to his care by Archbishop 
 Howley. 
 
 It was also very suitable that his old friend and fellow- 
 collegian, should be associated with him in this work. The 
 two therefore, par nobile fratrum , were appointed as the 
 Missionary Bishops : and, on the principle of ready obedience 
 to a legitimate call, urged in his recent sermon at Morpeth, 
 the Bishop of Newcastle, without hesitation, resolved to go. 
 There were other reasons which weighed with him, which he 
 mentions in the following letter to his old friend, the Rev. 
 W. E. Iloare : — 
 
 “ Sydney, May 27, 1851. 
 
 “My very dear Eriend, — Before you receive this letter 
 you will have heard of the noble project of the Bishop of 
 New Zealand, the formation of the Australasian Board of 
 Missions — the six Dioceses of Australasia having united 
 together to convert and civilise the remnant of the poor 
 Blacks of Australia, and to evangelise the numerous groups 
 of Islands in the Western Pacific. Each Bishop will super- 
 
London; Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 
 
 Stanfords Gtog/'Zstab * 
 

1851.] VOYAGE TO MELANESIAN ISLANDS . 101 
 
 intend in liis own Diocese the measures which will he taken 
 for the improvement of the Australian Blacks, while the 
 Bishop of Xew Zealand and myself have been appointed the 
 Missionary Bishops to visit the different isles of the Western 
 Pacific. . . . Such is my work for the next six months. 
 But if the business of my Diocese lias hitherto taken up my 
 time so completely that I have not been able to write to you, 
 or even to those noble Church Societies which have conferred 
 so many benefits on my Diocese, how can I willingly be 
 absent for so long a time from my own peculiar sphere of 
 duty ? I will tell you. I have been for three years and a 
 half working incessantly in building up the Church in my 
 Diocese. There was much foundation work to do, if any 
 sound, and substantial, and real good was to be effected. 
 This has been effected, and the building has at last begun to 
 show itself. Our Church Society has been established, and 
 has commenced its work most nobly. District Associations 
 in connection with the General Church Society have been 
 formed, or are being formed, in every parish or district of 
 my Diocese. We have had public meetings and unusual 
 excitement. And now I feel that, if the work is to be sound 
 and lasting, there must be a pause. There must be a time 
 for settling. And just in the degree in which I have been 
 incessantly at work up to this time, directing, guiding, and 
 almost myself doing all that has been done ; it is now desir- 
 able that both Clergy and Laity should for a time be left to 
 themselves ; to learn their own strength or weakness, and to 
 carry out, or to fail in carrying out, the plans which have 
 been formed, and in which they have cordially acquiesced. 
 
 “ Thus, if a most important field of distant duty had not 
 been providentially opened to me, I should still have retired 
 from my incessant activity; and perhaps have diminished my 
 influence by being suspected of a growing indolence, instead 
 of being able to return to active superintendence, with influ- 
 ence greatly increased from the acknowledged difficulty and 
 danger of my Missionary voyage. 
 
 “ One point more. On what will my thoughts be mainly 
 fixed, while I am pacing the deck of our Mission ship, or 
 
102 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1851. 
 
 taking my turn at tire helm ? You have a wife and children, 
 which well deserve to be the centre of thought and affection. 
 I have none. And as in England, dear Beaulieu was to me 
 in place of parent and wife and child, so is my Diocese now. 
 When far away, my thoughts and affections will be intently 
 fixed on it ; I shall be ever consulting and planning for 
 its good.” 
 
 He stayed in Sydney a fortnight, while the “ Border Maid,” 
 the Mission ship, was being made ready for sea : and on 
 Ascension Day, the 29th of May, sailed for Hew Zealand. 
 After Morning Service and Holy Communion at St. Andrew’s, 
 the Metropolitan attended him to the ship, and when out- 
 side the Sydney Heads a hearty cheer and God-speed arose 
 from the Clergy and Laymen who had accompanied him 
 down the Harbour in the steam-tug. 
 
 “ We had,” said Bishop Tyrrell afterwards, “ the roughest 
 of all rough passages, tossing and labouring far beyond any- 
 thing we experienced coming from England.” The ship’s 
 log records for several days successively : “ Hard gales with 
 heavy sea ; shipping a great deal of water fore and aft.” 
 “ Heavy sea struck the ship, shifted the ballast, and stove in 
 the boat’s bow.” “ The ship labouring and straining heavily.” 
 “ Hard gales and heavy squalls.” “ Shipped a tremendously 
 heavy sea, carrying away a great deal of the bulwarks, a great 
 deal of water going below : set the pumps at work.” But the 
 roughest voyage comes to an end : this one happily. The 
 morning of Whitsunday dawned beautifully ; and, after a 
 lovely sail along the north - east side of the Hew Zealand 
 coast, the Mission ship anchored off Auckland, and Bishop 
 Tyrrell was landed by the pilot boat at the spot nearest to 
 St. John’s College. The Bishop’s Mate and Mr. Hihill were 
 waiting for him ; and conducted him up at once, just in 
 time for the last College Service at eight o’clock, called 
 the “ Unity Service,” when all who had been engaged in 
 different Services during the day united in their Compline 
 before going to rest. “ Most impressive,” is Bishop Tyrrell’s 
 brief comment. 
 
1S51.] VOYAGE TO MELANESIAN ISLANDS . 103 
 
 On St. Barnabas Day, three days after liis arrival, there 
 was a large gathering in the College hall to present him with 
 an address of welcome. IIow cordial it was they will best 
 understand, who have known what it is for like-minded 
 brother Churchmen, earnestly at work in their Master’s ser- 
 vice, to meet in a foreign land, with half the world separating 
 them from the land of their birth. There were the Bishop’s 
 old College friends, Bishop Selwyn, and Sir William Martin 
 the Chief Justice, full of the recollections of past years, and 
 the Rev. C. J. Abraham, afterwards Bishop of Wellington, 
 their w T ives, the Tutors, and the Clergy, many residents of 
 Auckland, the boys and students, of British, Maori, and 
 Polynesian blood. It was a meeting refreshing to the spirit 
 of him who had been labouring hard in his Australian 
 Diocese, and most cheering to those among whom he came 
 — Christ’s labourers, who lived for His work. 
 
 For a month the Bishop of Newcastle was made the most 
 of by the brethren of New Zealand. At the College he 
 examined the Maori boys, the Polynesians, the students, and 
 the Candidates for Orders ; and “ the whole examination 
 was most interesting.” He inspected the farmyard, the car- 
 penter’s shop, the candlemaking, bakery, and the printing 
 establishment. 
 
 With Bishop Selwyn and Sir W. Martin he had much 
 valuable conversation on Church matters, and many a de- 
 lightful ramble in the neighbourhood, gleaning on all sides 
 material for future thought and action. And in the even- 
 ings, in the intervals of his correspondence and reading, he 
 enjoyed much the social intercourse of the families with 
 whom he was staying. 
 
 The rough w r eather from Sydney had left its mark on the 
 Mission ship. A few days after her arrival the two Bishops 
 inspected her ; and, besides the damage to the bulwarks, 
 which was visible enough, they “ found the rudder in a very 
 bad condition, and a great hole in her bow.” They diligently 
 superintended the repairs that were needed to make her sea- 
 worthy, and on the 30th of June they had her drawn up as 
 high as possible on the shore, and “ with shoes and stock- 
 
104 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1851. 
 
 ings off ” made a survey of her condition which proved satis- 
 factory. When she was afloat again, and their stores were 
 sent on hoard, Bishop Tyrrell writes, “I set all things in 
 order, and rejoiced to see the hooks brought for our use 
 during the voyage.” On the 8th of July they “weighed 
 anchor, and drifted down the stream to the point.” 
 
 During the Bishop’s sojourn at Auckland he wrote to 
 me : — 
 
 “ St. John’s College, Auckland, 
 
 “ June 23, 1851. 
 
 “ My dear Sir, — I sincerely hope that you will have 
 returned to your own Parsonage in safety after your long and 
 exhausting journey to the Castlereagh. As you seemed to 
 have so entirely settled your plans when you were with me, 
 I did not like to say anything to dissuade you from your truly 
 Missionary undertaking. But I can assure you I did not 
 feel at ease with regard to you, and in my anxiety for your 
 safety was tempted to question the wisdom of your taking 
 such a journey in a season of such drought and distress. 
 You are now often in my thoughts and not forgotten in my 
 prayers ; and rejoiced shall I he to see you safe and well 
 again, if we are both of us spared to meet. . . . We hope to 
 start on our voyage to the islands to-morrow, St. John the 
 Baptist’s Day, if the repairs which were necessary in the ship 
 can he completed this evening. And my strongest feeling, 
 as the result of my fortnight’s sojourn here, is that of the 
 greatest thankfulness that I came here before I settled or 
 set on foot any system of superior education in my own 
 Diocese. 
 
 “ My first cause of thankfulness is the earnest assertion of 
 my dear friend and his family and friends that my visit has 
 been the source of comfort and support to him. He has had 
 much of vexation and disappointment to undergo : . . . and 
 it has been a real comfort to him to talk over all his anxieties 
 and disappointments with me. 
 
 “You may imagine also with what intense interest I have 
 been watching and examining everything that is taking place 
 at the College here. I consider, as you may remember I 
 
1S51.] VOYAGE TO MELANESIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 I0 5 
 
 mentioned to you I gathered from the Bishop’s account at 
 Sydney, that the system is meant almost entirely for the 
 natives ; they form by far the greater number of the students 
 — being about sixty to about sixteen of English boys. It is 
 not, therefore, a system at all suited to our Diocese, where 
 certainly our chief care should be about the Whites. We 
 must try to work a different system, with the same noble 
 spirit of self-denial. . . . And you, on my return, must be 
 prepared to give the benefit of your counsel to yours faith- 
 fully and affectionately, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 The repairs being more extensive than was at first 
 expected, the sailing was delayed, and the Bishop wrote to 
 me again : — 
 
 “July i, 1851. 
 
 . . . “ I am now in the house of the Chief Justice at 
 Auckland, an old Fellow of St. John’s, and therefore an old 
 acquaintance both of the Bishop of New Zealand and myself : 
 and, as he has proved himself, an invaluable friend to the 
 Bishop and to the Church. ... To me the delay has been 
 no real loss ; it has made me determine to give up my visit 
 to Moreton Bay, and to arrange that I should be landed from 
 the Mission ship at Newcastle. You may imagine the 
 materials for thought which I have been laying up, and the 
 blessing which I anticipate from the next three months’ 
 prayer and meditation, that I may be guided aright in the 
 plans which I may form for our own dear Diocese. ... The 
 four Polynesian boys, whom we take back to the islands, are 
 really most interesting good boys. They were brought from 
 the islands by Captain Erskine of the ‘Havannah.’ The 
 eldest of them, from the Solomon Islands, did something soon 
 after his arrival which will amuse you. His name is 
 Maistie ; and soon after he came to the College he was sent 
 to dig in the garden, and an English boy, somewhat smaller, 
 was sent with him to show him the place, and to superintend 
 him while at work. In a few minutes the English boy was 
 seen running back, crying, and looking back every second 
 pace with terror at Maistie, who was striding after him. 
 
106 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1851. 
 
 The Tutor of the College met them, and asked the English 
 hoy what was the matter. He sobbed out that Maistie had 
 thrashed him. The Tutor asked Maistie why he had done 
 so, and he answered, ‘ He show me place to dig ; I begin 
 dig. I look up, I see him sitting on grass, no work. I 
 say, Ah ! you no work ? He say, Ho — no work. When I 
 board “ Havannah,” I no work, they give me fum-fum. So 
 he no work, I give him fum-fum. ’ This caused a hearty 
 laugh, and Maistie was sent back to dig again ; the English 
 boy begging that he might not have to act as superintendent 
 to him any more. . . . The Maoris have been delighted at 
 the coming of the new Pihopo, as they call me. The shak- 
 ing of hands has been incessant ; and in their hearty good- 
 will they give you such a grasp, the ladies as well as the 
 men, that it is more flattering than pleasant. They are a 
 very fine race ; some of the men really Titans in form and 
 stature. They have a very high opinion of themselves, not 
 allowing at all that we are a superior race ; only we have 
 learned some better w r ays of doing things, which they will 
 soon learn from us.” 
 
 Bishop Abraham, writing to me his recollections of Bishop 
 Tyrrell’s visit, says : — 
 
 “ I reached Hew Zealand in 1850, and I was one of several 
 Clergy who presented an address of welcome to 4 Hew castle ’ 
 on the occasion. The real help that his brother of Hew- 
 castle gave the Bishop of Hew Zealand was this — that the 
 Melanesian Mission was then only tentative, and was then 
 on its trial. Only two voyages had been made, and 
 the whole Mission was doubtful. People in Hew Zealand 
 discouraged it generally ; and it was the support the Aus- 
 tralian Bishops gave him, and the actual companionship of 
 ‘ Hewcastle,’ and the gift of the ‘ Border Maid, 5 that stamped 
 it with the seal of approval and encouragement. Ex illo in 
 prceceps fluere. I think, too, that we all learned something 
 from your Bishop about the ways and means of organising 
 the English districts ; and he tested carefully all the Hew 
 Zealand plans and schemes. — Believe me, yours most truly, 
 
 “C. J. Abraham, Bishop .” 
 
1851.] VOYAGE TO MELANESIAN ISLANDS . 
 
 107 
 
 On tlie iotli of July the “Border Maid” entered the Bay of 
 Islands, and after a week spent in paying visits in the neigh- 
 bourhood, the two Bishops finally left New Zealand and 
 steered northward on their Mission. 
 
 The time spent on hoard was well occupied. The Poly- 
 nesian scholars and the sailors had their teaching in the 
 hold, where the hammocks were slung at night, and which 
 was used as a school on week-days and as a Chapel on 
 Sundays. The study and practice of navigation, which was 
 a new subject to Bishop Tyrrell, a good amount of steady 
 reading, and frequent conversations about Diocesan plans 
 and Church difficulties, filled up the days as they glided over 
 those deep blue waters towards the tropics. Shoe and knife 
 cleaning were not neglected, for all took part in the work : 
 and now and then the Bishop of Newcastle had “ a hard 
 morning’s washing : ” and on one occasion “ washed eight 
 shirts.” 
 
 Leaving the Loyalty Islands a little to the west, they 
 sailed first for the southernmost of the New Hebrides group, 
 and spent three days at Anaiteum. Mr. Geddie, of the 
 London Mission, came off to the ship, and joined in the 
 Service, and the Bishop afterwards visited his house on the 
 island. 
 
 At Futuma, with its beautiful reefs of coral covering the 
 volcanic rock, they were welcomed by a cloud of canoes as 
 they sailed along the coast. They went ashore in the boat, 
 and brought off three Chiefs, who dined with them, and two 
 boys destined for the College at Auckland. 
 
 The next day they put in at the lovely island of Tanna, 
 where there are hot springs and an active volcano ; there 
 they found a poor sailor covered with wounds, who, for the 
 benefit of the springs, had been put ashore from his ship. At 
 his desire they brought him off, with Umao,* the little native 
 
 * Twoyearslater, September 7, 1853, Bishop Selwyn writes : “ It pleased 
 God to take from us our two invalids, dear little Umao of Erromango, 
 whom you will remember as the sick man’s nurse in the tent on the deck 
 of the ‘ Border Maid.’ Never did any child deserve better to be well 
 attended on his own deathbed, than he who had washed the sores of that 
 poor Lazarus with such marvellous perseverance. His engaging manners 
 
10S LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1851. 
 
 boy who had been attending on him, and who, in spite of his 
 ill-temper and violence, continued to nurse him most tenderly 
 during the voyage to Sydney. The same afternoon they 
 landed on the small island of Nina, and conversed with a 
 large body of natives. 
 
 Passing on to Erromango, where, ten years before, the 
 Missionary, J ohn Williams, had been killed by the natives, 
 they anchored in Dillon’s Bay, the place of his death. 
 Thence they sailed southward to the Loyalty Islands, and 
 first visited Mare, where a boat’s crew had lately been killed. 
 The Bishop of Newcastle describes this visit in a letter to his 
 sister. 
 
 “ Here the Bishop of New Zealand had visited before ; 
 and had in a previous year been entrusted with the care of 
 three of the youths, who had returned to the island in 1850. 
 Native Teachers also from the Samoan Islands had been for 
 some few years engaged as Missionaries on this part of the 
 island. As soon, therefore, as we learned that the Teachers 
 were alive, all risk was over. The two Teachers came to 
 meet us, . . . and about 200 natives had collected. Our 
 boat would not pass over the coral reefs, so we got into one 
 of the canoes, and as many as could find room for a hand on 
 the canoe drew it, sometimes swimming, sometimes jumping 
 from reef to reef, safely to the shore. Such a chattering and 
 noisy joy you never heard : every man, woman, and child 
 presses forward to receive and return a hearty shake of the 
 hand. We then proceeded to the Teacher’s house, walking 
 singly in a long winding line along the narrow paths through 
 cocoa-nut trees and shrubs of the most luxuriant foliage. 
 We reach the Teacher’s house, and sit on a form outside; 
 while the natives sit on the ground in a circle round us. Every 
 eye is upon us. We are engaged making inquiries of the 
 Teachers, and through them speaking to the principal men a 
 word or two now and then. There they sat for more than 
 two hours, quiet, gentle as little children, delighted with 
 
 endeared him to me more and more, till he died, leaning on my breast, at 
 midnight, August 7, only three days after the death of Hoilha of Lifu, 
 our other patient at Sydney.” 
 
1851.] VOYAGE TO MELANESIAN ISLANDS. 109 
 
 merely watching 11s ; each one pleased beyond measure as 
 my eye rested on him for a moment while I was studying 
 the countenances before me. 
 
 “We announce through the Teachers that there will be 
 Service in the Chapel at sunset. At the appointed time we 
 leave the Teachers house ; and three boys immediately begin 
 to march before us, striking one stick upon another, keeping 
 time together, which answers for the Church-going bell. We 
 enter the Chapel, a large building, some 90 feet by 30 ; about 
 400 are collected there ; and, mark you, every knee is bent 
 during the prayers, every voice joins in the responses, and 
 with heart and mouth every one assists in singing the hymns 
 of praise to God ; and a volume of hearty joyous sound is 
 heard, which is perfectly thrilling. I must pass over the rest 
 of that evening ; merely stating that as we sat in the large 
 room of the Teacher’s house, every part of the floor was 
 occupied by natives sitting there, who seemed unable to quit 
 us, or to take their eyes off us, until we told them they must 
 really go to their houses and we to our rest. 
 
 “ The next day, after a night’s rest on the floor, we walked 
 to the other side of the island about fifteen miles. Many 
 accompanied us, and happy did he think himself w T ho got 
 anything belonging to us to carry. It would take a volume 
 to describe all that took place that day ; the numbers that 
 were collected, about 500, their wild joy, the Evening Ser- 
 vice ; and then after the Service, as we sat outside the 
 Teacher’s house, about 300 came in long procession, one by 
 one, each bearing some present, a yam or two, or some Indian 
 corn, or cocoa-nuts, literally filling the whole front court 
 with their heaped gifts, each one thinking he was amply 
 repaid by the two Bishops thanking him in their native 
 Mare language, and exchanging with them a hearty shake of 
 the hand. 
 
 “ The next morning there was school for an hour before 
 breakfast, and about 300 attended ; huge men, with women 
 and children, all shouting together their spelling lessons, and 
 then repeating their Catechism, and joining in one of their 
 simple hymns. 
 
I IO 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1S51. 
 
 “ Then came the selection of those youths whom we were 
 to take away to the Mission ship for a year. Many were 
 anxious to go, and we selected five. And what was most 
 interesting and touching, the young Chief wanted to go, 
 while the old men would not give their consent. 
 
 “ We held therefore a kind of primitive Parliament, the 
 young Chief sitting between two Bishops, and about 400 
 of the tribe sitting on the ground; and for two hours the 
 question was discussed. The young Chief said he would go : 
 the old men entreated him not to go ; if he went they 
 should have no more sleep, they should weep all night. We 
 explained through the Teachers what care we would take of 
 their Chief, and the benefit it would be to him ; but they 
 could not be persuaded to part with him. . . . He then 
 began to cry from disappointment, and as the large tears 
 formed in his eyes and fell on the ground, it was beauti- 
 ful to see one of the old men come, with tears in his eyes 
 also, and sit down close before the young Chief, and comfort 
 him in a soft whisper, wdiile his whole face beamed with 
 affection and respect. Yerily, there is no lack of gentleness 
 and kindly feeling among this people who are called, and 
 really are at times, ferocious savages and cannibals. 
 
 “We selected five youths, sent our heaps of presents to 
 the ship, and then took our departure, the whole shore 
 and every jutting rock being covered with human beings, 
 and the air rent with the plaintive cries of the friends of 
 those whom we were taking away. It was a scene which I 
 can never forget.” 
 
 The isle of Pines was preoccupied by the Roman Catho- 
 lics : but the Bishops landed, found the young Chief, and 
 went to his house. There they met the French Missionary, 
 who had evidently influence over him, so, after some friendly 
 words, they returned to the ship. 
 
 Again moving northward among the Loyalty Islands, 
 sprinkled along the east of Hew Caledonia, they touched at 
 Lifu. Seven years later, Mr. Patteson, afterwards Bishop, 
 stayed and taught for four months on this island. On the 
 present occasion the Bishops landed, and Bishop Selwyn’s 
 
1851 .] VOYAGE TO MELANESIAN ISLANDS. 111 
 
 favourite boy, Thole, came on board ; but no more was 
 effected. After this they made vain attempts to enter the 
 harbour at the isle of Uea close by, but the wind and current 
 drifted them to the north. 
 
 Their intention had been to proceed to the Solomon 
 Islands; but, after three rough days with contrary winds, 
 they altered their course and made for Fat6, north of 
 Erromango. 'While off the island, the weather still continu- 
 ing rough, their rigging gave way in several places. This 
 compelled them to shorten their voyage, and to give up the 
 Solomon group altogether. They put into the lovely bay at 
 Fat4 ; and, landing, visited the Samoan Teacher, and had a 
 short Service in the Chapel : after which they returned to 
 the ship, meeting two other Samoan Teachers on the way. 
 In the midst of the rich tropical vegetation they passed an 
 inland lake, and fully enjoyed a lovely evening, rendered 
 more delightful as a relief from the bad weather they had 
 experienced since they left the Loyalty Islands. 
 
 The next day brought them to the small island of Api. 
 The Bishop of New Zealand landed for a few minutes among 
 the natives, and brought a boy back with him. Many 
 canoes came off to the ship in the afternoon ; and as the 
 party on board was somewhat increased, yams were pur- 
 chased, the exchange being calico, hooks, and beads. As 
 the day wore on, however, the last young scholar became 
 restless, and in a fit of home-sickness returned ashore in the 
 last canoe. 
 
 Still moving gently northward, the next morning they 
 carried on, without landing, a very friendly intercourse with 
 the natives of Paum, who came round in their canoes. Here 
 they sailed on, and in two or three hours came alongside 
 of the beautiful island of Ambrym, where there is a fine 
 volcano which is sometimes in vigorous action. They did 
 not land, but about 300 natives assembled on the shore, and 
 many came into the water to barter with them. Many canoes 
 put off, but their crews were all quiet and well-behaved. 
 
 Calm and beautiful dawned the next day, Sunday, the 
 24th of August. Bishop Tyrrell’s Diary says: “Just fit 
 
1 1 2 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1851. 
 
 for Sunday. Service on deck under the awning. Canoes 
 came off in the morning, hut we explained to them by the 
 sun that there could be no intercourse or exchange until the 
 sun had set and risen again. Betts and Corney came to 
 me for their evening lecture on the Collect and Gospel [for 
 the 10th Sunday after Trinity]. Went close to Sandwich 
 Harbour, at the south end of Mallicolo, but it was too late to 
 enter for the first time.” 
 
 The next day. “We entered the harbour, and took up our 
 anchorage exactly where the ‘ Fly ’ had done. Went in boat on 
 shore, and took two natives off to show us the way to Erskine 
 River ; but the distance to carry the water was too great. 
 Returned to the ship with plenty of cocoa-nuts, and after 
 dinner went in a boat round the harbour, landing, and 
 looking for water.” 
 
 Tuesday, the 26th of August, was a day of peril; and 
 had it not been for the coolness and self-possession of the 
 Bishops and some of the men, it seems probable that none 
 of the party would have left Mallicolo alive. At six o’clock 
 in the morning the Bishop of Hew Zealand went ashore 
 with two boats and men to water, leaving the Bishop of 
 Newcastle in charge of the ship, with the mate, one sailor, 
 and two or three of the native boys from the islands. At 
 eight o’clock several canoes, filled with powerful men fully 
 armed, came off, and desired to come on board. The usual 
 plan of these islanders when they mean mischief is, not to 
 make a direct assault, but to surround their victims quietly, 
 and while a friendly parley is going on despatch them from 
 behind with their clubs. Eor two hours these men of 
 Mallicolo tried every means short of force to get on board, the 
 Bishop keeping them amused, but steadily refusing to allow 
 them up the ship’s side. Many an anxious look did he cast 
 towards the landing place ; but no sign of the watering party 
 was visible, who were in greater peril on shore. The savages 
 were evidently ill-intentioned ; and, but for God’s blessing 
 on the firm command and steady nerve of Bishop Selwyn, 
 unarmed as he always was, would probably have killed them 
 all. At length the men in the canoes, after a consultation, 
 
iSsi.] VOYAGE TO MELANESIAN ISLANDS. 113 
 
 leave tlie ship, made for the boats, which were afloat, and 
 began to draw them to the shore. A sign of fear from the 
 sailor in charge of them would have sealed his doom and 
 that of the hoy with him ; and the watering party, cut off 
 from the ship, would have been at the mercy of the islanders. 
 Bravely and unmoved he allowed the savages to take any 
 liberty with him short of taking his oars out of his hands : 
 when just as matters w r ere looking desperate, the Bishop 
 of New Zealand and his party suddenly emerged from the 
 wood, carrying their water-kegs. On their appearance the 
 savages slunk away from the boat; and soon, w T ith deep 
 thankfulness, the Bishop of Newcastle saw the whole party 
 pulling back in safety to the ship, 
 
 “ Conscious the more of One, ne’er seen, yet ever near.” * 
 
 This was their turning-point : and, after touching at 
 two or three of the Islands which they had visited before, 
 they doubled the south of New Caledonia, and stretched 
 across the South Pacific towards the coast of New South 
 Wales. It was well that they had given up their intention 
 of extending their voyage to the Solomon Islands ; for on one 
 of the Sundays following, after a severe squall between two 
 and three o’clock in the day, a much heavier one came on in 
 the evening, and tore the mainsail and foresail to pieces, so 
 that the next day they were hard at work stretching and 
 bending a new mainsail. 
 
 The amount of reading the Bishop accomplished during 
 this voyage of a little more than two months was consider- 
 able for one who had not been a mere passenger, but had 
 shared with his brother of New Zealand the work at the 
 Islands, and had taken his daily turn in the duties on 
 board. His list of books read was : — Coleridge, Church 
 and State ; Bunsen’s Church of the Future ; Newman’s 
 Discourses at the Oratory; Wilberforce on the Incarnation 
 and on Baptism; The Old Man’s Home; Mrs. Tuckfield; 
 Williams’s Missionary Enterprise; Pritchard’s Natural His- 
 tory of Man ; Voyage of Adventure, &c., “Beagle” (2 vols.) ; 
 
 * Keble’s Christian Year. 
 
 H 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1851. 
 
 114 
 
 Bishop White’s American Church, and Opinions ; Hooker, 
 hook y. ; Gladstone on the Supremacy ; Abbott’s Diocese 
 of Calcutta; Macaulay’s History of England (2 vols.); 
 Newman on Development ; Charge of the Bishop of Hew 
 Zealand; Hammond and Sanderson on Predestination; besides 
 several books of Paradise Lost and Regained, and “ The Two 
 Gentlemen of Verona.” Among these books he mentions 
 that he “ read with pleasure ” his old friend Hooker, and 
 Heys’ Lectures, as well as Wilberforce’s volumes on the 
 Incarnation and Holy Baptism. When he begins New- 
 man’s Development of Christian Doctrine, he observes : 
 “The introduction monstrous, and the main reasoning most 
 unsatisfactory.” Nor did it improve upon further acquaint- 
 ance : “ It is a book which might unsettle many, but could 
 convince no one.” 
 
 At length the “ Border Maid ” reached the mouth of the 
 Hunter ; and a little before six o’clock, on the morning of 
 Saturday the 20th of September, the Bishop of Hew Zealand 
 landed his brother Bishop at Hewcastle, and proceeded to 
 Sydney, which he reached the same evening. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell made his way up to the Parsonage, where 
 he was heartily welcomed by the Rev. C. P. H. Wilton. 
 The Morpeth steamer having started up the river, he set off 
 on foot, and, after a walk of twenty miles, arrived at his 
 own house in the afternoon, to the intense joy of his trusty 
 old housekeeper and all his household. The next day thanks 
 were offered in all the neighbouring Churches for his safe 
 return : and the Bishop, with a heart full of thankfulness, 
 preached at St. James’ Church, Morpeth, from the Gospel 
 for the day : St. Luke xvii. 17, 18, the one ivho returned to 
 give thanks . On the following Sunday there were thanks- 
 givings in all the other Churches of the Diocese. 
 
 It need hardly be said that an overwhelming accumulation 
 of correspondence and business of all sorts awaited his return 
 and demanded all his energies. But to add to these labours 
 he found his model school at Morpeth in utter disorder. 
 The master had left during his absence, and those who had 
 been temporarily appointed as stop-gaps were utterly unfit 
 
1851.] VOYAGE TO MELANESIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 115 
 
 for the work. This, when he was straining every nerve to 
 maintain Church Schools in the face of Government oppo- 
 sition, was unbearable. At the time there was only one 
 remedy — himself ; so, without more ado, the Bishop turned 
 into the school, and for three weeks did not superintend or 
 visit; but became schoolmaster himself, and continued to 
 act as such until he was able to make a satisfactory appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 Hor was this all. A few days after his return one of his 
 Clergy, who had arrived from England only a short time 
 before he sailed to the Islands, called on him and expressed 
 his desire to return home. This was a grievous disappoint- 
 ment, for work was opening on every side, and he had no 
 men to send to do it. If funds were needed, Clergymen 
 were needed much more. 
 
 The Bishop says : “ Poor Mr. will return by the first 
 
 ship after the end of next month. He is a very nice, amiable 
 person, but in bodily health and in constitution is quite un- 
 suited for the active arduous duties of our Missionary Church. 
 His return to England puts me to sad inconvenience. It 
 must, however, be borne, and you must do all you can to 
 supply his place.” His way of bearing it was not to grieve 
 over work undone, but to throw himself into the breach and 
 do it. 
 
 The extra work lasted for months, during a time of great 
 anxiety and mental exertion. It entailed not only the 
 care of many outlying places, but more frequent, longer, and 
 heavier rides : and early in the second half of the next year 
 the effect showed itself in a manner that followed him to the 
 end of his life, and eventually caused his death. 
 
( n6 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE COLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 1851. 
 
 “All things proceed from Thee, and therefore in all things Thou art to he 
 praised.” 
 
 “ I had rather he poor for Thee, than rich without Thee.” 
 
 — Thomas A’Kempis, hook iii., capp. 22, 59. 
 
 On tlie Bishop’s return from his Missionary voyage, he found 
 the whole Colony in a state of feverish excitement. Gold 
 had been discovered in the month of May not far from 
 Bathurst. More than half the population was wild with 
 dreams of sudden wealth.* Many, especially squatters whose 
 shepherds had gone off to the diggings, and employers of 
 labour whose men had left them at a moment’s notice, were 
 in despair and looked for nothing but blank ruin. And large 
 numbers of steady-going persons, with the example of Cali- 
 fornia before their eyes, were simply dismayed at the visions 
 of utter demoralisation and excess which they saw for 
 
 ! * In 1839 Count Strzelecki, a Pole, discovered indications of gold in 
 a cave near Wellington; and in 1841 the Rev. W. B. Clarke, of the North 
 Shore, Sydney, found quartz containing gold on the Blue Mountain 
 Bange west of Paramatta. But both these eminent geologists were 
 warned by the Governor, Sir George Gipps, not to make their discoveries 
 publicly known, on account of the large number of convicts, some 45,000, 
 at that time in the Australian Colonies. 
 
 The first public announcement of the discovery of gold in Australia 
 was made in May 1851 by Mr. Hargreaves. He had gone to the Cali- 
 fornian diggings, which were discovered in 1848, and while there was 
 struck by the resemblance of that gold region to parts of the western 
 slopes of the dividing range near Bathurst, with which he was familiar. 
 Returning to the Colony as a practical digger he soon found gold at 
 Summerhill Creek on the Turon River. The news spread like wild-fire. 
 Thousands, of all ranks and occupations, flocked from all sides to the 
 spot ; and within a few weeks A I0 > 000 of gold was obtained. 
 
1851-1 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 117 
 
 the Colony. A great revolution was being effected, and all 
 parties were more or less wrong in their anticipations. 
 
 Many who flocked to the diggings, clerks, shopmen, gentle- 
 men, wore themselves out with a labour to which they were 
 unused, and hardly earned sufficient to keep them. They 
 were soon glad enough to come back, and drop, if they could, 
 into their old places again. The slopes of the Turon, 
 studded, in the imagination of those starting for them, with 
 nuggets of gold, to be picked up by every comer, proved on 
 the spot to be partial in their yield ; and while some found a 
 large residuum of gold in their cradles, a hard week’s work 
 yielded to others little but quartz and disappointment. 
 
 The squatters found it almost impossible for awhile to 
 retain any shepherds to look after their flocks, and were 
 hopeless of getting hands when the October shearing should 
 begin. But after a few months of hard work and anxiety, 
 a steady stream of unsuccessful diggers began to return. 
 Shepherds offered themselves in abundance, and sheep-owners 
 never got over their shearing so easily. Before many 
 months had elapsed the news of the gold discovery, which 
 reached England, brought a large and increasing influx 
 of population, and from various causes the price of sheep 
 increased so much that flockmasters, who before could not 
 obtain more than 3 s. 6d. or 5 s. per head for their sheep, 
 sold them readily at 15 s. or £ 1 . 
 
 That a considerable increase of evil should attend on so 
 sudden an influx of wealth was inevitable ; the excitement, 
 as of a daily lottery, with the chance of great prizes, had 
 its evil effect, especially in the neighbourhood of the 
 diggings; and there were many sad scenes of debauchery 
 and excess. 
 
 But the prompt measures taken by the Government 
 in issuing licenses to diggers, appointing Commissioners of 
 the gold-fields, and sending a police and military force to 
 maintain order, prevented such lawlessness as at first pre- 
 vailed in California. The settled industries which became 
 more in demand, and which began to offer greatly increased 
 profits, acted as a social ballast to the excited population : 
 
1 1 8 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1851. 
 
 and — not the least in importance— the work of the Church, 
 which was being carried on with increasing energy in the 
 Bush as well as in the Townships, leavened really, if not so 
 conspicuously, many hearts and places, and counteracted, 
 where it could not prevent, the over-excitement of the 
 time.* 
 
 One effect of the gold discovery was the increase of the 
 expense of living ; not in so great a degree indeed as in the 
 neighbouring Colony of Victoria, where the diggings proved 
 so much more productive, but still in a degree that was very 
 sensibly felt. Even when business began to flow in a more 
 regular channel, prices never came down to their former 
 rate. This was necessarily most felt by those whose incomes 
 were fixed, and was an immediate cause of anxiety and 
 consideration to the Bishop, thinking, as he always did, 
 of his Clergy and the schoolmasters of the Diocese. Writ- 
 ing to the Rev. W. E. Hoare, he says : — 
 
 “ You have doubtless by this time heard accounts of the 
 quantity of gold found near Bathurst. No accounts that you 
 have heard can well be beyond the truth. Single men in 
 about ten weeks have saved and brought home with them 
 £ 600 . All the labourers and servants, and many of the 
 Government clerks, and, I am sorry to say, many of the 
 schoolmasters, are leaving their places and all rushing to the 
 diggings. What the permanent result will be no prudent 
 person pretends to foresee. The present effect is sadly em- 
 
 * In the excitement that prevailed nothing was talked of but gold. 
 A few days after the announcement of the gold discovery, the quiet 
 little town of Muswell Brook was found “ swallowing a tailor’s news,” 
 that, a few years before, the Rev. W. D. Clarke, when passing through 
 on a geological tour, was reported to have said that if the people of 
 Muswell Brook knew what was under one of their hills they would not 
 sleep in their beds. Whether this meant a volcano or hidden gold the 
 tailor could not tell. Of the volcano under their quiet-looking hill they 
 had no fear. Then it must be gold. Besides, emery had been found in 
 places where there was gold. In some of the gullies of their own hills 
 emery was found : the proof was complete. So the gold fever seized 
 them, and for several days spades and pickaxes were busy from early 
 morning till sundown ; but not one yellow speck rewarded their toil. So 
 first one gave up the search, and then another ; until even the most 
 sanguine and persistent left the mystery still unsolved. 
 
1S51] 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 119 
 
 barrassing, raising greatly the price of all kinds of provisions, 
 which to my poor Clergy is a very serious matter, and making 
 every Layman feel unsettled, and therefore unwilling to 
 promise anything for the continued support of the spiritual 
 good of his district.” 
 
 In this difficulty he had no idea of stopping at even the 
 most genuine fellow-feeling. Wherever he saw a man with 
 a burden, he seemed irresistibly urged to go forward and 
 lend him a hand to bear it. 
 
 In the first letter he wrote after his Consecration to one 
 whom he asked to go out with him, he had said, “ The 
 Consecration is just over, and my first act is to express a very 
 strong hope that you will cast in your lot with mine, and go 
 with me ; as I fare , so shall you.” Such was the view he 
 ever after took of his Clergy who would work honestly as 
 his fellow-labourers. He never spared himself, and he wished 
 to see that they did not spare their labour for that part 
 of Christ’s flock which he entrusted to their care. But he 
 thought of them affectionately in their sickness, their over- 
 work, their disappointments, their ministerial difficulties, the 
 blunders which they made — out of which he often helped 
 them — and their pecuniary needs. We have seen how he 
 counselled a Deacon not to borrow money for any needs he 
 might have in his first expenses, but to come to him. He 
 took especial pains to urge on the Laity the duty of minister- 
 ing in temporal things to those who ministered to them in 
 spiritual things ; and the way in which they responded to 
 his appeals during his Episcopate showed the readiness with 
 which they attended to one, who himself did abundantly 
 what he asked them to do. 
 
 In the state of confusion caused by the recent gold dis- 
 covery, he writes : — 
 
 “I have hitherto put aside the half of my eight hundred 
 pounds of salary, and the half of what remains of my private 
 income, for Church calls, especially the maintenance of 
 additional Clergymen in my Diocese : but now I must give 
 up the whole of my 'private income , and keep all my private 
 expenses within the four hundred; my number of riding 
 
120 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [ 1351 - 
 
 horses (for he did not drive) being at the present moment 
 six. With your English ideas of expense and Episcopacy, 
 do you think this possible ? ” 
 
 Writing a few months later about the schoolmasters of the 
 Diocese who were paid by the “ Denominational Board,” he 
 says : “ As I am desirous of showing our schoolmasters that 
 they are really cared for, and that I am anxious to attend to 
 their comfort and convenience as much as possible, I am 
 going to try to remedy the inconvenience they at present 
 feel from the long delay in the payment of their stipend ; 
 and to pay them myself every month, if I can arrange with 
 the Denominational Board or the Treasury for the repay- 
 ment to myself of the sum advanced.” 
 
 All building operations were for a time paralysed ; masons, 
 bricklayers, and carpenters having mostly joined the stream 
 to the gold-fields. In May 1852 the Bishop writes: “We 
 have three new Churches almost ready for Consecration, 
 their completion being delayed solely for want of workmen.” 
 But by degrees trade returned to its old channels ; and the 
 following year he is able to report the completion of five 
 Parsonages, three schools, two school dwellings, one Church 
 nearly complete, and funds collected for three more. The 
 discovery of gold, which raised the price of labour and live- 
 stock and all necessaries, made every trade and business 
 more remunerative ; and there were, in consequence, more 
 givers and larger gifts. 
 
 Among the subscriptions to the ISTewcastle Church Society 
 for its first year occur the items of ^20 from one successful 
 digger, and ^5 from another : and a holder of land, feeling 
 that the possession of property entailed responsibility , adopted 
 the plan of giving so much for each section of land he 
 possessed towards the support of the Clergy. 
 
 The unsettled condition of the Colony after the Bishop’s 
 return from the Islands was one cause out of several which 
 induced him to postpone, in some respects indefinitely, plans 
 he had long cherished for the establishment of a system of 
 superior education. His design had been to establish a 
 Commercial School at West Maitland, a Grammar School at 
 
ISSI.] 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 121 
 
 Newcastle, a College at Raymond Terrace, and at Morpeth a 
 Theological College for Candidates for Holy Orders. Promis- 
 ing boys in the primary schools might receive exhibitions to 
 the Commercial and Grammar Schools ; whose pupils, in 
 turn, might obtain scholarships at the College : and the best 
 men at the College might be encouraged to become Candi- 
 dates for Holy Orders. One part of what he termed his 
 “ castle-building,” of which he occasionally spoke when talk- 
 ing over plans for the Diocese, and in which he frequently 
 indulged during his long lonely rides, was to throw out 
 a wing on each side of his house at Morpeth for the 
 residence of the Candidates, who might be trained by the 
 Incumbent of Morpeth under his own eye. 
 
 In his second year he had bought Rosslyn Castle at Ray- 
 mond Terrace, which he considered an admirable site for his 
 College, out of funds brought out with him from England. 
 But the many subjects of anxious thought indicated in pre- 
 ceding pages prevented, during three years, the concentration 
 of effort necessary to set his plan on foot. Then, with the 
 formation of the Church Society on his hands, he postponed 
 all action, until he should have seen and observed the work- 
 ing of the Bishop of New Zealand’s College at Auckland. 
 And, now that he had returned to his own Diocese, the 
 unsettledness which pervaded the Colony, the crippled state 
 of his own private property, and the plans which were 
 growing in his mind of providing partial endowments for 
 the support of Clergy and education, and, not least, the 
 improbability of obtaining in his Diocese a sufficient number 
 of students for the College, combined to make him forego 
 any large educational schemes at present ; and limit his 
 endeavours to the establishment of the Commercial School 
 at Maitland and the Grammar School at Newcastle, for 
 which the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had 
 made him a grant. 
 
 The latter of these is finely situated near Christchurch, and 
 commands a view of the Pacific towards the east. Since 
 1866 it has been under the able management of the Rev. H. 
 Millard, and has made a mark for itself in the Diocese. 
 
( J22 ) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FEELING THE WAY TOWARDS DIOCESAN SYNODS DEATH 
 
 OF BISHOP BROUGHTON — VACANCY OF THE SEE OF 
 SYDNEY. 
 
 1852-1854. 
 
 ‘ 1 Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, 
 
 Lead Thou me on. 
 
 The night is dark, and I am far from home ; 
 
 Lead Thou me on.” 
 
 — Lyra Apostolica. 
 
 In the year 1852 the first step was taken in the Australian 
 Dioceses towards carrying into effect the proposal of the six 
 Bishops for the establishment of Diocesan and Provincial 
 Synods. 
 
 From the 18th of February to the 1st of March 
 Bishop Tyrrell was in Sydney consulting with the Metro- 
 politan as to the course to be taken. On the 8th of March 
 Bishop Broughton addressed a circular to the Clergy of his 
 Diocese, requesting them to lay before meetings in their 
 several Parishes two papers for their consideration ; and to 
 meet him in Sydney on the 14th, prepared to state 
 their own views and those of their Parishioners. The 
 
 first of these papers was a declaration of a general assent 
 to the minute of the six Bishops respecting the need of 
 a Church Constitution, and an agreement to petition Her 
 Majesty for the removal of any disabilities which might 
 stand in the way. The second was a draft of the petition to 
 be agreed upon. These were proposed, not as in any way 
 dictating the details or prescribing a form which Churchmen 
 were expected to sign : but, as the Bishop stated in his 
 circular, for the purpose of “ enabling the Laity throughout 
 
1 852.] 
 
 DIOCESAN SYNODS. 
 
 123 
 
 the Diocese to express their opinion concerning such 
 measures, and to unite with their Clergy in carrying the 
 same into effect, so far as they meet the Laity’s approval.” 
 
 Dealing, as they were, with a portion of the Church of 
 Christ, the Bishops felt that, while a considerable change 
 must be made to meet exigencies, which had arisen in 
 the lapse of ages, increased, as these were, by the trans- 
 plantation of the Church into the soil of a Colony, great 
 caution must be used, lest they should adopt plans which 
 were out of harmony with the Catholic principles of the 
 Church herself. Bishop Broughton therefore said that he 
 had adopted the course above-mentioned, “ deeming it to be 
 the most cautious and safe, and also to be most in agreement 
 with that order by which our Church affairs are at present 
 regulated, while it affords ample scope for the expression of 
 the opinion of the Church, as to the wisdom and necessity of 
 that system which its chief Pastors in this Province have 
 recommended.” 
 
 It was far more painful than surprising that men, called from 
 Colonial pursuits and cares to speak on such a subject, should 
 fail to understand the needs of the Church, and misrepresent 
 the aims of the Bishops. Besides the meetings which the 
 Bishop had asked for, and which were not altogether free 
 from bitterness and misrepresentation, some few of those 
 called the leading Laity of Sydney summoned a meeting of 
 their own, at which the Bishops were denounced as grasping 
 at power, when, in fact, they were seeking to diminish what 
 they had by associating the Laity, as well as the Clergy, with 
 themselves. They were said to be denying the Eoyal Supre- 
 macy ; whereas they had foreborne to summon Synods, lest 
 they should trench on the Supremacy of the Crown. Some 
 wandered off into angry declamation on the right of private 
 judgment, denouncing the five Bishops as grievous offenders, 
 because, in a time of perplexity, they had presumed to state 
 what was the plain doctrine of the Church respecting 
 Holy Baptism. Gentlemen indulged in unworthy sneers 
 at those of the Clergy whom they could not draw over to 
 their side, as if they were afraid to go against the Bishops. 
 
124 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1852. 
 
 It is painful, even now, through the cooling medium of 
 twenty-eight years, to read the speeches of professed Church- 
 men, and to perceive the amount of false doctrine and bitterness 
 through which good Bishop Broughton had to make his way. 
 Members of the Legislative Council, lawyers and doctors, 
 and men of no profession, all equally unacquainted with 
 some of the fundamental doctrines of the Church, and them- 
 selves heterodox , wqre eager to stand up as champions of a 
 heresy against their own appointed Bishop. Even members 
 of other “ religious bodies” thought themselves entitled to 
 join in the fray. And at last one “Minister” drew up a 
 counter petition, which he described as “ exceedingly suitable 
 for all denominations at the present time,” in which he draws 
 the following awful picture of the results which might ensue 
 from the Bishop’s petition being granted : — 
 
 “ That, if legislative authority be given to enforce dis- 
 cipline, either by fine , imprisonment , or capital punishment , 
 to any one of the Protestant Churches, such legal authority 
 cannot justly be withheld from all, nor from the Roman 
 Catholic Church, and thus would be legalised the order of the 
 Jesuits and the Inquisition, with all its horrors, to enforce 
 discipline, to the great discomfort of that portion of your 
 Majesty’s subjects, and to the great danger of civil and reli- 
 gious liberty.” 
 
 Through very painful turmoil out of doors, the business 
 proceeded; and at the meeting of the Clergy, after a very 
 learned and clear address from the Bishop, the petition was 
 agreed upon. The petitioners did not ask leave to hang 
 or burn any one, in spite of the fears of the good Congrega- 
 tionalist : but, after reciting their grievances, prayed for “ the 
 removal of the obstacles which appear to oppose their design,” 
 that Synods of the Clergy and Conventions of the Laity 
 should assemble from time to time, authorised to debate and 
 consult for the better ordering of the affairs of the Church 
 in the Diocese.” 
 
 This sketch of the troubles of the Sydney Diocese is 
 necessary, in order to understand the anxiety which Bishop 
 Tyrrell felt in making his own move. Tasmania had been in 
 
1352 .] 
 
 DIOCESAN SYNODS . 
 
 125 
 
 combustion; in Adelaide there had been some uneasi- 
 ness ; and between Sydney and all parts of the Diocese of 
 Newcastle there was such constant intercourse, that a meet- 
 ing summoned for the Synod question might provoke an 
 explosion from some unquiet spirits ; or, still more probably, 
 the bitter insinuations and false accusations which had been 
 so wantonly thrown out by some of the speakers and writers 
 on the question might cause a dull distrust, more difficult to 
 remedy because concealed ; and so might paralyse, if they did 
 not convulse, the proceedings. 
 
 There was, however, this in his favour : his frequent 
 laborious journeys had told : they had made the principal 
 men in his Diocese, and many of all classes, well acquainted 
 with their Bishop. He had been at great pains, both by 
 personal intercourse and at meetings, to give clear informa- 
 tion about Church matters, and had acquired a considerable 
 influence with many in each district of his Diocese. There 
 had been so much kindly feeling diffused, that there was 
 a good hope that reason and temperate counsels would pre- 
 vail Still he thought it wiser to defer his meeting until 
 later in the year, to give time for the excitement to cool, 
 and the quiet address of the Metropolitan to do its work, in 
 refuting the mistaken ideas that had obtained currency and 
 the random statements that had been made. 
 
 On the 6th of May the first Annual Meeting of the New- 
 castle Church Society was held at Morpeth, and he took 
 advantage of it to give information about Church matters 
 and to state his views with regard to the petition. Con- 
 sidering the vague notions prevailing in the Colonial Church, 
 and the different schemes which would probably be broached 
 in different parts of it, he gave it as his opinion, that the 
 wisest course would be to petition Her Majesty to appoint 
 a Commission which should make full inquiries in all 
 branches of the Colonial Church, before any step should 
 be taken to work upon any particular idea in forming the 
 Constitution. 
 
 Shortly after this the Metropolitan, who was going in a 
 few months to England to confer with the home authorities, 
 
126 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1852. 
 
 arrived independently at the same opinion. Bishop Tyrrell, 
 in a letter I received from him about that time, writes : — 
 
 “I have been surprised- and gratified to find, from a long 
 important letter which the Bishop of Sydney has written to 
 me, that, after all the discussion and irritation in his Diocese, 
 
 . . . his Lordship now sees that the first step he must take 
 in England — the first and principal thing which he must 
 endeavour to bring about — is the appointment of a Com- 
 mission by the Queen, the point we had previously arrived 
 at without any strife or disunion.” 
 
 On Trinity Sunday he held an Ordination : and, during 
 the Ember Week preceding, took counsel with the four 
 senior Clergy of the Diocese, the Revs. C. P. hT. Wilton, G. 
 K. Rusden, W. M. Cowper, R. T. Bolton, and one of his 
 Chaplains. A draft petition was agreed upon, and some 
 knotty points discussed. 
 
 On July 8 he writes : — 
 
 “ I send you copies of our petition, which in the whole of 
 this neighbourhood seem to give great satisfaction. The 
 delay has arisen from my wishing to prepare them at West 
 Maitland for the substance of the petition, and to learn 
 their wishes with regard to the Laity. After much con- 
 sideration I have come to the conclusion, that it will be 
 much better to afford the Laity at our meeting in September 
 the opportunity of expressing their assent or dissent to the 
 petition. I at first thought it unnecessary to trouble them 
 to assist in deciding what is merely a preliminary step : but 
 I am convinced that any little difficulty to be encountered in 
 obtaining their concurrence is nothing in comparison with 
 the greater confidence which will thus be attained. . . . The 
 course to be pursued will be as follows : — I will write to 
 each of my Clergy, requesting them to have a Yestry meet- 
 ing summoned (not for discussing any scheme of Church 
 Constitution, but simply) to choose a Representative, who 
 must be a Communicant : and then the Representative will 
 have to decide whether he will attend the meeting in Sep- 
 tember or send his vote by his Clergyman. ... I expect 
 that almost all the Representatives will vote by proxy ; but it 
 
1852.] 
 
 DIOCESAN SYNODS. 
 
 127 
 
 is well that they should have the opportunity of coining if 
 they like.” 
 
 According to his custom he was indefatigable in visiting 
 all whom he could reach in a long day’s ride, and talking 
 over the matter with them privately. He had also much 
 extra work, in supplying by his personal services the place of 
 the Clergyman who had returned to England ; and he pur- 
 posed to start at the end of the third week in July for More- 
 ton Bay, that he might visit all the Diocese between it and 
 Morpeth before the September meeting. He had engaged 
 his berth in the steamer : but on the Sunday before the day 
 of starting was taken with such severe pain in Morpeth 
 Church, that he had great difficulty in getting through the 
 Service ; and the ghastly paleness of his face was such as to 
 alarm all who witnessed it. He thought that the pain, from 
 which he had been suffering more or less for several days, 
 arose from a simple strain in riding : but his doctor at once 
 pronounced it a case of hernia, induced by excessive exertion. 
 It was well that it showed itself in such an unmistakable 
 way, for he would certainly have gone to Moreton Bay that 
 week without surgical assistance : and the attempt to ride 
 down through his Diocese would have been serious, if it did 
 not prove fatal. 
 
 In a letter he wrote to me, dated August 2, 1852, he 
 says : — 
 
 “ Under such trials our faith is tested ; and I am thankful 
 to say that I have been able to resign myself into the Lord’s 
 hands. There is now no present danger, but there is no 
 cure for the complaint. It can only be kept under by care, 
 and at any moment, from a little over-exertion, may subject 
 me to much pain and weakness. These are, however, trifles, 
 if they do not impair my usefulness and powers of necessary 
 exertion. This is the point which has brought most serious 
 thought with it, and I am thankful to say that I feel most 
 sincerely that the Lord does not require for His great work 
 the aid of man’s strength, whether of mind or body; but 
 in truth often seems to send a peculiar blessing upon our 
 weakness, when devoted to Him. . . . Most sincerely do I 
 
128 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1852. 
 
 hope that by care and judicious management there may he 
 but little change in my labours, though they must now be 
 undergone at times with peril and in pain. You will, I am 
 sure, pray for me, as I often do for you : and you will be 
 glad to hear that, with Dr. Sloane’s permission, I go to 
 Moreton Bay by the next steamer ; and ride down through 
 the several Districts of my Diocese, though more slowly 
 than I had hoped to have done. . . . Mr. Cowper, like 
 yourself, is very glad that the Representatives of the Laity 
 are called to the first discussion, and thus to their full right 
 and responsibility. Mr. Gladstone’s Colonial Church Bill 
 would not seem to affect our petition. I remain, my dear 
 sir, very sincerely and affectionately yours, 
 
 “ W . Newcastle.” 
 
 The revered Metropolitan was now on the eve of sailing 
 for England ; and, in the course of his reply to an address 
 from his Clergy and Laity, he observed, that “ the progress 
 of events, if watched in a spirit of self-surrender to the 
 Divine will, offers the surest guidance to those who are set 
 for the work of the Ministry of the Church ; ” that he had 
 been thus led to a persuasion that he must again direct his 
 course to England, to consult the judgment of the Church 
 upon many important questions, and to abide by its decision 
 (his design was to secure the removal of those restrictions 
 by which the Colonial Church was inhibited from the free 
 exercise of those powers of self-guidance with which she was 
 originally endowed ); and that there might no longer exist any 
 obstacle to the meeting of the Bishop, Clergy, and Laity, to 
 consult and make regulations for the better management of 
 the affairs of the Church in his Diocese. 
 
 I11 the meantime the attention of the British Parliament 
 had been directed to the necessity for the introduction of 
 such measures on behalf of a very considerable portion of the 
 Colonial Churches, by Mr. Gladstone, then M.P. for the 
 University of Oxford. This concurrence of so many portions 
 of the Church in the same views at the same instant, from 
 east to west, from north to south, from the centre to the 
 
i§52.] 
 
 DIOCESAN SYNODS. 
 
 129 
 
 outmost limit, and the adoption of these by the most distin- 
 guished statesmen, urged to it by no solicitation or impulse 
 from the Australasian Dioceses, but by their own thoughtful 
 conviction, was assuredly a token that this movement formed 
 part of God’s providential arrangement ; that, as the days of 
 His Church are, so should her strength be. 
 
 The Bishop was not aware what were the provisions of 
 Mr. Gladstone’s Bill ; but had he been in a position to recom- 
 mend a course of proceeding, his advice would have been, 
 that previously to the initiation of any Parliamentary action, 
 Her Majesty should be advised to issue a Commission to 
 inquire into and report upon the state of the entire Colonial 
 Church : and that such Beport should be referred to sub- 
 committees of Churchmen in each Colonial Diocese, before 
 any further action should be taken upon it. 
 
 The principles to be kept in view should be three : — 1st. 
 That all approach to an Erastian character be scrupulously 
 avoided: i.e ., that the State do not assume to itself the right 
 to alter the existing laws of the Church, or to impose rules 
 of Government; unless the Church, both Clergy and Laity, 
 shall have had a previous opportunity of examining into the 
 proposed settlement, and judging whether it is fully agreeable 
 to the law of Christ. 2d. That all the fundamental rules 
 of the Church of England, whether as to doctrine or as to its 
 rule of discipline, be duly maintained. 3d. That one system, 
 uniform as to all vital and essential observances, be established 
 throughout all the Colonial Churches. 
 
 He concluded : exhorting them to be at peace among 
 themselves ; and, for himself, desiring their intercessory 
 prayers, and their forgiveness if, in the discharge of his 
 office he had, through misuse of the discretion attached to it, 
 given cause of offence to any. 
 
 So he parted from his Diocese, leaving his last Benediction 
 with those for whom he had laboured as Bishop sixteen 
 years. He was not permitted to return. Early in 1853 he 
 succumbed to an attack of bronchitis, and was buried at 
 Canterbury ; where, in the south aisle of the Cathedral, a 
 recumbent effigy of the first Bishop of Australia, subsequently 
 
 i 
 
130 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1852. 
 
 Bishop of Sydney and Metropolitan, testifies to the unity of 
 the Church in Australasia with that of St. Augustine and St. 
 Anselm. 
 
 By the middle of August Bishop Tyrrell reached Moreton 
 Bay by the “ Eagle” steamer. The passage from Newcastle 
 occupied four days ; and on his arrival he was refreshed by 
 the hearty welcome of Mr. Irwin and Mr. Wallace. He 
 had much work there, and at Ipswich, until the end of the 
 month : and then went on his way to the Clarence River, to 
 Armidale, through the Liverpool Plains District, Muswell 
 Brook, and Singleton, and reached Morpeth in the third 
 week of October. 
 
 At first starting he experienced much inconvenience from 
 the motion of the horse, and was sooner tired than before. 
 His riding pace was not so fast, and walking up some of , the 
 steep stony ridges was more exhausting. But by degrees he 
 became accustomed to his inconveniences, and kept all his 
 appointments punctually as of old. 
 
 The work was, as usual, incessant. There were the cus- 
 tomary Services, sometimes in the middle of the day’s journey, 
 and more frequently at the end of it : the Confirmations at 
 various points ; the starting of or encouragement to a Church, 
 School, or Parsonage. In many places the machinery for 
 the support of the Clergy had been set to work ; but it required 
 unremitting attention to see that it continued to work well 
 and smoothly. His labour to keep up the Schools to the 
 point of efficiency did not admit of any relaxation, for good 
 masters were not easily found, and in out-of-the-way places 
 there was always the temptation to neglect : and there was 
 the continual pressure of the Government against Church 
 Schools, which was always ready to take advantage of any 
 weak point in their management. 
 
 On this Visitation he everywhere, in meetings and private 
 conversation, explained the object of the move for Synods, 
 and was glad to find hardly a trace of active opposition, 
 though there was as yet but little energy in the cause. 
 
 One new feature in this journey was a visit to the diggings 
 lately opened at the Hanging Rock, near Goonoo-Goonoo. 
 
IS 5 2.] 
 
 DIOCESAN SYNODS. 
 
 I3i 
 
 After calling on Major Innes, who was busy issuing licenses 
 to the diggers, he rode to the scene of operations, and talked 
 to many of the parties who were working at their “ claims.” 
 It was a curious and interesting scene, full of pickaxes, 
 cradles, and confusion ; some working like galley slaves and 
 getting nothing ; others elated with their good fortune, 
 and full of expectations of more. He observes, it was a 
 scene that “ presented much to cause regret. It is never 
 pleasing to see mind and education thrown away, and pro- 
 ducing inferior results to mere muscular power and bodily 
 exertion. But this appeared to be almost always the case 
 here ; the educated gentry were doing little or nothing, while 
 many of the commonest labourers were doing exceedingly 
 well.” 
 
 Almost every party the Bishop addressed seemed pleased 
 with his visit ; all were civil and courteous, and a large 
 number expressed their intention of attending the Service on 
 the next day, which happened to be Sunday. He returned 
 to the Major’s tent, where he slept ; and the next day rode up 
 the steep and slippery pinches of the hill to the inn, which was 
 the only place for the Service : and there, in spite of torrents 
 of rain, a large congregation assembled of very orderly and 
 attentive diggers ; not like the hard-drinking, wild, mammon- 
 worshipping men who generally fill the mental picture of gold- 
 diggings. The Bishop was much pleased with the Service ; 
 and after returning to Major Innes’s tent, rode twenty miles 
 through mud and downpour to the afternoon Service at 
 Goonoo-Goonoo. 
 
 After his arrival at Morpeth he occupied himself in pre- 
 paration for the meeting, which was held on the 27th of 
 October. It was so entirely a preliminary step that his chief 
 care was to prevent the minds of Churchmen from diverging 
 to questions which might provoke disunion, but could lead 
 to no profitable result. He took pains, therefore, to let it 
 be known that the matter in hand was not a petition for any 
 particular form of constitution, still less one which should 
 lead to a discussion of details ; but simply a petition for the 
 appointment of a Boyal Commission to inquire into the 
 
132 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1852. 
 
 position of the Church of England in the Colonies, the diffi- 
 culties and disadvantages under which it was labouring, and 
 the best and safest remedy for its existing defects. The 
 petition asked, that “ in the course of the inquiry the fullest 
 opportunity should he afforded to all the members of the 
 Church of England to state their opinions and wishes,” with 
 the assurance that their statements should he duly considered 
 by the Commission before making its Report. 
 
 In his address to the meeting the Bishop said that the 
 “ differing petitions from the different Dioceses,” and, from 
 some, “ counter petitions,” would induce the Government to 
 reply in one of three ways : — 1. “ As you cannot agree what 
 to ask for, we will do nothing ; and you must remain as you 
 are.” 2. “ All doubts and obstacles in the way of your 
 assembling in Synods are removed, and you must settle your 
 form of constitution ” among yourselves. 3. “We must 
 advise Her Majesty to appoint a Commission of Inquiry.” 
 
 The second of these, the Bishop said, “ would be most dis- 
 astrous,” tending to set up a distinct Church in each Diocese, 
 and in some cases “ cause a separation between the differing 
 parties in the same Diocese.” Looking at the disputes which 
 had lately taken place, it was not to be wondered at that he 
 should have had such apprehensions, which were shared by 
 many at home ; and that he should have looked to a Royal 
 Commission, issuing in a Constitution imposed on all by 
 legislation, or Letters Patent, as the one escape from anarchy 
 or schism. 
 
 A few years later his eyes were opened to see the evil of 
 trusting to the secular power to mould the framework of 
 Christ’s Church. As the good Metropolitan had said, “ the 
 progress of events, watched in a spirit of self-surrender to 
 the Divine will,” led him to find in the latent powers of the 
 Church herself what Letters Patent and Parliaments, Imperial 
 or Colonial, could not confer. 
 
 In the course of his address he explained the working of 
 the Royal Supremacy, which in Sydney had been made a 
 party cry. “The supreme Authority is either — 1. Judicial, 
 2. Legislative, or 3. Administrative. 
 
1352 .] 
 
 DIOCESAN SYNODS. 
 
 133 
 
 “ 1. As Judicial , it is the fountain of all justice, extending 
 over the whole realm, the Colonies included : and over all 
 parties in the realm, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and 
 Wesleyans, as well as members of the Church of England. 
 To the Crown, or to the Court of final Appeal appointed by it, 
 all appeals, in all causes, must be made. ‘ And if this pre- 
 rogative of the Crown is now carried into practice, with 
 respect to its highest Court of Appeal, in a defective and objec- 
 tionable way , in cases which affect the doctrine of the Churcb, 
 the removal of such defects and objectionable modes may be 
 properly, if patiently, sought for by constitutional means. ’ 
 
 “ 2. As Legislative , it has reference to the Church of Eng- 
 land alone, and arises from the ‘ Act of Submission 9 of 
 Henry VIII. Whether this extends to the Colonies is a dis- 
 puted point, but at present had better be considered as 
 extending to them; and ‘gives to Her Majesty not only a 
 veto on the legislation of Convocation, but also a veto on its 
 deliberation , with a view to legislation/ Yet, even as to 
 Great Britain it has, ever since the passing of that Act, been 
 considered a very difficult and doubtful question, whether 
 Henry VIII. did not exact from the Clergy by this Act of 
 Submission a surrender of the just rights of the Church ; 
 whether this Act, instead of restoring to the King the ancient 
 prerogative of the Crown, did not in reality wrest from the 
 Clergy a right which they ought never to have resigned. The 
 great lawyers, Lord Coke and Judge Foster, have argued the 
 case most powerfully .in favour of the King’s prerogative; 
 the great Divines, Bishop Gibson and Bishop Stillingfleet, 
 have argued certainly as powerfully in favour of the rights 
 of the Church : and in Hoffman’s admirable work on the law 
 of the American Church, the author, himself an eminent 
 Judge, has delivered it as his opinion that “ the great Church- 
 men have overmastered the great lawyers.” * A veto on 
 Church legislation is, without doubt, a prerogative of the 
 Crown ; but a veto on Church deliberation is indeed a crush- 
 ing power — a power which has never been claimed over 
 Parliament. The Act of Submission, however (25 Henry 
 * Hoffman’s Law of the American Church, p. 58. 
 
134 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1852. 
 
 VIII.), whether right or wrong in principle, is the law of the 
 Church of England, and it is the wisest course to consider 
 that it is binding upon ourselves. But any law may be 
 altered ; and we have a full right to seek to obtain such 
 alteration by proper constitutional means. 
 
 “ 3. Her Majesty’s Administrative Supremacy , with refer- 
 ence to patronage, has already, as far as patronage can be said 
 to exist in the appointment of Colonial Bishops and the Colo- 
 nial Clergy, been practically resigned into the hands of the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and of the respective Colonial 
 Bishops.” 
 
 The Bishop thought it possible there might be delay in 
 obtaining the liberty they were now seeking, but he urged 
 them not to lose heart, but to press onward in the hope of 
 finally succeeding. And, on the other hand, he urged them 
 not to allow the hope of enjoying more extended means of 
 usefulness to prevent them from using to the full extent the 
 many means of doing good already in their power; but 
 rather, by the constant use of what means they had, to fit 
 themselves for the beneficial use of the greater privileges 
 they hoped to obtain. 
 
 The Bishop was right in his hint that the formation of 
 Synods might be delayed. It was not until more than 
 thirteen years after this that the first Diocesan Synod was 
 assembled. The death of Bishop Broughton, and the search 
 for his successor, stopped all action for a time. After his 
 arrival, the new Metropolitan had his hands more than full 
 with the ordinary work of his Diocese. Then two attempts, 
 at an interval of several years, delayed the work still further. 
 Had the Diocese of Newcastle been free to act alone, Bishop 
 Tyrrell’s Synod would have come into existence sooner than 
 it did. But he neither could act, nor desired to ad , in- 
 dependently of the rest of the Church in the Colony : and 
 the delays led him so completely to sift the question, and 
 the degree of the connection of the Church with the secular 
 power, that they proved in the end a gain, not a loss. 
 
 In the interval neither he nor his Diocese were idle ; and 
 the subdivision of the See gave him more leisure, when the 
 
185 3 .] DEATH OF BISHOP BROUGHTON. 135 
 
 time arrived, to throw himself into the work of starting the 
 machinery of the Synod, and directing it with greater con- 
 centration of his powers. 
 
 The death of the Metropolitan early in the year 1853 was 
 a great sorrow to Bishop Tyrrell. In him he lost one whom 
 he had always regarded with an affection that was mutual ; 
 for whose character, as man and Bishop, he had the highest 
 respect ; and with whom he had many times taken counsel. 
 For some months he was also disquieted with the idea that 
 it might involve a change to himself. A rumour reached him 
 from England, and prevailed in the Colony, that he would 
 be asked to accept the Vacant See. He would not before- 
 hand make up his mind to decline it, as he would have 
 desired to do ; still less would he resolve to accept it, if 
 offered. 
 
 On the one hand, the change would put him into a place 
 of greater influence at the Metropolis of the Colony and the 
 seat of Government. He might at Sydney do more to influ- 
 ence public men by personal intercourse than by writing 
 from Morpeth. The education question might be more 
 easily guided to a satisfactory solution close at hand, where 
 he might converse with the leaders of the Parliament ; and 
 thus the Church in both Dioceses might be benefited. 
 
 On the other hand, his heart was more bound up with his 
 own Diocese of Newcastle than it had ever been with the 
 Beaulieu, which he still remembered with affection. He had 
 made so many sacrifices for it ; he had lived so entirely for 
 it ; and now he saw so many fruits of his labours, and so 
 many plans he had laid for its good were in various stages of 
 progress or development, that to leave it would be no common 
 wrench. If he were called, it might be a duty to go ; but, if 
 so, it would be a painful duty. 
 
 His thoughts and wishes turned at once to his old friend, 
 Bishop Selwyn. What a happiness and support it would be 
 to him if he could see it his duty to leave New Zealand, and 
 accept the more important sphere of the Sydney Diocese ! 
 
 Some letters I received from him at the time express his 
 feelings. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [ 1353 . 
 
 136 
 
 “Morpeth, June 22, 1853. 
 
 .... “Should Sydney be offered to me, I shall have one of 
 the most difficult, indeed the most difficult, case of conscience 
 and of duty to decide, which has as yet occurred to me. In- 
 clination would at once decide in the negative : hut what 
 duty may seem to require, I must leave for most heart-search- 
 ing praying consideration, should the necessity for it arise. 
 In which case I feel assured your prayers also will not he 
 wanting to me. I sincerely hope that the Bishop of Hew 
 Zealand may he translated. — Sincerely and affectionately 
 yours, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 He writes again — 
 
 “ Morpeth, July 2, 1853. 
 
 . . . . “ The Bishop of Hew Zealand has arrived in 
 Sydney ; and, singularly, had not heard of the death of the 
 Bishop of Sydney until he reached Sydney harbour. When 
 I opened his letter, it was with the sincere hope that it was 
 to announce his translation to the See of Sydney : and though 
 it would he very difficult to supply his place at Hew Zealand, 
 yet I consider Sydney the most important, and for any one 
 who will act upon sound Church principles, hy far the most 
 difficult position. Last night I was engaged till past mid- 
 night writing to him, to persuade him to accept the offer of 
 the Vacant See, if it he made to him. . . . The Beast of 
 St. Peter (the anniversary of his own Consecration) did not 
 pass without much heart- searching ; in fact, the day was 
 thus spent. And while there is much to grieve over and 
 lament when going through in thought each vast district of 
 such a Diocese, yet I cannot hut feel deeply thankful when 
 I consider the character and labours of almost all those 
 who are aiding me in such a Ministry. May the Lord bless 
 them an hundredfold.” 
 
 Bishop Selwyn at once decided that he would on no 
 account leave his own peculiar w T ork for Sydney, hut strongly 
 urged Bishop Tyrrell to accept it if offered to him. And in 
 
iS 53 -] VACANCY OF THE SEE OF SYDNEY. 137 
 
 November wrote, in consequence of a report lie bail received 
 from England, to “ offer him, with great joy, liis hearty 
 allegiance as his obedient Suffragan.” 
 
 The state of suspense lasted until 1854, when Dr. Barker 
 was Consecrated to the Vacant See. To the Bishop of 
 Newcastle the decision was a great relief ; and to his own 
 Diocese it was of the greatest benefit not to be deprived, 
 at this period of its history, of his wise forethought and 
 unremitting care. 
 
( 133 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE GROWTH AND PROGRESS OF THE NEWCASTLE 
 CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 1851-1859. 
 
 “ Go up and watch the new-born rill 
 Just trickling from its mossy bed, 
 
 Streaking the heath-clad hill 
 With a bright emerald thread. 
 
 Canst thou her bold career foretell, 
 
 What rocks she shall o’erleap or rend?” 
 
 — Keble’s Christian Year. 
 
 The Newcastle Church. Society far more than realised the 
 hopes of Bishop Tyrrell and those with whom he had taken 
 counsel. Formed in April 1851, its labours extended over 
 seventeen years, until, in May 1868, it was absorbed into 
 the Diocesan Synod. Its chief work was to aid in the 
 support of additional Clergy, and eventually of all the Clergy 
 of the Diocese. But it directed the energies of Churchmen 
 to other objects also ; education, buildings, the supply of 
 books, and Missions to the Heathen. 
 
 It was a great gain to have one general reservoir, which 
 would receive and disburse funds for all the operations 
 of the Church. And, besides collecting and distributing, it 
 did much to make Churchmen feel their common interests, 
 and to diffuse valuable information through the Diocese. 
 It was not only one central body. In every Clerical Dis- 
 trict an Association was formed, and funds were collected. 
 The Clergyman w r as ex officio Secretary of the Association ; 
 and he usually joined with himself some of his Parishioners 
 as a Committee. Half-yearly meetings of the District Asso- 
 ciations were appointed to be held, to arouse and keep 
 
IS 5 I.] 
 
 NEWCASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY . 
 
 139 
 
 up the interest of those in the neighbourhood : and, where 
 these meetings were held regularly, and information given 
 as to Matters of Church needs and progress, they were found 
 very useful. 
 
 From the Committees of the Associations Honorary Col- 
 lectors were appointed, who visited in the Townships and in 
 the Bush, sometimes riding twenty or thirty miles to receive 
 contributions. Many of these exerted themselves most 
 zealously. And here and there a man of high Christian 
 principle carried a religious tone into his work, which 
 insensibly acted as a healthy leaven, where good influences 
 were but too much needed. On some large sheep stations 
 the owner, or his superintendent, would mention the Society’s 
 work to the shepherds, shearers, or stockmen ; not a few of 
 whom added their names to the list of subscribers. 
 
 At times a shepherd would ask his Clergyman, when he 
 called at his hut, or found him on his “ run,” to receive a 
 contribution for the Society, or possibly for himself : and, in 
 the latter case, the offering of the willing-hearted donor was 
 accepted, and he was told that, although it could not be 
 received as a personal gift, it would be paid for him to the 
 funds of the Society. And thus, from an ever-widening area, 
 funds dropped in. 
 
 One shepherd in the Merriwa District, with a wife and 
 family, hearing that a Church was to be built at the Township 
 eight miles from his hut, was the first to volunteer an offering 
 towards it. Disappearing for a moment, he brought out a 
 half sovereign, saying that he hoped to give more another 
 day. And so he did ; and paid another half sovereign before 
 a single subscription had been asked for. Another shepherd, 
 with a family, volunteered jTi to the general fund; and not 
 a few shepherds and labourers gave 10s. There certainly had 
 been an unsuspected fountain which the Church Society 
 opened in a thirsty land. 
 
 Settlers gave from ^5 to ^30 annually ; and in many 
 cases the hearts of the people followed their alms, and an 
 interest in the work of the Church was kindled which did 
 not exist before. The good done by the Society was far 
 
140 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1854. 
 
 more than its columns showed. It was a practical teaching, 
 spreading through Town and Bush, that those who were full 
 of Colonial energy belonged to a Kingdom not of this world, 
 and had duties towards it. 
 
 In some districts the Clergy did not understand how to 
 start their Association, or they were backward in asking for 
 subscriptions, lest they might seem to have a personal interest 
 in the Society. Here the Bishop came to the rescue. He 
 would show the Clergyman how to sink himself in the Church ; 
 would help him in any way he most desired, by joining him 
 in a meeting, or calling on his Parishioners, and putting the 
 matter clearly before them : and thus, in the third year of 
 the Society’s existence, there was not a district unrepresented 
 in it. 
 
 In reference to the fund for the support of the Clergy, he 
 issued a Pastoral Letter to the Laity in the year 1854, which 
 is a good specimen of the way in which he placed the duty 
 before them. He says : — 
 
 “ You cannot but feel how deeply interested you are in 
 this matter. The Ministers of the Church are appointed to 
 their Office, not for their sakes, but for yours ; not for their 
 own honour or gain, but for your spiritual good. . . . When 
 I take counsel with your Clergy concerning their duties, my 
 chief advice and exhortation is that of St. Paul to Timothy : 
 ‘ Meditate upon these things , give thyself ivholly to them’ 
 Let your whole time and thoughts be given to build up and 
 perfect in the Faith the souls committed to your care. But 
 how can your Clergy do this, if you permit them, or rather 
 compel them, to employ some of their time, literally, as 
 hewers of wood and drawers of water : and if, from the utter 
 insufficiency of their stipends, their minds are filled with 
 anxious fears of debt and destitution ? 
 
 “Your Clergy are, I am rejoiced to say, labouring most 
 zealously in the performance of their duties ; and this, I 
 trust, they would continue to do, with the Lord’s blessing, 
 amid any hindrances or anxieties : but for your own sakes I 
 would intreat you to provide a moderate, yet sufficient and 
 sure, maintenance for your Clergy ; that they may give their 
 
IS54-] 
 
 NEWCASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 141 
 
 ichole time and thoughts to promote your spiritual good; and 
 lest perchance the due ‘ hire of the spiritual labourers, which 
 is of you kept back/ through thoughtlessness or covetous- 
 ness, ‘ should cry ; and the cry should enter into the ears of 
 the Lord of Saba^th.’ ” 
 
 Referring to the effects of the gold discovery upon prices, 
 and mentioning the fact that “ the stipends of Government 
 officers had been increased 75 per cent.,” he asked the Laity 
 to increase the stipends of the Clergy, in those times of extra- 
 ordinary expense, from 33 to 50 per cent. 
 
 He was particularly anxious to provide that a stipend, 
 sufficient for a Pastor to subsist on with prudence, should be 
 guaranteed to him as a matter of duty by the flock : and that 
 beyond this a margin should be left for voluntary offerings. 
 He says, “ Knowing the necessary expenses of the Clergy in 
 this Diocese, I feel assured it will require strict economy to 
 enable them to supply from such incomes the common neces- 
 saries of life for their families. I would suggest, therefore, 
 that in addition to these guaranteed stipends, there should 
 be presented annually to each Clergyman by his flock a 
 further sum as an Easter offering. To make a Clergy- 
 man dependent for the necessaries of life upon these un- 
 certain, offerings, would be to make him the slave instead 
 of the Pastor of his flock ; and would expose him to 
 constant anxiety, perhaps to ruinous debt. . But, when 
 his necessary expenses have been provided for by a fixed 
 guaranteed stipend, to leave the supply of his domestic 
 comforts dependent upon such annual offerings, might be 
 productive of mutual good. . . . Such a system as this of 
 supporting your Clergy ... is, I believe, the best which 
 could be devised for their maintenance. At all events, it 
 is the best system which is practically possible until years, 
 or rather centuries, have accumulated endowments for the 
 Church.” 
 
 This subject occupied his thoughts so constantly throughout 
 his Episcopate, that a quotation must be made from a letter, 
 dated August 1858, which he appended to the Report of the 
 Society, in which he enters very fully into the necessity of 
 
142 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1858. 
 
 contributing to the funds of the Church, the principles on 
 which the duty rests, and the best mode of performing it. 
 
 The necessity of contributing he shows from the fact that 
 there are absolutely no available funds for Church buildings, 
 and none from the Government grant for nearly half the 
 existing number of Clergy. 
 
 The grant, which is really appropriated to the older dis- 
 tricts, would, if equitably divided between all the Clergy of 
 the Diocese, provide only £100 for each. “If therefore 
 all the districts are to act as members of one body, each 
 being willing to bear an equitable portion of the general bur- 
 den, as brotherly kindness, not to say strict justice, requires, 
 the members of our Church in every district have to provide 
 by their voluntary contributions the full stipend of their 
 Clergymen, less the £100 which is available from the Govern- 
 ment grant.” Setting aside the contributions for Church 
 buildings, which are “ casual,” he speaks chiefly of those 
 “ for the maintenance of the Clergy, which are constant, to 
 be made regularly year by year. ... With respect to these it 
 is important that general regulations should be laid down, 
 and brought into operation throughout the whole Diocese.” 
 
 As to the “ principles of the duty,” which he most desired 
 to lodge in the minds and consciences of the Laity, 1 ^ says : 
 “It is not a call of charity , which is given neither in return 
 for a benefit received, nor in hope of receiving anything in 
 return ; but it is a payment for services received, and whoso- 
 ever attends the ministrations of the Church is in duty bound, 
 as an act of justice, to contribute to the support of the Clergy- 
 man who employs his whole time and talents for the spiritual 
 good of those committed to his care.” 
 
 “It is most unsatisfactory ... to leave the Laity in 
 ignorance of what is required for the due support of their 
 Clergy, and of what it is their duty to contribute year by 
 year, and then to apply to them at the close of the year . . . 
 for what they may be pleased to give, or what it may be 
 Convenient to them at that particular moment to give, as a 
 gratuity to their own Clergyman. . . . The maintenance of 
 the Clergy is always represented in Scripture and enforced 
 
iS 5 S.] 
 
 NEWCASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 143 
 
 as a duty. ‘The labourer is worthy of his hire/* ‘Even 
 so hath the Lord ordained, that they who preach the Gospel 
 should live of the Gospel/ ” f 
 
 He calculates what sum would be annually required from 
 the whole Diocese for the maintenance of the existing Clergy, 
 and shows that this would be raised by each head of a 
 family guaranteeing the hundredth part of his income for the 
 Clergy Fund, leaving the calls of charity and occasional con- 
 tributions to be provided out of the remainder. 
 
 As to the best mode of carrying out this duty in the 
 Diocese, he points out the benefit of the machinery of District 
 Associations , as providing the easiest mode of penetrating 
 all the outlying parts, and making the collections with the 
 least trouble and expense in so large and scattered a Diocese; 
 as creating a local interest in the working of the Society, and 
 so increasing the willingness to contribute. On the other 
 hand, the transmission of the contributions to the Diocesan 
 Fund promoted the sense of brotherly unity ; remedied the 
 unequal appropriation of the Government grant ; secures the 
 due independence of the Clergy, their maintenance not de- 
 pending solely upon their flocks ; and provides for regularity 
 in the payment of the quarterly stipends. 
 
 In this letter the Bishop made a suggestion which was 
 afterwards acted on, and simplified the working operations 
 of the Society, while it made it more easy for the Clergy to 
 help in collecting its funds. Instead of retaining the original 
 enumeration of six funds, there should be but two chief 
 Funds — 1. The Parochial Church Fund. 2. The Diocesan 
 Church Fund. And each of these should be divided into 
 “ General” and u Special.” 
 
 Under the head Special the donors might place any sums 
 which they might wish to devote to a particular object, 
 whether in the Parish or in the Diocese, for a Church or a 
 School near them, or the Book Depot. 
 
 From the sums placed under the General Parochial Fund, 
 the first claim should be jT 200 for the stipends of the 
 Diocese, and £\o for General Diocesan purposes ; while the 
 * St. Luke x. 7. f i Cor. lx. 14. 
 
144 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1858. 
 
 remainder should be applied to any purposes which the 
 members of the Parochial Committee might think fit. “ Thus 
 the members of our Church are encouraged to be liberal in 
 their contributions ; while it is clearly understood that no 
 district can obtain the appointment of a resident Clergyman 
 unless £2 00 is guaranteed for his support. These are the regu- 
 lations which are being carried out in this Diocese, at present 
 imperfectly, but still with much success.” This rule of the 
 guarantee of ^*200 he was sometimes obliged to relax, where, 
 for instance, as in several of the southern districts, the people 
 were manifestly too poor to raise that sum ; but in cases where 
 poverty could not be pleaded the rule was strictly observed. 
 
 It was to the writings, speeches, and watchful manage- 
 ment of the Bishop that the great success of the Church 
 Society was owing. He was its mainspring. Zealous 
 secretaries might have kept it feebly going; but he had 
 opportunities which none else had, as w r ell as special mental 
 aptitude and untiring zeal which made its widespread 
 machinery work steadily and effectively to the common good 
 of the Diocese. His constant journeyings through all the 
 districts made him painfully aware of the number of places 
 in which more Clergy, Schools, and Churches were needed. 
 And as he looked around him, in the Colony or to England, 
 for the supply of men, so on him devolved the responsibility 
 of guaranteeing that those he called to labour under him 
 were provided with the means of subsistence. His acquaint- 
 ance with all the principal Laymen over hundreds of miles 
 both enabled him to know where the necessary means were 
 to be found, and gave him an influence, which none else 
 could have obtained, over those who could help when help 
 was needed. The operations of the Society he watched over 
 with unceasing care, and he had an ever-ready remedy for 
 every defect wdiich he perceived in them. 
 
 Four times a year the Committee of the Church Society 
 assembled at Morpeth, its chief business being to make the 
 due quarterly payments. For the first three quarters many 
 of the contributions were not sent in ; yet it was important, 
 especially in the case of the Clergy stipends, that the Com- 
 
145 
 
 1854-59*] NEWCASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 mittee should be able to make the payments regularly. All 
 would come in eventually, but in the meantime the good 
 Bishop had somehow to find the money that the 'Com- 
 mittee might vote it. To remedy this frequently recurring 
 evil, and to enable the Society to work smoothly, the Bishop 
 provided an endowment of ^1000, of which he himself 
 gave ^500, as & floating balance . Out of this the quarterly 
 stipends were duly paid, when any part of the income was 
 in arrear ; and into it the amounts advanced were refunded 
 as soon as the subscriptions came in. These quarterly 
 meetings were utilised, as opportunities of taking counsel 
 with some of the Clergy from a distance on any matter of 
 general concern ; a benefit which was sensibly felt by those 
 who were scattered far from their brethren in Bush districts. 
 Such opportunities have a value in a Colonial Diocese which 
 can hardly be appreciated in the Church at home, where 
 intercourse with neighbours is easy. 
 
 The day before the Annual Meeting was always one of 
 some anxiety and a good deal of work. A skeleton Report 
 was drawn up by the Secretary from such materials as 
 he had at hand ; but without the Bishop he could finish 
 nothing. Most of the contributions of the far-off Bush 
 districts for their Clergy had been asked for by the Bishop 
 during his long journeys, and had been promised to him. 
 About these the poor Secretary usually came to the Bishop’s 
 house in a state of utter ignorance. As they sat together 
 one item after another came out of the Bishop’s note-book, 
 and the accounts began to assume a fuller and better shape. 
 Then there would come a pause; ^50 guaranteed by one 
 district had been paid neither to the Treasurer, nor to the 
 Secretary, nor to the Bishop; ^70 from another was want- 
 ing; and several gaps appeared, where from £10 or £ 20 
 ought to have been received. But the amounts had been 
 promised, and the grants made from the “ floating balance.” 
 “Put them down,” the Bishop would say, “I will see to them.” 
 Thus the Report was finished ; and a few days after the 
 meeting the cheques would arrive, in answer to the Bishop’s 
 reminder, with apologies for the delay. 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 C1S54-59. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell never delivered a “ Charge.” His regular 
 visits to all parts of his Diocese from the Hawkesbury River 
 to Moreton Bay, and his frequent correspondence with the 
 Clergy on all matters, of importance in their districts, gave 
 him opportunities of intimate communication with all his 
 Clergy, and with most of the Laity. Matters of a more 
 general character — the condition and prospects of the Diocese, 
 the supply of Clergy, the varying phases of the Education 
 question, State aid, the movement for Synods — were effec- 
 tively treated in his speeches at the Annual Meeting ; and 
 still more fully and exhaustively in the letters, which he 
 frequently appended to the Reports of the Church Society. 
 In later years, his addresses at the opening of the Sessions 
 of Synod served the same purpose. In these ways he did 
 very much to educate the members of his Diocese on a large 
 variety of subjects of the greatest importance to them as 
 Churchmen ; and bound them to himself and to one another 
 in a remarkable degree. 
 
 * The successful working of the Church Society is shown by 
 its receipts for the first nine years, from 1851 to 1859 inclu- 
 sive, the years of the undivided Diocese : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Total 
 
 Collected. 
 
 Increase 
 on Preceding 
 Year. 
 
 1851 .... 
 
 £ 531 
 
 
 1852 .... 
 
 1,412 
 
 mo 
 
 1853 .... 
 
 2,247 
 
 83s 
 
 1854 .... 
 
 3,362 
 
 1,114 
 
 1,265 
 
 1855 .... 
 
 4,627 
 
 1856 .... 
 
 5,323 
 
 696 
 
 1857 .... 
 
 6,028 
 
 6,849 
 
 705 
 
 1858 .... 
 
 621 
 
 1859 .... 
 
 7,400 
 
 551 
 
 Total of nine years . 
 
 £37,179 
 
 ... 
 
 If we deduct from this total ^3400 given by the Bishop 
 in large sums for endowment, and ^2 150 given by his sisters 
 
47 
 
 1854 - 57 -] NEWCASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY . 
 
 and friends in England for the same object, there still 
 remains a sum of ^32,223 contributed through the Society 
 for its ordinary purposes, and that not in fitful gifts, but in 
 steadily increasing annual payments, the fruits of a carefully 
 planned system, “ created and sustained by a sense of Chris- 
 tian duty.” 
 
 To appreciate this success, it must be understood that the 
 Diocese of Newcastle, though so extensive, was both thinly 
 peopled and comparatively poor ; some large districts of it 
 very poor. The greater number of well-to-do persons lived 
 in and around Sydney ; where, as the seat of Government, 
 there were also many officials. 
 
 Several of the years in the above list were years of loss 
 and difficulty to the Colonists. In some there were severe 
 droughts, when cattle died in large numbers. The Report 
 for 1855 says : “ Monetary pressure has been making itself 
 felt to a considerable extent among us. We have, therefore, 
 the greater cause for thankfulness when we find in this year 
 also the funds have considerably increased. Retrenchment 
 has in many cases been found necessary ; but it has not been 
 first practised in the offerings made to Almighty God.” 
 
 In 1856 there were in the agricultural districts “ draw- 
 backs arising from the wetness of the season ; ” but “ they 
 have not prevented the continued increase of the funds of the 
 Society.” In the next Report it is said : “ The circumstances 
 of the year 1857 will long be remembered among us. Agri- 
 cultural produce swept away by three devastating floods, each 
 more disastrous than the preceding ; growing crops destroyed, 
 houses submerged, merchandise and stores injured or carried 
 away by the rising waters ; rents generously forgiven or 
 lowered, from want of ability in the tenants to pay ; traffic 
 for several months almost stopped, and trade almost at a 
 stand-still : then the commercial panic in England and 
 America, which for a time affected even this distant member 
 of the Anglo-Saxon body, and in the midst of this, con- 
 tributions freely made by those who suffered much to lighten 
 the burdens of those who suffered more ; and, more recently, 
 the calls of charity for the overwhelming afflictions of our 
 
148 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1857. 
 
 Indian brethren ; all these circumstances, which impress the 
 past year indelibly on our memories, ought to be taken into 
 consideration, if we w r ould rightly estimate the amount of 
 the funds raised for our Church Society.” Yet the increase 
 for the year was more than ^£700 ; and with this there is 
 a record of “ more Ministers’ dwellings, more Churches, more 
 Schools, and more Clergy ” than in the year preceding. 
 
 In spite of all adverse circumstances the Society progressed. 
 The Diocesan Depot, which was opened in April 1853 for 
 the sale of books, did not prove to be that starved and ill- 
 worked institution, which sometimes passes under this name. 
 The Bishop thus describes its early days. “ It was at first 
 proposed that two consignments of books, to the value of 
 ^200 each, should be obtained; and for this purpose ^400 
 was provided. It was next deemed desirable by our Com- 
 mittee that there should be four such consignments each year, 
 and ^800 was provided. It was then seen to be necessary 
 that there should be five consignments, to keep up a regular 
 supply; because the money sent with one order, and returned 
 in books, would not be turned into money by the sale of the 
 books before five quarters had elapsed. A fifth ^200 was 
 therefore provided. Again, to guard against the Depository 
 being drained of books before the end of each quarter, a 
 double consignment was required to start with, and £ 200 
 more was provided. And lastly, it w 7 as found that for a 
 remittance of ^200, ^30 was spent in package and freight. 
 Therefore our Committee made a grant of ^30 out of the 
 Society’s funds last year, so that ^230 might be sent home 
 every quarter, and books to the full value of ^200 received 
 by us in return. How the principle of action here seen in 
 simple operation is one of very great value, and one which 
 is, I trust, being carried out in matters of far greater import- 
 ance than the circulation of books, viz., the gradual grov T th 
 of Church plans — the constant thought employed to render 
 them more perfect — the completion of one plan in all its 
 working details before we commence another.” 
 
 Eventually the sum of £1600 w T as provided. Eor the 
 first eight or nine years of its existence the Society annually 
 
149 
 
 IS53-57-] NEWCASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 voted a grant to aid the Depot in paying off its debt ; but it 
 then became able to maintain itself, with a stock amounting 
 to more than ^1600 belonging to it. It is so managed that 
 Bibles and the Book of Common Prayer are sold to the 
 public at the reduced rate at which the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge sells to its members ; so that an ordinary 
 purchaser in Morpeth is better off than he would be in Eng- 
 land, all other books and tracts of the Society being sold 
 at the English prices. Other books which are saleable are 
 ordered from general publishers ; and any one may obtain 
 any books which he may desire to have, by sending a list of 
 them to the Manager of the Depot before the quarterly order 
 is despatched. He receives his books at the English retail 
 price without discount, the Depot paying all expenses of 
 bringing out from the difference between the trade price and 
 the retail price. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell gives to the Committee the credit of all 
 the business arrangements which brought about such useful 
 results. Those who have read the preceding pages will 
 detect another figure presiding at the meetings of the Com- 
 mittee, and will know whose was the ever-active brain that 
 first conceived the plan for the common good, and was con- 
 tinually making it more perfect. The sales of books at the 
 Depot were, in 1853, £$ 00 ; in 1854, ^460; in 1855, 
 ^954; in 1856, and in 1857, ,£738. In ttle 
 
 scheme of the Newcastle Church Society, “ Missions” to the 
 Heathen have their place, but the subject is not a pleasant 
 one to handle : for in the period to which these pages refer, 
 no real work was ever undertaken. 
 
 As to the still earlier days of the Colony, we can only 
 refer with sorrow to the fearful demoralisation, and, in some 
 cases, the murderous destruction of the poor aboriginal popu- 
 lation, not by the convicts only, but by some of the settlers 
 also. The tribes about Sydney, which Collins describes as 
 fishing round the shores of Port Jackson in 1788, were in 
 1848 extinct almost to a man: while about Morpeth and the 
 Lower Hunter it was, at the same date, a rare thing to see a 
 dozen natives together, though the white man did not settle 
 
150 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1856. 
 
 in those parts earlier than 1821. There were more about 
 Port Stephens and the Clarence Eiver, and thence north- 
 wards ; the greater heat of the climate and other causes 
 contributing to keep the tribes more together and in greater 
 numbers ; but in the southern parts of the Diocese of New- 
 castle they were hardly more numerous, and were even more 
 migratory than Gipsies in England, without hut and without 
 home ; and therefore difficult to be found, and still more 
 difficult to be permanently affected by Christian teaching, in 
 the midst of such abundant examples of unchristian living. 
 
 There had been four Missions at an earlier period, to which 
 the Government had given assistance : one at Wellington 
 Valley, commenced in 1832 by the Church Missionary 
 Society; a second near Lake Macquarie, which owed its 
 origin a few years later to the London Missionary Society ; 
 a third at Moreton Bay, and a fourth near Melbourne, 
 founded respectively by Lutherans and Wesleyans; but no 
 permanent effect was realised by these various endeavours, 
 and within ten or twelve years they were abandoned. 
 
 Some extracts from the letters of Bishop Tyrrell must tell 
 the disappointing story so far as his Diocese was concerned. 
 
 In 1853 he says : “Our Missionary work to the Aborigines 
 of Australia has yet to be commenced. It is a subject full 
 of perplexing difficulties, and a Committee of Clerical and 
 Lay members of our Church, who take a deep interest in the 
 Aborigines, will probably be formed this year, to consider 
 and report upon the best mode of commencing Missionary 
 work among them.” 
 
 In 1856 there seemed the dawning of a better day. Sir 
 William Denison was Governor, and he was always ready to 
 throw his influence on the side of Religion. The Bishop 
 says : “ In the early part of this year I received a letter from 
 the Governor-General, expressing his Excellency’s earnest 
 desire to assist in improving the condition of the Aborigines, 
 and his willingness to recommend a much larger expenditure 
 than had been usually voted for that purpose.” 
 
 To this letter the Bishop replied : — 
 
 , . . . “ Permit me to express my gratification at receiving 
 
i8 5 6.] 
 
 NE W CASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 151 
 
 such a letter, as it assures me that one of the two great diffi- 
 culties which have prevented my forming any establishment 
 for the civilising and Christianising the poor Blacks — viz., 
 the want of means and agents — will be much lessened, if not 
 removed. AVhen I conversed with the late Governor-General 
 respecting the Aborigines, I was assured that there was every 
 wish on the part of the Government to aid any effort for 
 their good. And that a grant of land to any reasonable 
 extent for a Missionary Establishment might at once 
 be obtained. Still, the anxious unceasing efforts, which 
 have been required to procure funds and Clergymen for 
 carrying the means of grace to the Members of the Church 
 in this vast Diocese, have compelled me to postpone any 
 attempt to establish a Missionary Station for the Aborigines : 
 all my resources, both of means and agents, having been 
 required to prevent Christians from becoming heathens, 
 through the want of religious Services and Pastoral superin- 
 tendence. . . . 
 
 “ 1. It would seem to me that many Missionary efforts 
 have failed from this cause : the teacher has been fixed at 
 the Missionary Station, and these wandering hunting tribes 
 have had to become stationary, and thus change their entire 
 habits before they could be taught. The teacher, in my 
 opinion, should for a time at least be a wanderer with his 
 wandering pupils. 
 
 “ 2. Again, where Missionary Stations have been kept up 
 for years, little influence for good has been exerted over the 
 adults, because the Missionary’s efforts have been almost 
 confined to the teaching of children ; and in many cases 
 adults have been kept from the Station, lest they should 
 contaminate or entice away the children. Thus the existing 
 generation of adults has been lost, while the children only 
 were instructed ; and of these children, many at the age of 
 puberty returned to their old wild habits. ... I would 
 have a school for children, but the school should be quite as 
 much for the sake of influencing the adults as of teaching 
 the children. . . . My chief aim would be to convert one or 
 two adults, and induce them to become Missionaries to their 
 
152 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1856. 
 
 tribes. It is a curious fact that the heathen wha have 
 become successful Missionaries to their brethren, have almost 
 always been converted as adults, and not brought up from 
 childhood as Christians. At this present time, in Hew 
 Zealand, none of the natives who have been brought up as 
 Christians are to be compared as teachers to old teachers 
 who are dying off, and who received the glad tidings as 
 adults. Two Missionaries, therefore, in my opinion, should 
 be attached to the Missionary Station : one resident and 
 teaching the children ; the other itinerating with the tribe, or 
 among neighbouring tribes, teaching them while with them, 
 and inducing them to visit the School Station for more infor- 
 mation and instruction. 
 
 “3. Further, in order to extend the good as much as 
 possible, the difficulty of the different dialects should be 
 overcome, as the same difficulty is overcome in the Islands 
 of the Pacific. There the islands, as Tonga and Samoa, the 
 natives of which are superior to the other natives, were 
 selected as the field for the first Missionary efforts ; and the 
 converted natives of these islands, giving themselves up to 
 the service of God, became the resident Missionaries of the 
 other islands. . . . These native teachers learn the different 
 dialects easily, and though a little raised above the habits of 
 the heathen, can live among them, and do more good than 
 European Missionaries could often do, even if they could be 
 found in sufficient numbers. . . . The proposition therefore 
 which your Excellency’s letter emboldens me to make is 
 this : — 
 
 “ In September next I make a three months’ Visitation 
 through the northern parts of my Diocese ; and I would then 
 endeavour to select a site for a Missionary Station, among 
 one of the most intelligent tribes ; and would, without delay, 
 make every effort to obtain two Missionaries suited, from 
 character and knowledge of the natives and of their language, 
 for this peculiar work, if I may hope for the following aid 
 from your Excellency’s Government : — 
 
 “ 1. A grant of 320 acres for a Missionary Station, the site 
 having been approved by the Government. 
 
1 856 — 59*3 NEWCASTLE CHURCH SOCIETY. 
 
 153 
 
 “ 2. A grant of ^300 this year to meet ^300 raised by 
 me, so that the necessary buildings may be erected at a cost 
 of £ 600 . 
 
 “ 3. A grant of ^300 next year, and for future years, as 
 the half stipend of two Missionaries ; the other half being 
 raised by me from charitable contributions. 
 
 “4. A grant towards the maintenance of the first twenty 
 children. ... I would at once use every exertion, so as to 
 be prepared to commence such a Missionary establishment at 
 the commencement the New Year.” 
 
 To this letter Sir William Denison replied, promising to 
 give the Bishop every assistance to bring the subject before 
 the Council, and to give it his most cordial support. Un- 
 happily, with the Governor’s best endeavours, he could not 
 induce the Council to assent to the grant ; and by the separa- 
 tion of the Diocese of Brisbane from Newcastle in 1859, the 
 matter was taken out of the hands of Bishop Tyrrell. 
 
( i54 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EVENTS FROM OCTOBER I 85 2 TO THE END OF i860. 
 
 “ Heaven must be won, not dreamed ; thy task is set : 
 
 Peace was not made for earth, nor rest for thee. ” 
 
 — Lyra Apostolica. 
 
 In this chapter a sketch will be given of events reaching up 
 to i860, which the general subject of the last chapter made 
 it necessary to omit, but which ought to find their place in 
 a Memoir of Bishop Tyrrell. 
 
 At the end of 1852, when the Conference at Morpeth was 
 satisfactorily over, he set himself to devise a way by which 
 the Church might work with the Sydney University, to the 
 mutual benefit of both. Two years earlier the six Bishops 
 had uttered their warning against the project of establishing 
 by a Government Endowment a University from which 
 Religion was studiously excluded. They had not asked that 
 it should be based on the principles of the Church. The 
 divided state of the Colonists in respect of religion made this 
 impossible ; but they did claim that its provisions should not 
 be such as might have the effect of drawing their own 
 members from Christian training. 
 
 The words of the Bishops were disregarded, and, through 
 the energy of Mr. Wentworth, a University was founded, 
 and endowed by Government with ^5000 per annum, as an 
 examining body for conferring degrees. In addition to this 
 endowment, prizes and scholarships were provided for by 
 the Government. 
 
 In March 1851, University College was affiliated to it for 
 the residence and tuition of students ; but from both the 
 examinations of the University, and the teaching pre- 
 
1852 .] THE CHURCH AND SYDNEY UNIVERSITY. 155 
 
 scribed for the students in College, Religion was expressly- 
 excluded. 
 
 In October 1852 the formal opening took place with 
 much ceremony ; and in the speech of the Vice-Provost on 
 the occasion, the University was belauded for that which was 
 its most dangerous principle, its non-recognition of Religion 
 in the work of Education. This, by a perversion of the lan- 
 guage of ages, was termed “ the catholic character of the 
 institution ; ” “ catholic ” meaning in this case not the offer- 
 ing of one sacred truth to all in every nation and age, but 
 having no religious truth for any. 
 
 Before the formal opening, however, the promoters of the 
 scheme perceived that the establishment of a College from 
 which all religious teaching was expressly excluded, had 
 stamped it in the eyes of many of the Clergy and Laity 
 with the character, not merely of a defective educational 
 institution, but of one positively hostile to Religion. And 
 as this would interfere with its success, they gave up the 
 Collegiate residence , but retained all the system of secular 
 teaching, hoping that the Church and other religious bodies 
 would, after this concession (a concession not of the evil 
 principle, but of the mode of carrying it out), build^each 
 their own College, to be affiliated to the University. 
 
 In this state of things, the Metropolitan being on his 
 voyage to England, Bishop Tyrrell, the only Bishop in 
 the Colony to represent the Church of England, came to 
 the rescue. He frankly acknowledged, “ In a Colony like 
 this, in which the political equality of all religious Com- 
 munions is an avowed principle of government, every 
 attempt to make public provision for Education, primary or 
 secondary, or for religious worship, is perplexed by the 
 differences of the several Denominations. The difficulty 
 does not arise from the 'political equality of the different 
 religious Communions. Indeed, I firmly believe that this 
 political equality affords the only sound solution of the 
 difficulty. The difficulty arises from the existence of these 
 different Communions, with their conflicting principles and 
 claims.” 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1852. 
 
 156 
 
 He saw the difficulty which the promoters of the Uni- 
 versity had to face ; he admitted the necessity of providing 
 a higher and better education than there had been hitherto, 
 and acknowledged “ the invaluable blessing which a Uni- 
 versity with Affiliated Colleges, if founded on right prin- 
 ciples, might confer on the whole of the Australian Colonies. 
 But he maintained that the difficulty was not to be met by 
 ignoring all Religion, and holding up to admiration the 
 teaching of other subjects without it, but by due encou- 
 ragement being given to religious as well as to secular 
 teaching. 
 
 He proposed, therefore, not that the University should 
 either teach Religion, or examine the proficiency of the 
 students in it, still less that it should endow or adopt the 
 Church or any other religious body ; but that it should re- 
 quire of every student, before giving him any honour or 
 degree, a certificate that he had duly attended and received 
 the religious instructions of the Affiliated College of his own 
 Denomination, whatever that Denomination might be ; that 
 as £600 per annum was given to the Professor of Literature, 
 the same sum should be given, to be divided equitably, accord- 
 ing to the Census, among the teachers of Divinity in the 
 several “ Denominations ; ” and that either all prizes and 
 scholarships should be left to the endowment of individuals, 
 or that one-third of the amount appropriated for them should 
 be granted in equitable proportions to the Colleges of the 
 different “ Denominations ” for the encouragement of religious 
 knowledge. Until some such provisions were made, he could 
 not give the University his support by countenancing the 
 affiliation to it of a Church of England College. He en- 
 treated those members of the Church who had already begun 
 a movement in Sydney for such a College, to pause until the 
 return of Bishop Broughton from England. Many saw the 
 reasonableness of Bishop Tyrrell’s objections and suggestions; 
 many more were bitterly opposed to him ; and abundance of 
 angry and contemptuous language was lavished upon him. 
 However, after a few months, the Committee of the Church 
 of England College suspended their operations, and he was 
 
1853 -] 
 
 BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 157 
 
 cheered by the following letter from the Bishop of New 
 Zealand : — 
 
 “Auckland, 2 d June 1853. 
 
 “ My very dear Friend and Brother, — Your last letter 
 of 5 th January was written five days after my starting upon 
 a land journey to Wellington and back, about 1000 miles, 
 so that I did not receive it till the middle of April. I am 
 very sorry to find that I disappointed our friends at Sydney, 
 and lost the pleasure of meeting you, but I expiained to you 
 the reasons which make me very cautious of showing any 
 liking for that kind of work, which consists in making 
 speeches at public meetings and similar methods of keeping 
 up a religious excitement. I quite agree with you that 
 4 leaving charity to high-pressure excitement is not the best 
 arrangement ; ’ at all events, I cannot be the person to get up 
 the steam. Any actual work I am ready to undertake ; . . . 
 but I can never become the hero of a hundred platforms. . . . 
 Many thanks for your fight for the good cause against the 
 Sydney University. I go all lengths with you , and regret 
 very much the way in which the proposals for Queen’s College 
 have been pushed forward. God bless and guide you. — - 
 Your affectionate friend and brother, 
 
 44 G. A. New Zealand.” 
 
 Nothing further was effected until July 1853. By that 
 time the news of the Metropolitan’s death had reached 
 Sydney. And a passing visit of Bishop Selwyn, who was 
 on his way from New Zealand to restore some of the Island 
 boys to their homes, was most beneficially utilised by the 
 Bishop of Newcastle. Again we find the two old friends 
 pulling in the same boat. The Bishop of New Zealand 
 wrote from the house of Canon Walsh, for whom both the 
 Bishops had a sincere affection : — 
 
 “ Christchurch Parsonage, 6 th July 1853. 
 
 44 My very dear Friend and Brother, — If you can 
 possibly come to Sydney, I think that it is very important 
 that we should agree upon some declaration upon the subject 
 
158 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [ 1853 . 
 
 of tlie Sydney University. The Provost and Yice-Provost 
 were with me yesterday, and in private conversation ex- 
 pressed their willingness to consent to terms, which, as far 
 as I can judge from your letters, would be satisfactory to 
 you. . . . Something must be done, as the Government are 
 now offering four sites of twenty acres each for Denomina- 
 tional Colleges, and if we do not take some step, the self- 
 constituted body calling itself Queen’s College will very 
 likely get possession of the grant for that portion which 
 belongs to the whole Church of England. ... I have talked 
 with both sides, and hope that some accommodation may be 
 effected, as the governing body of the College shows signs of 
 yielding. . . . I do not think that I can do wrong in giving 
 a small contribution of time and effort to the Metropolitan 
 See while it remains unoccupied. I am sensible of your 
 kindness in expressing a wish that I should succeed our dear 
 friend, but I shall be able to prove to you that it is impos- 
 sible. — -Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 “ G. A. New Zealand.” 
 
 The Bishop of Newcastle went to Sydney without delay. 
 The two Bishops conferred with the members of the Church 
 in Sydney, and with the authorities of the University ; and 
 after some three weeks brought about an agreement, which, if 
 not all that could be desired, was all that was possible under the 
 circumstances of the Colony, and more than either party had 
 expected. Bishop Tyrrell wrote to me : — 
 
 “ Morpeth, August 6 , 1853 . 
 
 4 4 The University has conceded all that I asked in the 
 original memorandum. . . . They have enacted a bye-law 
 requiring a certificate from every student of his attainment of 
 religious knowledge ; and they have consented to receive 
 from the Government grants of land and annual endowments 
 for religious teaching, and to dispense such grants to the 
 affiliated Colleges. The Government has also complied with 
 these requirements ; and thus the religious element has been 
 imparted to the University. Moreover, the two parties in 
 
1854-] 
 
 SEE OF SYDNEY STILL VACANT. 
 
 159 
 
 our own Church, the Queen’s College party, and those who 
 have agreed with the Archdeacon and myself, have been 
 brought to a cordial agreement, while before, the Bishop of 
 New Zealand was quite horrified at their bitter opposition. 
 This is good news enough for one note. — Yours sincerely and 
 affectionately, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 Bishop Selwyn writes again : — 
 
 “Auckland, *]t7i September 1853. 
 
 “ As yet I hear nothing about the new Metropolitan. 
 Some difficulties have probably been suggested in England ; 
 and, in the absence of all others, the hindrance now 
 recognised in all cases must occur, viz., the difficulty of 
 finding a safe man, in w T hom all parties could agree : a 
 principle of selection tending naturally to the appointment of 
 
 men like good Mr. . Whether such men are the safest 
 
 pilots in stormy weather like the present, and whether a little 
 more nerve and strength of character would not be safer in the 
 end, is a question which rulers, who live for their own genera- 
 tion only, are apt to postpone ; content, like Hezekiah, if the 
 evil should fall upon their posterity, and not on themselves. 
 To send out a vacillating and time-serving man to Sydney 
 at the present time would be to prostrate the Church at 
 
 the feet of such Churchmen as and and ; 
 
 whose support he would probably conciliate on their own 
 terms ; while all the time there is real good Church gold in 
 abundance, and only kept out from currency for want of a 
 mint to coin it, and a head to stamp his own superscription 
 on it. — Your very affectionate friend and brother, 
 
 “ G. A. New Zealand.” 
 
 There was little remarkable to break the routine of 1854, 
 and of several years following. If the want of incidents, 
 such as make the history of a country striking to a reader, is, 
 at a certain period, rather an indication of its peace and 
 prosperity, the quiet of several successive years in the 
 history of Bishop Tyrrell’s life does not imply inactivity, but 
 
160 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1854. 
 
 rather that the organisation of former years, which had been 
 elaborated with much pains and thought, was working steadily. 
 There was plenty to do, and not much time to talk about it. 
 Perhaps the prevailing feeling of every Cleric who was 
 doing his work faithfully, was that he was working with his 
 Bishop , and his Bishop with him. Both had the same work 
 at heart, and each could help on the other. Perhaps in 
 some cases each encouraged the other to work rather beyond 
 his strength ; the work seemed never done. When you had 
 gone ever so far, the mind still went on to the unvisited 
 track beyond ; when you had been eighteen, or sometimes 
 nineteen, hours out of bed, as you laid your hot head on 
 your pillow, there was often the feeling, would that I had 
 six hours more for work. Not that the Bishop did not think 
 of his Clergy, and care for their fatigues or trials ; he did 
 so most kindly, as a brother, or a father. When riding 
 through the districts of New England and the Darling 
 Downs, with their Clergymen, who were in weak health; 
 though himself fatigued with his long rides, he would often 
 take their duties, as well as his own, at the Services, in 
 which he joined with them. 
 
 On one occasion, on entering my house at Muswell Brook, 
 after visiting some people, to secure a good attendance at an 
 evening meeting, I found him sitting in my room, hat and 
 whip in hand, in most unepiscopal plight. He had just 
 ridden up from Singleton ; and, though bright and cheery, 
 was covered from head to foot with mud, not excepting his 
 face. A few miles off, to avoid a dangerous-looking sapling 
 bridge at the bottom of Grass-tree Hill, he had turned his 
 horse to what seemed dry hard ground above, but which was 
 really a thick scum of small sticks, drifted leaves and grass, 
 covering a mud hole some feet deep ; of course the horse 
 sunk immediately, and the Bishop rolled off into the unin- 
 viting bath. What he looked like on emerging and on 
 arriving at my Parsonage, may be imagined ; he would not 
 go at once to his room, but, as I was out, he took the 
 opportunity of trying to learn from my wife before I returned 
 whether I did not need relief from some part of my work, 
 
1855.] CONSIDERATION FOR HIS CLERGY . 161 
 
 which he thought was rather excessive, or in what way she 
 thought lie could help me. 
 
 About the same time, writing to the Kev. A. E. Selwyn, 
 then at Grafton, to arrange the Visitation of his district, he 
 said : “ When I came down from Tenterfield to Tabulam 
 before, Mr. Child came to Tenterfield to meet me and guide 
 me ; but as the next two weeks will be severe weeks for 
 you as well as myself, I would say, Do not come to Tenter- 
 field, but meet me with a fresh horse, quiet and easy, if 
 you can, at what used to be called ‘ Wheatley’s Inn’, about 
 fifteen niles from Tabulam, where I shall hope to arrive 
 by one o’clock.” These last words illustrate the accuracy 
 with which he made his arrangements. He was writing 
 some weeks before he left home ; and his journeys, before he 
 could reach the appointed place of meeting, would be five or 
 six hundred miles. 
 
 The following is an instance of the way in which he would 
 call on his Clergy to sacrifice their own wishes or convenience 
 for the good of the Church, and yet his considerateness for 
 them. 
 
 The Eev. H. 0 . Irwin, one of the little band that came 
 out with him, was obliged, towards the end of 1855, to leave 
 Moreton Bay for Tasmania, on account of his wife’s health. 
 The Bishop was grieved to lose his services, and did not 
 know where to look for some one to succeed him. He wrote, 
 therefore, to Mr. Selwyn : — 
 
 “ July 26, 1855. 
 
 “ There is one other subject of much importance, which I 
 wish to mention for your consideration. I have been much 
 perplexed in supplying Mr. Irwin’s place at Brisbane. . . . 
 It would be with great regret that I should think of your 
 removal from your present district, to which I consider you 
 are peculiarly well-suited ; and when I thought of your 
 removal, my wish would have been to have brought you near 
 to East Maitland ” (where his father-in-law was Incumbent). 
 “ If, however, the exigencies of the Church should require 
 your removal to Brisbane, . . . might I rely on your willing- 
 ness to undertake the duty there, with the prospect of removal 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1855. 
 
 to the Hunter, after a stay of eighteen months or two years 
 in that climate ? . . . Unless necessity compels me, I shall 
 not apply to you to encounter such a removal; but I am 
 anxious to be prepared against emergencies. With my 
 kindest regards to Mrs. Selwyn and yourself. — I remain, my 
 dear sir, very faithfully yours, W. Newcastle. ” 
 
 In the preceding March he had made a rapid tour for 
 Confirmations up the Hunter Valley as far as Murrurundi, 
 consecrating Falhrook Church on his way up. From Mur- 
 rurundi he crossed over to the rich pastoral district of 
 Merriwa and Cassilis, with its bold trap range to the north, 
 and its broken sandstone hills and crags to the south. 
 
 At Merriwa he Consecrated the little wooden Church of 
 the Holy Trinity, with which he was much pleased. It had 
 been built, as the only refuge from Services in wool sheds 
 and small huts, at a time when the chief residents, who were 
 well able to have built a stone Church, tried to avoid all 
 giving for God’s service. If some building must be pro- 
 vided, they offered to contribute towards the erection of a 
 common room, for the use of any “ Minister of religion ” 
 who might chance to visit the Township — a species of 
 <£ catholicity ” congenial to lukewarm hearts and niggardly 
 purses. The less well-to-do, however, joined with their 
 Pastor, all the inhabitants of the small town, and the shep- 
 herds in the neighbourhood, contributed, and the little 
 Church was built. Better days have since dawned on 
 Merriwa; and those who have resided on the properties 
 around it have cheerfully given of their means for the 
 enlargement of the Church, and the building of a Parsonage, 
 as well as their willing assistance to the teaching of a thriv- 
 ing Sunday-school. 
 
 From his hurried journey on the occasion of the Con- 
 secration of this Church the Bishop returned very much 
 knocked up; yet having, as he said, enjoyed “ a real pleasure, 
 the remembrance of which was very gratifying.” 
 
 Two more Visitations followed in quick succession, one to 
 the extreme south of the Diocese, and the other to Dungog, 
 
1855.] 
 
 ARRIVAL OF BISHOP BARKER . 
 
 163 
 
 Stroud, and tlie Paterson. On one of these lie narrowly 
 escaped having a leg broken. In riding over a log bridge 
 covered with earth his horse got his hind foot into a hole 
 and fell over on his leg, holding him down and struggling 
 violently. The Bishop was unable to extricate himself until 
 his groom came to the rescue. To release the horse it was 
 necessary to call in the aid of some men who were near, 
 who with levers moved the logs, so that neither Bishop nor 
 horse were seriously injured. 
 
 The arrival of Bishop Barker, the new Metropolitan, called 
 Bishop Tyrrell to Sydney to welcome him. Writing to the 
 Kev. W. H. Hoare on July 7, 1855, he says : “I have now 
 been three days in Sydney, and have passed the great part 
 of them in most cordial confidential conference with the 
 Bishop of Sydney. On the very important subject of Edu- 
 cation we entirely agree, and this is a very great comfort to 
 me. And I have great delight in saying that, though of 
 different schools, we have the same great ends in view, and 
 agree most admirably as to the means by which these ends 
 are best obtained. I feel assured that we shall be able to 
 co-operate with each other in all our communications with 
 the Government.” 
 
 He also dined with the new Governor-General, Sir William 
 Denison, whom he found most anxious to do all that was in 
 his power to benefit the Church. The influence and endea- 
 vours of Sir William were always in the right direction; but 
 he found that his good purposes were in great measure 
 thwarted by an uncongenial Parliament. We have already 
 seen that this was the fate of the proposal to aid Missionary 
 work among the Blacks. It was so also, as might have been 
 expected, in a desire he expressed to provide some kind of 
 endowment, in accordance with the following extract : — 
 
 Sir William Denison to the Bishop of Newcastle . — “I am 
 glad to hear that you propose coming to Sydney soon. I 
 shall then have the opportunity of discussing subjects of 
 great interest to us both, with the assistance of the Bishop 
 of Sydney. And I hope to be able to arrange with you, 
 and with the rest of the religious communities of the Colony, 
 
164 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1855. 
 
 some scheme of Endoivment , which will relieve the Ministers 
 of Eeligion generally from their present equivocal, and, I 
 may say, miserable condition, and provide for the extension 
 of the means of the Church ; without which, I confess, I look 
 very hopelessly upon the future of these Colonies.” , 
 
 During his visit to Sydney Bishop Tyrrell writes : — 
 “ I have had a long interview with the Governor-General, 
 who is a most sincere and really religious member of the 
 Church. But his Excellency is a military man, and is rather 
 inclined to force measures upon the Legislative Council ; 
 which, if he be not very careful, will result in his measures 
 being rejected.” 
 
 During Sir William Denison’s tenure of office the down- 
 ward course in respect of Education was in some degree 
 arrested, and there was a prospect of a satisfactory solution 
 of the question. Even the snarl against “ State aid to 
 Eeligion ” became somewhat less rabid. But the downward 
 course had begun, and 
 
 “ Eevocare gradus, superasque evadere in auras, 
 
 Hie labor hoc opus est.” 
 
 The best of reasons might be given by the Governor- 
 General ; the Bishop of Newcastle might demonstrate, as he 
 did most clearly, that the Denominational system of Educa- 
 tion and aid to Eeligion were right in principle, injurious to 
 none, and productive of the greatest blessings to the commu- 
 nity : but religious divisions and hostility to Eeligion worked, 
 as they do in England, hand in hand; and the majority of 
 the legislators, whom manhood suffrage brought in, had no 
 disposition to act on the principle that “ Eighteousness 
 exalteth a nation.” 
 
 One sophism after another was paraded as a maxim of 
 wisdom, to prove that “ Denominational ” Education and aid 
 to Eeligion must cease. Bishop Tyrrell lived to see State 
 aid abolished, saving only the life interest of those who had 
 been in receipt of it ; and in the year after his death the 
 Colonial Parliament decreed that all aid should be withdrawn 
 from Denominational Schools after 1882. 
 
J S55] 
 
 NEED OF CLERGY. 
 
 165 
 
 In July lie refers to the news of the death of Joshua 
 Watson, which had just reached him. “ I received your 
 letter written from Joshua Watson’s study, and subsequently 
 one from himself : and now, dear good noble-minded man, 
 he has gone to his rest. How very striking has been the 
 news we have lately received of the deaths of three excellent 
 members of our Church, at such very advanced ages. Dr. 
 Rou tli, Dr. Warneford, and Joshua Watson ! May she long 
 continue to produce such examples of learning, munificence, 
 and untiring devotion. Truly it is good to hear of such 
 men : and I look back with great satisfaction to the short 
 personal intercourse which I had with this honoured member 
 of our Newcastle Committee.” 
 
 One continually recurring anxiety was the supply of Clergy. 
 Their support, when they were obtained, though it involved 
 trouble to provide for it, he contrived to have always forth- 
 coming, in a great measure, from the people themselves. But 
 the difficulty was to find fit men for the subdivision of the 
 many over-extensive Cures ; to push forward after settlers 
 in unprovided ground ; and to fill up the vacancies caused 
 by those who left the Diocese broken in health, those who 
 quitted it for another, or for England, and the painful cases 
 in which dismissal was necessary. 
 
 In 1855 the Rev. H. 0 . Irwin had been obliged to leave 
 owing to the ill-health of his wife. The Rev. W. M. 
 Cowper removed to Sydney ; and the Rev. R. Gamble had 
 had been so seriously injured by a fall from his horse while 
 on duty that, after taking all kindly care of him for ten 
 months at Morpeth, the Bishop sent him back to his friends 
 in England under medical advice, in the hope that the cooler 
 climate might be of service to him. Two Clergymen had 
 arrived from England ; but the Bishop writes that he requires 
 twelve more. He offers outfit and passage to fit men, a 
 minimum stipend of ^200 with a house, and probably 
 ^300 or more ; and a hearty welcome at his own house until 
 they were settled in their Cures. 
 
 Writing to England to Canon Hawkins, he says : “ Do 
 not send me doubtful men, who leave England from debt or 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1856. 
 
 166 
 
 weak health, or from some untoward event in their past 
 ministry. You would he anxious, I know, to keep in Eng- 
 land the very men we want here. But surely there are 
 some without prospect of advancement in England, or with a 
 desire for more strictly Missionary work, who might. he found 
 to come and help us. ... I cannot express too strongly my 
 conviction that young men educated at such a College as St. 
 Augustine’s for Missionary work in the Colonies, and choosing 
 such a work as their first love, are likely to he of incalculably 
 more benefit to the Colonial Church than those who leave 
 Ministerial duty in England from any of the thousand causes 
 which usually induce them to do so. The students who 
 should be trained at such a College are the strong and earnest 
 spirits , sound in mind and body. But if the weak in 
 character or in bodily vigour he sent to a College, all the 
 anxious labours of the authorities will he expended in vain ; 
 and the students will disappoint the expectations of those to 
 whom they are sent.” 
 
 The deficiency of Clergy threw so much additional labour 
 on the Bishop that, when in 1856, the Bishop of New 
 Zealand returned from his visit to England, he was unable 
 to accompany him to the Melanesian Islands as he had hoped 
 to do. He says in a letter to the Secretaries of the Church 
 Society : “ In truth, I cannot conceal from myself that my 
 vast Diocese so imperatively demands my constant presence 
 and superintendence that I am never likely to be able to quit 
 it again on a Missionary voyage, more especially as my 
 dear friend has now obtained far more valuable aid than I 
 could ever pretend to give him, by the appointment of the 
 Rev. J. C. Patteson as permanent Chaplain of the Mission.” 
 
 In May he carried into effect a design he had long con- 
 templated — the founding of three Canonries. Half of the 
 Endowment came from his private purse, the other half 
 from Church funds, producing an income of ^60 per 
 annum, which he divided equally. The first Canons were 
 the two senior Priests of the Diocese, the Rev. C. P. N. 
 Wilton, and the Rev. G. K. Rusden, and his examining 
 Chaplain. In making the offer of the appointment, he said : 
 
1856.] CANONRIES FOUNDED— HARD WORK . 167 
 
 “ The present Endowment I look upon as a beginning, to 
 which others may, I hope, make additions hereafter.” 
 
 In the months of September, October, and November of 
 this year, his long Visitation of 1500 miles was more than 
 usually exhausting. His journeys were always so planned 
 as to get the greatest amount of work out of himself ; and, 
 as we have seen, they were so arranged long before, that on 
 appointed days, sometimes even at appointed hours, he was 
 regularly expected at different places in succession, and rarely 
 failed to keep his appointments. This was always done 
 cheerfully, though not without much labour ; for heavy 
 rains on bush tracks add greatly to the discomfort of horse 
 and rider; a black soil, with bits of grass, balls under 
 your horses’ feet more tenaciously than snow in a thaw ; 
 sides of hills become slippery, creeks and rivers become 
 swollen, and, without bridges, are often dangerous or quite 
 impassable. A long day’s ride of fifty or sixty miles under 
 such circumstances is no trifle, especially if it be one of 
 many in succession. 
 
 Eor the twelve weeks of the Bishop’s Visitation rain fell 
 almost incessantly, and such rain, with its steady down- 
 pour of big drops, as is rarely seen but in hot countries. 
 By the time he reached Drayton Parsonage, on the Darling 
 Downs, his strength and health quite failed him ; the much- 
 enduring Bishop was obliged to succumb. For some days 
 he suffered severely, and could obtain no relief from medi- 
 cine, nor sleep at night. But he would not give in. He 
 says : “ A great effort to keep my next appointment proved, 
 under the Lord’s blessing, of real service to me, and 
 enabled me to reach Ipswich and Brisbane. In these towns 
 the kind sympathy of the members of our Church tended 
 much to my recovery before I commenced my homeward 
 journey.” 
 
 A horse getting away from you in England is a small 
 matter ; he is easily caught again. Not so in the fenceless 
 expanse of New South Wales. While in New England on 
 this Visitation, a horse was lent to the Bishop to rest one of 
 his own overwearied ones. He had thrown his master a 
 
1 68 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [i «S7. 
 
 few days before, and was fresh and high-spirited ; so he had 
 not to carry the Bishop, but was made the pack-horse to 
 carry his large saddle-bags, containing his robes, change of 
 clothes, books, and papers, in fact, his travelling all. He 
 did not take kindly to the saddling ; and soon after the 
 starting began plunging and “bucking” violently. The 
 groom stuck to him bravely, until the leading-rein broke, 
 when off he started and was soon out of sight. His master 
 galloped in pursuit, but in vain ; he had gone to his “ run,” 
 fourteen miles away, to which he always made off when 
 loose. 
 
 The next day he was found with the pack-saddle, but 
 minus the saddle-bags. These he had got rid of somewhere 
 in the Bush. For four days nothing could be heard of them ; 
 and the Bishop had determined to start without them, to 
 keep his next appointment, many miles off : when, happily, 
 they were brought in by one of the men who had been 
 scouring the Bush in search of them. 
 
 In 1857 the Bishop was much pleased at the arrival of 
 the Rev. J. A. Greaves of Lincoln College, Oxford, with his 
 lately married wife : and Muswell Brook becoming vacant, 
 owing to the removal of its half-broken Incumbent to 
 Morpeth, he was appointed to that large Cure, then com- 
 prising Merriwa and Cassilis, and being as extensive as the 
 whole Diocese of Bath and Wells, with the Wiltshire portion 
 of the Salisbury Diocese added to it. Writing to the Rev. 
 W. H. Hoare, the Bishop says : — “Mr. Greaves and his wife 
 are just the persons I want. . . . On the subject of married 
 Clergymen I have before expressed my opinion, and, in 
 fact, different opinions ; for it is a difficult balancing of 
 many advantages and disadvantages. The result of much 
 thought is as follows : — 
 
 “English ladies will usually make better Clergymen’s wives 
 than Colonial ladies ; therefore, when a Clergyman is married 
 or to be married — as, contrary to my own practice, I think 
 almost all Clergymen should be — I should consider it a gain 
 that the wife be an English lady. And perhaps many 
 superior educated University men might be willing to labour 
 
1857-3 PROSPECT OF DIVISION OF DIOCESE . 
 
 169 
 
 here, with the prospect of an immediate or early Incumbency 
 supplying the moderate comforts of life. The motive which 
 might be supposed to influence such Clergymen is the imme- 
 diate prospect of moderate income, and consequently of home 
 and marriage, as far as secondary motives are concerned ; and 
 this I consider much more promising than where the expenses 
 of a large family have proved, if not embarrassing, yet diffi- 
 cult to meet ; and where a Colonial Cure is therefore sought 
 for the sake of economy and bringing up a family. ” 
 
 And now another important work was afoot, the subdivi- 
 sion of the Diocese. The Bishop had lamented that with all 
 his labours, with Visitation journeys of 1500 or 1600 miles 
 in length every second year, he had not been able to visit 
 personally any of the country north of Moreton Bay, leaving 
 Vide Bay, the Burnett District, and Port Curtis unvisited 
 by himself, though he had appointed the Eev. T. L. Dodd 
 to the district of the Burnett and Vide Bay. The projected 
 separation of what was eventually named Queensland from 
 the Colony of Hew South Vales gave him the opportunity 
 he desired.* As soon as it became certain that the new 
 Colony would be formed, he wrote home urging upon the 
 authorities of the Church in England, its formation into a 
 new Diocese. 
 
 A preliminary step was the provision of an Endowment of 
 at least ^5000. jQ 2000 of this the Bishop confidently 
 expected would be granted by Societies in England. He 
 guaranteed to raise £5000 in the Colony to meet it, and 
 whatever else might be raised in England for the same 
 object would go to the much-needed increase of the En- 
 dowment. 
 
 Some delay was occasioned by the reasonable requirement 
 of Lord Stanley, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that 
 this ^5000 should be placed beyond a doubt. But in Sep- 
 tember 1858 Bishop Tyrrell w r as able to announce that the 
 full amount was lodged in the hands of the Colonial Bishop- 
 rics Council ; and that every obstacle was removed to the 
 
 * Letter of the Bishop to Secretaries of the Newcastle Church 
 Society, dated September 28, 1857. 
 
170 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1858. 
 
 immediate erection of the Bishopric of Brisbane. The re- 
 quisite sum had thus been provided : — 
 
 From the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Z 1000 
 From the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1000 
 
 From the Original Endowment of the See of Newcastle, 2300 
 
 From the English Committee of the Diocese of Newcastle, 700 
 
 A5 00 ° 
 
 The last two sums were advances which the Bishop 
 engaged to repay to the Newcastle Endowment from sub- 
 scriptions in the Colony; and in the meantime he made 
 himself personally liable for them. 
 
 When his Committee in England were soliciting contribu- 
 tions for any of the objects he had in view, they asked him 
 to supply them with some “interesting accounts” of work, 
 interspersed with anecdotes, or descriptions of Colonial scenes 
 or events, in order to stir up the flagging interest of Church- 
 men at home, and to induce them to open their purses. To 
 such things he had the greatest repugnance ; and in answer 
 he says on one occasion : — 
 
 “ You must not expect from me any tittle-tattle of natural 
 curiosities or amusing events. The Bishop of New Zealand 
 and myself have often laughed heartily at the speech which 
 a lady of some rank and fashion made to him before he left 
 England. She had contributed liberally to his Diocesan 
 funds ; and upon his taking his leave of her, she said, 
 ‘ Well, promise me now that you will come and see me as 
 soon as you return to England ; because, after all you will 
 see in New Zealand, you will be so amusing.’ I must twit 
 you by saying that you seem to have a somewhat similar idea. 
 Now, as my aim is simply to be useful, I must leave to others 
 to be amusing.” 
 
 Another application for details of interest having been 
 made, he replies : — 
 
 “ With respect to your advice, again offered most kindly, 
 about details being sent by me, I must adhere as rigidly as a flint 
 to my previous decision. If I thought it right to send such 
 details, mixing up with them, as you mention, some little 
 
1858 .] DISLIKE OF WRITING ABOUT HIS WORK. 171 
 
 praise of myself, which you say the public are accustomed to, — 
 If, I say, duty, or real expediency seemed to require this of 
 me, no want of time would prevent me ; I would sit up this 
 very night to do it. It is not, therefore, as I wish you to 
 understand, my incessant engagements which prevent me 
 from sending you such accounts as you describe, but my 
 utter repugnance to write of myself for the sake of satisfying 
 the curiosity of the public. Such a course pursued for any 
 length of time would, I feel convinced, injure my tone of 
 mind and feeling. From describing little incidents for effect, 
 persons soon learn to plan and do things for effect ; and thus 
 permanent loss is sustained by the Church, and the mind 
 and feeling of the party is seriously deteriorated. The refer- 
 ence of everything to the Lord, every thought, word, and 
 action to His will, is endangered, and perhaps destroyed. 
 To write details therefore for the mere sake of interesting 
 the public, and obtaining a somewhat larger amount of 
 annual subscriptions from them, is what I must again posi- 
 tively decline. But as I have now, by my last long course 
 of Visitations for the last eight months, put my Diocese into 
 something like order, I feel that I shall have more time at 
 my disposal, and will in some degree make up for past defi- 
 ciencies of correspondence, . . . and probably I shall give 
 you naturally and necessarily some details of journeys, inci- 
 dents, plans, &c., without designedly writing to interest by 
 my egotism.” 
 
 On the afternoon of the first day of a very laborious 
 journey of Visitation, occupying from the end of September 
 to the end of November, he was expected at Stroud. The 
 Clergyman, the Rev. S. Simm, had ridden some miles to 
 meet him, and the hostess had made all the preparations 
 for dinner, and had with natural satisfaction just seen 
 everything arranged for her guest, when a cry of “ fire ” was 
 raised. A Colonial house burns quickly; and when Mr. 
 Simm rode up with the Bishop, hoping to welcome him to 
 his Parsonage, and see him made comfortable after his long 
 ride, he found to his dismay the roof fallen in, confusion 
 reigning supreme, and his house a blazing and smoking ruin. 
 
172 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1858. 
 
 A few days later the Bishop wrote to me from the Man- 
 ning River, “ You will have heard of poor Mr. SimnTs sad 
 loss ; if it was to happen, it was a happy circumstance that 
 I was there. His private loss as to property will, I hope, he 
 small.” This journey, like that of 1856, was very fatiguing, 
 owing to the heavy rains. His next letter was dated 
 
 “ Tenterfield, October 29, 1858, 6 a.m. 
 
 “ I have reached this place with the rain following me 
 almost all the way. Yesterday we rode five hours in the 
 rain, and it has been raining almost all night. Mr. Bode has 
 just been with me, and has told me that the creeks are up so 
 high that it is almost certain that we shall be stopped. 
 However we must make the trial ; and it is not a trifle that 
 will delay me. ... I have lost a week at the Manning and 
 the Macleay, but must try to return to Morpeth at the 
 appointed time.” 
 
 And so he did. Early in December he reached home 
 nearly knocked up, and with horses that could hardly 
 keep upon their legs. But he was in high spirits at much 
 good earnest work he had seen in various districts, and at 
 the increased support which he had found the Laity ready 
 to give. In two districts he had obtained guarantees for the 
 contribution of ^200 a year each ; one of which had hitherto 
 only ^25, and the other ^100. 
 
 On his return he had his hands full with preparations for 
 holding the second Diocesan Conference for establishing 
 Synods. As a step towards Synodical action it will be men- 
 tioned in the next chapter. But here it may be said that 
 the care which the Bishop had taken to give clear informa- 
 tion, in private conversation and at various meetings during 
 his Visitation, upon the points to be discussed, prepared those 
 who were to take part in the Conference for understanding 
 what they were about ; and the freedom and fairness of the 
 discussion produced an excellent effect upon some rather 
 erratic and impulsive spirits, who came up disposed to act in 
 opposition. They joined temperately in a debate in which 
 
ENDOWMENT OF SEE. 
 
 173 
 
 1859.] 
 
 many differing opinions were freely broached and fully venti- 
 lated, and all felt at the close of the Conference that in tone 
 it was just what an assembly of Churchmen ought to have been. 
 
 Writing to Mr. Hoare in the following March, the Bishop 
 says : “ My Diocese is now in perfect peace and order. O11 
 all sides I have been congratulated on the harmony and good 
 feeling of our Conference in December last ; and we all con- 
 sider that, after such a commencement, we may look forward 
 to our future Conferences and Diocesan Synods not with 
 anxiety and alarm, but with real pleasure, as happy reunions 
 of Bishop, Clergy, and Laity, consulting together for the 
 good of the Church.”’ 
 
 The year 1859 was an important one in the Episcopate of 
 Bishop Tyrrell. It was the last year of his work in the 
 original Diocese of Newcastle. The separation of the 
 Colony of Queensland from New South Wales took effect on 
 the 1st of December, the formation of the new See of Bris- 
 bane had been determined on, and Dr. Tufnell had been 
 designated as its first Bishop. In the August following he 
 arrived, and the Bishop of Newcastle was relieved from the 
 ecclesiastical supervision of all the country above the southern 
 boundary of Queensland. The extent of his biennial jour- 
 neys was thus diminished by about eighty miles from south 
 to north, and eighty from east to west ; and he was also 
 relieved from the responsibility of the Burnett and Wide Bay 
 Districts farther north, which he had been unable to visit. 
 
 This year was also marked by the accomplishment of his 
 design for more fully endowing the Bishopric of Newcastle. 
 At its formation it had been endowed with a capital of 
 ^8300, bringing in the annual income of ^333. In addi- 
 tion to this, Bishop Broughton had given over to it ^500 
 a year of his stipend paid through the Colonial Government. 
 The permanency of this latter sum, however, depending as 
 it did on a Government grant, was always uncertain, and by 
 the abolition of State aid, which had long been foreseen to 
 be only a question of time, was made to cease with the life of 
 Bishop Tyrrell. 
 
 As far as he was concerned, he lived upon little more than 
 
174 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1859. 
 
 half of his Episcopal income, and he had besides what 
 remained of his private property. But with that forethought 
 and unselfishness which marked his whole Episcopate, he 
 had for some years been providing an endowment for the 
 See more adequate to its needs, such as would be wholly 
 independent of parliamentary majorities. Partly from his 
 own income, partly from the economic management of his 
 resources, and partly from the donations of his relations and 
 friends, he had in twelve years accumulated ^12,000 for the 
 Bishopric. Writing in i860, he said : “ This important work 
 is now accomplished.” 
 
 Whatever income was derived from this increase of capital 
 added not one personal comfort or luxury to himself. He 
 treated it as a stewardship, and laid it out for the benefit of 
 the Church, content to have made provision for his successors : 
 
 1 1 Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes.” 
 
 A glimpse of the general progress of the Church during 
 the year when these two great works were being brought to 
 completion is obtained from a few words in the Report of the 
 Church Society. It says that the account is not complete, 
 because some of the district sureties had not furnished reports 
 of what was going on in their districts. 4 4 But the informa- 
 tion which has been obtained shows that works of various 
 kinds have been carried on in all parts of the Diocese. It is 
 a remarkable proof of the quiet activity of the Church, that 
 after all that has been continually going on in the way of 
 Church buildings throughout the Diocese during the last 
 twelve years, there are at least twenty-three out of the thirty- 
 three districts in which, during the past year, Schools, 
 Parsonages, or Churches have been commenced, improved, 
 enlarged, or finished. In some districts more than one 
 Church, in others more than one School, is being provided. 
 Thus, like a tree planted by the river of God, which is full 
 of water, does the Church continue silently putting forth her 
 branches, and bringing one hill and valley after another 
 under her shadow.” 
 
 In this last year of the original Diocese his two senior 
 
i860] ARRIVAL OF BISHOP OF BRISBANE. 
 
 175 
 
 Clergy were called to tlieir rest. On the 25 th of March 
 Canon Rusden, who had been the Parish Priest of East 
 Maitland for twenty-five years, and continued to minister to 
 his flock until the Sunday before his death, had passed away ; 
 and on the 5 th of June Canon Wilton, of Christchurch, 
 Newcastle, who had been the first Clergyman in the Hunter 
 River District, closed a ministry of twenty-eight years. 
 
 In August i860 we find the Bishop in Sydney, where 
 he had gone to welcome the Bishop of Brisbane on his arrival 
 from England. Bishop Tufnell had brought out with him a 
 party, for whose sake it was important that he should reach 
 liis Diocese with as little delay as possible. Both Bishops 
 were most hospitably received by the Metropolitan, and spent 
 much time together in discussing the needs and capabilities 
 of the new Diocese, the Bishop of Newcastle imparting to 
 his newly arrived brother his own experience of the people 
 among whom and the places in which he was to work. On 
 the 24th of August he wrote to me : — “ I have just time to 
 write a few hasty lines to you. On the evening of Tuesday 
 the 28th I leave Sydney, so as to stop at Newcastle on the 
 Wednesday morning, and remain there during that day to 
 make arrangements for the reception of the Bishop of Bris- 
 bane on the Thursday morning. I may therefore hope to 
 have the pleasure of seeing you on the Wednesday evening 
 at Newcastle, where I shall be at Mr. Bingle’s. 
 
 “ On Thursday morning I meet the Bishop at the steamer 
 and bring him to Mr. Bingle’s, and at nine we shall have the 
 Holy Communion at the Cathedral, and afterwards an address 
 delivered to the Bishop in the primary schoolroom. 
 
 “ This concluded, there may be some refreshment provided 
 at the Grammar School, and then the Bishop and his party 
 may be conducted to their steamer, and proceed on their 
 way. We might then return to Morpeth by the afternoon 
 train, and I have ordered my horses to meet me at the 
 Maitland Station.” 
 
 Such was the programme, which was carried out. The 
 “ Yarra-Yarra ” steamer from Sydney reached Newcastle at 
 8 a.m. Bishop Tufnell, who had brought out with him six 
 
176 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [i860. 
 
 Clergymen and two Catechists, was received on the w r harf 
 by the Eishop of Newcastle, his Chaplain, the Rev. E. K. 
 Yeatman, master of the Grammar School, and Mr. Bingle 
 and Mr. Boswell on the part of the Laity. Twenty-two 
 years had wrought but little change on him; and it was 
 pleasant to recall old Oxford days on the shore of New 
 South Wales. In the afternoon the new Bishop and his 
 party went northward to their allotted work, and Bishop 
 Tyrrell returned to Morpeth with a thankful heart, to plan 
 and labour as unceasingly as before for his still enormous 
 but diminished Diocese. 
 
 The next week Bishop Barker, who, as Metropolitan, had 
 been holding Visitations at Tasmania, Melbourne, and Ade- 
 laide, came up for his first Visitation of the Diocese of New- 
 castle. Bishop Tyrrell’s letter announcing it to me gives an 
 outline of what actually took place. 
 
 “ The visit of the Bishop of Sydney is arranged thus : 
 He and Mrs. Barker will leave Sydney by the morning 
 steamer on Monday, September 3 ; I shall join them at New- 
 castle, so as to accompany them up the river. On the 4th, 
 Tuesday, they will be quiet at Morpeth, and happy to see 
 those who call.” Six of the Clergy dined at the Bishop’s 
 that evening to meet them. 
 
 “ Wednesday, the 5 th, the Clergy and Laity assemble at 
 East Maitland to deliver an address to the Bishop of Sydney, 
 and to hear his reply. 
 
 “On Thursday, the 6th, the Visitation will take place at 
 St. James’ Church, Morpeth. Morning Service at 1 1 o’clock, 
 the Bishop’s Charge and Holy Communion.” Eighteen 
 Clergy were present, those living at the greatest distances 
 were unable to come to Morpeth.* 
 
 * The Clergy who were present at the meeting at East Maitland were 
 the Revs. Canon Boodle, J. Blackwood, J. R. Bloomfield, R. T. Bolton, 
 D. G. Birds, R. Chapman, Coles Child, W. W. Dove, A. Glennie, J. A. 
 Greaves, B. E. Shaw, S. Simm, J. R. Thackeray, L. Tyrrell, C. Walsh, 
 J. F. R. Whinfield, W. E. White. Others in the Diocese, hut unable to 
 be present, owing to the distance of their Cures, were the Revs. G. C. 
 Bode, F. D. Bode, W. C. Hawkins, S. Hungerford, F. R. Kemp, J. J. 
 Nash, A. E. Selwyn, T. O’Reilly, E. Williams. 
 
i860.] VISITATION OF THE METROPOLITAN. 
 
 1 77 
 
 “ On Friday, the 7th, the first stone of St. Mary’s, West 
 Maitland, will he laid, and early in the following week the 
 Metropolitan and Mrs. Barker return to Sydney.” 
 
 In the course of the Metropolitan’s reply to the address 
 presented to him at East Maitland, he said : “ It was your 
 Bishop who welcomed me to the shores of the Colony, and 
 has aided me with his kind and wise counsels, and the 
 results of his experience, in my desire to promote the opera- 
 tions of the Church in the Diocese of Sydney. Especially 
 am I indebted to him and to the Newcastle Church Society 
 for the idea that led to the formation of the Church Society 
 in Sydney, which is now proving of inestimable value. 
 Arriving as I did at the time when the Clergy of the 
 Diocese scarcely numbered forty, and when there were about 
 fifty-five places awaiting the appointment of Clergymen, 
 it would have been almost impossible to supply the lack 
 without some such agency. From forty the number has 
 increased to ninety ; and this I owe to the kind advice and 
 assistance which your Bishop afforded in the formation of 
 our Church Society.” 
 
 Some years afterwards Bishop Tyrrell spoke, in an address 
 to his Diocesan Synod, of this Visitation as an “ unmixed 
 benefit.” 
 
 This year closed with a long Visitation to the north and 
 east of the reduced Diocese, which occupied from the begin- 
 ning of October to the end of the first week in December. 
 On this journey the Bishop nearly lost his groom by an 
 accident. 
 
 He writes to me on his way up the country, at 
 
 “ The Parsonage, Tamworth, 
 October 15 th, i860. 
 
 “ I returned here on Friday evening from my visit to the 
 Namoi. On Saturday I was congratulating myself on the 
 success of the Church arrangements which I have been 
 enabled to make ; and in the afternoon, while I remained 
 here for my Sunday duties, I sent my groom to Goonoo- 
 Goonoo with the two horses which Mr. Philip G. King had 
 
 M 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [i860. 
 
 178 
 
 kindly lent me, with orders to bring back my own three 
 horses which had been left to rest at Goonoo-Goonoo, fifteen 
 miles from Tamworth. 
 
 “ On Saturday night, after I had retired to rest, a message 
 was sent to the Parsonage that my groom had had a fearful 
 accident, and was nearly killed. ... It appears that the two 
 horses reached Goonoo-Goonoo on Saturday evening without 
 any rider; and Mr. King, thinking something must be 
 wrong, sent his groom at once on horseback on the way to 
 Tamworth. After riding two miles and a-half the groom 
 found Jesse supporting himself against a tree but quite 
 wandering in mind. He then rode back and brought a gig 
 to take my poor man, and before he reached Goonoo-Goonoo 
 his senses were nearly restored. 
 
 “ He had been riding at a sharp canter, and while the 
 horse he was riding went on one side of a tree the led horse 
 went on the other, bringing him into fearful collision with 
 the trunk of the tree.” 
 
 The Bishop therefore left his poor groom at Tamworth 
 Parsonage until his return from the north of New England 
 and the Clarence River. 
 
 Nor did he himself escape from accidents by the way. 
 Writing from Armidale on his return from the Clarence, 
 November 17th, he says: “ My journey has hitherto been 
 very gratifying, notwithstanding my two falls ; the first of 
 which rendered me insensible for a short time, but neither 
 have, providentially, been attended with any worse conse- 
 quences than a good shaking and some bruises and aches. . . . 
 Yesterday I found my servant Jesse awaiting my arrival, and 
 am rejoiced to get rid of his substitute ; who, poor man ! was 
 unusually stupid and slow and careless, from ignorance, not 
 intention. One horse he allowed to go three or four days 
 without a shoe, and the hoof became so worn that he was 
 lamed ; and I am obliged to leave him behind and purchase 
 another. At one Station he was earnest in claiming a wrong 
 horse as one of mine ; and at another Station set the master 
 and groom to ride in search of a bay horse when a chestnut 
 
i860.] FIRST VISITATION OF REDUCED DIOCESE. 179 
 
 was missing. Two out of three saddle-cloths he lost from 
 his two horses on the road, and the breakages have been 
 without number ; so that I am very glad to get Jesse again, 
 though he still limps with his injured knee. . . . Would 
 you kindly let Mrs. Gardner know that I am quite well, and 
 hope to find the servants well on my return next month.” 
 
 From the Parsonage, Port Macquarie, he writes : — 
 
 “ November' 29th, i860. 
 
 “ I have had a satisfactory Confirmation here this morn- 
 ing, and have an Evening Service at seven o’clock ; and on 
 this day week I hope, with the Lord’s blessing, to have the 
 delight of reaching my home, and of seeing you again in 
 much improved health. 
 
 “ On Thursday and Friday last I had two terrible days 
 from New England, down the Hastings to Port Macquarie ; 
 and on Saturday, leaving my servant Jesse here to recruit, I 
 rode forty-three miles to Kempsey on the Macleay; and yester- 
 day I returned from the Macleay to this place. To-morrow 
 we have a Church meeting here, to decide about the future 
 Church arrangements of the district ; and on Saturday I ride 
 to Mr. William Cross’s, ten miles from the Manning. 
 
 “ On Sunday I ride to the Manning, and have three Services 
 at Cundle, Taree, and Wingham, the three Townships ; the 
 time between the Services just permitting me to get from 
 one Township to the other. 
 
 “On Monday I hope to reach the Gloucester, and to 
 remain there on the Tuesday to open the new Church. On 
 Wednesday I hold a Confirmation at Stroud ; and on 
 Thursday I hope to reach Morpeth by way of Raymond 
 Terrace; when I shall have ridden on this Visitation one 
 thousand four hundred and thirty-nine miles. 
 
 “ These districts of the Macleay and Port Macquarie are 
 very poor, and I do not see how they can possibly support 
 their two Clergymen. I have therefore made arrangements 
 at the Macleay for the reunion of the districts, without 
 causing any irritation in the minds of the residents. Put 
 this is a retrograde movement ; which, as such, I am very 
 
i8o 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [i860. 
 
 unwilling to make. To-morrow I have a Church meeting 
 here, and then it will he decided what can he done respecting 
 the separation or union of the districts. 
 
 “ I have returned from the Evening Service, at which almost 
 every adult resident must have been present. But while 
 members of other Communions come to our Church at times, 
 I find that there is scarcely a member of our Church here 
 who will not go to the Presbyterians or Wesleyans when 
 there is no Service at our own Church; which is far from 
 satisfactory. 
 
 “ This Visitation has certainly been, on the whole, the most 
 gratifying which I have had. Having been relieved of the 
 limitless district to the north, the present Diocese seems to 
 be capable of reduction to order, and of being provided in 
 time with the ministrations of our Church. May the Lord 
 bless the efforts made to attain this most desirable object.” 
 
( iSi ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SECOND ENDEAVOUR TO CONSTITUTE SYNODS BISHOP 
 
 PATTESON CONSECRATED FOR MELANESIA PLAN FOR 
 
 FURTHER SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESE OF NEWCASTLE 
 
 ABOLITION OF STATE AID THE BISHOP PREPARED 
 
 TO MEET IT TROUBLES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS — 
 
 ST. ALBAN’S CHURCH , M US WELL BROOK. 
 
 1858-1864. 
 
 “ Every hour that fleets so slowly 
 Has its task to do or bear.” 
 
 — A. A. Proctor. 
 
 The part which Bishop Tyrrell took in the formation of 
 Synods was by no means the least important work of his 
 Episcopate. For the last twenty years of his life it occupied 
 a very large share of his thoughts and labours, and began 
 to assume a very symmetrical shape. But, like all he did, 
 it was no Minerva, sprung from his brain perfectly matured 
 and fully armed. It grew from a more or less indistinct 
 embryo, by constant reading, thought, and counsel taken 
 with those around him, and by the adoption of fresh lights, 
 gained as time went on, from hostile as well as from friendly 
 quarters. 
 
 Mistakes were made, as was unavoidable, in the com- 
 mencement of a great and difficult work ; and he sometimes 
 found it necessary to abandon points on which, in earlier 
 stages, he had insisted. But he was brave and true enough 
 to own himself wrong where he found he had been in error, 
 and to amend the errors which he acknowledged. 
 
 The Diocesan Conference of 1852, though it resulted in 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1858. 
 
 182 
 
 nothing more than a petition to Her Majesty to appoint a 
 Royal Commission, which was never granted, was not without 
 its use. It set men reading and thinking on the subject of 
 Synods, of which they then knew but little ; and gave occa- 
 sion for the discussion of many crude ideas which were thus 
 taken out of the way of future deliberation. That the next 
 step was not taken till 1858 did not imply that the Church 
 was asleep in the matter. Bishop Broughton’s death in 
 1853 had suspended proceedings. There was some delay in 
 the appointment of his successor, and when Bishop Barker 
 arrived, about the middle of 1854, it was impossible for him 
 to take up such a work immediately. The Bishop of New- 
 castle, whom he consulted, advised him to "make himself 
 thoroughly acquainted with the condition of the Diocese, 
 and to attend to the more pressing wants which had arisen 
 during the long vacancy of the See before moving for the for- 
 mation of Synods.* 
 
 A visit of the Bishop of Sydney to Melbourne towards 
 the end of 1857, for the purpose of informing himself as to 
 the constitution of the “ Church Assembly,” was followed, 
 early in 1858, by his request to Sir William Burton, Mr. 
 Alexander Gordon, and others, that they would prepare a 
 Draft Bill, to be laid before a Conference in each of the 
 Dioceses of Sydney and Newcastle : and to aid them in their 
 task, the Constitutions of the Synod of New Zealand and of 
 the “ Church Assembly ” of Melbourne were submitted to 
 them. 
 
 The Sydney Conference met on the 24th of November, 
 and sat until the 7th of December. The Newcastle Confer- 
 ence met on the 15th and 16th of December: and in order 
 that the Church should move as one body, and not in sepa- 
 rate Dioceses, the Draft Bill, as amended by the Sydney 
 Conference, was taken for discussion, and was eventually 
 adopted unanimously, with one exception, which w T as as 
 unanimously determined on ; namely, that as soon as three 
 Dioceses should be formed in the Colony of New South 
 
 * Evidence of the Bishop of Sydney before a Select Committee of 
 the Legislative Council in December 1859, p. 2. 
 
1859] 
 
 DIOCESAN CONFERENCES. 
 
 iS 3 
 
 Wales, it should be not in the power of, but compulsory on, 
 the Metropolitan to summon a Provincial Synod, consisting 
 of the Bishops and elected members of the Clergy and Laity 
 of the several Dioceses. 
 
 The Bishop of Newcastle wrote to Mr. Hoare at the begin- 
 ning of 1859 about the conduct and the moral effect of this 
 Conference with great pleasure : “ Though there was, of 
 course, difference of opinion on some points, yet the two 
 days were really days of enjoyment to us all, and all have 
 gone back to their districts, both Clergy and Laity (one, 
 two, three, and five hundred miles), rejoicing that they were 
 present, and declaring most warmly the comfort and en- 
 couragement which they had received from such united 
 counsels.” 
 
 At the close of the Conference the Lay member, who 
 seconded a very cordial vote of thanks to the Bishop, was 
 one who in the previous year was bitterly opposed to him in 
 a disturbance which had fired a neighbouring Parish. He 
 declared that he had come to the Conference prepared to offer 
 as much opposition as possible ; and indeed, at the beginning, 
 several members expected there would be some bitter out- 
 burst that would ruffle the temper of the meeting. But as 
 from time to time he was allowed to have his say, he toned 
 down amazingly, and worked in a very amicable spirit. In 
 seconding the vote of thanks he said, such had been the 
 perfect order and gentle spirit in which the Conference had 
 been conducted, that he felt the warmest thanks were due to 
 the President ; and that he left the Conference with very 
 different feelings from those with which he entered it : in 
 fact, that it had been good for him to be there. 
 
 The actual result, however, aimed at by both Conferences 
 was destined to be thwarted; and the education of the Bishops, 
 and of those they presided over, was to be carried on by 
 circumstances which they could not control. 
 
 In the Sydney Conference two members, Sir William 
 Burton and Canon Allwood, proposed that the sanction of 
 the Legislature should be invoked for no more than a simple 
 “ j Enabling Bill,” i.e., one which would give the Church per- 
 
1 84 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1861. 
 
 mission to hold Synods, and to pass in them ordinances 
 which should he legally valid. But the majority of that 
 Conference, the two Bishops, and the Conference of New- 
 castle, considered not only that the Colonial Parliament 
 should he asked to legalise the formation of Synods, hut 
 that it should lay down, though in terms asked for by the 
 Conferences, all the details of the Constitution. Without 
 these bonds of the secular Government, it was then generally 
 believed that indefinite schism would result from the Synods 
 of the Church. 
 
 Over the minds of many some shadow of the Act of Sub- 
 mission of Henry VIII. still hung, with the penalties of a 
 Prcemunire looming in the background ; for the removal of 
 which they desired legislation. Others, who believed that 
 the Church was free to form Synods, feared that the exercise 
 of the power would be a doubtful good without legislative 
 definition and compulsion. They thought of the Colonial 
 troubles between 1849 and 1852; the sounds of disputants 
 reached them from the mother country ; there was much un- 
 churchlike material around them ; and they believed that a 
 mere Enabling Bill, and, still more, a constitution founded on 
 agreement, or “ consensual compact ” as it was termed, like 
 those in New Zealand and Adelaide, would prove a “ mere 
 rojpe of sand,” unable to secure cohesion to the Church in 
 the Colony. 
 
 Such was, at that time, the opinion of Bishop Tyrrell, 
 as expressed in a letter addressed to the Secretaries of the 
 Church Society in September 1859 : in after years, he found 
 good reason to change his mind. 
 
 The Draft Bill agreed upon by the two Dioceses was there- 
 fore brought as a private Bill into the Legislative Council ; 
 and towards the end of 1859 a Select Committee took the 
 evidence of some of its promoters and opponents. As the 
 Bill came from the Select Committee the two Dioceses were 
 united in its support ; but in the Legislative Council many 
 of its principles were altered. The Bishop wrote to me : — * 
 
 * In the preceding February the doctors had sent me back to England 
 invalided. 
 
iS6i .] PARLIAMENTARY DICTATION RESISTED. 185 
 
 “ April 19, 1861. 
 
 “ Can you imagine my dismay at finding that the Com- 
 mittee of the whole House, just before the third reading, made 
 
 an alteration in the veto — really at the suggestion of , 
 
 without consultation with me, or even with the Sydney Con- 
 ference Committee, limiting the Bishop’s veto in his Diocesan 
 Synod to spiritualities, when the Bishop himself and Sir 
 Alfred Stephen had said in their evidence that spiritualities 
 would never come before the Diocesan Synod. Last week I 
 went down to Sydney to arrange what was to he done ; when 
 I insisted that the Bill with such a change must he referred 
 hack to the Church. Consequently it has been withdrawn, 
 there being no prospect of its passing the second reading in 
 the Lower House, or, if it had, that it could have been carried 
 through all its stages before the prorogation, which was at 
 hand. Thus all acquiescence in the Parliament legislating 
 for the Church in important points of the constitution of 
 her Synods, without the sanction of the Church , has been 
 avoided.” 
 
 In reference to this event the Bishop of New Zealand 
 writes : — 
 
 Auckland, June 6 , 1861. 
 
 “ My dear Friend and Brother, — Your letter of May 3 
 is now before me. ... I have watched the progress of your 
 Synod Bill with great interest, and could not avoid anticipat- 
 ing its fate. Our dear departed friend had left behind him 
 a legacy of rooted opposition to the veto. When this came 
 to be proposed to the Legislature, it was likely that all the 
 old feelings would be revived. I think that you did quite 
 right in refusing to recognise the altered Bill. All the other 
 Diocesan Synods having given a veto to each of the three 
 orders, it was unreasonable that Sydney and Newcastle 
 should be exceptions. — Your very affectionate friend and 
 brother, G. A. New Zealand.” 
 
 A pause of several years occurred before the work of the 
 formation of Synods was again taken up and brought to a 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [ 1 86 1. 
 
 1 86 
 
 successful issue. But there was no pause or slackening of 
 energetic labour for the good of the Church. There was the 
 same unceasing care for all parts of the still enormous Dio- 
 cese ; the same constant endeavour, too often disappointed, to 
 obtain from England good men for the work. There was in 
 the mother Church a scant supply of good men ready to give 
 themselves for Christ’s work out of their native land. Very 
 many unworthy men who pressed their services on the 
 Bishop’s commissaries were rejected; but some succeeded in 
 covering with good recommendations moral plague-spots which 
 in the struggling Colonial Diocese broke out, and inflicted 
 bitter anguish upon the dear good Bishop, and much injury 
 upon the Church. 
 
 The Bishop’s was a chequered work, with its full share of 
 successes, difficulties, and troubles. But he did not relax or 
 flinch ; he pressed straightforward through all. 
 
 A letter of Bishop Selwyn’s in 1861, but without date, 
 says : — 
 
 “ I sent you a copy of the proceedings in the Consecration 
 of a Missionary Bishop. It is a joyful event, and a happy 
 crowning of the effort which the Australasian Board began 
 when they recognised you and me as Missionary Bishops. 
 Now that I can plead for another, and one so much more 
 qualified in every way than myself, I shall not let the 
 Australian Dioceses alone, but press upon you all and your 
 congregations the duty of supporting the Melanesian Mission. 
 As a first instalment I have sent you copies of an appeal for 
 a new Mission vessel, in which the new Missionary Bishop 
 appears for the first time as his own advocate. 
 
 “ He sailed for the Islands on the 14th of last month. We 
 are fearing to hear of the death of Sir John Patteson by the 
 next mail. 
 
 “ It must be a great comfort to you to have a successor at 
 Moreton Bay to save you some of those long rides. May the 
 residue of your work be the more abundantly blessed. I am 
 rejoicing in a like concentration of effort, for I felt before like 
 gold-beater’s skin. — Your affectionate friend and brother, 
 
 “ G. A. New Zealand.” 
 
iS6i .] BISHOP PATTESON'S CONSECRATION. 
 
 187 
 
 Shortly before Bishop Patteson sailed he wrote to the 
 Bishop of Newcastle, alluding to his own Consecration as 
 Missionary Bishop, and his view of the transference of the 
 Mission from Bishop Selwyn to himself. 
 
 “ Auckland, March 19^, 1861. 
 
 “ My Lord, — You will, I am sure, excuse my writing to 
 you, not only because I well recollect your kindness to me 
 in Sydney in the year 1856, but because you were specially 
 connected with this Mission ; the more immediate charge of 
 which has now been committed to me. Your Lordship can 
 know better than most men the difficulty of this work, and 
 the sad loss that Melanesia sustains in the retirement of the 
 Bishop of New Zealand from the direct management of the 
 Mission. I earnestly trust that your Lordship will remember 
 in your prayers these poor Islanders, and not forget me, 
 called too early to a work of so great responsibility. — I 
 remain, my dear Lord, very truly yours, 
 
 “ J. C. Patteson, Missionary Bishop?” 
 
 On the 17 th of June, in a letter to Bishop Tyrrell, on 
 business, he dates from 
 
 “ Mota, Banks Islands, S.W. Pacific. 
 
 “ My dear Lord, — Our friends here have received me 
 again in a friendly way. My little bamboo house, twenty 
 feet by eleven, where some thirteen or fourteen of us con- 
 trive to live, is standing, and nothing has been damaged. 
 Poor souls ! They need help indeed. Utterly naked, quar- 
 relling, fighting, and withal indoctrinated into an extraordi- 
 narily elaborate system of superstition. I know their lan- 
 guage, so as to converse freely with them : more I cannot 
 say. Some, I think, seem really anxious to hear our 
 message. 
 
 “ Commending myself and these poor heathens of Melanesia 
 to your Lordship’s prayers, I remain, my dear Lord, very 
 truly yours, 
 
 “ J. C. Patteson, Missionary Bishop. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1862. 
 
 188 
 
 The appeal in the letter of the Bishop of New Zealand 
 was not without its prompt response from the Diocese of 
 Newcastle, and the next year the contribution is acknow- 
 ledged : — 
 
 “ Auckland, June 2d, 1862. 
 
 “ My dear Brother, — I have received, and now acknow- 
 ledge with many thanks, the receipt of a bill of credit for 
 ^100 for the new Mission vessel. The contribution is 
 most timely, as we have just heard of a difficulty in England, 
 from the increase of the cost of shipbuilding. Your con- 
 tribution is valued still more as a proof of the continued 
 interest of the members of the Church in your Diocese in 
 the Melanesian Mission. Without the united support of the 
 Australian Dioceses I fear that we should not be able to 
 extend our operations. 
 
 “ You speak of the 1 artificial calm in New Zealand.’ It 
 is more correct to speak of a natural calm after an artificial 
 war. There never was, in the judgment of the oldest settler, 
 the slightest necessity for a war. The supposed necessity 
 for our acquiring land from the natives is not a real necessity, 
 especially since the rush to Otago in the Southern Island. 
 There is no real demand for land in the Northern Island, 
 as is proved by the fact that at Auckland land is given away 
 to any one who will come out to take it. We were living in 
 perfect peace when Governor Brown began his ‘ artificial ’ 
 war about a piece of land not worth £\ooo. 
 
 “ Confidence is being gradually restored by the judicious 
 and pacific measures of Sir George Grey. The Guardian 
 newspaper, which I suppose you read, is obstinately blind on 
 this subject. 
 
 “ May every blessing be upon you and your work. — Your 
 affectionate and grateful friend, G. A. New Zealand.” 
 
 A short note from Bishop Patteson also returns thanks for 
 the subscription to the “ Special Ship Fund : ” — 
 
 “Auckland, Whit-Monday , 1862. 
 
 “ My dear Lord, — Pray present my grateful thanks to 
 the Church Society for their donation. It is, I need not 
 
1 862.] SECOND DIVISION OF THE DIOCESE. 
 
 189 
 
 repeat, our earnest hope that this Mission may he regarded as 
 the special work of the Churches of Australasia; and it 
 seems clearly as if God is granting our prayer. Almost 
 every Diocese is represented this year in our subscription list. 
 We sail ( D . V.) in a week for a long round among, I hope, 
 some seventy islands. 
 
 “ Your prayers go with us, I know. Thank you, my dear 
 Lord, for your kind notes, and words of encouragement and 
 sympathy. — Very faithfully yours, 
 
 “ J. C. Patteson, Missionary Bishop ” 
 
 The beginning of this year saw the commencement of 
 another important undertaking, which it took five years to 
 carry to completion — the second subdivision of the Diocese 
 by the erection of the See of Grafton and Armidale. The 
 Bishop wrote to the Rev. W. T. Bullock : — 
 
 “ Morpeth, January 21 st, 1862. 
 
 “ My dear Sir, — By the mail which closed this morning 
 I have sent Mr. E. Hawkins an account of a meeting, over 
 which I presided last w^eek in Sydney, to promote the further 
 division of my Diocese into the See of Grafton and Armidale, 
 if the double name may be allowed. The meeting was a 
 great success ; and the Premier, and others who were present, 
 declared they had never been at a meeting in which so few 
 unnecessary words were spoken, and so much work done. 
 Mr. Clark Irving, the giver of the noble donation of ^2000, 
 will leave Sydney for England shortly, and will carry with 
 him my official application for the division of my Diocese, 
 and the bank receipt showing that ^5000 is in hand towards 
 the endowment of the See.” 
 
 To me he wrote : — 
 
 “Morpeth, February 1 8th, 1862. 
 
 “ My very dear Sir, — The deep interest which you still 
 feel in your old Diocese must make you anxious to hear 
 from me by this mail respecting Church matters. . . . 
 
 I have written very fully to Ernest Hawkins about the 
 
190 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1862. 
 
 division of the Diocese, and Clark Irving is the bearer of my 
 letter. . . . My present Diocese has a population of 
 
 8 i ,° 37, and the new Diocese will have a population of 
 28,080 — not quite one- third of the present Diocese of New- 
 castle, and consequently not quite half of the future Diocese, 
 when diminished. The northern boundary of the new Dio- 
 cese will be, of course, the northern boundary of the Colony ; 
 and the southern boundary will commence, at the coast, at 
 Camden Haven, about lat. 3i°4o'; it will thence reach the 
 Liverpool Range a little past Murrurundi, leaving the Mur- 
 rurundi Police District in the northern Diocese. Thence it 
 will follow the Liverpool Range to its end, and then strike 
 due west at about the same latitude.” 
 
 In another letter he points out how conveniently the pro- 
 posed Diocese lies for subdivision at some future time. “ Here- 
 after, when the population of Grafton and Armidale increases, 
 there is a natural line of division running north and south, 
 in the fall from the tableland towards the coast, dividing 
 the Diocese into the See of Grafton on the east and Armi- 
 dale on the west, each of these towns being nearly the centre 
 of their respective districts.” 
 
 It was well that there was this gleam of hope to cheer 
 him ; for in this year several of the Clergy, who had come out 
 from England within the last few years, were a grievous 
 trouble to him. He says of one : “ To have such a man, 
 who is very correctly described in the character of him which 
 you have sent, as quarrelsome and troublesome, inflicted on 
 me and on the Diocese, is a great trial, or thorn in the 
 flesh, which I must try to consider has been sent for wise 
 purposes.” 
 
 It was necessary to dismiss two others for different reasons, 
 and the brave-hearted Bishop felt the strain so severely that 
 it made him ill. He writes in January 1863 : “The last 
 month has been one of unusual anxiety with me, and the 
 anxious mind has had its effect on the body ; but the happy 
 success of my final arrangements has, during the last few 
 days, restored the usual tone of mind and body.” 
 
i86 3 .] 
 
 ABOLITION OF ST A TE AID. 
 
 191 
 
 Writing to one of his Commissaries about a Clergyman who 
 had desired to go out, professing his “ views ” to be strongly 
 “ Evangelical” and giving a very gushing account of himself, 
 he said : “You have done quite right in declining the 
 services of Mr. . It is very singular how very self-suffi- 
 
 cient even the most amiable of his school are. Did I tell 
 
 you before that the Rev. wished to introduce Evening 
 
 Communion at without consulting me at all on the 
 
 point? He had actually given due notice of an Evening 
 Administration ; but I was happily there on the very Sunday, 
 and so changed it to the usual Morning Administration.” 
 
 Notwithstanding the delay of obtaining Synods, the New- 
 castle Church Society was still, as of old, increasing in 
 funds, and continuing its useful work of binding the Diocese 
 together. 
 
 In a letter dated February 19th, 1863, the Bishop says : 
 “ Last Thursday we held the Annual Meeting of our 
 Church Society at St. Mary’s, West Maitland : and a very 
 happy, cordial meeting it was. . . . We are all in very high 
 spirits at having about ^300 for last year in excess of the 
 previous year, during a season of very severe drought ; and 
 when, in consequence of putting our meeting three months 
 earlier, our year has consisted of only nine months.” 
 
 This result was especially reassuring, as the Colonial 
 Parliament had lately carried into effect its long-threatened 
 measure of abolishing all State aid to Religion, and had made 
 all existing grants (including the Bishop’s ^500 per annum) 
 terminate with the lives, or tenure of office, of those who 
 were at that time recipients of them. In July the Queen’s 
 assent to the Bill was received in the Colony, and the Act 
 had force ; and when, a few days afterwards, the Diocesan 
 Committee held their Quarterly Meeting, the Bishop met 
 them, neither without a clear perception of the future diffi- 
 culty, nor with any dismay at the prospect. 
 
 He had for some years looked this contingency in the 
 face ; and laid before the Committee, that while the spirit of 
 self-help, to which he had long been educating the Diocese, 
 was something substantial to trust to ; he had a scheme for 
 
192 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1863. 
 
 providing endowments to supply those sums which the 
 Government was about to withdraw by degrees. 
 
 This scheme, he said, “ seemed to afford the greatest satis- 
 faction and encouragement to the meeting ; and it was evi- 
 dently a great relief to some anxious minds. Old Mr. Close 
 was delighted ; and we are in good heart. Among other 
 sums to be devoted to this Diocesan Endowment is my own 
 Government Stipend of ^500 per annum.” 
 
 It was hard to beat down the energy and resource of the 
 Bishop of Newcastle. 
 
 There really was much in his Diocese to inspirit him. In 
 spite of the troubles which had been caused by some two or 
 three self-seeking and unworthy men, he had a body of intelli- 
 gent devoted workers among his Clergy, doing good service 
 in their several districts, and working together in a united 
 spirit : and these were always a comfort to him. He would 
 have persevered in his labours for his Master’s sake from a 
 high sense of duty under the most depressing circumstances. 
 Yet he had an affectionate heart, which rejoiced in the 
 sympathy of his Clergy and Lay brethren, and he was ever 
 susceptible of fresh stimulus from the hearty co-operation of 
 his fellow-workers. 
 
 One of these, the Bev. W. S. Wilson, had been drawn to 
 the Diocese in the middle of 1862 by the attraction of 
 an old Oxford friendship, and fellow-membership in the 
 crew of the Oriel boat. An incident occurred just after 
 his arrival, trifling in itself, but characteristic of the Bishop 
 and his young Cleric. The Bev. J. A. Greaves, who had 
 then been appointed to one of the Vacant Canonries, and was 
 Incumbent of East Maitland, had shown symptoms of over- 
 work ; and was away recruiting under the ever-hospitable 
 roof of one of the good sons of the Church, Dr. Traill of 
 Collaroy. The Bishop wished Wilson to take his duty for a 
 time, and on the day after his arrival walked with him to 
 East Maitland to make the necessary arrangements. As 
 they returned a dense thunder- cloud was seen gathering over 
 the upper ranges of the Paterson ; and an Australian 
 thunderstorm is a thunderstorm indeed. The Bishop said, 
 
zS 64 -] TROUBLES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS. 
 
 193 
 
 “ Me must quicken our pace to escape tlie storm ; ” and away 
 they strode at his old pace, for he had been a splendid 
 walker ; and his muscular and well-proportioned frame still 
 retained much of the vigour of his early days. 
 
 Their pace became very fast as they crossed the ironbark 
 forest. But the newcomer, though not so long of limb, was 
 fresh from the contests of the Isis and the Thames ; and 
 with the advantage of twenty-six years over fifty-six, kept 
 well up with the Bishop’s longer strides ; and on reaching 
 the gate of the Bishop’s paddock passed him, and respectfully 
 held it open for his admission. The beaten Bishop turned 
 to him, with his keen eye kindling, and the kindly smile 
 playing all over his countenance, which had such a winning 
 power over all his men, and said, “I think you’ll do.” 
 
 The year 1864 opened brightly. The Annual Meeting, 
 held on the 4th of February, was more cheering even than 
 that of the preceding year ; the Bishop said it was “ the most 
 successful and encouraging meeting ” they had ever had. 
 
 The opening of the Northern Railway to Singleton gave 
 greater facilities for the attendance of distant members ; 
 Diocesan work was prospering in nearly all directions, and 
 the Bishop’s exposition of his Endowment Scheme, which he 
 had laid last year before the Diocesan Committee, was most 
 warmly received. One result followed, which the Bishop 
 mentions in the following extract from a letter dated February 
 1 6th, 1864: — 
 
 “ You will see at the end of my statement my appeal to 
 individuals to give a thank-offering for the purpose of Endow- 
 ment, assuring them that, for every ^5 they gave, means 
 would be found to endow their Parish with jQ 1 per annum 
 in perpetuity. You may judge of my feelings on reading 
 this morning this sentence in your letter : ‘ I fear good old 
 ' Mr. Close may have ceased to be among you,’ when, about 
 an hour before, the dear good old man had been with me 
 bringing with him ^50 as his thank-offering in answer to 
 my appeal. He has quite rallied again, and in nursing his 
 son Edward with his broken leg seems almost to have 
 forgotten his own weakness.” 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1864. 
 
 The Bishop of Sydney had been absent for two years in 
 England to promote the formation of the southern part of his 
 Diocese into the Diocese of Goulbonrn. He had just returned 
 to the Colony, and was soon followed by Bishop Mesac 
 Thomas, the new Bishop of Goulbourn. Early in April 
 Bishop Tyrrell went to Sydney to greet them, and had the 
 great pleasure of meeting also Bishop Patteson; who, having 
 put into that beautiful harbour on his voyage, was creating a 
 warm interest in the Melanesian Mission. He was gratified 
 at finding that his own Diocese, which was “ mother, wife, 
 and child ” to him, was then in high repute with his brethren 
 in the Metropolitan Diocese ; and from his own experience 
 of sixteen years he was able to give the Bishop of Goulbourn 
 some valuable information and counsel before he left Sydney 
 to enter upon the duties of his See. 
 
 In a letter dated July 19, 1864, he tells the oft-repeated 
 tale of destructive floods. The fourth that had occurred in 
 that year w T as just subsiding, and had been more disastrous 
 than usual. He says : “ The distress is so great that all over 
 the Colony committees have been formed to collect subscrip- 
 tions. In Sydney a very large amount has been collected, 
 and the Government has felt it necessary to give most un- 
 usually liberal grants in aid of other subscriptions. The 
 small settlers have lost all their crops in the ground, and also 
 now the opportunity of ploughing the land and cropping it 
 again ; while their loss in cattle and horses has been most 
 distressing. At the first flood my paddocks were filled with 
 many hundreds of the horses and cattle of these poor settlers; 
 at the second there were fewer ; at the third the number was 
 again observably smaller ; but at this fourth flood there are 
 scarcely any. They have all vanished; either sold at a 
 fearful loss, or dead. You will, I am sure, think of us, for 
 it will be a very trying year for the Clergy, the Church, and 
 the Church Society.” 
 
 The Bishop was becoming very anxious to hear that some 
 one had been found to accept the See of Grafton and Armi- 
 dale : that he might be able to do better for the Diocese 
 when- it should be reduced to more manageable dimensions, 
 
1864 .] TROUBLES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS. 195 
 
 might have more time to devote to the many difficult ques- 
 tions which the approaching organisation of Synods was 
 pressing upon him. He had, however, to suffer frequent 
 disappointments for nearly three years more. Other Bishops 
 would themselves have gone to England to forward the 
 business: and it can hardly be doubted that, had he done so, 
 not only would he have been soon able to find and stir up a 
 good man to accept the Bishopric ; but his presence in England 
 would have done more to procure Clergy for his many wants, 
 when he could say, “ Come with me” than all the labours — not 
 few — of his Commissaries, who could only say, “ Go. ” But 
 the near approach of the next Synod movement made him 
 unwilling to leave his Diocese even for a few months. Indeed 
 the only time when he seemed to waver about going home 
 for awhile was in 1856, and then the fit lasted on him only 
 a few weeks ; and his anxiety for his Diocese made him 
 determine not to leave it, even for his own and its eventual 
 good. 
 
 At the present time, in spite of the disappointment of his 
 hope of a Bishop being found for the new See, and the 
 external troubles of the flood distress, he was much com- 
 forted by a good deal in his loved Diocese. In the letter 
 just quoted from he says to me : — 
 
 “The Diocese is in good working order, and the Clergy 
 very nicely united among themselves, all except one, who at 
 last seems to feel that he is left quite to himself. At our 
 quarterly meetings of the Society the Clergy usually assemble, 
 from ten to fourteen, and take their early dinner with me. 
 In this respect the Morpeth railway is a great convenience. 
 At our meeting this month eleven were present, and one of 
 the Sydney Clergy passed the day with me, and seemed 
 greatly struck with the warm, hearty, united feeling of the 
 party. 
 
 “Do not suppose that Church matters at Merriwa and 
 Cassilis are not going on well. They are going on admir- 
 ably ; so much so that Dr. Traill was quite alarmed at the 
 report that Mr. Wilson might be taken away from them to 
 take charge of the vast Western District, for which he had, 
 
196 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1864. 
 
 in true Missionary devotedness, half proposed himself. Dr. 
 Traill writes of him : 4 He has succeeded in drawing together 
 many small congregations at regular periods throughout the 
 district, in establishing and vigorously maintaining schools 
 that formerly held a languishing existence, and has attached 
 to himself, by his sincerity and hearty kindliness, many per- 
 sonal friends in all ranks. Taking for granted that this is a 
 true picture of his achievements and position among his 
 Parishioners, your Lordship will admit that his removal will 
 be looked upon with dismay/ Is not this cheering'?” said 
 the Bishop. 
 
 In November the Bishop had just returned from his long 
 Visitation to the North, which it was thought would be his 
 last before the division of the Diocese. He describes it as 
 “ most gratifying ; the Candidates for Confirmation very 
 numerous, especially among the young men from sixteen to 
 twenty-two ; the congregations overflowing ; and at the meet- 
 ings the kindest expressions and addresses to myself. In fact,” 
 he says, “ I have been nearly spoilt.” At Muswell Brook he 
 had, on the 1 ith of November, laid the foundation of the new 
 Church of St. Albans, which was built on the design of Sir 
 Gilbert Scott, and before it was completed cost upwards of 
 ^11,000. The district subscribed to it liberally; but far the 
 largest portion of the expense was provided by the devotion 
 of Mrs. White and her sons and daughters, who esteemed it 
 a privilege to offer to the honour of God out of what He had 
 given to them. 
 
 It was, when completed, and will probably be for many 
 years, the most perfect Parish Church in the Diocese. 
 
( >97 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 1865-1866. 
 
 “ A wonderful change has of late years been passing over the Church of Eng- 
 land. The Church abroad is passing from the condition of a Church in alliance 
 with the State to that of a Church which is altogether free : and the transition 
 moments in great bodies are always moments of exceeding difficulty. To know 
 what of the past is to be continued — how we are to change from the old state 
 to the new — is a highly important and difficult question.” — Bishop Wilberforce's 
 Speeches on Missioris, p. 26. Speech at Salisbury , September 12th, 1867. 
 
 The difficulties which beset the Synod Bill in 1861 con- 
 vinced the Bishop of Newcastle that the Colonial Parliament 
 would either refuse to pass any such Bill for the Church ; or, 
 as the price of its assistance, would try to force upon it a 
 Constitution opposed in some of its provisions to the true 
 principles of the Church. To avoid the latter alternative he 
 had insisted on the withdrawal of the Bill from the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly : and being then forced to reconsider the 
 subject, came to the conclusion that such a Bill as the 
 Bishops and Conferences had asked for was not necessary ; 
 but that a short Enabling Bill, such as might apply to all 
 religious bodies, would suffice. The Metropolitan did not at 
 that time agree with him ; but during his absence in Eng- 
 land was convinced by some of the Canadian Bishops, with 
 w r hom he took counsel, that an Enabling Bill would meet 
 every need, while he still held that such a Bill was necessary. 
 
 In the meantime the Bishop of Newcastle had advanced 
 another and a very decided step. He had come clearly in 
 his own mind to the conclusion that the Church in the 
 Colony was free to meet in Synod without even an Enabling 
 Bill ; and, still further, that it was better for her that she 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1865. 
 
 198 
 
 should have as little as possible to do with the Legislature ; 
 whose enactments would, at the best, be a clog upon her 
 development, and a hindrance rather than a help to her exer- 
 cise of discipline : not to speak of the. serious consideration 
 that its composition had ceased to be Christian, and its 
 action had been becoming more and more divergent from her 
 own. Circumstances in the Colony, the decisions of the 
 English law courts, and the’ example of the Church in New 
 Zealand and Adelaide, had worked with his own belief in 
 the Divine origin of the Church in bringing him to these 
 conclusions. 
 
 His own words are : — “ During the absence of our Metro- 
 politan in England the important Bill for the gradual aboli- 
 tion of State aid was passed by our Colonial Legislature; which 
 placed our Church in an entirely neio position, forcing her to 
 depend upon her own resources for her permanent mainte- 
 nance and extension. Having carefully considered the new 
 position in which our Church was thus placed, I became 
 convinced that it would be her wisest course, her greatest 
 strength, to have as little as possible to do with our Colonial 
 Legislature, while she carefully adhered to the doctrine and 
 worship of the Church of England. 
 
 “ Even a mere Enabling Bill appeared to me to be undesir- 
 able, unless it were proved to be really necessary. And on 
 reading the despatch of the late Duke of Newcastle* relative 
 to the judgment of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council, 
 in the case of Long v. the Bishop of Cape Town ; I was con- 
 vinced that an Enabling Bill was not necessary, and conse- 
 quently neither necessary nor desirable. ” f 
 
 Such was the Bishop of Newcastle’s matured opinion. He 
 no longer considered Synods founded on mutual agreement, 
 as he had done five years before, a mere “ rope of sand.” 
 Nevertheless an Enabling Bill was the rock on which the 
 next attempt struck. In a consultation at Sydney in August 
 1864, Bishop Tyrrell found the Metropolitan’s fears of 
 
 * Published in the Colony in May 1864. 
 
 t Address of the Bishop at the first Session of the first Synod, August 
 15, 1865. 
 
iS6 5 .] 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 199 
 
 forming a Synod without Legislative permission so insuper- 
 able, that, in deference to him, and in the hope of securing 
 unity of action, he waived his own opinions and prepared to 
 join him cordially. 
 
 The Sydney Diocesan Conference was summoned for 
 February 7, and that of Newcastle for February 24, simply 
 to discuss the subject of an Enabling Bill. Bishop Barker 
 wrote to the Bishop of Newcastle in January, saying : “ I 
 intend to confine the business of my Conference to the one 
 point — Shall we, or shall we not, ask for a Bill ? I have 
 made up my mind that Legislative sanction is necessary.” 
 
 The Bishop of Newcastle prepared accordingly : and in 
 summoning his own Diocesan Conference announced the 
 same subject for their deliberations. What was his astonish- 
 ment at finding that the Metropolitan, when face to face 
 with his Conference, made no attempt to adhere to the terms 
 of his notice ; but, while in his address he expressed his pre- 
 ference for an Enabling Bill, abandoned the necessity of it, 
 and allowed his Conference to lead him away to the discus- 
 sion of different subjects which were of great importance, but 
 which were entirely beyond the agenda agreed upon for the 
 business of the two Conferences ! The result was the 
 appointment in the Sydney Diocese of a Committee to draw 
 up Fundamental Constitutions for the “ United Church of 
 England and Ireland in the Colony.” 
 
 The Metropolitan wrote to inform Bishop Tyrrell of the 
 work of his Conference, and to ask his opinion on the sub- 
 ject. After a few days of careful consideration he replied : 
 that as there were now three Dioceses in the Colony, he was 
 of opinion that Provincial action should precede Diocesan 
 action in drawing up a Church Constitution, and that he 
 should endeavour to guide the Newcastle Conference to the 
 same conclusion. 
 
 To this the Bishop of Sydney replied : “ The course you 
 propose is the proper one. I quite feel that our course is 
 open to objection, and that we are beginning at the wrong 
 end.” 
 
 When therefore the Newcastle Conference assembled on 
 
200 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1865. 
 
 February 24, it found its prescribed business rendered 
 useless by the action of the Sydney Diocese : and after 
 passing a resolution, that “ the Enabling Bill is not required 
 in the present circumstances of the Church, and therefore 
 does not receive the sanction of the present Conference,” 
 it appointed a Committee of the whole Conference to 
 meet for the consideration of certain matters on a future 
 day; and a select Committee, with power to confer with 
 similar Committees of the Dioceses of Sydney and Goul- 
 bourn. 
 
 The Bishop of Newcastle's letter, and the resolutions of 
 his Conference, though forwarded to Sydney without delay, 
 were too late. The Sydney Committee, having set to their 
 work at once, had departed from their instructions by 
 drawing up Fundamental Constitutions for the Diocese of 
 Sydney cdone ; and had fallen into the still more serious 
 error of omitting from them any provision for the calling 
 of a Provincial Synod , which had formed an important part 
 of the Bill agreed to by both Dioceses in 1858. 
 
 Their action was accepted without hesitation by their own 
 Conference : and a Bill was drawn up with the view of 
 obtaining legislative sanction for the Constitutions, and 
 placed in their Solicitors hands for introduction into the 
 Legislative Assembly, before the proceedings of the Confer- 
 ence of the sister Diocese could reach them. 
 
 The Bishop of Newcastle had shown himself most anxious 
 to work with the Metropolitan. But his very desire that 
 the Church should move as one body constrained him now, 
 with the full concurrence of his Conference, to resist a faulty 
 principle, the concession of which would have inflicted 
 permanent injury on the Church. To do so gave him 
 much hard work and anxiety for several years. But he 
 would not flinch from what he perceived to be a duty. He 
 begged the Sydney Committee to retrace the step they had 
 taken; and informed them plainly, through their Bishop, 
 that unless thy did so he should feel it his duty to petition 
 Parliament against their Bill. 
 
 In his petition he set forth that the Synod Bill for the 
 
I S65.] 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 201 
 
 Diocese of Sydney would diminish the religious usefulness of 
 the Church by introducing disunion between the different 
 Dioceses. That the question at issue was : whether the 
 whole Church of England in the Colony should consult 
 together, and agree in applying to Parliament for an amended 
 Church Temporalities Act (which was necessary), with an 
 appended Constitution ; or whether legal sanction should be 
 given to an Enabling Bill with a Constitution appended, 
 when applied for by one Diocese alone ; especially when this 
 application was made, not as a final measure, but only to 
 enable the Synod of that one Diocese to begin to consult 
 so as to ascertain its wants with a view to future legislation. 
 Such a Bill would be useless , because any part of the Church 
 in the Colony, or the whole Church, can now meet for con- 
 sultation without any such Enabling Bill : and it would be 
 injurious ; not only as encouraging division in the Church, 
 but as affording a precedent for religious legislation without 
 limit. 
 
 The Bishop’s opposition was successful ; and no more was 
 heard of this Enabling Bill, which had been too hastily 
 determined on : but, under the advocacy of the Chancellor 
 of the Sydney Diocese, another attempt, with a similar 
 object, was made and persisted in the next year. 
 
 The Conference of the Diocese of Newcastle met again at 
 Morpeth on the 15th of August: but then, for the first 
 time, as the Diocesan Synod. What should be the particular 
 form of its Constitution had not yet been decided upon, and 
 all its machinery had to be created and set in order : but 
 the Body , consisting of the Clergy of the Diocese and the 
 Lay representatives of the several districts, was in existence, 
 and it simply adopted its proper title. 
 
 In the course of his opening address, the Bishop said : — 
 
 “ The feeling which, I doubt not, is now uppermost in 
 many of our hearts, is one of deep thankfulness to the Lord 
 for His goodness in allowing us to assemble in this our first 
 regular Diocesan Synod. . . . There seems to be no impro- 
 priety in using the term. ... By the use of it we should 
 not claim for ourselves the powers of a Synod convened 
 
202 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1865. 
 
 under the Ecclesiastical laws of England. We simply 
 assume the position of a Diocesan Synod in the Primitive 
 Church before it had any connection with the State. I 
 shall therefore in this address apply the ‘ Synod ’ to the 
 meetings which we have usually called 6 Conferences.’ 
 
 “ Also the Assembly of the Clerical and Lay representa- 
 tives from the three or more Dioceses in New South Wales, 
 with their Bishops, might correctly be called the General * 
 Synod of our Church in New South Wales, leaving the 
 term Provincial + Synod to apply to the Assembly of the 
 Bishops and representatives from all the different Dioceses 
 and Colonies, which in the Metropolitan’s Letters Patent 
 are included in this Province. For I consider that the 
 meeting of such Provincial Synods every five years would 
 be a source of strength to our Church, even though we are 
 now informed that our Metropolitan’s Letters Patent have 
 no legal power to establish such a Province.” 
 
 After stating the points in dispute with the Bishop and 
 Diocese of Sydney, he proceeded to discuss some general 
 questions on which he desired to guide his Synod in refer- 
 ence to the work they had in hand. 
 
 He asks, “ What is a Christian Church ? ” And answers, 
 “ A spiritual body. Its highest functions are spiritual, 
 ministering spiritual blessings to its members. Its highest 
 discipline is a purely spiritual discipline, the suspension of 
 spiritual privileges : and its highest punishment is the loss of 
 spiritual privileges by excommunication.” . . . 
 
 It is “ a voluntary Society ; no person is now compelled 
 by law to belong to a particular Christian Society. ... In 
 former times, even in England, those who would not attend 
 the services of the National Church might have to endure 
 penalties or imprisonment. Separation was then a crime , 
 an offence against the laws of the land. Happily, in these 
 our days ... it is not so. It is now understood that 
 human laws cannot bind the spirit ; and that it is worse 
 than useless to compel the mere presence of the body at the 
 
 * Eventually called “ Provincial Synod.” 
 t Eventually called the “General Synod.” 
 
1S65.] SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 203 
 
 worship of that Being Who must he worshipped in spirit and 
 in truth. . . . 
 
 “ One caution is desirable respecting this statement. . . . 
 It is not meant that any one may leave the Christian Com- 
 munion, into which he was Baptized, from mere whim or 
 caprice, without sin. Far from it. It may be no breach 
 of the laws of his country, i.e ., no crime ; but it may be a 
 sin , a violation of the laws of God : and it has been well 
 stated that such separation is in no case a trivial or unim- 
 portant matter ; but either a solemn duty or a grievous sin. 
 
 “The Church of England, then, in this our Diocese, being 
 an integral portion of the Church of Christ, is a spiritual 
 Society. ... It is also a voluntary Society, so that we do not 
 desire to retain unwilling members in our Body by the pen- 
 alties of human laws. . . . And, as a spiritual voluntary 
 Society, independent of and unconnected with the State, it 
 is our inherent right to make bye-laws, not at variance with 
 any law of the land, to be binding on our own members ; 
 and we have also the inherent right of expulsion or exclusion.” 
 
 He next enters upon “ the Alliance of Church and State,” 
 in which he follows Bishop Warburton, and concludes this 
 subject by saying : “ It is well to remember that our Church 
 in this Colony, because unestablished, is happily free from 
 many restraints which might have fettered her in the exer- 
 cise of her spiritual functions ; and may thus be enabled, 
 with the Lord’s blessing, to attain more completely her im- 
 mediate and her ultimate aim — the purity of worship, and 
 the salvation of souls.” 
 
 The next subject he takes up is the judgments of the 
 Privy Council in the cases of Long v. the Bishop of Cape 
 Town, the Bishop of Salisbury v. a certain writer in the 
 “ Essays and Reviews,” and the Colenso case. It is not 
 necessary to follow him through what he says on each case. 
 He w 7 as addressing his own newly-formed Synod, and wished 
 not to give his full opinion on the subjects which had been be- 
 fore the Privy Council, but to show the members how the body 
 to which they belonged was affected by the late judgments. 
 
 He concludes : “ These recent judgments need not cause 
 
204 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1865. 
 
 any alarm or regret. The charges against the writer in the 
 ‘ Essays and Eeviews 9 not being proven, on account of 
 errors in the proceedings and defects in the Ecclesiastical 
 Court, will doubtless lead to the much-required reform of the 
 Ecclesiastical Courts in England. ... You are prepared, I 
 trust, as I myself am, to realise with good heart and hope 
 your position as members of the Christian Church ; which is 
 a spiritual and voluntary Society, which claims no alliance 
 with the State, will not be destroyed by these recent judg- 
 ments of the Privy Council ; which esteems her freedom from 
 the ecclesiastical laws of England a great gain, and would 
 consider the discontinuance of its Bishops’ Letters Patent no 
 serious loss.” 
 
 Inexperienced as it was as yet, the Synod set well to its 
 work. The Select Committee appointed by the Conference 
 in February had prepared the business which was to be 
 brought forward. The first essential of a deliberative assem- 
 bly, well-considered standing orders, were adopted, with some 
 alterations, from the Diocesan Synod of Wellington, New 
 Zealand : a draft Constitution and a draft Temporalities Bill 
 were agreed upon, to be submitted to the Provincial Con- 
 ference when it should meet. And a resolution was carried 
 that it is highly desirable that a Conference of the Bishops, 
 and Clerical and Lay representatives of the Church, in the 
 three Dioceses of the Colony of New South Wales, should 
 be held in Sydney, for the purpose of considering and deter- 
 mining what form of Constitution should be adopted for the 
 good government of the Church in the Colony ; and also on 
 what points it is desirable or necessary to apply for legisla- 
 tive sanction.” 
 
 The Synod followed this resolution by one requesting the 
 Metropolitan to summon such a Conference ; and by another, 
 appointing from their number four Clerical and four Lay 
 representatives to represent them at the proposed Confer- 
 ence. The appointment of a Standing Committee, afterwards 
 called the Diocesan Council, to transact the business of the 
 Diocese, completed the machinery for the working of the 
 Diocesan Synod. 
 
IS 65.] 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 205 
 
 Before tlie Synod rose, the Honourable Joseph Docker, the 
 very efficient Chairman of Committees, read the following 
 address : — 
 
 “ Right Reverend Father in God, — The members of the 
 Synod feel that the present occasion is one of far too im- 
 portant a character to allow its proceedings to be closed by a 
 mere ordinary vote of thanks to your Lordship for having 
 presided over its deliberations. 
 
 “ The address with which your Lordship opened the busi- 
 ness of this Synod contains matter of the highest importance 
 to the whole Colonial Church. It bears on the face of it 
 evidences of such careful research and arrangement, as well as 
 cordiality of feeling towards the other Dioceses of the Church 
 in this Colony, that we believe it will benefit not this Diocese 
 or Colony alone, but that it will serve to place in its true 
 light the position of the whole Colonial Church. The value 
 of such an address closely following upon the recent judgment 
 of the Privy Council, which appears so materially to affect 
 that position, can scarcely be over-estimated. 
 
 “We desire also to congratulate your Lordship on this 
 occasion of the first assembly of a Diocesan Synod in this 
 Colony. We feel that this is an event calling for the 
 emphatic expression of our deep thankfulness : and when 
 we reflect how cordial has been the whole tone of debate, 
 and how evident has been the desire of the Synod to dis- 
 cuss fully and honestly every subject brought before it, w r e 
 cannot but hope that the happiest results may attend our 
 deliberations in future years. And we most fervently pray 
 that it may please Almighty God long to spare your Lordship 
 to afford the same invaluable aid and fatherly guidance to this 
 Synod which it has been the privilege of this Diocese for so 
 many years to enjoy.” 
 
 The Bishop was very much gratified at the way in which 
 his first Synod had entered upon its work ; though he clearly 
 foresaw that difficulties would meet him, owing to the present 
 inability of the Synods of Sydney and Goulbourn, with their 
 
2 06 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1865. 
 
 Bishops, to realise the actual position of the Colonial Church. 
 His address, which was long and elaborate, cleared up points 
 which had perplexed many of the Clergy and Laity. The 
 Chief- Justice, Sir Alfred Stephen, considered that it con- 
 tained matter of great importance towards the solution of the 
 difficult questions then in debate. One of the Sydney Clergy 
 wrote : “ Taking the address on its merits, as a manly recog- 
 nition of the existing state of ecclesiastical matters, an attempt 
 to face the difficulties of our position, I acknowledge that his 
 Lordship has vanquished my prejudices, and I think we must 
 all follow in his wake.” 
 
 The Bishop wrote to me on the 16th of September: — “The 
 Sydney Synod re-assembles on the 21st of this month, and I 
 am somewhat anxious to learn what they will do. A large 
 and influential bod} r does not like to retrace its steps, and 
 thus acknowledge itself in the wrong. But this, I think, 
 they must do. Last week I spent in Sydney with the 
 Bishops of Sydney and Goulbourn, for the purpose of lessen- 
 ing or removing all personal irritation on the part of the 
 Metropolitan ; and I trust, with the Lord’s blessing, this has 
 been done : though it is difficult to foresee what effect the 
 Sydney Synod on the 26th may have, especially if it does 
 not go off quietly. 
 
 “ Our Synod has taken up its proper Church position, and 
 declined to confer with any Committee of the Sydney Synod 
 alone , while it will cheerfully give way to the majority, 
 when the representatives of the three Dioceses meet, if the 
 majority is against it.” 
 
 Speaking of the needs of his Diocese, he adds : “ The pro- 
 bable departure of Mr. Greaves from ill-health, and the 
 sudden death of Mr. Price, make me very anxious to hear 
 of the appointment of the Bishop Designate of Grafton and 
 Armidale.” 
 
 The Synod of Sydney met on the 26th of September. It 
 was by no means convinced by the arguments of the Bishop 
 of Newcastle : but, finding it now impossible to convert him 
 to the idea of legislation for each separate Diocese, and 
 being unable to obtain a private Bill from the Legislature for 
 
i86 5 .] 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 20 7 
 
 the Diocese of Sydney alone, it agreed to the Metropolitan’s 
 wish to invite a Conference of the three Dioceses of the 
 Province with a view to common action. 
 
 Unhappily, the Chancellors of both the Sydney and Goul- 
 bourn Dioceses, with their Bishops, were unable to get rid of 
 their prejudices against the superior authority of Provincial 
 to Diocesan Synods : both clung with the tenacity of a drown- 
 ing man to the straw of Episcopal authority by Letters Patent: 
 and both had an immovable faith in the necessity of Colonial 
 legislation, as they could not obtain Imperial, to enable the 
 Church to form Synods and to work them. This was 
 perplexing, yet it was hardly to be wondered at. The same 
 mists had until lately hung over the minds of nearly all 
 Churchmen ; and there are lands on which mists still lie 
 heavily after they have cleared away from others. 
 
 When men are strongly prejudiced or alarmed, they will 
 act as under other circumstances they would not have acted. 
 The request of the Newcastle Synod for a Provincial Con- 
 ference was granted : and it might have been expected that 
 the Kepresentatives of the three Dioceses would have been 
 allowed to meet, to argue fairly their different views, and to 
 decide them by subsequent voting. Whether the learned 
 Chancellor of the Sydney Diocese, and those who acted 
 with him, were so certain beforehand that they must be 
 entirely right in their views, and the Bishop and Synod of 
 Newcastle entirely wrong, that it was absurd to waste time 
 in debate ; or whether there was a lurking fear that argu- 
 ments which they did not like might prevail ; the result 
 was that they devised a plan for rendering the deliberations 
 of the Provincial Conference ineffective. 
 
 The Sydney Diocesan Synod, having erased from its Con- 
 stitutions all mention of the establishment and powers of 
 the Provincial Synod, and having made other alterations 
 (which it had a right to do) in the Draft Bill originally drawn 
 in 1858, adopted the strange course of binding its repre- 
 sentatives at the approaching Provincial Conference not to 
 alter them, or allow them to be altered in any respect. 
 The Synod of Goulburn, which met in December, followed 
 
208 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1865. 
 
 the example of Sydney. They only allowed their represen- 
 tatives to deliberate with their hands tied. The Synod of 
 Newcastle followed almost entirely the Bill of 1858; and 
 in its Constitutions were contained the clauses relating to 
 the Provincial Synod, which the Chancellor of the Sydney 
 Diocese had himself originally drawn up : but it appointed 
 its representatives to enter the Conference unfettered , at per- 
 fect liberty to allow their Draft Constitutions to be altered 
 and moulded by the majority of the Conference. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell, having heard of the course which had 
 been taken by the two other Synods, and learned that accu- 
 sations which he considered unfair and mistaken had been 
 made against himself and his Synod, addressed a long and 
 closely reasoned letter on the chief matters in dispute to the 
 Clerical and Lay representatives of his own Diocese : and 
 that his arguments and statements of fact might find their 
 w 7 ay into the. other two Dioceses, published it in the “ Church 
 Chronicle.” 
 
 He stood on the defensive : but it was inevitable that 
 the defence of Newcastle should show the action of Sydney 
 to have been mistaken. Newcastle had been accused of 
 “ making unexpected and unreasonable opposition to the 
 course pursued by the Sydney Diocese,” which was asserted 
 to be only following the precedent of 1858, when both 
 Dioceses had worked together. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell replies : that to have followed exactly the 
 former precedent would have been “ a grave mistake,” be- 
 cause the circumstances were different. Then there were 
 only two Dioceses, and therefore a Provincial Conference 
 could not be assembled ; now there are three , and three is 
 the number which enables a Province to be formed. But 
 that, in fact, the precedent had been seriously departed from 
 by three important alterations ; two of them concerning the 
 composition of the Synod, and one as to voting by orders. 
 There had been the very important omission of the Pro- 
 vincial Synod; and there was also the fact that, in 1858, 
 the Committees of the two Dioceses had taken common 
 counsel as to the fined form of the Constitutions, had made 
 
iS66.] 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 209 
 
 alterations in consequence, and ten months had elapsed 
 before the Bill embodying them was introduced into the 
 Legislative Council; whereas, in February 1865, although 
 the opinion of Newcastle had been asked by the Metro- 
 politan, and promised by Bishop Tyrrell, yet Sydney had 
 finally decided its Constitutions, drawn up its Bill, and 
 placed it in the hands of its Solicitor for introduction into 
 the Legislative Assembly, without locating to receive the 
 answer, which arrived on the same day that this final step 
 had been taken. 
 
 Unless therefore Bishop Tyrrell was content to acquiesce 
 in this course of action, which would cut up the Church into 
 separate Dioceses, his opposition to the Sydney Bill had been 
 no more than necessary. With respect to the relations of 
 the Church Province to the Diocese, he says : — 
 
 “ We all allow that many matters should be left for 
 Diocesan Synods to settle for their respective Dioceses, 
 while other matters should be settled by the collective 
 wisdom of the Provincial Synod. The real point in dispute 
 is, Should the Provincial Synod meet first and determine 
 its relations to, and its authority over, the Diocesan Synods ? 
 or, should the Diocesan Synods meet first, and decide sepa- 
 rately upon their own respective constitutions, and privileges ; 
 and afterwards attempt to bring about some central bond of 
 union by meeting and deliberating in a Provincial Synod ? ” 
 He argues and pronounces in favour of the first : and to 
 show “the danger and permanent evil” of the second, he 
 quotes the words of Hooker, arguing as to separate Churches 
 thus trying to come together : — 
 
 “Such number of Churches (or Dioceses) being, though 
 free within themselves, yet small, common conference before- 
 hand might have eased them of much after trouble. But 
 further consultation afterwards , though never so necessary, 
 they could not easily now admit, without some fear of 
 derogation from their credit ; and therefore that which 
 once they had done, they became ever after resolute to 
 maintain.” * 
 
 * Preface to Hooker’s Eccl. Pol., ii. 
 
 O 
 
210 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [i 866. 
 
 In a second letter to the Clerical and Lay Representatives of 
 liis Diocese, published the week before the Provincial Con- 
 ference, he stated very fully the arguments for the two 
 opposing theories of “ coercive legal force ” and “ consensual 
 compact,” and showed how he had, in the course of years, 
 been completely won over to the latter. 
 
 A few words at the beginning of his letter show how he 
 was enabled to exercise so great an influence as he did upon 
 his Synod ; and how it came to pass that the members of it 
 became, in a few years, so fully up to their work in the many 
 difficult questions which came before them. He says : “ In 
 preparing myself to take part in this coming Conference, I 
 have tried to sift very rigidly my own opinions : and, as 
 my investigations have resulted in a strong confirmation 
 of my previous views, I desire to lay before you the pro- 
 cess of thought by which this result has been obtained ; 
 that you also may, if possible, be confirmed in your views, 
 and enabled to impress these views more convincingly on 
 others.” 
 
 It was not that he overbore his Synod by his will, or by 
 the weight of his authority : for many of his most attached 
 Clergy frequently both spoke and voted against plans which 
 he advocated. But it was that, in all important questions, 
 he read and thought much in preparation for the discussion 
 of them ; and took pains, before the debate came on, to put 
 his Clergy and Laity in possession of the facts and reasons 
 which had influenced his own mind. Thus, in great matters, 
 Bishop and Synod worked well together, clearly knowing 
 what they meant. 
 
 He concludes his long letter : — 
 
 “ You will, I think, agree with me that, as in the Hew 
 Zealand Church, we require: ist, to draw up and adopt a 
 Church Constitution based on consensual compact, and 
 applicable to the whole Church of England in this Colony. 
 Therefore not a Diocesan Constitution, but a General or Pro- 
 vincial Constitution : and 2d, to obtain from the Legislature 
 only a Trust Act like the Hew Zealand Trust Act; in 
 the preamble of which our Church Constitution, with its 
 
iS66.] 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 21 1 
 
 Governing Body, the Provincial * Synod, may receive Legis- 
 lative recognition. . . . 
 
 “ In conclusion, I would express an earnest hope that we, 
 who represent our beloved Diocese in the coming Provincial 
 Conference, may be enabled, by the grace of God, to advocate 
 our own views with consistent firmness. While we are pre- 
 pared to bow with Christian meekness to the decision of the 
 majority, whatever that decision may be : bearing in mind 
 that the Provincial Conference is composed of the three 
 Dioceses of Sydney, Newcastle, and Goulbourn, and is, there- 
 fore, the real deliberative body of the United Church of 
 England and Ireland in New South Wales.” 
 
 When the Provincial Conference met at Sydney on the 
 nth of April, a Committee was appointed to draw up the 
 Constitutions. The Newcastle members had much difficulty 
 in securing the introduction, from the Bill of 1858-60, of 
 any Provincial Synod clauses. They just obtained their 
 adoption, the Chancellor of the Goulbourn Diocese being 
 so strongly opposed to any Provincial Synod, except one 
 founded on Letters Patent , that he moved that they should 
 be omitted. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Sydney Diocese grudgingly admitted 
 them : but contrived to subordinate the Provincial to the 
 Diocesan Synods, by limiting its powers of “ making deter- 
 minations and ordinances” to those things which shall be the 
 subject of joint reference to it by all the Diocesan Synods — 
 so that, if they were not willing to be controlled, the Provin- 
 cial Synod had no power over them : and any one Diocesan 
 Synod might stop Provincial action, by holding aloof from 
 the reference which the rest might desire to make. Bishop 
 Tyrrell says, in his Synod address in 1869, the Sydney 
 Chancellor “ has since stated, in explanation or defence of 
 his conduct, that as I10 could not succeed in preventing 
 entirely the introduction of these Provincial Synod clauses, 
 he thought the next best thing he could do was to cripple 
 its powers as much as possible.” 
 
 * “General ” has been altered to “ Provincial,” as that was the term 
 eventually applied to the aggregate of the Dioceses in each Colony. 
 
212 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1866. 
 
 In speaking to his Synod, which assembled five months 
 after the Provincial Conference, the Bishop said : This limi- 
 tation of the power of the Provincial Synod “ is a great 
 imperfection, and if it be asked why the Representatives of 
 this Diocese at the General Conference acquiesced in it, the 
 answer is : We had to struggle hard against an adverse 
 majority to obtain the introduction of any provisions for a 
 Provincial Synod into the Constitutions : and having suc- 
 ceeded in this important point in a way satisfactory to us, 
 except as to this one point of undue limitation, we deemed 
 it wise to acquiesce in this imperfection ; feeling assured that 
 it would be only for a time, and must be remedied whenever 
 a Provincial Synod is called into operation.” A hope wdiich 
 has, unhappily, not yet been realised. 
 
 Another matter of importance on which the Bishop and 
 representatives of Newcastle were constrained to resist the 
 other two Dioceses, was on the question of the amount and 
 scope of legislation for which the Church should apply to 
 Parliament. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Sydney Diocese proposed that the 
 application should be made to secure two distinct objects : 
 first, the practical working of the Constitutions ; and second, 
 the management of Church Property in accordance with the 
 Constitutions. 
 
 We have already seen that the Bishop and Synod of 
 Newcastle considered that the first of these had better 
 be left to the Church itself, without any legal enactment. 
 Bishop Tyrrell therefore proposed, as an amendment, the 
 omission of the words referring to the first object; leaving 
 only those which sought that the management of Church 
 Property should be secured by legislation. He says in 
 an address to his Diocesan Synod : “ My amendment was 
 rejected by a large majority at the Conference : but the 
 Bill now agreed to is drawn up in strict accordance with 
 what I then proposed. The yielding of a large majority to 
 the minority on this point has been pronounced to be an 
 act of wisdom , as probably ensuring the unopposed passing 
 of the Bill. But I would also desire to consider it as an act 
 
is 66.] 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 213 
 
 of thoughtful kindness for which we should be thankful ; 
 bringing to a happy close the disunion which had been exhi- 
 bited during the last eighteen months between the different 
 Dioceses of our Church. May such disunion never occur 
 again. . . . During this time important subjects have been 
 discussed and decided : and it may be some satisfaction to 
 this Diocese that the principles for which it contended have 
 been, in every case, ultimately confirmed. 
 
 1st. That the Legislature was not to alter the well-con- 
 sidered Constitutions of the Church. 
 
 2d. That any application to the Legislature was to 
 emanate not from one Diocese alone, but from the whole 
 Church assembled in General Conference. 
 
 3d. That the Bill for which Legislative sanction was re- 
 quired should not seek to legalise the Constitutions, but only 
 to secure the management of Church Property in accordance 
 with them.” 
 
 The Bishop of Newcastle too carefully had examined the 
 grounds on which he was acting to be unsettled by opposi- 
 tion or defeat : but he felt the support he received from his 
 old friend, Sir William Martin, in the following letter in 
 reference to the Conference : — 
 
 “ Auckland, July 4th, 1 866. 
 
 “ My dear Lord, — I desire to congratulate you on your 
 success, well earned and slowly achieved, against great 
 obstacles, to which you have now attained : and in the 
 prospect of a complete organisation before long of your whole 
 Colony. Yet on some points, especially on one of great con- 
 sequence connected with this latter business, I am not with- 
 out apprehensions, which, I am sure, you will not blame me 
 for expressing frankly. 
 
 “ In the Constitutions approved by your General Confer- 
 ence of April last, I notice a departure, much (as I conceive) 
 to be regretted, from the proposal of the first Synod of the 
 Diocese of Newcastle. So far as I know, all Church usage 
 i3 against the clause as sanctioned by the Conference. That 
 clause confers on the Provincial Body only limited or dele- 
 gated jurisdiction. Such, certainly, has never been the 
 
214 life OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1866 
 
 jurisdiction of Provincial Synods in England; — not in the 
 old time, as may be seen in Johnson’s ‘English Canons;’ 
 nor in more recent times, as may be seen by the Canons of 
 1603. Such bodies always exercised, as of right, a general 
 jurisdiction extending from the greatest to the smallest 
 matters. Every such body was the Parliament, in matters 
 purely ecclesiastical, of the Province. 
 
 “If, in any part of the Christian Church, the contrary 
 principle might be expected to show itself, it would be in 
 the United States of America : for the Congress, or General 
 Government, there, has so much of jurisdiction and power as 
 the pre-existing Colonies or States chose to part with, and no 
 more. But even there, with the plan of the new Common- 
 wealth before their eyes, that plan was deliberately rejected 
 by the Churchmen : and the Old English or Catholic prin- 
 ciple teas asserted. And how vigorously and tenaciously this 
 principle has been retained in the United States may be seen 
 in Hoffman’s ‘Law of the Church,’ especially pp. no, 127 . 
 
 “ This proposed new principle must lead to unnecessary 
 complications : for, the jurisdiction being limited, there must 
 exist some body to determine whether the limits have been 
 exceeded or not. . . . There is no excuse for introducing 
 this novelty among Churchmen, all our institutions at 
 home and in the Colonies being founded on the contrary 
 principle. . . . 
 
 “ Allow me also to mention a circumstance which has 
 greatly alarmed me for the safety of the work now before the 
 Churchmen of your Colony. I have read with real concern a 
 short article in the ‘ Sydney Church Chronicle’ of 21st of May 
 last ; in which a passage, singularly weak and misleading, from 
 a recent article in the ‘ Contemporary Review,’ is commended 
 as something worthy of the attention of the members of 
 the Church of England. As if the members of the Church 
 of England in a Colony did not possess the same freedom and 
 rights as other religious bodies. As if they were not free, in 
 common w T ith those other bodies, to meet and make rules for 
 the management of their own affairs, so long as they do not 
 contravene the law of the land. As if it could be wise or 
 
215 
 
 1 $66.] SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 becoming to importune tlie Colonial Legislature to give us, 
 as a boon , and therefore subject to revocation and to any 
 conditions which may be annexed to tlie boon, that which 
 we already possess as a right acknowledged by the law of the 
 land. The writer indeed perceives and admits that the 
 course he recommends is not necessary. Unfortunately, his 
 want of experience disables him from seeing the evils which 
 cleave to the course he so confidently recommends. 
 
 “Perhaps the most singular part of the whole passage 
 cited is the proposal that a branch of the Christian Church 
 should ask a mixed bjody , such as a Colonial Assembly, to 
 inform the Church what constitutes Church membership. 
 . . . Such men as the Contemporary Reviewer are slow to 
 discern how much the Church loses by leaning on the State , 
 how much of its freedom and strength, how much of the 
 faith and conviction of men. 
 
 “AVhat do these our Erastian friends think of the Church 
 of the first three centuries ? How incomplete a Church it 
 must seem to them ! Yet that Church achieved such a 
 victory as has never been achieved since. Without aid from 
 the State, nay, against all the efforts of the State, the Church 
 vanquished the organised heathenism of the world. Are we 
 sure that these Colonial Churches, which seem to some so 
 petty now, may not hereafter have to wage some such contest, 
 and may not need all their freedom, and self-reliance, and 
 faith, to carry them through it ? 
 
 “ Lady Martin desires me to present her affectionate 
 regards. Be sure that your presence among us many years 
 ago is still a cherished remembrance ; and that we all rejoice 
 heartily in the advancement and prosperity of the Church, for 
 which you have toiled so long, and, by God’s blessing, so 
 successfully. — I remain, my dear Lord, ever faithfully yours, 
 
 “ Wm. Martin.” * 
 
 About this time it was expected that the question of the 
 Connection of the Colonial Church with the mother Churcli 
 
 * Sir William Martin afterwards returned to England, and died in the 
 latter part of 1880 — a holy-minded and thoughtful student. 
 
2l6 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1866. 
 
 in England would be brought under the consideration of the 
 Imperial Parliament. Bishop Tait of London was anxious 
 to prepare himself for the discussion ; and, with this view, 
 addressed a circular to the members of the Colonial Episco- 
 pate, asking the expression of their opinions on four im- 
 portant questions. On the first three of these the Bishop of 
 Newcastle had made up his mind very decidedly. 
 
 The first question respected “ The desirableness, or other- 
 wise, of all Bishops in British Colonies receiving their 
 Mission from the See of Canterbury, and taking the oath of 
 Canonical obedience to the Archbishop.” 
 
 To this Bishop Tyrrell replies : — 
 
 “ I consider that the Bishops in British Colonies should 
 receive their Mission from the Provincial Synod. 
 
 “ The Mission was, I presume, given by the Letters Patent 
 of the Crown, as long as they were issued. The receiving 
 Mission, therefore, from the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 would be a novel proceeding : and as Colonial Bishops will 
 in future be elected by the Diocesan and Provincial Synods, 
 and Consecrated without the mandate of the Crown, any 
 application to the Archbishop of Canterbury for their Mission 
 would seem to be unnecessary and inconvenient.” 
 
 In a letter addressed in the following year to Archbishop 
 Longley, on the eve of the assembling of the first Lambeth 
 Conference, he explains the sense in which he had used the 
 term “Mission,” to be, the Bishop’s “ appointment to exercise 
 Episcopal functions in a 'particular district or Diocese” To 
 which he adds : “ that admission to the one Episcopate of 
 the Christian Church, or authority to exercise the Office and 
 work of a Bishop of the Church of God, is committed to him 
 at his Consecration, which should be performed by three 
 Bishops of his Province, by the direction of the Provincial 
 Synod.” 
 
 The second question was this: “ Whether it is desirable 
 that there should be an appeal in graver cases from the 
 judgments of Church Courts, or decisions of Bishops or 
 Synods, in the Colonies, to any authority at home : and, if 
 so, (1) To what authority 1 (2) Under what restrictions?” 
 
iS66.] 
 
 SYNODS ORGANISED AT LAST. 
 
 217 
 
 The Answer is : — 
 
 “ Diocesan and Provincial Tribunals will probably soon be 
 established in every branch of the Colonial Church having 
 consensual jurisdiction ; whether legalised, as in New South 
 Wales, by Act of the Colonial Legislature, or not. 
 
 “ I am firmly of opinion that all cases brought before these 
 Diocesan Tribunals should, as to their merits , be finally 
 decided by an apeal to the Provincial Tribunals : that there 
 should be no appeal, in the accurate sense of the word, to the 
 Civil Courts , and thence to the Privy Council on the whole 
 question , but simply (in the words of Lord Lyndhurst’s 
 judgment in the case of Dr. Warren) respecting the regularity 
 of the proceeding and the Authority of the Tribunal. An 
 appeal to England from these Colonial Church Tribunals 
 would, in my opinion, prove to be impunity to the rich and 
 reckless, and a denial of justice to the prudent poor.” 
 
 The third question proposed was : “ How far the Royal 
 Supremacy, as acknowledged by the United Church of England 
 and Ireland, can be maintained in our Colonial Churches ? ” 
 
 The answer is much the same as he had given in his 
 address to his first Diocesan Conference in 1852, when the 
 subject of the Royal Supremacy had been so hotly debated 
 in the Sydney Diocese. 
 
 “ The Supremacy of the Crown as the fountain of justice, 
 which is the Civil Supremacy, or the Supremacy of the Chief 
 Civil Magistrate set forth in the 37th Article of our Church, 
 is, of course, maintained in all British Colonies. 
 
 “ But in the Colonies we have no Ecclesiastical Courts, nor 
 is the ecclesiastical law of England in force among us. We 
 have not therefore, strictly speaking, any ecclesiastical causes. 
 And inasmuch as a Diocesan or Provincial Tribunal is not 
 really a Court of Law, but simply a Forum domesticum , and 
 the cases tried before it are only as cases referred to arbitra- 
 tion, the decisions of these Tribunals can be interfered with 
 by the Civil Courts, only with reference to the regularity of 
 the proceedings , and the Authority of the Tribunal. 
 
 “ With respect to the Royal Supremacy as acknowledged 
 by the Church of England, this, as referring only to an 
 
2 1 8 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [i 866. 
 
 Established Cburcb, seems to have ceased in the Colonies by 
 the action of the Crown through its responsible advisers. 
 
 “ Her Majesty’s consent was given, 4th of October 1866, 
 to an Act of our Colonial Legislature, which legalises not only 
 our present Constitutions, but also ‘ any rules and ordinances 
 to be made under, or by virtue, or in pursuance thereof.’ 
 Thus undefined Legislative powers have been granted to our 
 Diocesan Synods with the consent of the Crown ; and the 
 supremacy of the Crown over the Church has ceased to exist 
 as far as regards its Legislative functions. 
 
 “ Again, our legalised Constitutions give the power of 
 establishing Diocesan and Provincial Tribunals : and declare 
 that there shall be the same power of appeal as now exists 
 from the decision of the Bishop, which is either none at all 
 under our Church Act, or to the Metropolitan, whose decision 
 shall be final, under the Letters Patent, if they have any legal 
 authority in this respect. 
 
 “ Once more, the appointment of Colonial Bishops has 
 been relinquished by Her Majesty’s responsible advisers, and 
 also lately the Queen’s mandate for Consecration by other 
 Colonial Bishops. 
 
 “ Thus the Royal Supremacy, as acknowledged by the 
 Church of England, with respect to — 
 
 “ 1st, Its Legislative Functions; 
 
 “ 2d, Its Judicial Functions ; 
 
 “3d, The Appointment of Bishops; 
 has been relinquished as regards the Colonial Church, and 
 does not now exist. It cannot therefore be maintained, 
 unless it be again restored, which is impossible, and would, 
 in the opinion of myself and many others, be very unde- 
 sirable. ” * 
 
 * From Appendix to the Keport of the Synod in 1867. 
 
( 219 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND SORROWS — DEATH OF THE REV, 
 
 W. W. DOVE BISHOP SAWYER DROWNED CHURCH 
 
 SOCIETY MERGED IN DIOCESAN SYNOD VISIT OF 
 
 BISHOP OF LICHFIELD DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT 
 
 QUESTIONS DR. TURNER’S ARRIVAL COMPLETES THE 
 
 SECOND SUBDIVISION OF THE DIOCESE. 
 
 1866-1869. 
 
 “Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, onward through life he goes.” 
 
 — Longfellow. 
 
 The long-delayed hope of finding a Bishop for the See of 
 Grafton and Armidale seemed at last about to be realised. 
 The Rev. S. R. Waddelow, a holy and earnest man, still 
 affectionately remembered at Bournemouth, had accepted the 
 appointment : and’ the Bishop of Newcastle, who now felt 
 more than ever the need of the concentration of his energies 
 to meet the increased work of a rapidly-growing population, 
 and the demands of Synodical organisation upon his thoughts 
 and time, hoped that six months more would bring him 
 relief. He still seemed to shrink from no work ; his mind 
 was more vigorous than ever. The constant mental labour, 
 which had grown upon him, had cleared many difficulties 
 away ; and given him greater range of vision and a firmer 
 grasp of intricate questions. There were still his long Visita- 
 tions, in scorching drought or torrents of rain. Still, to help 
 his overburdened Clergy, he was ever ready to take their 
 work in their Parish Churches or their outlying Hamlets. 
 Still he maintained his ceaseless labour for schools, making 
 the weak ones more efficient, and doing battle with a hard- 
 
220 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1866. 
 
 headed government for all he could retain of religious edu- 
 cation. 
 
 But gray hairs were sprinkling the black, close-cut head ; 
 and the iron frame began to feel, when a hard day’s work 
 was done, that it had been more fatiguing than of old. 
 Twenty-t\yo years of unsparing devotion of mind and body 
 to his Heavenly Master’s service in the Episcopate were 
 beginning to tell. He began to long for the day when he 
 should be relieved of those weary journeys from the Liver- 
 pool Range to the borders of Queensland, and from the coast- 
 line to the far western interior, and devote himself to a 
 reduced Diocese and more manageable number of details. 
 
 He wrote with a thankful heart to the Rev. A. E. Selwyn, 
 then at Grafton : “ The Bishop of Grafton and Armidale is 
 elected but not appointed. He has, however, a noble Com- 
 mittee at work, collecting the additional funds for the Endow- 
 ment. I have received a very nice letter from him, and I 
 hope we may see him in the Colony by the end of the year.” 
 
 It was not so to be. Everything was arranged with Arch- 
 bishop Longley. St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1866, was fixed 
 for the Consecration. There had been no reason hitherto to 
 doubt his health : but in July symptoms showed themselves 
 which led him to consult a London physician as to his pro- 
 spect of standing the work of a Colonial Bishopric. After 
 much anxious deliberation he felt it his duty to write to the 
 Archbishop, and to decline Consecration, only a fortnight 
 before the appointed day : and his death from cancer a few 
 years later amply justified his decision. 
 
 The dear good Bishop mentioned to me his reception of 
 the disappointed intelligence in a letter dated 
 
 “Parsonage, Scone, N. S. Wales, 
 October 20 th, 1866. 
 
 “ My very dear Sir, — Your letter of August 25th has 
 reached me while from home on a Visitation : and my first 
 duty is to thank you very sincerely for the great trouble you 
 have taken, and for your sympathy with me in the grievous 
 disappointment which you as well as myself have suffered 
 
iS 66.] 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND SORROWS. 
 
 221 
 
 in the withdrawal of Mr. Waddelow. The telegram of 
 the English news had stated that the Bishop of G. and 
 A. was Consecrated on August 24th. This I read at Cas- 
 silis in Mr. Wilson’s new Parsonage, and rejoiced at the 
 news. 
 
 “I had held a Confirmation on Friday, October 12th, at 
 Merriwa, and in the evening rode on to Collaroy. On Saturday 
 morning we reached the nice new stone Parsonage at Cassilis ; 
 and there I read the news that seemed so good. On Sunday 
 held a Confirmation at Cassilis, and in the afternoon a second 
 Confirmation at Collaroy. On Monday I was in saddle by 
 6 a.m., and rode to Mr. Charles Blaxland’s, near Merriwa, to 
 breakfast. Thence to Hall’s Creek ; and on to Mount Dangar 
 on the Goulbourn Kiver.* There, on a most beautiful site, 
 very near the spot which we two selected many years ago, 
 with the sandstone crags of the Goulbourn Valley rising on 
 each side, and the timber-covered cone of Mount Dangar look- 
 ing down over all, a very nice wooden Church has been built. 
 Mr. Wilson had accompanied me from Collaroy. There, by 
 appointment, we met William White. He was hard at work 
 with two of the Candidates he had prepared for Confirma- 
 tion, making additional seats to accommodate the large con- 
 gregation expected at the next day’s Service. 
 
 “In the little vestry William White placed my English 
 letters in my hand, when I said ; ‘How probably I shall hear 
 when the new Bishop will arrive.’ To which he replied, 
 
 ‘ I am afraid your Lordship must expect a great disappoint- 
 ment.’ 
 
 “ And so, alas ! it was. I had not expected to hear by 
 this mail of the Consecration; so that when it was an- 
 nounced in the papers I rejoiced the more. The real fact 
 was thus the more disappointing. But there is One who 
 does all things well, and makes all things work together for 
 good to those who love Him. On these promises I must 
 build up my comfort and my confidence ; while I humble 
 myself and bow my head to our Lord’s gentle reproof, 
 
 * Far removed from Goulbourn in the south, which gives its name to 
 the See. 
 
222 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1866. 
 
 ‘ What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know 
 hereafter.’ 
 
 “ Next week I shall, I trust, reach home again ; and will 
 make it my first duty to consider carefully the position 
 which the important matter of the new Diocese and Bishop 
 has now assumed. — I remain, my very dear Sir, sincerely and 
 affectionately yours, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 Having been urged to visit England to assist in the selec- 
 tion of a Bishop, he replies in the following month : — “ It 
 seems to me no adequate advantage would result from my 
 coming to England to compensate at all for my absence, while 
 the Clergy are so few in number, and so many districts are 
 vacant. I cannot consider that I am to blame for the 
 present deficiency of Clergy ; for my expectation has been 
 that the new Bishop would have arrived months or years 
 ago with his own staff of Clergy. But I am painfully alive 
 to the want of Clergy, and feel it impossible to leave the 
 Diocese while this great want exists. In fact, I am acting 
 as the Curate of the wdiole Diocese ; and the power of reliev- 
 ing the Clergy in turn from duty, so that they may recruit 
 themselves by an absence of two or three weeks, is very 
 valuable. 
 
 “ I am, therefore, far from saying that duty may not call 
 me to England after the arrival of the new Bishop : but, 
 until his arrival, my post of duty seems to be here.” 
 
 And in his Diocese he considered his post of duty to be 
 through all his subsequent years. If at any time there 
 appeared to be some good reason for his going home, he 
 always thought he could see stronger reasons for remaining 
 where he was. It is unnecessary to maintain that he 
 judged quite rightly in this matter. Perhaps half a year in 
 England might have sent him back refreshed by the sight 
 of a more advanced state of Church life than the ordinary 
 conditions of a Colony exhibit ; and therefore better able to 
 lift up his beloved Diocese to a higher spiritual level. To 
 have joined in one or two “Ketreats,” to have seen a real 
 living Mission in a large town* conducted on the true prin- 
 
i86 7 .] 
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. W. IV. DOVE. 
 
 223 
 
 ciples of the Church, would have greatly helped him to 
 organise what he often desired among his Clergy and their 
 parishes. But we may misjudge. In the midst of this restless 
 generation it was truly a noble self-devotion which for 
 thirty-one years kept him through anxiety, success, or dis- 
 appointment, ceaselessly engaged on the work of his Diocese, 
 with the single break of his Missionary voyage to the Islands : 
 — a Bishop who never came home. 
 
 The following year brought the Bishop and the Diocese a 
 severe loss in the death of the Kev. W. W. Dove. He was 
 a man that could ill be spared : earnest in his attachment 
 to the Catholic principles of the Church; holy, reverent, 
 simple-minded, of sound common-sense, and indefatigable in 
 his Master's work. Two years before his death symptoms of 
 heart disease showed themselves ; but he still worked on. 
 At the beginning of January 1867, hearing that he was very 
 weak, the Bishop asked him to come and stay with him for 
 rest and medical advice : and after a fortnight he indulged 
 the too sanguine hope that he was returning home, “ fairly 
 well and strong again.” The revival was but slight and 
 temporary : and on the 23d of March, with two of his 
 devoted brethren in the Ministry attending him, he passed 
 away, at the age of thirty-five ; leaving behind him a widow 
 and four children. One of his brethren, in announcing to me 
 his death, said : “ I feel that I have lost more than a brother 
 in dear Dove. He was always with us in every good w^ork, and 
 such a gentle and humble spirit. We did not fully appre- 
 ciate him while he was amongst us. We need not grieve, 
 however, for him. He died a martyr's death, a martyr to 
 over-work.” 
 
 The same correspondent whites seven months later, when 
 the first sharp anguish was past and he could look calmly on 
 his loss : “ It will be long before we see his like again. At 
 the last Synod, a few weeks past, we missed him very much: 
 one did not realise, till losing it, how much influence in a 
 quiet ^vay he had. More than all, we missed him at our last 
 school feast, which took place on the 26th of September. 
 He had only been absent from one before, during the seven 
 
224 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1867. 
 
 years of my Incumbency; that was from an accident; a liorse 
 kicked him just as he was starting for Muswell Brook. I 
 seemed to have quite lost interest in it. A very nice stone 
 has been placed over his remains ; a simple cross on the slab 
 which covers the grave, with the inscription — 
 
 ‘ ‘ ‘ Sacred to the Memory of the Rev. W. W. Dove, 
 who died March 23, 1867. 
 
 “ ‘ So He giveth His beloved sleep.’ ” 
 
 Once more Bishop Tyrrell’s anxious hope of being relieved 
 from the northern part of his Diocese was destined to bitter 
 disappointment. 
 
 On the withdrawal of Mr. Waddelow, the Rev. W. C. 
 Sawyer was selected by Archbishop Longley for the Bishopric ; 
 and on the Feast of the Purification, 1867, was Consecrated 
 in Canterbury Cathedral, at the same time that the noble 
 Milman was given to Calcutta. 
 
 On receiving the intelligence, the Bishop of Newcastle 
 wrote : — 
 
 “Mokpeth, April 20th, 1867. 
 
 “ You may perhaps in some degree, though you can hardly 
 fully, realise the deep joy I have felt at learning, after disap- 
 pointments continued through the long period of five years, 
 that the Bishop of Grafton and Armidale was really Con- 
 secrated in February. By the diminution of my original 
 Diocese, by the separation first of the whole of the Colony 
 of Queensland, and now of a vast district to the north and 
 north-west of New South Wales, I seem to have entered upon 
 the last stage of my earthly course. My Diocese of New- 
 castle will probably remain for many years, perhaps for cen- 
 turies, of the same extent to which it has now been reduced; 
 and my last earthly work seems to be to provide permanently 
 for the Ministrations of the Church in my poor districts of 
 the southern part of my Diocese. ” 
 
 In the whole of the reduced Diocese there were twenty-two 
 districts. Of these, eleven to the southward could only 
 provide £100 per annum towards the stipends of their 
 Clergy ; the other eleven could generally, each of them, pro- 
 
iS6S.] ARRIVAL OF BISHOP SAWYER. 225 
 
 vide the 200 a-year which he had appointed them to con- 
 tribute. He says : — “ The present amount of stipends coming 
 from Government will be about ^100 for each of the 
 twenty-two districts. And the difficult task which I have 
 set myself is to provide each year a permanent stipend of 
 ^100 from Endowment, to replace the Government grant as 
 it gradually ceases; and to provide ^50 additional stipend 
 for each of the eleven poor districts, that the Clergyman’s 
 income may not be less than ,£2 50.” Such was one great 
 work which the Bishop set before himself when the Diocese 
 was really reduced. 
 
 About Christmas 1867 Bishop Sawyer and his party 
 arrived in Sydney, and received the cordial welcome which 
 always awaits a newly-arrived Bishop. Leaving his wife 
 and family under the roof of the Bishop of Newcastle, he 
 himself proceeded by steamer to Grafton, to make acquaint- 
 ance with his Diocese : rode on to Armidale ; and thence 
 returned to Morpeth through New England, and the district 
 of the Upper Hunter. 
 
 A letter from Bishop Tyrrell, dated from St. Albans on 
 the Hawkesbury River, where he was on a Visitation, con- 
 tinues the tale : — 
 
 “March 24^, 1868. 
 
 “ My very dear Sir, — .... My heart is very full. 
 We have all been horrified at the attempted assassination of 
 Prince Alfred; but this is not now the subject most in my 
 thoughts. 
 
 “ Also my nephew, the Rev. L. Tyrrell, has been at death’s 
 door from a fearful fall from his horse. He was carried to 
 the nearest hut, and there remained fourteen days before 
 he could be removed home. He leaves for England at the 
 beginning of next month, on leave of absence for a year. 
 
 “ This, however, is not the subject which now presses most 
 on my mind. 
 
 “ It is the vacant See of Grafton and Armidale. 
 
 “All the dear Bishop’s family remained with me for eight 
 weeks, while the Bishop made his first visit to his Diocese. 
 He then joined them, and took them by steamer to Grafton, 
 
 p 
 
226 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [i 868. 
 
 which they all reached in safety : and on Friday the 13 th 
 of March got into their house on the banks of the 
 Clarence, about a mile and a half below Grafton, on the 
 same side of the river.” 
 
 The rest of the sad story is given from the pen of the 
 Rev. W. E. White ; with the addition of a few words from 
 another correspondent : the heart of Bishop Tyrrell was too 
 heavy to tell it in full. 
 
 “ On the evening of the 15th Bishop Sawyer drove up to 
 the Evening Service, giving orders that his boat should take 
 him home. Hot being a swimmer, he had a life-belt to put 
 in his boat in case of an accident ; but on this occasion it 
 was left in the house. The Church was very full, and the 
 Bishop’s sermon remarkably earnest and searching. After 
 the Blessing his private prayer was unusually prolonged ; so 
 that the congregation began to wonder when it would end. 
 Who shall tell what were the supplications poured out by 
 the young Bishop for his flock and himself at that his last 
 service on earth? 
 
 “ About ten o’clock he was returning home in his boat 
 with his second son, two female servants, and two boatmen. 
 To save the boatmen labour, after rowing about a mile, the 
 poor Bishop, ever thoughtful for others, told them to hoist 
 the sail ; and he steered. 
 
 “ It is supposed that he mistook something that one of 
 the boatmen said, and pulled the wrong yoke-line : when 
 the boat went up into the wind, and a sudden gust took her 
 aback and capsized her. One of the boatmen was endeavour- 
 ing to save the Bishop, when one of the poor servants clung 
 to them, and all three were sinking together. The man had 
 to let them go to save his own life. The Bishop was never 
 seen again alive. His poor little boy was lying asleep on a 
 coat, and thus passed into a deeper sleep. One woman was 
 drowned, the other with the boatmen clung to the boat, and 
 their cries brought them assistance from the shore. The 
 three bodies were not recovered for two days. 
 
 “ There is universal mourning. What a blow to the 
 
iS6S.] 
 
 BISHOP SAWYER DROWNED. 
 
 227 
 
 Church, and especially to that young Diocese ! The Bishop 
 had won all hearts. It was my privilege to receive him 
 here, and drive him from Scone to Singleton a few months 
 ago. I shall never forget that visit. The delight he took 
 in looking at the views of old Oriel, to which he was 
 devotedly attached ; the pleasure of talking of old friends, 
 Burgon, Daman, and others ; his loving and devoted 
 character. He promised, if I would have a Surpliced Choir 
 for the new Church, that he would come himself and train 
 them for a few days, and have a Choral Service at the Con- 
 secration. Until half-past ten at night we stayed singing 
 Hymns'* A. and M. with my sister. And then on the road 
 to Singleton, the next day, I was so pleased with his true 
 and enlarged ideas on Church principles. ” 
 
 Thus again the labouring trustful Bishop of Newcastle 
 was thrown back for comfort on the promise, “ What I do 
 thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” At 
 present he had only the melancholy duty of providing for 
 the return to England of Bishop Sawyer’s widow and surviv- 
 ing children. 
 
 In his address to his Diocesan Synod in May, he 
 said : — 
 
 “ Before I pass on to the business of the Synod, I cannot 
 refrain from alluding in a few words to the sad death of the 
 late lamented Bishop. He was just shown to his Diocese 
 for a few weeks, during which he attached to himself in a 
 wonderful degree the affections of all with whom he came in 
 contact : and then he was suddenly taken away by one of those 
 mysterious acts of Providence, which we cannot pretend to 
 fathom : but which we would desire in faith to believe has 
 been ordered in wisdom and love. 
 
 “As the late lamented Bishop had not taken legal 
 possession of his Diocese by being installed in his Cathedral 
 Church, the charge of that Diocese reverts to me. 
 
 “ The death of this beloved Bishop is a grievous loss both 
 to his Diocese, and to the Church at large : but let us 
 remember there are others, who mourn over his loss with 
 deeper sorrow than we can pretend to feel, his widow and his 
 
228 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1868. 
 
 fatherless children. May the hearts of many, very many, he 
 roused to feelings of kindness and love to them : and may 
 we all show our sympathy and Christian love, not in word 
 or in tongue only, hut in very deed and truth ; and render 
 them, in their deep distress, the utmost aid in our power. 
 The offerings in most of our Churches in this Diocese on 
 the late day of General Thanksgiving were devoted to the 
 Bishop’s Widow and Orphan’s Fund. May these offerings he 
 abundant.” 
 
 The contributions amounted to about ^1700. 
 
 How ready and keen the Bishop’s sympathy was for those 
 in his Diocese is shown in a short note, dated September 
 8th, 1868 : — 
 
 “ It was my intention to have written you a long letter 
 this afternoon ; but I have been quite overcome by a sad 
 accident, which has occurred here, close to the Queen’s 
 Wharf, Morpeth. Yesterday I went over to Woodville at 
 good Mr. Croaker’s invitation, to look over with him the 
 improvements he had made on that estate, and the extensive 
 dam he had made to protect it from future floods. He was 
 in excellent health and spirits : and we went over the little 
 Church together, and walked all along the top of the new 
 very extensive dam. To-day I rode into Maitland to meet 
 Mr. Chapman and Mr. G. Yindin, and go with them over 
 all the accounts of St. Mary’s Hew Church. As I rode out 
 I met Mr. Croaker in his buggy, who took off his hat with 
 his usual happy smile of respectful recognition. You may 
 imagine, after these little incidents, my great distress, when 
 I returned to Morpeth, to find that Mr. Croaker had been 
 thrown from his buggy, and was lying at Murphy’s Inn, 
 close to the Queen’s Wharf, with so severe a fracture in 
 his head that he is quite insensible ; and the doctors have 
 no hope of his recovery. This has quite upset me. Mr. 
 Walsh has driven over to Woodville, to break the sad news 
 to Miss Croaker and the family. And I can at present 
 think of nothing else.” 
 
 The Diocesan Synod just mentioned was held at West 
 Maitland, and was one of some importance in the history of 
 
i86S ] CHURCH SOCIETY MERGED IN SYNOD. 
 
 229 
 
 tlie Diocese : for in it the Newcastle Church Society, which, 
 since its foundation in 1851, had been such an invaluable 
 help in binding the various and widely scattered districts 
 together, and aiding in the provision for Clergy, and good 
 works of all kinds, was absorbed into the Synod itself. 
 
 The Bishop speaks of this in a letter dated June 16th, 
 1868 : — 
 
 “ Another subject of real interest is our late Synod. The 
 Session lasted six days, and most of them very long days. 
 The last day but one we were sitting nearly twelve hours. 
 And all, I think, are pleased with what we have done. It 
 has been a Financial Session ; and the work of the dear old 
 Newcastle Church Society has been transferred to the Synod, 
 or to the Standing Committee of the Synod, which is to be 
 called the Diocesan Council. The working of the District 
 Associations will be just the same as before, only that the 
 Committee will be elected more formally, and the Quarterly 
 Meetings of the Standing Committee of the Society will 
 merge in the Quarterly Meetings of the Diocesan Council. 
 
 “ It was very gratifying to me to find that the principle, 
 by which the Government stipends are made equally avail- 
 able for all districts, was universally approved. And that 
 which was before the common law of the Diocese, or con- 
 sidered morally binding, is now the statute law of the 
 Diocese, and legally binding on all.” 
 
 The Quarterly Meetings of the Diocesan Council were not 
 only valuable, as opportunities of consultation with some of 
 the Bishop’s working-men : but were times at which a good 
 deal of business was got through ; as may be seen in a short 
 letter, dated October 8th, 1868. The hour of writing — 
 6 a.m. — showed that his old habits of early rising were still 
 kept up : — 
 
 “ I am writing in my bedroom : Canon Child occupying 
 your old room, Mr. White and Mr. Wilson their usual room : 
 the Treasurer of our Synod, the little room between yours 
 and mine, which dear Mr. Dove used to occupy, and Mr. J. 
 Lethbridge the room behind mine. And I write these few 
 
230 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1868. 
 
 lines, to make up a joint-letter to you from Mr. White, Canon 
 Child, and myself. 
 
 “ Yesterday was the Quarterly Meeting of our Diocesan 
 Council, and we had a full day’s work. We met at the 
 Depot at 9.30 a.m. ; adjourned to my house at 12.45 1 me ^ 
 again, as Trustees of the Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund, at 2. 
 Then the Council resumed at 2.30; and remained hard at 
 work until 7.30. We then adjourned to my house for tea : 
 and at 8.15 the Book Depot Committee met until 11. This 
 was almost too much for one day : hut at the close we all 
 felt that much had been done, and done well.” 
 
 That he did not yet spare bodily exertion the next letter 
 shows, dated November 5 th : — 
 
 “ The week before last I went on a Visitation to the 
 Manning; and rode on four successive days, forty-eight, 
 thirty, forty, and forty-one miles : the third day of forty 
 miles being equal to any common fifty. It was a very grati- 
 fying Visitation. 
 
 “ On Monday last, having had three Services on the Sun- 
 day at Paterson and Vacy, I started with Mr. Addams from 
 his Parsonage at Paterson at 5.30 a.m. We drove to Mr. 
 Charles Boydell’s to breakfast, and then onto the little Church 
 of St. Mary’s, Upper Allyn, built by the friends of the late 
 Bishop Broughton, for a Confirmation at 10.30. There were 
 forty-one Candidates. We then went on to Mr. William 
 Boy dell’s ; who, after luncheon, drove me to Gresford 
 Church ; where we had a very successful Church Meeting, 
 establishing a Parochial Council, and settling to commence 
 the Offertory in the Church for all future Sunday Services. 
 
 “We then drove back to Paterson, seventeen miles, and 
 were caught in a violent thunderstorm. At 7.30 we had a 
 meeting at the Court House at Paterson, which, on account 
 of the bad weather, was not well attended. We returned to 
 the Parsonage about 10 p.m., and I do not know how I 
 looked, but Mr. Addams certainly looked very, very tired.” 
 A week or two before the date of this letter, the Bishop 
 had the happiness of once more meeting at Sydney his dear 
 
1 868.] 
 
 VISIT OF BISHOP OF LICHFIELD. 
 
 231 
 
 friend, Bisliop Selwyn ; who, having been called to the See 
 of Lichfield, had returned to bid farewell, and to give his 
 parting counsels to his beloved New Zealand people, before 
 girding himself to his English work. 
 
 Independently of the pleasure of meeting him, Bishop 
 Tyrrell was anxious to make use of him, in support of those 
 views of the Divine Authority of the Church, and of her 
 right and duty, as Christ’s Kingdom on earth, to organise her 
 own Synods without the Secular power, which he had been 
 striving so hard to maintain ; but which neither the history 
 of the Primitive Church, nor the arguments of present facts, 
 could enable the Bishops and Chancellors of the Sydney 
 and Goulbourn Dioceses to accept. Episcopal Authority 
 by Letters Patent (which Lord Westbury,' who, as Sir R. 
 Bethel, had entangled poor Bishop Gray in them, had truly, 
 though with cynical contempt, shown to be utterly valueless), 
 Synods legalised by the Colonial Parliament, and the ener- 
 vation of the due authority of Provincial over Diocesan 
 Synods were, in their opinion, essential to the Church in 
 Australia. One of those high in position, who most help- 
 lessly clung to them, declared himself to the Bishop of New- 
 castle “an Erastian to the backbone. ” The example of the 
 New Zealand Church had been made very light of at the 
 time of the Provincial Conference ; but there was more hope 
 in the living presence of Bishop Selwyn. So the Bishop of 
 Newcastle gladly came to Sydney, on receipt of the telegram 
 announcing that he had arrived a week before he was 
 expected. 
 
 He says : “We have had a very delightful visit from the 
 Bishop of Lichfield and New Zealand, on his way back to Eng- 
 land. The Bishop of Melbourne was staying with the Bishop 
 of Sydney at Bishopscourt : and I took advantage of the 
 presence of the four Bishops to have a most beneficial Confer- 
 ence on Church matters. The Bishop of New Zealand quite 
 agreed with me, I knew, as the relation of the Colonial Church 
 with the mother Church in England, and also as to the import- 
 ance of having our different Diocesan Synods kept in union 
 and in order by the action of a Provincial Synod. So I first 
 
232 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1868. 
 
 of all asked him to be so kind as to give two or three morn- 
 ings to Conference with the other three Bishops on Church 
 matters, which I would consider his last best gift to the 
 Church in Australia. He most kindly consented. I then 
 proposed to the Bishop of Sydney that w r e should take 
 advantage of the presence of the Bishop of Hew Zealand to 
 consider with him, and the Bishop of Melbourne, those 
 important subjects of the Colonial Church and Provincial 
 action ; as the Bishop of Hew Zealand had just held his last 
 Provincial Synod in Hew Zealand, and had also taken a 
 very prominent part in the Lambeth Conference last year. 
 
 To this the Bishop of Sydney assented; and for three 
 mornings, from breakfast to one o’clock, the four Bishops 
 were in close Conference ; with a result which is likely to be 
 most beneficial to the Church in this Colony. I was supported 
 very powerfully in all those questions, in which I had been 
 in the minority of one in last year’s Provincial Conference, 
 against the Bishops of Sydney and Goulbourn : and, if there 
 was no positive change of opinion, there was certainly a 
 visible moderating of previous differences.” 
 
 Thus were these two old oarsmen once more pulling together 
 for the good of the Church, as they had done of old for the 
 honour of their College. At the end of the third day Bishop 
 Tyrrell was obliged to return to his Diocese ; and the brother 
 Bishops parted, not to meet again until the labour of both 
 was ended. 
 
 The Consecration of Sydney Cathedral, on St. Andrew’s 
 Day, was taken advantage of by the Metropolitan to assemble 
 a Conference of seven of the Bishops of Australia and Tas- 
 mania. They met on Monday, Hovember 23d, and the Session 
 lasted six days. 
 
 Those present were : — 
 
 The Bishop of Sydney — Dr. Barker, Metropolitan. 
 
 The Bishops of Adelaide, Dr. Short ; Melbourne, Dr. 
 Perry ; Hewcastle, Dr. Tyrrell ; Brisbane, Dr. Tufnell ; Goul- 
 bourn, Dr. Thomas ; Tasmania, Dr. Bromby. The only Bishop 
 not present was the Bishop of Perth, Dr. Hale, whose distance 
 from Sydney prevented his coming. 
 
iS68.] DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. 233 
 
 The conclusions at which they arrived they placed under 
 seven heads : — 
 
 1. The relation of the Church of England in Australia to 
 the Church at home ; is one of identity of doctrine and 
 worship ; and subjection, as far as practicable, to the law of 
 the Church of England. 
 
 2. The election of Colonial Bishops, whatever be the mode 
 adopted, should be confirmed by the Bishops of the Province. 
 The majority expressed their opinion that, so long as prac- 
 ticable , Letters Patent, assigning to the Bishop a territorial 
 sphere of action, should continue to be issued. 
 
 3. A General Synod should be constituted, consisting of 
 Bishops and representatives of the Clergy and Laity in the 
 several Colonies comprised within the Province : with the 
 object of maintaining the relation of the Church in the Pro- 
 vince of Australia to the Church, both at home and in the 
 various Colonies ; as well as to secure unity of doctrine and 
 discipline between the several branches of the Australian 
 Church. 
 
 4. The General Synod should constitute a Tribunal, to 
 which there should be a right of appeal from any Bishop, or 
 Diocesan Tribunal in the Province, in cases involving ques- 
 tions of Faith or Worship. 
 
 5. A Tribunal should be constituted by the General Synod, 
 before which charges against a Bishop should be tried. 
 
 6. Every Bishop of the Province should, at his Consecra- 
 tion, take an oath of Canonical obedience to the Metro- 
 politan. 
 
 7. The Bishop of one Diocese in the Province should not 
 entertain an application from a Clergyman in another Diocese 
 until his Bishop shall have consented to his removal. Not 
 less than three months’ notice should be given of the desire 
 to resign a Cure. 
 
 Respecting this Conference the Bishop of Newcastle wrote 
 to me a few days later : — 
 
 “Sydney, December 3 d , 1868. 
 
 “ It has been a delightful time, the Metropolitan excelling 
 in all the mildness and consideration requisite in the Presi- 
 
234 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1868. 
 
 dent of such a meeting. . . . As I think you will he 
 interested in knowing on what points we differed in opinion, 
 I will give you this information. 
 
 “ One great point of difference was the value of Lord 
 Komilly’s judgment, as differing from Lord Westbury’s on 
 this point (which is, in fact, the one real difference between 
 them), whether the Letters Patent really appoint to each 
 Bishop a territorial sphere of action or not. The Bishops of 
 Sydney, Melbourne, and Goulbourn estimate Lord Bomilly’s 
 judgment very highly, and consider that its opinions must 
 be taken as law until overruled by an adverse judgment of 
 the Judicial Committee of Privy Council. 
 
 “The Bishop of Adelaide has formed, and had received 
 from almost every one who mentioned the subject to him in 
 England, a very low estimate of Lord Komilly’s judgment. 
 
 “ I have also formed a very low estimate of it, and con- 
 sider, as the Bishop of Oxford [Wilberforce] does, and also 
 Bishop Selwyn, that his opinions respecting many of the 
 powers of the Letters Patent are merely a Judge’s obiter 
 dicta , and not his judgment. After a most careful compari- 
 son of the two judgments, I have arrived at the opinion that 
 Lord Westbury’s judgment declares that the Queen’s Letters 
 Patent cannot confer a territorial sphere of action in a Colony 
 which has an independent Legislature ; this must be derived 
 from the mutual compact of the Bishop and the Clergy of 
 any new Diocese through the licenses of the Clergy. While 
 the obiter dicta of Lord Komilly do not clearly state, but 
 it logically take for granted , that the territorial sphere of 
 action which a Colonial Bishop has, after his installation 
 and acceptance by his Clergy, really arises from his Letters 
 Patent, and not from mutual compact. . . . 
 
 “ Therefore I do not believe that I have authority in my 
 particular Diocese from the Queen’s Letters Patent, but from 
 the mutual consent of myself and my Clergy, shown by their 
 acceptance of my license. Nor do I believe that the Metro- 
 politan’s Letters Patent can legally assign to him any 
 Province : and therefore, while I am delighted to acknow- 
 ledge myself his Suffragan Bishop, and to submit to him in 
 
1 868.] DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. 235 
 
 all things lawful and lionest as my Metropolitan ; I am of 
 opinion that the Dioceses of Australia and Tasmania can he 
 now formed, and be legally considered a Province, only by 
 the mutual consent of all the Dioceses declared through their 
 Synods in their several Colonies.” 
 
 In these views the Members of his own Diocesan Synod 
 were cordially at one with him. His elaborate addresses to 
 them at the opening of each Session discussed many of the 
 intricate questions which beset the Church’s path, in her 
 progress from State assistance and control to self-support 
 and self-government. Out of his own extensive reading he 
 directed them to sources of information, which his over- 
 worked Clergy, and Laymen taken from their ordinary busi- 
 nesses in a Colony, could not have discovered for themselves. 
 But many of these were men of clear heads and good 
 reasoning powers, and made very good use of the information 
 and guidance they received from him. Thus they moved as 
 a firm compact body on all the great questions which came 
 under discussion ; and both Bishop and Synod felt the 
 strength arising from mutual support. 
 
 In their own Synod the debates were improving year by 
 year, not in fluency only, which is a small matter, but in 
 keeping to the point, and getting through a good amount of 
 useful business. This was greatly aided by the Organisa- 
 tion of the whole Diocese, founded upon the old lines of the 
 Church Society, but improved and consolidated chiefly by 
 the suggestions of the Bishop. In each Parochial Cure the 
 affairs of the district were managed by a Parochial Council, 
 which sent in regular Beports of all District matters to the 
 Diocesan Council. 
 
 The Diocesan Council was the most important body for 
 the successful working of the Synod. It consisted of the 
 Bishop, six Clerical and six Lay Members, elected at the first 
 Session of each Synod. Among its duties were : — To control 
 and manage the funds raised in the Diocese or otherwise, for 
 the maintenance of the Clergy, or for other general Church 
 purposes. To assist the Bishop in the management of any 
 
236 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1869. 
 
 funds from Government for schools or Clergy. To receive 
 applications from districts for organisation as Parishes, and 
 to report to the Synod. To assist the Bishop, when called 
 upon by him, in investigating questions affecting the welfare 
 of the Church. And to prepare the business for the ensuing 
 Session of Synod. The Diocesan Council met quarterly at 
 Morpeth, and in it all important questions were carefully 
 discussed before they were submitted to the Synod. No 
 important subject was debated in Synod before a Committee 
 had been appointed to consider and bring up a report upon 
 it, and many of the reports which appear in the Minutes of 
 the Synod show great painstaking and clear-headedness. 
 
 The Synod met annually and was re-elected triennially. 
 The first three Sessions, beginning from 1865, were held in 
 August or September at Morpeth. The fourth in May at 
 West Maitland. In 1869 the Synod assembled at New- 
 castle, as the Cathedral City ; and there all subsequent 
 Sessions have been held, except in 1878, when, for the first 
 time, the Bishop, owing to his failing health, was unable to 
 be present, and Canon Child received his commission to hold 
 it at East Maitland. 
 
 The Session of 1869 was marked by “cordial good feeling, 
 and a union of sentiment which was very delightful : ” and 
 a member of the Synod, who always took a considerable 
 share in the debates, speaks of it as “the most agreeable and 
 most profitable ” of any which had been held up to that 
 time. “We attempted less in this session, but that little 
 was done well.” The good people of Newcastle exerted 
 themselves to show the most kindly hospitality to the Mem- 
 bers of the Synod : and the ladies formed a Committee to 
 provide for them during their four days’ Session, the Bishop 
 warning them that they were very unwise in treating them 
 so generously, as they would never again be inclined to 
 meet in any other place. In the course of his long and 
 masterly address to his Synod on that occasion, he pointed 
 out the difficulties in which all the Dioceses had been in- 
 volved by the endeavours that had been persisted in to 
 legalise the Constitutions. 
 
1869.] DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. 237 
 
 It will be remembered that, at the Provincial Conference 
 in May 1S66, the Chancellor of the Sydney Diocese had 
 desired to obtain legislative sanction and recognition for 
 the Constitutions, as well as for a Church Property Bill ; that 
 in this matter the Bishop and Diocese of Newcastle had been 
 outvoted by the Dioceses of Sydney and Goulburn ; but that, 
 as there was small chance of the Colonial Parliament grant- 
 ing such a Bill, the first object was abandoned ; and a Bill 
 to secure the management of Church Property alone was 
 applied for. It was, however, attempted to obtain indirectly , 
 by thee mode of drawing the Church Property Act, what 
 would not have been obtained directly. 
 
 The Act was passed ; and it was supposed by its promoters 
 that the effect must be to legalise the Constitutions them- 
 selves. But it soon appeared that the attempt had failed. 
 “The Act of the Legislature only enabled the Synods to 
 manage their property, and went not one iota beyond this.” 
 
 But if the Act did not give legal force to the Constitu- 
 tions, it imposed leged fetters on them. It prevented them 
 from being altered in the slightest respect, even for the most 
 desirable objects, as long as the Act should remain in force. 
 The Bishop therefore suggested to his Synod that in the 
 next Session the repeal of this Act should be made a subject 
 of joint reference to the Provincial Synod. But even this 
 could not be done for three years, in consequence of the 
 trammels which the Conference of 1866 had thrown upon 
 the free action of the Church. It was not pleasant for the 
 Bishop of Newcastle thus to expose the errors which the 
 majority, led by their lawyers, had committed ; but it was 
 necessary to do so in the hope of their ultimate amendment. 
 
 On the nth of May the first Provincial Synod was held 
 at Sydney. It ought to have been a great event in the 
 history of the Church in New South Wales, but several 
 causes combined to make it less useful than it ought to have 
 been. Indeed it is hardly possible for that Body to attain 
 to much vigorous life until some of the narrow prejudices 
 which have fettered it, and which Bishop Tyrrell strove 
 long and earnestly to remove, have given way. One good, 
 
23 $ 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1869. 
 
 however, was attained : the Members learned to know and 
 understand one another ; and, in spite of some sharpnesses 
 in debate, its tone and spirit were a very great improvement 
 npon what was exhibited at the Conference in 1865. When 
 it was over, the Metropolitan asked one of the Newcastle 
 Members if he was satisfied, and added : — “ I think you may 
 be. The views of your Diocese must prevail : they are 
 inevitable ; but it is better to see the Church cautious in 
 dealing with such a new state of affairs, than precipitate in 
 her action.” 
 
 At length the Bishop's long-delayed hope of obtaining a 
 Bishop for Grafton and Armidale was fulfilled. The Kev. 
 James Francis Turner, who had been Consecrated at West- 
 minster Abbey by Archbishop Tait on the Feast of St. 
 Matthias, arrived at Sydney on the 13th of August. The 
 Bishop of Newcastle went to greet him there; and after 
 receiving him at Morpeth, rode up to his Installation at 
 Armidale. 
 
 His great work of the second subdivision of his original 
 Diocese was now completed; and in December he writes : — “ I 
 find the division of the Diocese a great relief : as the making 
 provision for the more distant Cures was my greatest anxiety 
 and trouble. And now I have new work marked out before 
 me, which will give full employment for the next two years, 
 if life be so long spared.” 
 
( 239 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PL A N S FOR ENDO JVM ENT — LA V READERS TH1R D SESSION 
 
 OF SECOND SYNOD WESTMINSTER ABBEY SCANDAL 
 
 —FIRST SESSION OF THIRD SYNOD VISITATION OF 
 
 THE MANNING SECOND SESSION OF THIRD SYNOD 
 
 PROVINCIAL SYNOD FORMATION OF GENERAL 
 
 SYNOD VISITATIONS DEATHS OF REV. A. GLENNIE , 
 
 BISHOP PATTESON, MRS. GARDNER. 
 
 1870-1872. 
 
 “No time for rest, till glows the western sky, 
 
 While the long shadows on our pathway lie, 
 
 And a glad sound comes with the setting sun ; 
 
 Servants, well done : ” 
 
 — Author of “ Hymns from the Land of Luther.” 
 
 The separation of the See of Grafton and Armidale being at 
 length accomplished, the Bishop set himself to the work, which 
 he had long contemplated, the Endowment of the Cures of 
 his now reduced Diocese. Endowment in one shape or 
 another was no new idea to him : it had been before his 
 mind from his first acceptance of the See in 1847. He had 
 been aware that his work would involve large expenditure, 
 that external aid would be insufficient and temporary, and 
 that there were no accumulations to rely upon. By his own 
 exertions in England, and those of his Committee, to whose 
 zealous labours and subscriptions the Diocese is deeply in- 
 debted, a special fund had been collected for the Diocese of 
 Newcastle : and while he used part of this to meet some 
 of the many calls which clamour round a first Bishop, he 
 invested a sufficient sum to bring in an income of ^200 
 per annum, for permanent use. 
 
 The evil of depending upon, and using up, large annual 
 
240 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1870. 
 
 grants from England was strongly impressed on him during 
 his visit to New Zealand in 1851 : and he was led to think 
 that it would he well if English societies, instead of making 
 grants for current expenses only, would allow some of their 
 funds to he used for Endowment. He inquired, for his own 
 guidance, into all that was doing there ; and was greatly con- 
 firmed in his opinion of the value of such appropriations. 
 Writing to the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel, he says : — “ The annual outlay of the Church 
 Missionary Society in New Zealand I found to he ^ro,ooo. 
 This outlay had continued for twenty years ; so that the 
 large sum of ^200,000 had been expended there on the 
 Mission to the Natives. I looked round for the perma- 
 nent effects of this outlay. Doubtless many souls had been 
 gathered year by year to the Lord ; hut what was the perma- 
 nent provision for ministering to souls made from this large 
 outlay? I could not see or hear of any. At that time 
 I resolved that, with the Lord’s blessing, such should not 
 be the result of twenty years’ grants from your Society to 
 my destitute Diocese.” 
 
 He therefore asked to be allowed to invest for permanent 
 use the grants made to him, to which he promised to make 
 an addition : while he encouraged the Colonists to provide for 
 their present spiritual needs a sum equal to the grants thus 
 employed. In this way a threefold good was obtained 
 through the Society’s grants : the objects for which they 
 were given were attained ; while at the same time the 
 Churchmen of the Diocese were encouraged and trained to 
 habits of self-reliance, and an Endowment was being gradu- 
 ally accumulated for future use. 
 
 Writing in 1853 to the Secretaries of the Newcastle 
 Church Society, he says : “^2000 will be available this year 
 for investment ; and, I trust, a similar sum during each of 
 the next four years.” 
 
 He desired to endow partially the primary Church schools, 
 that they might become independent of the precarious and 
 grudgingly-bestowed aid of Government : and for this pur- 
 pose he looked for assistance not only from without, but 
 
1S70.] 
 
 PLANS FOR ENDOWMENT. 
 
 2 4 r 
 
 considered tliat he effected a lasting good for his Diocese by 
 inducing Churchmen within it to do their part. With this 
 view he invited them to make thank-offerings to God for 
 worldly prosperity, or other mercies received, promising at 
 the same time to double any such offerings out of sums in his 
 hands available for the purpose. 
 
 This appeal was far more successful than he had ventured 
 to hopa Some small Endowments were made to assist 
 schools : and larger sums were given for more general pur- 
 poses ; and to these were added gifts from England, and his 
 own savings : so that in May 1856, when he had been but 
 eight years in his Diocese, he had in his hands ^14,000 for 
 investment; some of which was beneficially employed in 
 assisting Church buildings by loans at a moderate interest, 
 after the pattern of Queen Anne’s Bounty in England. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that he had endowed the 
 Church Society with a floating balance of ^1000, to enable 
 the Treasurer to pay the salaries of the Clergy quarterly, 
 before the contributions due from the districts had been 
 sent in. For the Canonries he had partly procured, and 
 partly given, an Endowment of ^iooo<as a beginning ; while 
 to complete the Endowment of the Bishopric he had, by 1859, 
 accumulated an additional sum of )£i 2,000, part of which was 
 probably included in the ^*14,000 which he had in 1856. 
 
 But the object for which he* was most anxious to obtain 
 Endowment was the support of the present and of additional 
 Clergy. This is one of the works which especially fall to 
 the share of a Colonial Bishop. His brethren in England 
 presiding over Dioceses, in great measure provided for by 
 the piety of former generations, have- little to do with 
 obtaining Endowments for their Clergy, save where a fast- 
 growing population has swarmed around collieries, factories, 
 or foundries. Even then the real work of Endowment is 
 often taken in hand by some wealthy proprietors. But in 
 a Colony, unless the Bishop takes pains to arrange for the 
 support of the Clergy as well as for their appointment, the 
 support will either not be forthcoming, or it will take the 
 most objectionable of the forms of Voluntaryism — the pa} T - 
 
 Q 
 
242 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1870. 
 
 ment of the Pastor directly by his flock. It was the clear 
 perception of this that led Bishop Tyrrell to devote himself 
 — some thought, in too great a degree — to make provision 
 for the Clergy, not merely during his own lifetime, but, with 
 loving forethought, for years to come. 
 
 In 1864, when he hoped that the subdivision of the Diocese 
 was nearer than it proved to be, he urged on the Laity 
 “ the absolute necessity of some general scheme of Diocesan 
 Endowment to supply funds for replacing the present Govern- 
 ment stipends of the Clergy, as they gradually fall in, and are 
 lost.” * . . . “ If,” he adds, “ Endowments be not provided 
 to replace the Government stipends as they fall in, the pre- 
 sent number of Clergymen cannot be supported in this 
 Diocese ; but in many cases two adjoining Church districts 
 must be united into one Cure.” f 
 
 This was an alternative in which he would not acquiesce. 
 “ Are we,” he asks afterwards, “ to diminish the number of 
 Clergymen because we cannot support them ? Certainly not. 
 The thought cannot be entertained for a moment. It should 
 be the solemn resolve of every member of this Synod, and 
 of every member of our Church in this Diocese, not to allow 
 any one of the present Church districts to be deprived of a 
 resident Clergyman.” J 
 
 In his letter in 1864, having mentioned other contem- 
 plated Endowments which might be postponed for a time, he 
 drew out a plan for obtaining eventually an Endowment of 
 ^40,000 for this purpose. The sum of ^2500 was to be 
 contributed annually for investment. Of this he promised 
 ^500 per annum himself ; he asked the Laity of the whole 
 Diocese for £ 500 more, and he saw his way to obtain from 
 three sources the remaining ^1500. This scheme he laid 
 before the first Diocesan Synod in 1865, in answer to a 
 resolution requesting him to do so ; and a Committee was 
 formed to consider it. 
 
 Committees and Synods move more slowly and more 
 
 * The Bishop’s Letter to the Secretaries of the Church Society, May 2, 
 '864, p. 55. f Ibid., p. 58. 
 
 X Address to Synod, 1870, p. 13. 
 
iSjo] 
 
 PLANS FOR ENDOWMENT . 
 
 243 
 
 warily than individuals ; and so, after two years* considera- 
 tion, the Committee reported that, important and desirable 
 as the object was, and liberal and self-denying as was the 
 personal offer of the Bishop, it seemed to them that some of 
 the proposed sources of Endowment could not be depended 
 upon ; and that they were all of such a nature that the Synod 
 “ could not exercise complete control over them.” But obsta- 
 cles did not induce the Bishop to relinquish his cherished 
 design, though they might retard its execution. During the 
 next two years his hands were fully occupied ; but when the 
 Diocese of Grafton and Armidale had been finally removed 
 from his care, and placed under its own Bishop, he proposed 
 to his Synod a different plan, as a commencement of the 
 Endowment of the Cures, which was thankfully adopted and 
 set at work. 
 
 He promised that if for the next five years the Diocese 
 would contribute an additional sum of ^300 in each year to 
 meet the loss of the Government stipends, he would pay over 
 ^5000 for investment. To meet this he had ^2000 in 
 hand, -would give ^400 a year out of his Episcopal income, 
 ■which would make ^2000 more, and on this ^4000 being 
 provided, the S. P. G. would add for Endowment a grant of 
 ^1000, making the whole sum promised. Eventually, find- 
 ing that the Society had stipulated that ^£5000 should be 
 contributed before they would add their ^1000, the Bishop 
 and his sister, who was ever ready to help in good works, 
 gave the extra ^1000 between them ; and thus the Endow- 
 ment was commenced with ^6000. 
 
 The Diocesan Council was now fully alive to the import- 
 ance of such a work. In its Report to the Synod it said : 
 “ ^Without something permanent in the way of Endowments, 
 the Church cannot maintain its Ministers adequately in all 
 the districts now occupied, far less extend its labours to new 
 fields. The element of uncertainty in the form of support by 
 annual contributions is a cause of weakness and hindrance. 
 Bad seasons, floods, a change of population, may at any time 
 upset arrangements ; and unless there be some fixed means 
 of support to fall back upon, may lead to many being deprived 
 
244 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [r8;o. 
 
 of Church privileges. But apart from this, as a matter of 
 fact, no district does, as yet, raise enough to support its own 
 Clergyman ; and although much more might he done, and 
 some districts are believed to be able to raise the required 
 amount ; it is clear that, in other districts, it is simply im- 
 possible to do so. Endoicment is, therefore , the pressing claim 
 of the day. Churches and Parsonages have been provided in 
 every district : it remains to make equally permanent provi- 
 sion for their use and occupation. This may be done through 
 Diocesan or Parochial Endowments. The proposal made by 
 the Bishop opens the way for commencing the former ; in- 
 ducements to the latter are held out in the Presentation Bill ; 
 and it is hoped they may not be ineffective.” 
 
 In the same address, in which the Bishop proposed his 
 plan of Endowment, he made an appeal for the services of 
 Laymen. Small and insufficient as was the number of Clergy 
 to the mileage of their districts, the disproportion between 
 the men and their work had been continually increasing with 
 the increase of population : and still more with the number 
 of “ free selectors,” or small purchasers of land ; with which 
 a change in the land laws had sprinkled many a watercourse 
 or creek in the “ Bush,” where before there was only a shep- 
 herd’s hut or two. To meet the wants of people who were 
 from ten to thirty or forty miles from their Parish Priest and 
 Church, small Churches had been built where population 
 had thickened ; or periodical Services had been held at some 
 settler’s house, where the neighbours assembled from three or 
 more miles round. So that in almost every district, if there 
 was but one Clergyman, there were several Churches, and 
 more places where regular Services were held at times. 
 
 The Bishop said : — “ There is ample work in our Diocese 
 for additional Clergymen ; but ” [there was this unhappy 
 obstacle in the way] “there is no immediate prospect of 
 obtaining the additional funds for their support. Next year, 
 I hope, one extensive district will be divided, and Denman 
 made the centre of a new Cure. And after the establishment 
 of that new district, it would seem to me that the Clergy 
 must hope to be relieved by having placed with them Candi- 
 
IS70.] 
 
 LAY READERS AND PREACHERS . 
 
 245 
 
 dates for Orders to assist them and to be trained by them, 
 and young Clergymen as their Curates : while at once I hope 
 there will be raised up, by the Lord’s blessing, a band of Lay 
 Readers appointed by me on the recommendation of their 
 Clergyman ; not so much lessening his duties, as giving him 
 the satisfaction of seeing that many Services on the Lord’s 
 Day were being regularly performed, which he had desired 
 but could not perform himself. 
 
 “ The rule which I have ventured to lay down respecting 
 these Services is this : that wherever there has been a Sunday 
 Service, even in the humblest building, once a fortnight, or 
 once a month, or once a quarter ; there it is the duty of the 
 Church to provide as soon as possible a Service every Sunday. 
 
 . . . This is a work peculiarly suited for Christian Laymen, 
 and which will bring a blessing from the Lord both upon 
 themselves and upon those to whom they Minister. . . . 
 
 “ To select and encourage and train such Lay Preachers, 
 with the assistance of the Clergy in their respective districts, 
 is the special work to which I propose to devote myself this 
 year : and let me ask of you, my brethren, both of the Clergy 
 and the Laity, your frequent prayers that the Lord’s blessing 
 may rest upon me in the performance of this duty.” 
 
 This session of Synod was marked by much ability in the 
 debates and unity of feeling. The Bishop writes of it : 
 “ Our late Session has been a pleasure to us all, to Bishop, 
 Clergy, and Laity : and in some respects it was to myself 
 deeply, almost painfully, gratifying. May the Lord, if it be 
 His gracious will, permit this genial confidence to continue 
 to the end of my Episcopate.” In August he writes : — “ The 
 feeling of the Synod was most hearty, and the principal 
 Laymen, as Dr. Traill and Francis White and others, assured 
 me I need not have the slightest doubt respecting the required 
 amount being contributed : and I may say, that throughout 
 the Diocese the union and harmony of Bishop, Clergy, and 
 Laity is complete. 
 
 “Respecting Endowment. You are quite right in stating 
 that I never wish that any Parish should be endowed to the 
 fidl amount of the Clergyman’s stipend. I do not think that 
 
246 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1870. 
 
 this would be a healthy state of things. Let the worshippers 
 alivays contribute something towards the means of grace and 
 pastoral care provided for their spiritual good.” 
 
 Turning to English questions he says : — 
 
 “ Btshopscourt, Sydney, September 6 th , 1870. 
 
 44 Eespecting the disestablishment of the Church of Eng- 
 land in a few years, it would seem to me that the reception 
 of the proposal respecting the Church in Wales by the House 
 of Commons, and Gladstone’s declaration, would give ground 
 for supposing that the time of such disestablishment may be 
 more distant. On a matter of such great importance and 
 risk, it seems to me scarcely wise or right to express any 
 hope one way or the other ; but rather to leave all to the 
 Lord, with the cheering assurance that He will ever aid those 
 who strive to do His will.” 
 
 Eef erring to the painful attempt in Westminster Abbey 
 to divorce Communion with the Church from the Catholic 
 Eaith, he says : — 
 
 4 4 1 have just been reading, in the 4 Guardian ’ of July 6th, 
 the conversation in the Upper House of Convocation respect- 
 ing the administration of Holy Communion in Henry the 
 Seventh’s Chapel, in connection with the revision of the 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 44 As regards the formation of the two Committees, or 
 4 companies / as they are strangely called, of Eevisers, I 
 should much have preferred that they had been confined at 
 first to Divines of the Church of England : and, after they 
 had gone through their work, that it should have been referred 
 to Divines of the different Denominations ; and that their 
 suggestions should have been carefully considered before the 
 work was finished. 
 
 44 With respect to the admission of Dissenters, and a 
 Unitarian, to Holy Communion administered in the Church, 
 I cannot but regard it as a great scandal , without any 
 sufficient grounds. 
 
 44 If it was really desirable to have all Denominations united 
 in the work, then do not invite all to Holy Communion. 
 
1870.] 
 
 VISITATION OF THE MANNING . 
 
 247 
 
 If it was desirable to invite all to Holy Communion, then 
 do not admit Dissenters and a Unitarian among the Revisers. 
 Alas ! we live in strange times. ” 
 
 A letter dated “Parsonage, Stroud, November 3d, 1870,” 
 shows the good Bishop still hard at work, as in former years, 
 on a Visitation tour : — 
 
 “ My very dear Sir, — I am engaged on a Visitation, and 
 have to-day ridden sixty -three miles ; thirty of them in 
 pouring rain : and now, late at night, write a few lines to 
 you to catch the Mail for England. So I need not give you 
 any other evidence that I am, thank the Lord, in good health, 
 during a season which has been very trying and sickly. My 
 first news, very sad news, is that we have lost the Rev. 
 Alfred Glennie. Before I left here I went to take his duties 
 one Sunday, and found him very weak. . . . And when I was 
 at Taree I received the sad tidings that he had been taken 
 to his rest. . . . Dear good man ! you will remember him : 
 and I need not tell you how highly I valued him for his truly 
 Christian character, and his unceasing devotion to his duty. 
 
 “ My Visit to the Manning has been of unusual interest. 
 In 1868 I arranged with the members of our Church in 
 this extensive district that they should during the next 
 five years build, with my assistance, five new Churches, one 
 each year : and now, at the conclusion of two years, I have 
 done duty in three new Churches, and have made arrange- 
 ments for the building of three other Churches before 
 October 1871. 
 
 “ You will remember the names of some of the following 
 places, at which I have held Service in the Manning River 
 District during the last week. 
 
 “I reached Taree Parsonage at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 
 September 26th, having started from Gloucester at 6 a.m. On 
 the 27th, rowed in rain fifteen miles to Scott’s Creek, to a 
 sawmill establishment, where, notwithstanding the rain, 
 we had about a hundred at the Service ; they had expected 
 two hundred, if the weather had not been so very bad. 
 There we decided to build a Church. Thence^ve went on 
 in rain five miles to Mambo Church, and had Service at 7.30 
 
248 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1870. 
 
 with a full congregation, who plodded thither in wet and 
 mud. Then two miles and a half brought us to our resting- 
 place for the night. On Friday, the 28th, Service at 1 1 a.m, 
 with Holy Communion, in a new Church at Lansdown ; 
 where good Mr. William Cross lives, the Church being 
 quite full. And at 4 p.m. Service at Cundle, in a very nice 
 new wooden Church. Then to Taree to rest. On Saturday, 
 the 29th, Service at 3 p.m., in a new Church at Tinonee, which 
 was quite full. 
 
 “ On Sunday, the 30th, a Service at 10.30 at Taree, 
 which I shall never forget. The Church holds about three 
 hundred ; five hundred, however, were crammed into it. 
 We had fifty-two Candidates for Confirmation, and a very 
 large number at Holy Communion. They reckon that 
 nearly half the congregation were Presbyterians and Wes- 
 leyans, who had taken their places in the Church an hour 
 before the Service. At 3 p.m. we had Service at Cundle 
 new Church and Confirmation of thirty-two Candidates. 
 The Church holds one hundred and ten, but two hundred 
 were crowded into it, so that the greater number could not 
 kneel, and they say quite as many went away who could 
 not get in. 
 
 “ On the 31st it rained all day : however, in a short pause 
 of rain, I rode over to Wingham, seven miles; found the 
 Court House full, had a very delightful Service : and after 
 the Service names were written down for subscriptions to a 
 new Church there, amounting to ^70. On November 1st, 
 had a Service and meeting at Taree at 6 p.m.; an excellent 
 congregation, and many subscriptions promised to complete 
 the furnishing of the Church. On Wednesday, the 2d, 
 rode twenty-six miles to a district which I have never 
 visited, Cape Hawke : where again amid rain and mud I 
 had, in a little slab-built schoolroom covered with bark, a 
 Service and a Confirmation. 
 
 “ To-day, amid torrents of rain, I have ridden from Cape 
 Hawke, forty-one miles, to the Myall, where I had arranged 
 to have Service and sleep. Put on my arrival, finding no 
 congregation could assemble in such weather, and fearing 
 
1S71.] REFUSAL TO ABANDON NEWCASTLE. 
 
 249 
 
 lest tlie creeks between the Myall and Stroud would be up 
 to-morrow, I have come tlie other twenty-two miles. This 
 will remind you of old times. 
 
 “ It will interest you to know that my plan of appointing 
 Lay Readers in all these little places, so that there may be 
 Service in them each Sunday, is causing the greatest satis- 
 faction : and is giving me ample employment both at home 
 and on my Visitations. ” 
 
 To the habit of smoking the Bishop had a deep-rooted 
 aversion. He considered it simply a self -indulgent habit, 
 without any benefit, even in moderation, to commend it ; 
 and therefore in its measure deteriorating to the character. 
 
 He wrote early in 1 8 7 1 : “ I have not to trouble you at 
 present by asking you to select any Clergymen for my 
 
 Diocese. But, as I attribute Mr. ’s deterioration in 
 
 great measure to his smoking, and and are great 
 
 smokers; would you be careful in future to decline the 
 services of such. In almost all cases, I believe, this habit 
 weakens the powers of mind and body, and lowers the 
 whole tone and character.” 
 
 Before the arrival of the Bishop of Grafton and Armidale, 
 Bishop Tyrrell had spoken of the possibility of his visiting 
 England when that Diocese was settled : but the work of 
 various kinds which he was so energetically engaged in had 
 rooted him more firmly than ever in his Diocese ; and he 
 writes: “February 21st, 1871. — The rumour of my visiting 
 England this year is quite unfounded. I have lately been 
 offered a good living in Hampshire, whenever I like to claim 
 it. Xothing however would induce me to quit my Diocese 
 for any other sphere of duty, either in this Colony or in 
 England : and I do not think that I am likely even to leave 
 it for a time to visit the land of my fathers. I feel more 
 and more that my presence here is very important.” 
 
 A few months later he wrote again to me on the same 
 subject : “You may rest assured that I have well considered 
 the subject of a visit to England : and I can find no sufficient 
 reason for leaving, even for a few months, my present sphere 
 of duty.” 
 
2^0 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1871. 
 
 The same habit of mind which, in the early years of his 
 Episcopate, led him to master for himself the intricacies of 
 his position, instead of putting himself under the direction 
 of lawyers or a Secretary ; the same habit which was shown 
 in striving manfully to develop in the Laity of his Diocese 
 the faculty of self-help, instead of crying to Jupiler, like the 
 carter, whenever the wheel got into a troublesome rut, grew 
 stronger from year to year. He saw more clearly how to 
 extort from things within his grasp, or under his influence, 
 solutions of the various difficulties which beset him. And 
 having his proper and pressing duties to discharge in his 
 Diocese, his belief grew stronger that he should lose more 
 by absence from them than he should gain in knowledge of 
 questions of Church Organisation, or in pecuniary aid for his 
 needs, by a voyage to the mother country. 
 
 That the tide of life was beginning slightly to ebb was 
 indicated by his purchase, in March, of a carriage and a 
 buggy. When he arrived in 1848 a carriage was bought as 
 a proper Episcopal appendage, used once or twice ; and then 
 left in the coach-house as food for moths and woodworms. 
 The vigorous Bishop preferred riding. How he prefaced the 
 announcement of his purchase by saying, “You must not 
 conclude that I am quite breaking up ; ” and he seemed to 
 think the luxury needed the apology : “ The great use and 
 comfort is the power to drive from Church to Church on 
 Sunday without being heated and tried by the saddle ; ” but 
 added, “ At other times I still prefer the ride to the drive.” 
 
 In May the first Session of his third Diocesan Synod 
 was held. It had, by his counsel, become a settled custom 
 that, besides resolutions or minor matters, no more than one 
 measure of importance should be taken in hand each Session, 
 in order to insure a sufficiently careful preparation for it 
 beforehand, and the complete sifting of it in debate during 
 its three readings. 
 
 The chief subject handled in this Session was the import- 
 ant one of the appointment of the Clergy to Cures, which 
 hitherto had been in hands of the Bishop alone. The Act 
 passed did not follow exactly the precedent of any other 
 
IS 7 I.] 
 
 DIOCESAN PRESENTATION BOARD. 
 
 251 
 
 Synod, including that of the recently * disestablished Church 
 of Ireland. It provided a Diocesan Presentation Board 
 elected by the Synod, consisting of three members, two 
 of them Clergymen and one a Layman; and a Parochial 
 Presentation Board , consisting of three members residing 
 in the Diocese, and elected by the Parochial Council of each 
 Parish contributing the sum requisite to entitle it to a resident 
 Clergyman. When a Cure was to be filled up, the Diocesan 
 Presentation Board, and the Presentation Board of the Parish, 
 met, with the Bishop as their Chairman. 
 
 The Bishop had no vote, but laid before the meeting such 
 information as he thought proper with regard to the appoint- 
 ment, and received suggestions from those present. He then 
 nominated a Clergyman ; whom he instituted, if a majority 
 of votes was obtained for him. If he was not elected by a 
 majority, the Bishop nominated another. And if the meeting 
 did not approve of him, the Bishop again nominated; until a 
 majority was obtained. This was the form the Act finally 
 assumed. The first idea had been, that if the meeting of 
 the two Boards rejected the second nomination, the Bishop 
 should then make his own selection, and proceed to institu- 
 tion without their concurrence : and it was a happy thing, 
 in view of any possible future complications, that that idea 
 was not adopted. 
 
 The Bishop wrote in the month following : — 
 
 “ The subject was very well debated. The real point in 
 debate being whether the Representatives of the Parish 
 should nominate, and the Bishop have an absolute veto : or 
 the Bishop should nominate, and the Parishioners have a 
 qualified veto, a veto upon cause shown and approved by the 
 Presentation Board. 
 
 “ We really had some very good speeches. The three 
 Canons t had the Bill in charge ; and spoke really well.” 
 
 Any praise of his Clergy, whom he regarded as a good 
 father would regard his sons, pleased him greatly. He was 
 
 * The disestablishment took effect from January 1, 1871. 
 
 + The Rev. Coles Child, appointed in 1865 ; the Rev. A. E. Selwyn, 
 and the Rev. AV. E. AVliite, appointed in 1871. 
 
2^2 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1871. 
 
 much gratified at the presence of a member of the Sydney 
 Synod, who expressed his opinion of the ability with which 
 the debates were conducted; and remarked on the happy 
 brotherly feeling of Clergy and Laity among themselves, and 
 with their Bishop. 
 
 In October he again says : “We are still enjoying the happy 
 cordial feeling of a united Diocese ; as shown at, and result- 
 ing from, our last pleasant Synod. ” 
 
 Whatever “Kitualism” may mean, it would have been 
 hard indeed to fling the accusation of it at Bishop Tyrrell : 
 who, in that respect, had not advanced beyond Bishop 
 Blomfield. But he saw clearly that Church authority was 
 unjustly exercised when it was one sided; and perceived 
 that the guns of the party that was most pugnacious were con- 
 verging upon those who were zealously defending the citadel 
 in a different way from their own ; and thus left the worst 
 enemies of their King to make their way unmolested. He 
 wrote : “I am very glad to see in the leader of the 
 
 ‘ Guardian ’ of June 14th, that the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury has made weighty and impressive reference to the 
 dangers which threaten modern society from ignorance and 
 infidelity ; and to the necessity of combating these, instead of 
 harassing Ritualists. Very wise indeed .” 
 
 About that time the news of Bishop Patteson’s death 
 sent a thrill of anguish through Australasia. Writing on 
 St. Andrew’s Day, 1871, Bishop Tyrrell says: “ You will 
 have heard with deep grief of the murder of Bishop Patteson 
 at Kukapu. You may imagine how deeply the sad news 
 affected me ; when I tell you that for four or five weeks 
 before the news of the Bishop’s death reached this Colony, 
 I was impressing on the Candidates for Confirmation the 
 wonderful effect of prayer in times of sudden danger; by 
 relating the account which he gave me of the effect of a few 
 minutes of prayer on himself and his intended murderers in 
 one of the islands : when he felt at the time, and learned 
 afterwards was the fact, that they were leading him into the 
 interior of the island to kill him.” 
 
 Another death, which occurred not long after, ought not 
 
IS 7 I.] 
 
 DEATH OF MRS. GARDNER. 
 
 253 
 
 to be passed by without mention. It was the death of 
 Bishop Tyrrell’s faithful old servant, Ann Gardner : one 
 who, in her allotted sphere, held as stanchly to her sense of 
 duty as did the Bishop himself. Having lived with his 
 mother at the Guildhall when he v r as a boy ; she entered his 
 service as housekeeper at Aylestone : and considered it her 
 duty to 'watch over his interests, and, as far as he would 
 allow it, his comforts, in his household matters. When the 
 appointment to the Bishopric w r as made, she could not think 
 of “J\Ir. William ” going out to Australia alone ; and for 
 twenty-four years she had been invaluable to him at 
 Morpeth. He wrote to me on the 10th of August 1869 : — 
 
 “ You remember St. Peter’s Day,* 1 847. It is a day always 
 remembered by me, and spent in retirement for thought and 
 prayer. Well, last St. Peter’s Day, dear good Mrs. Gardner 
 came to me in my library, and said : ‘ I don’t like to disturb 
 your Lordship to-day, but I w r ant to ask a favour. Would 
 you be so kind as to direct your Solicitor to make out my 
 will, making provision for the legacies on this list ; and then 
 securing the remainder for the Church in your Diocese ; 
 to be appropriated as you think best h ’ On looking over the 
 list, I found the surplus left for the Church amounted to 
 £600. This will please you and Mrs. Boodle as it did 
 yours ever affectionately, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 From March 1871 a gradual decay of nature began. 
 “ Dear good Mrs. Gardner,” says the Bishop, “ is now quite 
 failing, she will soon enter her eightieth year : and during 
 the last few months both mind and body have been weaken- 
 ing : it is the beginning of the end. She, good creature, is 
 happy and cheerful; feeling more for me than for herself.” 
 For more than nine months she was patiently awaiting her 
 summons. 
 
 Writing on the 28th of December the Bishop says : 
 “This morning I w T as roused at two o’clock to be with 
 her at the close ; but she has rallied again, as on several 
 * The day of his Consecration. 
 
254 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1872. 
 
 other occasions, and I have been writing in my library ever 
 since.” Soon after this the end came. The Bishop caused 
 a vault to be made for her in Morpeth Churchyard ; and by 
 it one for himself : and followed her to her grave as chief 
 mourner. 
 
 The year 1872 was a year of Synods. The Diocesan 
 Synod met at Newcastle on the 7th of May, the Provincial 
 Synod at Sydney in September, and the General Conference 
 of all Australia and Tasmania (which on assembling consti- 
 tuted itself the General Synod) on the 10th of October. 
 
 In his Diocesan Synod the Bishop devoted a large portion 
 of his address to a masterly discussion of questions, which 
 would arise in the Provincial and General Synods ; and con- 
 cerning which he had too good reason to expect that the 
 Dioceses of Sydney and Goulbourn would still, as before, 
 cling to the vanishing shadow of secular power ; and fail to 
 realise the Church’s inherent power of self-organisation. He 
 showed how the very State itself had discovered, as in Lord 
 Westbury’s judgment in 1865, that in Colonies like New 
 South Wales, which had responsible Government, it 
 had no right to mark out Dioceses, or assign Bishops to 
 them : that Letters Patent to that effect were simply shams, 
 and were therefore finally discontinued : that it was equally 
 beyond the power of the English Crown to create Metropo- 
 litan Provinces and their Metropolitans : but that the impo- 
 tency of the State had no effect on the power of the Church, 
 as Christ’s Kingdom, to develop its own organisation, by 
 marking out its own Dioceses and Provinces, and appointing 
 its own Bishops and Metropolitans. He deprecated the con- 
 tinuance of the custom of having Bishops, intended for a 
 Colonial Province, Consecrated in England. It involved the 
 “ sad unreality or, as the Archbishop of York had called 
 it, “ the anomaly ; ” of taking an oath of Canonical obedience 
 to the wrong authority. The obedience was due from the 
 JBishop Consecrated, not to an Archbishop in England, but. 
 to his own Metropolitan in the Colony. Erom his hands 
 should Consecration be sought ; and then to him in the Con- 
 secration Service the oath would be taken. 
 
1872 .] CONSECRATION OF A METROPOLITAN . 
 
 255 
 
 As to tlie election of a Metropolitan, Bishop Tyrrell 
 acquiesced in the opinion of the Committee of the Lambeth 
 Conference on the subject : who “ did not consider it neces- 
 sary that the election to a Metropolitan See should be con- 
 ducted differently from the election to other vacant Sees ; 
 since the Bishops of the Province possess the right of con- 
 firming or refusing to confirm any election. 
 
 With regard to his Consecration : — As in the early Church 
 44 the Patriarch was consecrated, not by another Patriarch, 
 but by the Bishops of his own Patriarchate ; so it would be 
 in accordance with this rule that a Metropolitan, when his 
 Province was not included in any Patriarchate, should be 
 Consecrated not by another Metropolitan, whether he were 
 called Metropolitan, Archbishop, or Primate ; but by the 
 Bishops of his own Province. Thus the 39th Canon of the 
 Synod of Trullus, held at Constantinople a.d. 683, directs 
 4 that the Metropolitan he ordained by his own Bishops .’ It 
 is quite idle,” continues the Bishop, 44 to call the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury a Patriarch, on the ground that centuries ago he 
 was twice addressed by that title in complimentary letters. 
 
 44 If, however, on any account, it be deemed desirable that 
 the Metropolitan should be Consecrated by the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury ; the wording of the Queen’s license to the 
 
 Archbishop should be : 4 License to Consecrate as % 
 
 Metropolitan Bishop for the Colonies : ’ and that the Arch- 
 bishop shall have consented to consider Metropolitan and 
 Archbishop as the same office ; and therefore to interpret the 
 rubric in the Consecration Service as declaring, 4 This oath 
 shall not be made at the Consecration of a Metropolitan .’ 
 And if these points cannot be conceded, but the oath of 
 Canonical obedience must be taken, as a necessary part of the 
 Consecration ; then, in future, let no Colonial Metropolitan 
 consent to be so Consecrated. It would be derogatory to his 
 high office to do so. For one first Bishop owes no obedience 
 to another first Bishop, one Metropolitan to another Metro- 
 politan. Let him be Consecrated in his own Cathedral by 
 four of his own Suffragan Bishops.” * 
 
 * The Bishop’s Address to Diocesan Synod of Newcastle, May 1872, 
 
256 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1872. 
 
 Turning from general subjects to his own Diocese, he 
 expresses his great comfort in it, and he says : “ The Lord’s 
 blessing seems to rest on it. The erection of the Diocese of 
 Grafton and Armidale has reduced the Diocese of Newcastle 
 to a manageable size ; so that I can visit the whole of it every 
 year. I have thus during the last two years seen more of 
 the Clergy, and more of their work in the Ministry, than I 
 was able to do before : and what I did see, especially during 
 my Visitation last year, sent me on my way rejoicing. I 
 allude especially to the Confirmations in 1871. 
 
 “The number of Candidates in 1869 was 864, which I 
 then thought a large number ; but last year the number was 
 1325, showing an increase of more than 50 per cent. But 
 it was not only the numbers that were confirmed that made 
 me rejoice, but also the demeanour of the Candidates; and 
 the spirit in which so large a proportion of them came to that 
 Service prepared at once to partake of their first Communion. 
 Several of the Clergy have informed me that these late Con- 
 firmations have left an unusual influence behind them. And 
 I can believe it ; for in several of these Services I myself felt, 
 while conducting them, a spiritual influence which I never 
 felt in similar Services before.” He adds: “I would ask 
 the Clergy to invite their flocks, and especially those con- 
 firmed last year, to attend in each district a special Service 
 for the Administration of the Holy Communion during my 
 Visitation this year : that the impression made, by the blessing 
 of the Lord last year, may be sustained ; and by the blessing 
 of the same Lord increased.” 
 
 Writing the month after the Session, he says : — “ I some- 
 times wish that you could be present at one of our Synods : 
 you would really enjoy it. There is such a nice, hearty, 
 affectionate spirit pervading them, with the most entire free- 
 dom of debate. All seem so confident of their own sincere 
 feelings of brotherly kindness and mutual respect, that there 
 is no mincing of words, but the clear simple expression of 
 their genuine feelings and opinions. 
 
 “ I am interested in your account of the want of reality 
 and success in some of your Kuri- decanal and other Confer- 
 
IS 7 2.] 
 
 THE PROVINCIAL SYNOD. 
 
 257 
 
 ences. The want to he supplied is the due preparation of 
 the members ; the inducing them really to consider the sub- 
 jects to be discussed before they meet. I found this defect 
 to exist in our Quarterly Meetings of the Diocesan Council, 
 and corrected it in this way. 
 
 “ At the first meeting after Synod I persuaded the mem- 
 bers to form themselves into small Committees of three or 
 four : two Committees being appointed to consider and report 
 at the next meeting, even on the same subject. The Reports 
 were meagre ; so I induced the Committees to continue their 
 work, and to prepare fresh Reports for the next meeting of the 
 Council. They were then really prepared for earnest and useful 
 discussion. But without this previous consideration such 
 Conferences produce very little either of pleasure or profit.” 
 
 The Provincial Synod, which met at Sydney in Septem- 
 ber, was not a success, from a different cause. The Bishops 
 and Representatives from the Dioceses of New South Wales 
 were now five in number, since the formation of the Sees of 
 Grafton-and-Armidale, and Bathurst ; and composed the 
 Synod : but their power of useful action had been cramped 
 in a manner so contrary to Ecclesiastical precedent, owing to 
 the prejudices of the majority at the first Provincial Synod 
 in 1869, that ^ was almost impossible to obtain for it any 
 subject which might be profitably debated. 
 
 As a first step towards the remedy of this evil, the Synod 
 of Newcastle, at its Session in May, had proposed, as a sub- 
 ject of joint reference to the Provincial Synod, the obtain- 
 ing from the Legislature power to alter the Constitutions, 
 without applying for its sanction for every separate altera- 
 tion : but the Synods of Sydney and Goulbourn did not give 
 their consent ; consequently the Provincial Synod could come 
 to no decision upon the subject : and it remained impotent. 
 
 Well might the Bishop of Newcastle, who with his Synod 
 had laboured hard for its improvement against the dead- 
 weight of the other two Dioceses, leave the subject with a 
 feeling of weariness, and the expression of a “ hope that the 
 future Sessions of that Synod might be more profitable and 
 more interesting than the past Sessions.” 
 
258 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1872. 
 
 The General Synod, which met on the 10th of October, 
 was also cramped by the Diocesan jealousy of control : yet 
 there was much in it which led the Bishop of Newcastle to 
 write of it as a “ most delightful meeting.” 
 
 He says : — “ Ten Bishops were present ; five from New 
 South Wales, and the Bishop of Adelaide, the Bishop of 
 Melbourne, the Bishop of Tasmania, the Bishop of Brisbane, 
 and the Bishop of Perth : and, on an average, about three 
 Clerical and three Lay Representatives from each Diocese ; 
 many of them really able men, especially Sir William 
 Stawell, the Chief-Justice at Melbourne.” He speaks with 
 pleasure of the opening address of the Metropolitan, as 
 “ setting the example of that truly Christian tone, which was 
 happily preserved throughout ; notwithstanding some serious 
 differences of opinion respecting the authority to be given to 
 the Synod over Diocesan Synods.” 
 
 As a Conference, the meeting appointed a Select Committee 
 of thirteen, who worked hard for two days in settling the 
 Constitution. Bishop Tyrrell, whose Synod agreed entirely 
 with him, stated clearly that it was essential to the due 
 working of the General Synod that, in points which came 
 under its authority, it should be supreme over the Diocesan 
 Sijnods ; but he forbore to press this point, because the 
 Melbourne Synod, which was legalised , had sent its Repre- 
 sentatives pledged not to assent to anything which would 
 give controlling power to the General Synod ; and, as a man 
 of honour, Sir W. Stawell felt himself bound not to vote 
 for giving it such power, even though he was convinced that 
 it ought to be given. The Bishop says : — “ I then asked 
 whether I might depend upon his using his influence in the 
 Melbourne Synod to bring about such a change of opinion 
 and requirement ; so that when the General Synod met again 
 I might expect that the Melbourne Representatives would be 
 prepared to support the measure. He replied, 1 Certainly ; ’ 
 that he himself quite agreed with me, even now; and 
 expected that the Melbourne Synod would, before five years 
 had passed, be of the same opinion. At all events, he would 
 do his best to bring about such a change of opinion ; and 
 would never again allow himself to be placed in the very 
 
1872.] THE FIRST GENERAL SYNOD. 259 
 
 undesirable position of being obliged by a promise previously 
 given to oppose what lie himself believed to be best. 
 
 “ With this I am quite satisfied, as the Sydney and 
 Goulbourn Bishops and Representatives were all pledged in 
 the same way. And I have hopes that the next General 
 Synod, when it meets, will have its proper authority given 
 to it, with binding power over the different Diocesan Synods, 
 within the clearly defined sphere of its action. For this should 
 insure the proper liberty of the Diocesan Synods : not the 
 limiting the authority of the General Synod, but clearly 
 limiting the sphere of its action. 
 
 “ After settling the Constitution, the General Conference 
 by a unanimous vote resolved itself into the General Synod , 
 and passed three ‘determinations.’ 
 
 “ 1. For the Confirmation and Consecration of Bishops, 
 and the Election of Primates. 
 
 “ The Election of Bishops is left to each Diocesan Synod : 
 the Confirmation is to be by the Bishops of the Province. 
 The Consecration by three Bishops at least, one of whom 
 shall be the Metropolitan of the Province, or the Primate. 
 
 “ The Primate is to be elected by the house of Bishops 
 from their own number. 
 
 “2. For an Appellate Tribunal, to which appeals may be 
 made from all the Diocesan Tribunals. 
 
 “ Bishop Tyrrell says : ‘ I succeeded in bringing about this 
 great change in the proposed Constitution of this Tribunal ; 
 that, whereas the Report of the Committee proposed that there 
 should be a further Appeal from this Appellate Tribunal, to a 
 Council of Reference in England , I carried the point that the 
 Tribunal should be one of Final Appeal : and that the parties 
 to any cause before it should have no right of appeal to the 
 Council of Reference in England : but the Appellate Com- 
 mittee cdone should have the right of referring, not causes, but 
 cases or subjects, to the Council of Reference in England.’ 
 
 “3. We passed a determination constituting a Board of 
 Missions to be worked by an Executive Council, consisting 
 of one Bishop, as President, and five Clerical and five Lay 
 members. And I was elected to the office of President of 
 this Executive Council. 
 
26 o 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1872. 
 
 “ This will give yon some little idea of what was done ; 
 and on Tuesday evening, after the Synod had finished its 
 work, we had a very delightful Church of England Mission 
 Meeting, which was a great success. 
 
 “The members of our Church in Sydney have showed 
 unbounded hospitality. And last Monday good John 
 Campbell gave a dinner to one hundred and twenty (Bishops, 
 Clergy, and Laity) in the hall of St. PauTs College : which 
 was a very pleasant gathering.” 
 
 The Campbell family was one, from which the Bishop of 
 Newcastle always received the heartiest welcome. On his 
 visits to Sydney their house was his home, except when he 
 was on a visit to the Metropolitan. Connected doubly with 
 the family of the Closes at Morpeth, they took a warm inte- 
 rest in the Diocese of Newcastle. Morpeth was indebted for 
 its Chancel to Mr. John Campbell ; and he and others of 
 his family were often found among the contributors to works 
 which the Bishop had in hand. 
 
 At the close of the letter just quoted from, Bishop Tyrrell 
 alludes to the removal of one of those who was Consecrated 
 with him in 1847 — the brave and Catholic-minded organiser 
 of the Church in South Africa, the much-tried Cyprian of 
 our age. “ The good Bishop of Cape Town is gone : and 
 how many of us will live to attend another General Synod ? 
 The Bishop of Adelaide is seventy, the Bishop of Melbourne 
 sixty-six, I am sixty-five, the Bishop of Sydney sixty-four.” 
 
 But if the Bishop of Newcastle was sixty-five, he was not 
 beginning to take his work easily. After the hard work of 
 the Synod he started immediately for active labours in his 
 own Diocese. He says : “ On Saturday morning, November 
 2d, I leave Sydney for Brisbane Water, with its picturesque 
 district, and its nice Church on the slope overlooking the Bay, 
 at the Consecration of which you were with me. There my 
 groom wdll meet me with his three horses : and I then com- 
 mence my Visitations, which will last until the middle of 
 December. The General Conference has compelled me to 
 put them off very late ; and I expect some little trial and 
 exhaustion from the heat, before they are over.” 
 
1872.] DIOCESAN VISITATIONS . 261 
 
 Little by little, in the midst of work of all kinds, Synodi- 
 cal, Diocesan, mental, bodily, years and past labours were 
 telling on the fine manly frame. After the Visitation of the 
 Southern District about Brisbane Water, and the Eastern 
 District with the Manning Biver, where he had some very 
 heavy riding ; he has to confess that he has “ suffered severely 
 from the intense heat,” which at that time of year was to be 
 expected, and the close moist atmosphere. But his spirit 
 and will were unbent. He says : “ I am in high spirits, and 
 prepared for full work next week.” He was going up the 
 Hunter, where he would be assisted by the train, of which 
 he began to be glad to avail himself. 
 
 “ To-morrow, St. Andrew’s Day. Train to Muswell Brook 
 in the morning, Service at 7 p.m., and meeting afterwards in 
 the old school. 
 
 “Sunday. Service with Holy Communion at 10.30, spe- 
 cially for those Confirmed last year ; and again Service at 
 7 P.M. 
 
 “ Monday. Service and laying the corner-stone of Denman 
 Church, with meeting there in the afternoon, r and back to 
 Muswell Brook. 
 
 “ Tuesday. Train to Murrurundi, and Evening Service at 
 Blandford. 
 
 “Wednesday. Service and Holy Communion at Murrurundi 
 in morning, and second Service at 7 p.m. 
 
 “ Thursday. Important meeting at Murrurundi about new 
 Church and new Clergyman. 
 
 “ Friday. Scone ; meeting in the evening. 
 
 “ Saturday. Day of rest at Scone. 
 
 “ Sunday. Service and Holy Communion in morning, spe- 
 cially for those Confirmed last year ; Service in the evening. 
 
 “ Monday. Morning train to Morpeth, with all my Visita- 
 tions for the year concluded.” 
 
 Just at the close of the year he writes : “ Dec. 2 8 th. I am 
 very tired to-day, with the extreme heat, and a long consul- 
 tation of three hours to arrange, as I have done most satis- 
 factorily, for the formation of a new Parish at Newcastle.” 
 
 Thus he finished the year, “ faint, yet pursuing.” 
 
( 262 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ADDRESS OF SYNOD AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EPIS- 
 COPATE DEATH OF DR. TRAILL DIFFICULTY OF 
 
 REMOVING A SCANDAL DEATH OF MR. FRANCIS 
 
 WHITE ENDEAVOUR TO SUPPLY RELIGIOUS INSTRUC- 
 TION TO CHILDREN OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 
 
 DEATH OF REV. 7. 7. GRIME. 
 
 1873-1877. 
 
 “ The Son of God, in doing good, 
 
 Was fain to look to Heaven, and sigh : 
 
 And shall the heirs of sinful blood 
 Seek joy unmixed in Charity? 
 
 God will not let Love’s work impart 
 Full solace, lest it steal the heart.” 
 
 — Keble, Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 In the year 1873 Bishop Tyrrell had been labouring in his 
 Diocese for twenty-five years. They had been years of cease- 
 less, varied, loving labour : and on the 9th of May, the last 
 day of the Session, the members of his Synod, in the ful- 
 ness of their hearts, presented him with the following 
 address : — 
 
 “ Right Reverend Father in God, — As members of that 
 portion of the Church of Christ, over which, by the will of 
 God, you have now for a quarter of a century been permitted 
 to preside, we feel that it is our duty to express our thank- 
 fulness for the progress which the Church has made under 
 your Episcopate. ... As far as the Diocese, over which 
 your Lordship was then appointed Bishop, is concerned, it 
 has under your fostering care been so divided during the last 
 twenty-five years as now to form three Dioceses, and part 
 
263 
 
 1873 .] ADDRESS OF SYNOD TO THE BISHOP. 
 
 of a fourth:* while the present Diocese of Newcastle has 
 more than doubled the number of Clergy who were holding 
 Cures when your Lordship first took the oversight of it. 
 
 “We desire to record our conviction that twenty- five 
 years’ labours have proved you to have at heart the present 
 and eternal well-being of the Church under your care ; that 
 to promote these neither time, nor thought, nor labour, nor 
 money have been spared. 
 
 “ Your Lordship has shown yourself able to guide the 
 Church’s course with, on the one hand, a reverent regard to 
 its history in the past, and on the other with a clear concep- 
 tion of its present duties and dangers, its altered circum- 
 stances and position. We feel also that we owe in a great 
 measure to yourself the advantages which have accrued to 
 the Church from the introduction of that Synodical action, 
 of which you have been the unceasing and far-sighted pro- 
 moter : the beneficial results of which are already so apparent 
 in this and other Dioceses. 
 
 “ At such a time also it is impossible not to remember 
 and to speak of the generous carefulness which has devised 
 a means remarkable for its munificence, by which that aid, 
 which the State will hereafter cease to afford, will for the 
 future be supplied. 
 
 “We remember also that during your lengthened Episco- 
 pate you have never but once left your Spiritual Charge, and 
 then only in prosecution of a Missionary Voyage amongst the 
 islands of the Pacific. 
 
 “ We know that no words of ours can be your reward : 
 your course has been guided and your labours animated by 
 that lofty principle expressed in the words of the Apostle, 
 4 The love of Christ constraineth us.’ Put we speak to satisfy 
 ourselves, and to fulfil what is at least a duty incumbent on 
 us : and we are sure that, even on that account, you will 
 gladly receive this expression of our feelings. 
 
 “ It is our desire to hand down to our children some record 
 
 * When, in 1869, the Diocese of Bathurst was separated from Sydney, 
 a portion of the Diocese of Newcastle to the west of the Talbragar was 
 added to it. 
 
264 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1873- 
 
 and remembrance of the work which has been done amongst 
 us : and we propose to form a fund for the building of a spe- 
 cial part of your Cathedral Church ; so that the generations 
 to come may be reminded, when they look upon it, of him 
 to whom, under God, they owe many great and unspeakable 
 blessings. 
 
 “ On behalf of the Clergy and Lay Representatives of the 
 Synod, we subscribe ourselves dutifully and affectionately 
 yours, in Christ Jesus our Lord, 
 
 “ Samuel Simm, ) ~ , . 
 
 „ T T ’ > Secretaries. 
 
 “ John Lee, J 
 
 “ James Hannell, Chairman of Committees. 
 
 “ Coles Child, Secretary of the Diocesan Council.” 
 
 The Bishop wrote to me : — “ At the close of our Synod there 
 was presented to me a very kind address on the completion of 
 the twenty-five years of my Episcopate ; and it was referred 
 to me whether I should prefer their founding a ‘ Tyrrell 
 Scholarship ’ as a memorial, or erecting some special part of 
 the Cathedral. I preferred the latter. 
 
 “ In this last Session we have passed another very excel- 
 lent Act for the appointment of Trustees of Church property : 
 so that we have now three Acts of Synod, which really do 
 us credit. 
 
 “ 1. Diocesan and Parochial Funds Act. 
 
 “ 2. Appointment of Clergymen Act. 
 
 “ 3. Trustees of Church Property Act.” 
 
 The “Munificence” spoken of in the Address to the 
 Bishop refers to his offer made in this Session to increase 
 the Endowment which he had commenced in 1870. He 
 had then promised jQ 6000 for Endowment, of which he 
 gave ^2500 for himself; if for each of five years ending in 
 1874 the Diocese should contribute ^300. 
 
 He now promised that if the same sum were contributed 
 for the next quinquennium, he would give or bequeath 
 
 10,000 in addition : and if for five years more, ending in 
 1884, the Diocese should continue the subscription of £ 300 , 
 a second 10,000 should be payable from his estate; mat 
 
1873 -] 
 
 DEATH OF DR. TRAILL. 
 
 265 
 
 ing ^26,000 in all towards an Endowment of ^46,000, 
 which he considered ought to he provided for the Diocesan 
 Stipend Fund. 
 
 His scheme afterwards grew, as was usual with him, until 
 its present limit w^as far surpassed. A few years later came 
 a severe check, which it is expected will not he permanent. 
 But it is necessary to mention his design, as he now stated it 
 to his Synod, to estimate the ceaseless paternal care which 
 he bestowed on the temporal as well as the spiritual interests 
 of his beloved Diocese. 
 
 This year brought the loss of a Layman whom he much 
 valued. He writes, September 26, 1873 : — “ You must ere 
 this have heard of the death of Dr. Traill of Collaroy, and 
 felt how great a loss it would be to the Church and to his 
 district. He went quite well from his bedroom into his 
 dressing-room, just called out, ‘ Emma, Emma, paralysis, 
 Wilson, Morris’ (the doctor), and in twenty minutes was 
 quite dead. But death, though sudden, was clearly not 
 unprepared for : he had lately been much thinking of it, 
 thinking very deeply of the future. 
 
 “ What a loss to his dear friend and Pastor ! I know not 
 any Layman whose generous example in his district, and 
 wdiose quiet influence in the Diocese, can be considered of 
 greater value. My remembrance of it extends back to 1848, 
 when I found him the Superintendent at Tenterfield.” 
 
 May I add to the Bishop’s in memoriam , that Dr. Traill, 
 the son of a Clergyman of the Scotch Church, was one of 
 those noble characters in which vigorous intellectual power, 
 clear-headedness, and successful energy in business, were 
 combined with an earnest and devout Churchmanship, never 
 obtrusive, because it so beautifully leavened all his business, 
 social, and domestic relations. “ A noble specimen,” says 
 the Bishop, “ with his sound head and large heart, of the true 
 Church-of-England Layman.” A man invaluable in a Colony. 
 
 The Bishop also refers to the death of Bishop Wilberforce, 
 of which he had lately heard : “ The Bishop of Winchester’s 
 death is a great loss, and leaves a void which cannot be 
 easily or soon filled. His death was first announced here by 
 
266 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [ 1874 - 
 
 telegram as that of the Marquis of Winchester thrown from 
 his horse : afterwards it was notified by telegram that the 
 Bishop of Ely had been appointed to the See of Winchester : 
 and from this we concluded what was the true meaning of 
 the former telegram. Yery lately we read here a very inte- 
 resting account of the funeral of the third brother, Henry 
 Wilberforce, Newman’s great friend : and Newmans appear- 
 ing in the Church in the middle of the last rite.” 
 
 In January 1874 the Bishop paid his first and only Yisit 
 to the Southern Diocese of Goulbourn : and it was a great 
 pleasure and refreshment to him to do so. He said : “ The 
 Bishop of Goulbourn has been ten years in his Diocese, yet I 
 had never visited him there ; having only met him some few r 
 times in Sydney. So on the great occasion of his laying the 
 first stone of his Cathedral last week, I accepted a very 
 pressing invitation to go and aid him in the good work. It 
 was really a most successful ceremony and Church Meeting : 
 and I greatly enjoyed it. Nearly £900 was laid on the 
 stone, when it was laid by Bishop Thomas, aided by the 
 Honourable John Campbell, myself, and the Bishop of 
 Bathurst. At the Service afterwards I preached. There 
 was an evening meeting ; and ^5000, one- third of the esti- 
 mated expense, is collected.” 
 
 A heavy cloud had just begun to rise, which overshadowed 
 the next two years and a half of Bishop Tyrrell’s life. 
 The severest trials which a faithful Bishop has to harass 
 him are those which arise from some dark blot among his 
 Clergy — tares among the wheat. There is not a Diocese 
 in which such scandals do not from time to time appear and 
 mar the good work. And when they do appear they are 
 felt the more acutely in proportion as a Bishop has lived 
 more entirely for and in his Diocese. There is the three- 
 fold distress of the miserable fall of a fellow-worker, the 
 mischief it has wrought among the souls whom the Bishop 
 feels he has himself committed to his Ministry, and the 
 scandal to the Church. Such was the sore trial which 
 came upon Bishop Tyrrell ; to whom his Diocese was the 
 one object for which he thought, acted, and lived. 
 
IS 74 -] DIFFICULTY OF REMOVING A SCANDAL. 267 
 
 Fully occupied as the Synod had been with many im- 
 portant measures, it had not yet formed a Tribunal for the 
 trial of offences. Had the Tribunal existed, all the Clergy and 
 Office-bearers would have been bound, by the “Declaration 
 of Submission to the Synods of the Church,” passed in 
 1870, to appear before it when summoned, and to submit 
 to its decision. Failing this, the Bishop was now to act 
 simply on the rights inherent in his Office ; and he foresaw 
 from the first that he had no easy task before him. 
 
 Writing on the 20th of February, he said : “ My legal 
 advisers in the letter which enclosed the inhibition, speak 
 doubtfully of the issue of the only trial I have the power 
 to institute. But my duty to do my utmost in this case is 
 in my eyes so plain, that I feel bound to take all the 
 anxious trouble necessary, and to incur all the expense 
 which such proceedings will require.” 
 
 jfrie difficulties of the case soon met him. In the inhibi- 
 tion served on the unhappy offender, the charge against him 
 was, of necessity, stated. He at once assumed an attitude 
 of defiance, denied the Bishop’s right to summon, or inhibit 
 him from the discharge of Sacred Offices : and induced a 
 person, whose name was mixed up with his own, to bring an 
 action against the Bishop for defamation of character. 
 
 The defence, on the Bishop’s part, was that the statement 
 of the offence was necessary, to enable the accused to know 
 what he had to meet : it could in no way be called malicious, 
 and was a, privileged communication in consequence of the judi- 
 cial aspect of the Bishop’s Office with regard to the Church. 
 
 Wrongly or rightly the Court believed, that, in the 
 Colony, the Office of Bishop did not confer the privilege ; 
 and therefore decided against him on the technical point ; 
 but showed their sense of the justice of his case by awarding 
 merely nominal damages. Yet these were sufficient to saddle 
 the Bishop with the costs on both sides. He wrote to 
 me : — 
 
 u M t VfiiiY dear Sir,— : 
 
 “ Campbell’s Wharf, Sydney, 
 June 5, 1874. 
 
 I iiow reply to your letter 
 
 iii) 
 
268 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1874. 
 
 by an account of tlie somewhat trying events which have 
 happened to me here. What will you say to your old 
 Bishop having had an action for slander brought against him, 
 with damages laid at ^5000, though afterwards reduced to 
 ^3000 ; and a verdict being given against hinq though the 
 damages were only forty shillings ? I am staying at my old 
 friend’s, Mr. John Campbell’s, to consult with my Solicitor 
 and Counsel respecting the very important prohibition case, 
 which I think will come on about the end of next week. 
 
 “ My legal advisers quite agreed with me that it was my 
 duty as Bishop to inquire into the rumours and scandals in 
 
 circulation respecting , and to inhibit him from duty, 
 
 until the inquiry was completed, and had exonerated him 
 from the scandals. He refused to obey my inhibition, and in 
 direct defiance of my authority insisted on performing Divine 
 Service in his Church. This disobedience my legal advisers 
 agreed with me in considering ample ground for revoking his 
 license. I therefore summoned him to appear before me, 
 and show cause why his license should not be revoked : and 
 after giving him every opportunity of disproving his dis- 
 obedience, I revoked his license. And he then applied to 
 the Supreme Court for Buie nisi for me to show cause why I 
 should not be restrained from revoking his license : and this 
 important point will be argued next week.” 
 
 On the 27th of August the Bishop was still in anxiety, 
 and wrote : — “ Your letter of June the istwas very welcome, 
 for it is always a pleasure to me to hear from you, even if there 
 be nothing of very great importance to communicate. It is 
 also in some respects a comfort to me to write to you, as at 
 present there are many anxieties to harass me. 
 
 “ The Rule nisi in the Prohibition case was argued in the 
 Supreme Court just before term ended ; and the next term 
 does not commence until next Monday : when in two or 
 three days the Judges may be expected to deliver their judg- 
 ment : and such is the state of the Bench at present, that no 
 one pretends to foretell what the judgment may decide. 
 Should the Prohibition be granted, then my revocation is 
 
1874] 
 
 LEGAL DIFFICULTIES. 269 
 
 null and void, and Mr. would return to liis duties, if 
 
 no other steps were taken to restrain him.” 
 
 There were several other troubles pressing on that firm 
 earnest spirit, so that it seemed to him good to be able to 
 pour them all out unreservedly. 
 
 On the 25th of September he wrote a very few lines : — 
 “ The judgment, by the majority of the Judges of the Supreme 
 Court, was against me. The Chief -Justice was in my favour, 
 
 with a very able judgment. ... I am afraid that Mr. 
 
 to my great, my very great sorrow’ and distress, must be allowed 
 to officiate next Sunday. This we all feel very much ; but 
 I trust it will not continue beyond one, or at the most, two 
 Sundays. . . . The assurance of my friends’ prayers is now a 
 great comfort to me.” 
 
 The Bishop’s lawyers advised him to appeal to the Privy 
 Council, and the Bishop of Sydney with other Churchmen 
 generously declared that the appeal should not be at the 
 expense of the individual Bishop. But the delay of some 
 eighteen months, which the Appeal would have entailed, 
 was insupportable to Bishop Tyrrell, who longed to deliver 
 the Parish from the influence under which it had so long 
 been suffering. He therefore took his steps with great care ; 
 and resolved to bring the offender before his “ forum 
 domesticum .” And he says : “ I hope to manage the whole 
 \ process in such a way, that should he again apply to the 
 Supreme Court for a Prohibition to restrain me from revoking 
 his license, Justice Cheeke, according to his late judgment, 
 will join with the Chief- Justice in refusing it.” 
 
 In this matter he acted simply with the aid of his Solicitor : 
 and succeeded so far in escaping the pitfalls of the law, that 
 
 he was able to enforce the revocation of Mr. ’s license, 
 
 and his exclusion from any further profanation of the Offices 
 of the Church. This had been the Bishop’s great anxiety : 
 and, having effected so much, he bore with less impatience 
 the trouble he gave him before he was finally ejected from 
 the Parsonage. This was not effected until May 1876. The 
 law expenses of this unhappy business, which fell upon the 
 Bishop for simply doing his duty, were £1260. 
 
270 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [ 1874 - 
 
 In the Diocese the sympathy of the Clergy and Laity was 
 very heartily with the Bishop under all his anxieties and 
 troubles, and the same feeling was widely shown even by 
 the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Roman Catholics. 
 The sympathy of the Synod in 1874 found expression in 
 the following address : — 
 
 “ Right Reverend Rather in God, — We, the Clergy and 
 Lay Representatives, in Synod assembled, desire to express 
 our hearty sympathy with your Lordship amidst all the trials 
 and difficulties which surround the Office of a Bishop in the 
 discharge of his duty to the Church. 
 
 “ In all your Lordship’s efforts to ensure the proper order 
 and discipline of the Church, we feel that the thanks of the 
 whole Diocese are due to your Lordship, knowing that our 
 highest interests are involved in the maintenance of its 
 purity ; and we desire to convey to your Lordship the assur- 
 ance, that under any disappointments which have been expe- 
 rienced by yourself in upholding that order and discipline, 
 we, as members of the same body, suffer like disappointments 
 with you. 
 
 “ An Episcopate of twenty-six years has impressed us w T ith 
 a deep conviction, that the whole course of the government 
 of the Diocese has been actuated by a desire for the welfare 
 of the Church, and constrains us to approach you with these 
 expressions of faithful regard. 
 
 u We cannot conclude without the prayer that the Great 
 Head of the Church may be with you in all your anxieties, 
 may vouchsafe His blessing upon your self-denying labours, 
 and sustain you with His continuous support. 
 
 “ Signed on behalf of the Synod, by members of the Com- 
 mittee : — 
 
 “ Francis White, Arthur E. Selwyn, 
 
 “ Philip W. Wright, Coles Child.” 
 
 The first of those who signed this address of sympathy was 
 not spared to take his part in the next year’s Session. In 
 the Bishop’s address to his Synod, which met on the nth of 
 
1875 -] 
 
 DEATH OF MR. FRANCIS WHITE. 
 
 271 
 
 May 1875, he had said : “During the past year there have 
 been no deaths, I am rejoiced to say, among our Lay Repre- 
 sentatives ; ” but a few lines further on he added : “ This 
 paragraph was written at the beginning of last week, and 
 must now be amended by referring to the lamented death of 
 Mr. Francis White. He was not only a Representative in our 
 Synod, but a member of our Diocesan Council, and the one 
 Lay member of the presentation Board of the Diocese. And 
 he was one who performed all the duties he undertook with 
 energy and great acceptance. I believe that there is no person 
 in the whole Colony whose decease would be more generally 
 lamented. His departure is a loss not only to this Synod and 
 the Church, but to the Colony in general.” 
 
 Independently of the age or health of the present occupant 
 of the See, it was necessary that the Synod should provide 
 for the election of a Bishop ; and an Act was passed in this 
 Session for that purpose. The first draft simply provided 
 for election where a vacancy had occurred. But the idea of 
 a Coadjutor presented itself to the Bishop, and caused a 
 clause to be added to provide for such a contingency. 
 
 A correspondent, who was in constant communication with 
 him, wrote to me about that time : “It is generally acknow- 
 ledged that the Bishop does fail, and get older in appearance, 
 and this is to be expected : but I do not think that he does 
 \ so more than is natural at his time of life. He does rather 
 less work, and takes more care of himself. But I do not 
 think his mental powers are perceptibly impaired. His 
 address will show what his present powers are.” 
 
 A few months before he had himself written to me : “ Dr. 
 Currey in his last letter but one enclosed for my perusal a 
 note of the Bishop of Lichfield to him, stating that he had a 
 considerable choice of posts for the Bishop of Newcastle if he 
 had any thought of retiring from his Episcopal duties. But 
 I have no such thought . Even if increasing infirmities seemed 
 to make it desirable to appoint an active Coadjutor, I should 
 certainly remain to superintend. And I consider my last 
 resting-place already prepared for me in Morpeth Burial- 
 Ground.” 
 
272 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1875. 
 
 It is not to be doubted that the anxiety, and severe mental 
 strain of the trial which has been mentioned, were not with- 
 out their effect upon the Bishop, and induced him to expect 
 the time when his infirmities would have increased. Still he 
 was full of spirit and hope, and joy at good around him, in 
 spite of the alloy of evil which had so bitterly grieved his 
 heart. He had written on the 5 th of May : — 
 
 “ My very dear Sir, — Our Synod commences at New- 
 castle next Tuesday, and I am therefore now hard at work 
 preparing our business for the Session, and my usual annual 
 address. This is taking up my whole time : but I am much 
 pleased to be able to tell you that I am in admirable working 
 order, both in mind and body ; better, I think, than I have 
 been for some years. I am up at 4 a..m., and go to rest at 
 9.30 p.m., and have been getting through a good deal of 
 mental work. My address, of which the main part is 
 finished, interests me much ; the two main subjects are — 
 
 “ 1. The Religious Education of the Young. 
 
 “ 2. The supply and training of our future Clergy.” 
 
 In former years he had battled long and hard for the 
 Denominational schools, in the hope- of making them efficient 
 both in Religious education and secular teaching. When 
 the Government had tried to starve them out, he endea- 
 voured to induce members of the Church to endow them with 
 sufficient funds to make them independent of Government 
 aid. That he failed to obtain subscriptions in any degree 
 commensurate with his requirements will not surprise any 
 one who remembers that his Diocese- was a poor one, that a 
 large number of the settlers from the mother country were 
 Roman Catholics or Dissenters, and that the Church build- 
 ings were erected, and the Clergy mainly supported, by the 
 people themselves. Before long the Bishop was compelled 
 to abandon his scheme of endowing Church schools. Yet he 
 still held on bravely, maintaining the claims of Religious 
 schools on the public funds : and, had he been treated by 
 the Government with common fairness, would have made his 
 schools generally , as some of them already were, equal in effi- 
 ciency , even in secular instruction, to the pet schools of the 
 
1875.] CHURCH REMEDIES FOR STATE EDUCATION. 273 
 
 Government, at a less cost to the Colony. But without funds 
 to procure a good staff of teachers this was impossible : and 
 the inefficiency, for which the starving policy of the Govern- 
 ment was answerable, was turned into a justification of a 
 further step in aggression. 
 
 In 1866 a new Education Act was passed, to which the 
 Bishop gave his most strenuous opposition. Under this Act 
 the work of religious education was continued, subject to 
 greater disadvantages than hitherto : the teachers of Church 
 Schools, though they might be nominated by the “ local 
 Church Board,” of which the Clergyman was chairman, were 
 appointed and dismissed solely by the Council of Education ; 
 and masters brought from England by the Church, however 
 high their certificates in the mother country, were not 
 appointed to their schools without passing an examination 
 before the Colonial authorities — a condition which seriously 
 interfered with the endeavour of the Bishop to induce good 
 masters to come out. 
 
 Besides thus hampering the endeavours of Church Schools, 
 the Government was establishing in all directions “ Public 
 Schools,” simply for secular teaching, under masters bound 
 to no creed. Matters might have continued in this condition 
 somewhat longer, had not a body formed itself under the 
 name of the “ Educational League ;” whose object was to root 
 \ up the last remnant of Denominational Education, and to 
 substitute for it one “ secular, free, and compulsory,” but 
 including what was called a general religious teaching. 
 
 This naturally called into existence a counter association ; 
 which, as one extreme begets its opposite, “ lauded exces- 
 sively ” the existing Public Schools Act, and maintained that 
 “ the state of the Denominational and Public Schools, and 
 the regulations of the Council of Education, were satisfac- 
 tory.” To this the Bishop of Newcastle could not assent. 
 He said to me in a letter : “ I believe that the present 
 Denominational Schools are utterly different from the old 
 Denominational Schools, which, when ivell worked , were ex- 
 cellent : and that their value for supplying special religious 
 instruction and religious education under the influence of the 
 
274 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [ 1375 . 
 
 Clergyman is greatly lessened ; and will never be restored to 
 what it was before. ... I am willing to allow that the 
 secular instruction in the Public Schools, since 1866, is more 
 efficient than it was before : hut I decline to he guilty of the 
 inconsistency of now lauding, and expressing my high satis- 
 faction with, the Denominational system maimed by the 
 Government, which I opposed most vehemently v r hen it was 
 enacted. And I decline to do this, not only to avoid the 
 charge of inconsistency, hut because I believe that any longer 
 reliance on our Denominational Schools for imparting special 
 religious instruction and religious education can only lead to 
 the sad evil and disgrace of shrinking from our present duty 
 as a Christian Church — the providing this necessary religious 
 instruction and religious education by the work of our Clergy, 
 and by their influence on the parents of children in their 
 homes; and on the children themselves, 1st, in their Sunday- 
 schools ; 2d, in their weekly classes ; 3d, by special Church 
 Services; and, where possible, a Catechising Service in Church 
 each month.” 
 
 To increase the efficiency of the existing certified Denomi- 
 national Schools, the Bishop requested that the Council of 
 Education would facilitate the procuring of well-trained 
 masters from England, by (1) accepting the certificate of a 
 Government Inspector as a sufficient test of efficiency, and 
 therefore not requiring them to undergo any examination on 
 their arrival in the Colony : and (2) granting a portion of 
 the passage-money, the remainder being provided by the 
 Diocese. 
 
 But if the Bishop considered the “ certified Denomina- 
 tional Schools maimed” in their power of supplying reli- 
 gious education , as distinguished from instruction; in the 
 “ Public Schools ” matters were far worse: both religious 
 education and definite religious instruction were entirely 
 wanting; put away by the jealous bigotry of secularism and 
 irreligion like an unclean thing. These schools, from which 
 even prayer and religious hymns were banished, were planted 
 not merely in the larger towns, where the presence of the 
 Clergy might do something to supplement them, but in the 
 
1875.] 
 
 THE EVIL OF STATE SCHOOLS . 
 
 275 
 
 smaller Bush Townships, where the Clergy, owing to their 
 paucity, could rarely, if ever, he present to take advantage 
 of the hour allowed by the Act before the prescribed school 
 hours, for giving religious teaching. 
 
 Such schools had within them the Baptized children of 
 Christ's fold : and that these should not be left uncared for, 
 the Bishop prepared to call out additional workers — Candi- 
 dates for Holy Orders, or Catechists — whose duty it should 
 be to visit the schools, or call the children to some building 
 belonging to the Church, and give what they could of reli- 
 gious instruction and education. 
 
 In his address to the Synod he said : “ Can any of us sup- 
 pose that Government Schools can ever become more Deno- 
 minational than they now are ? Must we not then acknow- 
 ledge that the solemn duty of instructing and educating the 
 children of our Church religiously (though it be a most diffi- 
 cult duty, requiring increased funds and a greathy increased 
 band of teachers) now devolves upon us? and are we not 
 resolved, by the grace of God, through the agency of Chris- 
 tian parents and additional Christian Pastors, to perform 
 this duty 1 ” 
 
 Some thought the Bishop had altered his views in the 
 past twenty-five years. This was not so in essentials. He 
 still held that the teaching and training provided in the 
 “ Public '' schools were not Christian education in any shape ; 
 and that Christian education was essential for man's well- 
 being here and hereafter. 
 
 In 1850, and for years after it, he had hoped that the 
 Government of a professedly Christian land would have given 
 that help to Christian schools, which would have enabled 
 them to maintain as high a standard of intellectual efficiency 
 as could be attained by any mere secular teaching. But 
 finding Parliament prejudiced and obstinate, he simply 
 accepted the inevitable : and, leaving the State to act on its 
 own worldly principles, determined to do his best to give the 
 children all the Christian teaching he could, whether in 
 the “ certified Denominational ” or the “ Public " Schools. 
 
 Towards the end of his Synod address, having shown that 
 
276 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [IS75. 
 
 the Education Act of 1866 had interfered with the influence 
 of the Clergy in the Denominational Schools, he said : — “ Such 
 Christian education seems now to he removed from the 
 Church Denominational Schools, to which, perhaps, both the 
 parents and Clergyman have hitherto trusted too exclusively , 
 to the Christian home. For I quite agree with the senti- 
 ments lately expressed by one of our Bishops in England, that 
 the chief work of the Clergyman in religious education must 
 now be with the parents themselves in their own home. 
 The parents must be taught by a kind constant loving 
 ministry to value their own souls : and when the parents 
 have learned this lesson, we need not be over anxious about 
 the children. For every real Christian parent, who loves 
 and serves God and Christ, and has learned to value his own 
 soul, will never allow his child to neglect his soul, or omit 
 those lessons which are to train its soul for Heaven. The 
 first important step, therefore, in the religious education of 
 the young, is to influence religiously the parents of our 
 children in their own Christian homes. 
 
 “ The next step may be an earnest loving attention to the 
 Sunday-school. Such schools should be now improved to 
 the utmost by a wise system of religious instruction being 
 prepared for them : an ample supply of books and other 
 requisites ; encouraging prizes for regular attendance and 
 diligent learning ; with a cheerful happy annual feast, which 
 the members of the Church of all ranks and ages should be 
 induced to attend. 
 
 “ And then, in addition to the Sunday-school, there should 
 be the Clergyman’s weekly classes for Sunday-school teachers, 
 and Candidates for Confirmation, and young Communicants ; 
 and now an additional class for school children in the fore- 
 noon of Saturday, or at some other fitting time, to be rendered 
 efficient and popular, if possible, by a monthly Service at the 
 Church, which both parents and children should be influenced 
 to attend : and where the best-instructed children should be 
 publicly catechised in the presence of their parents. 
 
 “ Such are the various ways in which we must now try to 
 
i8;s.] CHURCH REMEDIES FOR STATE EDUCATION . 277 
 
 give effective religious instruction and education to the 
 children of our Church. 
 
 “ It is now, I am convinced, a very important crisis for our 
 Church in this Colony. Are we equal to this crisis ? Most 
 important and difficult duties are now devolving upon 
 you, my Reverend brethren ; if not exactly new duties in 
 themselves, yet new as to their extent and to the untiring 
 labour to be devoted to them. ... To perform these duties 
 efficiently will require both greatly increased funds and a 
 great increase in our Clergy and their assistants.” 
 
 These were no ineffective words, wrung out under the pres- 
 sure of a great difficulty ; but the expressions of one who had 
 considered with his Diocesan Council the exigencies of the 
 situation, and was prepared to do his best under great diffi- 
 culties to provide such remedy as was possible for a portentous 
 evil. 
 
 In the preceding year the Diocesan Council had been 
 instructed “to Consider the subject of the supply of 
 Catechists, of Teachers in Church Schools, and of the 
 means of providing generally for the education of the 
 young.” In this Session they presented a well-considered 
 Report, which the Synod adopted; and shortly afterwards 
 six Candidates for Holy Orders were placed, as Catechists 
 and Lay Readers, in districts where special religious instruc- 
 tion in “ Public Schools ” was most needed. 
 
 There was an obvious risk in this appointment of young 
 men, who had received little or no special training, which 
 called for that ubiquitous energy of supervision with which, 
 in his days of full vigour, the Bishop used to pervade every 
 district of his Diocese. But the need was pressing; men 
 were with difficulty obtained from England ; and, which was 
 still more distressing, some, who were so obtained, proved 
 unsatisfactory : so the Bishop was obliged to work with the 
 materials which came to hand ; and trust, under God’s 
 blessing, to guide them in their duties with such strength as 
 remained to him. 
 
 In July he wrote under the effects of a very heavy influ- 
 enza, which he had caught in visiting a friend to cheer him 
 
278 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1875. 
 
 in sickness ; but be adds : “ Notwithstanding this, I am in 
 very excellent spirits, because I believe the old Diocese is 
 really doing its work.” 
 
 It was long before he got rid of his ailment ; though he 
 still worked on. He remarked : “ As we grow old I find our 
 ailments do not leave us so easily and rapidly as they used 
 to do.” In November he was still suffering, and wrote after 
 a long journey : “ I hoped my Visitation would have cured 
 me, by the usually effective remedy of change of air. But I 
 found it very laborious : so that “ Mr. Wilson sent me a letter 
 after my return home, saying : 4 I hope you have been able to 
 complete your Visitation without being quite worn out.’ ” 
 To his grief he found a comparatively young and indefatig- 
 able worker failing from the constant strain of an enormous 
 district. He added : “ Mr. Wilson has himself, I am very 
 grieved to say, now broken down in consequence of over- 
 work. When I reached his Parsonage with William White 
 he was scarcely able to leave his bed. ... I have made 
 every arrangement in my power for his comfort and recovery. 
 He is to have perfect rest for six months during the summer 
 heat, and go to a cooler climate : and he is not to attempt to 
 take the large district of Cassilis any more ; but, if he recovers 
 sufficiently, he is to have a Parsonage built at Merriwa. 
 This is a great trial to me ; but he feels, dear fellow, that 
 everything is being done for him that can now be done.” 
 
 The next month the Bishop was apparently himself again, 
 and very much cheered by a Confirmation at St. John’s, 
 Newcastle ; where he had one hundred and sixty Candidates, 
 a full Church, the whole Congregation taking their part in 
 the Service ; and all responding with the 44 Amen,” as he 
 laid his hands on each Candidate : and two hundred received 
 the Holy Communion. 
 
 The kind of work for which the Bishop had called for 
 Assistants was peculiarly likely to attract applicants of more 
 than doubtful Theology, and others who would not wear 
 well. He wrote on January 13th, 1876 : — 
 
 44 Only yesterday I answered two applications from 
 Wesleyans ; from one who calls himself 4 Welsh Calvinistic 
 
1876.] 
 
 DIFFICULTIES BRAVELY MET . 
 
 279 
 
 Wesleyan Minister/ asking for an interview, with the 
 desire of working in my Diocese under my jurisdiction ; 
 which interview I declined. Another from a young man 
 (Wesleyan), who certainly had a very good opinion of him- 
 self, asking for employment as a Catechist ; an offer which 
 again I declined. I now begin to find that the introduction 
 of several new agents as Catechists, or Candidates for Orders, 
 is adding much to my own troubles and anxieties. Some of 
 the Clergy are very injudicious, leaving the young Catechists 
 to themselves, without any proper directions.” 
 
 With all the inevitable difficulties of this plan (and what 
 plan is there that has not difficulties to surmount h ) he saw 
 none other available : and therefore endeavoured, as far as he 
 could, to make it effective by improving his instruments. 
 He had been charged — and he felt it — to feed Christ’s little 
 ones : and he would not let them starve, because, by no 
 fault of themselves or their parents, they were obliged to 
 attend schools in which the masters were forbidden to teach 
 them one scrap of the Christian faith. 
 
 But the difficulties of the question could not lead him for 
 a moment to accept the suggestions of a Clergyman in the 
 Sydney Diocese, who propounded the scheme that the 
 Church should join, with all that are called the “ Protestant ” 
 sects, in an “ Association ” to provide the so-called religious 
 teaching of these schools. This, he well knew, would have 
 insured either the consecutive inculcation of a Babel of jar- 
 ring creeds, or a colourless nonentity, which, to avoid shock- 
 ing the peculiar errors of some ten or more separate bodies, 
 would have erased from the instruction of Christ’s little ones 
 parts of the Catholic Faith “ once delivered to the Saints.” 
 And therefore he called on the Laity, through his Synod, 
 to supply him with funds, from which the approved religious 
 teachers of the Church might receive a salary of ^50 per 
 annum, “ leaving the districts in which they labour to pro- 
 vide the remainder of their stipend.” He says : “ If we are 
 wise, we shall have nothing to do with any general Protestant 
 Association, but be willing to raise funds in our own Church 
 to maintain our own approved religious teachers. This call, 
 
28 o 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1876. 
 
 I informed yon in my Synod address last year, onr Laity 
 mnst expect to be made npon them ; and I then expressed 
 my confidence that it was a claim which they would cheer- 
 fully meet.” 
 
 In New South Wales, as in every British Colony, there is 
 an intermixture of emigrants and settlers from all parts of 
 the mother country, • English, Irish, Scotch, and Welsh live 
 side by side. Speaking generally , the Irish Protestant, even 
 if he be a Churchman, sits very loose to the definite doctrine 
 of the Church; but will join all other “ Protestants,” no 
 matter what their “ Denomination,” in the one absorbing 
 antagonism to the Roman Catholic. In their own country 
 they may have much provocation : but this burning pugnacity 
 in one direction has often destroyed many a precious truth 
 which they have confounded with Romish error. About this 
 time some vigorous spirits, Orangemen and Dissenters, with 
 congenial members of a party in the Church, determined upon 
 having a “ Protestant ” Hall in Sydney : and the Metropo- 
 litan, to the distress of some of his Episcopal brethren, laid 
 the first stone of the building and delivered an address. 
 
 Shortly after this a similar Hall was to be built at New- 
 castle ; and the Council of Management asked the Bishop 
 of Newcastle to perform a like office. He says : “ I asked 
 whether there was any connection between the Protestant 
 Hall and the Orange Lodges, and was told, certainly a very 
 close connection ; when I at once declined to take any part 
 in laying the first stone.” 
 
 A letter of his, dated Morpeth, September 20, 1876, in a 
 quotation from the Bishop of Adelaide, touches on a kindred 
 subject, as well as on some other matters, for which it is 
 here given : — 
 
 “ My very dear Sir, — Your letter of July reached me 
 last week, and was very welcome. ... I am thankful to be 
 able to say that I am very well both in mind and body, 
 having at present very much to do, and yet feeling quite up 
 to my work. On October 2d I go to Sydney to attend the 
 General Synod which meets on the 3d, when I am appointed 
 
1876.] 
 
 UNION OF CHURCH AND SECTS. 
 
 281 
 
 to preach at the opening Service at the Cathedral : and, after 
 the General Synod, I start on my two months’ Visitations to 
 the different districts of the Diocese. . . . 
 
 “ Ho doubt you remember the Adelaide correspondence in 
 1858 between the Bishop of Adelaide and Mr. Binney the 
 Congregationalism The Bishop of Adelaide this year, in his 
 Pastoral Address to liis Synod, 16th May 1876, thus refers 
 to that correspondence, in which he called his hopes and 
 wishes a pleasant dream. 
 
 “ ‘ 1 acknowledge the talent, energy, learning, piety, and 
 respectability of many Ministers not of our Communion. I 
 had always entertained a hope that, as time went on, some 
 method might be found whereby they might, without 
 wounding feeling or conscience, combine with us to evan- 
 gelise a sinful world. I need hardly remind you how this 
 hope found expression in my letter to Mr. Binney in 1858. 
 His reply contained in his “ Church of the Future ” effectually 
 dispelled the dream which I had entertained. The differ- 
 ence between the believers in a Catholic and Apostolic 
 Church and those who maintain that “ every individual may 
 be a Church in himself,” then appeared essentially irrecon- 
 cilable. The Vaticanist and the Rationalist alike reject the 
 testimony of the Primitive Church (the Witness and Keeper 
 ^of Holy Writ), to the authenticity, genuineness, and inspira- 
 tion of the Hew Testament Scriptures. The Vaticanist rests 
 on his own supposed infallible authority, the Rationalist on 
 his own individual feeling and judgment. It follows, accord- 
 ing to the principle affirmed in the “ Church of the Future,” 
 that each man may select his own Bible, make his own 
 Creed, and constitute himself a Church. As far as man is 
 concerned, he is at liberty to do so. But we must then be 
 content to substitute Babel for the Catholic Church.’ 
 
 “ The Bishop of Adelaide in his sermon at the opening 
 service of the General Synod in 1872 rather pursued the 
 subject of his ‘ pleasant dream’ in the Adelaide correspon- 
 dence, taking for his text, ‘ Love the Brotherhood ; ’ explain- 
 ing ‘ the Brotherhood ’ to mean the whole Church of Christ. 
 I propose in my sermon on October 3d to take a much 
 
282 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1876. 
 
 humbler subject, and try to call attention to the ways in 
 which we may and should be a great aid to one another in 
 our different Dioceses, preaching from Galatians vi. 2 : ‘ Bear 
 ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.’ 
 
 “ There is now much work before me, but I really feel to 
 have recovered, by the Lord’s blessing, a great increase lately 
 of power, both of mind and body. 
 
 “ With my kindest regards to Mrs. Boodle, and much love 
 to yourself, — I remain, my very dear Sir, most affectionately 
 yours, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 A few months before this he had said about himself : 
 “ I am well again, but now in my seventieth year I find the 
 craving for rest and peace increasing in strength ; and I am 
 glad to be quiet at home.” 
 
 On the 15 th of November, after returning from a Visitation 
 to "Wollombi and the Macdonald River, which had much 
 exhausted him, he writes, referring to the account of a 
 Clergy Retreat in England : “All that you say about the 
 benefit of a Retreat for the Clergy has my full concurrence ; 
 and on my return home from my last Visitation this year, on 
 which I start to-morrow morning, I intend to try some such 
 plan for the personal improvement of the Clergy; for it does 
 seem to me that such a safeguard against the gradual dete- 
 rioration of Clergymen who live very much by themselves 
 might be especially useful 
 
 After his return from his Visitation he wrote again : — 
 
 4 ‘Morpeth, December 14 th, 1876, 
 5.25 a.m. 
 
 “My very dear Sir, — ... To remind you a little of 
 old Diocesan work, I have placed in my address the hour at 
 which I am writing, having had my Greek Testament read- 
 ing and my half-hour’s walk in the garden, which I reached 
 this morning after opening all the windows in the lower part 
 of the house a little before 5 a.m. 
 
 “ The printed papers, which you enclosed in your letter, 
 respecting Clergy Retreats, are to me at this present time 
 
RETREATS FOR CLERGY. 
 
 1S76.I 
 
 283 
 
 deeply interesting. But I do not see my way to commence 
 any similar work here at present.” 
 
 It would have been, in such a case, most useful to him to 
 have visited England and to have joined in a Retreat for his 
 own benefit. This seems, both from theory and experience, 
 the only effectual way of being able to organise and conduct 
 such Retreats as he wished. When he left England both the 
 name and the thing were utterly unknown ; a well-conducted 
 “ Clerical meeting,” which is an instrument of good totally 
 distinct both in its object and method, was the only thing 
 in use. The organisation of Synods, and the realisation of 
 the Divine authority of the Church in respect of its govern - 
 ment need, as their correlative, the intenser realisation of the 
 Presence of the Holy Ghost, and of His indwelling in the 
 Body of the Church, and in the heart of the individual 
 Christian for the purposes of sanctification , which is effected 
 in a well-conducted Retreat. 
 
 The business-like habit strengthened by Synodical delibe- 
 rations, and by the necessity, in an unendowed Church, of 
 taking care for its pecuniary support (however necessary), 
 has a tendency to secularise the mind ; and would find its 
 corrective in the exercises of a Retreat, which place the 
 Individual soul, its past history and future hopes, in the 
 ntense light of the Presence of God. 
 
 The contemplation of the end of his appointed work was 
 evidently becoming more habitual to the Bishop. Writing 
 to the Rev. Prebendary Bullock, the Secretary of S. P. G., 
 on the 18th of January 1877, he says : “ On the 31st of this 
 present month I shall complete my seventieth year ; and I 
 am now in the thirtieth year of my Episcopate. And as I 
 have never yet rested from my Episcopal duties, I hope not 
 to be compelled to do so until I am summoned by my 
 Blessed Saviour to my final rest above.” 
 
 On the 7th of February he wrote to me : “ Let me first 
 mention to you an event which has brought many serious 
 but really happy thoughts with it, namely, my completing 
 last Wednesday, January 31st, my threescore years and ten. 
 
284 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 1877. 
 
 I do feel very grateful to the Lord for His many mercies and 
 loving Providence over me for seventy years. And I think 
 that the arriving at the age of man has been blessed to me in 
 arousing within me a deep feeling of gratitude for the past, 
 with a sincere thought of contented endurance, on account of 
 the weaknesses which I must now expect both of mind and 
 body ; with an earnest desire to render, by the Lord’s grace, 
 the remainder of my pilgrimage more improving to myself 
 and more useful to others. Sight is growing dim, and voice 
 is becoming weak, and the body seems to require shorter 
 work and longer rest, while in some respects mind and 
 memory do not seem so worthy of dependence as they were 
 a few years ago : but when I tell you that I have engaged to 
 superintend the publication of our little Parish Magazine, 
 you may fairly conclude that I do not feel over-burdened 
 with present duties, but am willing to attempt some that are 
 new. . . . Your account of your Missions is very interest- 
 ing ; and I am now bearing in mind and in my prayers the 
 Mission at St. Paul’s, Clifton. At your old Parish, Compton 
 Dando, the attendance of children before their school hour, 
 and the special Services for the women and for the men, 
 must, I think, have been very interesting and beneficial. 
 ... May the Lord, of His great goodness, watch over you 
 and Mrs. Boodle, and over His Clergy in this Diocese, 
 especially over your aged and most affectionate friend, 
 
 “ W. Newcastle.” 
 
 In the following month he says he is “ vigorous, and 
 working with pleasure during his usual hours.” And in 
 May he writes : “ My only remaining brother now alive was 
 eighty-five last month, so he is fifteen years older than I 
 am, and I feel quite a youngster in comparison : but now 
 that I am of man’s full age, I have no wish for a much 
 longer life : and hope by the end of this year to complete all 
 my financial arrangements for my Diocese, so that I may be 
 ready for my call to rest.” 
 
 The Diocesan Synod which began on the 1st of May 
 was the last at which the earnest, hard-working Bishop 
 
I877-] BISHOP'S LAST PRESENCE AT SYNOD. 285 
 
 liimself presided. In the course of his address he reviewed 
 at length the proceedings of the Second General Synod, 
 which had met in the preceding October : and in which the 
 old inability of the Southern Dioceses to get free from a 
 hankering after Letters Patent had marred its usefulness. 
 
 Referring to the still continued unwillingness of some to 
 grant to the General Synod its due authority over the 
 Diocesan Synods, he said : “ Respecting the fourth difference 
 of opinion among the members of our Church in Australia 
 and Tasmania, I would desire, Reverend and dear brethren, 
 to impress upon your minds my own sense of its great 
 importance : for I believe that if our General Synod does 
 not at its next Session acquire a controlling authority 
 over the Synods of the different Dioceses in Australia and 
 Tasmania, and thus establish the due subordination of 
 Synods , as recommended in the fourth Resolution of the 
 Pan- Anglican Conference of 1867, it will not long continue 
 to exist in its present inefficient state ; but that probably its 
 next meeting will be its last.” 
 
 With respect to his endeavour to provide Christian teach- 
 ing for children in the “ Public ” Schools, he'said : — “ I feel 
 confident that the great majority of our Clergy are now 
 \earnestly anxious to fulfil the command of our Lord to Peter, 
 4 Peed My lambs : ’ and though I do not presume to think 
 that we have as yet found out the very best way of perform- 
 ing the duty, yet I firmly believe that, by earnest thought 
 and diligent endeavour, we shall, before long, learn a really 
 effective mode of giving religious instruction to the young ; 
 and when we have learned it, shall diligently practise it. By 
 this means we shall, I believe, attach more and more to 
 ourselves and to our Church the parents of those children 
 whom we thus labour to bring up in the nurture and admoni- 
 tion of the Lord : for the loving care of the child is ever the 
 surest way to the parent’s heart. 
 
 “ I shall not soon forget the expression of love and grati- 
 tude towards myself which I saw on the faces of several 
 parents, many of them Germans, who were awaiting my 
 arrival for Service before a simple Bush Church on the 
 
286 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [ 1877 - 
 
 Manning last year, and who knew that I had been spending 
 the morning in instructing and examining their children in 
 the nearest Public School. 
 
 “ Let me advance one step from this instruction of children 
 in the Public Schools to our own Confirmations, which in all 
 the towns of the Diocese will take place again this year : 
 and while I desire to thank the Clergy for the great pains 
 which they take in preparing the children who are to be pre- 
 sented to me for Confirmation, I would also mention the real 
 delight which I myself take in these Services. It is almost 
 invidious to mention the names of any particular places, in 
 which I have especially enjoyed these Services of Confirma- 
 tion; but I do look forward with earnest expectation to 
 witness again, this year, the same devotion and holy rever- 
 ence which I witnessed two years ago in the Confirmation 
 Services here at Newcastle, and at East Maitland, at Muswell 
 Brook, and at Scone.” 
 
 After alluding to an increase in the number of Clergy, he 
 turned to the Lay Members of the Synod, and said that 
 nothing would give him greater pleasure than to hear that 
 some of them were thinking of devoting a son to the Service 
 of Christ — “ not the dullest, but the brightest ; not the most 
 indolent, the most unfit for success in worldly business, but 
 the most energetic of all ; one who is most inclined himself 
 to labour, and to influence others to labour, that labour which 
 is not in vain in the Lord.” 
 
 He concluded his address by quoting St. Paul’s words 
 when he knew his end was near : “I am now ready to be 
 offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” . . . And 
 added : “ Let us all remember that both for ourselves and for 
 our children this is the one real business of life : to love our 
 Lord’s appearing ; to prepare ourselves with an earnest expec- 
 tation for the manifestation of the sons of God ; to purify 
 ourselves, even as Christ is pure ; to become like Him, have 
 His Spirit and His Mind, that we may be meet and fit to 
 appear before Him when He comes” 
 
 On the 26th of July Episcopal troubles were trying him : 
 late in the preceding year, a good man, the Bev. J. J. Grime, 
 
1S77.] 
 
 TROUBLED, YET NOT DISTRESSED. 
 
 2S7 
 
 who had come out to him from England, died of rapid con- 
 sumption only a short time after he had begun to work, and 
 now there were two who had proved so unsatisfactory that it 
 was even a relief to he rid of them. 
 
 Yet work is progressing. He says in a letter to me : — 
 
 “ On July 3d we had a nice Service at the opening of a very 
 pretty new Church at Miller’s Forest, built of wood brought 
 from the Manning Kiver. On October 2d I have arranged 
 to Consecrate a nice stone Church at Murrurundi : in about 
 ten days I preside at an evening meeting at St. Peter’s, East 
 Maitland, where we hope to decide on building a new Church, 
 which is to cost ^4000. They are preparing to build a 
 new Church at Scone, to cost ^4000. At Bullock Island, 
 near Newcastle, they are preparing to build a wooden Church: 
 with other buildings in prospect. . . . 
 
 “ And now, what shall I say of myself ? I am really very 
 well, and hard at work. I have lately been reading again, 
 two or three times, Liddon’s ‘ Elements of Beligion,’ and my 
 days are very fully occupied. The great subject of thought 
 and anxiety with me is not ritualistic excesses , but the more 
 necessary work of training up a body of Clergy. I have only 
 thi^ morning been carefully considering the present Body of 
 Clergy, and I do not remember that, as a Body, they were 
 ever better. But I want a more complete system of training 
 for the future. — Believe me, ever most affectionately yours, 
 
 “ W. Newcastle.” 
 
 Thus was Bishop Tyrrell continuing in his allotted work. 
 Through all the vicissitudes of hope, and disappointment, of 
 gladly-given help, and opposition, of success and failure, of 
 wise plans and errors, of vigorous strength and weakening 
 powers, he was following up the lesson he had learned years 
 ago in his first Curacy of Aylestone. 
 
 “ Is not God’s oath upon your head, 
 
 Ne’er to sink back on slothful bed, 
 
 Never again your loins untie, 
 
 Nor let your torches waste and die, 
 
 Till, when the shadows thickest fall, 
 
 Ye hear your Master’s midnight call? ” 
 
 — Keble , Second Sunday in Advent . 
 
( 288 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 FROM THE FIRST SUMMONS TO THE CALL TO REST. 
 
 AUGUST 1877 TO MARCH 1 879. 
 
 . . . tC As earth’s brightness fades, 
 
 And death’s impenetrable mist 
 
 Flings o’er our path its shades ; 
 
 A purer light afar 
 
 Beyond the grave Faith’s eye beholds ; 
 
 A never-setting star." 
 
 — A Sunset in Australia. 
 
 We have seen that Bishop Tyrrell had for some time been 
 looking forward to the end, and was carefully making his 
 preparations for the pecuniary support and extension of the 
 Church in his Diocese in years to come. 
 
 On Friday, the ioth of August 1877, the first distinct 
 note of warning was struck. 
 
 He had risen at 5. 1 5, before daylight, as his Diary shows. 
 His Devotions, his daily reading of the Greek Testament, and 
 the careful consideration of the duties of the day, occupied 
 him till 7.30. And after the simple breakfast, which was 
 usually despatched in ten minutes, he had been hard at 
 Diocesan work, including some important correspondence, 
 which had caused him much anxious thought, from 8 till 
 1.30. Dinner had not long been over when a strange sensa- 
 tion and feeling of illness, “ a very relaxed throat,” and “ a 
 difficulty in speaking and reading,” marked the first touch of 
 paralysis. He announced it to me in a letter dated August 
 23* i8 77 
 
 “ My very dear Sir, — I am afraid that I must give you 
 bad news respecting myself. On the ioth of August I had- 
 
1877.] 
 
 ATTACK OF PARALYSIS. 
 
 289 
 
 a hard morning’s work in writing some very anxious letters 
 on Church matters ; and though I had no seizure or attack of 
 any kind which was perceptible, yet in the afternoon I felt 
 that my speech was not quite clear, and found my mouth 
 drawn on one side, a little down. The next day I went to 
 Dr. Wilton ; who at once declared that, without any doubt, 
 it was a slight attack of paralysis from overstrain of the 
 brain, and, as he added, from too abstemious a diet. He 
 ordered me to abstain from all mental exertion, and at first 
 positively forbade me to think of carrying out my scheme 
 of Visitations and Confirmations which I had previously 
 arranged. ... I was not, praise the Lord, in the slightest 
 degree cast down or out of spirits ; but amused myself, as the 
 doctor requested I would do, by light reading; . . . and 
 each day he has pronounced me to be wonderfully better. 
 So that this attack may be considered as overcome ; but I am 
 quite aw^are that any exertion of brain, especially any care or 
 anxiety, may bring on another. 
 
 “ Dr. Wilton would not at first hear of my going on with 
 my Visitation, which w r as to commence next week, but now 
 he considers me so much better that he approves of my 
 going to Brisbane Water next Thursday to Confirm, taking 
 my nephew, the Bev. Lovick Tyrrell, with me as my 
 Chaplain. 
 
 “By a merciful Providence some Church anxieties, which 
 were giving me trouble, seem to have all been allayed in the 
 very best way. — With my kindest regards to Mrs. Boodle, I 
 remain, my very dear Sir, affectionately yours, 
 
 “ W. Newcastle.” 
 
 For rather more than a fortnight he relaxed his attention 
 to his Diocesan business, and wrote fewer letters. He had 
 not the solace, which most men have in their invalid hours, 
 of domestic society : but our Divine Lord’s promise to those 
 who have forsaken father, and mother, and wife, and 
 children for His sake, was made good to him ; he was con- 
 tented and cheerful, had no feeling of loneliness ; placing his 
 enforced inaction, as he had before placed the fulness of his 
 
 T 
 
290 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1877. 
 
 energies, in the hands of Him in Whose love he trusted. 
 He had worked for Christ’s sake, and now for Christ’s sake 
 could lie still ; without that fretful restlessness which vexes 
 the bustling and self-important when they cannot come to 
 the front, as if without their aid the world must come to a 
 stand-still. Light reading, sorting his letters and papers, 
 quiet thought, the occasional visit of one of his Clergy or a 
 neighbour, enabled the nervous system to recover its tone. 
 One or two days were peacefully occupied in arranging for 
 the distribution, among some of his Clergy and friends, of 
 presents of good things which a loving relative had sent to 
 him from England. And one day we find him looking 
 through all his Diaries for papers respecting his plans of 
 Diocesan Endowment. 
 
 On the third Sunday after the attack there is the entry in his 
 Diary : — “ Beading Hugh James Rose’s beautiful University 
 Sermons on (1) ‘God’s Grace Sufficient;’ (2) ‘Sanctifying 
 Purpose ; ’ (3) ‘ Effects of Sensuality ; ’ (4) ‘ Comforts of 
 Religion;’ (5) ‘Fruitless Repentance.’ — The study of them 
 a great treat.” 
 
 His first Visitation to Brisbane Water, about sixty miles 
 off, and to the intermediate Townships, though he was assisted 
 by his nephew as Chaplain, was a great fatigue to him. 
 Either the exertion of the Confirmation addresses, or the 
 excessive shaking of driving for seven of the miles, out and 
 back, over “ corduroy roads,” i.e., roads over soft ground made 
 of logs laid at right angles to the track, so upset him, that for 
 five nights after his return he could get no sleep : to the 
 great alarm of his doctor. But having at last rallied, he 
 set to work again, made his second Visitation in the middle 
 of October to Murrurundi, where he Consecrated a very nice 
 Church, and held a Confirmation. And on his return Con- 
 firmed at Muswell Brook. 
 
 At the end of the same month he took another Confirma- 
 tion journey, visiting Ellalong, Wollombi, and Singleton. 
 And in December he finished his appointed number of 
 Confirmations at and around Morpeth. The number of the 
 Candidates for Confirmation, the number of Communicants 
 
1877 -] SYMPATHY OF BISHOP SELIVYN. 291 
 
 — parents, children, and godparents often kneeling at the 
 Altar rail, side by side— and the heartiness of the Congrega- 
 tion, were, as in former years, a great refreshment to him. 
 His constant endeavours to quicken faith in the blessing of 
 Confirmation had not been in vain. 
 
 There was one who could not hear unmoved of his attack : 
 the old friend whose heart had beat with his ever since their 
 Johnian days, now in the seat of St. Chad, at Lichfield ; but 
 as lovingly bound to him as when they sailed in the “ Border 
 Maid ” to evangelise the bright coral isles of Melanesia, or 
 fought side by side in Sydney for the blessing of Christian 
 education for Christian youths. 
 
 Bishop Selwyn wrote : — 
 
 “The Palace, Lichfield, 29 th December 1877. 
 
 “My dear Brother, — The first tidings of your illness 
 came to me through Mr. Boodle in a letter from you to him, 
 dated August 23 d, giving him an account of your seizure on 
 August 10th. It was a shock to me, because I had heard 
 that you had recovered from your former illness. Our comfort 
 was that the attack appeared to have been slight. But it 
 was impossible for us to know what an attack of that kind 
 might portend. After fifty years of friendship I felt as if a 
 brother’s life were in jeopardy. What to do to help you I 
 could not tell at the distance of 12,000 miles. But your 
 letter of October 27th came just before Christmas; and in 
 some degree relieved my mind, by pointing out the way in 
 which you wished to be assisted. 
 
 “ When I read it, I rejoiced, with thankfulness, at the 
 careful and complete preparation which God had enabled 
 you to make for the wants of your Diocese. And it was a 
 most merciful Providence which brought these varied works 
 almost to a completion before the stroke came, which was to 
 make all such business a thing to be carefully avoided. You 
 further state that you can offer ^1000 a year to a Coadjutor 
 Bishop to be consecrated cum jure successionis. I will 
 inquire anxiously, and write to you from time to time. If 
 
292 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. [1878. 
 
 haste is necessary, I will telegraph. — Your affectionate Friend 
 and Brother, G. A. Lichfield.” 
 
 The Bishop of Newcastle had made up his mind that he 
 needed a Coadjutor: and in 1875 the Synod, in passing 
 an Ordinance for the election of a Bishop in case of a 
 vacancy, had added to it a clause for providing for such 
 a contingency. 
 
 In the appointment of a Coadjutor Bishop, as in the case 
 of a vacancy, the election was in the hands of the Synod : 
 but the Bishop might propose for nomination a person or 
 persons, not more than three, whose names should he placed 
 first on the list of those submitted to the Synod for election. 
 
 The Bishop’s long absence from England preventing his 
 knowledge of suitable men, he had requested his dear friend 
 the Bishop of Lichfield to assist him by sending him the 
 name of some man whom he might recommend to his Synod, 
 with confidence as to his fitness for the office : and to this 
 Bishop Selwyn alluded in his letter just quoted. 
 
 Bishop Selywn’s next, and, as it proved, his last , letter to 
 his Brother of Newcastle is the following : — 
 
 ‘ ‘ The Palace, Lichfield, 
 January qth, 1878. 
 
 “ My dear Brother, — I find that the time of the San 
 Francisco mail is changed ; and that this letter may reach 
 you before one which I sent via Brindisi. You will soon 
 receive it, if not before this, assuring you of my affectionate 
 sympathy with you in your illness ; and of my desire to do 
 all that I can to furnish you with the assistance you require. 
 I will proceed cautiously, and let you know the result in 
 time for your Synod in May. 
 
 “ I do not know whether your doctor will agree with me 
 in thinking that the best thing for you would be a visit to 
 England, at the time of the Lambeth Conference in July. 
 Your Synod might give you authority to select your own 
 Coadjutor. Do think of it. 
 
1873 .] 
 
 DEATH OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 293 
 
 “ Believe me, in tlie memory of half a century of friend- 
 ship, your affectionate Friend and Brother, 
 
 “ G. A. Lichfield.” 
 
 It was not so to he. Bishop Tyrrell had not now the 
 shadow of a thought of a visit to England for any purpose 
 whatever : and in little more than three months from the 
 date of this letter, England, her Colonies, and her brethren 
 of the American Church, were united in one deep sorrow, 
 that at the Lambeth Conference Bishop Selwyn’s presence 
 and wise counsels would be wanting. God had claimed His 
 own. 
 
 Bishop Tyrrell wrote to me : — 
 
 “Morpeth, April 24, 1878. 
 
 “ My dear Sir, — I duly received your last welcome letter 
 of February 27, and we have since heard by telegram from 
 England the sad, sad news of the death of Bishop Selwyn on 
 the nth of this month. We have as yet received no details 
 of his last illness, but we are all deeply impressed with the 
 loss our Diocese has sustained in thus losing one who was so 
 kindly and earnestly working for me. My own health is, I 
 think, not worse ; though my old doctor, Dr. Wilton, gives 
 me no hope of the renewal of former strength of mind and 
 body : but forbids any duty which requires anxious mental 
 effort. I now only attend the first morning meeting of our 
 Diocesan Council, signing a Commission to Canon Child to 
 be President, as my Commissary, to the end of the meeting. 
 And on Tuesday week, when our Synod commences, I do not 
 think that I shall preside at all. — Yours most affectionately, 
 
 “W. Newcastle.” 
 
 But if the Bishop’s physical powers were gradually failing, 
 his loving care for his Diocese was as strong, we can hardly 
 be wrong in saying, stronger than ever. Not a Church had 
 been built in the Diocese, to which he, who diminished his 
 personal expenses in every practicable way, had not given 
 more or less assistance from his own purse. In many cases, 
 notably those of the Church of All Saints, Singleton, which 
 
294 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1878- 
 
 possesses the only peal of bells in the Diocese, and St. Alban’s, 
 Muswell Brook, the Churchmen of the locality had offered 
 nobly to the work. But in West Maitland, which certainly 
 had suffered severely on many occasions from devastating 
 floods, the two Churches of St. Mary’s and St. Paul’s were 
 still heavily in debt : and though they had been used for 
 Divine Service for some years past, had never been Conse- 
 crated. The debt on the former had been above ^6000, 
 and on the latter ^4000. 
 
 These sums were owing to the Bishop, and, on the condi- 
 tion of a comparatively small portion of each being subscribed, 
 he wiped off the remainder. On the Peast of the Conversion 
 of St. Paul the latter was Consecrated ; and the former, of 
 which the Metropolitan had laid the first stone in i860, on 
 the 31st of January; which was chosen for the Consecration 
 as being the Bishop’s seventy-first birthday. The completion 
 of these two long unfinished works was a great satisfaction 
 to him. 
 
 There was yet one plan which he was anxious to draw out 
 in its completeness, and to make careful provision for its 
 eventual realisation before he was called from his earthly 
 stewardship — the Endowment of his Diocese. 
 
 Eor this, in one way or another, we have seen him labour- 
 ing from his first appointment to the Bishopric. 
 
 Had it not been for the two heavy losses of his private 
 property in England soon after his arrival in the Colony, he 
 would doubtless have effected his purpose more easily and 
 more safely. 
 
 In March he completed his will, and in it left everything 
 he was possessed of to his Diocese. 
 
 The Diocesan Synod assembled at West Maitland on the 
 7 th of May. The Bishop’s critical state of health prevented 
 him, for the first time, from presiding : but he had carefully 
 prepared his address, which was read by Canon Child, who 
 presided under commission from him. In it he laid before 
 the Synod his matured plans for the Endowment of the 
 Church in the Diocese, which, he said, “ I hope by the good- 
 ness of the Lord to be allowed to prepare for and commence 
 
295 
 
 1878.] THE BISHOP'S ENDOWMENT SCHEME. 
 
 His design was to provide for the accumulation of a capital 
 of ^25 0,000 for nine distinct objects, embracing with paternal 
 forethought all the chief wants of the Church. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Bishop’s income of ^1200 per annum, 
 
 £30,000 
 
 2. 
 
 Stipend of one Archdeacon, .... 
 
 5000 
 
 3 - 
 
 Three Canons and Rural Deans, 
 
 6000 
 
 4 . 
 
 Clergy Stipends £100 per annum each — 
 
 
 
 remainder to be provided by their flocks, 
 
 100,000 
 
 5 - 
 
 Superannuated Clergy, 
 
 10,000 
 
 6. 
 
 Sick Clergy, 
 
 5000 
 
 7 - 
 
 New Clergy, 
 
 25,000 
 
 8. 
 
 The Training of future Clergy, 
 
 25,000 
 
 9 - 
 
 The Religious Education of the Young, . 
 
 44,000 
 
 
 
 ,£250,000 
 
 The boldness and completeness of the design fairly took 
 away men’s breath at the time, accustomed as they were to 
 the belief that the Colonial Church must simply live from 
 hand to mouth, except when the State gave its aid. 
 
 He had long made up his mind that nothing but helpless 
 enervation could result from the Church in the Colony trust- 
 ing simply to the external support of the State or English 
 subscriptions. Eoth of these he was thankful enough to use 
 for a ivhile, to enable the people to overcome their first diffi- 
 culties, and to assist them to grapple with the enormous 
 work opening before them. Eut from the beginning he had 
 trained them to help themselves , and to show and increase 
 their value of the Church’s blessings by their self-denying 
 offerings for its support. 
 
 Having made sure of this, he felt as strongly the importance 
 of partial Endowments ; and for this also he looked mainly to 
 the Colony itself. Settlers who used capital prudently made 
 fortunes by cattle and sheep stations. Why should not some 
 Endowment for the Church be obtained from the same 
 sources 'l 
 
 Not a few persons, from a hasty view of the Eishop’s plan, 
 formed a wrong idea of what he was doing ; and imagined 
 that he had at the time ^2 5 0,000 to dispose of, and be- 
 
296 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1878. 
 
 qneathed it to the Church. He was not able to do anything 
 of the kind. 
 
 He had some time before purchased four valuable stations 
 on the Gwydir Eiver ; and, more recently, had bought twelve 
 more on the Culgoa, six of them in Hew South Wales, and 
 six in Queensland. 
 
 There seemed reason to hope that from the former the 
 present current expenses of the Diocese might be met : leaving 
 the proceeds of the latter, which were much more valuable, 
 to be invested year by year in Government Debentures, until 
 by degrees the full ^2 50,000 should be realised. Such was 
 the provision which he made by his will. And whenever 
 this might be effected, the stations would still remain 
 Diocesan property, to be made use of as the Bishop and 
 Synod of that future day might determine. 
 
 The last words of Bishop Tyrrell’s address to his Synod, 
 in which he had detailed all his plans, were : — 
 
 “ This, my dear Brethren of the Clergy and Laity, is my 
 scheme of Endowment for this my loved Diocese; not to 
 enrich the Clergy, but to make them efficient for the per- 
 formance of their high duties, the perfecting of the Saints, 
 the work of the Ministry, the edifying of the Body of Christ; 
 that you and yours, yourselves, your wives, your children, 
 and your children’s children, may grow in grace, and have 
 more and more your fruit unto holiness, and the end ever- 
 lasting life.” 
 
 In speaking of the sixth of the funds in the above-men- 
 tioned scheme, the Bishop said : “It will be secured by a 
 bequest of ^£5000; to which my dear sister not only promises 
 to bequeath ^2000, but is really the first proposer of the 
 fund. It is • for sick Clergy. . . . And as my sister is the 
 real founder of this fund, I should like the wives of the 
 Clergy to benefit by it. Eor only last week I had the case of 
 a Clergyman’s wife brought before me, who urgently requires 
 rest and change of air, and the best medical advice. 
 
 When we read and think of the details of this thoughtful 
 provision for others, made with so much self-denial by the 
 brother and sister, Keble’s lines rise before the mind : — 
 
297 
 
 1878.] ADDRESS OF SYMPATHY FROM SYNOD. 
 
 “ Wouldst thou the life of souls discern ? 
 
 Nor human wisdom, nor divine, 
 
 Helps thee by aught besides to learn : 
 
 Love is life's only sign.” 
 
 To their absent and beloved Bishop, who had hitherto 
 always taken the lead in mental or bodily labour, the Synod 
 sent an address, expressing their “ heartfelt concern ” for his 
 enfeebled state of health, caused by his “ incessant and 
 devoted attention to the affairs of the Diocese, without 
 relaxation, for more than thirty years.” 
 
 Their respectful appreciation of the “extreme care and 
 thoughtfulness ” for the future maintenance of the Diocese 
 shown in the Endowment Scheme ; and their anxiety that 
 steps should be taken, in accordance with a previously 
 expressed wish of the Bishop, to provide a Coadjutor, who 
 should relieve him of the more laborious duties of his office. 
 
 The benefits of such an appointment would be : — 
 
 The prolonging, under the good providence of God, the 
 Bishop’s guidance of the affairs of the Diocese. 
 
 The prevention of the evils of a long vacancy when he 
 should be taken from them. 
 
 The aid his influence in England might give in the selec- 
 tion of a suitable man as Coadjutor, and, eventually, Diocesan 
 Bishop : and the benefit to the future Bishop of gaining, under 
 his superintendence, an insight into the working and system 
 of the Diocese, before its full responsibility devolved on him. 
 
 The address concluded : “ With warm feelings of attach- 
 ment to your Lordship’s person and office, the Synod would 
 assure you of its earnest desire faithfully to carry out the 
 working of the Diocese, so as to secure those noble ends 
 to which your long career of patient labour has so greatly 
 contributed.” 
 
 In thanking the Synod for their kind sympathy, and 
 desire to relieve him of a portion of his labours, the Bishop 
 said he did not think it desirable to take any immediate 
 steps to provide a Coadjutor. His present intention was to 
 call the Synod together some short time before its next 
 annual meeting, when its necessary assent could be obtained : 
 
298 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1878. 
 
 and at the regular meeting of the Synod the whole question 
 of election and delegation could be determined. 
 
 It was widely felt at the time, and indeed through the 
 remainder of this year of failing powers, that the delay was 
 undesirable. More now than ever did it seem true that 
 
 “ Vitse summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam.”* 
 
 In a letter dated July 17th, 1878, he assigned to me as the 
 reason for not taking any step at present: “I have not really 
 been able to decide whether it would be best to elect here, 
 or to delegate the nomination to others.” 
 
 How the once vigorous powers were failing was evidenced 
 not only by the shortness of the note from which these words 
 are taken, and the want of firmness in the writing that used 
 to be so distinct, but still more from the readiness with which 
 he adopted the following suggestion : — 
 
 “My dear sister has informed me that she and you have 
 proposed to expect letters from me alternately on alternate 
 months. And I think this would be a relief to me, as my 
 doctor still finds fault with the amount of work I do.” 
 
 Yet the enfeebled Bishop, like “ Paul the aged,” did not 
 flinch from his duties to his flock. In the same short note 
 he says : “ To-day is Wednesday, and on Monday I reached 
 home at 10.45 P - M * somewhat fatigued from a very long Con- 
 firmation at Scone on Sunday, with Holy Communion, 
 when eighty-five were Confirmed.” Scone and Morpeth are 
 eighty miles apart ; but as they are united by the railway, the 
 exertion was not so great as it would have been in earlier 
 years. 
 
 Another Confirmation tour to the west of the Diocese, 
 through Denman, Merriwa, and Cassilis, was far more trying ; 
 as part of the country was very rough for wheels. At Col- 
 laroy some symptoms of an attack seriously alarmed Mr. 
 Wilson, who was conducting the Bishop : but they passed, 
 and the Bishop F got through the Service, though with 
 difficulty. 
 
 Mr. Wilson wrote : “ In my district seventy-nine were 
 * Horace, I. Od. iv. 15. 
 
1878.] 
 
 THE CHURCH MILITANT. 
 
 299 
 
 Confirmed, far the largest number I ever presented, and 
 about sixty of them became Communicants. I hope this is 
 a true indication of the Lord’s work being done and felt. 
 Many things often make me very desponding, and few are the 
 sources of encouragement as to spiritual progress, but we did 
 fed cheered by the Bishop's visit." 
 
 Thus it ever is with those who work most truly on the 
 Church’s lines. They are “ sorrowful yet alway rejoicing,” 
 and the sorrow is often very oppressive : it is the Cross they 
 have to bear. The Church’s standard of personal and cor- 
 porate holiness is so high, that they who are aiming at it 
 for themselves or their flocks always see and feel how much 
 their attainments fall short of their highest aspirations. 
 Some of the things which weighed on Mr. Wilson’s spirits 
 are the very same through which, over a much wider area, 
 the Bishop had to make his way ; so a few lines alluding to 
 them, from a correspondent who wrote about the same time, 
 will not be out of place, though the picture drawn is a sad one. 
 
 “ The state of the Colony does not at present improve. 
 The increasing degradation of the whole sphere of politics, 
 the open exultation in the success of acknowledged false- 
 hood, even in Parliament, and the wholesale employment of 
 political influence to secure support by getting appointments, 
 contracts, &c., for partisans, are bringing us down very low. 
 The land question, too, is a most fruitful cause of deterioration 
 in honesty and charity. As the Council of Education more and 
 more monopolises all education, the increase of irreligion, of 
 open indifference to any belief and of a correspondingly loose 
 morality , is no longer a matter of speculation ; it is clearly 
 seen. Then in the Church itself, the unfaithfulness of 
 some of the Clergy, who call themselves Evangelical, to the 
 Church’s teaching is doing incredible harm. Thoughtful 
 men, however, are wearying for something better, and I hope 
 a reaction will set in.” 
 
 The Bishop’s request to Bishop Selwyn to find a good 
 man, whom he might nominate to the Synod as Coadjutor, 
 had not been forgotten. He wrote to me : — 
 
300 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1878. 
 
 “ Morpeth, New South Wales, j 
 August 30 th, 1878. 
 
 “ My yehy dear Sir, — By the last month’s mail I had a 
 very gratifying letter from Bishop Abraham, which rather 
 alters onr Diocesan intentions about choosing my Coadjutor 
 and Successor. The first point was to secure, with the Lord’s 
 blessing, a really good Bishop of the See : and, with the late 
 Bishop of Lichfield in England, it seemed as if it would be 
 best eventually to delegate the choice to him and those 
 Bishops whom he might influence at home. When the sad 
 tidings of his death arrived, I felt that the Commission I had 
 entrusted to him had probably not been completed : and that 
 I had best wait to hear clearly in what state it had been 
 left. If my dear friend had not completed the task assigned ” 
 (to look out a good man, and ascertain his willingness to 
 accept the office, if elected by Synod), “ I felt that he would 
 probably have left it in a state from which I could learn his 
 own views, which I should value as almost a sacred legacy 
 from him. And in my own mind I hoped that he might 
 have left the completion of his commission to Bishop 
 Abraham. 
 
 “ By this last mail from England I received a letter from 
 Bishop Abraham, stating that he had been consulted by 
 Bishop Selwyn, and had quite agreed with him in the person 
 whom he has decided to name as my Successor : and that 
 when my last letter to my dear friend reached England, after 
 his decease, Mrs. Selwyn had at once placed it in Bishop 
 Abraham’s hands, saying that this matter was now entrusted 
 to him. Bishop Abraham then told me of the party whom 
 Bishop Selwyn had considered as admirably suited to be my 
 Successor, and gave him the following character, which I 
 think you will be delighted to hear : — £ There is a man whom 
 the Bishop of L. thought admirably suited for the post. He 
 is a first-rate preacher, a very devout, spiritually-minded 
 man, he is a perfect gentleman, he has a most attractive 
 manner, and a large affectionate heart.’ On the receipt of 
 this letter I summoned Canon Child, Canon Selwyn, Canon 
 
i8 7 8.] 
 
 HOPE OF A COADJUTOR . 
 
 301 
 
 White, Eev. L. Tyrrell, Eev. W. S. Wilson, to come to 
 Morpeth and pass an evening in solemn consultation on the 
 subject. They all came, and we agreed as to the desirable- 
 ness of such a Coadjutor and Successor ; and this led to a 
 serious change in our plans. We all agreed that we could 
 not expect any happier choice than this of my dear friend 
 and Bishop Abraham, and that therefore it was not needed 
 to choose delegates who might select in England, but rather 
 do what we could to promote the election of this person in 
 our own Synod. 
 
 “My own stronger health, and the arrangements I have 
 made for Clerical aid from my own attached Clergy, make a 
 prospect of a little delay in the actual election of my Coad- 
 jutor less important. You will see that I do not intend to 
 be without brotherly assistance. Canon Child at the com- 
 mencement of next year will be my Archdeacon ; and Canons 
 Selwyn, White, and Tyrrell will be the Canons. My Arch- 
 deacon, if required, will be Vicar-General as well. And as 
 both Clergy and Laity are most anxious that I should do less 
 rather than more than I at present accomplish, I feel that I 
 have no urgent need at present for a Coadjutor : these assistants 
 from among my Clergy being most efficient and pleasing aids. 
 
 “ I have improved in health, and do a good deal of official 
 work. Thus I feel there is no necessity for hurry in securing 
 my Successor, and am therefore prepared to postpone his 
 election until next May, or even the following month, after 
 the four weeks’ interval.” 
 
 The Bishop also mentions a state of things in the Colony, 
 which played a principal part in the accumulation of troubles 
 which overshadowed the latter months of his life. 
 
 “We have had a most fearful period of drought, to the 
 great loss and almost ruin of half the squatters. You 
 
 remember and . A letter dated the 19th inst. 
 
 informs me that has just returned to his station, and 
 
 finds only 1 1,000 sheep where he had 47,000 : and that he is 
 selling all he can off his station, rams, and colts, and even 
 the stud entire. It has been on my stations a most anxious 
 time, and the expenses have been very heavy. 
 
302 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1878. 
 
 “ With kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. Boodle, and 
 all blessings and prayers for my dear sister, yours most 
 affectionately, W. Newcastle.” 
 
 The following letter which I received from Bishop Abra- 
 ham shows with sufficient clearness what were the terms of 
 the commission which Bishop Tyrrell had given him : — 
 
 “ The Close, Lichfield, 
 
 Eve of A ll Saints , 1878 . 
 
 “ Rev. and dear Sir, — I have just received a letter from 
 the Bishop of Newcastle, asking me to take steps to obtain 
 testimonials and information about a Clergyman in this 
 Diocese, as having been recommended for the office of 
 Coadjutor Bishop to the See of Newcastle, cum jure succes- 
 sion is. I was first to ascertain from him that he would so far 
 consent to have his name submitted to the Synod of the Dio- 
 cese , that I might proceed to obtain the testimonials. I have 
 had a long interview with him, and have every reason to 
 believe that he will write me a letter authorising me to 
 proceed in the inquiries the Bishop of Newcastle and his 
 Council have sent me. I write to you, as the Commissary of 
 the Bishop, to ask to be supplied with Synodical Documents, 
 
 which I may put before Mr. and procure his assent, if 
 
 this negotiation is to go on. I remain, yours faithfully, 
 
 “C. J. Abraham, Bishop” 
 
 The assent having been obtained, the highest testimonials 
 were given by persons of influence. But such inquiries 
 could not be made without some rumour leaking out in the 
 neighbourhood of the popular and energetic subject of them. 
 Some newspaper correspondent got hold of it, and distorted it, 
 and an utterly untrue announcement appeared in the English 
 papers. It was promptly contradicted ; and it was hoped 
 that the evil had been remedied. But mischief flies fast : 
 another hungry correspondent swallowed the falsehood w T hole, 
 and sent it off to Sydney : and on the 16th of December 
 a Colonial paper published the telegram; that “the Rev. 
 
1878 .] MISCHIEF OF A FALSE TELEGRAM . 
 
 303 
 
 succeeds Bishop Tyrrell in the Diocese of New- 
 castle.” 
 
 Of course such an announcement was perplexing to all ; as 
 it was impossible that any decision should have been arrived 
 at, or even a definite offer made, before the Synod had made 
 their election. But the telegraph which had announced the 
 death of the Marquis of Winchester when the Bishop of 
 Winchester had met his death, was not to be regarded as 
 infallible ; and sensible and calm-judging men considered it 
 as mere gossip, and awaited the arrival of their English cor- 
 respondence to clear up the matter. 
 
 Unhappily one of the Clergy of the Diocese of New- 
 castle could wait for nothing ; but published a letter the 
 very next day, stating that it was u self-evident that such 
 an announcement could have originated only with ” the 
 excellent man named, “or with his friends in England.” 
 And that it was “ evident that negotiations at home must 
 have been carried on much further ” than those in the Colony 
 had supposed. 
 
 The letter of Bishop Abraham, and what has been said 
 above, will show that these “ self-evident ” and “ evident ” 
 truths ivere not truths at all . Nothing had been done, 
 except to provide one willing to be nominated, and to pro- 
 cure evidence to satisfy the Bishop as to his fitness. But 
 the untrue statement, that the rights of Synod had been 
 trespassed on, did its work by infusing prejudices, and 
 opened the way (in a manner which savoured too much of 
 electioneering tactics) for party watchwords sown broadcast, 
 on the chance that some of them might germinate. 
 
 The statements and insinuations of the letter were most 
 temperately and convincingly answered by several of the 
 Clergy of the Diocese. Sound and sensible Churchmen 
 were content to wait for the clearing up by letter of the 
 perplexing announcement of the telegram. In due time 
 letters did clear it away ; and when the testimonials arrived, 
 those who had waited patiently were far more than satisfied 
 with the recommendation of Bishops Selwyn and Abraham, 
 heartily acquiesced in as it was by their own Bishop. But 
 
304 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 [1878. 
 
 the untrue accusations were, unhappily, defended by their 
 writer ; and the insinuations had the evil effect of suggesting 
 false impressions which, had they been put in plain words, 
 would have been refuted. 
 
 This opposition was very painful to the Bishop, who had 
 received letters testimonial of a very high character respecting 
 the Clergyman named to him. 
 
 At the beginning of the year he wrote me a few lines, 
 which showed how much his weakness had increased upon 
 him : — 
 
 “Morpeth, New South Wales, 
 
 " January 1 , 1879 . 
 
 “My very dear Friend, — May the blessing of a happy 
 New Year rest upon yourself and Mrs. Boodle. 
 
 “ I have now appointed Canon Child my Archdeacon of 
 Newcastle and Vicar-General, and Mr. Lovick Tyrrell my 
 third Canon in his place. 
 
 “ Bishop Abraham has sent me most admirable testimonials 
 
 in favour of Mr. . But I am afraid his election will 
 
 meet with some opposition. Mr. seems inclined to 
 
 be the leader of it. 
 
 “The summer has been unusually close and oppressive, 
 and I was much depressed; but the last week has been 
 cooler, and I feel stronger. — With kind regards to Mrs. 
 Boodle, I remain, my very dear Sir, yours most affectionately, 
 
 “W. Newcastle.” 
 
 The Bishop was now feeling another anxiety increasing 
 daily upon him, which the question of the appointment of 
 a Coadjutor soon brought upon him in all its intensity. 
 The disastrous drought, of which he had spoken in his 
 August letter, was still unrelieved. Those terrible words of 
 Moses seemed to be having a fulfilment : “ Thy heaven that 
 is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under 
 thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy 
 land powder and dust.” * Month after month rain had been 
 anxiously looked for, and it was not sent. The lagoons and 
 
 * Dent, xxviii. 23. 
 
iS79] 
 
 AN AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT. 
 
 305 
 
 water-holes had dried up one after another, under the constant 
 glare of a cloudless sky. The rivers, unfed by any snowy moun- 
 tain range, showed for miles nothing but dry beds of shingle 
 or sand ; save where the rock, or clay, rising nearer to the sur- 
 face, prevented the precious water from sinking out of sight. 
 The heavy night dews, brought from the Pacific by the 
 north-east winds, showed that all moisture had not quite 
 left the earth ; but hardly had the sun looked well over the 
 hills before he had claimed every drop from the chapped 
 and gaping earth, and the lips of Tantalus were still dry. 
 
 And then, from time to time, the wind changed, not to 
 the cool South, but to the scorching West : and from the 
 heated plains of the interior it came, breathing over wither- 
 ing grasses and gasping animals, with a temperature of from 
 90° to iio° in the shade. 
 
 To increase the evil, here and there some drayman had 
 lighted a fire on his way down the country, to boil his pot 
 of tea ; and had left it burning. It had caught the neigh- 
 bouring grass, or the light strips of paper-like bark which 
 were lying about, and in a few days the country for a 
 hundred square miles was as black as coal with the smoke of 
 the burning logs or branches ; making the sun a dull red ball. 
 
 And where were the sheep and cattle, on which the wealth 
 of Australia so largely depends ? 
 
 From one dried-up station after another, each with its two 
 flocks of 1 000 apiece, the sheep had been driven to some 
 other place, where the water still held out. There too, 
 after a while, the water failed ; or the accumulated flocks had 
 eaten the ground bare. 
 
 The cattle, which had lingered near the shrinking water- 
 holes, were gradually obliged to move further off for grass. 
 When thirst compelled them at last to come five miles or 
 more to drink, their pace gradually quickened, until, as 
 they neared the water, the whole herd was in full gallop. 
 The foremost were the worst off ; they stuck in the half- 
 dried margin ; and before they could reach the coveted 
 w^ter, those behind had rushed over them, and many were 
 left smothered in the mud. 
 
 u 
 
3 o6 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [1879. 
 
 In a time of so terrible a visitation as this, it was no light 
 anxiety to the Bishop that he had invested nearly the whole 
 of the money devoted to the Diocese in stations. 
 
 He knew that, to prevent an almost total loss of the live- 
 stock, enormously heavy expenses had been incurred on his 
 account. But, partly from trusting to his manager, and 
 partly from the necessity, since his attack, of avoiding the 
 strain of business, he was somewhat in the dark as to the 
 exact state of his affairs. It had, however, now become 
 necessary to look into them accurately. 
 
 Having received such satisfactory testimonials from Eng- 
 land respecting the Clergyman whose name had been sug- 
 gested to him for nomination, he agreed to summon the 
 Synod on the 29th of January, for the purpose of asking its 
 consent to the appointment of a Coadjutor, at a certain 
 specified salary ; deferring the nomination of any particular 
 person to a subsequent occasion. 
 
 At a preliminary meeting of the Diocesan Council, he 
 requested a Committee to investigate the accounts. They 
 found that, in order to save the stock from destruction during 
 the terrible drought, which as yet showed no indication of 
 breaking up, such enormous expenses had been incurred, 
 that it would not be prudent as yet for the Synod to bind 
 itself to pay the salary of a Coadjutor. The meeting of 
 Synod was therefore put off with the Bishop’s full concur- 
 rence — g k&v as xovri ys 
 
 The state of affairs thus revealed, was so distressing to the 
 poor dear Bishop, that he afterwards said he did not know 
 how he had lived through that terrible week. That he him- 
 self should die penniless he would have thought a light 
 matter. But that his loved Diocese should suffer loss ; that 
 all his labour for so many years to endow it should come to 
 nothing, was indeed a heavy burden. 
 
 He mentioned to one of his Clergy that he lay awake night 
 after night, thinking sadly over the seeming failure of his 
 carefully laid plans. The Lord had accepted and blessed the 
 offering of the precious ointment : would He not also accept 
 what he had laboured to offer ? It was a severe trial of his 
 
IS79-1 
 
 NOT MY WILL , BUT THINE. 
 
 307 
 
 faith, but wo cannot doubt that it brought a blessing. The 
 entries in his journals at this time were few, short, and drawing 
 to a close: but on Friday, January 31st, there is this entry : 
 “8 a.m. Much very earnest meditation. May I learn to 
 rejoice in these trials, knowing that the trial of Faith worketh 
 patience.” There are only two entries after this, bearing on 
 the same subject ; then the journal ends. 
 
 Surely we who look on him with loving respect, are not far 
 wrong if we think that his Saviour was teaching His servant 
 to say after Him : “If it be possible, let this cup pass from 
 me ; nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done.” 
 
 Just at this time, when the prospect was as dark as it could 
 be, the first strea'k of light appeared. God sent a gracious 
 rain, and refreshed His inheritance when it was very weary. 
 
 Those who know New South Wales are well aware of the 
 marvellous rapidity with which, after a long drought, rain 
 changes the whole face of the country. In twelve hours 
 there is a perceptible flush of green where all was black or 
 brown, and in a week the grass is growing on every side ; 
 and, with water in the creeks and water-holes, the starvation 
 of the stock is over, the tide towards the recovery of pros- 
 perity has begun to flow. 
 
 Hopelessness was over. The Bishop was of a sanguine 
 disposition : and he looked forward to being able before 
 long to find the means of providing funds for a Coadjutor. 
 The losses on his stations had not been so heavy as on many 
 others : but the price of stock was now so far below what 
 he had paid, and the expenses of preserving his sheep and 
 cattle through the drought were so serious, that the most 
 prudent management could only hope to remove the incum- 
 brances after a long time. No doubt the check had its uses : 
 it taught painfully that the Church has a strength and bless- 
 ing, its true inheritance, which may be accompanied by 
 worldly prosperity, but may be fully enjoyed without it. 
 
 On Tuesday the 18th of March the Bishop wrote three 
 very brief notes — to his beloved sister, to Bishop Abraham, 
 and to myself. In all he spoke of having been very much 
 weakened and wearied by the close, warm weather ; and of 
 
3 c 8 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . [ 1879 . 
 
 their having overcome the difficulty of providing a stipend 
 for his Coadjutor. 
 
 To Bishop Abraham he said that he hoped to apply for a 
 Coadjutor at the Session in May, and to have the election in 
 June ; and added, “ All will, I hope, be well.” 
 
 To his sister he wrote : “ I am quite willing to take St. 
 Peter’s advice, and ‘ count it all joy ’ when I fall into heavy 
 trial.” 
 
 And to me : “ Last month I had a very interesting letter 
 from Mr. Greaves, which I much enjoyed, as he still remem- 
 bers ‘ the dear old Diocese ’ with much affection ; ” and added, 
 “ I purpose to write fully by the next Suez mail.” 
 
 Three days after these letters were written (Friday, March 
 2 1st) the Archdeacon was sent for, and went over to him 
 about 7 p.m. He says : — “ On nearing the house I was sur- 
 prised to see the lamps of a doctor’s carriage at the front 
 door. I went in at once, and found the two medical men 
 anxious to see me. They said that the Bishop’s long- 
 standing ailment, Hernia, had reached a stage at which, if 
 relief was to be afforded, an operation was necessary at once : 
 that the Bishop was willing to go through it, if his nephew 
 and I consented. I went upstairs to see him, meanwhile 
 sending to East Maitland for Tyrrell. He was quite calm, 
 and prepared for it ; and, as soon as Tyrrell arrived, we went 
 up together to see him : he giving me his last official instruc- 
 tions about the filling up the office of Chairman of St. Mary’s 
 West Maitland School Board. I asked him whether he 
 would wish us to be present; he said, ‘Yes, it would be 
 nicer.’ The operation was severe, and lasted fully half an 
 hour. I held his left hand all the time, and now and then 
 said a cheering word. He asked three or four times how 
 long they would be, and once or twice said it was very sharp. 
 The doctors had brought chloroform, but there was no 
 thought of using it. 
 
 “ He bore it bravely ; and the operation was perfectly suc- 
 cessful. By eleven o’clock he was comfortably placed in bed, 
 bandaged ; and we gave him the first portion of a composing 
 draught. He seemed so composed and quiet that we did 
 
1879.] 
 
 THE CALL TO REST. 
 
 309 
 
 not think it necessary to stay there through the night, leav- 
 ing the men-servants, one in the room, the other out of it, 
 for the night. 
 
 “ Next morning when I went he seemed in a stupor, and 
 I grieve to say he never entirely recovered from this state to 
 the very last. There were several attempts to speak, which 
 failed. The clearest interval was at 6.45 a.m., on Monday 
 the 24th, when he looked bright, and yet as if he was suffer- 
 ing pain. I asked him if he was suffering ; he said some- 
 thing which I could not make out, but looked cheerful. I 
 said, 1 Look at the Great Sufferer, Jesus, who died for us, 
 and think of what He suffered.’ He said something in reply, 
 and looked bright and animated, and then soon relapsed into 
 his state of unconsciousness as before. All the day he 
 gradually became worse, until at 6.15, on the eve of the 
 Annunciation, he quietly passed away.” 
 
 Calm and grand in the repose of death, he was laid out in 
 his Episcopal robes on the narrow iron bedstead with which he 
 had furnished his cabin on board the “ Medway.” In health 
 or in sickness, for more than thirty-one years, this had been 
 his only place of rest when at home. Yet so narrow was it, 
 that, during the last three days of unconsciousness, a chair 
 was needed at the side to support his arm : and now that he 
 lay there in his last sleep, it was seen to be too short for the 
 manly frame upon it. One print alone hung in that barely 
 furnished room, the holy women at the Sepulchre of the 
 Lord. 
 
 In that warm climate burial follows the departure of the 
 soul more quickly than in England. There was one full day 
 of preparation, and on Thursday, the 26th of March, the 
 funeral of the Bishop took place. 
 
 It was a sad satisfaction to those who arranged it to follow 
 the order observed in the preceding year at Lichfield ; that, 
 at least in their minds, the memories of the brother-Bishops, 
 Tyrrell and Selwyn, “ pleasant in their lives,” might in death 
 be “ not divided.” 
 
 At three o’clock the procession left the house on foot, and 
 proceeded to St. James’ Church, about 200 yards off. The 
 
3io 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 [1879. 
 
 Lay members of the Diocesan Synod leading, the Clergy 
 following : then the Body, followed by the Bishop’s three 
 nephews, as chief mourners, the Churchwardens, and Mem- 
 bers of the Church. 
 
 The coffin was born into the Chancel, the Clergy were 
 ranged on each side, the Bishop’s chair vacant. At the head 
 of the coffin was laid his travelling Bible, and loving hands 
 added reverently their crosses and wreaths of flowers. 
 
 The Church was filled as it had never been filled before ; 
 and outside the concourse was immense, from Newcastle, 
 and the Maitlands, and the towns and bush in all directions : 
 all classes, all bodies of Christians assembled, to show respect 
 to the memory of him who had been seen so constantly going 
 about his appointed work among them for thirty-one years. 
 
 The Metropolitan was absent on duty, or he would doubt- 
 less have taken his place among the mourners. But the Dean 
 of Sydney, who had formerly been Incumbent of Stroud, and 
 one of the first Secretaries of the Newcastle Church Society, 
 arrived by the steamer a short time before the funeral, accom- 
 panied by other members of the Sydney Diocese, who revered 
 the Bishop’s memory, and joined the procession from the 
 house. 
 
 From the Church the Body was borne to the burial-ground, 
 half a mile distant ; and laid by the side of his old faithful 
 servant, in the vault which he had himself prepared. There, 
 with the tall iron-bark and gum trees of the Australian forest 
 standing round, the body of William Tyrrell, first Bishop of 
 Newcastle, awaits His coming, Who is “ the Kesurrection 
 and the Life.” 
 
 “ Safe in the bosom of thy God, 
 
 How wilt thou then look back and smile 
 On thoughts that bitterest seemed ere while ; 
 
 And bless the pangs that made thee see 
 This was no world of rest for thee.” 
 
 — Christian Year . 
 
( 3 ” ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 RETROSPECT. 
 
 “ A blessed man ! who of protracted days 
 Made not, as thousands do, a vulgar sleep ; 
 
 But truly did he live his life. . . . 
 
 Take pride in him. ” 
 
 — Wordsworth — Epitaphs. 
 
 Thus closed the life of William, first Bishop of Newcastle — 
 a life (if our poor judgment may express itself) devoted with 
 singular faithfulness, energy, and consistency, to his Heavenly 
 Master, and to that portion of His Church committed to his 
 charge. More than most men he thought, laboured, lived, 
 for one object alone — the particular work ivhich God had 
 assigned to him. 
 
 That man, whoever he was, is one of the many unknown 
 benefactors of the Church, who found out William Tyrrell 
 working quietly and lovingly in the retirement of his parish 
 in the New Forest, and suggested his name to Archbishop 
 Howley for the Bishopric. Strong and manly in frame, pure 
 and self-restrained in his school and college life, painstaking 
 in his studies, associated with some of the most vigorous 
 intellects at Cambridge, he was physically, morally, and 
 intellectually, fitted for a work demanding more than ordinary 
 exertion, steadiness of purpose, and resource. 
 
 His natural temperament was quiet and retiring, with a 
 shyness, which — though a general sense of duty, or the require- 
 ments of some work he was engaged in, enabled him to break 
 through it — never left him entirely, and occasioned a certain 
 reserve and distance of manner, which strangers mistook for 
 wdiat was no part of his nature — a cold and unsympathising 
 temperament. Lord Ilatherly, who, as a law pupil of his 
 
312 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 eldest brother John, was occasionally invited from Saturday 
 till Monday to the Tyrrells’ family house at Kew, speaks of 
 him about the time of his going up to Cambridge as “ remark- 
 able for his steadiness and solid ability ; but not, as youngest 
 son, putting himself at all forward.” 
 
 His motive in accepting the various posts which he filled 
 was obedience to the call of his Superiors in the Church, 
 which he regarded as the Call of God. 
 
 He always lived in the consciousness that he was never 
 “ off duty.” If resting, he rested as a duty , that he might 
 work more vigorously afterwards ; if working, he did it as 
 under responsibility, to do it with his might. In such a 
 careful obedience there was nothing servile : it was his joy. 
 He did not often speak of his deeper feelings ; but on one 
 occasion, in after-years, he was talking of the way in which at 
 times familiar words will come home to the heart with a pecu- 
 liar force ; and he said, “ Eow, in Church this morning, those 
 words came home to me wonderfully, 4 Whose service is per- 
 fect freedom ; 9 ” and she, to whom he was speaking, says she 
 can never forget the earnest emphasis with which these last 
 two words were uttered. He seemed always to be setting 
 before him that wonderful Pattern, ever unapproachable : 
 44 My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to 
 finish His work.” 
 
 When Bishop designate, preparing to leave his native land, 
 he cast no backward looks of regret on those persons and 
 places, which he loved with all the warmth of an affectionate 
 nature. There was no dash about him ; none of the poetry 
 of fine words ; not an expression to show that he was making 
 any sacrifice. He seemed like a man performing his duty in 
 a very business-like, matter-of-fact way. But under that quiet 
 exterior there was the spirit of the Christians of old time, — 
 the , ennobling spirit of unswerving faith, and prompt self- 
 denial, meekly obeying his Saviour’s will : and, as he at the 
 time expressed it, 44 Obedience ” to the call of duty had 44 its 
 fruit in calm, devoted peace.” 
 
 It would be but a weak thing to say that when he had 
 entered on his Episcopate he did his best to discharge its 
 
RETROSPECT. 
 
 313 
 
 weighty duties. Both in their general outlines, and in the 
 multiplicity of their details, they were his one absorbing 
 thought He was often months in arrear of his correspond- 
 ence with his dearest English friends ; he could not tear his 
 thoughts from his Diocese to write to them. 
 
 This was the reason why he never allowed himself to take 
 part in public meetings, or to mix in the ordinary affairs of 
 the Colony. There are men to whom, and times in which, 
 an especial command is given : “ Let the dead bury their 
 dead, but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God.” Others 
 may seek influence over men in secular things for the sake 
 of guiding them in things Spiritual ; and there is much to 
 be . said for such a line of action, if under strict control . 
 Bishop Tyrrell could not see this to be his duty. He left 
 Colonial matters to Colonial Laymen. Such things were in 
 their line, not in his : he by no means despised them, but he 
 had no time for them. He had more than enough to do to 
 provide for the needs of the Church in their many aspects. 
 For this purpose he “was sent,” and therefore to this he gave 
 himself wholly. 
 
 Every day, as his journals testify, he spent some time in 
 thinking earnestly over his Diocese, and arranging either for 
 the efficient discharge of his day’s duties, or for the maturing 
 of some plan, or clearing up some difficulty. His work was 
 never left to the inspiration or the hurry of the moment of 
 action ; but, as far as practicable, was planned out beforehand. 
 In times of special difficulty or importance, he would spend 
 days, and often nights, in anxious consideration ; and seldom 
 failed to bring out some valuable result. 
 
 For more than twelve years he had the burden of his 
 original enormous Diocese upon him ; and through its five 
 hundred miles of length he made himself acquainted, by 
 personal visitation, with all the chief settlers, and with every 
 little township. Their several wants and capabilities, in 
 respect of Schools or Church Services, he carried in his 
 head and heart : and took his share in guiding or obviating 
 not a few of the peculiar tempers and prejudices which formed 
 the difficulties of his Clergy in their widely-scattered districts. 
 
314 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 He might say with St. Paul, that he was “in journeyings 
 often, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often ; ” and, 
 beside those things that were without, he had also that which 
 came upon him daily, “ the care of all the Churches.” 
 
 It used to be known, but is now almost forgotten ; how, 
 in that chaotic state of Colonisation, gradually emerging 
 into Diocesan order, questions and troubles came in upon the 
 Bishop from the most distant parts ; to find him ever ready 
 to provide for each need, and to mould the scattered units 
 into one living body. 
 
 If he were asked for advice, or felt it needful to tender it 
 unasked, he would throw himself into the circumstances and 
 perplexities of those he was advising; 'and rather point out 
 the next step which should be taken, than an ideal far ahead 
 of present attainments and powers. He would always go, 
 and lead, forward ; but his advice was “ festina lente” make 
 sure of your ground as you go. A piece of advice which he 
 gave to the wife of one of his Clergy was : “ When you are 
 troubled, and hardly know what to do, think of something 
 that you know to be a duty, and do it. In doing it you will 
 be helped to see what is to follow next.” 
 
 In his Visitations, near or distant, there was abundance of 
 kindly social intercourse. The widow of one of his Clergy 
 writes : “ When people would pity me for having to enter- 
 tain a Bishop, I could always tell them, none of our many 
 visitors was so considerately kind, and so anxious not to 
 interfere with our arrangements. And then he was so nice 
 
 with our children : from the time when he told as a 
 
 tiny child that he was better than any picture in his scrap- 
 book, till the last time when he gave them all his blessing in 
 Singleton. How well I can recall his tones as he would say, 
 
 after a long day’s ride and services : How, Mrs. D , let 
 
 me see the little ones ; I like to hear their voices and their 
 footsteps ; they must not be banished for me.” 
 
 Such was he always, as the guest of his Clergy or Laity, 
 as he journeyed through his Diocese; and, when it came in 
 the way of his duty, he unlocked many a store of pleasant 
 anecdote and many a bit of useful information for old and 
 
RETROSPECT. 
 
 3 r 5 
 
 young, which made them feel how delightful a companion 
 was their hard-working Bishop. 
 
 There was a stiffness of manner in him, partly constitu- 
 tional, partly the effects of his habits of study, and of 
 living alone. But there was a large and warm heart beating 
 beneath it ; those who worked with him found the apparently 
 cold stiff address melt away in the geniality of a closer 
 intercourse. 
 
 One, whose parents entertained him during the Sessions of 
 the Diocesan Synod in the years 1875, 1876, and 1877, has 
 kindly furnished a few reminiscences of him, as he showed 
 himself in Mr. Helenus Scott’s family circle at Newcastle. 
 She says : — “It is now a matter of regret to me that I did not 
 at the time record on paper the substance of his most inter- 
 esting conversations. Sometimes they would be on past 
 days ; the long walks with the late Bishop of New Zealand, 
 his home and school life. Of his mother he spoke with great 
 affection, always expressing his thankfulness that he had a 
 4 good Mother.’ When he had resolved upon taking Holy 
 Orders, a friend, rich and influential, promised to buy him a 
 certain living : but this he distinctly declined, saying that if 
 such things were to be his, he would work up to them. He 
 was a great admirer of Shakespeare, and used to read him 
 with some regularity. Wordsworth was his favourite poet; 
 and the two poems which he once spoke of as his favourites 
 were 4 The Brothers ’ and 4 Michael.’ His love for little 
 children was great : he used to tell an anecdote, with tears 
 in his eyes, of a little child (the grand-daugliter of his old 
 friend, Mr. Close) who was very ill. The doctor was to be 
 sent for, but the child begged them to send for the Bishop, 
 saying, 4 The Bippy will make me well.’ He used always 
 to refuse an arm-chair, saying laughingly that he was keeping 
 4 arm-chairs for his old age.’ He always took the plainest 
 food. He told us one day of a good cook his sister had 
 written to him about from England, who wished to find 
 employment in this country. On her arrival, the Bishop, 
 needing a cook, engaged her. After a few weeks she came 
 to him very downcast, and wanted to leave. Why was it ? 
 
3 16 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL . 
 
 Oh, nothing to complain of ; a comfortable home, the best 
 and kindest of masters. At last it came out — she had 
 nothing to do. She was a cook, and there was no cooking 
 that deserved the name. She was required to cook the same 
 plain food day by day ; she could stand it no longer. So the 
 Eishop laughed, and helped her to get a more congenial place. 
 
 “ He was a very early riser ; and though it was then cold 
 weather, you could see the light shining under the door, and 
 hear him stirring by four o’clock in the morning. The 
 evening before he would ask the hour of breakfast, and 
 would be punctual to a minute. As I stepped forward to 
 tap at the door and summon him, he would meet me half-way 
 with his kindly greeting. 
 
 “ At breakfast he would often talk of the coming work 'and 
 struggle in Synod. In the afternoon he would return between 
 three and four, and go to rest for a little while. If people 
 wanted to see him, or he had writing to do, he got but' little 
 rest. At tea he would chat over the past work of the day in 
 Synod, or the coming debate. His Clergy were always his 
 peculiar care ; and he used to speak of their hard-working 
 wives as £ my Curates.’ 
 
 “ After tea he was always the first to start off to work again, 
 leaving some of his Clergy to catch up his quick, firm steps 
 as best they might. It was eleven o’clock, sometimes twelve, 
 before he returned. Then, bright and cheerful, he would sit 
 down and take his glass of Tvater and dry biscuit. Seldom, 
 indeed, did he ever take a glass of wine after his hard day’s 
 work, and yet he was an old man then. 
 
 “ There was much talk over Synod affairs ; sometimes his 
 Synod had opposed him vigorously on some points ; and, after 
 all, found their old Bishop was right. Sometimes there was 
 cause for regret and anxiety ; sometimes even for amusement. 
 
 “ And then he would rise, and say he must go to his 4 com- 
 fortable bed.’ In after-years, when I heard of his narrow 
 iron bedstead, I was glad that, even for a few days, full of 
 anxiety and hard work, he had a ‘comfortable bed.’ He 
 was not insensible to comfort, but did not care to waste one 
 thought upon comfort for himself.” 
 
RETROSPECT. 
 
 3 l 7 
 
 In estimating the works he left behind him, the circum- 
 stances of his Diocese must be considered. There were small 
 means, and everything had to be done in a population thinly 
 scattered over an enormous area. Men had pushed out into 
 the Bush, some of them utterly careless, some who had once 
 had Christian training : and, if Christian living were not to 
 be allowed to die out, the Church must follow them. Small 
 Churches must be built in many places — some stone, some 
 brick, some w r ood — where they might be trained in the rever- 
 ence of worship : and much might thus be done, and much 
 was done w T ith poor materials, to sanctify many a Bush town- 
 ship, where previously the slab-built courthouse, the public- 
 house, and the lock-up had only told of human laws, sin, and 
 punishment. 
 
 There was “no Sunday in the Bush;” private prayer 
 lingered with a few ; the Holy Eucharist was an un- 
 known Service, save where the few Clergy resided. The 
 most elementary principles of Church life had to be taught. 
 The higher idea of Cathedral worship, and more costly 
 Churches to the honour of God, would follow in due time : 
 The first Bishop set himself to the humbler work before him, 
 laying foundations on which others might build : just as the 
 Missionaries among the British reared their simple oratories, 
 to be replaced by the more elaborate Norman and pointed 
 Churches and Cathedrals of old England. 
 
 During his Episcopate, fifty-five Churches, varying in size 
 and costliness, w T ere built; tw r enty parsonages, and many 
 schools. 
 
 Many of these owe their commencement to him ; many 
 would never have been completed without his constant 
 superintendence, and his help in the removal of obstacles, 
 which at times appeared to be insuperable; and there is 
 probably not one to which he has not been a contributor, in 
 some cases to a very large amount. 
 
 If he confined his exertions to Church works, he did not 
 so confine his gifts and charities. Whatever was worth 
 assisting, found him a ready contributor. Wherever dis- 
 tress needed alleviation, the Bishop’s purse was freely open ; 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 318 
 
 yet his gifts were not of that profuse and ill-regulated 
 kind which would only enervate the recipients. In his aid 
 to buildings and to endowments, his great aim was to stimu- 
 late self-reliance , not to supersede it. 
 
 In a very appreciative notice of him, which appeared in the 
 “ Maitland Mercury ” the day after his death, the writer, 
 who evidently wrote from his own experience, says : “ In 
 ordinary intercourse with ‘ deputations ’ of Churchmen, the 
 manner of the Bishop — who was always found ready for 
 work before breakfast — was first that of a man on his guard, 
 and then of a most cordial Churchman and gentleman. In 
 such cases, also, the Bishop was remarkably free from bigotry 
 or intolerance of opinions. He would discuss the merits of 
 a point freely and fully, and give his judgment very decidedly 
 but very courteously. To our mind he showed more actual 
 ability, more mental power, in these informal discourses, than 
 in his sermons, and more than even in his written addresses 
 to Synod. In these latter he seemed to us to labour his 
 points too much ; to continue arguing till he tired his hearers. 
 But in personal discussions he was always refreshingly vigor- 
 ous, quick, and decided, but never rude or bigoted in expres- 
 sion.” The same writer says, that he “never met a more 
 hearty and cordial giver of money than the Bishop always 
 was ; and he must have given away/’ for local subscriptions, 
 for which application was made to him, “thousands of pounds 
 of which no permanent record remains.” 
 
 From the preceding pages it has been seen that one part 
 of the Bishop’s plan was to accumulate for endowment from 
 time to time, and not to spend all on the present : but this 
 accumulation added not one pound to himself or to his 
 relatives. Whatever was saved or realised, was bequeathed 
 entirely to the Diocese , to which he had given the best of his 
 life. 
 
 The moral value of many a bequest is taken out of it by 
 the fact that no self-denial has been exercised in the gift. 
 To apportion the balance of a fully-indulged life, when it can 
 be no longer enjoyed, may show kindly thoughts towards the 
 objects of the will, and is a substantial benefit to them; but 
 
RETROSPECT. 
 
 319 
 
 it costs the testator nothing. It was not so with Bishop 
 Tyrrell ; every pound that lie left to the Diocese represented 
 the sacrifice of some taste or object of desire during his life- 
 time. He denied himself personal comforts, appearance, 
 furniture, ornaments, matters of taste, book-buying, and the 
 popularity of making a greater show in buildings during his 
 lifetime, for the sake of benefiting the Clergy and Laity of 
 the Diocese in years to come, when he should have passed 
 away. His were the thoughtfully laid plans of a loving and 
 conscientious heart, which considered all that he could gain 
 as belonging to God, and the distribution of it as the manage- 
 ment of a stewardship which he was anxious to discharge 
 in the most beneficial way. 
 
 How successfully he had organised and worked his Synod 
 was shown by its conduct after his death. All was calm, 
 orderly, and business-like. Deeply as they felt their loss, 
 there was no confusion. They had not worked under his 
 dictation, but as his fellow- workers : he had freely shared 
 with them all that he had gained by reading and reflection : 
 so that now all things were going on as before, save that no 
 Ordinance could be valid until it had received the assent of 
 his Successor. 
 
 They took one important step in the appointment of a 
 gentleman of large experience and judgment, who kindly 
 undertook the office of visiting and examining into the con- 
 dition of the property which the Bishop had bequeathed to 
 the Synod. 
 
 Until this had been done nothing could be known for 
 certain as to its solvency. The careful and searching exami- 
 nation of the stations, and the able Report founded upon it, 
 while they revealed how severe had been the strain of the 
 long drought, and how nearly it had brought ruin upon the 
 property, showed that it was now in so sound a condition, 
 that, with moderately good seasons and wise management., 
 there was good hope that the Bishop’s well-laid plans would 
 eventually be realised. 
 
 The Synod, under the Presidency of Archdeacon Child, 
 the Vicar-General, expressed its deep sense of the heavy loss 
 
320 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP TYRRELL. 
 
 the Church and the Diocese had sustained in the removal of 
 the Bishop of Newcastle. And the Bishop of Sydney, in 
 his address to his own Synod, in paying his graceful tribute 
 to his memory, said: “As my senior in the Episcopate his 
 wisdom and experience were of great value to me. Amongst 
 other advantages arising from our early intercourse, one 
 merits especial mention. It is to him that the first idea of 
 our Church Society is due ; and though not carried out upon 
 the precise plan adopted in the Diocese of Newcastle, he 
 was ever ready to acknowledge its success ; and I am glad of 
 this opportunity to express our obligations to him for the 
 original suggestion.” 
 
 Happy will it be for the Australian Church, when, follow- 
 ing Bishop Tyrrell’s earnest and repeated counsels, it learns 
 to rely upon its Divine origin, and to stir up the gift that is 
 in it , instead of trusting to the broken reed of Colonial Acts 
 of Parliament, and Royal Letters Patent, by which our 
 brethren in the three Southern Dioceses of the Colony have 
 succeeded in impeding its due development. That want 
 of faith in the sacred independent authority of Christ’s 
 Church does more to play into the hands of the Church of 
 Rome, than can be remedied by all the machinery of Orange 
 Lodges and Protestant Associations. 
 
 In urging “ mutual agreement ” or “ consensual compact ” 
 as the basis of its organisation, strange as those phrases may 
 at first sound, Bishop Tyrrell was in no way advocating 
 self-willed, or democratic, or schismatical action. So far 
 from this, he was continually protesting against separate 
 Diocesan action. His very earnestness in endeavouring to 
 induce the Dioceses of the Colony to unite in a Province, 
 and the Provinces of Australasia to unite in a General Body, 
 in which the Diocesan Synods should be subordinated to the 
 Provincial, and the Provincial to the General, proved his 
 desire to curb the schismatical spirit. The real point he, 
 and his Diocese with him, were contending for was, that the 
 controlling authority should be the larger Body of the 
 Church, bound by the doctrines of the Church Catholic, and 
 not the secular poicer . 
 
ICHABOD. 
 
 32i 
 
 And now, while we leave future labours and controversies 
 to those who have still their posts to fill in the Church 
 Militant here on earth, the peaceful memory rises up before 
 us of the first Bishop of Newcastle — loving little children, 
 labouring to supply the spiritual wants of those committed 
 to him, and to bind them to each other in the bonds of 
 Christian love ; and personally living cheerfully to hoar hairs, 
 in patient obedience to his dear Lord and Saviour’s call, “If 
 any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take 
 up his cross daily, and follow Me.” 
 
 My readers will, I am sure, thank me for endeavouring to 
 cover the defects of this poor sketch by the following loving 
 words, which came fresh from the heart of the wife of one of 
 the Clergy of the widowed Diocese : — 
 
 ICHABOD. 
 
 £n fftcmortam Wl. fHarcf) 2 ^tf;, 1879. 
 
 When one of old, in agony, 
 
 Was urged in words of cheer, 
 
 “ Fear not, thy fondest hopes are crowned,” 
 
 Her heart refused to hear. 
 
 The ark of God, her Israel, 
 
 AVas more than aught beside ; 
 
 “ Where is the glory 1 Ichabod ! ” 
 
 Nobly she said, and died. 
 
 A father in our Israel, 
 
 A prince among his peers, 
 
 Has left his children “ comfortless,” 
 
 Can they withhold their tears ? 
 
 We must, we do cry “ Ichabod ! ” 
 
 Gone is our grand St. Paul — 
 
 In journeyings oft, in labours 
 Abundant more than all. 
 
 x 
 
322 
 
 ICHABOD. 
 
 They tell us to be comforted — 
 
 “ A Bishop never dies — 
 
 A Leader younger, popular, 
 
 Shall greet our longing eyes.” 
 
 But when he comes, he comes to those 
 Whose eyes are dimmed with tears, 
 Bemembering one who toiled for them 
 For more than thirty years. 
 
 I call to mind his stately mien — 
 
 His friendly sympathy — 
 
 His glance so keen, yet ever kind, 
 
 His noble charity — 
 
 His love for little children — 
 
 His playfulness of tone — 
 
 Yet the rigid self-denial 
 Severe to self alone — 
 
 His wisdom and his holy zeal, 
 
 Courage that could not fail, 
 
 Pathetic solitude with God — 
 
 Even when old and frail — 
 
 Thus musing on his earnest work 
 Through all the distant years, 
 
 I see my own unfaithfulness, 
 
 I check my selfish, tears. 
 
 The Hebrew heroine of old 
 Might well cry “ Ichabod ! ” 
 
 Her “ glory” was discrowned, but ours— 
 Our Bishop is with God. 
 
 “ There is no glory, Ichabod ! ” 
 
 We may not dare to say, 
 
 Whose star that shone on earth now shines 
 More bright in Perfect Day. 
 
 Old England sends her heroes forth 
 To bless our Southern Sea — 
 
 Australia shall be proud of them 
 In ages yet to be. 
 
 r 
 
 - 
 
ICHABOD. 
 
 323 
 
 Tyrrell and Selwyn, brothers dear, 
 With saintly Patteson, 
 
 The distant isles give thanks for you, 
 And that your rest is won ! 
 
 England has claimed her Selwyn back, 
 One sleeps beneath the wave, 
 
 But our children aye inherit 
 Good Bishop Tyrrell’s grave. 
 
 And when they hear the story 
 Of his pure and steadfast life, 
 
 How many heroes shall be made 
 Courageous for the strife ! 
 
 6i Where is our glory 1 ” Safe with God, 
 Best from thy labours, rest 
 Thy works shall follow thee — and we 
 Thank God that thou art blest. 
 
 Newcastle, N.S. IV. 
 
 ROSE SELWYN. 
 
 London: wells Gardner, darton, and co. 
 
 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS.