Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/572

 544 WILLIAM WKNT WORTH. DR. WARDELL. THE PRESS. Having devoted so imich space to prominent meiubera of two chorcIiGH, it may be well to mention that the Wesleyans, without minglin*^ in political warfare, streng- thened their pastoral staff. They had five Ministers at work in New South Wales when in 1826 and 1827 they opened chapels in Ilobart Town and Laanceston. There was an important accession to the bar and to politics in 1824. William Charles Wentworth returned to Sydney. He had competed with more than twenty others for the Chancellor's medal at Cambridge, and though W. M* PraeH*s poem on Anstralasia gained the prize, Wentworth's gained tlie second place, and in the opinionof many deserved the first. His pen seemed touched liy the fire which kindled the muse of Dry den. Hiy sanguine youth predicted the future glories of the sunn}^ Soiitli. He claimed to sing them as one born of the soil.-^ The dwellers in it were proud of the talent of their lirst-horn bard. Another able barrister arrived at the same time — Dr. Wardell— who was to be closely allied with Wentworth in public life. The Supreme Court created by the New Constitution Act was not their only arena, Brisbane announced {Oct. 1824) that the censorship of the press would be discontinued, and the Si/ihtey Gnzette became untrammelled. Nor was it the only newspaper. In the columns of the Australian^ establislied in 1824, Wentworth and Wardell thundered in a style nnknown in the colony before. Sir Ealph Darling had the reputation of being the first to curb the licentiousness of the press, hut Brisbane broached the subject (15 Jan, 1825), and it was in response to his despatch that Lord Bathurst (12th July 1825) directed Darhng at the *' earliest opportunity'' to initiate a measure to control the press, to exact a license and to make the maximum term of the license one year. Sir T. Brisbane was unfortunately estranged from the Colonial Secretary, Major Goulburn, and although that officer's brother was in high reputation in England (Under- Secretary for the Colonies from 1812 to 1821, and in '^ *' Thy imtis^e bnrtl, though on a forei^i strand, ShtiU I be iiuite, and see a atranger^s Imnd Attune the lyre, and prescient of thy fame Poretell the glories that ahoU grace thy tiame 't Forbid it, all yc Nine 1 ' twere «hame to thee, My Austral paveit : gteoAft^ ^luraa a tpl^." I I