Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/650

 622 DR. LANG AND JOHN MACARTHUR. tion-stone was laid by the Chief Justice (26th Jan. 1880). Lang was connected with the project, but longed to found an academy under his own control. The difficulty was in procuring funds. Already he had quarrelled with some of his early patrons. He speculated on the powers of negotia- tion in England, which he had employed for his own advantage in 1825. He was courteously received, and Lord Goderich accorded to him an extension of leave of absence, which he was sufficiently Erastian to ask for. Concealing the fact that a college had been founded, and urging the destitution of the colony in moving terms, he persuaded Lord Goderich to direct the payment from the Colonial Treasury of i^3500 to himself and his coadjutors for the establishment of an "Australian College." To further his plans, Lord Goderich advanced him in England iJ1500 to pay for the passages of Scotch workmen to erect the buildings. They were selected by Lang himself, who re- turned triumphant. Aware that his devices would give umbrage to those with whom he had professed to co-operate in founding the Sydney College, he screened them from the public gaze. He, who had been indignant with Mr. Wemyss for not resorting to publicity about the Scots church in the first instance, discovered that it was undesirable with regard to a college. He wrote to John Macarthur (14th Nov. 1831): **May I request your patronage and assistance in carrying into effect the plans I have put into operation ? , . . Most people would have called a public meeting to liave had the principles publicly lecognized, but I have so often seen public meetings in Sydney wander into the dis- cussion of subjects altogether irrelevant. . . that I think it high time to attempt the doing of something with- out a meeting at all." He wished for a council of seven gentlemen. '*May I request that you will do me the honour to form one of that number should you deem it expedient to lend the institution your patronage?" Macarthur took no part in the matter, and from that date the pen which had formerly praised^* him was employed in a different manner. -' In 1S27, Lang wrote: "As I have already experienced the benefit of youv friendly advice and valuable influence oftener than once, I beg you will permit me to draw wpon. you in a similar way once more." The subject was the prepavation oi a memot»loY >afc "^^ox^Xax:^ «i St«.te.