Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/339

 ITNPEB GBOSl!. 285 letter to Wilberforce asking him to use his good offices with ^"^^ the Secretary of State. Wilberforce, who was a personal wuberforoe. friend of Dundas, had no hesitation in complying with the reqnest, and he gave Johnson at the same time a very high character i-^ " When I tell you he is one of the worthiest men breathing, the most active, the most humble, and at the same time very little acquainted with the world, I have said enough to excuse the steps he has taken and to obtain his reimbursement. In truth, £67 for a church is rather a more moderate charge than Government, I believe, is used to, and I know from his private letters that he worked very hard with his own hands, and often by night as well as by day."* Other people who had opportunities of judging of his character expressed their confidence in him. Wilberforce regarded him as ^'one of the worthiest men breathing"; Phillip made him a magistrate ; and Hunter, who held the Pbiiiip and office of Governor for five years after the departure of Grose ^ and Paterson, placed the most implicit confidence in him. King, who succeeded Hunter, had the means of obtaining p. a. King, trustworthy information, and we find him writing to the Under Secretary of the Home Department, when Johnson had resigned his appointment and was about to return to England, that he, Johnson, had ^' met with much persecution from Grose when he commanded here."t The letter in which this sentence occurs was a private one, and King was, therefore, able to write with freedom, *' Persecution " Penecuted . byOroee, was a strong word to use, but it was not rashly employed. King^s information, obtained on the spot, evidently sup- ported the statements made by Johnson in his letters to the Secretary of State and to his friends. There is another point. If Grose^s representations had been taken seriously by the Home Department, Johnson • Hittorical Records^ toI. ii, p. 245. t GoTcrnor King to Under Secretary King, 3rd May, 1800. In another letter, dated 13th October, 1800, of which Johnson was the bearer. King wrote to the Under Secretary : — " He [Johnson] has met w^ith much obstruc- tion formerly in the execution of his duty. I believe him to be a very honest man, and I think has been ill-used in this colony by those in it.'*