Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/340

 it9i EELLOiOIIE INBTBOtTriON ^"^ would Ixare been deprired of Ins appointment, ioBtead of which he kept it for six years aiter Grose returned to England, when the state of his health obliged him to Con- relinquish it. The contempt with which religion and tihosie sequences of '• x^ o thequarreL who Were charged with the teaching of it were treated. during the administration of Grose exerted an inftuence'for evil which was felt for many years. One good result followed the unpleasant relations which existed between Grose and the Chaplain. Writing to Dundas on the 5th July, 1794, Grose informed him that he a c^rSr*" ^*^ erected a church capable of containing three hundred people. He made a special mention of the fact because : — '' I am given to understand that the Revd. Mr. Johnson, who is really a most troublesome character, has endeavoured to per- suade the Archbishop of Canterbury that ecclesiastical matters are not at all attended to> and that there is no place for public worship excepting a building pat up at his own expence."* Johnson's letter, which was never delivered to the Arch- bishop, may have contained the statement referred to by Grose; but if it did it was strictly correct, for it was written before steps had been taken by Government for the erection Johnson of a church. If Johnson had informed the Archbishop defended* '^ that ecclesiastical matters were '^ not at all attended to," he exaggerated a little ; but that they were very badly attended to is shown by the fact, stated by Grose himself, that the only effort to provide a place of public worship, after six years, was the erection of a church which would accommodate no more than three hundred persons. Upon one important point the charges made by Johnson and Marsden,t concerning Grose's connivance at the neglect Contra- of public worship, are not borne out by Collias,t according coiuns. ^ to whom, special orders were issued by Grose to secure the attendance of the convicts at divine service. Johnson's account is that he seldom preached to more than ten or . t Ante, p^ 275. t Collizm, toI. i, p. 291.
 * Historical Becords, toI. ii, p. 238.