with the Savings Bank. "Jimmy" had been for a few years a purser in a man-of-war, and being of a religious turn of mind, m a d e the study of sermons his chief recreation. Happening to have a supply of such sea-stories by him, he now utilised them to the spiritual advantage of his hearers, and with such effect upon himself that in their delivery he is recorded "to have frequently evidenced his own interest in the subject by the shedding of tears." There was then a sheep-pen belonging to Batman on the spot where St. James' Church, in William Street, is built, and this had soon to m a k e way for the " fold " of a "flock" of a different kind, as the erection of a place of worship in this locality was decided upon, and for which, with parsonage and school-house, five acres of the land thereabout were afterwards granted by the Government. " State aid to Religion " was not yet available, and a small wooden building was put up by public subscription, Batman heading the list with ,£50. Though nominally for the Church of England, other denominations were to have the privilege of using it for afternoon services—an opportunity availed of by all except the R o m a n Catholics, w h o never recognise open questions of this kind. T h e structure was supposed to afford accommodation for about 100 persons, and here the free and the bond, and the military, used to assemble, the convicts by themselves at one side, " and in an opposite corner, screened by a curtain, were the singers." O n the 30th April, 1837, the Rev. J. B. Naylor conducted service, on which occasion the ceremony of baptism was performed on thefirstchild so treated in Melbourne. This was the John Melbourne Gilbert, already referred to as the son of Fawkner's blacksmith, and thefirstwhite baby born in the colony. In November, 1837, Melbourne was visited by Messrs. Backhouse and Walker, two worthy Quaker missionaries, from Hobartown. They preached in the church and at the Aboriginal Station, and on taking their departure, declared that " Our gracious Master was pleased to grant a more powerful sense of His presence than w e had ventured to hope for." T h e late Mr. John T h o m a s Smith, w h o could take a hand at many things, was thefirstteacher of thefirstSabbath-school started at this period, and it is avouched of him that " he was a constant attendant at the Primitive prayer meetings." Mr. Smith's youthful religious inclinings did not, however, grow with his years, though he was anything but an irreligious man, and his various pursuits in the changing circumstances of the colony, might, perhaps, account for any apparent backsliding. O n e thing m a y safely be averred that the "prayers" he afterwards heard in public-house-keeping, theatremanaging, and election-carousing were far from being as " primitive" as those of the little ancient Sabbath-school, but he was no worse than thousands of his fellow-colonists, and better than many of them, and was a staunch and liberal supporter of the creed he professed up to the hour of his death. With these few preparatory observations, the respective religious communities will next be reviewed in rotation. CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
T h e ricketty, wheezy /w-Cathedral (over the roof or covering of which was fastened an old ship's bell, like the battered c o m b of a cock after a tough fight, to ring out a hoarse, asthmatic, warning-note to intending worshippers) did not suit the expectant pretensions of a congregation of the Church of England. A n e w church and a permanent clergyman were required, and a meeting was convened for the purpose of securing general co-operation. This gathering came off on the 30th January, 1838, and, as it was thefirsttown demonstration reported in a newspaper, the following record of the proceedings may not be historically uninteresting. It is copied literatim from Fawkner's Melbourne Advertiser, 5th February, 1838. " A public meeting was held at the School-house in this town on Tuesday last, to arrange for the erection of an Episcopal place of worship, and to collect funds to that end. A very liberal subscription was then entered into, and as part of the sheep and cattle pasturing here belong to persons residing in Sydney and V a n Diemen's Land, subscription lists will be sent to those places to enable them to assist in the pious work. T h e resolutions passed at the meeting are to be published at Sydney, Launceston, and Hobartown." T w o months after, an event of the highest ecclesiastical importance occurred, which was no less than an episcopal visitation by the Right Rev. Dr. Broughton, the Metropolitan of N e w South Wales. His Lordship was a passenger in H.M.F. " C o n w a y " from Sydney, and after a few days' sojourn, left for Hobartown on the 19th April. . During his brief stay he preached in the temporary church, and christened six children. O n the 18th, he proceeded to the burial ground, and consecrated the portion assigned to the Episcopalian
