brought the following, clerical and lay, viz. :—The Right Reverend Dr. Perry and Mrs. Perry ; the Rev. Mr. Macartney, Mrs. Macartney, and eight junior Macartneys; the Rev. Mr. N e w h a m , wife, and child; and the Rev. Mr. Hales and wife. T h e "Stag" anchored in the Bay on a Sunday evening, but the passengers did not land that night. At an early hour on M o n d a y morning the steamer " Diamond " was chartered to proceed to the Bay with over a hundred persons, including Superintendent Latrobe and the Mayor. T h e new Bishop brought with him a high reputation for piety, erudition, and zeal, in all of which he thoroughly stood the test throughout an active and distinguished missionary career. H e was born at Hackney, in Middlesex, on the 17th February, 1807. H e graduated at Cambridge in 1828, became Senior Wrangler, and was elected Fellow in 1829. H e read for the Bar from 1828 to 183T, and on returning to college, in 1837, took the degree of D.D., and was tutor until 1841. In 1836 he received Priest's ordeis, and for several years, was minister of St. Paul's, Cambridge. O n St. Peter's day, 1847, he was consecrated thefirstBishop of Melbourne in Westminster Abbey. T h e Bishop and his friends came to Melbourne in the " Diamond," and as the steamer was leaving, the yards of the " Stag " were manned, and three hearty parting cheers given, a compliment cordially returned from the " Diamond." A s the steamer approached the wharf there was a large concourse of persons in waiting, and as his Lordship put his foot for the first time on Melbourne ground, he was welcomed with loud peals of acclamation. H e bowed his acknowledgments, and was driven to St. James' Parsonage, whence he subsequently moved to the Southern Cross Hotel, then and still in the western part of Bourke Street, where apartments were secured. The Southern Cross was thefirstplace of entertainment opened as a Family Hotel, where all the quiet comforts of a h o m e could be obtained. T h e host was M r . J. S. Johnston, so long and favourably known in Melbourne as an alderman and politician, and no house of public accommodation was more respectably conducted than his. After a sojourn of a few days there, Bishop Perry rented one of the only two cottages then at Jolimont, which he occupied until he moved to Bishop's Court in 1851. T h e Bishop was installed at St. James' on January 28th, and, as to be expected, such a ceremonial novelty, brought together as many persons as the church could contain, including a large sprinkling from the other religious denominations. A n amusing contretemps occurred, for, by some oversight, the Queen's Letters Patent creating the Bishopric had been mislaid somewhere amongst the Bishop's papers, and could not be found. It was thought they had been left on board the "Stag," but there was no doubt that they would be speedily forthcoming. This was an awkward predicament, but their production that day was dispensed with, the Bishop was inducted with all the other formula;, and he delivered a very eloquent discourse from 2nd C o r , Chapter v , verse 20. " N o w then we are Ambassadors for Christ, as though G o d did beseech you for us; w e pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." This first Episcopal sermon established his reputation as a pulpit orator of no mean order, and was by special request, published in pamphlet form, and widely circulated. At 3 p.m. of the same day, the church was again opened, when His Lordship was waited upon by a deputation of Church of Englanders, headed by the Rev. Mr. Thomson, to present an address of welcome, which had been agreed to at a meeting of Episcopalians held for the purpose some days before the Bishop's arrival. T o this address His Lordship returned a very elaborate and appropriate reply. A n d thus the Bishop commenced in a way which elicited approval from all shades of society. But he was not many days in town, when he committed an indiscretion which it would be hard for any unbiassed writer, unacquainted with the working of the Bishop's inward consciousness, to justify. T h e Rev. Father Geoghegan, the R o m a n Catholic Pastor, accomplished gentleman as he was, wishful to pay meet respect to a distinguished stranger, though the bead of another creed, called for the purpose on Bishop Perry. Whether His Lordship was, or was not at the time in the Southern Cross Hotel is not known ; but at all events he was not " at h o m e " for the visitor who left his card. T h e Bishop, instead of treating the clerical paste-board as a badge offering the conventional courtesies of one gentleman to another, recoiled from itasif it were a snake, and if he even touched it, only did so to drop it into an envelope and return it with a curt, caustic note, a freezing intimation that he could not recognise " T h e Rev. P. B. Geoghegan" in any shape or form, officially or otherwise—in fact conveying the idea that he wished to shun the card-sender as though he were an emissary from the Evil One. This unmerited rebuff to probably the most popular m a n then in the Province, provoked a deep feeling of anger against the Bishop, without the pale of his own
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THE CHRONICLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE.
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