When the soldiers of Grose's corps offended he supported
them against the civil power, and he took no pains to
encourage morality amongst the officers. Trafficking in
spirits was unchecked amongst them, and was not con-
sidered blameworthy.
It has been mentioned that on Hunter's arrival the colonial chaplain commented upon the immorality which had disgraced the settlement under Grose and Paterson. The church raised by Mr. Johnson's exertions in 1793, and used in the week as a school for two hundred children, was burnt down in 1798, and it was thought to have been burnt designedly, to make useless a recent order enforcing attend- ance at Divine service. The Governor, indignant, declared that if no place for service could be found, the convicts should spend their next Sunday in building one; but a large store-room rendered this labour unnecessary. To aid the Governor, the Judge-Advocate Dore, in a document entitled "General Privy Search," "deemed it compatible with his official situation to issue a general warrant to empower the constables" to make diligent search in all public-houses "and all suspected haunts for people of every description who may be tippling therein during the hours appropriated for Divine service, or in any other respect breaking the Sabbath."
Some missionaries fleeing from troubles at Tahiti took refuge at Sydney in 1798, and exercised a wholesome influence.[1] It was sorely needed, not only amongst the criminal class, but amongst their guardians. Officers of the New South Wales Corps, which provided the colony with its acting Governor, caused scandal by their immorality.
It would be easy to accumulate instances of the depravity which unrestrained power and remoteness from the checks of civilization and religion permitted or fostered in the colony. The men of that time were probably not naturally worse than any of their successors. They furnish proof, if proof were wanting, of the need by the human mind of the restraints of law and the elevating principles
- ↑ The Rev. Thomas Hassall, a son of one of them, became a colonial chaplain, and for long years served his Master faithfully in that capacity, dying respected by all. He married a daughter of Samuel Marsden, who also was beloved by all who knew her.
