Wlieu the soldiers of Grose's corps offended he supported tbera against the civil power, and he took no pains to encourage morah'tj amongst the officers. Trafficking in spirits was imeliecked amongst them, and was not con- sidered blame^Yorthy. It hay heeo mentioned that on Hunter's arrival the colonial chaplain commented upon the immorality which had disgraced the settlement under Grose and Pater son. The church raised by Mr. Jolmson^s exertions in 1798, and used in the week as a school for two humired children, was burnt down in 1798, and it was thought to have been burnt designedly^ to make useless a recent order enfoTcing 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 in- fluence.^** 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 then* immorality- It would be easy to accumulafce 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, ThuniELS Hassall^ a son of one of them, hocaiiie a colonml ubaplam, and for loti^ years aerveil his Master faitl if uUy in that cApiicity, dying respected by rIL He married a daughter of Sitiimel Marsdeu, who also was beloved by aO who knew her.
