worthy of credit. Mr. Bigge reported that the sentences
inflicted by Marsden were more severe than those of other
magistrates. Bigge did not impute the exceptional
severity to harshness of disposition, but to the "habitual
contemplation of the depravity of the people brought
before him," and a sense that "any other punishment than
that which was severely and corporally felt by them" was
inefficacious. When making the charges Macquarie
had miscalculated his own stay in the colony. His letter
was printed in England, and copies were sent to Sydney.
Bigge had departed. Marsden awaited the arrival of Brisbane, Macquarie's successor, and then asked for the explanation from Macquarie which-"it was not in my power to
call upon him for so long as he continued to administer the
government." Macquarie did not heed him. Marsden, prepared to take legal steps, wrote to Brisbane, who induced
him to desist. "At that period (Marsden wrote) there were
strong reasons of a public nature existing in the colony,
which induced me to relinquish my intended prosecution of
Governor Macquarie, contrary to my own judgment." The
militant chaplain wrote nevertheless to England to ask his
friends to institute a suit there. Macquarie, meanwhile,
published a statement which Marsden eventually answered.
He also wrote a pamphlet to vindicate himself against a
greater than Macquarie—William C. Wentworth—who, in
a third edition of his 'Australasia,' attacked Marsden and
defended Macquarie, with cultured but coarse vehemence.
Crafty—rancorous—vindictive—turbulent and ambitious priest—canting hypocrite,[1] were among the epithets hurled at the already venerable and venerated head of the chaplain; and Wentworth complained that Wilberforce had been duped, when in glowing terms he extolled Marsden as a moral hero whose name was dear to the friends of virtue and humanity. Marsden did not shrink from a contest with the youthful giant. He inquired, through his solicitor, if Wentworth was the author of the work to which his name was attached. Wentworth
- ↑ Long years afterwards Joseph Hume borrowed the term 'turbulent priest' to apply it to the devoted Christian, G. A. Selwyn, the Bishop of New Zealand. The phrase was not original, and the application was untrue.
