Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/605

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REV. W. BEDFORD, CHAPLAIN. 577 The latter, though kind-hearted, was unequal to a task requiring strength, and it was good for the colony when, many years after accompanying Colonel Collins from Port Phillip to the Derwent, he was pensioned, and the earnest Bedford took his place. ' The social immoralities which others had viewed with languid disapproval, if not complicity, were abashed when Arthur as Governor and Bedford as preacher addressed them- selves to the task of reform. What the latter pronounced from the pulpit it was found that the former would enforce so far as loss of office could enforce it. Bedford assailed the open con- tempt for the conjugal tie in the lives of many holders of im- portant offices, and when the Governor publicly notified that they could not retain office unless they could do so as reputable persons, there was mingled terror and indignation. In vain the culprits sought to bend the Governor's will. They turned to the resolute chaplain without success. They yielded ; and their descendants have reason to bless the order which con- verted shameless dwelling-places into homes at least for- mally virtuous. The public admired the courage of the men who assailed vice where " robes and furred gowns" strove to protect it. Arthur did not restrict his sympathies to the Church of England, of which he was a member ; and when Sir Kichard Bourke, in 1835, proposed to endow various religious bodies impartially in New South Wales, Arthur informed his Council that the views sanctioned by Lord Glenelg were in accord with his own suggestions. The pecuniary grants to the several denominations were increased, and the Governor hoped that such a "distribu- tion of the revenue would suppress every factitious cause of discontent." It was reserved for his successor, Sir John Franklin, to legislate formally upon the subject in imitation of Governor Bourke. The schools in Van Diemen's Land were an object of deep solicitude with the Governor during his career. He longed to establish such an one as might afford superior , culture. In 1819 it is recorded that there were no more than 164 children receiving instruction in the colony. Minor schools of various kinds were formed to meet the pressing wants, and during Colonel Sorell's government a superintendent of schools was appointed^ aiid ^ xcL<3»5vf5ria^^