every hope that the bishop whom you have sent us will prove equal to
the task. For the sake of humanity and civilisation, as well as for
the interests of the island, I fervently trust that I may not be
disappointed in my expectations on this head.

The complex and thwarting currents of interest and opinion that may exist
in a colony respecting the maintenance of a State Church are well
illustrated in the following extracts:--

Very soon after I arrived here, I felt satisfied that the conflicts of
party in the colony would ere long assume a new character. I perceived
that the hostility to the proprietary interests, which was supposed to
actuate certain classes of persons who had much influence with the
peasantry, was on the decline. Should a state of quiescence prove
incompatible with the maintenance of their hold on their flocks,
analogy led me to anticipate that the Established Church would, in all
probability, become an object of attack.

Considering the facility with which the franchise may be acquired, it
is not a little remarkable that the constituency should have hitherto
increased so slowly. This phenomenon has not escaped the notice of the
opponents of the union of Church and State, and they have ascribed it
to the true cause. They are sensible that all uneducated population in
easy circumstances, without practical grievances, are not likely to be
intent on the acquisition of political privileges. They have,
therefore, undertaken to supply them with a grievance, in order to
whet their appetite for the franchise, and also to provide them with
guides who shall instruct them in the proper use of it. But in
attempting to carry this scheme into effect they have encountered an
obstacle, which has, for the time, entirely frustrated their