Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/566

he seldom met a conqueror; but, astute in forecast, when he did meet him he avoided conflict.

It has been common for his partisans to defend his equivocal actions by pleading his unselfishness. If he was extortionate for his church, he erred from excess of religious zeal. If he improperly obtained money from intending immigrants with a foreknowledge that they could not receive land-orders on arrival—the Colonial Office having distinctly warned him of the fact—this also was extenuated as laudable devotion to the cause of immigration. At any rate he did not miser-like store money in a chest for himself. He spent what he appropriated. Finally, it would be argued, that if he was at times unscrupulous, ill-treatment and persecution had soured him, and that when he was young his code of ethics was irreproachable. While he was undergoing imprisonment for libel (more than a quarter of a century after his arrival in 1823) subscriptions were sought in his behalf. A young man vainly solicited aid from a gentleman, who replied, it was no part of a Christian minister's duty to libel his neighbours. The final argument in Dr. Lang's favour being adduced, the gentleman replied:

"Young man, I knew Dr. Lang probably before you were born. You see that corn-field. I was ploughing there when Mr. Lang, fresh from Scotland, came to ask for a subscription for a kirk. I promised him one, which he was pleased to call handsome. Before leaving me he begged me not to be surprised if I saw that my really handsome subscription appeared double in the published list. I should not be asked for the money; but by such a method a larger amount could be obtained from government. I told him that my promised subscription he should have, but that I would not allow him the use of my name at all, and that I would apprise Major Goulburn (Brisbane's Colonial Secretary) of his nefarions practices. And you will observe, sir, that this was while he was young, and before he had been, as you say, persecuted."

The writer of these pages heard these words from the speaker a few days after they were uttered.

The career of Lang was in keeping with this beginning. His supporters argued that his cause was good, and that if he wished to build a church a zealous indiscretion taking the form of untruth was scarcely blameable. Such a teacher might debase, but could not raise, the standard of morality. He was ever ready, however, to scourge an opponent for immorality, and was often a terror to them that did evil. To those who thwarted him in a good or bad