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To the Editor of the Sydney Gazette.
SIR,
Your insertion of the following letter
in your widely circulated Journal will
confer a favour upon a large body of
your respectable readers. Our object is
not controversy, but the correction of
partial and unfounded statements circulated
in a Contemporary Journal.
We are, etc. etc.
To the Editor of the Colonist.
SIR,
We, the undersigned, enter our solemn
and formal Protest against the statements
you have published in your last Colonist,
respecting a case now before the Presbytery
of New South Wales. Weerona
nounte these statements to be unmerited,]
unjust, and untrue.
The indignant aspersions periodically
cast upon us in that Journal, after each
meeting of Presbytery, and the last in
particular, we do not mean to refute,
considering the unhappy temper and
state of mind of the traducers. But the
nui st be permitted to inform the public
and the Presbytery body, whose good
opinion it is of more importance for us to
preserve, than it appears to be to the
writer, that the statements published in
the Colonist in reference to the transac-
tion in question, are without a shadow of
foundation in truth, so far as our motives
and conduct are concerned.
Having entered this protest, we should
have refrained from stating any opinion
Upon the case; but the prosecutor having
launched the thunder of the press against.
the accused, we have no hesitation to
aver, that so far are the case has come before
it, a more malignant and deliberate
attempt to degrade and ruin a fellow
Inhumer, and to dispense his flock, is his
ever come within the i Each of our knowledge,
'The industry employed repelled,
pi evert, and destroy (Im equality of justice
in this case, n|'0»ur 1" me to Im without a
parallel,
'I The writer is aware that his son wm
jii'»i'mfi>d ill i may (mar t'tnmñmrtinm
well o>líb«/ftl« enlisting, under arms was.
mination and reflection. It was again taken
up, with a sincere desire to elicit the truth,
lest any point should have been concealed
from our view, or that new evidence
could be presented. Mr. Garven waited
his light to postpone the case, for three
months, (with the view to prepare a reply,
), to which privilege he was entitled.
by the Rules of the Church. He brought
his witness twice from Maitland to Sydney
and under all disadvantages of scanty
numbers, an opinion would have "been
given, but for the wicked attempt to im-
plicate other parties, not present, and
not before the Court. The case then assumed
a new feature and the prosecutor
protested so vehemently against the
progress of the case, unless we submitted
to his imperious dictation, that, to attain
the ends of Justice, (as the minutes
will show,) it was judged advisable to
defer the case, till a full meeting could
be secured, which, owing to the situation
of a distant member, was not expected to
take place, till late in October. Such
a practice is of yearly occurrence in Scot-
land ; it is perfectly in accordance with
the rules and forms of our National
Church and surely, if in any case,
postponement is act sable, it was in this,
white, (with the exclusion of office
hearers,) there was only one clerical member
present, and had an office bearer, as
Clerk of Presbytery, to record his own
proceedings. A charge, therefore, so
baseless, and unjust, as that made against
us, is untrue, and was uncalled for
The Prosecutor is well aware of the
unsafe ground, on which he stands. He
would gladly embrace any feasible plea
for its abandonment, even to the ruin of
his fellow labourers. But he may rest
assured, that the case is not dismissed.
The Presbytery will proceed cautiously,
and formally, to examine the whole transaction,
out of which the charge has
arisen, at a time when their collective
strength is present. They will " do
justly, and love mercy."
The Presbytery have laboured assiduously,
for some time, to give form and
correctness to their proceedings, in strict
accordance with the procedure of the
Church of Scotland, as one of the Established
Churches of the British Empire.
The Executive and Legislative, e portions
of the Colonial Government have, in
various instances, recognised the acts of
the majority and memorials are now in
preparation for a closer and more formal
recognition, by the Home and Colonial
Governments, and the General Assembly,
as their Brethren in Van Diemen's Land
have already done. In this, the Presbytery
have given mortal offence to the
dictators sagacity of a, fellow minister,
forgetful of the Presbyterian purity of
all ministers. But at next meeting when
his own case shall be discussed, he will
find it no easy task, to reconcile the receipt
of a handsome salary from His
Majesty's Government, with the avowal
of principles that would render any other
man who had sworn to maintain the tenets
of the Church of Scotland, an apostate
from that Church.
We append our names to this protest,
to show to our friends, and the Presbyter-
I am body in general, respectable for
wealth, numbers, and correctness of de-
pertinent, that we repudiate, any disavow
doctrines and procedure, not to confer
in ty with the principles and practice of
our National Church. We shall be cou
lent, if The members of the same communion
with ourselves, give no more care
deuce to those defamatory statements,
than the public at large are accustomed
to give to all such statements, flowing
through the same pestiferous channel.
We are, your obedient Servants,
JOHN CLELAND, Minister.
J 011 ST M 'GA RVI is Minister.
WILLIAM M-IM' U S li Elder
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