THE NEW COLONY 325 



in January, 1840. There is a consensus of opinion that from the 

 first this paper commanded more confidence than any of the others, 

 and it maintained its lead until the convulsion of the colony by 

 the gold miners in 1852, when it was fairly and finally distanced 

 by the Argus. After many changes of editors the Port Phillip 

 Gazette was bought by Thomas McCombie in 1843 ; and in the 

 same year G. D. Boursiquot purchased the Port Phillip Patriot, 

 and absorbed it into his own paper The Daily News. This paper 

 was, in its turn, a few years later, absorbed by the Argus. 



The Press, the Pulpit and the Stage are each recognised 

 teachers. Of the former it must be said that it developed into a 

 power in Victoria, which was very inaccurately expressed in railing it 

 " the fourth estate ". It will be seen how, in the great constitutional 

 struggles which had to be faced, it became little short of a supreme 

 power, and ruled Administrations with a hand on which the velvet 

 glove was not very apparent. 



During the period under review the Pulpit gained a stronger hold 

 than it has since been able to maintain. Churches and chapels 

 were being built, congregations multiplied, and scarcely a year 

 passed but some denomination was deploring the want of accom- 

 modation. A generation later there was abundance of room, and 

 the difficulty was transferred to filling the seats and providing the 

 necessary financial basis. In the forties Melbourne was noticeably 

 a church-going town, partly from force of English habit, and partly 

 perhaps from the lack of facilities for getting away from it. On the 

 whole, it might be regarded as a season of at least outward religious 

 peace and progress, subject only to two special disturbing elements. 

 The most serious of these was the strife which was continually 

 being fanned into the flame of outbreak between the Irish Roman 

 Catholics and the injudicious persons who so fanatically kept the 

 sacred anniversary of the battle of the Boyne, During several 

 years William Kerr, while occupying the editorial chair, successively 

 of the Patriot and the Argus, was also the Provincial Grand 

 Master of the Orangemen of the district. As he had a biting, though 

 by no means refined style of sarcasm, and generally dipped his pen 

 in gall, the feud was kept strenuously in the forefront. Such an 

 occasion as the laying of the foundation-stone of the Protestant 



