172 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



in the case, and the Scottish presbytery deposed him. 

 The law of the Church is said to be that no Presbyterian 

 minister or church can exist in isolation ; he and it 

 must be in communion with the presbytery within 

 whose district it hes. Lang cared not ; he was a church 

 or a denomination by himself, and, till towards the end 

 of his days, he remained unconnected with the presbytery 

 of Sydney. He visited England in 1846, and remained 

 there for three years, but he then took no steps to vin- 

 dicate himself ; either it was that he did not think of 

 the resource he afterwards tried, or he had " other tigers 

 to comb." Not till 1861, when he was again in the old 

 country, did he adopt the measures he should have 

 resorted to, it might seem, at an earlier date. In that 

 year he appealed for redress to the presbytery of Irvine, 

 which refused to grant it. He then appealed to the 

 supreme civil tribunal — the Court of Session, which 

 compelled the presbytery to annul its act of deposition. 

 He was set right before the now disrupted Kirk, which 

 was once more made to feel its dependence on the State, 

 and he was set right before the Presbyterians of Austraha. 

 He did not need to be set right in his own eyes. 



Other and more carnal activities occupied, Avithout 

 ever engrossing, the activities of the amphibious divine. 

 His main object was to enhst a band of emigrants Anth 

 whom to people and occupy the new colony he pro- 

 jected in the North-Eastern parts of Austraha, which 

 he proposed to name COOKSLAND. He gathered to- 

 gether his emigrants, chartered his ships, and had one 

 of them despatched. Then the Colonial Office inter- 

 vened. It had not allowed some irregularities connected 

 with the payment of the requisite deposits on account 

 of each passenger to hinder the issue of land-orders to 

 those emigrants, but it now decided that before such 

 orders could be issued to future emigrants, the customary 

 deposits must be paid. Why should there have been 

 any difficulty about the payment ? To all appearance 

 the sums paid were appropriated by Lang. This was 

 not done in order that he might become personally pos- 



