174 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



a few years ago), all churches in New South Wales, 

 as in all the other Australasian colonies, were in 1862 

 disconnected -with the State. With one other reform 

 his name is also inseparably identified. Still as member 

 for Sydney, the democrat carried through the Legis- 

 lature a law repealing that old aristocratic custom em- 

 bodied in the " law " of primogeniture. 



On a question fraught with larger importance Lang 

 took a bold and independent line. Burning with in- 

 dignation on account of the treatment he received from 

 the Colonial Office in 1849, he conceived, like Sir George 

 Grey, a passionate aversion for the Government of 

 England. Wliile Wentworth looked forward to an 

 Imperial federation of all the colonies with the Mother- 

 land, Lang prophesied the dissolution of the British 

 Empire, and he dreamed of the future " freedom and 

 independence of the Australasian colonies." His ex- 

 pectation that a disruption would eventually take place 

 between Australia and England was shared by many, 

 perhaps by most, public men of the time. Liberals, 

 Conservatives, and Radicals were alike under the do- 

 minion of the fatalistic belief that all the self-governing 

 colonies would follow the example of the United States 

 by taking up the freedom that would not be refused 

 them. Lang's belief that the disruption would " pro- 

 bably " be accompanied, if not accomplished, by violence 

 was peculiar to himself, and was begotten of his own 

 strong passions and imperious ways. There is something 

 repugnant in the very notion of a fighting preacher of 

 the religion of peace. But Lang, like his Divine Master, 

 if he was correctly reported, had come to Australia to 

 bring, not peace, but a sword. He contemplated the 

 establishment, " probably by violence," of " a system 

 of government in which Great Britain shall have nothing 

 to say." He had grown rootedly hostile to the English 

 Government. When the Crimean war broke out, he 

 refused to attend a meeting convened in Sydney to 

 express sympathy and offer aid. This was not neces- 

 sarily a proof of his disloyalty. Many men of high 



