366 BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND'S VISIT,' ' 
than 700 criminals, who are there under the 
spiritual charge of the Rev. Thomas Sharpe. 
So extensive, indeed, have been the fruits of 
his attention, that, under the Divine blessing, 
and with thankfulness to the Society which 
has so aided his exertions, I may express a 
confident expectation of many hardened men 
receiving the light of the truth, and being re- 
covered to a reverence for it, to which, during 
the previous portion of their lives, they had 
been practically strangers. 
" So far as it is granted me to judge of the 
sincerity of man's intentions, I felt so confident 
as to a considerable number presented and re- 
commended to me by Mr. Sharpe, that, at their 
humble and earnest desire, I admitted them to 
the rite of Confirmation, the nature and design 
of which had been, carefully explained to them. 
And I afterwards received such of them as were 
desirous to attend, at the administration of the 
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper." 
The Bishop of New Zealand, before his last 
visit to England, touched at Norfolk Island, and 
was much struck with the beauty of the place, 
and its fine climate. The contrast of the ex- 
ternal features of nature with the spirit of the 
human population was powerfully portrayed by 
him ; and he drew a lively comparison of what 
the island was with what it might be, ci It 
was designated," said one who lived there nearly 
four years, " 4 the Ocean Hell/ I doubt not, but 
eventually the presence of the Pitcairn people 
will render it what nature intended it to be, 
an earthly paradise." These words were used 
