Review
of: Baker, D.W.A.; Preacher, Politician, Patriot: a Life of John Dunmore Lang;
Melbourne University Press 1998; ISBN 0 522 84822 2.
Some
people write biographies of great men they admire for their particular virtues
or achievements. Mr Don Baker has a refreshing approach. He wrote a biography
on the life of John Dunmore Lang not because he liked him, but because he did
not. The preface tells the reader what
kind of person he is about to be introduced to: “A man to whom truth and
falsehood come alike as he can best adapt them to his unmanly purposes.” A
quote from one of Lang’s opponents at the time, the author uses this to
characterise the subject of his biography.
“Preacher,
Politician and Patriot” is a shortened version of the original biography “Days
of Wrath”, published by the Melbourne University Press in 1985. At this time Mr Baker was still reading
history at the Australian National University.
Politically correct?
The
author shows his keen interest in the Aborigine peoples of Australia. This shows not only in this book, but also
in his “The civilised Surveyor: Thomas Mitchell and the Australian Aborigines
(Melbourne, 1997). The epilogue of
“Preacher, Politician and Patriot” makes the same connection. For this purpose it even extends the
Lang-biography to the description of the son of his sister’s offspring, and a subsequent
marriage of a far cousin, with a lady from the Ngalia tribe ninety years after
Dunmore’s death, followed by the birth of three children of mixed descent in
particular. This leads to the concluding words “So after six generations the
blood of the Scottish settlers from Largs has been mingled with that of the
original dwellers of Australia. John
Dunmore Lang had deeply deplored the terrible wrongs done by his compatriots to
the Aboriginal people of Australia; we may well imagine how he would have
rejoiced at the birth of Kado, Talbot and Zaba.”
This
makes some interesting reading. In the preface Mr Baker takes up the role of
prosecutor in the case against John Dunmore Lang, whose body and character are
presented to us as dead and assassinated respectively. In the epilogue we find author and subject of
the biography supposedly coming together on the Aboriginal issue. They both deplore terrible wrongs perpetrated
against other people, all in all still a rather shaky basis for
friendship. It leaves us with the
following summary of Mr Baker’s assessment: Dunmore Lang was falsehood
incarnate, but a visionary in being nice to the Aborigines.
Do the
contents warrant such a literary climax? Apart from the epilogue, the
Aborigines are introduced to the reader at only four places. Two references are less relevant. One place
refers to the necessity of protection against them (p. 85). On page 19 we meet
Tommy who has pleaded not guilty on a murder charge, but he probably was. The
author describes the events as “the death of a sinner” (p.21). The
controversy surrounding this case does not consider any racial issue, but the
uninvited administration of baptism by a Roman Catholic priest. According to the Rev. J.D. Lang, the
Aborigine man could not possibly understand the rite or have met the
requirement of faith at the time. For this reason Lang objected and most
Presbyterians with him.
Although
it is only in a very small portion of the book, Lang’s views on the Aborigines
are described nonetheless. (This might be due to the condensed version, cf.
Bridges, Presbyterian Leaders in 19th Century Australia, Melbourne 1993, p.19) In the nineteenth century climate (leading up
to Darwin’s evolution theory) it was fashionable among settlers to think about
Aborigines as “animals like monkeys” (p.44).
Lang however respected them as human and appreciated some of their
intellectual and cultural abilities. He
resented the ruthless murdering of Aborigines by convicts and free settlers
alike. “All the waters of New Holland,
he said, would be insufficient to wash away the stain of blood from the hands
of some gentlemen of good repute.”
(p.44) In 1838 when many were horrified
at the execution of seven whites who had killed twenty eight Aborigines,
Lang rather wondered whether God was
not punishing the colony by drought because of its dealings with the blacks (p.
62).
Lang
opposed the idea of civilising the Aborigines to make them ready to accept
Christianity. His evangelical views on
this topic led him to believe that the Gospel should be brought to the
Aborigines in their culture. Christianity
would inevitably bring civilisation, but nineteenth century Western culture not
necessarily Christianity or improvement otherwise. For this reason he advocated
that missionaries assimilate with Aborigines, win their trust and proclaim the
Gospel. (p. 45)
Presbyterian Preacher
When
four groups of Presbyterians in New South Wales united in 1865, Lang’s synod of
NSW was among them. It was characterised by Gospel preaching and missionary
work and flexible in its adherence to traditional Presbyterian forms (p.
184). Baptist, Lutheran and
Congregationalist served alike as Presbyterian ministers and before union the
church did not have an official relationship with any mother denomination in
Scotland. In several respects Lang’s synod seems to resemble some aspects of
the modern Australian Presbyterian evangelicalism.
The
Rev John Dunmore Lang showed himself evangelical-minded in his moral crusades
against immorality in Church and society alike. In doing so he showed himself a very practical and sensible man:
If the government establishes a colony with gross imbalance of the sexes and
tries to correct the issue by importing single women of unimpeachable character
who “turned out to be dissolute and licentious on their arrival in Sydney” (p.
47). Likewise in later years, he would object to the immigration of Chinese to
Queensland in general, for cultural reasons, but especially to importing these
men without allowing them to bring their wives.
In
1835 he visited Tasmania to consecrate the St. Andrew’s Church (now Scott’s
Uniting Church) in Hobart. Lang opened
the church, but more or less preached the charge vacant as well. On his arrival he learned that the Rev
Archibald Macarthur had come into the habit of what the reverent clergyman
claimed to be “holy kissing”, which he of course applied to the sisters of the
Hobart congregation and against their wishes.
He also showed such intimate anatomical interest at an interview for
confirmation that a poor girl jumped at his attempts and ran for it. Lang called on Macarthur, who overwhelmed by
sorrow and remorse, resigned the charge and returned to England six months
later. This was especially painful as it had been Macarthur who had first
welcomed Lang when he first arrived as minister in Australasia in 1823 (p. 10).
These
troubles seemed indicative of the state of the Presbyterian Church in the
Colonies at the time. In New South
Wales these were instrumental in the eventual establishment of Lang’s Synod of
New South Wales, as opposed to the Presbytery of NSW in the late thirties. On his return from Van Diemen’s Land, the
Rev J Lang was confronted with the testimony of a housemaid, who begged her
father to bring her back to Sydney to escape the drunken and riotous behaviour
of the perhaps not so reverend John Hill Garven. This clergyman became drunkenly quarrelsome and tried to shoot a
convict man servant twice, but misfired.
In short: enough material for immediate deposition and a jail
sentence. But he called the maid a liar
and tried to secure the servant’s silence by returning him to the government
for feigning sickness. Lang got his testimony but the Presbytery was ruled by
drinking buddies who effectively blocked the charge by technically restricting
the witnesses in April 1836. After Lang
had left for England and Ireland to recruit better men for the ministry in New
Holland, the presbytery covered up completely, by now also disproving the
charge and stating that far from being drunk and attempting manslaughter Garven
had only been exercising a ‘becoming’ firmness towards his servants (p.
48-63).
One
wonders whether the Antichrist was in Rome or in the Presbytery of New South
Wales. As moderator of the General Assembly in October 1872 Lang seemed to firmly
favour the first position, perhaps with greater ease now the Presbyterian
situation in NSW had greatly improved, despite Free Church conspiracies of a
different nature (p. 195, 96). Lang declared that the latter days were at hand
because the thousand two hundred and sixty years of papal apostasy had ended
with the abolition of temporal power of the Holy See by king Victor Emmanuel in
1870. Even as a politician he stated that Rome’s infallibility consisted of the
certainty that she conducted to the gaols and gallows a larger proportion of
her motley adherents than did any other form of Christianity (p.132). Needless to say that Lang made enemies and
would even make his personal contribution to the gaols.
Jailbird patriot
On
30 July 1850 Lang took a seat in the Legislative Council, after overwhelming
support in a public show of hands but, strangely, only a 51 percent support in
a poll that followed. He started a new
weekly newspaper, the Press to further his political cause. Unfortunately he
also defamed a political opponent, for which he eventually served a few months
in gaol, or rather a reasonably comfortable apartment in the gaol’s governor’s
house. As a good Scotsman, Presbyterian and moderator of the Church, he even
got a resolution of the Synod, which “sympathised with the affliction that had
befallen him in his labours for the public good”.
His
long career in politics lasted perhaps even after his leaving Parliament in
1869, and he continued to exercise influence through his writings. Like Abraham Kuyper in The Netherlands, his
support was largely derived from the working class, accounting for some of his
popularity. In politics he fought for a European Republic and even published
“Freedom and Independence for the Seven United Provinces of Australia” in 1870
(p. 199). The resemblance with the seven united protestant provinces of the
Netherlands that liberated themselves from Roman Spain suggests the obvious. But
Lang fought a lost cause on this particular issue, whilst enjoying large
support otherwise and great improvement in both Church and society until his
death in August 1878.
Conclusion
John
Dunmore Lang’s was an interesting life. Perhaps one should agree with Barry
Bridges (Presbyterian Leaders in 19th Century Australia, Melbourne 1993, p.34) “that he would have
achieved a great deal more, but for the flaws in his character.” But those very
traits, like his incorrigible wilfulness and relentless pursuit of top
positions, may also have assisted him in persevering where other men would have
failed. Whether Christian ministry should be empowered by such traits is a
different matter entirely.