La Masculinidad desde la perspectiva de género

school would be given over to practical instruction of the type the colony needed most. 'Latin and Greek may serve well for dead weight, but never for a whole cargo', he mused. 'The object of importance therefore, in the education of youth in the colony, is to impart the largest quantity of useful knowledge in the shortest possible time . . . (and) to teach youth what they are to practise when they are men.'^ Lang believed the common sense of the colonists would assure the

success of the venture; and in one swoop he could destroy the monopoly of the proud 'Queen', the Corporation, and honour the good name of Presbyterianism.

Lang drafted the prospectus for such a college on the voyage

2~. Ibid. , p p .328 and 345-6.

3. Lang to Goderich, 28 December 1830, C.O. 201/215.

4. Lang, New South Wales, p . 347; Sydney Gazette, 2 October 1832. 5. Lang, New South Wales, v o l .2, p . 383.

over in 1830, and forwarded a manuscript copy of it to the Colonial Office on 28 December the same year. He pointed out with particular care that this college would f ill the gap left by the failure of all schemes hitherto proposed in the colony. He intended, he submitted, following the well tried pattern'of the Belfast College, and needed only & 0 ,0 0 0 ! 7

That Christmas the light from the heavens shone down brilliantly on the spot where Lang rested at his journey's end. Within a fortnight the Colonial Office promised him loans totalling £ 3,500, and an assurance that more would follow should the project

g

prosper. Lang thanked the Lord, but the essence of his success was largely in his timing. Goderich had just assumed the seals of the Colonial Office and, as he had soon to confess, was imperfectly

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acquainted with the back-log of business. He knew nothing of the plans for the King's Schools, or of the copy of a prospectus for the Sydney College which Murray had received, and acknowledged with the intimation that he would consider recommending a government grant in aid of its construction.*® To Lord Howick, the Parliamentary Under­ secretary with whom Lang had most to do, the scheme embodied every

6. 'Outline of a Prospectus of an Academical Institution which it is proposed to establish in Sydney, New South W ales', Encl. in Lang to Goderich, 28 December 1830, C.O. 201/215.

7. J .D . Lang, Account of Steps Taken in England, with a View to the Establishment of an Academical Institution or College, in New South Wales; And to Demonstrate the Practicability of Effecting an Extensive Emigration of the Industrious Classes, From the Mother Country to that Colony (Sydney, 1831), p p .5, 17-8 and 25.

8. Howick to Lang, 13 January 1831, C.O. 202/26.

9. Goderich to Bourke, 13 June 1832, H .R .A ., I .x v i .659-60. 10. Hay to Lang, 15 October 1830, C.O. 202/26.

virtue of nascent Whig colonial policy. It combined progress in the colony with the emigration of redundant English artisans; and that without cost to Britain, or finally to the colonial treasury. The plan Lang presented on 28 December 1830 was approved early in January 1831, without enquiry or investigation, and on 12 January a letter left the Colonial Office instructing Darling to make arrangements for

12 the advance of the sums agreed upon.

Lang’ s success became Broughton's despair. News of the coup

preceded Lang's return to the colony, and Broughton learned of it before hearing of the fate of his own schools. This ruffled him. But two despatches landed in the colony a few months later upset him more. In one the Secretary of State declined, in a final ruling, to allocate one penny to the Rocks chapel prior to a public subscription

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being raised. In the other he waived all similar restrictions on Lang's loans, and instructed Darling to place £1,500 at the divine's disposal immediately he put foot again on colonial soil so that Lang could begin building his college while a public appeal in support of

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it was still being organised. 'Experience has proved that men are prone to undervalue that which is too easily obtained', Goderich wrote to console Broughton in his disappointment; and left the Archdeacon to ponder what, in recent years, had been more easily obtained than

11. Howick to Lang, 19 January 1831, C.O. 202/26; Lang to Goderich 15 March 1831, Encl. in Goderich to Darling, 29 March 1831,

H .R .A ., I.xvi.224- 5. On Whig emigration policy, see Peter Burroughs, Britain and Australia 1831-1855. A Study in Imperial Relations and Crown Lands Administration (Oxford, 19 67 ), p p .37-8, and 66-74.

12. Goderich to Darling, 12 January 1831, H.R.A. , I.x v i .2 3 . 13. Goderich to Darling, 24 March 1831, H .R .A ., I.x v i .1 1 6 .

14. Goderich to Darling, 29 March 1831, H.R.A. , I.xvi.223- 4. This and the preceding despatch came on the ship Georgina.

But it was on 13 October 1831 when Lang sailed into the harbour on board the ship 'Stirling C astle', with its store of Scottish

immigrants, that Broughton realised how radically the position had changed. Lang not only unloaded the artisans who would put up the walls of the college, but produced its masters, and sent them out to deliver public lectures, to advertise their talent, and to recruit the cream of the pupils awaiting higher instruction.*^ Being first in the colony was important, Broughton said. He had investigated the demand for education and knew the situation better than most. 'There is no room for two such undertakings at once', he reported to London, and predicted the failure of one venture. 'By the time the Masters of the King's Schools can arrive Dr. Lang will have been able to obtain assurances of support from all or nearly all who have children to be educated.' * 7

The Sydney Gazette sympathised with Broughton's disappointment, and called on churchmen to 'rally around the Archdeacon' and await the

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arrival of other masters. But Broughton was the first to see that Lang's first £1,500.*^

15. Goderich to Darling, 24 March 1831, op.cit. , p . 117. The facility with which the grant was obtained also puzzled later o ffic ia ls, see Minute attached to Lang to Secretary of State, 6 November 1833, C.O. 201/235.

16. Sydney Gazette, 15 October 1831. Construction began eight days after the Stirling Castle arrived, see Lang, New South Wales,

v o l .2, p . 353. Publicity lectures began immediately, see First Report of the Council of the Australian College (Sydney, 1832), p p .6-7.

1 7 . Broughton to Darling, 19 October 1831, Encl. in Darling to

Goderich, 13 November 1831, C.O. 202/221. (This despatch is not in H.R.A. and Darling's covering letter is marked 'At S e a '. Broughton apparently gave it to Darling on the eve of his departure for delivery when he reached England.)

this asked too much of parents. No one could reasonably be expected to await the arrival of unknown instructors at some undetermined date, when a school amply endowed and patronised by the government was open and ready to receive them. At the same time he washed his hands of all responsibility for the prosperity of the King^s schools, and refused to accept any liability for the great loss in income which

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the masters would suffer from depleted enrolments. He could exact no reparation from the Colonial Office. Instead he satisfied his anger by bluntly accusing its officials of gross discourtesy, and indulging in a choicely worded jeremiad against Lang.

The plans for the King's schools would have been at the Colonial Office two months before Lang's ship cleared Sydney Heads, he said, and yet priority had been given to a man whose 'tortuous course' in the whole matter of higher education could bring him no credit and even less respect. There had been a moment, Broughton recalled, when Lang sat in his house expressing satisfaction with the King's schools, and pouring out most unfavourable impressions of the designs and

principles of certain individuals whose names had appeared in

connection with the Sydney College. The next moment Lang stood up in public and poured a divine benediction on the very project he had so roundly condemned, and designed for its foundation stone a testimony that all was done, 'Deo Optimo Maximo annuente'. Lang excused this seeming inconsistency on the ground that he had come to view the

exclusive use of episcopalian clergymen as masters at the King's schools as harmful to the future of the colony. Broughton found this excuse

understandable in it s e lf, but he failed to reconcile it with the Reverend gentleman’ s present intention of introducing a school whose masters were exclusively ministers of the Presbyterian church. 'In fact the determination of Dr. Lang was evidently that his church should play the first part or none at a l l ', Broughton summed up his impression of the a ffair, '( a n d )., the neglect displayed towards me cannot but operate, and I know has operated, to lower it (the Established Church)

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in the public estimation.'

Broughton might complain about Lang's conduct and the discourtesy of the Colonial Office, but he had no grounds on which to oppose the grant. On 8 November 1831 when the matter came before the Legislative

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Council, he attended and cast his vote for it . It was his gloomiest moment. Shortly afterwards the Reverend George Innes, an Oxford

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graduate, stepped quietly ashore at Sydney. He had been chosen master of one of the King's schools. Once the Colonial Office had realised its blunder in overlooking the King's Schools it went doubly quickly about the business of appointing masters, and so had Innes in

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