24 SEPTEMBER 1892, Page 24

a considerable mistake. He has told at portentous length the

story of an undoubtedly admirable, though not specially great man, who did excellent work, mainly of the pioneer sort, for the Anglican Church in Australia, and who was so conscientious that, as soon as he discovered himself to be no longer equal to the strain of his position, he gave it up, and returned home to labour quietly. Bishop Perry cannot be said to have spent a very eventful or exciting life ; but he lived through the early gold fever in Australia, saw the Black Thursday of the great fires, and had an ample experience, if not of perils, certainly of journeyings. A pleasantly picturesque and readable story could, therefore, have been easily made out of the Bishop's life in Australia, which began in 1846, and ended in 1876 with his resignation of the See of Melbourne on the creation of that of Ballarat. Mr. Goodman is, however, a faithful and sympathetic, if also tedious chronicler, anI his work will be found valuable as a treasure-house of information as to both the material and the spiritual progress of Australia at a critical period. Bishop Perry figures in these pages from first to last as a good scholar, a good man, and a thoroughly practical and conscientious ecclesiastic, who, if he did not wrestle with the larger spiritual questions of his time, did his best to solve such pressing and every-day problems as were presented to him by the prevalence of the vice of intemperance.