In reckoning up the principal occurrences during the twelve years in which Colonel Macquarie ruled the colony, the vast additions which were made to our knowledge of the country are by no means to be overlooked. Bathurst Plains and the pass to them through the Blue Mountains were, as we have already seen, discovered; the district of Argyle to the south-westward was also made known. Two rivers, named after the governor, who was (it is reported) fond of such compliments, the Lachlan and the Macquarie, were traced westward of the Blue Mountains, until they were supposed to lose themselves in endless and impassable swamps. Northwards, the River Hastings, and a large extent of country suitable for flocks and herds, called Liverpool Plains, were discovered. Besides which, three penal settlements for the punishment of unruly convicts were formed, one at Emu Plains, another at Newcastle, near the mouth of the River Hunter, and a third at Port Macquarie, at the mouth of the Hastings. But the mention of new penal settlements, in which the punishment and removal of gross offenders were the only objects, while the reformation and salvation of those poor men were never thought of, forcibly recalls us to a subject of which we have for some time lost sight, and which must be once more noticed before the history of the rise and early progress of the colony of New South Wales is completed. Where was the Church all this time? What was the Church of England doing in the now flourishing settlement of Australia? How far did the state follow at once both its duty and its interest, and employ in the work of reformation in this land of criminals those heavenly instruments, the Bible and the Church? The reply to all these inquiries is briefly made, but the national sin and shame involved in that short reply it might need volumes to unfold.