Ap[ril] 9/14
(Copy)
May it please Your Excellency
	Attempts having been made to asperse my public Character by two Anonymous papers published in the Sydney Gazette one on the 19th March, and the other on the 2nd of the present Month, I feel compelled in Justice to my public Situation to appeal to Your Excellency for redress. I should not have presumed to trouble Your Excellency with the present application had not the Editor of the Sydney Gazette refused to give up the Author of the above anonymous Papers. I humbly conceive it is not intended that the Sydney Gazette which is published by Authority should be a Vehicle thro’ which the Envious and Malicious should assassinate the Reputation of any of His Majesty’s Subjects, and more especially those who have Arduous and painful public duties to perform in this Settlement— 
Independant [sic] of the official Situations I hold in this Colony, I am Agent to the Society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts which is composed of Men of the First Rank and Respectability in the British Empire, His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury being president; I am also the Accredited  [f] Agent here for the Church Missionary Society which is also composed of Noblemen, Clergy and Others, all Members exclusively of the Established Church; it is hoped that thro’ the Bounty and patronage of this Society the Inhabitants of New Zealand will receive the Blessings of Civilization;  I have been almost twenty Years the Acting Director of the London Missionary Society for their Missionaries in the South Sea Islands. This is one of the first Societies at present established in the Empire; I am also appointed by the British and Foreign Bible Society to distribute their Donations of Bibles and Testaments to the Inhabitants of these Settlements;— Your Excellency must be well aware that the Sydney Gazette will fall into the hands of these public Bodies. Any charge against me appearing in this paper will carry with it a certain degree of public Sanction as the Sydney Gazette is published under the Sanction of Government;— many of the Members of these Societies are my private friends and patrons. If it is admitted in the smallest degree that I am capable of committing such a Breach of public Faith and Confidence (as the Author of the Anonymous papers alluded to, artfully endeavouring to impress on the public mind) I must be ruined in the good Opinion of these Societies and all public Confidence in me will cease;— [f] I must also be considered by all good Men no longer worthy to hold his Majesty’s Commission, much less to fill the sacred Office of a Clergyman; under these weighty considerations I am compelled to appeal to Your Excellency with the fullest confidence in Your Excellency’s Justice and Impartiality, being well assured that you will not allow the public Representation of any Officer under Your Excellency’s Administration to be publickly defamed without giving him every Relief and protection in your power. I most sincerely regret the occasion of this Application but your Excellency will feel the imperious necessity I am under to vindicate my public Character, and that after applying in vain to the Editor of the Sydney Gazette I had no alternative but to lay my complaint before Your Excellency to obtain your Protection and to Solicit your Excellency to direct the Editor of the Sydney Gazette to give up the Author of the Anonymous papers in question. I cannot but remark as Singular that after I have held His Majesty’s Commission more than twenty Years in this Colony (during which Period it is well known I have toiled early and late to promote the good [f] of the Service, and have suffered many Hardships and Privations) that I should be the only Person whose Reputation should be injured thro’ the medium of the Sydney Gazette since the Establishment of the Settlement. I have had the satisfaction to know that my public Conduct meets with the Approbation of my Superiors both here and at Home, and I trust I shall never do a Single act that shall in the smallest degree stain my moral Character in the Opinion of an Impartial Public. I consider my Public Situation of infinite importance. The Eternal Happiness of thousands is committed to my Care, and I feel myself under the most Solemn, and sacred obligations to God and my Fellow Creatures to do all the good I can, and to prevent all the Evil so long as I have the Honor to fill this Sacred Office; Under this impression I collected when in England a few Books by personal Application to my Friends, as also I wrote to England for School Books as stated in my public Letter, published in the Sydney Gazette on the 26th March, I had no object in what I [f] did but to promote the best Interests of the Inhabitants and their Children of these Settlements. I stand in a sacred Relation to them, and am bound by the strongest Ties to do all I can to forward their temporal and eternal welfare. I have no doubt, when your Excellency considers how wantonly, and unjustly I have been attacked, but you will allow me to say that I have been extremely ill-treated by the Editor of the Sydney Gazette, without any Cause or fault of mine. I consider his Conduct not only highly disrespectful to me as the Principal Chaplain of this Colony, but Criminal. A Man is prepared to meet an open Enemy, but he does not expect to be wounded in the very Bosom of his friends; The Editor of the Sydney Gazette is a Servant of the Crown, and receives his Salary from Government; he cannot surely be justified in defaming the Reputation of any Member of that Government (under which he acts as a Servant) thro’ the medium of the Public Government Gazette. If this principle is once admitted it may be easily foretold what will soon be the fate of this Colony.— [f]
	I shall not long remain a Solatary [sic] object of Public defamation, for eternal truth hath said a Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, whosoever holds up the Clergy and Magistrates to public Contempt, stabs at the very Vitals of that Government which supports and protects him. The Throne and the Altar generally fall together, the smallest public Act that tends to lessen the Respect due to the Sacred Situation of the Clergy and that of the Magistrates tends in a tenfold degree to increase the Idleness and Insubordination of the lower Class, and to Clog the Wheels of Government. It is well known that many a valuable Crop of Grain has been totally consumed in this Colony, by a single spark dropt from a Pipe; I trust that by transmitting a Copy of this official Communication to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the public Secretaries of the above Societies, I may prevent those unfavourable impressions from being made upon these public Bodies, and upon the minds of my private friends and Patrons, which the Author of the Anonymous papers evidently [f] had in Contemplation when he sent them to the Press.
And have the honor to be
Your Excellency’s
Most obedient &
humble Servant
Samuel Marsden
Parramatta
5th April 1814
To His Excellency
 General Lachlan Macquarie
Governor of New South Wales
& its dependencies  &c  &c  &c