Greenock, 25th August, 1799, he graduated at the Glasgow University, and attained a D.D. in 1825. In 1822 he was ordained by the Irvine Presbytery a minister for the Scots' National Church in Sydney, where he arrived in 1823. His chequered career in New South Wales and the religious and political troubles in which he was embroiled there, do not come within the scope of this narrative. His openly avowed rancorous hostility to anything Papistical, more especially the Irish Roman Catholic, caused him to be regarded with much disfavour by no inconsiderable section of the population of this province when he visited Melbourne in 1843, seeking election to the New South Wales Legislature. He dashed into the contest with the pluck for which he was proverbial, and the opposition to him was of the fiercest and most embittered kind. It was his presence in Melbourne that gave impulse to a few embers of Orangeism recently imported from the North of Ireland, longing for some Lucifer to fire the feeble train, and this Dr. Lang brought with him.
Mr. Edward Curr, an English Roman Catholic of strong Conservative opinions, was candidate for Melbourne, aud he lost his head so far as to declare that if Lang were elected for the district he (Curr) if returned, would not sit for Melbourne. This ill-timed dictation was an overt act of aggression, opportunely presented to the Langites, which they were only too ready to use. And well they did so, for they evoked the worst passions of human nature, stirred up the dregs of Orangeism, and a wild cry of fanaticism, rang for a while throughout the length and breadth of the land. Still in a certain way Lang placed the province under deep indebtedness to him for the unceasing energy with which he fought the battle of its Independence both in and out of the New South Wales Legislature, as well as during one or two trips he took to England. His Victorian vicissitudes, if fully described, would form in themselves an amusing chapter, and afford a striking illustration of the mutability of public opinion, and the extraordinary reverses to which a well intentioned but perverse individual may be subjected without any great fault of his own. As for Dr. Lang, by even some of the Port Phillipians he was loathed as a demi-demon, whilst others hailed him as something not much short of a demi-god; and curiously enough he drifted from the verge of assassination to the confines of an apotheosis, he was the honoured guest at a grand Separation demonstration, and the occupant of a cell in the Melbourne Gaol. He made various visits to Port Phillip, and one of these occasions, in 1845, afforded his admirers an opportunity of according him a special ovation in the form of a public breakfast, for which extensive preparations were made. A section of the Melbourne ladies had taken quite a liking to him, and to impart éclat to the proceedings, the presentation of a gown from them was to constitute a special feature.
The Doctor arrived, after some disappointment, per steamer, from Sydney, and on the 4th of March the public welcome was offered. The Mayor (Mr. H. Moor) presided, and the orators were the Mayor, Messrs. J. A. Marsden, Alderman Kerr, Councillors Greeves and Fawkner and Dr. P. M'Arthur. Mr. H. W. Mortimer, in a few brief, stilted but suitable observations, officiated as the proxy of the ladies, and presented the guest with a minister's elaborately finished gown, as their friendship's offering. The Doctor seemed much pleased with the compliment, spoke pleasantly, as he could well do when he liked, and was profuse in his acknowledgments. The gown was put on, was a capital fit; it well became the man of peace and war, and the event terminated in general gratulation.
Dr. Lang had been in England in 1849, and to give him his due, was not idle there in urging the public claims of Port Phillip upon the Downing Street magnates; and as the colonists were in the main never ungrateful for services rendered, a public meeting was held in the Mechanics' Institute on the 16th February, 1850, to testify the public regard for the valuable labours of Dr. Lang, whilst in the Home country. Mr. L. M'Kinnon officiated as Chairman, and addresses were delivered by him, Messrs. Wm. Westgarth, Wm. Hull, J. W. Bell, J. C. King, Wm. Kerr, and others. The outcome of the proceedings was two-fold, viz., the giving of a public dinner and a purse of sovereigns to the reverend gentleman. The entertainment came off on the 22nd February at the Protestant Hall. The Mayor of Melbourne (Dr. Greeves), presided, with the Mayor of Geelong as Vice, but the Press were not admitted.
But great trouble was brewing for the Doctor at the very time those festivities were en train, and a squall burst upon him soon after which sadly put out both himself and his friends. It came
