When members of that oft-maligned institution, the Anglican Church - the 'Tory Party at prayer' - encountered the far-flung settler empire, they found it a strange and intimidating place. Anglicanism's conservative credentials seemed to have little place in developing colonies; its established status, secure in England, would crumble in Ireland and was destined never to be adopted in the 'White Dominions'. By 1850, however, a global 'Anglican Communion' was taking shape.
This book explains why Anglican clergymen started to feel at home in the empire. Between 1790 and 1860 the Church of...