did not wish to recognise Lang, despite having to recall the deposition in 1863 (which was done by a majority of one vote), following Lang securing the reversal of the Presbytery of Irvine's sentence in 1861. Lang's Synod lost its identity by being merged on 15 November 1864 with the majority of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia, to form a General Synod which then merged with the original Synod of Australia to form the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales on 8 September 1865 with 47 ministers. In 1872 he was chosen Moderator of the Assembly but used his speech to seriously criticise his brethren for not choosing him earlier. There wasn't too much mellowing as he grew older. As a churchman Lang was wilful, egotistical, not respectable (twice jailed for libel). He 'preached more of the Gospel than he practised', someone quipped. From the Presbyterian viewpoint Lang is therefore something of an ambiguous figure. James Forbes, writing in 1846 about the 1837 period, stated: '...it has ever appeared to us one of the most mysterious permissions of Divine Providence, that the founding of an infant church in an infant colony should have fallen into such hands.' Lang and politics In The Colonist Lang agitated for the end of transportation, for the separation of the Moreton Bay Colony (which he proposed to be called Cooksland, but was eventually called Queensland) and the Port Phillip District (which he proposed to be called Phillipsland, but was eventually called Victoria) from New South Wales, and for the establishment of representative government and the reduction in the powers of the British-appointed Governors. In 1843 Lang was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council as one of five representatives of the Electoral district of Port Phillip, holding his seat until 1847. From July 1850 to October 1851 Lang was one of the Council members for City of Sydney, and in 1854 he was elected to the Council for County of Stanley. </ref> Lang was MLA for West Sydney from 1859 to 1869. Lang was not suited to parliamentary life, since he was temperamentally opposed to parliamentary procedure. He frequently used parliamentary privilege to pursue personal vendettas against his many enemies in the Presbyterian Church and the press. In 1851, in any case, he was unable to take his seat in Parliament, since he was heavily in debt from his various failed migration schemes