nvolved some erroneous principle; the former supposition appears
to be the true one, for they all contained one common element, they all
started with one recognized principle, the presence of which in the
scheme must necessarily have entailed its failure.

2. This principle was that, although the natives should, as far as
European property and European subjects were concerned, be made amenable
to British laws, yet so long as they only exercised their own customs
upon themselves, and not too immediately in the presence of Europeans,
they should be allowed to do so with impunity.

3. This principle originated in philanthropic motives and a total
ignorance of the peculiar traditional laws of this people, which laws,
differing from those of any other known race, have necessarily imparted
to the people subject to them a character different from all other races;
and hence arises the anomalous state in which they have been found.

4. They are as apt and intelligent as any other race of men I am
acquainted with; they are subject to the same afflictions, appetites, and
passions as other men, yet in many points of character they are totally
dissimilar to them; and, from the peculiar code of laws of this people,
it would appear not only impossible that any nation subject to them could
ever emerge from a savage state, but even that no race, however highly
endowed, however civilized, could in other respects remain long in a
state of civilization if they were submitted to the operation of such
barbarous customs.

5. The plea generally set up in defence of this principle is that the
natives of this country are a conquered people, and that it is an act of
generosity to allow them the full power of exercising their own laws upon
themselves; but this plea would appear to be inadmissible; for, in the
first place, savage and traditional customs should not be confounded with
a regular code of laws; and secondly, when Great Britain insures to a
conquered country the privilege of preserving its own laws, all persons
resident in this territory become amenable to the same laws, and proper
persons are selected by the Government to watch over their due and
equitable administration; nothing of this kind either exists or can exist
with regard to the customs of the natives of Australia; between these two
cases then there is no apparent analogy.

6. I would submit therefore that it is necessary from the moment the
aborigines of this country are d