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It is to be lamented that such sentiments have most likely had their influence on men of corrupt minds, who gladly avail themselves of any specious argument to enable them to gratify their love of cruelty, which has ended in blood, and the consequent forfeiture of life to Justice, in the recent execution of the wanton murders of the Aborigines. Nor. have some it is to be feared, who are termed well educated minds, escaped the contagion of the mental poison, which insidiously perverts the judgement, and has led to the adoption of means and arguments alike discreditable to Christian honor; thus involving themselves until they become "Partakers of other men's sins." But the public promulgation of such false principles, which tend to encourage our fellow creatures to acts of violence, renders the Agent, however much disguised, or though hand joins in hand, responsible to a higher tribunal than that of man's judgement, even at the Judgement seat of Christ, where no disguise can conceal, no sheltering patronage can screen, no multitude of persons can minimise, no beggarly elements of this world will justify the individual to that sacred Court of Holy Equity, in which every one of us shall give account of himself to God: "For by thy work thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
On the Economy of Missionary enterprises it is necessary to remark, that only is it true economy, which allows a sufficiency of means to accomplish the desired end. Every deviation from this principle is injurious to the cause of Missions and disheartening to the agents employed in Missionary Establishments, whatever may be their designation, or wherever they may be placed in the whole world.
Apart from Christian influence, much benefit may be observed to have arisen to the remnant of the Aborigines in their intercourse with Europeans. All who visit the towns, obtain without the least difficulty their means of subsistence; many there are who perform little acts of labor for the Colonists, for which the receive small gratuities: Others there are who become good seamen, horsemen, as stockmen, and shepherds. I am just now informed by one of the Agricultural Company's Gentlemen, that they have in their employ several Blacks, as shepherds, stockmen, and servants in different capacities, many of them equal in their respective engagements to Europeans. It is a pity that an equal share of pains has not been taken to induce the Aborigines to accept employment by those whose local situations presented the opportunity, as they have been at pains to destroy them. But the facility with which convict labor could hitherto be obtained caused recklessness of human life towards those who were not cared for as servants, and consequently being unemployed, were found to be, too often a cumbrance at the station, and a scare-crow in the in the cattle! At the present moment the Blacks on the Gwyder will grind wheat for the sake of the bran, which they eat dry as a remuneration for their work.
The transportation system has operated powerfully against the amelioration and civilisation of the Blacks, arising in part from the Convicts monopolizing the female Aborigines; nor has the moral influence of that system which because A robs B, C shall have A's work without wages, tended to inculcate in the minds of the Colonists the equitable divine principle, that "The Workman is worthy of his hire." Many who have attempted to employ the Blacks have expected the severest labor to be performed for a mere trifle, else their services would exceed in expense convict labor; and because the Aborigines loved notnour hard labor for labor's sake, they have been reputed lazy and disinclined to work! Thus whilst the mind has become accustomed to exercise sternness, without which it is impossible to obtain convict labor, under the convict system, the finer feelings of humanity are lost in that of self interest, and the once kind, gererous, English Character, sinks into that of the merciless slaveholder whose principles are boldly espoused, and expects that All, Blacks or Whites, will submit without a murmur to its domineering power.
The several Aborigines now usefully employed in various occupations, although so scattered throughout the Colony, as hardly to be observed, are found equally trustworthy as Europeans, and shew that their intellectual capacities are equal to our own, when in an uncultivated state. Classical Rome, in her zenith of civilization and plentitude of military glory, when she reigned Mistress of the World, looked down with similar contempt on the poor disarmed, dispirited, miserable, Brutes, the White Aborigines of Albion's shore, whilst she claimed the British Isles for her possession, and destroyed the Aborigines as savage barbarians, who in cruel rites who burned alive their victims to Demons, and were so void of intellectual powers as to be unfit for slaves! "The Eloquent Cicero in one of his epistles to his friend Atticus, recommended him not to obtain his Slaves from Britain, because they are so stupid and utterly incapable of being taught, that they are unfit to form a part of the household of Atticus!"
Such was the character of our forefathers, the White Aborigines, given by her darker colored conquerors, and invaders of her soil; recorded, lest we should forget our state, and thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, cease to remember when God beheld our nation cast out, polluted in our Blood!
But how hath the little one become a thousand, and a small one a strong Nation! England! Where are thy frail wicker Coracles of Skin! -- All forgotten in the splendid new Vessel thundering forth her mighty powerful steam! The rude rough ponderous wooden car, slowly creeping on its solid wheels, o'er ruts and ragged ways; all now transformed and swifter than the wind, the locomotive