Page:Canterbury Papers.djvu/14

 so much flesh and blood requiring to be renewed by food, and covered with clothing; the food the heart has received but secondary care. Hence have proceeded the materialism, the rudeness, above all, the neglect of religion, which have been too general in the new countries which we have peopled, but which we have been in the habit of regarding with indifference, if not with contempt. It were well if we oftener recollected that these untoward results are due to our own defective process of colonization, and that our business and duty is not to complain of reaping as we have sown, but to effect, if possible, such a reform in that process as may correct, in a measure, the evils of the past, and, at all events, provide against their recurrence.

We are anxious not to state too strongly the grounds for the present attempt, as arising from the actual state of our dependencies. We are aware that with regard to several, if not all of them, higher and worthier views have been entertained and acted on at home, and also that the state of society existing in them, in the important respects which we have referred to, is very much better than it formerly was, and is, we may hope, in a condition of progressive and constant improvement. But we do feel that those efforts after improvement labour under this disadvantage—that they are, in great measure, efforts to overtake an evil which has been for some time in occupation of the ground, and are necessarily deficient in method and in comprehensiveness. Our present object is, therefore, to set an example of a colonial settlement, in which, from the first, all the elements, including the very highest, of a good and right state of society, shall find their proper place, and their active operation.

Such are the first principles of the design; the promoters of it have become convinced that men of station and character, of cultivation and refinement, moral and religious men, such as contribute by their influence to elevate and purify the tone of society, are in great measure deterred from emigrating, by a fear of those moral plagues which have been described as rife in new countries. Especially fathers of families, who see no prospect of providing for their children in their own station of life at home, must be quite aware of the opportunities which a colonial life affords of comfortable independence and advantageous settlement, but they consider, and justly, such benefits as too dearly purchased by the possible loss of the appliances of civilization and the ordinances of religion. They do not choose to expose their children to the danger of growing up without the means of education, and thus of relapsing into virtual atheism, or of joining, from a kind of necessity, the communion of the nearest sect which bears the Christian name. It is perceived, then, that adequate provision for man's moral and religious wants in the new country, contains the primary element of successful colonization, not only on account of the importance of such provision per se, but also because thereby alone can a really valuable class of men be induced to join in the foundation and settlement of colonies.

Upon this idea our plan is founded. We intend to form a Settlement, to be composed entirely of members of our own church, accompanied by an adequate supply of clergy, with all the appliances requisite for carrying out her discipline and ordinances, and with full provision for extending them in proportion to the increase of population.

As by preserving unity of religious creed, the difficulties which surround the question of education are avoided, we shall be enabled to provide amply and satisfactorily for that object.

The Committee of Management will have the power of refusing to allow any person of whom they may disapprove to become an original purchaser of land, and as that power will be carefully exercised, it is hoped that ineligible colonists may be almost entirely excluded, and that the new community will have at least a fair start in a healthy moral atmosphere.

The purchasers of land will have the selection of labourers to be recommended for a free passage; such labourers to be also exclusively bonâ fide members of the English Church.

As a site for our projected Colony, we have fixed upon New Zealand, which offers greater advantages of soil and climate, combined with a greater amount of available and unoccupied land, than any other British possession; arrangements