Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/183

 another and more important one; for the decision of this point has an important bearing upon the practical question of, how the natives are to be dealt with, as it materially affects their relations towards us. If the white man had a right to occupy the country, the native, by opposing no vain resistance to his doing so, acquires no fresh rights; and the indulgence which he is entitled to, at the hands of the civilized man, is that of an ignorant, and therefore weak being, from one superior to him in knowledge and power, and not as an equivalent for any property that he has given up, or any rights that he has surrendered.

But although I do not admit that the native can claim compensation as a right, I fully concur in the view that the providing for his welfare, as far as possible, is a charge which the English government was bound to undertake, as it has done, and that it is also bound to afford him all the indulgence which is consistent with the, welfare of its other subjects. It is no doubt its duty to endeavour, by systematic efforts, to make him, as far as he is capable, a partaker in the blessings of civilization, more particularly by attempts to educate the young, and to mitigate the evils necessarily attendant on the period of transition, by putting out of his power, as much as possible, the indulgence in vice and intemperance. From this duty they have shown no disposition to shrink, and I have only to lament that, hitherto, success has not attended their benevolent efforts. To this subject I shall return. It is moreover the duty of the legislature—regarding the spirit, rather than the letter, of the English law, and bearing in mind