Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/187

 capture of one of them, except by surprise, or when completely surrounded, being almost impossible, even if men were willing to run the risk of being speared or tomahawked in making the attempt. In the second place, as I shall show presently, there is not the slightest chance of the law being vindicated, by the subsequent apprehension and punishment of the offenders; the consequence is that, emboldened by impunity, they probably return soon after, and commit some further outrages upon the settler.

The government profess to extend to the natives that protection which an Englishman receives from the laws, but in fact afford him a complete license to rob and murder. The Englishman, in return for the security which he affords to society by a fixed residence, the possession of property, and the ties of kindred, is treated with a tenderness with respect to his person, even in his case scarcely reconcilable with good order. And the native, without any of these guarantees, without recognizing, or indeed knowing anything about our laws, without a fixed dwelling, without property of any kind, leading a vagrant life amongst a people of his own, amongst whom the similarity of natural physiognomy makes it difficult to recognise him; inaccessible to the visits of the police, even if there were an efficient force of the kind in the country, though he may be surprised (as the French jurists say) en plein delit, is treated with a similar indulgence, amounting in his case to a complete immunity from punishment. The English law is a connected system, which to be effectual must be enforced throughout; it is not sufficient to carry into effect