Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/201

 case they would not surrender themselves; but that in no case, where a man collects his neighbours and servants for the purpose of recovering his sheep, after a certain time has elapsed, and the natives have taken them clean off, should he be allowed to fire on them, unless in the presence and by the direction of a magistrate, (who should be bound to report the circumstances to the government, and be held responsible,) or in strict self-defence. The distinction taken between (what is called in law) fresh suit, and a case where a man collects neighbours, &c. is founded on this, that in one case it is an unpremeditated business, undertaken bona fide for the protection and recovery of property; while, if a similar license were given in the other, it might be made a cloak for collecting parties to go out and avenge aggressions by committing massacres.

The third course which may be pursued would be to combine, to a certain extent, both the former, and to declare that those who submit themselves to the English laws, fix themselves in villages, and exercise the arts of civilized life, should be entitled to the full benefit of that law, which should be modified towards all others. A registry might be kept of the former class, and they might wear a badge, of which probably they would be proud.

Being aware of the suspicion with which volunteer legislators are generally regarded, it is with reluctance that I have made the foregoing suggestions. Having, however, dwelt so long on the mischiefs of the present system, it appears to me that not to do so would be an unmanly shrinking from duty; and I will add, that did