220 Biographical Sketch of Dr Frichard. 



Dr Prichai'd's interest in the varieties of the human race 

 was not limited to making their physcial characters, their lan- 

 guages, their manners, and often obscure history, the objects of 

 scientific or learned research. He felt the interest of a philan- 

 thropist and a Christian, in the protection and amelioration of 

 the weak and oppressed branches of the human family. He 

 hailed the formation of the Aborigines' Protection Society, and 

 was one of its early advocates. Though his residence at 

 Bristol did not allow him to take an active part in the Society, 

 his name was on the first list of its honorary members ; and 

 I may be allowed to quote the following passage from his 

 pen, which was printed in one of the earliest of the Society's 

 publications : — 



" I much regret that circumstances over which I have no 

 control will prevent me from attending the Anniversary 

 Meeting of the Society for the Protection of the Aborigines. 

 I hardly need say to you that there is no undertaking of 

 this compai'atively enlightend, and, as I trust it may be 

 called. Christian age, which appears to me calculated to ex- 

 cite a deeper and more lively interest than this truly admi- 

 rable attempt to preserve from utter ruin and extermination 

 many whole tribes and families of men, who, without such 

 interference, are doomed to be swept away from the face of 

 the earth. Certainly there is no undertaking of the present 

 time tliat has a stronger claim on humanity, and even on the 

 justice of enlightened men. For what a stigma will be placed 

 on Christian and civilized nations when it shall appear, that, 

 by a selfish pursuit of their own advantage, they have destroy- 

 ed and rooted out so many families and nations of their fel- 

 low-creatures, and this, if not by actually murdering them, 

 — which indeed appears to be even now a practice very fre- 

 quently pursued, — by depriving them of the means of subsis- 

 tence, and by tempting them to poison and ruin themselves. 

 For such a work, when it shall have been accomplished, the 

 only excuse or extenuation will be, just what the first mur- 

 derer made for the slaughter of his brother ; and we might 

 almost be tempted to suppose that the narrative was designed 

 to be typical of the time when Christianized Europeans shall 

 have left on the eai'th no living relic of the numerous races 



