14G 



every right to aspire, one hour before those condi- 

 tions under which other nations have emerged from 

 darkness are found : or, in other words, before her 

 people are EDUCATED, ENLIGHTENED, and FREE. 

 Any number of novel experiments, will certainly 

 not hasten by one moment the approach of the 

 wished-for time } but, on the contrary, if calculated 

 to irritate the people, will be far more likely to 

 postpone it, and possibly to create such a feeling of 

 suspicion, distrust, and hostility to the ruling power, 

 as to render it a matter of extreme difficulty to ini- 

 tiate any reforms at all. 



But were it otherwise were it probable that the 

 anticipated advantages would follow the redemption 

 of the land revenue, as it is certain that they will 

 not, there is one insuperable obstacle to the measure, 

 at present, which cannot be got over. Had this 

 been foreseen, it would have prevented this extremely 

 awkward question from ever having been raised, and 

 Her Majesty's Government would thus have been 

 saved the embarrassment they must have felt, when 

 committed to a line of policy official documents on 

 the subject would seem to indicate they partially 

 adopted with the utmost reluctance. To this 

 obstacle I have before alluded. It is simply this. 

 The Government can only sell the lands at a 

 certain price, and that price the landholders will 

 not pay. 



Many, arguing on the attachment of the natives 

 to ancestral rights in the soil, their desire to free 



