CHAP. IX.] FOR THE NATIVES ? 175 



the land in which he was born, and which is as it 

 were a part of himself; is it not a disgrace to our 

 civilization to allow him to be oppressed by stran- 

 gers, who have no interest in the country, no regard 

 or attachment towards it, beyond its money value ? 

 If we deem ourselves a nobler race, why not act as 

 the gardener does, who grafts upon the wild pear- 

 tree a twig from a nobler stem, and so gives it the 

 durability and higher qualities which he is anxious 

 to propagate ? The system of exterminating the ori- 

 ginal races is a gross and a fearful mistake in the 

 management of modern English colonies. Not 

 only have their traditions and remembrances died 

 with them, which would supply the place of their 

 history, and would relieve the insipid character of 

 these purely trading communities, but the principle 

 of stability and of patriotism has also been de- 

 stroyed. The natives have universally showed a 

 far nobler attachment not only to their country, 

 but also to its European discoverers, and to the first 

 colonists, than the imported race of shopkeepers, 

 who only strive to dissolve the ties which should 

 bind them to the land of their birth, and who pride 

 themselves on their own ignorance regarding every- 

 thing that belongs to the original inhabitants. The 

 natives, properly controlled, would be a far better 

 bulwark against the aggressions of other na- 

 tions than the colonists themselves. And it is re- 

 markable that those advantages are never taken 

 into account which would ensue to the mother 



