572 PROSPECTS — ANCIENT BllITONS. DeC. 



New Zealand much requires assistance from the strong but 

 humane arm of a powerful European government. Sensible 

 treaties should be entered into by the head of an over-awing 

 European force, and maintained by the show, not physical 

 action, of that force until the natives see the wonderful effects 

 of a changed system. Finding that their pi-otectors sought to 

 ameliorate their condition, and abolish all those practices 

 which hunger, revenge, and ignorance probably caused, and 

 alone keep up ; that they neither made them slaves, nor took 

 away land without fair purchase; and that they did no injury 

 to their country, or to them, except in self-defence — even 

 then reluctantly — would give the natives satisfaction and con- 

 fidence, and might, in a few years, make New Zealand a pow- 

 erful, and very productive country. I say powerful, because 

 its inhabitants are very numerous, and have in themselves 

 abundant energy, with moral, as well as physical materials; 

 productive also, because the cUmate is favourable ; the soil very 

 rich; timber plentiful, and very superior; minerals are probably 

 plentiful; flax is a staple article; corn and vines are doing 

 well ; and sheep produce good wool. 



While our thoughts are directed to the natives of New 

 Zealand, let us refer to what Sir James Mackintosh says of the 

 former savages of our own island. 



" B.C. 54. — At the time of Caesars landing, the island of 

 Great Britain was inhabited by a multitude of tribes, of whom 

 the Romans have preserved the names of more than forty. 

 The nvimber of such tribes living in a lawless independence, is 

 alone a sufficient proof of their barbarism. Into the maritime 

 provinces southward of the Thames, colonies probably recent 

 from Belgic Gaul began to introduce tillage ; they retained 

 the names of their parent tribes on the continent ; they far sur- 

 passed the I'est in the arts and manners of civilized life. The 

 inhabitants of the interior appear to have been more rude and 

 more fierce than any neighbouring people. The greater part 

 of them raised no corn; they subsisted on milk and flesh, and 

 were clothed in the skins of the beasts whom they destroyed for 

 food. They painted and punctured their bodies, that their 



