AGAINST EACH OTHER. 
501 
may be inclined to adapt themselves tq the European habits and 
mode of life, will be deterred from so doing by their fear of the 
consequences, that the displeasure of others may draw down 
upon them. 
“ So much importance am I disposed to attach to this point, 
that I do not hesitate to assert my full conviction, that whilst 
those tribes which are in communication with Europeans are 
allowed to execute their barbarous laws and customs upon one 
another, so long will they remain hopelessly immersed in their 
present state of barbarism : and however unjust such a proceed- 
ing might at first sight appear, I believe that the course pointed 
out by true humanity would be, to make them from the very 
commencement amenable to the British laws, both as regards 
themselves and Europeans ; for I hold it to be imagining a con- 
tradiction to suppose, that individuals subject to savage and bar- 
barous laws, can rise into a state of civilization, which those 
laws have a manifest tendency to destroy and overturn. 
a I have known many instances of natives who have been 
almost or quite civilized, being compelled by other natives to 
return to the bush ; more particularly girls, who have been 
betrothed in their infancy, and who, on approaching the years of 
puberty, have been compelled by their husbands to join them. 
“ To punish the Aborigines severely for the violation of laws 
of which they are ignorant, would be manifestly cruel and un- 
just; but to punish them in the first instance slightly for the 
violation of these laws would inflict no great injury on them, 
whilst by always punishing them when guilty of a crime, without 
reference to the length of period that had elapsed between its 
perpetration and their apprehension, at the same time fully ex- 
plaining to them the measure of punishment that would await 
them in the event of a second commission of the same fault, 
would teach them gradually the laws to which they were 
henceforth to be amenable, and would shew them that crime was 
always eventually, although it might be remotely, followed by 
punishment. 
“ l imagine that this course would be more merciful than that 
