ON THE ABORIGINES. 
503 
testimony or misrepresentation by which a person at 
a distance is ever apt to be assailed and misled, has 
still been able to separate the truth from falsehood, 
and to arrive at a rational, a Christian, and a just 
opinion, on a subject so fraught with difficulties, 
so involved in uncertainty, and so beset with 
discrepancies. 
In writing to Sir G. Gipps, Lord Stanley says 
(Parliamentary Reports, pp. 221, 2, 3) : — 
“ Downing- Street, 20 th December , 1842. 
“ Sir, 
“I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
despatches of the dates and numbers mentioned in the margin, 
reporting the information which has reached you in respect to 
the aboriginal tribes of New South Wales, and the result of the 
attempts which have been made, under the sanction of Her 
Majesty’s Government, to civilize and protect these people. 
“ I have read with great attention, but with deep regret, the 
accounts contained in these despatches. After making every 
fair allowance for the peculiar difficulty of such an undertaking, 
it seems impossible any longer to deny that the efforts which 
have hitherto been made for the civilization of the Aborigines 
have been unavailing; that no real progress has yet been effected, 
and that there is no reasonable ground to expect from them 
greater suceess in future. You will be sensible with how much 
pain and reluctance I have come to this opinion, but I cannot 
shut my eyes to the conclusion which inevitably follows from the 
statements which you have submitted to me on the subject. 
“Your despatch of the 11th March last, No. 50, contains an 
account of the several missions up to that date, with reports 
likewise from the chief Protector and his assistants, and from the 
Crown Land Commissioners. The statements respecting the 
missions, furnished not by their opponents, nor even by indif- 
