Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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As Between The
Aborigines Themselves, The Court Has Never Interfered, For Obvious
Reasons.
Doubtless, in applying the law of a civilized nation to the
condition of a wild savage, innumerable difficulties must occur.
The
distance in the scale of humanity between the wandering, houseless man of
the woods, and the civilized European, is immeasurable! FOR PROTECTION,
AND FOR RESPONSIBILITY IN HIS RELATION TO THE WHITE MAN THE BLACK IS
REGARDED AS A BRITISH SUBJECT. In theory, this sounds just and
reasonable; but in practice, how incongruous becomes its application! As
a British subject, he is presumed to know the laws, for the infraction of
which he is held accountable, and yet he is shut out from the advantage
of its protection when brought to the test of responsibility. As a
British subject, he is entitled to be tried by his PEERS. Who are the
peers of the black man? Are those, of whose laws, customs, language, and
religion, he is wholly ignorant - nay, whose very complexion is at
variance with his own - HIS peers? He is tried in his native land by a
race new to him, and by laws of which he knows nothing. Had you, unhappy
man! had the good fortune to be born a Frenchman, or had been a native of
any other country but your own, the law of England would have allowed you
to demand a trial by half foreigners and half Englishmen. But, by your
lot being the lowest, as is assumed, in the scale of humanity, you are
inevitably placed on a footing of fearful odds, when brought into the
sacred temple of British justice.
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