the government was bound to
ascertain his wants, and protect his interest in the country. England,
however, forgot the aborigina: she secured him no refuge--provided no
interpreter to his feelings; his language was unknown, and his testimony
inadmissable.

The legal recognition of rights in the soil, pertaining to the native
inhabitants of colonised regions, is attended with some difficulty, and
nowhere greater than among hunting tribes: their actual possession is
only definable, by admitting the wide boundaries of the chase. The
Parliamentary Committee, in a review of the whole question, did not
recommend treaties with savages: the terms would be liable to disputes,
and a difference of interpretation would occasion distrust and
animosity. A middle course might, however, be open. The natives have an
equitable lien on the land, for which rulers who transfer its occupation
are bound to provide effectively and for ever. Instead of making the
death of the native the release of private incumbrance; instead of
making it the constant interest, and daily effort of the settler, to
drive him away, it ought to have been the object of the crown to
identify the life of the native with the welfare of the intruder. In
granting possession of lands, the terms might have given the settler a
claim for remission of price--or a pecuniary reward, payable out of the
proceeds of land--for every native child he might rear, and every family
he might induce to choose him as their protector. Thus the shepherd
princes would have felt that their interests harmonised with the
existence of a race, now regarded with dislike and jealousy. The native
police at Port Phillip, suggested originally by Captain Maconochie, is
an adoption of this principle: they are useful, and therefore pains have
been taken to attach them. It is in vain to make laws, and to issue
proclamations to shield the aborigines, unless they are identified with
some local interest; and for this, no sacrifice of the land revenue
could be considered too great.

A youth, called Van Diemen, was nine years old when found in the wood,
and adopted by Col. Davey; he was subsequently taken to England by Mr.
Kermode. He had been taught to read, and could repeat several chapters
of the Bible. He was remarkably keen and intelligent. [On his return to
this colony, he was cut off by consumption: at the _post mortem_ it was
found that his lungs were nearly gone.] Mr. Kermode endeavoured to
prevail