geous cruelty and violence,
and yet be UNABLE, FROM THE FORMS AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW, to obtain
redress, and whose quarrels, ending sometimes in bloodshed and death,
it is unjust, as well as inexpedient, to interfere with.

"A jury ought to be composed of a man's own peers. Europeans, in the case
of a native criminal, cannot either in their habits or sympathies be
regarded as such, and his countrymen are incapable of understanding or
taking upon themselves the office of juror."]

I have no wish to give the native evidence a higher character than it
deserves, but I think that it ought not to be rendered unavailable in a
prosecution; the degree of weight or credibility to be attached to it,
might be left to the court taking cognizance of the case, but if it is
consistent and probable, I see no reason why it should not be as strong a
safeguard to the black man from injury and oppression, as the white man's
oath is to him. There are many occasions on which the testimony of
natives may be implicitly believed, and which are readily distinguishable
by those who have had much intercourse with this people--unaccustomed to
the intricacies of untruth, they know not that they must be consistent to
deceive, and it is therefore rarely difficult to tell when a native is
prevaricating.

Among the natives themselves, the evil effects resulting from the
inability of their evidence to produce a conviction are still more
apparent and injurious. [Note 116 at end of para.] It has already been
shewn how highly important it is to prevent the elders from exercising
an arbitrary and cruel authority over the young and the weak, and how
necessary that the latter should feel themselves quite secure from
the vengeance of the former, when endeavouring to throw off the
trammels of custom and prejudice, and by embracing our habits and
pursuits, making an effort to rise in the scale of moral and physical
improvement. Whatever alteration therefore we may make in our system
for the better, or however anxious we may be for the welfare and the
improvement of the Aborigines, we may rest well assured that our
efforts are but thrown away, as long as the natives are permitted
with impunity to exercise their cruel or degrading customs upon
each other, unchecked and unpunished. We may feel equally certain that
these oppressions and barbarities can never be checked or punished but by
means of their own unsupported testimony against each other, and until
th