The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-22 00:00:00

perusal to all who are interested in this important sub-
ject :
" The Committee, in making its second Annual Re-
port, desires to express, in the strongest possible man-
ner, the extreme urgency of the claims which, the tlao-
rigines of many countries have upon public sympathy.
Accounts of the sufferings unceasingly inflicted upon
them in some parts of the world, and of the generally
fatal results of the present system of intercourse with
them, both to whites and to blacks, are brought by
almost every ship that arrives. The latest intelligence
from the Cape of Good Hope, for example, informs us
of the destruction of more than four thousand Zoelus
in the last three battles in December and January at
Natal ; whilst preceding accounts stated that at least
three hundred and fifty of the whites, men, women, and
children, had been massacred in the same eountry, where
also many hundred Zoolus had lost their lives, in con-
sequence of such massacres.
" Again, from Sierra Leone, from New South Wales,
and from Upper Canada, accounts have been received,
showing that the good yet effected any where, is indes-
cribably overborne by the evil, with the exception of
such satisfactory cases as that of the Hottentots, whom
justice has raised to the condition of civilized men, and
that of the frontier Caffres, with whom wise measures
have established the most promising peaceful relations."
The Report then proceeded to take a survey of what
the Committee had done in the past year, and a view
of what remained to be done, showing the nature of the
exertions necessary towards the completion of the task
they had undertaken.
The Report them proceeded—

" Amongst the means best calculated to elevate as
well as protect the injured Aborigines, must unques-
tionably be reckoned the diffusion o education amongst
them. This has been so strongly felt by the most suc-
cessful missionaries that they have not failed to make
the establishment of schools a prominent object of their
labours. Nevertheless it is obvious that amongst many
tribes standing in the greatest need of assistance, educa-
tion has made small and slow progress, and the Com-
mittee is persuaded that more effectual mews than have
hitherto been employed are imperatively demanded to
secure the efficient spread of education. They would
suggest that special aid be obtained for the establish-
ment and support of native schools, and that not only
returns showing the number of schools and the number
of scholars of both sexes, should b. regularly called for,
together with an attested statement of the pupils' pro-
gress and acquirements, but that a still higher degree
of education should be imparted to the most talented
and promising scholars. This selection might easily be
made by means of periodical and strict examinations,
when the most accomplished pupils might be selected
by competition and placed under the auspices of their
respective missionary and other patrons in the most eli-
gible colonial seminaries. In these institutions such
pupils would not only have the means of acquiring more
extended views and information, but they would be in
a position to exhibit the comparative capabilities of their
particular race, and would enjoy opportunities of gain-
ing influential friends whose assistance would furnish
the most effectual co-operation in support of the in-
terests of their brethren."

" The Committee is conscious that the wide field of its
labours has been insufficiently surveyed ; and that many
means of remedying. existing evils in it have not been
sought with sufficient care. A rapid glance at many
remote countries not yet mentioned, will suggest the
amount of benefit that might be conferred on their na-
tive population by an active inquisition into their state.
The Indians of South America are struggling in every
stage of civilization and barbarism ; and in such ca: es
as Para, in Brazil, avenging upon unoffending whites
the violences inflicted on them by others less scrupu-
lous. In Madagascar intestine wars and violent efforts
to crush a rising spirit of intelligence and civilization,
combined with a dread of European colonization, the
evils of which have reached their cars, deeply afflict a
country teeming with tribes earnestly desiring a better
condition. In North-Eastern Africa, an increasing
slave trade would unquestionably, in some degree, give
way before wise and humane civilized establishments,
which Europeans might form at Mombass and else-
where. In Ceylon, the people are scarcely yet rescued,
by recent wholsome measures, from the oppression of
three centuries under the abused European domination.
In the Southern and Eastern Seas, our fleets of
whalers and merchantmen are very far from always be-
ing the harbingers of a reciprocal beneficial intercourse
with the natives."

" Other nations have also much to unlearn, and much
to acquire, before their career in rude countries will do
honour to the Christian profession. France, in Northern
and Western Africa, has yet to learn that ways of peace
are not only more profitable, but more safe, even with
barbarians ; and at Tahiti, France has to learn that the
rights of a people over their soil ought not to be invaded
with impunity. Portugal, although her distinguished
men are labouring to introduce an improved system into
her vast colonies, still permits corruption to ravage the
richest regions in Africa, and still fosters views which
render more and more wretched the decay of their
once powerful colonies in other parts of the world. In
the United States of North America, whilst millions
are spent in civilizing expedients, good in themselves,
nevertheless the desire to exclude the red Indian from
incorporation with the white people, shuts him out from
the benefit of equal rights and laws, that would still
save hundreds of thousands of those aborigines from
utter ruin, and avert the wars, of which enormous pe-
cuniary cost is the least evil. Spanish and Portuguese
America continues to offer sceoes of great hope and
great difficulty for the aboriginal population. Russia,
throughout her vast frontier, from the Black Sea to
Behring's Straits, and along her growing possessions
south of California, is pursuing a course of mixed good
and evil. Tens of thousands of her convicts deform
those regions with the vices of civilized society, when
a wholesome system of colonization might convey
thither, with great success, all its virtues. The spirit
of conquest is also still suppressing in the councils of
Russia, that better feeling which has enabled her, in
times past, to spread great benefits among hundreds of
barbarous tribes, in spite of the corrupt principles which
thwarted those benefits. In Egypt, also, with the pro-
mise of many improvements, the sword is too ready an
instrument of authority ; and the interior of Africa in
that direction, seems only destined to exchange one
form of ignorant and cruel despotism, for one of perhaps
a somewhat less fearful aspect.
" In fact, in all quarters, every degree of barbarism
in the weaker races, is aggravated through every
variety of oppression in the dominant powers, whilst the
universally happy result as to those weaker and barba-
rons races, when a better course is pursued towards
them, furnishes an unanswerable argument in favour of
devising a large system of good government and inter-
course between the civilised and uncivilized, on all the
points which materially concern both parties, and on
such a scale as shall ensure to the new proceedings a
success commensurate with the vast mass of the field of
operations. A searching inquiry into all the good
and all the evil that has occurred, and is now occurring
in this whole matter, would, we doubt not, produce
complete materials for the better system which remains
yet to be contrived for the relief of so many sufferers;
and we know of no subject that could more worthily
be brought by this Society under the consideration of
her Majesty the Queen, the Parliament, and the pub-
lic, than how best to perfect such an inquiry."
" This Society cannot help embracing the opportunity
this Report affords them, of expressing their deep con-
viction of the intimate relation subsisting between their
objects and that of the Societies expressly formed for the
abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade. As the
Aboriginal Tribes, from whence the slave market
derives its supplies are protected and improved, the
traffic itself must obviously terminate, their barbarous
and unprotected state being the occasion of their ex-
posure to the wrongs inflicted on them ; and so also, as
the traffic is impeded and annihilated, not only will the
greatest scourge that afflicts humanity be destroyed,
but a wide field for all the benevolent exertions that can
elevate our species will be opened.'
The CHAIRMAN said he had great pleasure on calling
upon 1.6 .I..quent friend, Mr. G. Thompson to address
the meeting.—(Cheers.)
Mr. GEORGE THOMPSON then came forward amid
great cheering—He said, that were he the last speaker
at the meeting, instead of the first, he should know
much better what to do than he did at this moment.
.He saw on the platform so many whom it was desirable
eiat they should all hear that he felt reluctant to oc-
tearpy a moment in recommending the resolution with
vhich lie was entrusted, because there was not an indi-
s 'idual whom he would displace, a single speech that
mas ready to be delivered, or a word which he would
pu t aside by anything that he had it in his power
to offer. He would rather undertake for himself,
to advocate the claims of the Society elsewhere
,ut of the metropolis, where there were per-
haps, fewer advocates of its great objects, but
whe re there were ample opportunities of making
kno' wn its principles and its plans, and recommending
then ito universal support. If the Society was appre-
ciate d at the present moment as it would be in a few
years, the largest room in that building, or in the king-
dom, would be far too small to contain those who were
desiroess of vindicating the honour of the country, and
preserving Christianity from its greatest stain.—( Great
cheering.) If the objects of that Society., were better
known, there would not be a Noble Lord, or an Hon.
Member of the House of Commons—there would not
be a man or a woman of those who were then applaud-
ing in the upper room of that spacious building, but
would, not at that particular time, but in a proper sea-
son, join them heart and hand. If they rightly under-
I stood the object of the Society, they would one and ail
be most willing to aid them with every energy in their
rower. They were keeping their annual meeting for
prevention of the consumption of ardent spirits.
Such' .individuals must be the friends of that Society—
they re ust be the friends of those who advocate the
civilization, the comfort and happiness of the Aborigines,
which wel.e now being swept from the face of the earth.
He rose for the purpose of moving, in the first place,
the adoption of the most able and comprehensive Re- I '
port which had been laid before them by the worthy
Secretary ; and, in the second place, to move a resolu-
tion.
As to the Report, be need not say one word in