OCR Rendition - approximateRelations between Civilized and Savage Life. 351
educated Englishman who has seen much of educated Kaffirs is likely to doubt that the race possesses at least as much aptitude 'for receiving and analysing such truths and as good a chance of moral and intellectual growth under such teaching, as the captives at Rome who are said to have moved the compassion of St. Augustine.
What then-to sum up-are the laws or invariable facts affecting the relations between civilized and savage life, as bearing on the dealings of Colonists with Aborigines, as we may gather them from our experience in South Africa ?
1. That it is possible for the civilized to overcome and destroy by war the uncivilized and savage race-to expel or drive them back-or to turn them aside in their migrations, admits, I think, of no doubt. In such contests the civilized power, if vital and growing, must in the long run prevail.
2. That simple proximity of the civilized to the uncivilized race has led, or is leading, to the extinction of the savage race, seems probable in the case of the Bushmen-is very doubtful in the case of the other Hottentot or tawny-skinned races, and clearly has not occurred and is not likely to occur in the case of the Bantu family-the Bechuana, the Zulu, and the Kaffir races.
3. That the changes which have occurred in the native races, consequent on the proximity of European colonists, are an advance in civilization and approximation to the types of European civilization-marked in the case of the Hottentot, but yet more marked and rapid in the case of the Bantu races, and that there seems to be no practical limit to the changes which may thus take place.
4. That the essentials necessary to such development are
(a.) Such a peace as the Romans and the English elsewhere have ensured to subject races, as a consequence of civilized sovereignty-a peace bringing with it
(b.) Protection for life and property, and practical equality before the law, leading to a substitution of individual property for tribal commonage, and involving logically the abolition of slavery and of all sale of man or womankind ; also of private rights of making war, and consequently of carrying arms, except under authority of the supreme ruler.
(c.) Power of local legislation for the purpose of securing the objects enumerated, such legislation to be directed on the principles recognised in civilized European countries with a view to secure education in the arts of civilized life, and in such knowledge as forms the strength, and furnishes the rewards of civilization.
(d) Legislation should also be directed to place such restrictions on the manufacture and sale of intoxicating substances as are
|