I have, etc.,

(Signed) G. GREY,

Captain 83rd Regiment,

Commanding Australian Expedition.

Right Honourable Lord John Russell, etc. etc. etc.

REPORT UPON THE BEST MEANS OF PROMOTING THE CIVILIZATION OF THE
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA.

1.  The aborigines of Australia having hitherto resisted all efforts which have been made for their civilization, it would appear that, if they are capable of being civilized, it can be shown that all the systems on which these efforts have been founded contain some common error, or that each of them involved some erroneous principle; the former supposition appears to be the true one, for they all contained one common element, they all started with one recognized principle, the presence of which in the scheme must necessarily have entailed its failure.

2.  This principle was that, although the natives should, as far as European property and European subjects were concerned, be made amenable to British laws, yet so long as they only exercised their own customs upon themselves, and not too immediately in the presence of Europeans, they should be allowed to do so with impunity.

3.  This principle originated in philanthropic motives and a total ignorance of the peculiar traditional laws of this people, which laws, differing from those of any other known race, have necessarily imparted to the people subject to them a character different from all other races; and hence arises the anomalous state in which they have been found.

4.  They are as apt and intelligent as any other race of men I am acquainted with; they are subject to the same afflictions, appetites, and passions as other men, yet in many points of character they are totally dissimilar to them; and, from the peculiar code of laws of this people, it would appear not only impossible that any nation subject to them could ever emerge from a savage state, but even that no race, however highly endowed, however civilized, could in other respects remain long in a state of civilization if they were submitted to the operation of such barbarous customs.

5.  The plea generally set up in defence of this principle is that the natives of this country are a conquered people, and that it is an act of generosity to allow them the full power of exercising their own laws upon themselves; but this plea would appear to be inadmissible; for, in the first place, savage and traditional customs should not be confounded with a regular code of laws; and secondly, when Great Britain insures to a conquered country the privilege of preserving its own laws, all persons resident in this territory become amenable to the same laws, and proper persons are selected by the Government to watch over their due and equitable administration; nothing of this kind either exists or can exist with regard to the customs of the natives of Australia; between these two cases then there is no apparent analogy.