Australia, its history and present condition: containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies,; with their respective inhabitantsPridden, W. (William)
History
Australia, its history and present condition: containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies,; with their respective inhabitants
Pridden, W. (William)
Australia -- Description and travel
christian instruction, and so let them grow up to be worse than
heathens, until they could be endured no longer in the land? What
nation had within a single century more than doubled its population
without having built or endowed a score of new churches? To whose
neglect is it, partly, though not entirely, owing, that when heathens
meet, in far distant countries, with our lower classes, or when their
homes are visited in our great towns and cities, the very heathens are
sometimes forced to yield the palm to them in wickedness and in sin?
Such questions very nearly concern every Englishman, and they are, even
now, only beginning to command the attention they deserve. High and low,
rich and poor, clergy and laity, we are all alike implicated in those
evils, which have arisen from national neglect and forgetfulness of God,
and which are not unlikely to lead to national confusion and ruin. But
we are still, thank God, blessed with a pure and apostolical Church in
our native country, and this is a mighty instrument for good, if we will
but support it, and render it as efficient as it ought to be. The
children of our little sea-girt isle may almost be called the salt of
the earth, so extensively is our naval and our moral power spread. If
we can bring those children up in the right way, as dutiful children of
God and faithful members of the Church of England, then, indeed, the
blessings resulting from our efforts may make themselves felt in the
very ends of the earth--in the solitary wilds of New Holland. But
otherwise, if we continue to neglect our own people, and disgrace our
profession of Christianity by encouraging tacitly the growth of
heathenism around us, then we may judge by the moral and social evils
which have already resulted from this course what the final consequences
are likely to be. "If the salt have lost its savour wherewith shall it
be salted: it is therefore good for nothing, but to be cast out and
trodden under foot of men." (Matt. v. 13.)
[72] The half-caste children are generally put to death by the black
husband, under the idea, it is said, that if permitted to grow up,
they would be wiser than the people among whom they would live. These
helpless innocents are destroyed, as though they were no better than a
cat or dog: one farm servant of Mr. Mudie was in a great rage at the
birth of a small infant of this description, and without any ceremony,
only exclaiming, "Narang fellow," which means, "Small fellow," he took
it up at once, and dashed it against the wall, as you would any animal.
See Evidence before Transport. Com. 1837, p. 43.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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