in time; and while the diffusion of the true principles of Christianity throughout the British Empire, is followed by clemency and mercy to the African, it is to be hoped the same benevolent spirit will extend itself to the noble-minded Aborigines of North America; and that instead of supplying arms, ammunition, blankets and rum, we may lead them to the arts and blessings of peace, and to the improvement of their admirable native talent.”[4] Mr. Buchanan displays in this passage more of the piety of the saint, than of the wisdom of the philosopher. In our opinion, _the Lord_ has but little to do with the oppression and gradual extirpation of the Indian tribes. These are the natural results of that peculiar system of policy pursued by the white people towards the Aborigines of America. As the tide of white population rolls on and extends itself inwards, the native tribes must disappear before it by retiring into the inaccessible forests and waste territories of the transatlantic world. Nor can they hope to successfully assert their rights until they become more highly civilized and more skillfully warlike than their oppressors. Then indeed, the Lord, aided by the puissant arms of thousands of Indian warriors, might inflict that retributive justice on Europeans, which Mr. Buchanan speaks of. The ample possession of the munitions of war, the diffusion of intelligence, and the union of all the Indian tribes, would more effectually curb the rapacity of white Christians than all the aid which the Lord affords. Nor is it to be expected, that religion, as it is found in the Old and New Testaments, will effect the melioration of their condition. The chosen people of the Lord made slaves of some of the nations they conquered; and those they did not enslave they destroyed with a cruelty as relentless as it was atrocious. What more natural than for those who believe in the same God and draw their religion from the same source, to act in the same manner? The examples of murder, pillage, bloodshed, profligacy, and abominations of all kinds to be found in the Old Testament, would rather tend to deteriorate the character of the Indians than improve it, were the contents of that book made known to them. Bad as the Indians are, they have some nobility of mind among them. They do not betray the person with whom they have smoked the _calumet_, or pipe of peace, or the man to whom they have plighted their friendship. But in the Old Testament we find this done, as in the case of Jael and Sisera, and the action attributed to divine prompting. What good end can be answered by teaching the North American Indians a religion which has ever been followed by destruction, pillage, rapacity and bloodshed, persecution for opinion, and a long catalogue of evils? and which, however good it may be in some of its precepts, is nevertheless utterly unable to restrain the avarice and cruelty of its followers.