Before the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill, the opponents of that measure were accustomed to represent the inhabitants of Ireland, as factious, discontented, and rebellious. Admitting, for the sake of argument, the truth of these allegations, we ask why did the inhabitants of Ireland evince these national characteristics? Simply because they had been galled and oppressed for a long course of time, by the enactments of an illiberal government. And if we admit that the Indians of America are still in a state of barbarism, and that they exhibit most, if not all, the vices incident to the savage state, may we not enquire the reason why they continue in this condition? The answer we think is obvious. The whites have seldom attempted to raise them from their state of original wildness; for almost all the measures they have adopted, in relation to the Indians, have been better adapted to oppress than to reclaim, to destroy than to regenerate. In attempting to lay before the reader a rough delineation of Indian character, it is necessary that we should attend to all the elements which enter into its composition. We shall therefore treat in the first place— _Of the bodily constitution of the North American Indians, and of the measure of their intellectual faculties._ Robertson, in his graphic representations of Indian character, affirms or rather insinuates, that the constitution of the American Indian labours under some physical defect. But that this defect is an accident arising from the influence of peculiar institutions, and the mode of training prevalent among the Indian tribes, is evidenced by the facts which that historian himself relates. The American Indian may be indolent during a season of peace. Extreme lassitude and an apparent want of physical energy may form the more prominent traits in his character. But when war demands his exertions in the field, or when pressed by the necessities of nature to go in quest of food, he displays a courage, an address, and an amount of bodily energy which prove him to be possessed of physical strength equal to that which the natives of more polished and civilized climes exhibit. It is during a season of hunting or of war that the most strenuous exertions of courage, force, and activity are called forth. The savage of America, at such a time, appears to shake off the native indolence of his disposition. He becomes patient, active, courageous and indefatigable. All the powers of his mind and of his body are roused into exertion; and he performs feats of agility and of strength, and exhibits a degree of perseverance, which prove him to be in these respects equal to the natives of Europe.