(48) Lieutenant Synge has observed: “The necessity of protecting works further in the interior against hostile tribes of Indians is a formidable impediment to their successful prosecution at present.” How easily would this impediment be removed by paying these Indians with guns, blankets, &c., and employing them to guard the convicts and the works.
(49) “The hostility of the Indians overcome, (or what for the present would more effectually restrain England’s advance, the possibility of their sufferings being increased by the progress of civilization,) the passage of the Rocky Mountains may rather prove a stimulant, as it will be the last remaining obstacle, and, attention being called to the subject, may urge to exertion the talents of such men as have elsewhere conquered every natural difficulty, however formidable.”—Lieutenant Synge, “Canada in 1848.”
(50) “More especially the very great opportunities afforded by the cessation of convict labour in our Australian colonies should not be overlooked. The great present pressure in these colonies, in consequence of the want of such labour, should be removed in connection with the relief and profitable employment of portions of our surplus home population.”—Same Author.
(51) “To derive from these measures the chiefest benefits they may confer, the work must be executed under the superintendence of the Imperial Government.”—Same Author.
(52) “Great as is our civilization and intelligence, compared with the empires of former days, we have no right to think that the goal of prosperity and glory is attained. England has by no means reached the zenith of earthly power; science is as yet but in its infancy; the human mind has scarcely arrived at adolescence; and, for aught we imperfect beings know, this little island may be destined by Divine Providence to continue as a light unto the heathen—as a nucleus for the final civilization of man.”—Preface to “Taxation of the British Empire,” published in 1833.