6 FEBRUARY 1841, Page 14

MURDER

Two natives have been executed in the vicinity of York, in Western Australia. The account of this transaction in the extract from the Perth Gazelle, which we have seen, does not explicitly state the act for which they were put to death ; but from some incidental expressions, we gather that one of the sufferers was alleged to have been implicated in a murder committed by a party of natives upon a man of the name of Menany, "some years hack," and that both had been engaged iu a "violent outrage," a " devas- tation," the nature of which is not stated.

The conduct of the natives on this occasion shows that they did not entertain the slightest conception of the light in which the transaction was viewed by the civilized actors. When the prisoners were placed in the cart at the prison-door of Perth, "they evinced no sign of fear," and "they begged to be flogged, and promised never to commit a like offence." Fear or alarm " was not visibly indicated till they arrived at York." On the morning of their execution, six armed natives were allowed to approach near enough the cart to converse with the prisoners; not one of the Europeans understanding their language. "The animated conversation which ensued, the savage and revengeful expression depicted in the coun- tenances of the two culprits, coupled with the seizure of a gun by one of them, lying at the back of the cart, excited the natives who had joined them to ship their spears ; and they were alone repulsed by the resolute conduct of the military." The natives fled as soon as the soldiers made a show of resistance ; " but repaired to the adjoining hills, and, by lighting their signal-fires, communicated to the neighbouring tribes an unusual event, and spread the signal of alarm." The scene at the place of execution is thus described-

" The younger of the two prisoners met his end with a dogged and a deter- mined spirit, as it appeared, of revenge : the only intelligible expressions made use of conveyed an impression that he would rise up a White fellow "—which it was considered strengthened his resolution. The elder man, when he found all hopes of escape fail him, and the cap was drawn over his eyes, fainted ; and i t was with much difficulty be could be made to rise, until the operations of the executioners, (after the Sheriff bad read the warrant for the execution,) annehed them into eternity. Such was their savage spirit of revenge, that, lap to the short period before the execution, they were understood to express a desire to flog three friendly natives who accompanied the escort, for daring to come there. ` * The expressions made use of by the natives, such as What for a soldier man, White man, corraborra ? ' uttered in a half-laughing, half-sympathizing tone, confirms our belief that some attempt will be made to retaliate."

" The justice of the sentence is fully acknowledged," says the Perth Gazette. There was no justice in the transaction. What the writer calls " justice" he elsewhere terms " the just retribu- tion of their heinous offences." He speaks under the belief that to inflict upon any man who has made others suffer an equal amount of suffering, is justice. This is merely setting off one crime against another : it is giving vent in cold blood, under legal forms, to the same " savage spirit of revenge" which made the prisoners wish to beat their countrymen who came to look on at their execution. The only thing that renders the infliction of punishment just, is its tendency to repress crime. Punishment cannot have this tendency, unless the reason why it is inflicted, and the temper in which it is inflicted, are understood by all par- ties. If it is inflicted, or even believed to be inflicted, to gratify a vindictive feeling, it produces nothing but increased malignity in the sufferer, and sympathy with him in the bystanders. It is clear from the whole circumstances of the case, that the natives did not understand the nature of the transaction we have been narrating. The sufferers themselves looked upon the violence offered to them in the same light as the violence they had offered to others. It was a hostile trial of strength between them and the Europeans, in which the Europeans conquered. Oneprisoner died like a man, and the other like a coward ; but both died without any conception of what we call crime or punishment, and as warriors struck down in battle. The same conception of the transaction still influences the surviving natives. The attempt to rescue the prisoners—the signal-fires lighted after their repulse—the " half-laughing, half-sympathizing tone " in which they talk about the execution—all concur to show that they look upon themselves as engaged in hostilities with the English settlers, and are preparing to wipe out the stain of defeat by a future victory. The execution of the two natives is an act of injustice to the settlers, for it exposes them to greater danger than I they had reason to apprehend formerly. Even in talking about the justice of the execution, the writer in the Perth Gazette says- 1.1 Notwithstanding the justice ofthe sentence is fully acknowledged, some doubts are entertained of the effect a public execution will have upon the aborigines generally. Whether this example will deter them from committing offences in future, is questionable. * * * We may be wrong in forming this opinion, but it behoves the settlers to be on their guard, and they cannot too carefully watch the proceedings of the natives."

The execution of these two natives may be thus briefly charac- terized. It is an act that has excited or increased hostile feelings towards the settlers in the breasts of the natives, and has therefore rendered the aborigines less accessible to the influences of civi- lization, and the settlers exposed to greater danger from their at- tacks. It is an act really instigated by what the settlers call in themselves a just craving for "retribution," and in the natives a "savage spirit of revenge," but which the actors seek to palliate in their own eyes by calling it an " act of justice." It is an act cal- culated to do harm to all parties, and to the repetition of which the * It is, we believe, a native superstition, that in the next life they will be endowed with what they feel to be the superior faculties of White men. settlers will be encouraged by the biassed and erroneous estimate their self-love has led them to form of it. It is, in short, despite of fine names and judicial forms, an act of deliberate, cold-blooded murder.

The rapid extension of British colonization in Australia and New Zealand, increasing the intercouse bettveen our countrymen and tribes in the very lowest smile of civilized life, renders it necessary that all occurrences of this kind should be frankly commented upon, for the purpose of impressing sound views of the rationale of punishment on the minds of our colonizers. Their own safety and prosperity will be materially promoted by such knowledge on their part.