The Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes, or the Aborigines Select Committee, was a select committee of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

Fowell Buxton Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet (1 April 1786Olwyn Mary Blouet, "Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, first baronet (1786–1845)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., May 201accessed 25 April 20 ...

chaired the committee, which had 16 members. Other members included Charles Lushington,

Rufane Shaw Donkin Lieutenant-General Sir Rufane Shaw Donkin (17721 May 1841), was a British army officer of the Napoleonic era and later Member of Parliament. Background Rufane Donkin came of a military family and was the eldest child of General Robert Donkin, w ...

, and

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

(later prime minister). Buxton moved for Parliament to create the committee in March 1835. Hearings started in August 1835 and the committee's report was released in 1837. Its

terms of reference Terms of reference (TOR) define the purpose and structures of a project, committee, meeting, negotiation, or any similar collection of people who have agreed to work together to accomplish a shared goal. Terms of reference show how the object in ...

instructed it to

... consider what measures ought to be adopted with regard to the native inhabitants of countries where British settlements are made, and to the neighbouring tribes, in order to secure to them the due observance of justice and the protection of their rights; to promote the spread of civilization among them, and to lead them to the peaceful and voluntary reception of the Christian religion.

The terms of reference gave the committee the ability to investigate policies of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

with respect to Indigenous people in southern Africa, Canada, Newfoundland, New South Wales, and

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...

. The committee's recommendations included more "

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

activity" in the empire; that the alienation of land by Indigenous people be regulated; an end to the sale of liquor; stricter regulation of contracts of labour with Indigenous people; and that Indigenous affairs be handled by the imperial Parliament, not colonial legislatures. The report catalyzed the formation of the Aborigines' Protection Society, which was founded soon after the report came out. According to historian Alan Lester, the committee "brought the relations between officials, settlers and indigenous peoples on the frontiers of colonial settlement to the very centre of the empire". John W. Cell argues that its report adopted rhetorical tropes of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

: " e language of this report—its emphasis on Providence in having chosen Great Britain for a sacred mission in the world, on the need to atone for past sins, on the day of judgment when the nation would be called to account—is characteristic of this early Victorian period."

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