intercourse of women with the shipping, before that time universally carried on. These laws were vehemently. opposed by the emissaries of commerce. In one instance, a ship's crew came ashore demanding liquor and women. Neither were to be had. They returned on board, threatening violence, and soon afterwards landed again to execute it. The natives sent their women to the mountains for protection, and after searching the town, with fearful oaths and horrible language, the sailors attacked the house of the missionary. Being repulsed, the seamen went on board the ship and cannonaded the house for some time. Several scenes like this occurred at different places, in one of which a naval officer of the United States was concerned. Evidence of this is now in the national archives at Washington. As the officer was disgraced sufficiently at the time, and has felt the effects of his conduct in his profession, we will not mention his name. (Du Petit Thouars would have small chance of promotion in the American navy.) Matters came to such a state, that the United States government despatched the sloop-of-war, Vincennes, with a letter to the king, concerning the conduct of the American citizens engaged in these affrays. The stand taken by Captain Finch, and the example set by him, added to the letter of the president, checked and humbled the violence of the rioters. At the same time the American board published the names of the traders and masters of vessels engaged in the riots, and also of the American merchants who persisted in sending into that country the prohibited cargoes. This completed the triumph of the efforts of the natives after good order and morals, and in a few years the Sandwich Islands were perhaps the most temperate colony in the globe.*

It will now be necessary that we should investigate the causes and ultimate tendency of these proceedings, and the light in which they should be regarded by Protestants, the friends of civil and religious liberty. case including so many iniquities, it is perhaps unnecessary to say any

In a

North American Review, July, 1842.

thing of a question of good taste and gentlemanly feeling which would be thrown away upon the parties concerned. We might however inquire why the French priests have selected two groups of islands, already Christian and improving;-there were surely abundance of unoccupied heathen tribes on which they might try the effects of their religion, and endeavour, by honourable means, to excel their rivals. The London Missionary Society has laboured for the welfare of Tahiti for more than thirty years, and expended upwards of thirty thousand pounds in its benevolent and most prosperous exertions to diffuse the blessings of the religion of the Bible through the Society islands. The state of society in the Sandwich Islands was such as could not but be contemplated with pleasure, not merely by a Christian, but by any one who had a heart to be pleased with the welfare of his fellow-men. The following statement, taken from a source which no one will accuse of bigotry in such matters, affords a condensed view of what this fine group of islands owe to the labours of the Christian missionary.t

"In May, 1840, twenty years after the missionaries landed at the islands, there were in the whole group, nineteen native churches, numbering 18,450 communicants of good standing. Upwards of 800 natives have died in full communion and profession of faith. There were nearly 6,000 baptized children; and during the year 1840, there were 12,000 Christian marriages and 1,700 baptisms. There were 200 common schools, with 14,000 scholars, of whom 10,000 are able to read. Besides these common schools, there is a seminary for the instruction of native preachers, and a large number of boarding-schools both for boys and girls. These schools all owe their institution to the missionaries, and are either taught by the missionaries, or by persons educated under their care. Printing in the Hawaian language is extensively done. It was begun by the missionaries, and is still carried on under the care and patronage of the American board. During the year 1840, there were printed and

† Ibid, July, 1842, p. 194.

bound in that language, upwards of 100,000 copies of books treating upon all subjects; arithmetic, geography, general knowledge and science, the general laws and local regulations of the government, as well as the Scriptures, and works more strictly theological. Several stone meeting-houses have been built by the natives, and good houses are common. Roads and bridges are fast improving. A constitution and a complete code of laws are preparing under the superintendence of an American gentleman, who was formerly a missionary, but resigned his office, in order that the mission might be entirely disconnected from the civil power." We may now ask what right has France, with her infidel officers and intriguing priests, to disturb and interrupt the steady progress of the Gospel of morality, civilization, and commerce, among the most interesting and improvable of the Oceanic family? The commer. cial interests of France in the Pacific are contemptible compared with those of England and America. And by what strange inversion of morality is it that France is incessantly insulted, while England and America have never complained of the native governments, but on the contrary, the latter has condemned the disgraceful conduct of its own subjects? However, such things may be overdone, and the vile associations with which the spread of Romanism in Polynesia is now irretrievably connected, may be rendered a powerful weapon in the hands of Protestants.

The matter may be viewed in another and very important light. Originally the priests were expelled from Tahiti and Hawaii, in virtue of a law which permitted no one to settle on the islands without the permission of the government. Now, not to speak of the absurdity of the interference of the French in this matter (the interference of a government which punishes any twenty Protestants who dare to hold a prayer meeting), one should think that when toleration for popery was secured all cause of complaint was removed. Had the priests been then left to make the best of their cause we should have thought little of the matter, and felt no fear for the result, a healthy, and intellectual, and scriptural faith would

infallibly have carried the day against the idle superstitions of our modern polytheism. But an attack was made on the liberty of conscience, when the influence of a government of thirty millions of men was thrown into the one scale, while the other contained only the contributions and influence of an humble Christian association. The harassing vexations to which the native government were exposed, the pillaging of their resources, the forcing upon them of immoral and ruinous practices, as in the compulsory introduction of brandy, and the insults offered to the American missionaries in Hawaii were all so many efforts to ruin their labours, and to encourage the intrigues of their opponents.

There is another grave consideration connected with this subject well deserving our notice. Nothing is more certain than that the population of the Polynesian regions has been diminishing with a fearfully rapid ratio. The present inhabitants of Tahiti and Rimeo amount to about twelve thousand, or nearly a seventieth of what their population was in the time of Cook. It is certain that this progress towards extinction, whose rapid approach had alarmed even the natives themselves, received a check when they embraced Christianity. For a few years after this beneficent event no numerical in. crease was apparent, for this obvious reason that great numbers of the more aged had no families: at last, however, the births began to exceed the deaths, the population is increasing, and we have no hesitation in stating our opinion that the very existence of those nations is owing to the introduction of the Gospel among them. The causes

of extinction, we have already stated, were spirituous liquors and vice, the one destroyed the existing race, and the other rendered the future inexistent. In Tahiti, under the French rule, we fear even more than the spread of superstition awaits the unfortunate race, already Moerenhout, the French consul, is letting loose a deluge of intoxicating liquors upon a doomed race, and a garrison of two hundred men will soon arrive to demoralize the islands. In short, the French consul and admiral on the one hand, with their priests on the other, making this irruption upon an inoffensive people

reminds us of Milton's account of the intrusion of death and sin into the primeval abode of our race.

The causes which have led to these strange transactions are not difficult to discover. No one will be simple enough to believe that piety or religious motives actuated the French government in these crusades to the antipodes. We would as soon expect that the Religious Tract Society should publish a cheap edition of Volney's Catechism. In fact, it is purely a political speculation in which any other form of religion would have been employed as readily as the Roman, provided it proved itself an equally efficacious instrument to bring about the ends sought for. We believe there are two objects more particularly aimed at, and also that the forcing of priests and brandy on the islands of the Pacific is only a small part of a very comprehensive scheme." One object of this propagandism is what may be called a dynastic one. We believe there is but little attachment to the Orleans family in France, while it is viewed with rooted aversion by that great part of the nation which calls itself liberal-and in truth, Louis Philippe occupies a lonely position more removed from the sympathies of his people than Louis the Eighteenth and Charles the Tenth. As some party is better than none the present attempt is to obtain the adhesion of the priest party, and of course along with it the friendship of Rome and Vienna. In this point of view it is strangely instructive to take a retrospect of the events in France since the reign of Charles the Tenth. That unfortunate and most foolish prince was driven from his throne for attempting a fraction of what his able successor has accomplished. No part of Charles' conduct was more unpopular than his devotion to an intolerant and bigoted priesthood, and who could have believed that a few years could scarcely have elapsed before his successor had transplanted to the Tuileries vigorous shoots of obscurantism from Munich and Vienna.

This system of propagandism is equally active in France as in Polynesia, and in the former country it chiefly manifests itself in hostility to the Protestants: and it is a sad reflec

tion that the religious liberties of that most respectable part of the nation were far safer and better respected under Charles the Tenth than under

Louis Philippe. Since the three days, as they are called, the condition of the Protestants has been considerably deteriorated; they have been exposed to ceaseless annoyances, if they wish to build a new place of worship every obstruction is offered, and if they venture to meet for social worship they are fined or imprisoned. One instrument of oppression has been in operation since 1834. A law aimed at political associations was then passed, and one of its articles prohibited, under the penalty of fine and imprisonment, the association of more than twenty persons. Two judicious deputies, M. M. Roger and Dubois, proposed that a clause should be inserted excepting religious meetings. Instead of adopting this honest and common sense suggestion M. Persil, the minister of justice, solemnly declared that the law did not relate to religious meetings; but the truth is, that ever since the enactment came into force it has been most unscrupulously employed putting down every kind of Protestant religious association. Not only have the religious liberties of the Protestants been curtailed, but attempts have been made to alter the constitution of their churches with the view of rendering it all but impossible to erect new ones. All this is done by a government which sends men-of-war to the antipodes under the pretext of vindicating the rights of conscience.

There is also another object to be gained by this propagandisin, as we have stated the whole affair is merely a political speculation, and indeed this is so far from being disavowed, is openly and boldly proclaimed, M. de Carne, a member of the Chamber of Depu ties, and a zealous propagandist, informs us that the maintenance of Ca tholic influence in the East is inseparably united to the influence of France. Nor has it been or can it ever be otherwise; the Romish religion is essentially political; its head is the monarch of a second-rate kingdom, and its members everywhere must profess allegiance to an Italian prince as well as to their native sovereign. In this respect the contrast with Protestant missions is

remarkable: they are merely associations of Christians; they defray their own expenses, manage their own affairs, and the government takes no cognizance of their acts, and extends to their missionaries no other protection than that due to British subjects; and further, as each denomination supports its own missions, it is sufficiently obvious that by the very nature of the system there can be no political intrigues, nor any subserviency to the aims of government. On the contrary, the Romish monastic orders have ever been employed both by France and Spain with political views. In Spanish America the conquerors destroyed the national spirit and ruined the political systems of the Indian empires; but the business was only half done, until the intellect of the natives had been prostrated, and the memory of their ancient independence effaced by the lessons of the priests. It is, however, in Canada, while under the French, that this is best seen; for that province, in contact with the frontiers of the English colonies, gave ample scope for the activity and dexterity of the Jesuits. During the period we allude to these fathers were as essential for the defence of Canada as its fortifications and artillery. The great use of the Jesuits was, to bring over the Indian tribes to the French alliance, to detach as many Indians as possible from the English interest. During the period we allude to it might be said of the worthy fathers what is said of the Brahmins of India, that there was no mischief or intrigue set agoing of which they were not the prime movers. Kalm, the intelligent Swedish traveller, who visited Canada in 1749, describes these propagandists very correctly. "The Jesuits," he says, "are of great use to their king; for they are frequently able to persuade the Indians to break their treaty with the English; make war upon them; to bring their furs to the French, and not to permit the English to come among them. But there is some danger attending these attempts; for when the Indians are in liquor, they sometimes kill the missionaries who live among them, calling them spies, or excusing themselves by saying that the brandy had killed them." In the

history of the Jesuits in Canada we must say that the accounts published by members of their own order are complete tissues of falsehood, even when the narrator speaks from personal knowledge. We shall give a specimen of the Canadian Jesuits. Charlevoix, himself a Jesuit, and probably residing in Canada at the time, gives the following martyrology of Father Rasle, who was killed by

Massachuset's men: "Father Charlevoix tells us that the Jesuit was shot at the foot of the cross along with seven Indians, who offered their bodies as a protection for his. Thus died this kind shepherd, giving his life for his sheep; thus was a priest treated in his mission at the foot of the cross." This is a specimen of what is to be found in every number of Annals of the Faith. The following is the correct account:-The good father was incessantly stirring up the Abenaki Indians to make war upon the English. When his papers were examined after his death, it was found that he was in correspondence with M. De Vau dreuil, the governor of Canada, for the purpose of raising up trouble to the New Englanders. As to dying at the cross, so far from it, he retired to his wigwam, and in the first place, he endeavoured to kill an English captive in the cabin, a boy of fourteen years; he shot him through the thigh, and stabbed him in several places, although he afterwards recovered. An officer forced open the wigwam, and shot the father through the head. We have quoted this as an illustration of the occupations of these propa gandists, and the usual character of their martyrdoms. The same system of unblushing falsehood is in use at the present day; and the priests in Tahiti write home to their superiors for publication after the following style: that the English missionaries assemble the people in their chapel, and instead of preaching exhibit, by a magie lantern, the pope and the Catholic priests burning the Protestants in a furnace.

That enormous system of fraud and imposture the Propaganda has existed in France under various forms and with various fortunes since 1655. At present it is in part supported by government grants,

and in part by contributions. The income of this association amounted in 1841 to about £142,000, collected throughout the papal countries. In 1841 the contribution from Ireland amounted to nearly £8,000. Scotland, however, is in a bad case; she is fairly in partibus infidelium, and so far from contributing, required a grant of about one thousand pounds to remove the woeful spiritual destitution of the descendants of the covenanters. That this is a political as well as a Romish association is admitted by its friends as well as its opponents; and under this important fact some very serious considerations arise. A vast number of missionaries are sent to the Mediterranean and to the east, and all of course sent from France, and of course so many political agents for that country. Such being the case, we would suggest to our generous but mistaken countrymen, whether it is in good taste, or consistent with unsullied loyalty to contribute along with a foreign government for purposes beyond the propagation of religion. It is humiliating to be gulled in this manner; and why do they, if they wish to spread their faith, not insist that the directors of the plan should reside in Dublin, and thus place their loyalty beyond suspicion. The occupation of Tahiti is an event of no political or commercial importance: a more valueless colony can scarcely be conceived. It is not so with the Sandwich Islands: they occupy a midway station between China and America; they afford an asylum to the South-sea whalers and vessels passing between Asia and America. It is needless to say that their importance will rise yearly, in

proportion as the China trade increases. The occupation of these islands by France would, in the event of war, give her great influence in the Pacific; it would be to her what the Mauritius was with respect to the Indian Ocean-a nest of privateers. The government of the United States are aware of the importance of the subject, and we suspect their efforts will rescue the Sandwich Islands. But there is another circumstance deserving of notice: it is obvious that no Briton can in any way abet the efforts of France; he may remain inactive, but he cannot exert himself against his country. Now, the following circumstance deserves to be remembered: Ireland sends a contribution of eight thousand pounds per annum to the French Propaganda; and these funds have furnished and sent out Father Short, and Father Walsh, both Irishmen, two indefatigable agents in the interest of France in the Sandwich Islands; or in other words, their loyalty to their queen, and patriotism towards their native land, is as dust in the balance, compared with their zeal for the pope, or their devotion to the cause of France. We shall conclude with a single remark-It is possible that the doings in Tahiti may bring more harm than good to the Roman Catholic cause. For many years the dissenters of England and Scotland have been the supporters of the political claims of the Romanists. The cause of Tahiti is taken up by the dissenters; and may not a Protestant re-action in England prove too high a price for a triumph of popery at the antipodes?