The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-08 00:00:00

tartan

LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1847.

Every lover of humanity and every aspirant for
civilisation will grieve to observe the continuance of
the unfortunate disturbances which have so long
desolated the population of Otaheite. Little indeed
has been gained by the inhabitants of the surrounding
archipelago from the establishment of the French
Protectorate in lieu of the independent government
of Queen POMARE. Instead of tranquillity, there has
been continual commotion ; instead of peaceful
barterings between the inhabitants of the different
islands, there have been increasing acrimony, and
sometimes open contention, between the aborigines
and their European defenders. Civilisation has with
its numberless blessings brought to that savage
people all the concomitants of hitherto unknown
wretchedness. With the humanising influences of
refined life they have been subjected to the endless
bickerings consequent upon refined avarice. In
the admirable drama of The Briton, by AMBROSE
PHILIPS, the Tribune VALENS is reminding the in-
sular chieftain of the advantages accruing to himself
and his countrymen from the Roman invasion. " We
found you naked," he exclaims. " And you found
us free !" is the retort of VANOC. It is invariably
the case in the colonization of newly-discovered or
hitherto unpenetrated countries, that civilisation brings
with it curses as well as blessings. The benefits re-
sulting from the knowledge imparted to the ignorant
but innocent savages are unhappily aossciated with
evils to which they had previously been strangers.
When CORTEZ invaded Mexico he was accompanied
by the priesthood of a true religion and the apostles
of a sublime morality, but he was likewise attended
by the advocates of licentiousness and the promoters
of debauchery. The bloody troubles con-
sequent upon the alliances entered into
between COLOMBO and GUACANA.GARI were the
immediate and mournful results of the discovery of a
new hemisphere. From the wonderful researches in
the southern ocean by the immortal navigator COOK,
arose those sanguinary skirmishes between the disci-
ples of enlightened Christianity and the upholders of
a barbarous idolatry, in one of which that :great
man was himself destroyed. As greviously as were
the prurient passions of the aborigines displayed
in the Bahama Islands, upon the South-American
continent, and in the various groups contiguous to
Australia, have those of the population of Otaheite
been aroused by the interference of the French
armaments in the administration of the primitive

government.
By the intelligence just received from Polynesia,
it would appear that the Sandwich Islands have
continued t.) be the arena of commotion,
of bloodshed, of chicaneries, and of double-dealing up
to the commencement of the autumn of 1846. In
the different encampments of the Otaheiteans at
Papenoo, at Hautana, and at Bunaauia, the French,
under Governor 13auAT, have again been actively
engaged against the natives. Although Papeita is
reported to have become to a certain extent tran-
quillised, there is little cause for gratulation among
the other portions of the Otaheiteans. Their pro-
tectors have pursued their advantages from Tapai to
Papana, and thence to ..bona, they have penetrated
into the valley of Fatahua, and notwithstanding the
furious opposition of its defenders they have taken
possession of the fortification of Panavia.

It is in the occurrences of last winter, however,
that the disposition of French authority in that
quarter of Polynesia may be best conjectured. A
more detailed explanation of those occurrences than
has been hitherto received has reached us with
the last dispatches forwarded from Honolulu. From
this explanation it would seem that nothing could
have been more decisive or explicit than the under.
standing arrived at between Admiral Sir GEORGE
SEYMOUR, the Commander-in-Chief of her Britannic
Majesty's Forces in.thePacific Ocean, and the French
Commissioner at Otaheite. In consequence of the
protestation of the Chiefs of Huahine, Baietea, and
Borabora;that those islands could not,firom their inde-
pendence, be affected by any treaty made by Queen
POMARE, the question of their right to claim exclu-
sion from the Gallic Protectorate became a matter
of debate. 'With a view to ensure the dispassionate
investigation of this complicated question, the British
Admiral stipulated that no hostile measure whatever
should be undertaken against the inhabitants of Hua-
hine, Raietea, and Borabora until the point at issue
should have been definitely settled. That was the
engagement voluntarily entered into between Sir
GEORGE SEYMOUR and the French Commissioner,
that was the engagement the particulars of which
were communicated by the former to the venerable
QUEEN of Huahine, melodiously styled ARAIIPAIA.
Notwithstanding this agreement, three hundred dol-
lars were soon afterwards extorted from the
people of Borabora by the French force, commanded
by Captain BONARD. And subsequently, namely,
on the 17th of January, the island of Huahine was
entered by the same party, and an extraordinary fine
of six hundred dollars demanded from its population.
In consequence of certain misunderstandings arising
out of the refusal to pay .this amount,
the French and Otaheiteans rose against
each other in arms. As they very well
merited, the former suffered severely from the
encounter. The reasons given for this flagrant
violation of the compact with Admiral SEYMOUR are
altogether inadmissible, although there was mani-
festly considerable provocation. Ardently is it to be
hoped that a mere consciousness of the odium which
such proceedings are calculated to cast upon the
French throughout the world may deter the officers
of that nation from the repetition of these shameless
transactions. Unless there be some diminution of
their stringent authority in Polynesia, the very name
of the Protectorate will be a ridiculous satire.

Now that we are so close upon the advent of the
session of 1847 it must be presumed that the
Ministry, with a view to the efficient discharge of
their initiatory functions of legislation, have by this
time, for the most part, matured their several measures
which, for the general welfare of the empire, they
consider essential to be recommended to Parliament.
As affecting Ireland in particular, we may feel
certain, from the intense pressure which her
almost disorganized condition has kept up
upon the attention of the Government since
their accession to power, that the Cabinet have