The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-20 00:00:00

THE PRINCE DE JOINVILLE ON

THE POLICY OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.

The Akbar of Algiers, of the 12th instant, pub
lishes a letter from the Prince de Joinville to the
Duke de Nemours, dated from on board the Souve
rain at Spezzia, 7th November, 1847. The letter is
thus introduced by the Akbar :
" Every one here knows that the Prince de Joinville
was sent to Algiers a month previous to Feb. 4, on ac-
count of his active opposition to the policy which had then
for some time been adopted by the Cabinet of M. Guizot.
He under no circumstances suppressed the expression of
his repulsive feelings towards a policy the dangers of
which he could not conceal from himself. On arriving
in Algiers, his first words were—' They are leading us
to a revolution.' The subjoined letter, which has never
been published, was found on February the 24th, in the
Tuileries, and a copy of it was taken by the person who
has communicated it to us. In it will be found
the lively and free expression of the sentiments above
spoken of."
The letter is as follows :
"My dear Tan,—l write to you, because my mind
is disturbed by the events which I see accumulating
around us from every side. I begin to be seriously
alarmed, and at such moments I love to gossip with those
in whom I have confidenc). The death of Bresson is a
great blow to me (m'a ae funeste), and I think it has
had the same effect upon you. I lay aside the sad im-
pression it has made at Naples, where the laws on
suicide are so secure; but what affects me is the seeking
out the causes of his misfortune. Bresson was not
ill; he executed his design with all the coolness of a re-
solute man. I have from Naples letters written by De
Montessuy and others, which leave me scarcely any
doubts. He was irritated against the King, and had
used at Florence strange language respecting him.
The King is inflexible, and will no longer listen to any
advice ; in fact, his will must predominate over all.
People will not fail to repeat, and will enlarge upon
what I consider as dangerous—viz., the action which
he (le pert) exercises over; everything. This inflexible
action, when a statesman compromised with us cannot
vanquish it, leaves no other resource than sui-
cide, It appears to me to be difficult this
year for the Chamber not to turn its debates
upon this anormal state of things, which has oblite-
rated the constitutional fiction, and brought the King
forward as a party in all questions. There are no more
ministers ; their responsibility is null ; everything
emanates from the King. The King is arrived at an age
when observations from others are no more admitted.
lie is habituated to govern, and loves to show that it is
he who does govern. His immense experience, his
courage, and other great qualities, make him affront
danger with audacity; but the danger nevertheless
exists. This false position will, I believe, be this
year prominently discussed. It will be said that
the constitutional Government was established par-
ticularly to avoid the alternative of seeing the throne
occupied by a man who is too old, or by one who
is too young ; to calm the too great ardour of sove-
reigns, or to supply that which is wanting in them. In
the present case we have need of two things, but both
of them are wanting. Our condition at home is not a
good one ; the (state of our finances, after a peace of
seventeen years, is not brilliant. Abroad, where we
might have found some of those gratifications so dear
to our country, and by which its attention is turned
from snore serious evils, we do not shine much more.
The accession of Lord Palmerston, by awakening the
impassioned mistrust of the King, has made us under-
take the Spanish campaign, and invested us with a do-
plorable reputation for bad faith. Separated from
England at the moment when the events of Italy hap-
pened, we have been unable to take that active part in
them which would have flattered our country, and have
been in accord with the principles we should never have
abandoned, because it was through them that we be-
came what we are. We have not dared to turn our
hand against Austria, from fear of seeing England re-
constitute the Holy Allance. We come before the
Chambers with a deplorable state of things abroad,
and with one not much better at home.
All this
is the work of the King alone. Tho result of the old
age of a king who will govern, but whose powers are too
weak for bim to come to any virile resolution. The
worst is that I cannot discover any remedy, What will
bo said and done at home when our sad financial situa-
tion is exposed? what can be done abroad to raise our
position and enable us to follow a line of conduct in
conformity with the wish of the country? It is cer-
tainly not by making an Austro-French intervention in
Switzerland that we shall gain what the campaigns of 1823
won for the Restoration. I had hoped that Italy would
afford us that derivative, that change of which we had
so much need; but it is now too late, the battle is
lost I Here we can do nothing without the concur-
rence of the English, and every day, by suffe-,lng them
to gain ground, we are per force throwni•,-itothe op-
posite more than camp. We can now
.do nothing r
re-
tire, because by remaining we shall be forcibly led to
make common cause with the retr[4,o,
party, 'which

MASSACRE OF MISSIONARIES.
The Journal du Havre has the following :—" The
journals from the Sandwich Islands bring numerous
and gloomy details of the massacre of an entire com-
munity of Protestant missionaries settled in Colum-
bia. For more than ten years this colony composed
of members distinguished in the society of American
missions, for their zeal, laboured nnder the direction
of the Rev. Dr. Whiteman, for the intellectual and
religious culture of the Cayouses, one of the most
ferocious and most ignorant of the Indian tribes of
the river Columbia. Many times already had threats
of a disquieting nature proved the ingratitude of this
people towards their benefactors, but still hoping that
a higher degree of instruction would gradually do
away with the perverse instincts of savage life, the
Rev. Mr. Whiteman had peaceably continued his
work, neglecting even to take such precautions as or -
dinary prudence dictates in the midst of actual and
permanent danger. Meanwhile, dysentery broke out
at Watilatpou, the chief place of the tribe, where,
among the Indians only, it made rapid
and cruel ravages. In his capacity of
physician, Dr. Whiteman was surrounded by
a crowd of sick, who implored him to employ for
their cure the supernatural power, with which they
said he was endowed. The malady was at its highest
point of intensity, almost all the sick died, and the
Cayouses imagined that, instead of remedies, the mis-
sionaries administered poison to them, in order to
destroy the tribe and gain possession of its territory.
Some, convinced of the integrity of the pastor, com-
batted this horrible suspicion, and proposed to test the
effect of the medicaments upon three persons, two of
whom should be ill and one in perfect health; but all
three, as if by a fatality, were carried off by the dis-
ease, and the tribe then resolved, in a moment of
general rage, to put all the missionaries to death.
At two hours after mid• day the Indians arrived,
one by one, at the mission, with an air of calm, and
under various pretexts, having arms concealed under
their cloaks. Dr. Whiteman was employed in teach-
ing the children, while his colleagues were occupied,
some in study and others in domestic cares. The
ladies were assembled in a large room, where they
taught the native girls to read and sew. W hen the
Indians found themselves in sufficient numbers to exe-
cute their atrocious project, they suddenly surrounded
all parts of the establishment, and throwing them-
selves upon their unfortunate victims, some with
hatchets, others with pistols, soon turned the house
of God into a horrible slaughter house. The Doctor
received a ball in the centre of his breast and the blow
of a hatchet on the head; he had just strength enough
to drag himself to a sofa when he breathed his last.
His wife, Mrs. Whiteman, was literally cut to pieces.
The other ladies and their children were about to
undergo a similar fate, when a voice from among the
Indians cried, " Pity the innocent," and they were
spared. It has since become known that the fury of
this savage horde was increased by the avowal of a
Mr. Rogers, whose life the Cayouses promised to
spare, if he confessed the treason of his superior. Ter-
rified at the prospect of death, this missionary re-
counted that it was true that Dr. Whiteman
wished to poison them, in order to give their
territory to the Americans; that his intention,
distinctly expressed in a council, was to give them
a powerful dose of poison, which would carry them
all off at once ; but that, by the advice of Mr.
Spalding, it had been resolved to poison them gra-
dually, and that this was the cause of the mortality
After this melancholy evidence Mr. Rogers was
allowed to go free ; but an Indian, in the confusion
seeing him in a corner, discharged his gun at him,
his death being thus caused by the very act which bad
aggravated the fate of his companions. Another mis-
sionary made similar avowals, adding that Mrs.
Whiteman was in concert with her husband, which
was doubtless the reason of the pity granted to the
other females not being extended to her. The Cay-
ouses asked this man if he were for their party or for
the Americans? He replied that he was for the In-
dians, and that he hated his companions; upon which
the Indians asked him to prove the truth of his words
by killing the son of his chief, who was before them
at the moment, at the same time putting a loaded
pistol into his band. The missionary hesitated a mo-
ment, pulled the trigger, and the young Whiteman
fell dead at his feet.
Of the fifteen members of the mission who were

left extended in their blood, four still lived after the
carnage; these the Indians had struck less cruelly,
believing them to be less guilty.
As soon as Mr. Abernethy, governor of Columbia,
received intelligence of this dreadful event, he sent a
report to the legislative council of Oregon, and ob•
tained immediate authority to levy 500 volunteers, to
punish the tribe of the Cayouses. In a few days from
the departure of the above intelligence, Captain Lee
was to put himself at the head of this expedition, and
doubtless ample vengeance would be taken at Wail-
latpou. But vengeance is less an object than to
prevent this sad example being followed by the
neighbouring tribes among whom the Society of Mis-
sionaries have founded numerous establishments
without gaining the sympathy of the people, or
bringing about a reform sufficiently deep-rooted to
prevent cause for continually fearing a return to the
ferocity of savage life. We are assured that the
Hudson's Bay Company has, on its part, sent a con-
siderable reinforcement to Walla-Walla. The ques-
tion is, whether they will arrive soon enough to
prevent the recurrence of such a misfortune.