The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-21 00:00:00

PIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS,

FROX THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The war journals of Paris are again
attempting to get up an excitement. On Tuesday
evening the Messager published a dispatch from Ota-
beite, confirming the report, which had already
reached England, of another conflict having taken
place between the French and the natives at Otabeite;
and stating that the Governor, Bruat, had attacked
the natives to the number of 3,000, who had en-
trenched themselves at Mahahana, and had three
pieces of artillery. The redoubts were carried by the
bayonet,, the cannon spiked, the works destroyed, and
the colours, arms, and ammunition captured. The
natives had 102 men killed, says the dispatch, but the
French had two officers killed and 52 men wounded.
Now, considering that the natives were attacked by
the French, and that, upon the admission of their own
Government, the French authorities at Otaheite had un-
righteously usurped dominion over the poor natives,
who were but defending their rights and those of their
legitimate sovereign, we should have thought that the
blood of the 102 men who were killed would be justly
imputable to the French ; and that some regret
would have been expressed at a calamity arising out
of an invasion of rights already censured by the French
Government. No tear of regret, however, is shed in
France for the poor slaughtered natives ; but, on the
contrary, the Opposition journals in Paris call for
vengeance upon Mr. Pritchard, and the English Govern-
ment, for the French blood that was shed in this con-
flict. The flagrant injustice of such imputations is
manifest. In the first place, Mr. Pritchard was not
at Otaheite; and the conflict shows that the natives
were not, as the French have pretended, roused from
a willing obedience to their invaders by his presence
and exhortations. It shows that, although but par-
tially civilised, they have the consciousness of right
and the sense of injury. The expulsion of Mr.
Pritchard, whatever influence he may have had over
them when at Otaheite, did not suffice to extinguish the
feeling of independence and duty. The presence of Mr.
Pritchard was not necessary for them to feel that
their rights had been violated and their Sovereign
outraged. They required no other counsel than their
wroags—no other stimulus than their indignation ;
but it must never be forgotten, that whilst they
were resisting the agents of France, France her-
self had repudiated those agents as having com-
mitted a gross violation of right and humanity.
The resistance, then, was a sacred duty—the attack
was an act of brutal injustice. M. Bruat and his
officers certainly were not aware that the assump-
tion of sovereignty by Admiral Dupetit Thouars
had been disavowed; and, as individuals per-
forming what they considered to be an act of
duty, they may not be held personally responsible
for the lives that they have destroyed. But their
own Government has admitted that the assumption
of the power under which these massacres were
performed was an unrighteous one ; and the least
that could have been expected from the French
press, was an expression of regret for the lives that
had been sacrificed by the French force in Otaheite.
But, far from finding such expressions in the
French journals, we meet with furious attacks upon
Mr. Pritchard, the English, and M. Guizot. The
Courrier Francais and the National call for re-
venge ; and assert that the blood of the French
which has been shed at Otaheite must fall upon the
head of Mr. Pritchard, and on that of M. Guizot, for
having disavowed the act of the French Admiral.
The National on this occasion uses language of the
greatest violence; it calls down public execration
upon M. Guizot, and excites the navy to rebel
against the Government for having censured the
conduct of Admiral Dupetit Thouars and M.
d'Aubigny. A more atrocious and libellous article
than that of the National we never read ; and if it
be not prosecuted by the Government for its sedition,
it can only be because M. Guizot fears that an impartial
and honest jury is not to be found to secure a con-
viction; in which case we can only pity the friends
of order in France, at being thus exposed to the un-
bridled violence of political incendiarism. The Courrier
Francais is little less violent than the National. It
denounces M. Guizot to the Chamber of Deputies ;
and say that if justice be not done by it upon him, the
country will do itself justice upon the Chamber ;
which means nothing less than that the mob will get
the upper hand of the representatives of the people.
The Constitutionnel exhausts most of its fury upon
11r. Pritchard. It is so much out of breath with
calling for vengeance upon his head for the shedding
of French blood, that it is comparatively lenient
towards M. Guizot.
STAND ARD.—According to the statement of
the Moniteur, the French Government has received•
intelligence of a sharp skirmish between the natives
of Otaheite and the French force on the island. In
this engagement, which occurred on the 17th of
April, the natives are said to have lost in killed 102 ;
the French, two officers killed, and 52 men wounded.
The French, though greatly inferior in number, 441
to 3,000 (the natives being also entrenched) were
co npletely successful. What, however, is to be the fruit
of this success is left to conjecture. The use which the
war journals of Paris would make of the event is,
irked, sufficiently manifest, but reasonable men
expect something more than a topic of railing
an occasion of quarrel as the equivalent for so
much bloodshed; but what that solid equivalent can
be, we are at a loss to conceive. Otaheite, in absolute
sovereignty and cordial obedience, would be perfectly
useless to any European power, certainly not less
st:dess to France than to any other; how much worse
tLan useless then must be the protectorate of a people
ceostantly "straining upon the bit" and seizing every
gportunity to indulge a hostile and vindictive feeling.
This most silly war is deplorable enough without
milting it worse than it is; but we must remonstrate
w:Lh the Paris journals against the imputation of
th.) war to Mr. Pritchard or any other Englishman ;
th , immediate cause of hostilities has been an act of
usurpation, acknowledged by France, and seen by all
tip.. world to be such ; but an act of usurpation has
always been admitted as an adequate cam bell, and
we therefore need not look beyond M. Dupetit
Thouars for the party responsible for the French and
native blood shed in April, with which Mr. Pritchard
has had no more to do than his accusers in the
National, Courrier Francais, and Reforms. Our
opinion of Mr. Pritchard—an opinion however
formed rather from what we have seen of his exhi-
bition in this country, than from any report of
his conduct in the kingdom of Queen Pomare—is,
that he is an indiscreet and perhaps an ambitious
man. It is a common calamity, indeed, that how
pure soever may be the first stage of religious mis-
sions, ambition always infects the second and
later stages But whatever Mr. Pritchard is,
it is certain that neither he nor Queen
Pornare sought the French people, but,
OD the other hand were sought out by French
officers when in perfect peace with all the world,
and anxious only to maintain peace ; a consideration
which candid Frenchmen will admit to be of
some weight when the consequences of the
initiative taken by France are to be appreciated. Mr.
Pritchard may have spoken with patriotic exaggera-
tion of the promptitude of his own country in aiding
all who suffer from oppression; and possibly the
simple credulity of the natives to whom he spoke
may, in their hopes, have exaggerated even upon his
exaggerations. We may concede all this, because
it is obvious that if no pretext by oppression
had been given, the utmost extravagance
of promise on Mr. Pritchard's part, though
aided by all imaginable credulity on the side
of the natives, would be harmless. The ori-
ginal wrong-doer in such cases is prima facie
the only party responsible for consequences. It
may happen that his antagonist, by retaliating with
* greater and a disproportionate injury (this hap-
pened to us in China), shall relieve the original
wrong-doer of his prima facie responsibility ;
but nothing of the kind can be alleged against
Dir. Pritchard ; for since M. Dupetit Thouars
XSUrpecl the sovereignty of the kingdom of
Queen Pomare, Mr. Pritchard has done no-
thing to give offence or to cause mischief. It
gives us no pleasure to find our French neighbours
In.
wish wrung—quite the reverse ; we heartily
WISH them quietly and honourably out of this
Otaheite business; but we confess that we do not at
present see by what paths they are to escape, even if
we could suppose great Britain and all British inte-
rests sunk in the Pacific to facilitate an arrange-
ment. To maintain Otaheite by force is out of the
Question. Otaheite is one of ten thousand islands—
a more or less connected, directly or mediately,
by relations of friendship or hostility; the Euro-
pean Power that would establish a permanent
settlement in one of these islands must contem-
plate the conquest, aye, and the garrisoning too, of
the whole of Polynesia—a sufficient explanation,
by the way, of the grounds upon which Great Britain
declined the protectorate so rashly sought by France.
What, then, is France to do in the matter ? Perhaps
the most manly and prudent course were to back out
of it. We are not conscious that England has sus-
tained any dishonour in leaving. the Affghans to the
punishment of their own anarchy, and the protection
of their mountains. Why might not France, with as
good a grace, leave the Otaheitans to the punishment
of their own rude manners, and the protection of
their great remoteness and other local circumstances ?

It ' 156.

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TRADE or DUNDEE.—We have a continuance of
the demand for yarns and linens, and many kinds of the
latter are not to be had until mado. The stock of linens
h smaller at present than fur at any time these nine
years past. 1 lax of the common runs is in fair request,
ond holders inclined to ask a small advance. The dates
fm Sc. Petersburgh are to the 3d instant., from Riga to
the sth, both markets very firm, and the dealers asking
bighor prices. The Memel letters are to the 6th inst.,
winch say that that ma:het is all but switpt of flax.
Sir Robert Peel, accompanied by two, of his sons,
left Whitehall-gardens yesterday for Brighton. We
owe happy to state that M.i.ss Peel is daily improving in
filth owl otreugth.

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