The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-29 00:00:00

THE OCCUPATION of OTAHEITE.

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THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY AND
THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.
The visit of the King of the French to her Ma-
jesty the Queen having appeared to the Directors a
suitable occasion for presenting to the King a respect-
fu], but faithful, statement of facts connected with
the former history of Otaheite, and its present la-
mentable condition, as the result of the French
aggression, the Directors deemed it also highly
desirable that a small deputation of their body should
solicit the honour of presenting such a document, that
its details might, if necessary, be more fully ex-
plained, and its design respectfully urged on the
humanity and justice of the King.
In soliciting an interview the Directors were un-
successful ; but their memorial to his Majesty was
presented through the French Minister for Foreign
Affairs, by whom his answer was also communicated.
That answer, the Directors deeply regret, is altogether
unsatisfactory; but they still indulge the hope that
the Government of France will yet be convinced of
the impolicy, as well as the injustice, of maintaining
the occupation of the island, and generously restore
to the deeply-injured Queen and her people their per-
fect freedom and independence.
The following is the memorial presented through
M. Guizot to King Louis Philippe :
MEMORIAL ADDRESSED BY TUE DIRECTORS OF THE
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY TO HIS MAJESTY
LOUIS PHILIPPE, KING OF THE FRENCH.
May it please your Majesty,—The following Me-
morial of the Directors of the London Missionary
Society, presented with sentiments of profound
respect,
Showeth,—That your Majesty's memorialists are
entrusted by a numerous body of constituents with
the direction and management of the London Mis-
sionary Society, one of the Protestant institutions of
Great Britain, designed to extend among pagan and
other unenlightened nations the blessings of know-
ledge, civilisation, and religion.
That the institution which your memorialists have
the honour to repesent was formed in the year 1795,
and consists of members of different Protestant com-
munions, including Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and
Congregationalists ; and that it is now employing
upwards of 700 agents, partly European and partly
native, who prosecute their self-denying and be-
nevolent labours in different parts of India, China,
Africa, the West Indies, and Polynesia.
That, by the blessing of God vouchsafed to the
operations of this institution, multitudes of the human
race, once the victims of savage life in its lowest state
of misery, and of pagan idolatry in its most cruel and
degrading forms, are now enjoying the inestimable
advantages of social order and happiness, secured as
well as heightened by the influence of Christianity.
That, by the literary and philological labours also
of the Society's missionaries, the holy Scriptures
have been translated into the languages of China and
various nations of India ; while to many tribes of
Africa and Polynesia, previously unacquainted with
any written form of language, they have presented
the inspired volume in the vernacular tongues, and
have taught the people to read and understand its
hallowed truths.
That your memorialists deem it proper very ex-
pressly to inform your Majesty that, among the
earliest spheres selected for their efforts of mercy by
the founders of the London Missionary Seciety, were
included the populous islands of the South Pacific,
and more particularly Otaheite and other islands
known in Britain as the Georgian and Society
groups, discovered nearly thirty years before by our
navigator, Captain Wallis.
That, in the year 1796, a band of enterprising and
devoted missionaries, sent forth by this institution,
landed on the shores of Otaheite, where they found
the natives in the most abject state of social wretched-
ness and moral pollution. The power of the chiefs
was despotic and cruel; the national idolatry was
equally sanguinary and licentious; human sacrifices
were frequent ; infanticide general ; and these, with
other depopulating atrocities, combined with frequent
wars, then threatened the speedy extinction of the
Otaheiteani race.
That, amidst these revolting scenes, and while
exposed to hardships and dangers almost incredible,
in which their lives were in continual peril, and they
were often driven from the island, these self-denying
men persevered in their endeavours, by instruction
and persuasion, to enlighten and bless the miserable
people, till at length the islanders were influenced by
these means, and by these means only, to renounce
idolatry, with all its cruel and polluting rites, and to
embrace the Gospel, both as the warrant of their faith
and the rule of their practice.
That, for the subsequent period of more than thirty
years, Christianity has gradually diffused its benign
and salutary influence over the minds and habits of
Otaheitean people ; during which a system of good
government has been adopted, and a code of laws,
equitable though simple, has been established ; both
the persons and property of foreigners have been re-
spected • the various relations of social life have been
honoured; education has become general; the Holy
Scriptures have been translated, printed, and widely
circulated ; and the practical observance of Chris-
tianity, both in its public ordinances and its personal
and relative obligations, has been exhibited to an ex-
tent but rarely seen in European nations.
That the internal harmony and progressive im-
provement of the islanders have, however, been grie-
vously interrupted by a series of calamitous events,
originating, as your Majesty's memorialists believe,
in the attempt of two Catholic missionaries, subjects
of France, in the year 1836, to settle on Otaheite, in
opposition to the established and well-known law of
the island, which prohibited " any master or com-
mander of a vessel from landing any passenger with-
out special permission from the Queen and go-
vernors." Your Majesty's memorialists do not
feel it incumbent on them to sustain or justify
this application of the law in the case of Messrs.
Caret and Laval, but they cannot suppress the con-
viction, that the measure was adopted by the Queen
and the native authorities rather from an apprehen-
sion of civil, than religious, dissension—a fear which
subsequent events prove not to have been groundless.
To the operations of the same law, however, the
agenst sent forth by the London Missionary Society,
have ever been subject; and your memorialists ven-
ture most respectfully to remind your Majesty, that
in France, and other enlightened kingdoms of Europe,
the same principle of right on the part of the Sove-
reign and the Government to regulate the admission
of foreigners to their respective territories is strictly
exercised ; and your memorialists submit, that if the
exercise of such authority be deemed essential to the
safety and well-being of ancient and powerful mo-
narchies, its equity cannot be questioned or its neces-
sity denied to the defenceless Sovereign and the feeble
Government of Otaheite.
That, while entertaining these views as to the right
of Pomare and her chiefs to establish and enforce re-
gulations for the government and protection of their
own country, your Majesty's memorialists most em-
phatically disclaim all desire on their own part for
any restriction on the propogation of religious
opinions and practices by Christian communities from
which they differ. While, therefore, the Directors of
the London Missionary Society cannot but regret
that the Catholic missionaries of France should wish
to obtrude the peculiarities of religious controversy
on a people so recently rescued from the depths of
ignorance and paganism as the natives of Otaheite ;
and while it would have appeared a nobler exemplifi-
cation of Christian charity and self-denial had their
labours been directed to the other islands of the Pa-
cific, where multitudes are still enduring the unmiti-
gated miseries of barbarism and idolatry, your Ma-
jesty's memorialists nevertheless concede most readily
to all, and would strenuously claim for all, the
right which they claim for themselves—the right of
propagating, with unrestricted freedom, by instruc-
tion, argument, and moral influence, those sentiments
and principles which they believe to be revealed and
sanctioned by the authority of God.
That, for the enforcement, however, of the Otahei-
tean law on your Majesty's] subjects, Messrs. Caret
and Laval, a fine of 2,000 dollars was imposed on the
Queen, in the year 1838, by Captain A. Dupetit
Thouars ,• and in the year 1839 the law itself was
abrogated, in application to natives of France, at the
demand of Capt. Laplace, of the Artemise ; since
which period the Catholic missionaries of your Ma-
jesty's dominions have enjoyed a liberty never granted
to the Protestant missionaries of Britain—the liberty
of residence on the island without the previous sanc-
tion of the Government.
tThat the occurrences now recited by your Ma-
jesty's memorialists were followed by the establish-
ment in Otaheite, in the year 1842, of the protecto-
rate of France, and, during the year following, by the
assumption, in your Majesty's name, of the absolute
sovereignty of the island, the dethronement of Po-
mare, and the forcible occupation of her country. As
the result of these aggressions on the rights of the
Sovereign and the liberties of the island, war, with its
attendant desolations, has since prevailed ; the peaceful
inhabitants have been scattered, and their villages
destroyed; the schools of the missionaries have been
dispersed, and their congregations ruined ; their wives
and families have been compelled to flee for safety,
from the island; their own persons have been in fre-
quent peril, and one of their number has (though un-
intentionally) been killed ; thus, within a few months,
a train of miseries has been produced which the labour
, of many years will be required to counteract.
That, while your memorialists are happy to ac-
knowledge the honourable decision of your Majesty's
Government in declining to assume the sovereignty
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to which the invasion of the country has given rise,
will be to your Majesty an occasion of sincere and
deep regret, they are encouraged also to entertain the
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assurance that a similar course of upright gene-
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policy would have pursued n
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