The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-30 00:00:00

THE OCCUPATION of OTAHEITE

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-
tul, INIt 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 fur Foreign
Affairs, by whom his answer was also communicated.
Th.it 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 THE 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 ui.enlightened nations the blessings of know-
ledge, ciyili6ation, 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-

mullions, 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, mull ittyles of the human
race, once the victims of savage life in its lowest state
01 misery., and of pagan idolatry in its most cruel and
&grading forms, are now enjoying the inestimable
advantages f social order and happiness, secured as
1% el as ueightemd by the influence of Christianity.
That, by the literary and philological labours also
of the Society's missionaries, the holy Scriptures
!Jaye 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 founder, of the Landon Missionary Society, 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

That, in the year 1796, a band of enterprising and
devoted missionaries, sent forth by this institution,
landel 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 de, potic 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
Otaheitean 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 *arrant 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 .elative 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 corn•
minder 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.