The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-06-26
The Destlny OF the Society and Sandwich L.
lands-French Colonial Policy.

mercial Reviews, &c.
The Destiny OF the Society and Sandwich L.
lands-Frcnch Colonial Policy.
The intelligence from Tahiti which has lately
appeared in the columns of the HERALD, is pc
culiarly interesting and suggestive.
"A French colony" has long been byword.
1t is generally understood to signify a place
where the language Of Racine and hontesquieu
is cruelty murdered; where trade is systematic
cally discouraged; where agriculture is prose-
cuted with the implements used in Normandy
and Languedoc under Louis XIV; where home
manufactures are unknown; and where the chief
aim of the local authorities is ever to kill the
goose in order to seize the factory of its golden
eggs. Corruption, tyranny. and monopolies
have been invariable characteristics of French
colonies. Like Spain, France has never learnt
that to benefit the mother country the colony
must itself be prosperous and contented; and
that to aggrandize the home exchequer or a few
individuals, at the expense of colonial interests,
is in reality to deal fatal blow at the mother
country herself These are truths which Col
bert and Coligny tried in vain to teach their
countrymen. Their sound admonitions were
condemned, and those who succeeded them in
the administration Of public business had the
worldly wisdom to sail with the stream, and to
lend their aid to support system which most
of them knew to be rotten to the core, and ulti-
mately ruinous to French influence and maritime
power Theorists like Pages, have more than
once deplored the existence of policy whose
effects were discernible full century ago; but
the interval which separates French theory
from practice is so great that no sensible
change has ever been effected or even honestly
tried
The French colonial system is as clearly ex-
emplifed at the present day in the Society
Islands. as it ever was in Canada or East India
The same dissatisfaction the same poverty, the
same utter Indifference to the elements of ma
teral prosperity are visible in both; and the re-
suits which these faults produced in the latter
must obviously occur in the former also.
Time was when the whole northern section of
this continent belonged to France. Canada, and
Acadia, were alone world. The Valley of the
Mississippi was neutral ground between the In
dams and the French, and Louisiana an
empire of itself-completed the chain of the
French possessions in North America. New
foundland was hers also Hayti she long
loved to call the Queen of her colonies,
whence alone she derived q trade equal to
that which Spain carried on with South
America. She held st. Vincent, st. Lucia,
Grenada. Tobago, and several other West
r.,
the Isle of France, the French possessions
once extended upwards of two hundred leagues
on the coast of Hindostan, by sixty leagues in
depth. The slightest management on the part
of her colonial authorities, and mere common
sense on that of her home government, might
have placed her in the position now occupied
by Great Britain. All these magnificent terri
tories-and others, which our space does not
permit us to enumerate-she has lost. Out of
the wreck Of an empire larger than Rome ever
claimed, she has now but couple of West
India Islands. few pestfafous marshes in
South America called Guyane and Cayenne,
Madagascar, which is in the last stage of social
dissolution and misery the Isle Bourbon, a
strip Of African coast where few vessels trade
for gum, the Marquesas and Society Islands,
and Algiers. With the exception Of the last,
all cost France ten times more than they pro-
duce. Everywhere the establishment of French
colonial authority has been a signal for social
disorders and commercial stagnation. Algiers
is a sort Of safety valve. where obnoxious Off
GERS are sent to exhale their superhuous ardor;
and serves occasionally to divert public atten-
ton from affairs at home. But it is a solitary
exception. Otahete, where vessels can OBJ
tain neither provisions nor good fuel
where laborers are not to be had-and
whose inhabitants have lost under French rule
all the spirit and vigor which formerly cbarac-
terised them-is q fair sample Of the modern
French colonies.
Yet, with this fact staring them in the face.
ubiln Erapcb nphIioiufu too frulu rarnorly that