The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-11-03
Fiii-Land in Clover.

A comical foreign dispatch says that Sir
become his intelligence better unless it were
Sir Jupiter Smith, has sent home to the Brit
ish government soma important dispatches
from the Fiji Islands. He says that he has
imposed tax, established tariff, framed a
code of laws and retains the government in
his own hands. Admirable Robinson! San
cho Panza, placed in charge of England's
new colony, could have done no better with
all his administrative skill as displayed in the
government of his island. Yet perhaps the
Fijians are not happy. 1t is possible that
they are not sufficiently grateful to the be-
neficent Sir Hercules, who has thus lifted
their national go-cart out of the mud. May
be, with all the blessings incident to the ex-
else and tariff and the British constitution,
they regret their baked missionary and other
succulent edibles of their old-time bill of fare.
Or perhaps they critcise Sir Hercules as
conservative and complain because he has
not also given them at the same time
with custom houses and publicans those
rare old English institutions, game pre-
serving, primogeniture, entail, doctors
commons, House of Lords, an estab-
lished church and the Derby. 1t is
something, to be sure, to have Fjian
manufactures protected against the pauper
labor of the Marquesas and Society Islands,
but the retired cannibal can surely never be
completely happy till he sees few dozen of
his own countrymen created baronets. 1t
was the case with Canada. Our ncighbors
their latent loyalty never took deep root till
native Canadians of both English and French
blood had been created Sir Johns and Sir
Georges. Since this timely concession to-
gether with the appointment of genuine
lo-d to the Governor-G eneralship, the Ca
nadians have been waxing jealous in their de-
votion to the mother country and ''never
will desert her." though she now shows
some disposition to be rid of them.
It is not fair to treat these South sea an
thropophagi slightingy because their diet
has been until now curious rather than nice.
1t is possible 10 conceive that there are some
really fine old gentlemen among them who,
in conformity with usage, have made, in
their day, many hearty meal off from Brit.
ish subjects and now have British blood flow
ing in their veins. No men can more truth
fully claim that they have taste for The
English people. Nor are their fellow subjects
who live in England entitled to assume
too many airs of superiority. 1t is
true that the eating Of human flesh is not
practiced within sight of the dome of St,
Paurs, but the devouring of widows houses
is prosperous trade in London, The souls
of the millions are destroyed by poverty and
vice in order that very few favored thou
sands may fatten. Such a monopoly of land
as is enjoyed by some three or four British
nobemen is only tee hnically less WICKED
than the now happily extinct peculiar insi
tuition of Sir Hercules islanders. 1t is i'm
possible for the cultivators of the soil owne'
by these lords to feed either their minds o
their bodies. When age or sickness come
the laborers sink, as matter of course, int
pauperism. They suffer from hunger, thei
minds remain the minds of children, thei
real civil rights are those Of serfs. Josepl
Arch, hopeless of emancipating them, is try
ing to found new homes for them in fol
eign land. Three millions Of paupers an
nerhans twice as many more wretchedly des
tltutc people IN England. wnUov substance
devoured by few of their neighbors! HOY
much less atrocious is civilized than barbar
GUS man-eating? The English nobleman in
directly makes away with thousands Q
Britons; the Fijian never stained his moutl
with the blood of his own people.