of alarm in Apia. To refuse the treaty thus hastily and
shamefully cobbled up would have increased it tenfold. Already, since
the declaration of war and the imminence of the results, one of the
papers had ratted, and the white population were girding at the new
ordinance. It was feared besides that the native Government, though they
had voted, were secretly opposed to it. It was almost certain they would
try to prevent its application to the loyalist offenders of Savaii. The
three Consuls in the negotiations of the treaty had fully illustrated
both their want of sympathy with the ordinance and their want of regard
for the position of the Chief Justice. "In short, I am to look for no
support, whether physical or moral?" asked Mr. Ide; and I could make but
the one answer--"Neither physical nor moral." It was a hard choice; and
he elected to accept the terms of the treaty without protest. And the
next war (if we are to continue to enjoy the benefits of the Berlin Act)
will probably show us the result in an enlarged assortment of heads, and
the next difficulty perhaps prove to us the diminished prestige of the
Chief Justice. Mr. Ide announces his intention of applying the law in
the case of another war; but I very much fear the golden opportunity has
again been lost. About one-third of the troops believed him this time;
how many will believe him the next?

It will doubtless be answered that the Consuls were affected by the
alarm in Apia and actuated by the desire to save white lives. I am far
from denying that there may be danger; and I believe that the way we are
going is the best way to bring it on. In the progressive decivilisation
of these islands--evidenced by the female heads taken in the last war
and the treatment of white missionaries in this--our methods of pull
devil, pull baker, general indecision, and frequent (though always
dignified) panic are the best calculated in the world to bring on a
massacre of whites. A consistent dignity, a consistent and independent
figure of a Chief Justice, the enforcement of the laws, and above all,
of the laws against barbarity, a Consular board the same in the presence
as in the absence of warships, will be found our best defence.

Much as I have already occupied of your space, I would yet ask leave to
draw two conclusions.

And first, Mataafa and Tamasese both made war. Both wars were presumably
dynastic in character, though the Tupua not rallying to Tamasese as he
had expect