fe in his right hand, delivered sentence in
the case. Great was the surprise. Because the Chief Justice had balked
so long, it was supposed he would never have taken the leap. And here,
upon a sudden, he came down with a decision flat against the Consuls and
their Treasury regulation. The Government have, I understand, restored
Mr. Gurr's salary in consequence. The Chief Justice, after giving us all
a very severe fright, has reinstated himself in public opinion by this
tardy boldness; and the Consuls find their conduct judicially condemned.

It was on a personal affront that the Consuls turned on Mr. Cedercrantz.
Here is another affront, far more galling and public! I suppose it is
but a coincidence that I should find at the same time the clouds
beginning to gather about Mr. Ide's head. In a telegram, dated from
Auckland, March 30, and copyrighted by the Associated Press, I find the
whole blame of the late troubles set down to his account. It is the work
of a person worthy of no trust. In one of his charges, and in one only,
he is right. The Chief Justice fined and imprisoned certain chiefs of
Aana under circumstances far from clear; the act was, to say the least
of it, susceptible of misconstruction, and by natives will always be
thought of as an act of treachery. But, even for this, it is not
possible for me to split the blame justly between Mr. Ide and the three
Consuls. In these early days, as now, the three Consuls were always too
eager to interfere where they had no business, and the Chief Justice was
always too patient or too timid to set them in their place. For the rest
of the telegram no qualification is needed. "The Chief Justice was
compelled to take steps to disarm the natives." He took no such steps;
he never spoke of disarmament except publicly and officially to disown
the idea; it was during the days of the Consular triumvirate that the
cry began. "The Chief Justice called upon Malietoa to send a strong
force," etc.; the Chief Justice "disregarded the menacing attitude
assumed by the Samoans," etc.--these are but the delusions of a fever.
The Chief Justice has played no such part; he never called for forces;
he never disregarded menacing attitudes, not even those of the Consuls.
What we have to complain of in Mr. Ide and Mr. Schmidt is strangely
different. We complain that they have been here since November, and the
three Consuls are still allowed, when they are not invited, to interfere
in the least and