--from three different motives.--When a chief has a
gala-day, or desires to signal his arrival by a right royal feast, it is
considered befitting to slaughter some men, to let the blood run in
the path of royalty, and to have on the table some _roast-homme_. Our
Captain Wilkins told us, years ago, that, for this _roast-homme_, a
plump Fijiana, of some twelve or thirteen years, is preferred. They know
very well what is good!--The second motive is hatred. When a Fijian
mortally hates a person, he endeavors to kill him; and having killed the
enemy, why should the victim not be eaten?--Lastly, it would seem that
affectionate regard, especially for a favorite wife, sometimes rises
to a mordant passion and an unconquerable longing for material
assimilation,--so much so, that the loving husband roasts his Penelope,
and neighbors are invited to participate in his better fourth or fifth,
as the polygamic case may be. Perhaps, years after, when with less
demonstrative nations the memory of the beloved one would have passed
away, the Fijian Fidelio may smack his lips, and exclaim, with
Petrarch's fervor,--

"Perche Morte fura
Prima i migliori, e lascia star i rei:
Questa aspettata al regno degli Dei
Cosa bella mortal passa e non dura."

Now we are very anxious not to be misunderstood by our readers. In
writing this paper, we do not mean to urge the reintroduction of
Cannibalism among us at once. The public mind may not yet be ripe for
it; but we desire to assist in placing the subject in its proper light,
and in showing that an enlightened impartiality can find very much in
defence of the Fijians,--more, indeed, than the Rev. Mr. Froude has been
able to accumulate in favor of his wife-devouring hero,--or than Mr.
Spratt can say in favor of humanization in general, and the breaking-up
of the Union in particular, by the reopening of the African
slave-trade,--or than our venerable chief-justice has contrived to say
in favor of reintroducing slavery in conquered territory, where positive
law had abolished or excluded it, by the abstract Constitution itself,
_proprio vigore_, (not quite unlike a wagoner, it seems to us, that
carries the soil of distant parts, _ipsa adhesione_, as it sticks to
his boots, into the tavern-room,) without special law, which even the
ancient civilians very stupidly declared to be necessary. First, you
will remember, it was passionately maintained that the Constitution of
the United State