of Englishman has been wont to invest those who could lay claim to it. I say this has been the case, because there appear more of those ominous signs, which have been frequent of late, that this charm is passing away. Upon what, however, has it depended? Plainly upon the belief, wide-spread even amongst barbarous tribes, that England, at the centre of her power and life, is sensitive to every rude touch which the most distant member of her social organization may encounter; that she will feel the wrong, however remote, where wrong is done, and not merely feel it, but that she CAN and WILL redress it. This alone renders possible and safe the immense extension and complexity of the foreign mercantile transactions of England, for all these are perpetually leading to collisions with strangers, in which passions are excited, and in which not only loss of property, but loss of life, would be a familiar occurrence, but for the magical protecting shield which that distant Downing Street, in spite of all its defects, does or did for a long time contrive to throw over every British subject. But does this power exist for commerce alone? What is to be said of the scarcely less wide-spread system of English Christian missions? nay, indeed, of American Christian missions also?—for here the splendour of a more happy future is reflected upon the darkness of our present sad disunion, from the fact, well-known to all readers of missionary records, that in the work of Christianizing the heathen by those who speak the English tongue, the bonds of nationality give way to a nobler union; and that English and American missionaries are found habitually to take refuge from danger under the same flag; feeling equally at home, whether it be the royal standard of England, or the star-spangled banner of the Great Republic. It is true, indeed, according to my belief, that a Divine power watches over and will always preserve whatever is not of purely human origin in the Christian faith; but the safety and freedom, and much even of the efficiency of its teachers, are still left, like other privileges, dependent on human vigilance and effort. St. Paul did not disdain to employ all the civic advan tages which he could command, but, on the contrary, used them to the utmost to promote the great end for which he lived, having no scruple about the tacit sanction thereby given to that armed force of the Government by which alone his legal rights could be enforced. A spirit much like that which stood so stiffly upon the appeal to Cæsar, and extorted an apology from the magistrates of Philippi, was to my own eye visibly at work, some years ago, in the passionate and somewhat martial ardour with which eminent Christian ministers, in spite of their pacific tendencies and sympathies, called for the obtainment of redress from France in the matter of Tahiti. Was that zeal ridiculous, or inconsistent with the Christian profession of those who felt it? Far from it. It was an honourable and Christian zeal; a zeal free from all taint of selfishness. That for which those excellent men were so deeply moved was an object worthy of enthusiasm. French Protectorate of Tahiti. There is no more remarkable phenomenon in history than the change wrought in the Society Islands by Christianity. A critic, who thinks it more profitable to dwell on what is bad than on what is good, may find fault enough in what has been done, but the moral triumph, as a whole, is one of those facts upon which criticism tries its teeth in vain. It is little more than half a century since those islands were plunged in abject barbarism. Human sacrifices, child murder, and other abominations connected with a debasing system of idolatry, were the most prominent features in the habitual life of the people. In 1774 two Roman Catholic missionaries were sent amongst them from Peru, but that mission proved a failure, and was soon abandoned. At the close of the last century was formed the London Missionary Society, and one of its earliest efforts was that made for the conversion of Tahiti. They who learn languages more or less resembling their own, with the aid of grammars, dictionaries, and skilful teachers, can ill appreciate the task of him who, without grammar, dictionary, or teacher, and without a single analogy of sound or inflexion to guide him, tries to acquire fluency in a barbarous tongue. All this the missionaries to Tahiti, as in similar cases, had to do, and they did it—but for what? Only to obtain the command of an instrument, which was to be afterwards used in the still harder task of softening and subduing to the yoke of the gospel the fierce passions of the human heart. The calm and inflexible heroism of the missionaries reached the point of being able to deliver the message; but years wore away in conflict with the obstinate sensualism of the people; and after some of those faithful men had sealed their testimony with their blood, the survivors, in the year 1809, were expelled, and the whole enterprise seemed to be completely at an end. But such enterprises do not end in that way. Two years afterwards the missionary labours were resumed, and then it was found that that moral desert which had been so long barren was yet to rejoice and blossom as the rose. The seed which appeared to have been cast only into stony places had not fallen in vain, and before long the fields were white with a harvest. Within less than a single generation from that time, it was possible to say that Tahiti possessed "a written language, a free press, a representative government, courts of justice, written laws, useful and improved resources," all connected with and flowing out of the general reception of Christianity. Upon all that scene of fair accomplishment, and still fairer promise, suddenly came down the so-called Protectorate of France, threatening, as it seemed, nothing less than the complete disorganization and ruin of a system which was still too young and feeble to go long alone, without the strong English hand to lean upon when needful. Was it wonderful that Christian ministers should be indignant? Was it wonderful that they should then think one of the most active and resolute of foreign ministers not active and resolute enough in using the power of England Report of the London Missionary Society, 1835. for the rescue and preservation of the pearl which they prized so highly? 66 Means of securing Justice between Nations. This zeal, in my view, was zeal in a good thing; and, though less lofty, not less just is that common demand of the English trader, that his venture of silks and spices, when they escape the billows and the rocks, shall be everywhere safe from any dishonesty which the authority of England can restrain. But merchants and ministers of religion must not be children. If they ask these things, they must know what they ask, and what such things cost; because such requests are idle without the existence of infantry, and dragoons, and ships of war, and parks of artillery. Moral force has been sarcastically defined as 'physical force in perspective." This is not quite true, for there is a force the force of ideas, of true convictions, which, in the long run, is an over-match for all the armies in the world. But the operation of this force is too slow for the desires of a Liverpool exporter, or of a warlike missionary at Exeter Hall. Pure moral force that is to say, moral force without the possible accompaniment of grape-shot-is of no use at the Foreign Office. We have not come to that point yet, in the intercourse of nations, though it is to be hoped we shall do so at some future time, according to the promise of the poet : "When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle flags are furled, For the present, and as the only means of ever reaching that glorious time, the nation, to whose safe-keeping is entrusted the highest treasures of civilization, as a deposit on behalf of humanity, would be deeply guilty if, through ignorant or sordid negligence, she failed to keep in her hands the means of guarding them against unjust encroachments. The effective protection of commerce and of missions means this-that the scratch of a pen at Whitehall shall always be sufficient to move line-of-battle ships from their moorings, and launch them into the deep, manned, organized, and armed with all the machinery of destruction, as complete as skill, and discipline, and valour can make it. This is that sword of the magistrate of which the apostle speaks as a terror to evil-doers-a sword not indeed to be used without the most solemn responsibility, but still a sword of the sharpest edge, which he to whom it is entrusted ought not to bear in vain. Possible Demands upon England. Constituted as men are, justice cannot be ensured amongst them without force. In the internal government of a nation, the force requisite for this purpose is entrusted to a few on behalf of the rest of society. But in the society of nations there is no supreme authority. Each separate nation is a portion of the general executive, and both the right and the duty of enforcing justice attach to and accompany the possession of power. Each, according to circumstances, may have to exercise the right, and upon each, according to the turn of events, this duty may be imposed. England, therefore, requires an adequate power to enforce her own just demands; but she wants such power no less to enable her to resist the unjust demands that may be made upon her. Look at her position. Is there nothing in it to render her peculiarly liable to such demands? Throughout the whole of Continental Europe there is now no free press. From the Ural Mountains to the Atlantic there is no country in which a journalist can freely criticise the great reigning powers. This is not an accidental circumstance. It is a necessary result of that system of military repression which everywhere prevails. The two things could not exist together. But, then, if such Governments cannot bear the free criticism of journals at home, how long will they patiently endure the sharp comments of the English press? The nearest of those powers is evidently very |