to the commander 125 ounces of gold as an indemnity for the compulsory departure of Messrs. Laval and Carret ; as respects the salute, the queen having no powder, she was obliged to beg a supply of that sine qua non of modern warfare from Mons. du Petit-Thouars, in order to render him this token of humiliation. A few days afterwards, on the 4th September, a treaty with the queen was concluded, nearly similar to the one already ratified by the king of the Sandwich Islands. One of its principal articles runs thus: borrowing the requisite sum, and paid over ants." But Messrs. Laval and Carret had deliberately trespassed on the requirements of the law; and were therefore solicited to retire; but having obtained a footing ou the island by stratagem, they hoped, by gaining time, to find means of remaining there; they set up their tabernacle in a house placed at their disposal by a Mr. Moërenhout, and here by celebrating the mass, &c., they commenced the precise work for which they had made their appearance at Tahiti, taking no notice of the prohibition enjoined upon them, and which even Mons. Dumont d'Urville admits to have been perfectly in order-" the native inhabitants," he says, "certainly being their own masters." Refusing to depart, they were finally made to do so by compulsion. Mons. Laval returned to Manga-Reva, while Mr. Carret found his way back to France, to invoke the help and the avenging thunder-bolts of his government. Thus we learn, how this whole series of exactions and violence, in which Mons. du PetitThouars figures as the principal actor, have sprung up. These two priests, we have seen, "wished to substitute the dogmas of their Church in place of the doctrines of the Reformation," and for this they con veyed themselves by stealth into the island of Tahiti; they were sent away; and France, on their complaints and in support of interests exclusively of a religious nature, commences war. "The French, of whatever profession they may be, shall have full liberty to come and to leave as they please, and to establish themselves for the purposes of trade in any of the islands under the government of Tahiti; they shall be received and protected equally with the most favored foreign nations." The words given here in italics, are of immense importance; they sanction and authorize by solemn treaty, without expressly saying so, the sojourning of Priests, and the enterprise of proselyting, for the futherance of which aims this expedition, as has been shown, was undertaken. It will be remembered that the Astrolabe and la Zelée arrived at Tahiti about the same time as the Venus, Captain Dumont d'Urville, commanding these Corvettes, enlightens us how the controversy originated. "In 1835," he says, "the Messrs. Laval and Carret, emboldened by the advantages obtained at Manga-Reva, and being apprised of the favorable disposition entertained towards them by several chiefs of Tahiti, believed the hour had come to introduce the principles of the church of Rome and expunge the doctrines of the Reformation; and consequently repaired to Tahiti in an English vessel." Eluding the law which forbid their landing without leave, they disembarked on the south side of the island, at a great distance from the seat of government, and from thence turned their steps toward Pape-Iti, where the course to be pursued was canvassed in a meeting held with the Chiefs. Captain Dumont d'Urville, opines that if a public discussion had been brought about at this time, between the Missionaries of the two opposing sects, it would have caused the immediate downfall of Protestantism among these islanders. "The ritual of the Roman Church," says he, "with its fascinating splendor, if exhibited before the eyes of the natives, would speedily have led them to despise the dry and insipid forms of the Protest The object contemplated by sending out the Venus, had already been accomplished before Mons. Dumont d'Urville's arrival. The Protestant Missionaries conceived the idea that the Commander of the Astrolabe and la Zelée might peradventure disclaim the doings of Mons. du Petit-Thouars; and feeling themselves aggrieved by his encroachment on their rights, as well as on those of the Queen, they intended presenting an appeal to the former, as being the senior in point of rank; but they soon perceived that such a step could effect no good. The Queen_received the two Commanders; Mons. Dumont d'Urville told her, that he had gone out of his regular course, because he had been informed of the treatment the Catholic Missionaries had experienced; to which the Queen simply replied, that the existing state of things in her dominions had made it necessary to effect their removal. A scene then ensued, in which the behavior of Mons. du PetitThouars can hardly be credited, were we not assured of its reality by the testimony of his colleague Mons. Dumont d'Urville. "I merely replied," he says, "that un doubtedly the Queen is free in her own States, and no person in the world, not even the King of the French excepted, can demand of her to change her religion; she would have been perfectly right, had she restricted herself to simply denying the French Missionaries all exhibition of their rites in public; but the severe treatment manifested toward two citizens of France (we were speaking of their expulsion from the island, where they had assayed to introduce the controversy) was of such a nature, that we could not let it pass without some sort of satisfaction. I moreover said that the Queen Pomaré-Vahiné ought to esteem herself very fortunate in having been able to extricate herself from her embarrassing position with the French Empire, at so small a cost. These words, rather severe as they were, I observe the interpreter has faithfully transmitted, for I see Pomaré is sensibly affected, and the tears begin to course from her eyes, which she fixes on me with an expression of anger sufficiently apparent. At the same instant I observe also that Captain du Petit Thouars seems to use his efforts to dissipate her displeasure by means of several amicable little tricks, such as to pull her gently by the hair, or tapping her on the cheek; he even adds in an affectionate tone that it wrong for her to take on so." tion of this country, and which has found vent in those energetic paragraphs which may be seen in every publication without exception, claiming to be an organ of Protestant principles. It is an iniquitous act, and notwithstanding the disclaimer put forth in the Moniteur, there is besides room for strong surmises that all moral obliga tions have been outraged in the most base and brutal manner by our seamen. Mons. du Petit-Thouars has, it is true, paid some homage to the British Navy, by saying that they have taught the natives to regard all vessels as taboués or inaccessible; but we do not forget the answer given by Monsr. Dumont d'Urville to father Jean-Chrysos. tome, when entreated by him to use his power to prohibit the sailors under his command from destroying the fruits of the labors of the Roman Catholic Missionaries at Manga-Reva, by their odious vices. He told the holy father, in terms not proper to be used in this place," that he positively could not make himself responsible for the conduct of his men; and that all he could do to put a stop to the scandal, was to put out to sea the very day similar offences should again occur." These well grounded fears of the Roman Catholic Missionaries, amply justify the measures taken by those of the Protestant faith, in order to keep off these corrupters of the native population; to save one Mission the anchor is instantly hove-to destroy another it is suffered to rest in its bed. But this is not all; this same Mr. Moërenhout, who for seven or eight years has been the principal and most virulent enemy of the Protestant Missions in those islands, and who by his slanders, has made the French sailors be lieve that the Missionaries were "the most oppressive vampires of the natives," as Mons. Dumont d'Urville expresses it, has been appointed to fill the station of Royal Commissary. This is the man, who has persecuted the Protestant Missions with inveterate hatred, and labored with all his might to promote the interests of the Roman Catholics, and is now made, as it were, the sole and sovereign arbiter of the fate We have drawn the particulars now pre- of those institutions which have raised the sented to our readers, relating to the expe- Tahitians to some degree of christian civdition of the two Commanders du Petit- ilization, as well as of the fate of those Thouars and Dumont d'Urville, from the men who founded these institutions, inasmost authentic sources accessible in such much as there is no appeal from his deci matters, viz., their own published Journals, sions but to the King of France, which, it and these particulars furnish a key to sub- is well known, can at best afford no redress sequent events; they certainly suffice, to for a whole year. It will be appreciated justify that burst of indignation which this from these data, how illusory are the hopes last act of the French government has call- founded on that kind of guarantee which ed forth from the entire Protestant popula-has been extended to the English Mission is Here we behold with what degree of becoming dignity the orders of the French Government are executed, and what mockery is practised upon a Princess threatened with fire and sword! the Artemise has finished the work begun by the Venus. Captain Laplace, her Commander, has in due form extorted the grant of unobstructed ingress for the Roman Catholic Missionaries to propagate their doctrines; and having secured these privileges at Tahiti, he has been to the Sandwich-Islands to extort the same concessions there. The French government, has then, it seems, taken upon itself the ungracious task of establishing the right of diffusing Popery among the islanders of the Pacific, in defiance of their Kings, their Chiefs and their laws. aries now actually on the spot. They are not liable to be expelled; granted-this would be too bold a procedure; but their work will be undermined and ultimately destroyed. The past throws abundant light on the future, on this point. THE BATTLE OF THE BLOCKS. THE PAVING QUESTION. From Blackwood's Magazine. THE subject of greatest metropolitan interest which has occurred for many years, Politicians in England, as we have said, is the introduction of wood paving. As the evince the utmost apathy in view of these main battle has been fought in London, and events; but we are informed, on the other nothing but a confused report of the great hand, that the religious community, which object in dispute may have penetrated bein that country is so large and influential, yond the sound of Bow bells, we think it feel the same with regard to these things will not be amiss to put on record, in the as Protestants do in France; we have been imperishable brass and marble of our pages, assured that the Ministry of Peace have by an account of the mighty struggle of the this act of intolerant bigotry, drawn down doughty champions who couched the lance upon their head as much odium from the and drew the sword in the opposing ranks most respectable classes in England, as the—and, finally, to what side victory seems agitation of the question concerning the to incline on this beautiful 1st of May in the right of search has done in France. It year 1843. seems strange that while professing to la- Come, then, to our aid, oh ye heavenly bor for the closer approximation of the Muses! who enabled Homer to sing in such two nations, they have made themselves so persuasive words the fates of Troy and of active in meriting the execrations of so its wooden horse; for surely a subject which large a portion of both.* We are unable is so deeply connected both with wood and to explain this paradox, unless by admit- horses, is not beneath your notice; but ting the hypothesis that there exists more perhaps, as poetry is gone out of fashion at latent motives for making these conces- the present time, you will depute one of sions to a party already too highly favored your humbler sisters, rejoicing in the name to be easily managed. of Prose, to give us a few hints in the com I ASK THEE TO FORGET ME. As * The London Missionary Society have just pub-position of our great history. The name of lished a work called "A brief statement of the ag- the first pavier, we fear, is unknown, unless gression of the French on the island of Tahiti," we could identify him with Triptolemus, which we have received, and which is now in the who was a great improver of Rhodes; but hands of the translator. The Missionary Society it is the fate of all the greatest benefactors of Paris have likewise published a kind of protest, and spread a great number of copies over the land.' of their kind to be neglected, and in time forgotten. The first regularly defined paths were probably footways-the first carriages. broad-wheeled. No record remains of what materials were used for filling up the ruts; so it is likely, in those simple times when enclosure acts were unknown, that the cart was seldom taken in the same track. houses were built, and something in the shape of streets began to be established, the access to them must have been more attended to. A mere smoothing of the inequalities of the surface over which the oxen had to be driven, that brought the grain home on the enormous plaustra of the husbandman, was the first idea of a street, whose very name is derived from stratum, levelled. As experience advanced, steps would be taken to prevent the softness of the road from interrupting the draught. A narrow rim of stone, just wide enough to sustain the wheel, would, in all probability, be the next improvement; and only when the gentle operations of the farm were exchanged for war, and the charger had to be hurried to the fight, with all the equipments necessary for an army, great Nor while my form is still before thine eyes- I ask thee to forget me! and when time roads were laid open, and covered with was kept in passable condition, and that hard materials to sustain the wear and tear Alfred, amidst his other noble institutions, of men and animals. Roads were found to be invented a highway rate. The fortresses no less necessary to retain a conquest than and vassal towns of the barons, after the to make it; and the first true proof of the Conquest, must have covered the country greatness of Rome was found in the long with tolerable cross-roads; and even the lines of military ways, by which she main- petty wars of those steel-clad marauders tained her hold upon the provinces. You must have had a good effect in opening may depend on it, that no expense was new communications. For how could Sir spared in keeping the glorious street that Reginald Front-de-Bœuf, or Sir Hildebrand led up her Triumphs to the Capitol in ex- Bras-de-Fer, carry off the booty of their cellent repair. All the nations of the Orbis discomfited rival to their own granaries Antiquus ought to have trembled when without loaded tumbrils, and roads fit to they saw the beginning of the Appian pass over? road. It led to Britain and Persia, to Nor would it have been wise in rich abCarthage and the White Sea. The Britons, bots and fat monks to leave their monastehowever, in ancient days, seem to have ries and abbeys inaccessible to pious pilbeen about the stupidest and least enterpris- grims, who came to admire thigh-bones of ing of all the savages hitherto discovered. martyred virgins and skulls of beatified After an intercourse of four hundred years saints, and paid very handsomely for the with the most polished people in the world, exhibition. Finally, trade began, and pathey continued so miserably benighted, that viers flourished. The first persons of that they had not even acquired masonic know-illustrious profession appear, from the sound ledge enough to repair a wall. The rampart raised by their Roman protectors between them and the Picts and Scots, became in some places dilapidated. The unfortunate natives had no idea how to mend the breach, and had to send once more for their auxiliaries. If such their state in regard to masonry, we cannot suppose that their skill in road-making was very great; and yet we are told that, even on Cæsar's invasion, the Britons careered about in warchariots, which implies both good roads and some mechanical skill; but we think it a little too much in historians to ask us to believe BOTH these views of the condition of our predecessors in the tight little island; for it is quite clear that a people who had arrived at the art of coach-making, the fact of stones forming the main body could not be so very ignorant as not to of the streets in his time; for it is absurd know how to build a wall. If it were to suppose that he was so rigid an observer not for the letters of Cicero, we should of the unities as to pay the slightest renot believe a syllable about the war-cha-spect to the state of paving in the time of riots that carried amazement into the hearts Julius Cæsar at Rome. of the Romans, even in Kent or Surrey. Gradually London took the lead in imBut we here boldly declare, that if twenty Ciceros were to make their affidavits to the fact of a set of outer barbarians, like Galgacus and his troops, " sweeping their fiery lines on rattling wheels' up and down the Grampians-where, at a later period, a celebrated shepherd fed his flocks -we should not believe a word of their declaration. Tacitus, in the same manner, we should prosecute for perjury. The Saxons were a superior race, and when the eightsome-reel of the heptarchy became the pas-seul of the kingdom of England, we doubt not that Watling Street of the name, to have been French, unless we take the derivation of a cockney friend of ours, who maintains that the origin of the word is not the French pavé, but the indigenous English pathway. However that may be, we are pretty sure that paving was known as one of the fine arts in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; for, not to men. tion the anecdote of Raleigh and his cloakwhich could only happen where puddles formed the exception and not the rule-we read of Essex's horse stumbling on a pa ving-stone in his mad ride to his house in the Strand. We also prove, from Shakspeare's line "The very stones would rise in mutiny"— proving its ways. It was no longer neces sary for the fair and young to be carried through the mud upon costly pillions, on the backs of high-stepping Flanders mares. Beauty rolled over the stones in fourwheeled carriages, and it did not need more than half a dozen running footmenthe stoutest that could be found-to put their shoulders occasionally to the wheel, and help the eight black horses to drag the ponderous vehicle through the heavier parts of the road. Science came to the aid of beauty in these distressing circumstances. Springs were invented that yielded to every jolt; and, with the aid of cushions, ren-came greater. It was proved to the satdered a visit to Highgate not much more isfaction of all rational men, if Mr. Macfatiguing than we now find the journey adam's experiment succeeded, and a level to Edinburgh. Luxury went on-wealth flowed in-paviers were encouraged coach-makers grew great men-and London, which our ancestors had left mud, was now stone. Year after year the granite quarries of Aberdeen poured themselves out on the streets of the great city, and a milion and a half of people drove, and rode, and bustled, and bargained, and cheated, and throve, in the midst of a din that would have silenced the art llery of Trafalgar, and a mud which, if turned into bricks, would have built the tower of Babel. The citizens were now in possession of the "fumum et opes strepitumque Roma;" but some of the more quietly disposed, though submitting patiently to the "fumum," and by no means displeased with the "opes," thought the "strepitumque" could be dispensed with; and plans of all kinds were proposed for obviating the noise and other inconveniences of granite blocks. Some proposed straw, rushes, sawdust; ingenuity was at a stand-still; and London appeared to be condemned to a perpetual atmosphere of smoke and sound. It is pleasant to look back on difficulties when overcome the best illustration of which is Columbus's egg; for, after convincing the skeptic, there can be no manner of doubt that he swallowed the yelk and white, leaving the shell to the pugnacious disputant. In the same way we look with a pleasing kind of pity on the quandaries of those whom we shall call with no belief whatever in the pre-Adamite theory-the pre-Macadam-ness of your skull with a mass of stone, ites. surface were furnished to the streets, that, besides noise, many other disadvantages of the rougher mode of paving would be avoided. Among these the most prominent was slipperiness: and it was impossible to be denied, that at many seasons of the year, not only in frost, when every terrestrial pathway must be unsafe; but in the dry months of summer, the smooth surfaces of the blocks of granite, polished and rounded by so many wheels, were each like a convex mass of ice, and caused unnumbered falls to the less adroit of the equestrian portion of the king's subjects. One of the most zealous advocates of the improvement was the present Sir Peter Laurie, not then elevated to a seat among the Equites, but imbued probably with a foreknowledge of his knighthood, and therefore anxious for the safety of his horse. Sir Peter was determined, in all senses of the word, to leave no stone unturned; and a very small mind, when directed to one object with all its force, has more effect than a large mind unactuated by the same zeal-as a needle takes a sharper point than a sword. Thanks, therefore, are due, in a great measure, to the activity and eloquence of the worthy alderman for the introduction of Macadam's system of roadmaking into the city. Many evils were certainly got rid of by this alteration-the jolting motion from stone to stone-the slipperiness and unevenness of the road-and the chance, in case of an accident, of contesting the hard which seemed as if it were made on purA man of talent and enterprise, Mr. Mac- pose for knocking out people's brains. For adam, proposed a means of getting quit of some time contentment sat smiling over the one of the objections to the granite cause- city. But, as "man never is, but always ways. By breaking them up into small pie- to be, blest," perfect happiness appeared ces, and spreading them in sufficient quan- not to be secured even by Macadam. Ruts tity, he proved that a continuous hard sur- began to be formed-rain fell, and mud was face would be formed, by which the uneasy generated at a prodigious rate; repairs jerks from stone to stone would be avoided, were needed, and the road for a while was and the expense, if not diminished, at all rough and almost impassable. Then it was events not materially increased. When the found out that the change had only led to proposition was fairly brought before the a different kind of noise, instead of destroypublic, it met the fate of all innovations. ing it altogether; and the perpetual grindTimid people-the very persons, by the by, ing of wheels, sawing their way through who had been the loudest in their ex- the loose stones at the top, or ploughing clamations against the ancient causeways-through the wet foundation, was hardly an became alarmed the moment they saw a improvement on the music arising from the chance of getting quit of them. As we never know the value of a thing till we have lost it, their attachment to stone and noise became more intense in proportion as the certainty of being deprived of them be jolts and jerks along the causeway. Men's minds got confused in the immensity of the uproar, and deafness became epidemic. In winter, the surface of Macadam formed a series of little lakes, resembling on a small |