hat was the salvation looked for. And here we have a
Government at a high figure, and it cannot defend its own gaol, and can
find no better remedy than to assassinate its prisoners. What we have
bought at this enormous increase of expenditure is the change from King
Log to King Stork--from the man who failed to punish petty theft to the
man who plots the destruction of his own gaol and the death of his own
prisoners.

On the return of the Chief Justice, the matter will be brought to his
attention; but the cure of our troubles must come from home; it is from
the Great Powers that we look for deliverance. They sent us the
President. Let them either remove the man, or see that he is stringently
instructed--instructed to respect public decency, so we be no longer
menaced with doings worthy of a revolutionary committee; and instructed
to respect the administration of the law, so if I be fined a dollar
to-morrow for fast riding in Apia street, I may not awake next morning
to find my sentence increased to one of banishment or death by
dynamite.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

_P.S._--_October 14_.--I little expected fresh developments before the
mail left. But the unresting President still mars the quiet of his
neighbours. Even while I was writing the above lines, Apia was looking
on in mere amazement on the continuation of his gambols. A white man had
written to the King, and the King had answered the letter--crimes
against Baron Senfft von Pilsach and (his private reading of) the Berlin
Treaty. He offered to resign--I was about to say "accordingly," for the
unexpected is here the normal--from the presidency of the municipal
board, and to retain his position as the King's adviser. He was
instructed that he must resign both, or neither; resigned both; fell out
with the Consuls on details; and is now, as we are advised, seeking to
resile from his resignations. Such an official I never remember to have
read of, though I have seen the like, from across the footlights and the
orchestra, evolving in similar figures to the strains of Offenbach.

R.L.S.

COPIES OF A CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CERTAIN RESIDENTS OF APIA AND BARON
SENFFT VON PILSACH.

I

_September 28, 1891_.

BARON SENFFT VON PILSACH.

Sir,--We are requested to lay the enclosed appeal before you, and to
express the desire of the signatories to meet your views as to the
manner of the answer.

Should you p