t he
has himself applied for an advance and been refused. Money is certainly
a grave subject on Mulinuu; but respect costs nothing, and thrifty
officials might have judged it wise to make up in extra politeness for
what they curtailed of pomp or comfort. One instance may suffice.
Laupepa appeared last summer on a public occasion; the president was
there and not even the president rose to greet the entrance of the
sovereign. Since about the same period, besides, the monarch must be
described as in a state of sequestration. A white man, an Irishman, the
true type of all that is most gallant, humorous, and reckless in his
country, chose to visit His Majesty and give him some excellent advice
(to make up his difference with Mataafa) couched unhappily in vivid and
figurative language. The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific, but the evil
that he chanced to do lives after him. His Majesty was greatly (and I
must say justly) offended by the freedom of the expressions used; he
appealed to his white advisers; and these, whether from want of thought
or by design, issued an ignominious proclamation. Intending visitors to
the palace must appear before their consuls and justify their business.
The majesty of buried Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a
private collection) under special permit; and was thus at once cut off
from the company and opinions of the self respecting. To retain any
dignity in such an abject state would require a man of very different
virtues from those claimed by the not unvirtuous Laupepa. He is not
designed to ride the whirlwind or direct the storm, rather to be the
ornament of private life. He is kind, gentle, patient as Job,
conspicuously well-intentioned, of charming manners; and when he pleases,
he has one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone--I mean that
he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language.

The government of Brandeis accomplished a good deal and was continually
and heroically attempting more. The government of our two whites has
confined itself almost wholly to paying and receiving salaries. They
have built, indeed, a house for the president; they are believed (if that
be a merit) to have bought the local newspaper with government funds; and
their rule has been enlivened by a number of scandals, into which I feel
with relief that it is unnecessary I should enter. Even if the three
Powers do not remove these gentlemen, their absurd and disastrous
gover