Tus

Ex.: _He_ seized _tum_ by _tus_ throat; but _tu_ at the same moment
caught _him_ by his hair. A fellow could write hurricanes with an
inflection like that! Yet there would be difficulties too.

Please add to my former orders--

_Le Chevalier Des Touches_ } by Barbey d'Aurevilly.
_Les Diabohques_ }
_Correspondence de Henri Beyle_ (Stendahl).

Yours sincerely,

R. L. STEVENSON.

TO THE REV. S. J. WHITMEE

In this letter the essential points of Stevenson's policy for Samoa
are defined more clearly than anywhere else. His correspondent, an
experienced missionary who had been absent from the islands and
lately returned, and whom Stevenson describes as being of a nature
essentially "childlike and candid," had been induced to support the
idea of a one-man power as necessary for putting an end to the
existing confusion, and to suggest the Chief Justice, Mr.
Cedercrantz, as the person to wield such power. In the present letter
and a subsequent conversation Stevenson was able to persuade his
correspondent to abandon at least that part of his proposal which
concerned the Chief Justice.

_[Vailima] Sunday. Better Day, Better Deed. April 24th, 1892._

Private and confidential.

DEAR MR. WHITMEE,--I have reflected long and fully on your paper, and at
your kind request give you the benefit of my last thoughts.

I. I cannot bring myself to welcome your idea of one man. I fear we are
too far away from any moderative influence; and suppose it to be true
that the paper is bought, we should not even have a voice. Could we be
sure to get a Gordon or a Lawrence, ah! very well. But in this
out-of-the-way place, are these extreme experiments wise? Remember
Baker; with much that he has done, I am in full sympathy; and the man,
though wholly insincere, is a thousand miles from ill-meaning; and see
to what excesses he was forced or led.

II. But I willingly admit the idea is possible with the right man, and
this brings me with greater conviction to my next point. I cannot
endorse, and I would rather beg of you to reconsider, your
recommendation of the Chief Justice. I told you the man has always
attracted me, yet as I have earnestly reconsidered the points against
him, I find objection growing....

But there is yet another argument I have to lay before you. We are both
to write upon this subject. Many of our opinions coincide, and, as I