orrow a
proclamation bidding all Americans look to himself alone. On the 26th,
he wrote again to Becker, and on the 27th received this genial reply:
"Sir, your high favour of the 26th of this month, I give myself the
honour of acknowledging. At the same time I acknowledge the receipt of
your high favour of the 14th October in reply to my communication of the
same date, which contained the information of the suspension of the
arrangements for the municipal government." There the correspondence
ceased. And on the 18th January came the last step of this irritating
intrigue when Tamasese appointed a judge--and the judge proved to be
Martin.

Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir Becker
the chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, all passed into
the hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was secured upon the bench; and
the German flag might wave over her puppet unquestioned. But there is a
law of human nature which diplomatists should be taught at school, and
it seems they are not; that men can tolerate bare injustice, but not the
combination of injustice and subterfuge. Hence the chequered career of
the thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been seized by open force,
there might have been complaint, it would not have aroused the same
lasting grudge.

This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble enough
in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported by the guns
of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien's work, highly needful
for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all Samoans. The law to be
enforced, causes of dispute between white and brown to be eliminated,
taxes to be raised, a central power created, the country opened up, the
native race taught industry: all these were detestable to the natives,
and to all of these he must set his hand. The more I learn of his brief
term of rule, the more I learn to admire him, and to wish we had his
like.

In the face of bitter native opposition, he got some roads accomplished.
He set up beacons. The taxes he enforced with necessary vigour. By the
6th of January, Aua and Fangatonga, districts in Tutuila, having made a
difficulty, Brandeis is down at the island in a schooner, with the
_Adler_ at his heels, seizes the chief Maunga, fines the recalcitrant
districts in three hundred dollars for expenses, and orders all to be in
by April 20th, which if it is not, "not one thing will be done," he
proclaimed, "bu