A long letter appears in the Times this morning, signed
" Arthur Tidman and J. J. Freeman, Secretaries of the London Missionary So- ciety," in reply to the letter by Mr. Walter Brodie which was noticed in our last Postscript, and which made assertions gravely inculpating Queen Pomare and the missionaries at Tahiti. We can only pick out the principal points of the lengthy counter-statement. Mr. Brodie arrived in Tahiti on the 13th September 1841, and left it on the 11th of March 1842; and, as the French protectorate was not established till September 1842, he was not personally cognizant of the events about which he writes. He, the accuser, was supercargo of the schooner Unity, and forced the importation of its cargo, rum, against the laws of the island. Be was ordered to leave the port ; and that order was suspended at the intercession of Mr. Wilson, the Vice-Consul ; whom he accuses, too justly, of having become an habitual drunkard. The expul- sion of the French priests, M. Caret and M. Laval, occurred in 1836, the year before Mr. Pritchard was appointed Consul : they were sent to Gambier's Island in the schooner which brought them to Tahiti ; many natives of Gambler's Island had been converted to the .Catholic faith nearly two years earlier. Mr. Pritchard relinquished -the agency of the Society when he was appointed Consul ; and the Se- cretaries refer to evidences of the respect generally entertained for him. The personal charges against Queen Pomare, of adultery and habitual drunkenness, are contradicted. She was betrothed when a child to the King of Bola-bola ; who took to profligate courses, neglected, and fi- nally abandoned her ; her family, with the concurrence of the National Assembly, procured her divorce ; after which she married a chief of Huahine. Strong evidence is adduced which appears completely to re- fute the other charge. Proof of drunkenness among the missionaries Is challenged.
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