The Constitutionnel has a long and rather temperate article upon
the reported addition to the French Protectorate in the Pacific of the Wallis Islands; an acquisition which, it contends, will either involve France in a serious misunderstanding with this country, or produce only a repetition of the disavowals and " humiliation " which formed the se- quel of the Tahiti conquest. All these evils, adds the Constitutionne4 are the more imminent, as, the Wallis Islands lying nearer to Australia and New Zealand than Tahiti does, the interests of Great Britain are more nearly involved, and the opposition both of the English Govern- ment and the Missionaries will be more violent. It is, moreover, sug- gested, that the islands in question are included in Mr. Pritchard's Con- sulate, and that the French authorities will therefore find themselves once more in presence of that formidable personage.
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