If France and England were at the mercy of their
respective servants in Polynesia, they would incontinently go to war. Lord PALMERSTON or M. THIERS would assuredly have contrived an " armed peace " out of the new occasion : but M. Ganzor and Sir ROBERT PEEL, falling in with the temper of the times, are the least likely of all statesmen to stoop to that folly. The French officers in Tahiti, intoxicated by their adventurous conquest of the island, have burlesqued the absolute powers for disposing of all things attributed 'in melodramas to victors ; they have deposed Queen POMARE, seized Mr. PRITCHARD, the British missionary-merchant- consul, and sent him off, and have placed part of the island under martial law ! Luckily, France disavowed the absurdities of Admiral DUPETIT-THOUARS and his punctilios about flags and cocoa-nut- leaves ; and to disavow the puerilities of M. D'AUBIGNY and M. Bauer, follows as matter of course. The demand for satisfaction, therefore, made formally but not hostilely by the British Govern- ment, can scarcely be met in any but a decorous spirit. Could not the two countries, however, manage to send out men of sense and discretion to represent them in Polynesia ?—in Tahiti, just now, such a step might be very useful. Perhaps the new commander sent out by France may prove to be of a better sort ; and at least we should look to our own servants.
