In the year 1824, when the infant, Pomare III. was recognized by the nation as the successor to his father in the government of Tahiti and Moorea, the Tahitian code was revised and enlarged. At this time, a most important law was introduced; which gave to the nation, for the first time, what might be termed a representative government, and rendered the Tahitian a limited, instead of an absolute monarchy. It was then decreed that members from every district should meet annually, for the purpose of devising and enacting new laws, and amending those already in existence. The duration of the session was to be regulated by the business to be transacted. The inhabitants of the districts were to select their representatives, and fresh deputies or members to be elected every three years. It was at first enacted, that two should be sent from each district; but the same law authorized the body which might be thus convened to increase the number to three or four from each, if it were found desirable. No regulation was to be regarded as a law, but such as had been approved or proposed by them, and had received the sanction of the king; and every regulation made by them, and approved by the king, was to be observed as the law of the land.

The printed report of the session of what may be termed the Tahitian parliament, which assembled in May 1826, contains an alteration of two laws, and four new regulations. The first of these is sufficiently important to justify its translation, it is—

CONCERNING SEAMEN WHO MAY LEAVE THEIR VESSELS.

1. The captain, or master of the vessel, who shall turn one of his crew on shore, without the consent of the governor of the district, is criminal. He shall pay thirty dollars; twenty to the king, six to the governor, and four to the man who shall conduct the seaman back to his ship.

2. The man who shall forsake his ship, and hide himself on shore, shall be immediately apprehended. The man that finds and apprehends (each deserter) shall receive eight dollars, if he was taken near at hand; and fifteen dollars, if brought from a distance.

3. The person who shall entice any man belonging to a ship, so that he abandon his ship, and the man who shall hide or secrete him who shall so abscond, shall be tried, and (if convicted) his sentence shall be to make fifty fathoms of pathway or road, or to build eight yards of stone pier or wall.

4. A seaman who had concealed himself on shore, and who shall be found after his ship has sailed, shall be brought to trial, and his sentence shall be to make fifty fathoms of road.

One of the greatest sources of annoyance to the natives, and inconvenience to foreigners, has been the conduct of seamen who have absconded from their ships, or been turned on shore by the masters of trading vessels. To prevent as much as possible seamen from leaving their ships, this law was enacted; and by subjecting to a punishment with hard labour, both the deserters, and those who may favour their desertion or concealment, is adapted to answer the end proposed.

A copy of this law, with an English translation printed on the same paper, is given, by a person whom the government appoints for that purpose, to the master of every vessel entering any of their harbours. The regulation is so just in its nature, and so salutary is its tendency in regard to those who visit the islands, as well as the community on shore, that the most ready acquiescence in its requirements may be most reasonably expected.

The people have always felt more difficulty in the enforcement of those regulations which refer to subjects of other governments residing among them, than to the na

tives of their own islands. The sentencing of such sailors as may desert from their ships, or may be found on shore after their vessels have sailed, to hard labour on the public roads or quays, is probably the most effectual plan they could have adopted to deter seamen from the very frequent practice of forsaking their vessels.

The promulgation of an official printed code among the inhabitants of these islands, not only formed an epoch in their history, but introduced a new order of feeling and action in their civil relations, as a community governed by laws which they had deliberately and unitedly adopted. Perspiscuity and plainness had been studied in the framing of their laws, and in several instances we should have preferred even greater explicitness. The public administration of justice, under the former system, had been exceedingly unceremonious and simple; and although the change now introduced had rendered it rather more complex, it was not intricate or perplexing. In several of the islands, I believe, court-houses were built. There were none, however, in Huahine when I left, though I have since heard that they were erecting one for the chief judges.

No investigations or trials have ever taken place with "closed doors," but all causes are tried in open court. In some of the islands, the bell-man goes round the district, to give public notice before any trial takes place. Their places of justice have usually been the governor's house, or the open air, frequently the court-yard in front of the chief's dwelling, an open space in the centre of the settlement, or near the sea-beach. A wide-spreading tree, or clump, is usually selected, and under its shade the bench is fixed and the trial attended. The hour of sun-rise is usually chosen, as they prefer the coolness of the morning to the heat of noon.

Important as this change in the civil constitution was to all the great interests of the people, there were doubtless many who were either insensible of the advantages that would accrue to themselves and their posterity, or were unable to appreciate their value. There were others, however, among different ranks in society, who thought and felt differently, and occasionally exhibited the high sense they entertained of natural and acknowledged rights, and the security they expected from the laws they had adopted. Many illustrations of this remark might be adduced, I shall only cite one that occurred in the island in which I resided.

In the autumn of 1822, the queen of Tahiti, the widow of Pomare, visited Huahine. Her attendants, who followed in her train from Tahiti, requiring a piece of timber, she directed them to cut down a bread-fruit tree growing in the garden of a poor man on the opposite side of the bay, near which her own residence stood. Her orders were obeyed, and the tree was carried away. Teuhe, the owner of the spot on which it stood, returning in the evening to his cottage, saw the spoiler had been there; the stump was bleeding, and the boughs lay strewed around, but the stately trunk was gone. Informed by his neighbours that the queen's men had cut it down, he repaired to the magistrate of the district, and lodged a complaint against her majesty the queen. The magistrate directed him to come to the place of public justice the following morning at sun-rise, and substantiate his charge: he afterwards sent his servant to the queen, and invited her attendance at the same hour. The next morning, the Missionary residing there went down to witness the proceeding; and, as the sun rose above the horizon, Ori, the magistrate, was seen sitting in the open air,

beneath the spreading branches of a venerable tree: on a finely-woven mat, before him, sat the queen, attended by her train; beside her stood the native peasant; and around them all, what may be termed the police-officers. Turning to Teuhe, the magistrate inquired for what purpose they had been convened. The poor man said, that in his garden there grew a bread-fruit tree, whose shade was grateful to the inmates of his cottage, and whose fruit, with that of those which grew around, supported his family for five or seven months in every year; but that, yesterday, some one had cut it down, as he had been informed, by order of the queen. He knew that they had laws he had thought those laws protected the poor man's property, as well as that of kings and chiefs; and he wished to know whether it was right that, without his knowledge or consent, the tree should have been cut down.

The magistrate, turning to the queen, asked if she had ordered the tree to be cut down. She answered, 'Yes.'He then asked if she did not know that they had laws. She said, 'Yes;' but she was not aware they applied to her. The magistrate asked, 'If in those laws (a copy of which he held in his hand) there were any exceptions in favour of chiefs, or kings, or queens.' She answered, 'No;' and despatched one of her attendants to her house, who soon returned with a bag of dollars, which she threw down before the poor man, as a recompense for his loss.— 'Stop,' said the justice, 'we have not done yet.' The queen began to weep. Do you think it right that you should have cut down the tree without asking the owner's permission?' continued the magistrate. 'It was not right,' said the queen. Then turning to the poor man, he asked, 'What remuneration do you require?' Teuhe