THE DEATH BLOW.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 286, 4 December 1871, Page 4

THE DEATH BLOW.

CFrom the Australasian.) The South Sea Islanders who struck down Bishop Patteson and his coadjutor did more than they were aware of. They destroyed the detestable aud infamous traffic in human beings which, to our reproach AndTsbamei is springing up in these seas. Deeply as we deplore the tragic incident, the murder of that estimable prelate is not, therefore, an unmitigated calamity. The blood oi the martyrs, we are told, is thb seed of the Church; and tbe sacrifice of two valuable lives by the so-called savages of Santa Cruz will have the result, -we; are . persuaded, of saving the.rHves of thousands of human beings, aud of averting from other thousands the unspeakable misery and suffering which might otherwise be entailed upon them by the perpetration of the slave trade in the South Pacific. For that that trade does exist, no matter under what name it is disguised, and by what pretexts it is attempted to be justified, is indisputable; and Great Britain has made so many sacrifices, and has .poured- out her treasure so freely inotber parts of the world for the suppression of the traffic, that we maybe perfectly certain she will employ all her power to. stamp out the accursed thing ity a portion of the globe which is becoming hers by the pacific conquests of colonization." The murder of Bishop Pattern and Mr. Atkin is an event which *ill kindle the indignation not only of/the religious public, but of the people off the mother country generally, into a fierce flame. The deceased prelate was npt a bigot or a. fanatic. He was a bsoadminded and manly Christian of the Ibeßt stamp, and was, moreover, a scholar and a gentleman. He carried out his missionary work in that spirit of disinterested earnestness and uncalculating self-sacrmoe . which commands- the admiration anil sympathy alike of those who conscientiously believe in the utility of tbat work, and oK those who hold that tbe natural piety of / *- The poor Indian, whose untutored mind / " Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind,7 is far preferable: to some of the religions which are taught in 'some of our churches. Consequently, the death lof this .estimable man will produce fan effect, which will be as wide-spreadl as it will be profound in the minds of pur fellow-countrymen at home. It will be tbe subject of comment in Parliament! in the press, in the pulpit, and on the platform, and there will be— not, let us hope, a demand for vengeance upon the islam lers. who are probably much more sinned against their sinning, and for whom the martyred bishop may have offered up the, prayer, *' Father, forgive them, ;bey know not what they do ' — but for the punishment of the real murderers, namely, the slave traders of the South Pacific. Upon their heads rests the blood of Bishop Patteson and his coadjutor. We (have nothing but commiseration for the! immediate authors of their deaths. [They seem to have acted merely in obedience to a blind, unintelligent, and indiseriminating impulse of revenge. The crew of the missionary schopner state tbat . slavers were about the island, and they draw the logical inference that the murder was provoked by outrages which these) manstealers had previously perpetrated. What more likely than that the victims of ; these, outrages should imagine that the "(Southern Cross", had also arrived at Santa Cruz on the same malignant misssion ? The Bishop and his companions were white men, and tbe only conception which the islanders had been enabled to form of a white man wis this,, — that he was a plausible seoundrol, who invited black men on board his vessel by specious promises, cheap gifts, and alluring words, and then violently and treacherously carried them into captivity, ■ selling them to compulsory labor in adistant land. Under such circumstances, jj and when " savages " become ewe-wit-^ nesses of 1 " Dissimulation's reign, 1 '■ The prayers oi Abel linked to deeds of Cain," % it would be expecting from tbam an j angel's meekness to suppose that\ they would refrain from retaiiatin g upon\ the first white men who fell into their power. Unhappily, .the .objects of their vengeaoce in this instance were innocent atad exemplary missionaries; but,. as we have said, it will prove in the long run, w\ believe, that the natives of Santa Cruz killeditbe slave trade in the Pacific, when they launched a fatal shower of arrows at Bishop Patjteson^and hiscopipanions in tag boats of the Southern Cross. Great Britain, we may be certain,, will be roused to immediate and decisive action in the matter, and if tbe Governors of the Apstrftlian . Colonies,, in their respective' jUrisdiitions as vice-admirals, are empowered to anlticipat© that p;wfe^T^o^^i_ :,^T'i m P^^ ■■&* tne I^Gplonial naval forces available for that Klf^pse ;in.,theoßuppreßsioii of the slave '^f^:^i^^-.^^^ Polynesia,

_-____--_----n__r__T i__ia__-_-_-a--_-in i_> «_» •• i intra,, i r_-____— » they will command all r the mqral support which is capable of be'iog offered them by public opinion here; while it would serve to show our ft-Uow-countrymen in England that we are entirely at one with them in a rooted aversion to slavery in any form, and iv our determination, so far as in us lies to prevent it from taking root in any portion of that " Greater Britain " which we are founding in the South Pacific. The Wages Movement in Germany. — Although the masons' strike in Berlin is at an end, other strikes are expected. The bookbinders, the leatherworkers, the haberdashers, the filemakers, and the boxmakers are all about to hold a meeting with a view to obtain increased wages. The carpenters have meetings every day, but the masters stili refuse to yield. One result of the masons' strike is said to be that 1000 new dwellings are not yet completed which would have been ready by the Ist October. House accommodation io Berlin meanwhile continues to be so inadequate to the wants of the population that if a stranger has no certain pi ospect of finding a dwelling, permission to remain in the city is to be refused him. On the Ist of October 1600 families will, it is calculated, be without homes. r -