AS COMPARED WITH COMMERCIAL. 59 



with minds engrossed by mercantile speculations, 

 and destitute of all responsibility, would go far 

 to correct or educate these people. The press, 

 also, (that mighty engine for the development 

 of the human intellect,) as well as the reduction 

 of the Polynesian languages to a standard rule, 

 would have long remained absent from these 

 nations, had their introduction depended solely 

 upon commercial relations with their protecting 

 countries. 



Since some few errors and abuses are in- 

 separable from human nature, we may admit 

 that the missionaries perform their duties with 

 great moderation and purity. The principal 

 faults laid to their charge, are too great an in- 

 terference in the political and domestic affairs 

 of the natives, and too keen a participation in 

 commercial transactions. Nor are these charges 

 altogether groundless ; although more frequently 

 applicable to individuals than to the collective 

 body. The missionaries shield themselves from 

 the blame of political interference, by attributing 

 all legal enactments, at their stations, to the will 

 of the principal natives ; but the influence they 

 exercise over the minds of the chiefs, and the 

 frequency with which the latter consult them 

 upon all important affairs, are too well known, 



