246 DISCONTENT OF THE PEOPLE. 



on the same ground, considered sacred, and they were now 

 favoured not only by the perpetual smiles of their gentle mis- 

 tress, whose " Amativeness" had been permanently developed, 

 but by those also of her no less gentle maids of honour. They 

 toyed, they feasted, and they slept: no dreams of death- 

 warrants, no visions of massacre, now haunting their re- 

 pose. The working people (who, be it remembered, were all 

 respectable spinsters) began to look grave ; still they toyed. 

 The starving people began to look glum ; still they feasted. 

 The angry people began to look fierce ; still they slumbered ; 

 for they relied on the tender constancy of their royal mistress, 

 who had the will to protect them, and the loyalty of her 

 faithful subjects, to whom (however they might look) her will 

 was yet a law. So for awhile it lasted ; but darker storms 

 were brewing. Wo to the "ancient monarchy of Apia ! 



Safe for so many ages, while led by the clear unerring lamp 

 of instinct, a stolen ray from the sun of reason had been 

 furtively introduced into her very heart, and the Promethean 

 fire bade fair to involve her in a destructive blaze. The people 

 of Apia, though ignorant of all theories of political economy, 

 the Malthusian among the number, were intuitively alive to 

 the dangers of redundant population. One of their methods 

 of reducing such political plethora has already been recorded, 

 namely, that periodic blood-letting wont to be effected by the 

 wholesale massacre of all useless members of the state ; but 

 this rigorous measure would have, been wholly insufficient 



