JUDICIAL IMPARTIALITY. 
213 
ants, who followed in her train from Tahiti, re¬ 
quiring 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 that 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, 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 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, sup¬ 
ported 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 
