Nor do I think we should judge, from what we see to-day, that it would be possible, or would continue to be possible, even for the kingly Mataafa.

It is always the easier game to be in opposition.

The tale of David and Saul would infallibly be re-enacted; once more we shall have two kings in the land,--the latent and the patent; and the house of the first will become once more the resort of "every one that is in distress, and every one that is in debt, and every one that is discontented." Against such odds it is my fear that Mataafa might contend in vain; it is beyond the bounds of my imagination that Laupepa should contend at all.

Foreign ships and bayonets is the cure proposed in Mulinuu.

And certainly, if people at home desire that money should be thrown away and blood shed in Samoa, an effect of a kind, and for the time, may be produced.