The truth is, the king and regent apprehended that the introduction of a new religion might produce dissensions among their people. They could not comprehend why a Protestant should not be permitted to marry a Roman Catholic, and very naturally dreaded the introduction of a system which set up such exclusive pretensions. Their untutored sagacity discovered the discord which this marriage prohibition must of itself create. Before Roman propagandists raise the cry of proscription, let them accommodate their antiquated faith to the more liberal and enlightened spirit of the age. Let them lift the ban from the sacred rights of marriage, and admit the possibility of a Protestant’s getting into heaven, or at least of throwing his shadow in; that will save the Swedenborgians!
But the king and regent were also apprehensive that the images used in the forms of the Romish worship might lead their people back again into idolatry. They could not see clearly any difference between praying to an image, or praying to a spirit through that image. They could not detach the substance from its seeming shadow, and worship the latter without an obtrusion of the former. My venerable friend, the bishop of New York, with his metaphysical acuteness, can undoubtedly accomplish this; but a poor kanacka here would be very apt to commit a blunder; and this, too,
In that dread creed, in which a truth and blunder
Are deemed as wide as heaven and hell asunder.
The crowning act of shame perpetrated here by La Place, was in his communication to the American consul, in which he informs that functionary, that in the havoc which will follow a non-compliance with his demands by the government, the missionaries, with their families, will not escape. They are singled out as objects of special vengeance. Their houses are delivered over to rapine, their wives and daughters to pollution. This communication our consul should have returned indignantly to its brutal author, and our government should have visited the insult which it conveyed with the rebuke and chastisement which it merited. If we would have our consular flag respected, we must not allow its sanctity to be trampled upon by every insolent bravado of the sea.
La Place, having achieved these triumphs, having bullied an unarmed government, menaced with massacre a helpless people, intimidated the wives and children of the missionaries, forced on a reluctant community his Jesuits and brandy, and filched all the small change in circulation, took his departure, much to the relief of all good men, and to the great disappointment, no doubt, of the devil, who had further work for him.
The officers of the American squadron, under the command of Commodore Reed, who arrived here a short time after the departure of La Place, issued a circular, from which the following is an extract:—
“Being most decidedly of opinion that the persons composing the Protestant mission of these islands are American citizens, and, as such, entitled to the protection which our government has never withheld; and with unwavering confidence in the justice which has ever characterized it, we rest assured that any insult offered to this unoffending class, will be promptly redressed.”
This circular, which honors the intelligence and moral justice in which it had its source, is signed by Commodore George A. Magruder; Lieutenants Andrew H. Foot, John W. Livingston, Thomas Turner, James S. Palmer, Edward R. Thompson, Augustus H. Kelly, George B. Minor; Surgeons John Hazlett, John A. Lockwood, Joseph Beale; Purser Dangerfield Fauntleroy; Chaplain, Fitch W. Taylor; Professors of Mathematics, J. Henshaw Belcher, Alexander G. Pendleton.
Captain La Place having succeeded so brilliantly with his powder-and-shot diplomacy, Lord George Paulet, the commander of her Britannic majesty’s ship Carysfort, thought he would try his hand at the business. He arrived here a short time after his illustrious predecessor; but, having no Jesuits and brandy to introduce, it became necessary to find something else as a basis of action.