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Heathens f ' Nome of these : Christians do not love revenge ; Christians must net be angry ; they cannot have pleasure in causing pain . Christians do not , therefore , punish for these . Is it not that , by the suffering which is inflicted , we may-prevent the criminal from repeating his
crime , and frighten others from doing as he has done to deserve the like ? Well , then , does not every body know that it would be a greater punishment to be banished for ever from Tahiti , to a desolate island , than just , in a moment , to be put to death ? And could the banished man
commit murder again there ? And would not others be more frightened by such a sentence than by one to take away his life ? So my thought is that Tati is right , and the law had best remain as it has been written / One of the taata rii , or little men , a commoner , or representative of a district , now presented himself , and was listened to with as much
attention as had been given to the lordly personages who preceded him . He said : — As no one else stands up , I will make my little speech , because several pleasant thoughts have been growing in my breast , and I wish you to hear them . Perhaps every thing good and necessary has been said already by the chiefs ; yet , as we are not met to adopt this law or that law , because one great man or another recommends it , but as we , the taata rii 9 just
the same as the chiefs , are to throw all our thoughts together , that out of the whole heap the meeting may make those to stand upright which are best , whencesoever they come—this is my thought . All that Pati said was good ; but he did not mention , that one reason for punishing ( as a Missionary told us , when he was reading the law to us , iu private ) is , to make the offender good again if possible . Now , if we kill a murderer , how can we make him better ? But if he be
sent to a desolate island , where he is all solitary , and compelled to think for himself , it may please God to make the bad things in his heart to die , and good things to grow there . But , if we kill him , where will his soul go ? ' Others spoke
to the same purport ; and , in the result , it was unanimously determined that banishment , not death , should be inflicted on murderers . It followed , of course , that the extreme exercise of magisterial power , to take away life , was excluded from every other case . "—Vol . 1 , pp * 81—Bfi . .
It is impossible to read this debate without mingled feelings of admiration and shame . The moat powerful mis-
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guiding influence on the niiuds of these acute savages was the example of enlightened and Christian England . The abolition of Idolatry in the Sandwich Islands took place independently of anv Missionary efforts , and anterior to
any preaching of Christianity to the natives . This is a very remarkable fact . The collision of the extortion , insolence , and extravagant claims of the priests , with the knowledge which the Sovereign and other individuals had obtained by occasional communication with
Europeans , was the immediate occasion of the change . We were curious to see whether any and what mention was made of Unitarian Christianity in India . The deputation had an interview with Rammohun Roy , of which they give the following account : " The celebrated Rammohun Roy , accompanied by Mr . Adams , lately a
Baptist Missionary , honoured us with a call this morning . This learned native is a man of majestic figure ; with a very intelligent and prepossessing aspect . He was becomingly dressed , in a long muslin robe , with a modest form of turban on his head ; he wears mustachios on the upper lip , speaks English fluently , and appears to be about forty-five years of
age . Rammohun Roy is , unquestionably , a person of high talents , which have been assiduously cultivated ; but he is , unhappily , defective iu that best part of wisdom—the pure , heart-humbling , soul * exalting knowledge of Jesus Christ , as the Son of God , and the Redeemer of the world . His friend , Mr . Adams , having adopted Sociiiiau views of the gospel , those of this remarkable convert from
the superstition of his fathers are of the same forlorn kind , reaching no further than the mere humanity of our Saviour , and hia pre-eminence as a teacher , exemplar , confessor , and martyr , in the cause of truth and righteousness . lu the course of conversation we proposed , a variety of queatious , to which he answered with great promptitude . These were principally in reference to that form of Christianity which he professes , and
which , so far as we could jupge , seems , on some points , to be peculiarly his own . He told us that he was born a Brahmin , but had renounced the absurdities aud abominations of Hindooism , He avowed his belief in the Divine authority , of the Scriptures , but denied the ainfuJness of human nature , saying , that men are born with an equal propensity to good and evil . The doctrine of the Trinity , and , of consequence , that of the divinity and
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Critical Notices— -Miscellaneous . bA I
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 541, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/37/
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