The "Vagabond" in Court.

Evening Star, Issue 7331, 1 October 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

The "Vagabond" in Court.

The libel action brought by Mr Julian Thomas, f uniliarly known as "The Vagabond,'' against the ? Wesleyan Spectator, bristles with interesting points, and raises many issues of great interest Mr Thomas's merits as a raconteur are sufficiently well known to us. He is always lively, and sometimes accurate; and he loves an epigram so much that he would probably sacrifice his best friend to it. Mr Thomas found himself on one occasion in Fiji, and unfortunately felt himself called to discuss the character and religions history of King Thakambau. Thakambau has been described as a Fijian edition of Constantine the Great, and he was certainly a man of great natural powers. The * Weslcyan missionaries found him a most bloodthirsty and cruel savage; but, under the influence of Christianity, he renounced heathenism, developed a really fine type of morality, and did much to plant Christianity and civilisation amongst his people. He died, after many years of exemplary life, a happy Christian death. The Wesleyan missionaries were naturally proud of their convert, and the revolution wrought in cannibal Fiji is really one of the marvels of modern Christian history. The proof of the moral transformation of these savage tribes is not merely tobefoundinmissionaryreports; itisattested by English travellers like Miss Gordon Camming and English officials like Sir Arthur Gordon. "The Vagabond," it need scarcely be said, calmly ignored the loftier side of Fijian history and of missionary work. For him, King Thakambau,|the cannibal warrior, strangely transfigured into a Methodist saint, was but a peg on which to hang a jest; and he proceeded to grind up the dead man's bones and turn them into epigrams. " King Thakambau," he said, " became an exemplary Christian when he had lost his teeth and his digestion;" and he died "in the odour of sanctity and of a dirty blanket." The ' Wesleyan Spectator'was unable to discover the humor oftnis remarkable pleasantry. Mr Thomas's joke not only implied that King Thakamban's conversion was a fraud, but that all the Wesleyan missionaries were, more or less, directly parties to the fraud, since they had for many years held up the ex-cannibal as an example of Christian regeneration. The ' Wesleyan Spectator' discovered much more of mendacity than of humor in Mr Thomas's pleasantry, and said so in very plain English. Mr J. Thomas, who, in his zeal for epigrammatic terseness, was not over-concerned about a dead man's character, hastened to the Supreme Court to demand 1*2,000 by way of solace to the wound the ' Wesleyan Spectator* had inflicted on his own lacerated feelings. It was proved beyond doubt —quantum valeai— that King Thakambau possessed most enviable powers both of mastication and digestion long after be had embraced Christianity, and it was also abundantly proved that this ex-savage developed under Christian influence a very genuine morality. Mr Hobday, for example, who acted as Crown solicitor to the Government of Fiji, gave ample testimony on this point. He had seen this ex-cannibal teaching little children in a Sunday school; he had known instances where he had refused to exercise a legal right when it involved the denial of a moral obligation. When a client succeeds in impressing his solicitor with the genuineness of his religion, doubt on the part of anybody else becomes absurd. Mr Fison's evidence as to the manner in which this converted savage died—his prayers, his utterances of religious confidence, ete.—constituted a most touching and striking picture. The question at issue in the recent libel suit was not the relatively small matter of Mr Julian Thomas's veracity, bat the large and grave issue of the reality of Christian mission work. It is satisfactory that this emerges from the strife quite undamaged, and even made clearer and more authoritative than ever. As for Mr Thomas, another such legal victory would simply ruin him. He has been charged with very comprehensive unveracity ; the ' Wesleyan Spectator,' having made this charge, courageously pleaded justification; Mr Thomas did not venture to enter the witness-box in his own behalf ; and the jury awarded him, by way of " damages," the very smallest coia in the realm. —' Telegraph.'