DR. HYDE OF HONOLULU 1
   SYDNEY,
   FEBRUARY 25, 1890.

    Sir,
           - It
            may probably occur to you
             that we have met,
         and visited,
           and conversed;
        on my side,
           with interest.

    You may remember
         that you
              have done me several courtesies,
           for which
             I was prepared
                  to be grateful.

    But there are duties
          which come
         before gratitude,
           and offences
              which justly divide friends,
         far more acquaintances.

    Your letter
           to the Reverend H. B.

    Gage is a document which,
           in my sight,
         if you
            had filled me with bread
             when I was starving,
           if you had
             sat up
                  to nurse my father
             when he lay a-dying,
         would yet
              absolve me
                   from the bonds of gratitude.

    You know enough,
           doubtless,
         of the process of canonisation
              to be aware that,
           a hundred years
              after the death of Damien,
         there will appear a man
              charged with the painful office
                   of the DEVIL'S ADVOCATE.

    After that noble brother
           of mine,
         and of all frail clay,
         shall have lain a century
               at rest,
           one shall accuse,
         one defend him.

    The circumstance is unusual
         that the devil's advocate
            should be a volunteer,
           should be a member
               of a sect immediately rival,
         and should
             make haste
                  to take
                       upon himself
                           his ugly office ere
                         the bones
            are cold;
        unusual,
           and of a taste which
             I shall
                  leave my readers free
                       to qualify;
        unusual,
           and to me inspiring.

    If I
          have at all
              learned the trade
                   of using words
              to convey truth and
                   to arouse emotion,
           you have at last
               furnished me with a subject.

    For it
        is in the interest of
               all mankind,
           and the cause
               of public decency
             in every quarter
                   of the world,
         not only
             that Damien should be righted,
           but that you
               and your letter
            should be displayed at length,
         in their true colours,
           to the public eye.

    To do this properly,
           I must begin
               by quoting you at large:
        I shall then
              proceed to criticise
                   your utterance from
                  several points of view,
           divine and human,
         in the course
             of which
                 I shall
                      attempt to draw again,
           and with more specification,
         the character
               of the dead saint
              whom it
            has pleased you to vilify:
        so much being done,
           I shall say farewell
               to you for ever.

   "HONOLULU,

    "August 2,
           1889.

    "Rev.

    H.

    B.

    GAGE.

    "Dear Brother,
           - In answer to your
            inquires about Father Damien,
         I can only reply
             that we
               who knew the man
                are surprised
                    at the extravagant newspaper
                               laudations,
           as if
             he was a
                   most saintly philanthropist.

    The simple truth is,
           he was a coarse,
         dirty man,
           headstrong and bigoted.

    He was not
          sent to Molokai,
           but went there without orders;
        did not stay
               at the leper settlement
         (before he became one himself),
            but circulated freely
               over the whole island
         (less than half the island
            is devoted to the lepers),
          and he
            came often to Honolulu.

    He had no hand
           in the reforms
               and improvements inaugurated,
           which were the work
               of our Board of Health,
         as occasion required and means
            were provided.

    He was
           not a pure man
         in his relations
           with women,
         and the leprosy
             of which
                 he died
                    should be
                          attributed to
                               his vices and carelessness.

    Other have