HONOR TO THE SABBATH.

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governor of Oahu, Kekuanaoa, who, when waited upon once on the Sabbath morning by the lieutenant of a United States ship-of-war just arrived, in order to make arrangements for a salute to the fort, promptly answered that he was just going to the House of God (A KA HALE PULE), and would attend to that business on Monday.

Now we say this was both pious, manly, and honorable. May the race of Nehemiah-like governors of Oahu never run out! And if this official reverence for the Sabbath, which closes our present catalogue of Hawaiian productions, be the peculiar growth of those favored isles, who does not say, Let it be planted and propagated as soon as possible in all lands, whether trans-Pacific or trans-Atlantic? God grant that the future sons of Hawaii, whether born of missionaries or scions of the natural stock, may be able to sing of their native isle, as a patriotic Briton did of his :

I love thee-when thy SABBATH DAWNS

O'er woods and mountains, dales and lawns,
And streams, that sparkle while they run,
As if their fountain were the sun:

When, hand in hand, thy tribes repair,
Each to their chosen house of prayer,

And all in peace and pardon call

On Him who is the Lord of all.

Can words, can numbers count the price
Paid for this little Paradise?

Never, oh! never be it lost;

The land is WORTH the price it cost.

CHAPTER VI.

HAWAIIAN RIGHTS AND WRONGS, POLITICS AND RELIGION.

Who swerves from innocence, who makes divorce
Of that serene companion, a good name,
Recovers not his loss; but walks with shame,
With doubt, with fear, and haply with remorse.

As to the deep fair ships which, though they move,
Seem fix'd to eyes that watch them from afar;
As to the sandy desert fountains are,

With palm-groves, shaded at wide intervals,
Whose fruit around the sun-burn'd native falls,
Of roving tired, or desultory war:

Such to "HAWAIIAN ISLES" her Christian fanes.
WORDSWORTH.

THE liberties and rights of the Sandwich Islands seem to be a ball for the bigger nations of the earth to play with, and it is batted violently about by one and another at the whim of rear-admirals and postcaptains. Hardly does it gain equilibrium and rest from one shock before it is rudely struck by another. The latest blow has been given in the name of that once generous people, whose ambition now seems to be, as represented in its misnamed Republican President and Assembly, to keep foremost among the nations in meanness. This last outrage is the game over again which they played so long at Tahiti; but

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it is to be hoped, this time, they will get out much sooner than there.

The facts of the recent French outrage upon Hawaiian independence are these: By an article of the treaty formed between France and the Sandwich Islands in the year 1846, French merchandise, or goods recognized as coming from the French dominions, shall not be prohibited, nor shall they be subject to an import duty higher than five per cent. ad valorem. Wines, brandies, and other spirituous liquors, are, however, excepted from this stipulation, and shall be liable to such reasonable duty as the Hawaiian government may think fit to lay upon them; provided always, that the amount of duty shall not be so high as absolutely to prohibit the importation of the said articles.

As an act of self-protection, without contravening the letter of this treaty, the Hawaiian government imposed a duty of $5 a gallon on brandy. The French consul Dillon and Admiral Tromelin demanded the repeal of this, and the reduction of duty to fifty per cent. ad valorem upon all brandies and spirituous liquors of French origin, together with eight or nine other obnoxious stipulations degrading to any nation's independence to submit to, or the alternative of a formal abrogation of the treaty between the two nations, and the substitution of the La Place Convention of 1839. Three days were allowed for the Hawaiian government to comply with or refuse these conditions.

The king being absent from Honolulu, the admiral waited until his return, when, the government refusing to comply with the demands, the French troops landed and took possession of the fort. No resistance being

offered, they spiked and threw from the ramparts the guns of the fort, destroyed the ammunition and public stores, and took all the Hawaiian vessels that were in port. The Hawaiian flag was lowered, and the French flag hoisted. After the quiet possession of the fort for three days, the French abandoned it, and retired on board their vessels. The king's yacht, Kamehameha III., was manned with Frenchmen, and dispatched, it is supposed, to Valparaiso; the steamer sailed for Tahiti; and the Poursuivante, with M. Dillon and family, sailed for San Francisco. The American consul and the British Consul General both protested against the action of the French forces; and the latter offered his services as mediator, but was refused.

It remains to be seen whether the United States and Great Britain will quietly see the guarantee of Hawaiian independence—which these powers have mutually entered into-virtually abrogated, and a solemn treaty declared a nullity. It can not be that the Republic of France, in 1850, will justify and endorse such a clear breach of a solemn treaty on the part of its agents, and thereby make it the injustice and perjury of the whole nation, any more than England did the similar outrage of Paulet in 1843. Significant facts, however, in late French-Italian history, give body and basis to the fear, that if France persist, and no other nation interpose between the wolf and his trembling prey, submission must be the only alternative for the Hawaiians. Unless God forbid, the roaring lion and ranging bear of Frenchism and Romanism, which have nearly devoured the Society Islands, may disastrously ravage the Sandwich. And this when the French in

1

RELATIVE

FRENCH INTERESTS.

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terests vested there are, in comparison with the English and American, so trifling, that the whole number of Frenchmen (not including the French priests) residing on the islands is twelve! Of these one is a merchant, and probably transacts about the one thousandth part of the commercial business of the islands; one is a hotel-keeper, and has about the same proportion in that line of business. The remainder (with the exception of one clerk) are in the employ of Englishmen and Americans.

At least ninety-nine one hundredths of the spirituous liquors imported into the country have been imported by English and American merchants; and Englishmen and Americans have consumed them, and of course paid the duty.

There has never been but one cargo of goods imported from France; and there has not been, for the last five years, a French merchant ship at these islands. A few French schooners, brigantines, &c., there have been, but they have been mostly freighted by English and American merchants. And while the number of American and English whale ships that touch at the islands, either in the spring or fall, is from two to four hundred, the number of French whalers in the two seasons is only from five to nine.

The attitude maintained by the Hawaiian government in its late conflict with the French has been a

noble one. The king has peacefully thrown himself upon the laws of nations, without armed resistance, and boldly asserted the inalienable rights of his kingdom, while its public property was being destroyed, and the sovereignty of his Majesty, guarantied by