Page:The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, Volume 13.pdf/29

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The Sandwich Islands.

[July,

Mr. Jarves’s work contains a copy of the frequency of slight earthquakes, the constitution which has been adopted for their government, a political instru ment reﬂecting high credit on those to whose instructions and advice the na tives owe its possession. Guarantee ing the protection of the leading great personal rights of person and property, and basing its system of government on the law of God and general spirit of His word, it organizes an executive,

with two legislative bodies, and a judi ciary, and provides for a popular ad ministration of equitable laws. Under its operation, supported by a continua tion of such favoring inﬂuences as have thus far shed their blessings on the population of the Islands, there is every reason to expect, before the passage of many generations, to behold the Hawai ians as a nation elevated into a con dition not unworthy of an honorable place within the great community of civilized christendom. The efforts of the American missionaries have not merely been limited to the religious culture of the Hawaiians. They have justly considered that no nation in the present age, can really appreciate the beneﬁts to be derived from Christianity, unless at the same time it attains a certain degree of intellectual cultiva tion. In this view, having reduced the language to a written form, they have established schools, which are now sup ported by the native government; so that few of the younger people of either sex are unable to read. Numerous his torical, scientiﬁc and religious works of an elementary nature, have been printe. The constitution which has been adopted has been already men tioned; it is one of the most remarkable

documents in the history of the world, as containing a voluntary cession of power by superiors to inferiors ; a code of laws civil and criminal, ﬁtted to the nature of the islanders, has been formed; and trial by jury, so equi table as to be resorted to by foreign ers in questions involving large amounts of money, have secured the judg ment of his peers to any subject; and to crown the whole, the Hawaiian legislature has annual sessions—verily this has the resemblance if not the re alit of a civilized country. be physical phenomena of the isl ands, are well worthy of' our inspec tion. Among them we may mention volcanic changes which have occurred,

and the gradual increase of coast. Although no mention is made of a Ha waiian St. Patrick, there are no ser

pents, frogs or toads upon the islands. The climate is remarkably even, rang ing only from 37 degrees to 77 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter months, and

from 76 degrees to 83 degrees in the summer. The fertility of the soil and the nutritious powers of the Kalo plant are so great, that the group is capable of supporting an immense population, (Hawaiian Spectator, vol. 1, pp. 75.) Notwithstanding this fact there is no doubt of a large decrease of population since they have become known to the whites. This fact is, however, dis tinctly assignable to special causes, which are very satisfactorily explain ed in Mr. Jarves‘s work (page 397 et seq.) which have now ceased to ope rate. The present population is about 100,000.

Brief space only remains to us for a topic on which we had designed to speak at greater length, and with an emphasis that should give expression to the unanimous feeling strongly per vading the United States. We refer to the recent violent, and even brutal seizure of this lovely archipelago by an English naval commander, Lord Paulet, on grounds not rising to the level of even a pretext—an act of sheer, simple, downright and outright spolia tion, on “the good old plan." The French had recently possessed them selves of the Marquesas, and again of Tahiti, though with rather more man agement, rather more decency in the mode. Vith a worthy rivalry in rob bery, the English naval force in the Paciﬁc makes all sail for the Sand wich Islands; and in disregard of the fact that commissioners were at the

very time in England for the settle ment of a treaty, he coolly commands and compels the helplessness of the native government to cede the islands to the British crown,—to give up “ the life of the land,” in the words of the touching address by the king, Kameha mela III., to his people. In all its cir cumstances this was one of the most outrageous outrages that have ever dis graced even the foreign domination of that great maritime and mercantile ty ranny—so insatiate in its aims, so un— principled in its means. It was not

only an abomination of injustice in the