1840.] WRITTEN CONSTITUTION AOOPTKO. 377 



good work which had been commenced. The repeated 

 strifes between the foreign residents, and particularly between 

 the agents of France and Great Britain, to obtain a control- 

 ling ascendency in the islands, operated very unfavorably, both 

 to the missionary cause, and to the improvement of the social 

 and political condition of the people. 



At length, in October, 1840, a written constitution, modelled 

 in many of its features after those of the United States and 

 Great Britain, was adopted by the kings and chiefs, through 

 the instrumentality of the missionaries, and publicly promul- 

 gated. This constitution contains the following declaration 

 of rights, which, while acknowledging the divine authority, 

 seems to afford an ample guaranty of protection to the rights 

 and interests of the common people : 



" God has made of one blood all the nations of men, that 

 they might alike dwell upon the earth in peace and prosperity. 

 And he has given certain equal rights to all people and all 

 chiefs of all countries. These are the rights or gifts which 

 he has granted to every man and chief of correct deportment, 

 — life, the members of the body, freedom in dwelling and act- 

 ing, and the rightful products of his hands and mind : but 

 not those things which are inhibited by the laws. 



" From God also are the office of rulers and the reism of 

 chief magistrates for protection ; but in enacting the laws of 

 the land, it is not right to make a law protecting the magis- 

 trate only and not subjects ^neither is it proper to establish 

 laws for enriching chiefs only, without benefiting the people, 

 and hereafter no law shall be established in opposition to the 

 above declarations ; neither shall taxes, servitude, nor labor, 

 be exacted, without law, of any man, in a manner at variance 

 with those principles." 



Under the Hawaiian constitution, the government is in the 

 nature of a limited monarchy. The sovereignty is declared 

 to exist, forever, in Kamameha III, and his heirs, to be des- 

 ignated by him and the chiefs during his life-time, or, in de- 

 fault thereof, by the nobles and representatives. A premier, 

 or prime minister, appointed by the king, is associated with 



