416 



HAWAII. 



HAYTI. 



neetion with a daring attempt to dethrone King 

 Kalakaua that was made in the summer of 1889. 

 The chief conspirators, Robert W. Wilcox and 

 Robert Boyd, half-caste Hawaiians who were 

 educated for the military profession in Italy, 

 were never tried. Mr. Thurston accused Mr. 

 Ashford of complicity, and the latter retorted 

 that it was the other ministers who connived in 

 the plot, as they took care to have no means at 

 hand to frustrate the object of the revolutionists, 

 which was to force Kalakaua to abdicate in 

 favor of Princess Liliuokalani, and that it would 

 have been successful if ammunition had not 

 been procured from the United States war-ship 

 "Adams." The head of the conspiracy, who 

 had been elected a Representative, said that the 

 movement originated with a society for the de- 

 fense of native rights, whose motto was " Hawaii 

 for the Hawaiians," and avowed that the abdica- 

 tion of the King had been demanded with the 

 knowledge and encouragement of some of the 

 ministers. The American or Reform party at 

 the opening of the session had nominated a 

 Representative for presiding officer, and were 

 outvoted, some of the natives who had formerly 

 acted with the Administration joining the Op- 

 position and casting their ballots for J. S. Walker, 

 a Noble, in order to preserve the custom of tak- 

 ing the President from the Upper House. The 

 reaction against the democratic movement had 

 its origin in a fear that its leaders were working 

 to bring about annexation to the United States. 

 The proposition before the American Congress to 

 abolish Hawaii's preferential position, greatly to 

 the prejudice of her commercial interests, by 

 placing sugar on the free list caused annexation 

 to be viewed in a less favoraole light than ever. 

 The idea of seeking a new market for Hawaiian 

 sugar by means of reciprocity with Australia 

 was put forward, as Hawaiian could be under- 

 sold in San Francisco by China and Manila 

 sugar. In the Legislative Assembly the Com- 

 mittee on Foreign Affairs was instructed to in- 

 quire whether the negotiations for the renewal 

 of the treaty with the United States had been 

 calculated to prejudice or jeopardize the politi- 

 cal or commercial independence of Hawaii. In 

 the committee's report, presented on June 5, Mr. 

 Austin, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was 

 charged with withholding and suppressing an 

 important part of the correspondence with H. A. 

 P. Carter, the Hawaiian minister at Washing- 

 ton, in reference to the treaty, and with refusing 

 to transmit the minutes of the Cabinet meetings 

 held in the summer of 1889. The report hinted 

 that the negotiators conspired to hand over the 

 country to the United States, and censured the 

 clause relating to the landing of troops as an 

 encroachment on Hawaiian independence. The 

 report was rejected by 26 against 22. The dis- 

 sensions in the Cabinet and the accusations 

 brought against its members rendered its retire- 

 ment inevitable. A few weeks later a vote of 

 censure was proposed, to which an amendment 

 was offered censuring Mr. Ashcroft, the member 

 who was working with the Opposition against 

 his colleagues, for certain advice that he had 

 given to the King. The vote on the amendment 

 resulted in a tie, and upon that the ministers re- 

 signed collectively. A new Cabinet was formed 

 on July 4, composed as follows: Minister of 



Foreign Affairs, John A. Cummins ; Minister of 

 Finance, Godfrey Brown ; Minister of the In- 

 terior, Charles N. Spencer; Attorney-General, 

 A. P. Peterson. The Legislative session was 

 prolonged till Nov. 14, when it was closed with 

 a speech from the King, in which he cautioned 

 the ministers to be economical, pointing out that 

 the authorized expenditure was in excess of the 

 estimated revenue. 



HAYTI, a republic in the West Indies occu- 

 pying the western third of the island of Santo 

 Domingo. By the provisions of the Constitution 

 of Oct. 9, 1889, the House of Commons is com- 

 posed of 50 members, elected for three years by 

 the ballots of all male citizens over twenty-one 

 years of age, and the Senate is composed of 39 

 members, part of whom are chosen by the House 

 of Commons, and part nominated by the Presi- 

 dent, for the term of six years, one third retiring 

 every two years. The President is elected by the 

 two Houses united in a National Assembly, and 

 holds office for four years. 



Gen. Florvil G. Hippolyte was confirmed in 

 the presidency after his final victory over Gen. 

 Legitime by the Constituent Assembly on Oct. 

 17, 1889. The President has power to select the 

 11 ministers of state composing his Cabinet, 

 who, in case of his death, form a council of gov- 

 ernment to administer public business until his 

 successor is duly elected. 



Area and Population. The area of the re- 

 public is estimated at 10,200 square miles. The 

 population is estimated by a native statistician at 

 960,000, while other authorities make it 572,000. 

 Port-au-Prince, the capital, has from 40,000 to 

 60,000 inhabitants. French is the language of 

 the people, and the Catholic religion is aided by 

 the state and generally professed. Nine tenths 

 of the inhabitants are pure negroes, and the 

 other tenth are mulattoes, with the exception of 

 a few whites. 



Commerce. The imports in 1887 were val- 

 ued at 6,845,597 piasters, and the exports at 10,- 

 185,366 piasters. (The piaster or Haytian dollar 

 has an exchange value of 83 cents.) In 1888 the 

 value of the imports was 7,543,295 piasters ; of 

 the exports, 13,250,307 piasters. The civil war 

 of 1888-'89 interfered with trade and production, 

 causing the exports of the whole island to de- 

 cline from $15,000,000 in 1888 to 12,000,009, im- 

 ports decreasing from $8,000,000 to $6,000,000. 

 The chief commercial products are coffee, log- 

 wood, cacao, mahogany, and skins. The culti- 

 vation of cotton has greatly declined in Hayti. 

 The imports are dry goods, which come mainly 

 from Great Britain ; flour and provisions, im- 

 ported from the United States ; rice, cheese, and 

 candles from Germany and Holland ; and articles 

 of luxury from France. Of the total imports in 

 1887, 4,250,500 piasters were from the United 

 States, 750,918 piasters from Germany, 710,790 

 piasters from France, and 675,535 piasters from 

 Great Britain. The export of cotton in that year 

 was 2,255,440 pounds ; of coffee, 49,811,781 

 pounds. 



Finances. The finances of the Government, 

 owing to successive intestine wars, are completely 

 disorganized. The budget estimates are pub- 

 lished, but not the final accounts. For 1886 the 

 revenue was estimated at 6,412,957 piasters, with 

 expenditure to balance. In 1887 the budget was 



