REVIEWS-^THE SANDWICH ISLANDS MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 457 



under review, and the reader is almost tempted to smile at the gravity 

 with which the Honolulu critic infers from it : 



" That peace aod amity reign between this country and ' the rest of mankind ;' 

 at least, there are no questions pending likely to assume the important features of 

 a causus belli. Our hopes in the continuance of this friendly feeling in the great 

 powers who assisted at our political investiture, is farther strengthened by the 

 fact that they are at last making a naval station of our port for more or less of 

 their Pacific squadrons. Had such a measure been adopted simultaneous with the 

 recognition of our independence, its moral influence would have been incalculable, 

 not only on our foreign relations but also on our domestic progress. 



The so long expected treaty with France is apparently not yet completed, see- 

 ing that the Minister says not a word about it. It was fondly believed that the 

 legislature of last year had removed the only obstacle to a consummation devoutly 

 wished for, and we have yet to learn that any new misunderstanding has arisen to 

 delay it. But then, diplomacy is a mare mortuuin, on which the spirit of progress 

 has as yet made no impression. When men or governments approach each other 

 with honesty of purpose and candor of expression, the result cannot long be 

 doubtful ; where these postulata are wanting, no result can be satisfactory or 

 lasting." 



And thereupon the writer proceeds to address and to warn the 

 Ministers of His Majesty King Kamehameha's Cabinet in relation to 

 the future interests and destinies of the Hawaiian nation, and its 

 young sovereign, and thus concludes : — 



" But though empires fall and nations pass away, yet humanity remains ; and as 

 true as the laws which govern it, so sure is there a splendid destiny in store for 

 the isles of the Pacific. Their cycle is just beginning ; in several directions the 

 dawn is breaking on their former night, and shall Hawaii ignore her position and 

 her duty in the premises, her share in the result ? 



" "We could wish then that our Ministers would take a loftier, a larger view of 

 the future possible, as well as the present, position and influence of our country, 

 and realize that in more than one sense are we " the heart of the Pacific." It is 

 true that our pulses beat as yet but feebly, but all that we do lack is time and the 

 political sagacity which have conducted other countries to eminence and prosperity. 

 Our statesmen are surrounded with all the materials which go to the making of a 

 beautiful as well as solid mansion ; do they know how to remove their roughness 

 and cement them together ? Do they see ' the distant beacons,' and are they 

 steering for them, or do they hang by the moorings of an effete and obsolete past ? 

 With the absolute fact before them that " knowledge is power," will they confine 

 that power to an idiom already unable to represent it ? With au instinctive con- 

 ciousness that either the nation or its language must perish, can they hesitate in 

 the choice ? With a foreign element daily increasing and daily assuming a more 

 isolated position, because containing all the learning and wealth, which are the 

 only roads to distinction, will they not rather strain every nerve to throw down 

 the barrier which prevents this power from fertilizing the countiy ; will they not 



