470 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



given, which is now in force. The king is a constitutional monarch, but 

 not according to English ideas. The form is more that of the late French 

 Empire. The government is personal, the ministers being appointed and 

 removed by the king at his own pleasure and without any reference to the 

 legislature, towards which they have no responsibility. The present king 

 has appointed and removed ministers in a most arbitrary manner. For in- 

 stance, in 1878, being displeased, he sent at 1 a.m. to demand their imme- 

 diate resignation. 



The Ministers are four, — the Foreign Minister, who is usually the 

 Premier ; the Minister of the Interior, who is the real working Minister, 

 for whom nothing is too great or too small ; the Finance Minister ; and 

 the Attorney- General. The Foreign and Finance Ministers have frequently 

 been figure-head natives. Two years ago the Finance Minister for a short 

 time was a native preacher, perfectly ignorant of his subject, and appointed 

 only because no respectable man could be got to take the office. 



The Legislature, which, happily for the country, meets only biennially, 

 consists of two estates ; but they sit and vote as one House. The Nobles, 

 twenty hi number, are appointed by the King for life. They have no special 

 title except Honourable. Many of them are "foreigners." The twenty- 

 eight representatives are nearly all natives, and thus in the House as a 

 whole, the natives are in the great majority. They possess and represent 

 very little property, but vote away most recklessly the money of the foreign 

 population, who pay all but a trifle of the taxes. In the session of this 

 year they voted three and a half millions of dollars, including a Civil List of 

 $148,000, to be spent in the next biennial period, the estimated income for 

 that time being $1,950,000. 



The proceedings of the Legislature are conducted with great dignity 

 and propriety ; but everything being done in two languages makes it 

 extremely tedious, the more so that the natives are born orators, and can 

 discourse for the hour together, even though they have nothing to say. 



With all the weakness of the legislature, mostly, be it remembered, 

 composed of natives, the laws of the Sandwich Islands, and the judicial 

 procedure generally, compare favourably with those of any other nation in 

 the world. They are the cream of American and English jurisprudence, 

 and have generally been administered by Judges of high character and 

 ability. As an instance where the procedure is vastly in advance of that of 

 England, — the accused is, at his option, put into the witness-box and ex- 

 amined under oath. 



The sanitary affairs of the islands are supervised by the Board of Health, 

 whose duties are more serious and responsible than usually fall to the lot of 

 similar bureaux elsewhere, for they have in their hands a terrible charge 



