i86 



HA WAIL 



[letter xix. 



Republic to remit the sugar duties by the surrender of a square 

 inch of Hawaiian soil ; and, from a British point of view, I 

 heartily sympathise with them.* Foreign, i.e. American feeling 

 is running high upon the subject. People say that things are 

 so bad that something must be done, and it remains to be seen 

 whether natives or foreigners can exercise the strongest pressure 

 on the king. I was unfavourably impressed in both lectures 

 by the way in which the natives and their interests were 

 quietly ignored, or as quietly subordinated to the sugar 

 interest. 



It is never safe to forecast destiny ; yet it seems most pro- 

 bable that sooner or later in this century the closing catastrophe 

 must come. The more thoughtful among the natives acquiesce 

 helplessly and patiently in their advancing fate j but the less 

 intelligent, as I had some opportunity of hearing at Hilo, are 

 becoming restive and irritable, and may drift into something 

 worse if the knowledge of the annexationist views of the 

 foreigners is diffused among them. Things are preparing for 

 change,_ and I think that the Americans will be wise in their 

 generation if they let them ripen for many years to come. 

 Lunalilo has a broken constitution, and probably will not live 

 long. Kalakaua will probably succeed him, and "after him the 

 deluge," unless he leaves a suitable successor, for there are no 

 more chiefs with pre-eminent claims to the throne. The feel- 

 ing among the people is changing, the feudal instinct is disap- 

 pearing, the old despotic line of the Kamehamehas is extinct; 

 and king-making by paper ballots, introduced a few months 

 ago, is an approximation to president-making, with the canvas- 

 sing, stumping, and wrangling, incidental to such a contested 

 election. Annexation, or peaceful absorption, is the " manifest 

 destiny " of the islands, with the probable result lately most 

 wittily prophesied by Mark Twain in the New York Tribune, 

 but it is impious and impolitic to hasten it. Much as I like 

 America, I shrink from the day when her universal political 

 corruption and her unrivalled political immorality shall be 

 naturalised on Hawaii- nei. . . . Sunday evening. The " Roll- 



* The native feeling on this subject proved strong enough to coerce 

 Lunalilo and the Cabinet, and the idea of ceding Pearl River was aban- 

 doned. In 1875 King Kalakaua and Chancellor Allen visited Washington, 

 and a Reciprocity Treaty with America was negociated on the simple 

 principle of Free Trade. It has not yet come into operation, however, as 

 the United States revenue laws, necessary to make it effective, have not 

 been enacted, and the Hawaiian planters are still in a state of suspense.— 

 I. L. B. 1S76. 



