The King concludes by desiring Captain Mallet to inform the Admiral that he had despatched ministers to the King of the French to beg that a new treaty might be negotiated.

This answer, signed by Kaméhaméha III. and the Premier Kekauluohi, though conveying the sentiments of the King, was, without doubt, drawn up by the advisers he had about him; and the performance is exceedingly creditable. It also answered its end :-it satisfied Captain Mallet, who sailed from the islands. Soon after the 'Embuscade's' departure, news arrived of the establishment of a French protectorate over Tahiti, Society Islands. An alarm occasioned by French encroachment was probably not lessened in the 'country party' among the Hawaiians by the annexation of California by the United States, which event occurred about the same time.

CHAPTER XVII.

HISTORICAL SKETCH-ESSAYS IN CONSTITUTION-MAKING.

UP

P to the year 1838 the government of the Hawaiian Islands was a despotism. The King's power was absolute; and, as is usually the case with absolutisms, his chiefs in their separate spheres were smaller despots. It depended on the prowess and personal character of the Monarch to control his chiefs and really be their king, or to maintain only a nominal headship over them, and to be simply a chief among chiefs. Of defined laws it can scarcely be said that there were any. Some common prescriptive ones must have existed, for they are found in every human society. Such are rather to be called natural and instinctive laws; and without them men would dwell together as wild beasts. From time to time the King and chiefs put forth changeable decrees; and the oppressive system of tabu made itself felt as an immemorial and inevitable condition of life. Usage was almost the only system.

The American missionaries and ex-missionaries, the latter being those who had ceased upon their own request to be subsidized by the Boston Board of Missions, had obtained a considerable influence over Kaméhaméha III.; and they began to exert it in endeavouring to obtain

the King's consent to govern the nation constitutionally. The endeavour was bold and humane. It is said that the King felt great repugnance, and made some resistance, at parting with the absolute. unquestioned power which had always been the right of kings of Hawaii. The missionaries, however, gained their point, and a sketch of a Constitution, occupying a sheet or two of foolscap paper, was produced. The first notion of the Exhibition Palace in Hyde Park of 1851 was scribbled by Sir Joseph Paxton on a piece of blotting-paper.

Whoever might have been the first investigator of this essential departure from an ancient despotism, Mr. Richards, who has been previously mentioned, took a leading part, afterwards, in constructing the constitutional edifice.

On the 7th of June, 1839, the King signed a Bill of Rights; and on the 8th of October, 1840, he voluntarily conferred on the people a constitution which recognized the three grand divisions of a civilized monarchy,— king, legislature, and judges, and defined in some respects the general duties of each.*

It is worthy of remark that the missionaries, who were Americans, who had lived under and perhaps loved republican institutions, never went so far as to attempt to introduce a republic in the Hawaiian Islands. Such an idea they knew to be preposterous; and they were wise enough to aim at what might be within reach; to introduce beneficial changes, and reconcile the King to a system for which models had to be sought among the old dominions of Europe. Their eyes, however, travelled farther than mere earthly types, and, consistently with

Preface to the Statute Laws of the Hawaiian Islands, 1845, 1846.

A THEOCRATIC CONSTITUTION.

261

their former profession as teachers of religion, they introduced into their scheme the theocratic element. In the preamble of 'The Constitution of the Hawaiian Islands,' borrowed partly from Scripture and partly from the American Declaration of Independence," they start with the assertion that God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the earth in unity and blessedness. God has bestowed certain rights alike on all men, and all chiefs, and all people of all lands.' We are not to be surprised at religious language introduced into a state paper, when the document is drawn up by a preacher. Possibly a sermon written by a Secretary of State might be conspicuous for its reticence concerning the spiritual.

The Constitution was dated October 1840. It provides that no law shall be enacted in the Hawaiian kingdom which is at variance with the word of the Lord Jehovah, or with the general spirit of His Word. All laws of the island shall be in consistency with the general spirit of God's Word. It proceeds to enunciate a feudal system as regards land-possession. Kaméhaméha I. was the founder of the kingdom; and to him belonged all the land from one end of the islands to the other, though it was not his private property. It belonged to the chiefs and people in common, of whom Kaméhaméha was the head, and had the management of the landed property. Wherefore, there was not formerly, and is not now, any person who could or can convey away the smallest portion of land without the consent of the one who had or has the direction of the kingdom.'

There was a good deal of misstatement in these propositions, for the common people had little or no

* A. Simpson, 'Progress of Events.'

land as their own property; and, on the other hand, Kaméhaméha had, individually, large possessions.

In the small volume of 200 pages duodecimo, which contains the English version of the Constitution and laws of 1840, the translator remarks—

The laws as they now appear are most of them of quite recent date. Some of them were enacted as far back as 1833, and others had their origin as early as 1823. But all the laws which were enacted previous to the former period, and some of a later period, have undergone such modifications and changes that they now appear with a date much later than the original.

At these islands, as well as in more civilized countries, there is something like a system of common law, independent of special statutes. It consists partly in their ancient taboos, and partly in the practices of the celebrated chiefs as the history of them has been handed down by tradition, and at the present time the principles of the Bible are fully adopted.

The Constitution was to consist of the King; a House of Nobles, containing sixteen persons, of whom five were females; and a faint adumbration of the representative system, in seven individuals who were to be chosen, and would sit in council with the nobles. The manner of choosing the representatives was not very carefully defined.

At first, then, the nobles and representatives assembled in one chamber, together with the King, who acted as a kind of president. Subsequently the branches of legislature occupied separate apartments. At the beginning, the sessions of parliament were yearly; under the present system they are biennial.

"The Constitution' proceeds to organic laws. Perhaps, in examining these, they may appear to adhere more closely to the letter than to the spirit of God's