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CHAPTER XV.

HISTORICAL SKETCH-THE STREAM BECOMES A RIVER-
REIGN OF KAMÉHAMÉHA III.

THE

HE Roman mission had gained a footing upon the islands, and was determined not to be dislodged. There were now three parties at work, and amongst them the natives fared ill. There was the government, which, inspired by the American independent missionaries, carried religious restrictions to a Puritanical extreme, enforcing them by punishments, so that innoKaahumanu was much cent amusements ceased. influenced by Mr. Bingham, the principal member of the mission, a sincere and disinterested man, possessing talent and energy, but injudicious in not considering the earthen vessels into which he was zealously pouring heavenly treasure. No punishment was considered by him and the associated government too great for the most venial offence. Riding on Sunday, even for foreigners, was forbidden; the healthy exercise of swimming, in which the people ever delighted, was actually abandoned; and police constables entered private houses, and, like the intruders so touchingly described by Mr. Lillyvick, without any 'with your leave' or 'by your leave,' walked away with the fermented liquids that might be on table.

Then there was the party of reaction. To this the

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young King inclined, who unfortunately evinced dissipated habits at an early age. It included most of the foreign trading residents, the foreigners,' as they were called par excellence, and a good many of the natives, who were discontented with the rigid rule under which they found themselves, and sought licence under the name of liberty. The traders or 'foreigners' as a community, though immoral, were not in every respect bad. They are described as 'an easy-going, free-living race; associating together on terms of peculiar amity, and indulging in frolics of the most extravagant description. There was little rivalry among them.' They seem almost to have made a joint stock of their profits, and were so careless or so trusting, that money and goods passed about amongst them without a written acknowledgment ever being thought of, and they scarcely ever entered into a settlement of accounts. When they wanted land for houses, the chiefs friendly to them used to give it, and it was sometimes received without any deed or written title. A bitter feud existed between them and the missionary party. They accused the latter of being the originators of the unwise restrictions of the government, and of holding back the inhabitants from advancement, in order to increase their own influence.

They viewed every action of the missionaries, however innocent or well meant, with suspicion; they called them,-and by frequently calling them so came to believe them to be,hypocrites even in religion; they supported a school for teaching native and half-caste children English, mainly because the system was opposed to the views of the missionaries; and they maintained a newspaper for several years, the chief aim of which was to attack their religious adversaries, and throw doubt and discredit on all their efforts.†

* A. Simpson, Progress of Events, &c.

+Ibid.

Finally, there was the Propagandist party. The priests had been treated with consideration. They had not been forcibly ejected from a land that never invited their presence; and though Kaahumanu issued an order forbidding natives to attend their religious services, the Romanists were allowed to continue their labours among foreigners. In spite of this ordinance, numbers of native proselytes received instruction from the Roman Catholics and met in their chapel; and it was in the government's efforts to prevent and restrain its people, using force to compel the natives' absence from rites. and schools, that The Persecution' consisted.

In thirty years, our own views on the subject of religious liberty have changed materially. We no longer allow governments to persecute opinions; we only permit that valued privilege to the religious or political parties themselves; and they certainly act the tyrant with considerable zest. Whilst, therefore, we regret that the Hawaiian government in 1830 should have unwisely used harsh and repressive measures, we can scarcely blame them,-certainly cannot feel surprise: but we do see from our present point of view, that to impose penalties and imprisonment on the Romanist converts, and to treat thirty of them as malefactors, was exceedingly unwise.

It may be easily conceived that a strong feud would exist amongst the three parties in whose ranks all the population was distributed. The American missionaries had been early in the field, and had laboured, if not always judiciously, with great activity. In ten years from the commencement of their mission nine hundred schools had been established in the islands, taught by native teachers, and containing 44,895 pupils. It is a remarkable fact that in the Sandwich Islands education

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has been more diffused, has embraced a larger proportion of the population, than it has ever done in Great Britain, in Prussia, or in New England. The missionaries and a missionary government would naturally look with jealousy and anger upon their Roman Catholic rivals. Kaahumanu had appointed her brother Kuakini Governor of Oahu. He was a shrewd, stern man; understanding the English language very well. With great energy he suppressed an insurrection which was developing itself on the island which had been placed under his charge, and he next proceeded, in 1831, to send away the priests from the country, to which they had clung with a parasitic tenacity since their first unauthorized settlement. Three notices at sufficient intervals were given to the French priests, as they were called, though one of them was an Irishman; but the priests kept on never minding; or, rather, they moulded the affair of extradition into such a form as to look like a religious persecution of themselves. Government decided on sending them from the country at its own expense and as, opportunely, an invitation had been given to the priests by the Prefect of the Missions in California to join him there, where their presence was much needed, they were shipped on board a brig, and early in 1832 were landed safely at San Pedro, and received a welcome reception from the Roman Mission there. The artisans were not compelled to leave the islands.

Motives, like the shield with gold and silver sides, look very different from opposite points of view. Seen from the government side, the Romanists were a set of intruders, trespassing upon its patience as taey did upon its territory; disregarding a civil notice to quit, and requiring an ejectment under the old auspices of John

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Doe and Richard Roe: and even then, like the ghost of the Amundevilles, refusing to be driven away. From the station occupied by the faithful,' the two priests were a picket of the army of martyrs, holding true to their sacramental oath, and seeking by all means to plant in Hawaii the banner of the Cross. The result of their representations to the French government will be seen hereafter.

This year, 1832, the year of the passing the Reform Bill in England, died Kaahumanu, aged fifty-eight,beloved and lamented. She had come late into the Christian vineyard, but when called within its enclosure she seems to have laboured, according to her light, with sincerity and activity. On her death her power and place were transferred to Kinau, an elder half-sister of the King's. She, like her powerful predecessor, was much under the influence of Mr. Bingham. The following year the young King assumed the active duties of government. Unfortunately he was ill-prepared for such responsibilities. His original temperament was luxurious; and the persons he had adopted, or who had adopted themselves, as his friends, had rather assisted. than restrained the power of his youthful passions, and the temptations which surrounded a person of his age and station. Things began to go very badly. The King relapsed into a state of open immorality, and on his own authority revoked all the penalties on crimes affixed by law, except those on murder, theft, and adultery. He issued a proclamation declaring that all authority resided in himself, and that he possessed the arbitrary power of life and death. It is disheartening to read of the state of society which soon followed this unhappy change. The people, galled with too severe a curb on their habits and inclinations, broke loose in

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