of the capital to the ignorant and unambitious Indians of the south, or the squalid rancheros of the north, can conscientiously say that from their present condition, any more than from their past history, are the Mexican people fit for self-government.

Complacent theorists may sit quietly at home, and while outrage upon outrage is perpetrated under their very noses through the folly of entrusting the sacred right of suffrage to unfit men, they may talk beautifully of the rights of man and universal liberty. But that scarcely proves that semi-barbarians should be allowed to usurp the privileges that belong only to those who have the intelligence to exercise them. The great fault with these theorists is, that they do not distinguish between the rights of men and their privileges. All men are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" those are rights. The privileges of office should be entrusted only to those who are qualified to discharge its duties. What could an uneducated boor do at the head of the finances, or foreign affairs of a great State? And yet, look at the mismanaged municipalities, where matters that affect only property holders are almost entirely in the hands of men as unprincipled as they are penniless. This is our "model" country.

In the city of Mexico, and the larger cities of the interior, the political power has always been centred. Large districts of country are entirely isolated from the capital, and communication is difficult and dangerous over the rough roads and mountain barriers. These isolated districts have never had anything to do with making or unmaking governments. Exempt them from forced contributions and levies of troops and they care not if Maximilian is Emperor, or Santa Anna. If central Mexico can be held the country is subdued.

It is only a strong government that can develop Mexico, organize and manage her resources, and bring together the discordant elements that harass her. There is now in the country sufficient intelligence to prevent a depotism any worse than the so calied republic has always been. Let the people remain quiet and they will grow into a republic. Already the French have inaugurated improvements in the country. Forty miles of railway from Vera Cruz towards the capital have been completed-a railway begun in 1856, but which could not be carried on under the protection of the republic. Twenty-five years of peace will place Mexico as much in advance of our land of fickle fortunes, principles, and weather, as

the Aztecs were ahead of the Potawattomies.

What have we to fear from an empire in Mexico? Is it military expiditions! Let the timid study well the geography of Mexico, and they will fear as much the aggressions of Russia, from her possessions on the northwest corner of the continent. The only country on this hemisphere with which we have an important trade is the Empire of Brazil. To foster this trade Congress has wisely granted subsidies to a line of steamers. Shall we respectfully inform the Emperor that in accordance with the requirements of the Monroe doctrine he must change his form of gov ernment? Let us rather turn our energies towards fitting ourselves for the blessings of a free government which is much too good for us, and not thrust our republicanism upon people to whom it would bring as much good as Greek testaments to Congo negros.

If France, or England, or Maximilian can bring a stable government to Mexico, let us be thankful, and foster our relations with the country, that

we may profit thereby. And before we cry out against "the destruction of the liberties of a free people," let us ascertain whether they ever were a "free people." Can any one doubt that a well ordered empire is better than an anarchy Was France happier under Robespierre than under Louis Napoleon!

SANDWICH ISLANDS.

NUMBER I.---HONOLULU AND THE PAHRI.

H. B. A.

HONOLULU.

AFTER several weeks at sea the bold promontories and volcanic peaks of Oahu are very pleasant to the eye. As the ship sweeps past Diamond Head, under the strong north-east trade-winds that prevail for ten months of the year, we catch our first glimpse of Honolulu, its beautiful valleyNuaanu-the long line of surf that marks the reef, and the few ships at anchor in the harbor beyond; and in a few moments we are at anchor among them. The view bursts upon the eye so suddenly that it dazzles and bewilders by its beauty and variety. All the wealth of the tropics cannot be gathered at a glance. The most easily remembered landmark is that first seen from the eastward-Diamond Head, an extinct volcano of irregular shape and great boldness of outline. It rises about five miles from the town, and at a distance appears a truncated cone, its single ridge, broken by inequalities, rising from the plain and attaining its greatest height at the sea-shore. On nearer approach, the sides and circular shape of a volcano are plainly visible. As in most of the extinct volcanoes of the Sandwich group, the outer rim of this crater is supported by bold and massive buttresses-a grand order of architecture designed by the great Architect of the universe. Man might profit by imitating them,—indeed, so similar in conception are the buttresses of gothic cathedrals, that one could almost believe them to have been modelled after the giant supporters of these mountain temples. These ponderous buttresses are the overflow of the lava dripping from many points on the rim of the bowl, and finding its way downwards until cut short by the

sea.

At the foot of Diamond Head, on the side towards Honolulu, is an extensive grove of cocoa-nut trees, growing along the beach and forming with the volcano sure signs to remind us that we are approaching a tropical land. Glancing past these and along a strip of land washed by the surf for two or three miles, the eye rests upon a massive stone building, with belfry and clock-tower, the native church of Honolulu and the only structure of any size in the town. It is a very remarkable building—a landmark far off to the sailor approaching from China or Australia. Many a poor fellow, who has not seen the inside of a church for years, has been reminded of his duties or his privileges by this, the church of the Pacific. To the left of the stone church, and nestling at the foot of Nuaanu Valley, lies the town, looking like some quiet New England vil

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lage, with its neat white houses, its warehouses of brick and stone along the water's edge, and here and there a flag-staff with the Hawaiian, or, it may be the American flag displayed; and, let it be said, more frequently the latter than the former. The delusion is almost complete until the ship is moored to the wharf; only the singular mountains, bearing marks of fire, and the tropical cocoa-palms are there to break the charm; but on landing it is soon dispelled by the strange words of the darkbrown natives, their aloha of welcome, and the sight of a grass hut here and there among the houses of the foreign residents. Still, after a residence of several weeks, it is difficult to conceive of it as a Kanaka city, for an acquaintance with the listlessness and want of enterprise entering so largely into native character constantly reminds the stranger that the American-built houses and the comforts they contain are the results of foreign, not of native thrift and skill. True, the king and the nobles, as well as some of the most intelligent and industrious among the natives, possess similar houses, well furnished with most of the comforts of civilized life, but the great mass of the people are not capable of the continued effort necessary to procure them.

To tell the truth, as it was told me by one who visited it in 1840 with the United States Exploring Expedition, "Honolulu is an American colony, sir, quite an American town, sir." If this was true then it is much more so now from the gradual decrease of the native element and increase in the number of American residents since the opening of California. No doubt the English residents, especially since England has appointed a bishop for the islands, would take umbrage at such an assumption; but it is nevertheless true, the amount of English capital, trade and interests bearing but a very small proportion to those of America.

Excepting the churches, Honolulu can boast few public buildings. The palace of the king can be seen only by those honored by a presentation at court; the Custom-house and Court-house are stone buildings of no pretension whatever; the Queen's Hospital, at a short distance from the town, is not a very large or very elegant structure, while the Hawaiian theatre is an old, tumble-down affair, apparently given over to the rats and centipedes. The public offices, as they are termed, on Fort-street, are very unpretending wooden buildings, painted a Quaker drab and half hidden by a high wooden fence of an unexceptionable brown color. A Quaker congregation would be quite at home on the premises, notwithstanding the ominous sign-board, "Department of Foreign Affairs and of Wor"-which last bureau is a pleasing little fiction of the Hawaüan officials harming no one. The churches are, in reality, the most important and interesting of the public buildings. Of course the stone church, so conspicuous from the sea, is chief among them, gathering a congregation of some 3,000 natives on the Sabbath, and being the great town hall or 66 tabernacle" in which all public meetings or concerts are held during the week. Built, as it was, entirely by native contributions and mainly by native skill, it will be the monument of this people when the causes which are wasting them away shall have worked out their inevitable result, and the nation is extinct.

Although this end is seen approaching, the church is yet well filled on the Sabbath, and the services, conducted in the Hawaiian language, have many devout attendants who do not lose a single word of all that is told them from the pulpit. It would be well if their quiet and attentive de

meanor could be transplanted to some of our own churches at home where the sleepers outnumber the hearers.

Besides the native church the Congregationalists have a chapel where regular services are held in English, and there is a seamen's chapel which, in the times of whaling, has often been crowded with sailors.

The Roman Catholics have a handsome, well-built cathedral on Fortstreet which is quite largely attended by natives, whose love of finery overmasters their religious teaching; and the English Puseyites or Reformed-Catholics as they prefer to be called in Honolulu, have a small chapel and a smaller congregation at the entrance to Nuaanu Valley. They propose, however, to erect a large and suitable building for the new bishop.

In a small place like Honolulu the rivalry between these various sects soon becomes bitter, and just at present a strong mixture of political interests with those of the English Church affected by the advocates of the New Establishment, has given rise to more sharp feeling than has existed for some time past. The late king seemed disposed to unite church and state after the manner of Great Britain, and having sent to England for an Episcopal clergyman and received a bishop, he gave him a standing and position at court as Lord Bishop of the Isles, which has almost turned the head of the reverend gentleman. Much political capital is made of this, and the certainty, within a few years, of the Hawaiian dynasty becoming extinct, together with the advantage to be derived by either nation of possessing superior political influence at that time, when the islands will fall either to the United States or Great Britain, gives much interest to the matter, and in the minds of the people of foreign birth in the islands makes the slightest change in affairs appear a matter of stupendous importance to both countries. To hear some of them it would be supposed that the eyes of the whole world were upon the honorable gentlemen representing the great nations at the Hawaiian court, and that the slightest difference of opinion between them was an affair of national importance. Little questions of etiquette assume in their eyes a national importance. For instance: a prodigious sensation was made last May (1863), by the refusal of the American minister to hoist the stars and stripes on the Queen's birthday-a pretty piece of discourtesy, the more marked since the day was made a public holiday, and the foreign consuls all hoisted their flags. Englishmen waxed indignant at the slight to the Queen, as they called it, and could not be pacified. It turned out that the minister had deemed this course necessary for the honor of his country, since Washington's birthday had not been observed at the British embassy. In such silly controversies time passes at a court where there is little to do. It is proper to remark that the gentleman now representing the United States at Honolulu had not at that time entered upon his official duties, and that strange stories of the incompetency of his predecessor were afloat.

In this connection it is impossible to avoid mentioning the close bonds which unite foreign residents at Honolulu to their native countries, however long absent and isolated the individual may have been., The oldest missionary turns to the United States as home, although he may long since have dismissed all hope of returning thither, and the children of missionaries, born and brought up on the islands, have as absorbing an interest in the great struggle now progressing in the States as any boy

in New York or Kentucky, and are quite as well informed of its nature and progress. We have Hawaiian citizens in our national army who are followed with lively interest by friends and relatives in this little kingdom of the Pacific. This failure on the part of residents to identify themselves heart and son with the land of their adoption marks the difference between a rising nation and a feeble one. New York city alone receives as many emigrants in a single month,-often in a single week, as would outnumber the entire population of the Sandwich Islands. They come from out all nations under Heaven. In a few years their nationality is lost; they are swallowed up in the great sea of American citizenship; but in these islands the few hundreds of foreigners who from time to time have settled there have been a peculiar people, superior to and separated from the natives, and while the latter are melting away the former, maintaining their distinct and commanding position, are destined in the end to become the sole inhabitants of the group. It is true that many among these foreigners marry native wives and take the oath of citizenship, but this does not alter their relative position. Their wives are elevated by the alliance, and their children are educated as whites, rising above the people in thought and associations. Some of these children are so nearly white that it would be impossible to detect the shade of native blood.

It is this clearly defined line between the native and foreign population, and the gradual diminution of the former by natural causes, which marks the certainty that in a few years even the shadow of power will have left this people. It only remains with them now by sufferance, for in reality the foreigners possess most of the political power and money capital of the group. Any sudden development of the sugar interest would so much increase the white population as to make them sole owners of the sol, as they are now to a very large extent. Then any serious attempt by the king and chiefs to legislate against their interests would speedily lead to a revolution, by which the whites would become in name as they are now in reality, the leading power in the Sandwich Islands.

During the last three years the sugar interests have increased so largely, and it has been so well proved that the business will pay large profits notwithstanding the failure of several enterprises through ignorance and lack of capital, that it may be considered a matter of great probability-almost of certainty-that the next five years will see a marvellous change in the standing and prospects of the country. Honolulu hitherto has been known only as a port of call where our whaleships have touched twice a year for supplies. Soon it will be a great export mart for sugar, and possibly for coffee. With less outlay of labor the rich lava soil of Hawaii and Kauai will produce larger crops of sugar than any other land in the world, not even excepting the rich cane-lands of Cuba. The great wants are capital and skilled labor. Native labor is abundant enough and cheap enough, but totally inadequate for the cultivation of the islands on a large scale. Capital is scarce, and the place so remote that it is not easily attracted thither; but for sugar planting it is increasing. With ample capital and im proved machinery the sugar culture will soon become the great industry of the islands, and a source of wealth to all who engage in it bringing skill and energy to the work.

Honolulu at present is in a transition state between the prosperity