The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-04-05

editorial, Is reputed 10 be the organ OF the old
Tory or aris,ocratic party Of England, and its
utteraDces therefore Will be regarded with inter
est. We do not however by any means endorse
the view expressed as To these Islands, that - the
poor islanders-the remnants of thcm-cannot
stand alone" nor that a their fate is sealed
We believe that there Is Yet sufficient life remain
ing in that remnant with judicious care and
government TO remain an independent, prosperous
nation.
America and the Sandwich Islands.
1t is now more than thirty years since one of
the dreamiest and yet most persevering of pro-
jectors safe b~roOding in exile and obscurIty overs
scheme for making stationary, housekeeping
France rival the three great expanding empires of
the world-Britain, Russia, and the United States
in the acquisition Of distant territory and in
huence. France was to - put a girdle round the
earth" The several etapeS of her march TO effect
this purpose were marked out with curious min
uteness. All these speculatiOns may be traced. If
our memory serves us, In the printed works of
Napoleon III. before his accession to power. And
in power he never lost sight of them, however i'm
perfectly fortune or good management may have
seconded his enterprises. France was to start
westward from her possessions in the Gulf Of
Mexico. She was to obtain either the control or
the possession of the Isthmus of Darien, and
thereby of the land transit from the Atlantic to
the j Gu ILilS lued, NANtEkcu II liIllG HUH ~
original scope, found its realization for a moment
in the il-omened conquest of Mexico. From the
shores Of Mexico imagination easily oyerleaped
the distance to the archipelagos Of Polynesia.
Here France had already established herself under
priestly and not Napoleonic inspiration in the
Marquesas and at Otaheite, which entered, there
fore, readily into the general scheme. New Cal
edOnia was to furnish another stage, and to serve
at once as a repair for convicts and a point from
whence to watch the politics and commerce of the
Western Pacific. New Zealand had at one period
formed the next imaginary link in the chain; but
the progress of English supremacy made it ne
cessary to omit this from the programme. And
the larthest end of the line became attached to the
old continent on the shores of Cochin China.
Such was the "Napoleonic idea - partly real, or
rather capable of realization. but in the main
chimerical. 1t was deficient in substance, because
France had DO trade in those distant regions, and
therefore no foundation Of empire to build upon.
For III our days, at least, trade-that is, the rela-
ton of mutual need between metropolis and de-
pendency-is the only basis on which empire can
be reared or is worth rearing. Armies and navies
will not supply the want of it, still less regiments
Of missionary priests. 50 long as the French
commercial flag is almost unknown in the South
Seas, the tricolour of ambition will float there in
vain.
1t seems to be now the general opinion
founded, perhaps, in part on the popular reaction
from the sentiment of those times when it passed
for an achievement to plant the Union Jack on
every rock-that the part of England in that vast
section of the world as an annexing Power is
played out. Australia and New Zealand are sufh-
clent TO satisfy the dreams of extended empire in
the South Seas which any moderate politician can
entertain. Yet there is something ike n 9 mani
fest destiny" which pushes us on. These poor
islanders-the remnant of them-cannot stand
alone. They must be protected from the savage
greed OF the trader in men, from the liability TO
which their very weakness exposes them, to be
made subjects of quarrel and attack by officers
and subjects of jealous civilized Powers, from the
rivalries OF intriguing missionaries and busy COM
mercial spectators. Their own chiefs are only
too well aware of this; and it is to the protection
of England, the most active and ubiquitous of
maritime Powers, that they naturally aspire. We
have been offered, and declined, the sovereignty
of the Sandwich Islands times out of mind. We
have been more than once sorely tempted in periods
when national rivalry ran high to take our senti-
mental heroes OF old romance, the natives OF Ia
hiti, out of the hands of their French civilizers.
The Samoan group, containing probably the
most improbable race in the smaller islands of the
Pacific, has been 50 long under the management
of our missionaries that their transfer to our SOW
~ereignty would be little more than nominal. And
every one is aware of the pressure which has been
put on our Government to annex the noble group
of FIJI, and with what difficulty that pressure has
been as yet stemmed. These are only indications
of a prevailing tendency, which may be for some
time longer repressed, but cannot in our belief be
subdued.
And now the latest Geographic intelligence in
forms us of the probability that the Sandwich ISL
ands will be absorbed in the great American Re
public. The monarch whom the punctilious AZ
HldnGch de GOfha terms King LOt-Kamehameha is
reported to have departed this life. His Majesty
was the son of a daughter of the founder of the
family, Kamehameha l., and brother of his de-
ceased predecessor, who married Miss Emma
Rookie, the : Queen Emma :" who excited some in
terest in England not many years ago. Whence
he derived his pre-name of Lot we cannot tell, but
it seems not inappropriate for the Sovereign of
the most volcanic little dominion in the world.
Kilauea in Hawaii, with its lake of eVer-burning
fire, may not unfitly represent the Biblical site of
the Dead Sea, the Land of the Plain, 81 of which
the smoke went up as the smoke of a furnace"
These islands are already Americanized in all but
name. The Chancellor, the Ministers of Foreign
Affairs, the Interior, and the Finances, all belong,
if We may judge by their names, to the Anglo
Saxon race. The religious affairs Of the CON-
munity are in the hands of Boston missionaries.
Of l55 vessels which entered the port Of Honolulu
in 1870. ninety-ive were American. The natives
the "Kanakas" of the South Seas-are dying
off, without wars or epidemics, at even a more
rapid rate than our New Zealanders. In 1886
they numbered 108 $40. In January, 1871, there
were only SO, 600 of them. Under circumstances
like these, it is more than idle to regret the trans
fer of the relics of an almost eXtinguished nation
ality to the dominion of a people more calculated
from their position than any other to turn the
occurrence to advantage. The ports will be Oc-
cupied by a mixed trading population. The
lovely valleys which stretch from the coasts to the
feet of the great burning mountains will become
d~esolate; more than half desolate they have be-
come already. In another age the islands will be
repeopled by Chinese under the control of AmerI-
cans. 1t is said that there are some difficulties in
the way arising out of treaties between the great
Powers. But such arrangements will probably
not long oppose the course of coming events.
But why, 1t may be asked, should not the civil
lied Powers agree on a policy at once more i'm
partial and more magnanimous-that of preserv-
ing these little Polynesian commonwealth in
their integrity by joint protection? The answer,
unhappily, is to be found in the statistics which
we have already cited. Their fate is sealed. Their