interest, and must continue to do so. I deem it of great importance that the projected submarine cable, a survey for which has been made, should be promoted. Both for naval and commercial uses, we should have quick communication with Honolulu. We should before this have availed ourselves of the concession made many years ago to this government for a harbor and naval station at Pearl River. Many evidences of the friendliness of the Hawaiian government have been given in the past, and it is gratifying to believe that the advantage and necessity of a continuance of very close relations is appreciated."

It is a peculiarity of our American disposition that the presence of an immediate and urgent necessity is often necessary to vigorous action. When necessity confronts us, our people never fail to meet it with enthusiasm; but we are apt to move with the utmost caution in the performance of radical measures, when impelled only by the possibility of a future condition. Hence the urgent recommendation of more than one chief executive failed to arouse Congress to a full realization of the commercial and naval ne

cessity of an American-Hawaiian cable, and applications for aid from promoters of the project met with but a cold reception. Equally somnolent was Congress in availing itself of the advantages of the Pearl Harbor cession.

THE REVOLUTION OF 1893.

THE crisis in Hawaiian political affairs was now rapidly approaching. The correspondence of Minister Stevens with the Department of State, in the autumn of 1892, shows that an antagonism between the queen and the white residents was rising and acquiring strength. That she was desirous of assuming the power of an absolute monarch now seemed to them evident. The English party in the Islands perceived that the antagonism of the queen was directed mainly toward the American interests. A large proportion of the landed property in the city of Honolulu was now either owned absolutely or controlled in leaseholds by AmeriThe agricultural interests throughout the Islands, now grown to large proportions, were also chiefly in the hands of Americans. The Princess Kaiulani was still at school in England; but in this autumn of 1892 her guardian, a wealthy Englishman, arrived in Honolulu. This gentleman, Mr. T. H. Davies, after accumulating a fortune through the operation of the sugar provisions of the treaty

cans.

of reciprocity, had returned to England. He now came back to the Islands, partially, it was presumed, to watch over the political interests of his ward, and partially in the capacity of agent for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, whose connecting steamers make Honolulu a port of call on their way to Australia and the Orient. These interests, added to the influence of Bishop Willis, the bishop of the Anglican Church in Honolulu, were all naturally opposed, not only to the steadily growing American sentiment, but to any movement that might point to a possible political union of the two countries. The tendency of the queen toward an assumption of absolute power was therefore encouraged by this state of affairs, as it was aimed more especially at the extinction of the influence of the United States.

In November, 1892, a heated and prolonged contest began between the queen and the legislature. As we have already seen, the cabinet of the late king was vacated by decision of the Supreme Court of the Islands. Determined, apparently, to carry her designs into effect, the queen sent to the legislature

the names of those whom she had selected to compose her new cabinet. Opposition was instantly aroused, for some of these names were of men held to be unfit for the positions to which they were nominated. Confirmation was refused by a decisive vote. A long

struggle ensued, in which the legislature was finally victorious. List after list of names was rejected, until at last, wearied, perhaps, with her fruitless attempt, the queen submitted a list of names with which the majority of both opponents and adherents of the queen were satisfied. This ministry has been known since in the local political circles in the Islands as the Wilcox-Jones cabinet. The settlement was regarded as a triumph of the better elements among the citizens over the worse, and was especially considered to be a conquest of Americanism over the anti-American sentiment.

Notwithstanding this temporary victory for American influences, it was evident to all that the crisis was not over. So vigorous and so persistent was the queen in her efforts that intelligent people in the Islands, who were watching the trend of affairs, could