been seized by Lord George Paulet, in behalf of the British crown, was, in view of these recent assertions and assurances, received in London with no little consternation. It had placed Great Britain in the position of having acted in apparent bad faith, and the matter was at once given the serious attention of the government. The act of Lord George Paulet was distinctly disavowed, both to the Hawaiian commissioners, who had by this time arrived at London and presented their protest, and to Mr. Everett. Some hesitation was at first felt by the British government in promptly disclaiming sovereignty over the Islands, for the reason that France had recently made a seizure of and established a sovereignty over the Marquesas group of islands; and it was feared that similar movements were contemplated against the Hawaiian Islands. Indeed, it was reported that a French squadron was on its way to the Islands, for the purpose of making a seizure of them, at the very time when the Carysfort entered the harbor of Honolulu. On the twenty-eighth day of November, 1843, a convention was entered into between the Queen

of Great Britain and the King of France, in which the two nations mutually agreed "to consider the Sandwich Islands as an independent State, and never to take possession, either directly or under the title of protectorate, or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed."

Unaware of the proceedings at London, and desirous of preserving the interests of the United States in the Islands, Commodore Kearney, U.S.N., who reached the Islands on the United States frigate Constellation, July 11, 1843, made a formal protest against the king's deed of cession. This prudent and patriotic act was, however, needless, as was soon after proved. On the twenty-sixth day of July the British ship Dublin, conveying Rear-Admiral Thomas of the British Navy, entered the harbor. This officer brought the agreeable news that the act of Lord George Paulet had been disavowed, and the deed of cession repudiated; and by open declaration he announced that "he does not accept of the provisional cession of the Hawaiian Islands, made on the twenty-fifth day of February, 1843, but that he considers

His Majesty Kamehameha III the legitimate king of those Islands; and he assures His Majesty that the sentiments of his sovereign toward him are those of unvarying friendship and esteem, that Her Majesty sincerely desires King Kamehameha to be treated as an independent sovereign, leaving the administration of justice in his own hands, the faithful discharge of which will promote his happiness and the prosperity of his dominions."

The flag of the Hawaiian monarchy was then restored to its place, the British flag removed, and the episode ended, the most momentous in its political bearings of those in which the young nation in the Pacific had yet been involved.

CHAPTER VI.

FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS

THE message of President Tyler, conceding the independence of the island government, contained also a recommendation to Congress "to provide for a moderate allowance to be made out of the Treasury to the consul residing there, that in a government so new and a country so remote American citizens may have respectable authority to which to apply for redress in case of injury to their persons and property, and to whom the government of the country may also make known any acts committed by American citizens of which it may think it has a right to complain. This recommendation was adopted and provision made for the compensation of a diplomatic officer; and on March 3, 1843, Mr. George Brown, of Massachusetts, was appointed commissioner. In the following October Mr. Brown arrived at his post, and presented his credentials to the king in a formal address, no doubt the first ceremony of the kind in which the Hawaiian king had ever taken part; for, although the government of the United States had been represented

there by an "agent for commerce and seamen as early as the year 1820, it is not probable that he assumed any diplomatic functions or that he was formally presented to the king. Mr. Brown, in addressing the king, assured him that it was the wish of the government to which he was accredited that the independence of the Hawaiian territory should be scrupulously maintained, and that the friendly relations existing between the two governments should be even more closely cemented.

"You may assure your government," said His Majesty in reply, "that I shall always consider the citizens of the United States as entitled to equal privileges with those of the most favored nation.”

The significance of this utterance, in view of the absence of any formal treaty relations between the two countries, is important; and it was not forgotten when, a brief period later, the sincerity of the king in making it } was put to a serious test. An American citizen, one John Wiley, who had been arrested upon charge of some crime or misdemeanor, and to whom a trial by a jury of foreign residents was denied by the local