Englishman, Minister of Foreign Affairs; L. A. Thurston, born in the Islands of American parents; W. L. Green, an Englishman; and C. W. Ashford, a Canadian, Attorney-General. This Ministry was sworn in July 1st, 1887, and was throughout one of the strongest and ablest that had ever been chosen.

The amendments of the Constitution which were then secured were of the utmost importance, both in the essentials of guaranteeing the people the possession of their rights and in bringing about conditions of material prosperity and unprecedented progress.

The suffrage was granted to the whites, which had been stubbornly withheld; and the Ministry, which had been hitherto entirely subservient to the King, was held responsible to the Legislature only, and this body was to be elected by the people. The white residents, who had no voice in public affairs, had been paying some 87 per cent of the public revenues -a political status not unlike that of the Uitlanders in the Transvaal.

The elections which occurred the following September were fair and honest, and there was a period of three years when what was called "the Reform Party," the party chiefly instrumental in carrying the revolution to a successful issue, gave the country the purest, best, and most efficient government it had ever known. In the meantime the King and his adherents carried on a continual struggle to regain their lost power and prestige; and the Palace then,

KALAKAUA'S DEBTS.

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as it was afterwards, became the theatre of successive conferences and conspiracies. The claim of Aki remained unpaid, and the King was urged by the new Cabinet to settle it before the Legislature should assemble. This he agreed to do, and the revenues of the Crown lands were to be set aside to satisfy the debt. A little closer investigation proved, however, that the King's liabilities of one kind and another amounted to more than $250,000. He was finally induced to make an assignment for the benefit of his creditors, Aki among them, three trustees being named. They refused to restore the money that had been paid for the opium licence, and the Chinese merchant brought a suit in the Supreme Court. Here it was decided, in conformity with the Constitution, which adhered to the old mediæval tradition, that the King could "do no wrong. This interpretation meant that Kalakaua "could not be sued or held to account in any court of the kingdom,' but the revenue in the hands of the trustees was held liable to Aki's claim.

It should be explained that his irresponsibility in financial affairs, quite apart from the moral corruption of his Court, had been one of the chief causes of public discontent. It was almost impossible to get funds from the Legislature, which he absolutely controlled before the enfranchisement of the whites, for necessary expenses and improvements. The Islands. were almost without roads, there were few proper

wharves where vessels could receive and discharge their cargo, and as the dredging of the harbour had been utterly neglected, the great vessels plying between San Francisco and China were not able to dock. These improvements have since been made under the new Republic.

In 1881 the King, accompanied by the late Colonel C. H. Judd as chamberlain, and by Mr. W. N. Armstrong as Commissioner of Immigration, made a tour round the world. During this tour the King became inspired with an ambition to unite Polynesia in an autocracy, inspired by the example of the King of Siam, whose court and kingdom he found to be vastly to his liking. He displayed the unreasoning greed of a child in his envy of the rich insignia, the formality and ceremony, and above all the costly armaments of European monarchs. In Austria it was a field battery that tempted him, a caprice that cost the Government $21,000, the guns. being of little use in the Islands, which are crossed by mountain ridges that in many places can be traversed only by steep and tortuous bridle paths.

King Kalakaua's return, October 29th, 1881, was made an occasion of great public rejoicing, the cost of which was also defrayed by the people. At the time of his election to the throne there had been no special ceremony beyond taking the oath of office as prescribed by the Hawaiian law. After his return from his long journey, and nine years.

THE KING'S EXTRAVAGANCE.

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after his inauguration, he decided to be formally crowned, the ceremony taking place in a pavilion erected in the grounds of the Palace, nearly all the European Powers being represented. The coronets, one for himself, and one for the Queen, Kapiolani, were purchased in England at the cost of $10,000— not an exorbitant price certainly, but forming an item in a bill of expense which had already reached an enormous total. The King, as has been said, was not of the ancient and honoured lineage of the Kamehamehas, and had no sympathy from Hawaiians of high rank like Queen Emma, Ruth Keelikolani, and Mrs. Bernice Pauahi Bishop. The latter was a direct heir to the throne, but declined the difficult office, preferring the retirement of private life. She left the bulk of her great fortune to endow schools for her people. All these "chiefesses" of high rank absented themselves from the foolish coronation, which, far from being impressive, had many of the characteristics of an opéra bouffe ceremonial.

The contract was

The building of the Palace was another enormous extravagance, and so far as its cost is concerned remains a mystery to this day. not put out to tender in the customary manner, but the work was given for private reasons to architects and builders whom the King wished to favour. There were no requisitions upon the Treasury, and bills were paid by the King without any Ministerial intervention. In addition to all

this folly, which kept the country impoverished, and discouraged capitalists from engaging in profitable enterprises which might have developed its rich resources, large sums were squandered in barbaric funerals whenever a chief or chiefess died. The natives came to the capital from the surrounding islands, and four weeks of feasting and lamentation frequently ensued before the corpse was finally consigned to the earth. These funerals, the expense of which was paid from the State Treasury, cost frequently from $50,000 to $60,000.

In 1890, having failed in negotiating a loan of $10,000,000 with which to equip a standing army (an attempt that had been made unsuccessfully before), the King was urged by the reactionary party to call a revolutionary convention, by which a new Constitution should be framed, withdrawing the franchise from what was termed "the foreign element." All that resulted from this movement was the enactment of certain amendments; and, as Professor Alexander states, the most important of these was one "lowering the property qualification of electors for nobles " -the latter constituting the highest legislative body.

The King, worn out with incessant political turmoil and by the irregular life he had led for many years, accompanied Admiral George Brown to San Francisco in his flagship the Charleston, in November, 1890. He was hospitably received and entertained; but his