health continued to fail, and he died January 20th, 1891, in the Palace Hotel.

Admiral Brown was commissioned by the United States to take the body back to Honolulu, and the Queen requested him to assume entire charge of the funeral ceremonies, which he succeeded in curtailing to a fortnight. The body lay in state for two weeks, and was then placed in the royal vault. As a mark of her appreciation of his services the royal widow presented the American officer with the King's ring, and a native ceremonial, called "the hookupu," was held at the dock in his honour on the day that the Charleston sailed for San Francisco; it consisted in the presentation of gifts of fruit, fowls, pigs, calabashes, fine tapa, and many rare curios of native workmanship. The offerings were so numerous that the ship was almost fully provisioned for her voyage, and many of the presents had to be left behind.

Of the King, personally, Professor Alexander, who was an unsparing though just critic, has written: "In spite of his great faults as a ruler and as a man, he had been uniformly kind and courteous in private life, and there was sincere grief in Honolulu when the news of his death arrived." This estimate is corroborated by others; and there were few who were brought into close contact with him who were not impressed by his amiability and sweetness of manner. His most serious defect was, without

doubt, lack of will; and this made him unable to resist temptation, and an easy prey to the hordes of adventurers and parasites that gathered about him and that had access to the Palace at all times.

In this concise outline of events the heritage of political turmoil and social unrest to which Queen Liliuokalani succeeded will be easily perceived. To comprehend fully the events that followed, however, it will be necessary to go back somewhat. The Hawaiian law of royal succession was peculiar. The King was empowered to name the heir-apparent, who was usually his son or adopted son. Failing this precaution on the part of the King, the Legislature was authorised to elect a successor. Lunalilo, who was the immediate predecessor of Kalakaua, was chosen in this manner, being the chief of the highest rank among the native Hawaiians. He died without heirs and without naming an heir-apparent.

The real choice of the people was the beautiful and accomplished Queen Emma, the widow of Kamehameha V., the adopted daughter of Dr. Rooke, an English physician. She had been carefully trained and educated for the high position she was destined to occupy. She was married June 19th, 1856, and a son was born two years later, whose untimely death in 1862 was considered a national calamity.

Queen Emma, however, was a staunch adherent of the English Church, and there was reason to believe that she would have at least advocated, if she could

QUEEN LILIUOKALANI.

13

not have accomplished, the establishment of a state religion, which the people, except those personally interested in the matter, were prepared to resist.

Furthermore, it was known that she would oppose the reciprocity treaty with the United States which was enacted in 1876, and by which the temporary cession of Pearl Harbour as a coaling station for its men-of-war was effected. In return for this concession, Hawaiian sugar, the principal export, was to be admitted into the United States free of duty. It was always believed that the election of King Kalakaua was compassed by bribery, and the announcement of the result was followed by a riot, in which the Court House was attacked by a mob, and several of Kalakaua's partisans in the Legislature were killed and others forced to flee for their lives.

Marines were landed from the U.S. S. Tuscarora and the Portsmouth, and from H. B. M. corvette Tenedos. The latter encamped in the Queen's Gardens, guarding the Palace and barracks, and arresting a number of the rioters. History, it will be seen, a decade later repeated itself, although in the case of Kalakaua it was never charged that he was placed upon the throne by the connivance of British and American men-of-war. But for their assistance, however, he would not have ascended the throne.

King Kalakaua had no heir, and he accordingly named his sister Liliuokalani as heir-apparent. had an intense jealousy of the whites, and at the

She

time of the adoption of the Constitution of 1887 was in England in attendance upon Queen Kapiolani, who had gone to London to be present at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

When she learned what concessions had been made to the men whom she regarded as aliens and interlopers, her rage knew no bounds, and it is not too much to assume, judging from subsequent events, that she never for one moment relinquished the determination to wrest from them the privileges they had secured and to restore them to their former status. It was of no consequence that the State Treasury was almost entirely dependent upon the taxes of which they paid so large a part, and that the colleges, the public-school system, the laws, the entire judiciary - all that the country possessed that entitled it to a place among civilised people—were wholly due to their efforts and support. Her attitude was perfectly well known to a few, but public confidence was restored when she took the oath to maintain the Constitution as it stood, which she did on the day that the King's body arrived in Honolulu.

She gave, however, on that day, January 29th, 1891, an intimation of the spirit which she had concealed with true diplomatic reserve. Mr. S. M. Damon, Minister of Finance under the Republic, and Envoy from Hawaii to the Diamond Jubilee, in an interview remarked, "What was needed was a responsible Ministry." She discouraged any discussion of the

A STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY.

15

matter, and answered curtly and significantly, "My Ministry shall be responsible to me"-a bold usurpation of authority that would not be tolerated in any constitutional monarchy in Europe.

The Queen's niece, the young Princess Kaiulani, then in England, was named as heir-apparent.

The latter

The first conflict came at once over a constitutional question, with the Queen and her supporters arrayed on one side and the Cabinet on the other. claimed that the Legislature alone had authority to remove them from office, the Queen claiming that she had a right to choose her own Ministry. An appeal was made to the Supreme Court, and the question was decided in favour of the Queen. She thus scored the first victory; and being in some particulars an astute though short-sighted woman, did not fail to follow up the advantage she had temporarily gained. She not only had a Ministry of her own selection, but she made their nomination subject to conditions by which she hoped to control them.

a

As a further intimation of an approaching crisis, the Queen asked of this Cabinet the, appointment of C. B. Wilson as Chief Marshal of the Islands measure that was expected to bear fruit later, when she might require the backing of an armed force.

It was the old story of the struggle for supremacy, the conflict of the people for their rights under the Constitution, and of the Queen for autocratic and unlawful prerogatives. There were the usual plots