It appears from his own testimony that Dr. Bowen, believing on the one hand that annexation was impracticable, and on the other that the restoration of the Queen would never be sanctioned by Congress, urged Mr. Paul Neumann to bring about a compromise between the Queen and the Provisional Government. The proposition was that the Queen should receive a liberal pension in consideration of her abdication of the throne in favor of the Provisional Government. Several conferences took place between Messrs. Bowen and Neumann on one side and President Dole on the other. The result was that President Dole informed Mr. Neumann that any proposition of the kind, duly authorized by the Queen, would receive respectful attention. On the 16th, Dr. Bowen explained the plan to Mr. Blount, who declined to express any opinion on it. The next morning Mr. Blount called on President Dole to ascertain how far the affair had gone, and told him that neither Dr. Bowen nor any one else except himself (Blount) was authorized to speak for the President of the United States.

Col. Claus Spreckels, having arrived on the 18th, called on the Queen on 20th, and encouraged her to hope for his support. The next day he informed Mr. Blount "that he suspected there was an effort at negotiation between the Queen and the Provisional Government, and that he had urged the Queen to withdraw her power of attorney from Paul Neumann."

On the 24th, after informing President Dole of his intention, Mr. Blount called on the Queen and questioned her in

regard to the alleged negotiations with the Provisional Government, plainly showing his disapprobation of them. She promised him that "she would not enter into any negotiations until the Government at Washington had taken action. on the information derived through his report."

Mr. Blount told her that "one of the objects of his visit was to get all the facts connected with her dethronement and the disposition of the people of the Islands in relation to the present Government." She then remarked that much depended on Mr. Spreckels as to the future, and that if he should refuse to loan any money to the Government, it would go to pieces. At Mr. Blount's request, she told Wm.

Aldrich to furnish him a list of those annexationists who

had signed petitions for the lottery. A copy of this list is embodied in Mr. Nordhoff's letter to the New York Herald of April 25th, and much is made of it in Blount's report. The same day the Queen told Mr. Neumann that nothing would be done until the Government of the United States gave its decision, and asked him to return to her his power of attorney and his commission, which he did the next day. Dr. Bowen left on the Australia, April 26th. In consequence of Mr. Blount's dispatch No. 6, the following telegram was sent from Washington, dated May 9th, and received May 17th: "To JAMES H. BLOUNT, American Commissioner, Honolulu. Your report of April 26th received. The views therein expressed and the steps taken by you have the President's

approval. The President, having determined to recall Mr. Stevens, dispatch is forwarded to him to-day, directing him. to turn over the Legation to you forthwith.

You are hereby appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Hawaiian Islands. Your commission bears date May 9th. You may take oath before Consul-General, and thereupon announce your appointment. While your acceptance permanently would greatly gratify the President, your wishes will control.

A new Consul-General will speedily be appointed. The representations of Bowen and Sewell are wholly unauthorized and repudiated by the President, who repeats that you alone are authorized to represent him in all matters embodied in the instructions given you before your departure for Hawaii.

On the 18th of April, Mr. Blount forbade the landing of troops from the Boston for the purpose of drilling, probably fearing that it might create an impression favorable to the Provisional Government. In his dispatch of April 26th, he used the following language: "The white race, or what be termed the Reform Party, constitute the intelligence and own most of the property in these islands, and are desperately eager to be a part of the United States on any terms rather than take the chances of being subjected to the control of the natives. With them we can dictate any terms."

may

On the 16th of May, Mr. Blount saw fit to publish in the Honolulu papers, his instructions of March 11th, as given above. To these he appended the following notice:

"While I shall abstain from interference with conflicting forces of whatever nationality, I will protect American citizens not participating in such conflict."

Under the circumstances the language was naturally interpreted by both parties as a plain intimation that an uprising of the royalists to overturn the existing government. would be viewed with indifference by the Commissioner.

THE NORDHOFF LIBEL CASE.

Mr. Chas. Nordhoff ably executed the errand upon which he had been sent to the Islands. In comparison with him.

the Queen's adherents were but tyros in the art of misrepresentation. At the same time his intimate relations with Commissioner Blount became a subject of general remark. At length the indignation aroused among the supporters of the Government was such that threats of personal violence were made by some rash individuals against Mr. Nordhoff. On being informed of it, the authorities at once took precautions for his protection. A letter of his to the N. Y. Herald having been republished in a Honolulu paper, he was threatened with several libel suits, and summoned May 22d, to appear before the Provisional Assembly to answer for the false statement that "most of the members" of that Assembly had signed petitions for the lottery.

The source of Mr. Nordhoff's information on this point has been indicated above. Upon this Mr. Blount called upon President Dole and protested against the action of the Council, saying that "Whatever information Mr. Nordhoff may have obtained carried with it an obligation of privacy, which I do not believe he would violate."

He further sent President Dole a letter in which he took the ground that an American citizen cannot be called to account in any foreign country for a libel published in the United States, and cited as a precedent, the case of Mr. Cutting, who was arrested at Juarez, Mexico, for a publication in Texas, in 1885, but was set free at the demand of the American Government. Mr. Nordhoff then made a written declaration that the republication in the Honolulu Bulletin

of his letters to the N. Y. Herald was without his knowledge and consent.

He also published a retraction and apology for untrue statements made in regard to Messrs. T. F. Lansing and F. W. McChesney, members of the Advisory Council, as well as to Mr. W. H. Hoogs. President Dole's reply to Commissioner Blount was in part as follows:

"Sir-I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd inst., relating to Mr. Nordhoff, and to state in reply that upon full consideration of the questions involved this Government has decided to take no criminal proceedings against Mr. Nordhoff for what was considered as contempt against the Advisory Council of this Government. "In respect to the matters referred to in the AttorneyGeneral's letter to Mr. Nordhoff, this Government does not propose to take any proceedings in contravention of the view of international law expressed by the United States Government in the Cutting case; but there is apparently this distinction to be noted in the two cases, viz., that Mr. Cutting was in the United States when he made the publication objected to by the Mexican Government, whereas Mr. Nordhoff, while in the Hawaiian Islands and under the jurisdiction of its courts, has written articles defamatory of this Government, which were published in the United States in a newspaper which is freely circulated in the Hawaiian Islands, and which articles have been republished here." In a letter dated May 29, Mr. Blount writes:

"I sug

gested to President Dole and the Attorney-General, in conversation with them, that if Mr. Nordhoff was so obnoxious, they might possibly require him to leave the country." The Government, however, was not simple enough to step into any such trap.

"Indeed," he adds, "the whole proceeding in relation to him (Nordhoff) seems to have been animated by the spirit of crushing out all opposing opinions by forceful methods." To this charge the files of certain royalist papers for that year, filled as they are with the foulest abuse, are a sufficient reply. In hardly any other country would such publi

cations have been tolerated.

On the 21st of June, Mr. Nordhoff left the Islands for his home in Coronado, California, where he continued his newspaper war against the Provisional Government. Early in the following November, while Mr. Blount's report was still locked up in the State Department, Mr. Nordhoff published portions of the testimony filed with Mr. Blount in the preceding May and June, by Messrs. C. T. Gulick and G. Trousseau, pretending that these were extracts from letters recently received by him from Honolulu.

CLAUS SPRECKELS' DEMAND.

During this period, Mr. Nordhoff was believed to be the mouth-piece of Col. Spreckels. After having labored in vain. to persuade the leading sugar planters to join with him in

opposing annexation and to establish an independent oligarchy, Col. Spreckels decided in the latter part of May, 1893, that the time had come to strike a decisive blow for the restoration of the Queen.

The government treasury was very low when the revolution took place, military expenses since then had been very heavy, and the taxes would not begin to come in before July. The Wilcox Cabinet had been obliged in December, 1892, to borrow $95,000 from Spreckels' Bank to meet withdrawals from the Postal Savings Bank, the notes for which became due June 1st. Besides this, the semi-annual interest

the London loan, amounting to $30,000, which became due in July, had to be provided for. In this situation Col. Spreckels saw his opportunity, and although in February he had given the Cabinet to understand that he would not call for the principal as long as the interest was promptly paid, he made a sudden demand for the whole amount a few days before it became due.

On the 29th of May he had a conference with the Queen, in which he told her that the Provisional Government would fall to pieces in consequence of his demand, so that arms would not be required. He advised her to form a new cabinet, proclaim a new constitution, and declare martial law. There is no proof that Mr. Blount was in the

secret.

On the afternoon of May 31st, Mr. P. C. Jones went out on the street and raised the $95,000 for the government in