o much
complaisance towards me.

We remained a full hour, and then made our adieus, "the interview having
passed," according to the Court Journal, "much to the satisfaction of
all parties."

For my own part I was excessively diverted with the rarce-show, and
thought it highly ridiculous. What greater folly can exist than aping
the forms and etiquette of an European court? If, as is contended, the
natives are not sufficiently advanced in civilization for free
government, it is by no means imperative to set up a tinsel puppet, to
dazzle the eyes of a few half-naked savages; for surely no intelligent
person can be so blind an owl as not to detect and despise the cheat.
These vain-glorious ceremonies and pretensions are also, in a certain
degree, the cause of embroiling the Hawaiian Government with other
nations, whose consuls or diplomatic agents complain of bad treatment;
but in all the bullying or advice volunteered, incident upon their
indiscretions, there has been none so sensible, and so plainly given, as
the letter of an English Admiral to the King, consequent upon outrages
committed upon a British subject in 1846. Outcries are raised, too, in
these cases, by individuals who have renounced their own country and
sworn allegiance to a new native master, about the oppression of
American citizens.

One may forgive the absurdity attending these proceedings in a
Scotchman, but it is inexcusable in a Yankee. Still many measures
emanating from these sagacious councillors are characterised by a
careful regard to the interests of the native population. But then there
are other laws, which have not the ground of expediency to uphold them,
wherein strangers are incapacitated from becoming owners of landed
property without swearing fealty to the Hawaiian King! As a consequence,
the greater portion of tillable ground is held by the chief, who has
neither the sense nor energy to direct the steps for a proper
development of the soil. The lower order are the occupants, who
themselves are not eligible to a free tenure, and at least one-half, or
two-thirds the benefits of their labor is taken in some way by the
proprietors. Thus, without an incentive to greater efforts the country
languishes under the same species of feudal tyranny and extortion, as in
the days of their cannibal forefathers! The islands are rich and
fertile; sugar, coffee, and tobacco flourish luxuriantly; and under any
other system than the present, there could be