But our author informs us that the missionaries and a few persons in the immediate employ of the Hawaiian government are opposed to annexation. And what motive does the author attribute to them in this? We quote his own words. "The charge so widely reiterated that the 'missionaries and those banded with them own the finest houses and property on the group,' is, alas! with a few exceptions, too true. Paying no taxes, especially on real estate, it is for their interest to raise every objection to a change of government." It is not to be expected that the man who recommended the adoption of "a well regulated system of concubinage" for the island, should understand the motives of the missionaries. That they should wish to withdraw the native from the influence of such a government as those foreign residents whom our author even has described as the outcasts and offscouring of civilized lands; that they should wish to preserve an infirm race from the dominion and debasing supremacy of a superior race; that they should wish to be left to carry out their plans of benevolence for that race to consummation, and prevent a change which will destroy all their plans;-are motives which, we presume, would have very little weight with our author, and therefore it is quite natural he should seek for other and unworthy motives.

But we must say a word of the ownership of land by the missionaries. Our author has fortunately given us the means of setting this matter right. We quote at length from the appendix:

'Certain applications having been made to the Hawaiian government for land, by several members of the Missionary Board residing on the Islands, the subject was laid before the Hawaiian Legislature, at its session of 24th June, 1851. In view of these applications, the King's Privy Council

"Resolved, That the committee to whom were referred the applications of missionaries for lands be requested to take into consideration the whole subject of granting lands to missionaries, and report to this Council the course that in their view should be pursued hereafter in regard to them.'

The undersigned present the following statement, which they have carefully prepared from the best data that they have been able to collect.

"The undersigned, under the resolution above quoted, are most conscientious in declaring to your majesty, that the respectable and well-deserving individuals and families above named, who neither hold nor have applied for land, would have great reason to complain were your majesty to pursue toward them a different course from that which has been pursued in relation to their brethren who have obtained and applied for land. It becomes, therefore, a matter of some importance what that course has been. The missionaries who have received and applied for lands have neither received nor applied for them without offering what they conceived to be a fair consideration for them.

"So far as their applications have been granted, your majesty's government have dealt with them precisely as they have dealt with other applicants for

land-that is, they have accepted the price where they considered it fair, and they have raised it where they considered it unfair.

"It will not be contended that missionaries, because they are missionaries, have not the same right to buy land in the same quantities and at the same prices as those who are not missionaries.

"The question occurs, Have greater rights been allowed to the missionary ap plicants than to non-missionary applicants? To solve this question satisfactorily requires that the undersigned should give some statistics.

"But, besides what is strictly due to them, in justice and in gratitude for large benefits conferred by them on your people, every consideration of sound policy, under the rapid decrease of the native population, is in favor of holding out inducements for them not to withdraw their children from these islands. One of the undersigned strongly urged that consideration upon your majesty in Privy Council so far back as the 28th of May, 1847, recommending that a formal resolution should be passed, declaring the gratitude of the nation to the missionaries for the services they had performed, and making some provision for their children.

"Your majesty's late greatly lamented Minister of Public Instruction, Mr. Richards, with that disinterestedness which characterized him personally in all his worldly interests, was fearful that to moot such a question would throw obloquy upon the reverend body to which he had belonged, and hence to the day of his death, he abstained from moving it. Neither has any missionary, or any one who had been connected with the mission, ever taken it up to this day; but the undersigned, who are neither missionaries, nor have ever been connected with them, hesitate not to declare to your majesty that it will remain, in all future history, a stain upon this Christian nation if the important services of the missionaries be not acknowledged in some unequivocal and substantial manner. This acknowledgment should not be a thing implied or se-cretly understood, but openly and publicly declared.

"The undersigned would recommend that the following, or some similar resolutions, should be submitted to the Legislature.

"1. Resolved, That all Christian missionaries who have labored in the cause of religion and education in these islands, are eminently benefactors of the Hawaiian nation.

"2. Resolved, That, as a bare acknowledgment of these services, every individual missionary who may have served eight years on the Islands, whether Protestant or Catholic, who does not already hold five hundred and sixty acres of land, shall be allowed to purchase land to that extent at a deduction of fifty cents on every acre from the price that could be obtained from lay purchasers; but that for all land beyond that quantity, he must pay the same price as the latter would pay; and that those who have served less than eight years be allowed to purchase land on the same terms as laymen, until the completion of the eight years, after which they are to be allowed the same favor as the others.

"3. Resolved, That all Christian missionaries serving on these islands shall be exempt from the payment of duties on goods imported for their use in the proportion following, for every year, viz: on goods to the invoice value of one hundred dollars for every active member of the mission, excluding servants. "On goods to the value of thirty dollars for every child above two years of age. (Signed,) R. C. WYLLIE, KEONI ANA.

"Privy Council Chamber, August 19th, 1850.”

Then follows a list of ten non-missionary individuals, and ten missionaries, with the quantity of land owned by them and the prices paid for it. The whole number of acres is about

VOL. XIII.

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eight thousand, and the average of price is one dollar an acre. The whole number of acres on the islands is from three to four millions. We need not dwell upon the case as thus stated. The transaction will be satisfactory to all but those who would take land without paying for it, or who would reform the people by letting them alone in their sins and pollutions.

The more we read this book, the more we are persuaded that it was intended as an insidious attack on the missionaries of the Island. We find insinuations without number. In an extract, from whom we know not, we meet with this vile slander, which we quote to show the real feelings of our author. "The missionary policy has evidently been to keep the natives in a state of vassalage and tutelage-to make them pay the expense of their tuition by a species of religious serfdom. Religious freedom and emancipation are their only hope, and this they will secure by the free laws of an American state." There is not only a mean calumny in the above, but most unblushing hypocrisy; for it is one of the very grounds of annexation, that the Hawaiian race is doomed to speedy extinction.

But the word "emancipation," recalls a topic which had escaped us. Our author, among the objections to annexation which he attempts to answer, mentions the "acquisition of Slave territory." His answer to this is not among the least of the wonderful things in this volume. "But this topic I leave to diplomatists. The American people possess sufficient intelligence and decision of character to provide against any measures that may tend to conflict with the genius of the constitution." But what is the Genius of the Constitution? As all our annexations have been to open a wider area for the extension of slavery, we much fear that the Genius which has presided , over the administration of our government, has been the Genius of Slavery, and we have no doubt but that the same evil genius will preside over the annexation of the Sandwich Islands.

In

The Islands may be annexed; but with annexation comes ruin to all the labors of the missionaries, and the extinction of the race. Sad indeed is the fate of uncivilized or half-civilized nations of the earth. There is not enough of benevolence in the civilized and christianized communities to save them. dividuals may labor; large bodies of men may labor; but it is in vain. The vices of the outcasts from civilization, possessing its energy without its virtues, and the selfishness of commerce, are too much for their labors. Mysterious, indeed, are the purposes of Providence in the permitted triumph of despotism and slavery, in the present enlightened state of the

world; we can only bow in submission to its decrees and rejoice in the Sovereignty of God, who in His own time will scatter the darkness and manifest is wisdom and goodness in His government of the world.

ART. II.—SYMPTOMS MODIFYING OUR NATIONAL JOY.

ALL rational joy in this world is a chastened joy. It is dif ferent in other worlds. In heaven bliss reigns without alloy. In hell sorrow only has a place.

But this is a world of opportunity, of change, of conflict. Here questions of interest are pending; and they may be settled for good or ill. Here questions are to be decided for eternity-questions which will never be open for reconsideration— which will never again be at our disposal. Here we are in danger of missing opportunities; of failing to secure good which is within our reach, and of losing good already in our possession. And though we ourselves are successful and prosperous, we see our fellow-men in adversity and suffering. Hence the remark that all rational joy in this world is a chastened, moderated joy. He must have a very ill-balanced mind, a very defective judgment, who can see, in our present condition, occasion only for rejoicing; or who, on the contrary, can see occasion only for gloom and grief. Life, individual and national, is composed of both light shades and dark, and consequently our feelings must bear this mingled character.

Do these remarks need illustration? Is it not apparent that this is a world for rejoicing, but with a modified, cautious joy, a joy regulated by a view of stern realities?

You have health. Rejoice then in the blessing; but be not imprudent or presuming. You may lose it. You have property. Be thankful; and use it conscientiously. Be not careless and over confident. Your riches may take wings and fly away. You have dear friends. Cherish them. Prize and enjoy their love and society. Yet, be sober; those loved ones may soon be parted from you. Earthly blessings are all held by this frail tenure. Our joy in them should not therefore be unqualified.

Your present condition may be that of a soul unreconciled to God, with no title to heaven. Rejoice then that you are not yet beyond the boundary of hope; that salvation is offered you. But tremble lest you at last come short of it. You may be indulging the hope of a Christian. Nevertheless give diligence to make your calling and election sure. You are bidden work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and although you may be at peace as to your own spiritual prospects, you must feel concern for friends, acquaintances, fellow-beings, who are strangers to the covenants of promise and to the comforts of religion. Thus, although we are directed to rejoice-to rejoice in the Lord alway-it must be with a subdued and chastened joy.

Never, in our judgment, were these considerations more appropriate to any people than to ourselves; and never more appropriate to us than at the present time. The year 1854 has been one of manifold sins in our country, and of multiplied judgments; of audacious iniquities, of severe rebukes also, and Scourges. Every sheet of intelligence comes to us burdened with a catalogue of disasters. Every breeze seems loaded with the tidings of a wreck and the wails of the perishing. It is the day of God's controversy.

The man who fears God thinks of that legislation which has deliberately trodden under foot God's authority and human rights. He thinks of our unhallowed compromises with wrong, of our political corruption, of our fierce sectional passions and strifes, of our national vanity and self-sufficiency. He thinks of God's name profaned, his sabbath desecrated, his law dishonored, his Gospel rejected, his Son trampled under foot; and while he rejoices it will be with fear before the injured Jehovah.

Some can indulge but a moderated joy as they dwell upon losses and disasters with which they have been visited. One is distressed with embarrassment in business. Another has been reduced from affluence. Another has lost all his slender property, through accident, through the severity of the times, or through the wickedness of dishonest men.

Many a breach is recognized in the family circle. This and that loved one are missed. They were stricken down by the Cholera. In our Southern States there has been consternation and now there is sorrow. The relentless Fever has been doing its deadly work.

Here is one who remembers a destructive hurricane. There is one who has sad reason to remember a railway disaster. There is another who mourns a friend slain by the remorseless savage on our western frontier. Another still remembers a