THE HEART OF THE PACIFIC. 325 lions of dollars in value. Eighty ships are no uncommon sight in the harbor of Honolulu, mostly of a very large class. The connection with Oregon and California is constant, and there is a regular mail between Honolulu and the United States. At the present rate of increase, a large proportion of the inhabitants will soon be Americans. It is to be hoped that our government will protect these interests of our citizens against France, and assume a decided tone against any attempts on the part of the French government to interfere with the independence of the Island. If the Islands must be annexed to this country to protect them against French piracy, it will be a righteous annexation. The people of Honolulu, both foreign and native, are extremely desirous of living under a flag which the French will not dare to insult. It is understood that an Agent of the Government of the Sandwich Islands is now at Washington, with full power to negotiate important changes in the relations between the Islands and the United States. He is the bearer of two propositions: one, for the establishment of an American Protectorate over the Islands, their government and internal organization remaining as now; the other, for the abdication of the king, the complete resignation of the authority into the hands of the people under suitable republican forms, and the definite annexation of the Islands to this Republic. These propositions are submitted to our Government for its choice and acceptance, with an earnest request from the king and all his ministers that one or the other of them may be promptly embraced and acted upon. This step, we have reason to believe, has not been taken without deliberation and perfect conviction that it is both necessary and timely. To take the Islands under the protection of the United States would be of little, if any, advantage to either of the two parties. Our protection could hardly be rendered efficacious in a country where our right to exercise it might be denied, while it might entangle us in unpleasant difficulties with other nations. In our view, the only question to be entertained is that of annexation. As a territory of the United States, the Islands would be exempt from foreign interference, and the authority of our flag and the force of our laws would not be disputed. To the inhabitants and future settlers, annexation would be a blessing. It would insure tranquillity, order, and a more active development of the rich natural resources of the country. Of its present white population, by far the greater and predominantly influential part are Americans, who long once more to live under the stars and stripes. Its civilization and its commerce are American; its laws and government are, already, to a great extent, modelled upon ours. And as the trade- of the Pacific is developed, the value of the Islands will increase, not only to ourselves, but to other nations.-American newspaper. THE following is a copy of the Rules of Conference finally agreed upon between the Commissioner of the French Republic and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom, at Honolulu, the 10th of January, 1851. Appended are the most important Diplomatic Notes and Protocols that passed between the parties while negotiations were pending, and the final Declaration to which they arrived. RULES OF DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCES. THE undersigned Negotiators of the Treaty, concluded on the 26th of March, 1846, between France and the Hawaiian Islands, chosen by the President of the French Republic and the King of the Sandwich Islands, to put an end to the much regretted differences that have supervened between the two countries, and to arrest in their source all causes of ulterior difficulties; after having each-in four dispatches, which have recently been exchanged-restored to the political relations of the two countries the character of mutual confidence and honorable loyalty which they had sought to establish, have agreed to subject themselves to the following preliminary articles, in the conduct of the Diplomatic Conferences, rendered necessary by the negotiation with which they are charged: ARTICLE I With the view of recording the results obtained during the course of the negotiations, it is agreed that Protocols of each sitting shall be prepared, successively, during the discussions, to be read and signed by the two Commissioners, at the opening of the following sitting. The order of signatures shall be the same as that adopted by the undersigned, at the conclusion of the Treaty of 26th March, 1846. ARTICLE II. For the success of the negotiation itself, and in order that each Commissioner may be able to perform his other important duties, each Conference shall last only from eleven in the morning to two in the afternoon; to be resumed at the same hour, on such other day as it may please the two negotiators to fix, before they separate. ARTICLE III. The Hawaiian language not being understood by either of the two undersigned, it is agreed that, for the drawing up of the Protocols, only, the English and French languages shall be used, exclusively. THE HEART OF THE PACIFIC. 327 ARTICLE IV. The two Commissioners shall only propose to themselves to seek for the true interests of their respective nations; observing all the respect due to nations very unequal in force, though perfectly equal in regard to sovereignty and independence; it has been agreed that, with this object, the two negotiators shall judge of the facts, in themselves, with calm loyalty and impartiality, and that they shall, reciprocally, demand nothing which they would not be ready to grant, in turn, in analogous circumstances. ARTICLE V. To secure this desirable result, which is altogether indispensable to the dignity and honor of the two States, the two negotiators, in their conferences, shall divest themselves of all prejudices and passion, and will carry their investigations back to the visit to this Archipelago, made in 1837, by Vice-admiral Du Petit Thouars. ARTICLE VI. The undersigned shall endeavor to guard themselves against every source of error, and, so far as their personal influence may permit, to dispose their respective governments to renounce every idea, or every demand which shall appear to them not sufficiently established. ARTICLE VII. With the view of preventing all surprise, and for the sake of a political liberty of great propriety, it has been decided that the points, successively agreed upon in the discussion, shall not be definitively obtained, till after the whole discussion has been closed. ARTICLE VIII. To do homage to truth, and record an historical fact, the two negotiators have solemnly recognized that, in the eyes of the two contracting parties, the Treaty of the 26th of March, 1846, has been, hitherto, maintained in its integrity. ARTICLE IX. All the documents that may be examined shall be numbered and marked by the initials of the two Commissioners. ARTICLE X. The discussion shall be pursued and terminated in conformity with the general principles of the laws of nations, and the diplomatic usages of the great powers. ARTICLE XI. It has also been agreed that if-impossible though it seem to bethe government of the French Republic should admit the mediation of a third power, for the adjustment of the difficulties confided to the un dersigned, before the latter have completed their task, the two negotiators, undersigned, shall each conform to the decision which shall have been agreed upon, between France and the mediating Power, in such an event. ARTICLE XII. The result of the negotiations, recorded in the Protocols, shall be embodied in a Declaration, signed by the two Commissioners in the name of their respective governments, in a place which shall be hereafter agreed upon: That signature shall be followed by a salute exchanged between the shore and the Serieuse: That final Act shall be drawn up in French and Hawaiian, with a translation in the English language; and as it shall not be considered in the light of a new Convention, but simply an Act interpreting the existing Convention, and designed to insure its execution, there will be no occasion for ratification on the part of any of the governments of the two contracting parties. Done in duplicate, in Honolulu, this 10th day of January, 1851. Le Commissaire de la République Française, Minister of Foreign Relations. EM. PERRIN. PROTOCOL. SATURDAY, 15th March, 1851. Mr. Wyllie alleging reasons of State, asked M. Perrin's permission to give him a perusal of the instructions framed in April and September 1849, for Mr. Jarves and Mr. Judd, during their mission to the governments of France, Great Britain, and the United States, and accordingly gave a reading of each of these documents. M. Perrin, in his turn, read a “verbal note,” dated this day, serving as a reply to his memorandum on Schools, to the notes and historical memorandum latterly addressed by the Minister, Mr. Wyllie, after having denied some of the consequences deduced by M. Perrin, as contrary both to the object of these writings and to his own intentions, asked a copy of the note to reply to it, if it was to have any official force against the Hawaiian government; M. Perrin answered that his desire was not to delay too much the entering upon the draft of the final note; he did not think it proper at present to leave a copy of that which he had read. Mr. Wyllie then communicated to M. Perrin the explanation furnished in the name of the Hawaiian government, upon all the demands of France presented by her special Commissioner. Le Commissaire de la République Française, EM. PERRIN. R. C. WYLLIE, Minister of Foreign Relations. THE HEART OF THE PACIFIC. 329 The following are the explanations referred to, and the Demands of the French Republic to which they apply, presented by M. Perrin, at the conference of 1st February, 1851. Demands to which the Government of the French Republic thinks that satisfaction ought to be made, before the re-establishment of Diplomatic Relations can take place with that of the Hawaiian Islands. 1. The adoption complete, entire, and loyal, of the Treaty of the 26th March, 1846, as it was drafted in the French Text. 2. The establishment of a duty from 1 to 2 dollars a gallon, of 5 bottles on spirits, containing less than 55 per cent. of alcohol. 3. A treatment rigorously equal, granted to the two worships, Catholic and Protestant. The direction of instruction confided to two Superior Committees formed in each of the two religions. The submission of the Catholic Schools to Catholic Inspectors. The proportional division between the two religions of the Tax raised by the Hawaiian Government for the support of Schools. 4. The adoption of the French language, in the relations between French Citizens and the Hawaiian Administration. 5. The withdrawal of the exception imposed upon French whalers, importing wines and spirits, and the abrogation of the regulation which obliges ships laden with liquors to pay, and support the Custom-house guard, put on board to watch over their shipment or discharge. Large facilities of deposit, of transit, and of transhipment granted to the trade in spirits. 6. The reimbursement of all the duties received in virtue of the disposition, the withdrawal of which is demanded by the paragraph above mentioned; or a proportional indemnity given for the damage occasioned to French commerce, by the restriction which has suspended its relations. 7. The reimbursement of the fine of 25 dollars, paid by the French ship General Teste, and besides an indemnity of 60 dollars for the time during which she was unjustly detained here. 8. The insertion in the official journal of the Hawaiian Government, of the punishment inflicted upon the scholars of the high-school, whose impious conduct occasioned the complaints of the Abbé Coulon. 9. The removal of the governor, who caused or allowed to be violated on Hawaii, the domicil of the Abbé Marechal, or the order to that governor to make reparation to that missionary, the one or the other decision to be inserted in the official journal. 10. The payment to a French citizen, proprietor of the Hotel of France, of the damages committed in his house by foreign sailors, against whom the Hawaiian Government took no process. The Commissioner of the French Republic, EM. PERRIN. Honolulu, 1st February, 1851. |