Kalakana's Trip Around the World [pp. 644-652]

KALAKAUA'S TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.
viction that the "royal jig was up," and
that only extraordinary conduct on his
part would prevent the abolition of the
monarchy, as it was now an illogical
affair.
He did not then reply, but just before
his death, in San Francisco, I received a
long letter from him. On general subjects he had utterly failed to comprehend
the difference between constitutional and
personal government. Why, indeed,
should he understand? What was his inheritance? What was his education?
What social and political air did he
breathe? The Hawaiian chiefs were bred
to personal rule. The people had been
absolute serfs until within fifty years.
They had received "institutional" government through the missionaries, but did
not understand it. Kalakaua, with his people, suddenly found that the government
revenues, owing to the profit in sugar
making, were vast, in proportion to the
inhabitants,-what were revenues for,
but to be spent in making himself and
his friends comfortable? What did the
native care about public improvements,
or educational systems, or charitable institutions, when he did not improve his
own household or advance himself?
The Polynesian idea, the habit of the
weaker Malay race, was dominant, and
made an "irrepressible conflict" with the
ideas and habits of the white races. The
The weaker race gave way, as it always
has from the beginning. It was a case
of political evolution, perfectly natural,
perfectly simple, and as inevitable as the
revolution of 1775 in the United States.
During the absence of the King, Liliuokalani was regent. Her rule for one
year did not encourage her ministers to
hope for good rule, should she ascend the
throne. She developed a strong self-will
and a disposition to take things into her
own hands. While there was no outward
conflict between the cabinet and herself,
the cabinet was quite willing to welcome
the King back. The King, owing to his
early experiences among men, had learned
something, though not much. The Princess had learned nothing.
When she ascended the throne in I89I,
the whites supported her warmly, although there was a general belief that
she lived up only to the Polynesian
standard of morality. Only a few were
aware of the development of her character, during her regency. The late Mr.
H. A. P. Carter, her minister in Washington, and a member of her cabinet during the regency, said to me in Washington soon after her accession, that he
feared her obstinacy would make trouble,
and that she would disappoint the white
people by making herself a much more
undesirable sovereign than her brother.
She soon began to rule on the line of
Polynesian thought. She believed that
a Queen should rule,- if sovereigns were
created, what were they created for?
The philosophy of representative government was as foreign to her as the
knowledge of railway engineering. She
did not create the situation in which ste
was placed. It was made for her by
geography and commerce. But she w s
not equal to meeting the emergencies
arising from it. The course of development during her brother's reign produced
a revolution in I887. The same inevitable
evolution during her brief reign produced
the revolution of I1893. The monarchy
ended just as life ends, just as fruit riFens and falls to the ground. It was her
misfortune, and not her fault, that she
was on a throne which stood on decayed
props. She was by no means the only
queen who found that Fate had loaded
the dice against her. Had she been a
miracle of wisdom, she might have seen
the trend of events, and for her own life
651