THE new King, who had acted as Minister of the Interior through the whole of his brother's reign, lost no time in assuring the Bishop of his friendly intentions. "I regard the Church as a sacred legacy bequeathed by my predecessor "--such were his words on the day of his accession. His Majesty, too, expressed his earnest wish "to use the Bishop's experience" in raising the character of the State schools. With this view, the Bishop was subsequently placed on the Privy Council of State, and nominated a member of the Board of Education. His Majesty also promised his pecuniary aid to the Mission--a promise which he afterwards amply fulfilled.

Convinced that the Constitution granted in 1852 by his uncle [Under the influence of the Congregationalist Mission.] was far too democratic for a people so recently emancipated from feudalism and arbitrary government, he proceeded to convoke a Council of Delegates to consult with him on the subject. Elections were held all over the kingdom of representatives to serve in this "Convention." The cry which an unscrupulous opposition, headed by a few of the more violent and political of the American missionaries, got up, was, that the King wished to alter the Constitution, to enable him "to tax his subjects $5 each for the support of the English Church!" This was commonly believed, and did more than any thing else to thwart the object of the Convention. The pulpits of Congregational preachers, native and American, rang with tirades against the Bishop and clergy. It was every where stated that the Prince and King had died, because of their presence in the islands. "The fates, in fact, were against the Church; and such plagues would continue to befall the land till the nuisance had been got rid of." The King made a progress through the Islands, accompanied by his faithful minister, Mr. Wyllie, and everywhere contradicted these false and wicked fabrications. It is interesting to find the King, during this progress, having service on board his yacht each Sunday, saying the prayers himself from [52/53] the Hawaiian Prayer Book which his own brother had translated, and encouraging his subjects to join the Anglican Church. The majority, however, elected as the Convention was, by the credulous natives, under such misrepresentations, proved refractory.

After a session of seven weeks, His Majesty dissolved the Convention, and proclaimed a new Constitution, based on an intelligence and property qualification for voters. [See in Appendix a copy of it.] This Constitution proved most acceptable to the community, excepting to the same noisy faction. The many falsehoods disseminated in the Islands were believed and adopted by the American Congregational Missionary Society at Boston, U.S., and a "Report," published there, was circulated in the Islands, directed against "The Episcopal Mission." This led the Bishop to deliver a Pastoral Address, on New Year's Day, 1865, in the presence of their Majesties the King and Queen, and a large congregation, vindicating himself and the Mission generally from the charges of intrusion, of having a political character, and from other absurd allegations.

The visit of the good Queen Emma to England the same year is too fresh in the memories of Churchmen in England and the United States to require any but [53/54] a passing notice here. [See Appendix.] What is now proposed, is to describe the work which is being done at the four stations of the Church, beginning with--

HONOLULU.

Here, at the capital, situated in the island of Oahu, is a population of from thirteen to fourteen thousand, of whom nearly one-fourth are foreigners, chiefly British, American, and German residents. Services are therefore held, on Sundays and daily throughout the week, in both the Hawaiian and English languages. The composite character of the population adds, of course, greatly to the labours of the limited clerical staff employed in this city. Besides the Bishop, who is occasionally absent on his episcopal and missionary visitations, there are only two clergymen stationed there, one of whom is fully occupied as Master of St. Alban's College, where Hawaiian and other boys of a higher class are being educated in the English language. [Built by the late King for the girls' boarding school, which is now carried on near the church.] The boarders, who form the majority of the scholars, are assembled in a little chapel attached to the institution, morning and [54/55] evening, for common prayer, which is choral; and it is only on Sundays and festivals that the assistance of the Head Master can be secured in any Church work extraneous to his own scholastic duties.

About a year and a half ago a wooden temporary church was erected, to be used until the completion of the cathedral. This structure stands on the land given for the church by Kamehameha IV., one of the very best sites in Honolulu; and near to it are the Clergy House on one side, and the Female Boarding School on the other.

The services are choral, attractive, and hearty, and are attended by a regular and devout body of worshippers, both foreign and native. Last year five of the foreign residents of Honolulu gave their names as annual subscribers of 20l. to the Clergy Fund, of whom two had been brought up as Scotch Presbyterians, and one as an American "Episcopalian." And from a Statement brought home by the Bishop, audited in the Islands (where there is a Finance Committee and Treasurer administering all Church funds), it appears that up to the end of July last, 400l. a year on the average had been received from local sources in the capital alone, since the arrival of the Bishop in 1862. This includes 200 l. a year given by the King [55/56] himself; but it does not include a variety of other calls upon the members of the congregation in the form of subscriptions for special objects--take, for example, the one at Christmas, 1866, which amounted to 30l., and was devoted to the Female Industrial School at Lahaina. Nor does it include upwards of another 200 l. a year devoted by His Majesty out of his own purse to the education of boys and girls in the several English schools of the Mission. It has been even a source of complaint among those who manage the Hawaiian "Civil List," that the Church is a continued drain on the King's every limited resources. With an income which would be thought very modest for a country squire in England, we have Kamehameha V. devoting upwards of 400l. a year to the cause of education and religion. By this readiness to sacrifice so largely of his own substance in the cause of the Church, he gives the most convincing proof of the value which he attaches to its presence in his kingdom.

The attention of the Hawaiian Government had long been directed to the value of Industrial Boarding Schools for girls; and the Board of Education, of which the Bishop was appointed a member by the present King, arranged in 1865 a system of [56/57] capitation grants, with a view to encourage their formation and aid in their maintenance. The rules under which the Board assists schools of this kind were drawn up by the Bishop, and have met with general acceptance and approval. One of them is, "Convinced that religion is the basis of all sound moral training, the Board expects that such schools shall be conducted on Christian principles; but it leaves to their directors full discretion as to the form of Christianity they may feel it right to inculcate." The result has been greatly to multiply these establishments in the Islands, so that the last year's Educational Report stated there were already fivefold as many children under training in female boarding schools as there were previously. It is evident that the evils which not only militated so fearfully against the prosperity of the nation, but threatened its speedy extinction, are being fairly grappled with. In bringing about this happier state of things, it is pleasing to find the English Mission has taken a leading part. The sisters and wives of the clergy from the first devoted themselves, as far as they could, to the training of Hawaiian girls, both at Lahaina and Honolulu. And now at both places are "Sisters of Mercy," who have gone out from this country for the purpose of spending their lives in this [57/58] noble work. [See Appendix.] The first institution of the kind placed under their management was that at Lahaina, in 1865. It is now filled to overflowing, and applications for admission have to be refused. It receives between 200l. and 300l. yearly in the shape of capitation grants.

To Miss Sellon, the foundress of sisterhoods in our Reformed Church, the Bishop is indebted for this most valuable branch of Missionary work. Finding the one at Lahaina so complete a success, this lady, though in a weak state of health, at a great sacrifice of time and money, visited Honolulu last year, for the purpose of undertaking the conduct of a similar institution there. She expended on suitable buildings, and in the purchase of land, upwards of 1400l. out of her own resources for this benevolent object; and she received the thanks of the King in person for the benefits which her "sisterhood" had conferred upon his people.

After her return to England, last July, Miss Sellon addressed to the Bishop a letter, recording her agreeable impressions of the people, the King, the Queen, and the general work of the Mission:--

"Shall I," says the writer, "ever forget that loveliest and most interesting of islands on the day of the Confirmation held in the lowly but beautifully-arranged little church, built beside the sounding waves of the Pacific? Dear little church! How lovingly was it adorned by native hands with wreaths of the elegant Datura, and with what devout and earnest attention did the congregation witness the solemn rite, and how happy our children were!

"You ask me my impressions of the people. Their affectionate manners, their agreeable vivacity, and ever-ready cordiality were, I think, charming, especially when added to their poetical love of the beautiful. It is to be hoped that the fictitious wants and increase of cares, &c., which higher degrees of civilization will bring, will not destroy these characteristics. Whether it is possible to hope for a higher standard of morals, without further education, is doubtful. Evidently the King, whose devotion to the welfare of his country, and whose intellectual power and wisdom in government are unquestionable, believes in the efficacy of education for meeting the present requirements of the people. The Queen's opinion is, if I mistake not, the same, and you also, I am aware, feel deeply and keenly on the subject. I know your anxiety for the increase of the schools for both boys and girls, and [59/60] your wish to enlarge them. As far as I am concerned, I hope to do all in my power to forward this object.

"Careful education may by God's blessing diminish anxiety respecting the health and longevity of the people. It is encouraging to observe the excellent health of the children of our Mission. boarding-schools; and encouraging also is the fact, because it betokens some strength of constitution; that our climate, so different from the sunny skies of their lovely Islands, does not at all injuriously affect my adopted little Hawaiian daughters, who are educating here, to return again, if it please God to spare them to me, as home missionaries to their country. [Miss Sellon has four little Hawaiian girls in England under her care, whom she brought with her from the Islands.] There is a reasonable hope that by careful cultivation and by attention to the sanitary measures the King is adopting, the longevity of the people may in the course of generations be equal to our own. It is said that the natives must perish; but I do not see why this is to be assumed as a reason for apathy in this particular instance, or why energy in attempting to avert so great a catastrophe as the extinction of this fine people is to be damped, as though we had been [60/61] told on irrefragable evidence that the hour is at hand.

"More reasonably might we say that, man being born to die, we should treat with indifference the warnings of some illness, which nothing but our own carelessness need render mortal.

"People assume as a fact that the Hawaiian race must die out. They may as well, first of all, try (as the King is doing) whether it is the will of Heaven that it should survive.

"A few words as to our Mission. Chiefly I was impressed with the quiet, simple beauty of the vices, and the care that was taken that the musical part of them should be such as all could join in and appreciate--so important there. All who attended the services seemed to enjoy and value them. Some of the happiest hours I ever had were those early celebrations for the native congregation. How one felt the realization of the promise that the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God and, as in the hearty and reverent service the musical accents of the Hawaiian tongue fell on one's ear, that in the Church all nations and people are one kindred! You know, too, how much I valued--for I think I often expressed it to you--the union of the full teaching of [61/62] the Catholic Faith with the calm simplicity of the ritual you there adopted, calculated as far as possible to soothe the troubled surging of men's minds, which now agitates even the remotest shores where the Church of Christ is planted, creating difficulties which can only be judged of or estimated on the spot, and even there, probably, only by those whose position calls upon them to love, and bear with, and minister to all alike, and with equal consideration. Of this, and of manifold and remarkable trials and drawbacks, which beset the first years of the Mission, it is not for me to venture to write; but I may observe that the finest of our forest trees is of the slowest growth, and that it is not in six, nor sixteen, nor, perhaps, sixty years, that the fruit of the late pious King's prayers, and thoughts, and exertions to plant the Mission will appear--probably not until long after all its founders and first members have ceased from earthly labour. How happy to be permitted to sow the seed) if hereafter others who enter into the field find that God has given the increase!

"The perfectly restored health of the Queen was to me great encouragement. She, so beloved by the people, and so loving them, is a centre on which one's thoughts fix, under God, with reference to the work [62/63] of the Church in the Islands. God has apparently given her so entire a submission to His Will, that the cup of anguish which He, in mysterious love, gave her to drink, has never embittered to her life or its affections. Living amidst her people, ever ready to give cheerful attention with that peculiar fresh sweetness so exclusively her own, one cannot but feel that to her the time of her deepest sorrow has arrived, because, to all human eyes, her deepest sorrow is past. This very powerfully struck me, in one whose young life of an almost singular happiness has been so suddenly and so irremediably stricken. She is the joy of her people's heart, in a way which must be witnessed to be in the least understood.

"Remembrances of deep interest crowd upon me; but I have already written at greater extent than I had intended. The affectionateness of the Hawaiians to ourselves was very pleasant at all times; the genial smile and welcome was ever ready. I remember on Holy Thursday, after the morning service, just as the gate of the Priory (the new building) was being put up, how the native congregation poured in, offering the ring of friendship, and the many congratulatory clasps of the hand on the completion of the work, with their beaming smiles, and ever sweet 'alohas.' [63/64] And then on that last day the kindly aloha and their parting gifts, betokening their love and value for the dear ones I left behind, who, I felt, were surrounded with loving hearts. Dear, kind-hearted, loving people! May the best of blessings be theirs!

"Believe me, my dear Lord,

"Yours very faithfully,

"PRISCILLA LYDIA SELLON."

LAHAINA.

The Female Industrial Boarding School, referred to already, is by no means the only feature of interest. Archdeacon Mason, assisted by an American clergyman, carries on there an English school for boys, supported mainly by the Board of Education. This is in addition to the spiritual work of the Mission, which with services, as at Honolulu, in both the English and the Hawaiian language, is far from light. He has above eighty boys, of whom twenty-five are boarders. The object which Mr. Mason has in view is to give a thorough education, in English, to Hawaiian boys. It is a sad commentary on the forty years' nominal Christianity of these Islands, as well as on the native schools, that the business of the Government, from the ministers down to the petty magistrate, or even [64/65] the sheriff's officer, has to be entrusted, with few exceptions, to Europeans or Americans. Little progress can be expected among a people with a language so inadequate in its vocabulary and its literature as is the Hawaiian; nor through it as a medium can those right ideas and principles be implanted which are essential to any one who desires to fulfil offices of trust either in the Church or in the State. The Government apprentice a number of picked and promising youths to this school, as well as to the one at Honolulu, in the hope of seeing hereafter a body of intelligent and trustworthy men educated in the English language, taught to think and reason in English, and familiar with English literature, and able to take a part in administering the government and judiciary of the kingdom. Equally beneficial may these schools be expected to prove to the Church itself. Here and there will be found among the scholars youths who may be expected to fill the ranks of the future native ministry. For, unless the Church is to be a mere exotic, she must look forward to that as the great object of her mission. A ministry that has been schooled in English thought and English morality, and received its dogmas through a tongue adequate to express them, will be much safer guides in things [65/66] spiritual than they would otherwise be, although they may have to employ only the vernacular when they are called upon to impart religious instruction to their fellow-countrymen.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Mason have rendered signal service to the Mission at Lahaina by the self-denial, devotion, and zeal with which, under many difficulties, they have laboured for the social, physical, and moral elevation of the people. A permanent stone church is much wanted here, instead of the miserable shed now used for Divine Service.

KONA (HAWAII).

The Rev. C. G. Williamson, trained at S. Augustine's, Canterbury, and ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Oxford, assisted by the Bishop of North Carolina, who was then in England, arrived in the Islands in March, 1867, to take part in the Mission. In a private letter, of which public use is allowed to be made, he thus recorded his impressions of the first Sunday which he spent in Honolulu:--

"Oh, how I wish that some of our English friends could have been present at the service of that morning! The example set by the natives, as regards [66/67] devotion and joining in the service, would shame many a congregation in England. You could hear the responses echoed from all parts of the church while the Canticles and Psalms were chanted in Hawaiian, in good taste and with much feeling. And so it was at the English service, attended by many formerly Presbyterians, Methodists, and American Episcopalians. Each member of the congregation seemed to pour out his whole soul in worship. Our hymns were heart-stirring and full of devotion; and my thoughts were carried back to dear old England when I recognized familiar chants and tunes."

After studying the language for a few months, and assisting at Honolulu, Mr. Williamson went to the Island of Hawaii; and near Kealakekua Bay, where Captain Cook fell in 1779, opened a Mission. An English resident gave two acres of land for the erection of the required buildings, which have now been completed. They consist of a neat Gothic church and school, and clergy-house. Both among the foreign residents, chiefly Englishmen, who are farmers, graziers, or mechanics, as well as among the native people, his labours are being crowned with a reasonable measure of success. The district of Kona, [67/68] in the west of the island, where his station is situated, was much shaken and damaged by the late severe earthquakes, though, happily, the buildings were not destroyed, nor any lives lost in his district, the effects being felt most in the south-eastern extremity of the island. [See Appendix.]

WALUKU MAUI.

The value of American co-operation in the Mission to North Polynesia had been felt by its friends and promoters from the first. There are many settlers in the Hawaiian Islands from the United States engaged in developing their industry and trade. The first evangelizers of the people were New England Puritans; and in the absence of the "Episcopal Church," some who at home had been baptized and trained in the American branch of it were induced to frequent their ministrations, while others sought a refuge in the Roman communion. Accordingly, before the establishment of the Bishopric was completed, the Bishops of California and New York, who happened to be in London, were consulted, and they expressed their conviction that "England's daughter-Church in their own country would gladly take a part in the work of the Mission." This was stated in the first [68/69] prospectus which was issued on the subject. The great fratricidal war, however, which just then broke out in the United States, and absorbed the whole attention of that nation, rendered any immediate realization of this scheme impossible.

The Bishop, on his arrival at Honolulu in 1862, found political feeling running very high between the American and English residents, intensified, as is usually the case, by the distance of these communities from their parent centres. Of the English in Hawaii many were partisans of the South; but the majority of the Americans were from New England. The Bishop carefully abstained from any expressions of sympathy with either side in that great conflict, while he sought to allay these national asperities by praying at the English services for "the President of the United States," equally with "her Britannic Majesty." His moderation bore its natural fruit. One of the first whom he confirmed was the King's Attorney-General, now Minister of Finance, a native of New Hampshire. Others of the American residents became regular attendants and communicants, and have been steady in their attachment to the Church at Honolulu ever since. When the news arrived of the assassination of President Lincoln, the [69/70] church was immediately draped in black, a special memorial service was held, and a funeral sermon preached by an American clergyman, who had come over as a visitor--the building being filled with a body of reverent worshippers, who were no less touched by the thoughtful sympathy of an English Bishop than by the appropriate solemnity of the observances. Still the American Congregationalists continued to reiterate the oft-refuted assertion that "Bishop Staley was only an emissary of the London Foreign Office, sent out to secure the annexation of the Islands to the British Empire"--a statement which, absurd as it may seem, was too commonly believed. Had, however, any thing further been required to disabuse these opponents of such a prejudice, they might have found it in the proceedings of the Bishop in 1865, when, immediately on the close of the Civil War, he paid a visit to the United States to attend the General Convention of the Church at Philadelphia. It was the one which excited so much interest here from the circumstance that the Southern Bishops, for the first time since the General Convention at Richmond, in 1859, met with their Northern brethren, and were received, on entering the Council chamber, with a burst of joy and welcome, which only found its [70/71] expression in the singing of the "Gloria in Excelsis." On the fourteenth day of the session, in the Upper House, Bishop Staley spoke on the subject of his Mission, and presented a letter addressed to the American prelates, from the King, respectfully inviting their sympathy and co-operation.

The following is a minute taken from the Report of the General Convention of 1865 relating to this subject:--

"Bishop STEVENS, at the close of the Bishop of Honolulu's address, said,--

"'The House of Bishops, having listened with interest to the statements of the Right Rev. the Bishop of Honolulu, in reference to the moral and religious condition of the Hawaiian Islands, and to the present state and future needs of his Mission, take pleasure in assuring the Bishop of their desire to do what may properly be in their power to aid him in his work of making known to the foreign and native residents of that kingdom the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church as jointly held by the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America.'

"Resolved, That the House of Bishops receives [71/72] with sincere pleasure the letter of Kamehameha V. to this House, and begs leave to assure His Majesty that they earnestly desire to extend to his kingdom the full blessings of the Gospel of Christ, and their sincere hope that he may, by the grace of God, prove to be a nursing father to the Church of the living God in the Hawaiian islands.

"Resolved, That the Presiding Bishop be requested to convey to His Majesty this expression of the regard of the House of Bishops, and that the letter of the King be entered on the Journal, and the original be deposited with the Registrar of the General Convention."

The following is the letter which Kamehameha addressed to the House of Bishops:

"Molokai, August, 1866.

"To the Bishops of the Church of the United States now assembled in General Convention.

"RIGHT REVEREND FATHERS IN GOD,--Understanding that my friend and chaplain the Bishop of Honolulu is about to visit the United States of America, in order to create an interest there in his [72/73] work, and obtain men and means for carrying it on more extensively, I have taken the liberty of making known to you how greatly I sympathize in the objects he has in view.

"From his Mission to these Islands great practical good to my people has arisen. The Liturgy, Constitution, and teaching of the Episcopal Church seems to me more consistent, with monarchy than any other form of Christianity that I have met with; and the principles of education it inculcates seem to me, from practical evidence before my eye, to have the effect of making its members more moral, religious, and loyal citizens.

"The system of the family training it adopts in female schools is admirably fitted to cure a great social evil of this land.

"There can by the Constitution be no Church supported by the State in Hawaii; but nothing could give mc greater pleasure than to find the Church, invited hither by my late lamented brother, widely spreading and taking root in my kingdom.

"I am, Right Reverend Fathers,

"Yours faithfully,

"KAMEHAMEHA."

[74] That this letter elicited a favourable response on the part of the American House of Bishops is not a matter of surprise, nor that the Bishop of Honolulu felt it necessary to exhibit private letters which he had received from the King, to prove that one whose grandfather was an illiterate barbarian could pen such a document. The Board of Missions at once pledged half-stipends for two American clergymen to work under the Bishop's jurisdiction; though, in consequence of difficulties arising from the constitution of the Board, it was thought better that the resolution should be carried into effect by the formation of an independent Committee, on which the late Presiding Bishop, and the Bishops of New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maine, and Pittsburg, placed their names. There are now two American missionaries working under the Bishop in the Islands. The Rev. G. B. Whipple, brother of the Bishop of Minnesota, opened his station early in 1866, at Wailuku Maui, and collected on the spot at once a sum of $900 for the purpose, the King making over an excellent site of two acres on which to erect suitable Mission-buildings. No one in so short a time could have succeeded better than Mr. Whipple. He had lived in his youth some years in one of the Islands before he was [74/75] ordained, and had learnt the language, and been trained under his brother in missionary life among the Indians. In May last the Bishop held his second visitation there--an event described so well by Mrs. Whipple in a periodical of the United States, that we print her letter in full, showing as it does the extent of the work which has been accomplished, and the part the good Queen Emma takes in aiding the Mission:--

"Our island life has been varied during this month by two events of interest: the visit of Queen Emma and her suite to Wailuku, and the visitation of the Bishop, the latter occurring during the last days of the Queen's stay.

"Her Majesty, accompanied by his Excellency Nahaolelua, Governor of this island, and Hon. Colonel Kalakana, and others from Honolulu, arrived on Tuesday, May 14th, and went to the Governor's house, where the natives soon began to flock with their offerings. It was quite touching to see them go by, with their gifts of eggs, bananas, fowls, fish, berries, sugar-cane, taro, and other vegetables, to lay at the feet of their 'Chief,' according to old custom--the outgrowth of the feudal feeling, which has not yet entirely died away.

[76] "On Wednesday Her Majesty attended the early native service, and at ten o'clock received the boys of the Mission-school, who went in a body to pay their respects, and make their little offerings. The youngest of all--a pretty child of four years--as soon as one of the older boys had made his little speech introducing the others, evidently thinking it was time for him to be doing something, walked directly up to the Queen, and with a most confiding, yet timid air, gave the bunch of flowers which he had brought, and received a kind greeting from Her Majesty, whose simple dignity of manners is combined with the most winning graciousness towards her people.

"On Thursday Her Majesty and suite visited the different departments of the Mission day-schools. Her Majesty expressed herself particularly pleased that a boy of pure Hawaiian birth excelled in his class several half-caste boys.

"Friday evening, 17th, after the English service, the Queen visited the free evening-school for adult natives who wished to learn English. The Bishop also was present, although he had arrived from Lahaina after a tedious horseback-journey of twenty-five miles over the mountains, just as the last service-bell rang, and had come in immediately to service, [76/77] and given an extemporaneous address, without any pause for rest or refreshment.

"There were some very interesting native meetings during the week, and at one or two of these the Hon. Colonel Kalakana, at the missionary's request, spoke to the congregation concerning the Church and her services. In speaking to them of postures to be observed, he remarked that he had seen many of them approach to ask a favour of their earthly king, when they would kneel, and even crawl in the humblest manner to his feet. 'And yet,' said he, 'can you think it proper to ask a favour of the King of kings, without any outward mark of respect, sitting upright when you are praying to Him?'

"On Saturday the missionary entertained at dinner, at the clergy-house, Her Majesty Queen Emma, the Governor of Maui, the Hon. Colonel Kalakana, and Judge Kahalewai, all members of the Church, and staunch supporters of it, meeting there with their Bishop, who was staying in the house.

"Sunday was a rainy day; but the chapel was well filled at each service. At nine o'clock the Hawaiian Litany was intoned by the Bishop, the congregation singing the responses, as usual, with great apparent zest and fervour. The Confirmation service followed [77/78] this, and fourteen were presented for the rite. At English Morning Prayer the Bishop preached to a full and attentive audience, the Holy Communion being celebrated after the sermon.

"At the four p.m. Hawaiian service, the Bishop baptized three infants, Queen Emma standing sponsor for them. The English evening service was better attended than could have been expected, it being a wet, dark night. The Bishop gave a very interesting and pleasant talk about the Prayer Book.

"Tuesday morning, the 23rd, the Hawaiian communicants met for an early celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The Queen was present, and at the close of the service gave her parting aloha (ordinary salutation, expressing love and good-will) to her people. Soon after, Her Majesty and her party left Wailuku for Lahaina, on the other side of the mountain. The Bishop, too, left us, to take passage in a little schooner for Honolulu; and we returned to our ordinary round of schools and services, cheered and brightened not a little by the pleasant memories of the week just ended."

It is pleasant and encouraging to find one part of the great Mission field acting for good upon another. [78/79] Mr. and Mrs. Whipple, when living in Minnesota, adopted a little Indian girl, whom they have educated to that point that, except for her slight tinge of colour, she might now, at eighteen years of age, be mistaken for an English young lady. She acts as organist in church, and assistant-mistress in the English school.

There is much that addresses itself to the imagination, and touches the poetical sensibilities, in the annals of the English Mission to these Islands of the Pacific. But were that all, the result could hardly be deemed satisfactory. What must be the most gratifying thought to its friends and promoters, is, that a real solid work for good is being carried on, and specially in the education and training of those on whom, more than in the case of any previous generation, depends the question, whether the Hawaiian, at least as an unmixed, race, is or is not doomed to extinction.

But we may affirm that the beneficial influence of the Church is not to be measured by its direct effects alone. It is admitted by all intelligent residents in the Hawaiian kingdom, that the other religious denominations have been aroused by its example to greater efforts in the work of social and national [79/80] reformation. The reverent and hearty worship of Hawaiian Churchmen is adduced by the Congregationalists in their native journals as worthy of imitation in their own places of meeting. [See the "Kuokoa," Sept. 15, 1806 (a Native Congregational organ)--"it is a thing for us to be ashamed of, compared with the Episcopalians (Episekopo) and Roman Catholics, the sitting careless, and not bowing the head nor standing, when the minister prays." The passage then proceeds to compare the irreverence of Hawaiian worshippers in their meeting-houses now, with that of "the old Puritans."] The great holidays of the Church are now national institutions, their existence before the arrival of the Bishop being all but unknown. ["For the last five years," says the Honolulu "Gazette" of January 1st of the present year, "our Christmas salutes have been fired from the fort on Punch-bowl Hill, and the official recognition of this great Christian anniversary has been made. It is now adopted as a national holiday, and becomes a national recognition of the claims of Christianity on the Government. It is a festival fraught with blessed memories." The following notice was issued last Good Friday at Honolulu:--"Friday, April 10th, is the commemoration of the sufferings and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is generally observed by Christian nations. Therefore, notice is hereby given, no public business will he transacted on that day, and all Government offices will be closed throughout the kingdom." It is amusing to find the Congregationalist organ at Honolulu, which for a long time steadily set its face against these Catholic innovations, a few days later, April 11th, admitting, somewhat ungraciously, perhaps, the propriety of such observances. "The past week has been 'Holy Week' on the calendar of the Ritualistic (!) Churches. The bells of the cathedral were ringing vigorously on Thursday morning, and on Good Friday the Government offices were closed . . . . an observance which, though strange to a large portion of the people, is, perhaps, less uncalled for, because many of our foreign residents at home used to notice the day. Easter Sunday, even in Protestant churches, is sometimes made occasion for appropriate exercises."]

[81] And there has been a corresponding zeal on the part of the State in dealing with the moral evils of the country, which threatened, if unchecked by legislation ere long to extinguish the Hawaiian race altogether. Under the wise and firm rule of the present King, the following measures have been brought into operation: "An Act to establish an Industrial and Reformatory School for neglected children, and for the reformation of juvenile offenders" (this school is conducted by a master sent out from England in 1863, to labour in connexion with the Mission). "An Act to regulate the Bureau of Public Instruction, and establish female schools;" "An Act to Facilitate the Proof of Marriage;" and "An Act to regulate the Carrying of Passengers between the Islands," the object of which may be inferred from the provision, that it "shall not be lawful for any vessel engaged in inter-island navigation to receive on board any female under twenty-five years of age, to convey her to Honolulu, without her having first delivered to the master of the vessel so employed a passport signed [81/82] by some person duly authorized, which shall set forth the cause and probable duration of such visit"--a safeguard of immense value to the morals of the female population.

In 1862 there were only 51 girls in family boarding-schools; in 1867 there were 256. In 1862 there were 752 scholars in the English day-schools; in 1867 there were 1066. In the former year there was not a single school taught in the Hawaiian language where the girls were separated from the boys. All sat in the same room, and learnt and played together a native young man often being their sole instructor--an arrangement most mischievous to their morals, and precluding any distinctive training for their sex. Now there are 24 schools of girls alone, each taught by a native mistress. These are well-authenticated, published statistics, and they may be, perhaps, regarded as testifying to the indirect benefits which the presence of an English Bishop (apart even from his more spiritual character), and of his coadjutors, has conferred on this little Island State.

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