In accordance with the will of the late King, and the Constitution of my Realm, I have succeeded to the throne of my forefathers. My anxious endeavor will be to rule for the good of my subjects, and of all foreigners residing within my jurisdiction; and, in so doing, I shall rely, under God, upon the sympathy and good will of Your Majesty, and of the British nation.

Your Good Friend,

(Signed,)KAMEHAMEHA

By the King.

(Signed,) R. C. Wyllie.

[A] The same letter, mutatis mutandis, was sent to their Majesties the Emperor of the French, the Emperor of Russia, Kings of Denmark, Prussia, Sweden and Norway, Presidents of the United States, of Hamburg, Bremen, Chile, and Peru.

September 18, 1855.

Reply by His Majesty to the Address of Hon. D. L. Gregg, Commissioner of the United States, on Presentation of the Letter of the President of the United States, condoling with His Majesty on the Death of His Predecessor, and congratulating Him on His Accession to the Throne.

I trust it is almost unnecessary for me to assure you, Mr. Gregg, that the letter you have just delivered to me from the President of the Great American Republic could not have reached me through a more agreeable channel than the hands of the United States' Commissioner.

I will not do my own feelings the injustice of attempting to disguise the fact that, at the present moment this communication from the Head of your Government, according to my appreciation of it, loses entirely its formal character, and appears to express only the sentiments of a Friend, who has proved himself worthy of that high name. The Treaty recently negotiated between my Envoy at Washington and Mr. Marcy, on the part of the Government of the United States, is indeed but one link in the chain that binds the two countries in relations of the most happy kind. But it is a convention of the greatest importance not only to those who are numbered among my subjects, but to every American citizen who has any interests upon these islands. I do not doubt but that its effect will be to call hither more of your enterprising countrymen, and direct towards the now partially developed resources of this archipelago, the attention of your judicious, but ever ready capitalists. Under this treaty we may expect to see American citizens raising the produce which American ships will carry to an American market. But their prosperity will be ours. Indeed, the mutual interests of the two countries are so interwoven in this regard, that it would be a difficult task to define a line between them.