KAMEHAMEHA.
May 4, 1859.
His Majesty's Speech [Proroguing] the Legislature of 1859.
Nobles and Representatives:—I congratulate you upon having concluded the labors of a Session protracted beyond my expectation, and, I imagine, that of the country at large. I trust that after all the attention which has been expended on the revised Civil Code, the result will prove a compilation sound in its principles and convenient in its arrangement. If it have no other effect than to encourage a decrease of litigation, by exposing in its proper place the law applicable to every civil regulation which legislation makes the frame-work of our national system, your time, and the expenses of the session, will not have been consumed in vain.
I have heard with satisfaction that the amendments of the Constitution which I suggested and laid open to your consideration, have been acted upon, and I do not doubt that the next session will see them confirmed and made effective. I think they will initiate a more wholesome system of legislation, prevent unnecessary delays and expenses, and place the Executive Government in a position better calculated for giving explanations and receiving instructions from that House which originates every fiscal measure.
I thank you, Representatives, for the provision you have made for myself and those nearest to me; and, while alluding to the Bill of Appropriations, I cheerfully notice the fact, that in making distribution of the revenue, you have, for the first time, proposed for the country a system of expenditure strictly proportioned to the estimated receipts.
I confess that the act of your two Houses which I regard with most complacency, is that in which you commit the public Treasury to the aid of Hospitals. You, Representatives, amongst whose constituents are those very persons for whom these places of refuge are principally designed, have expressed a kind and grateful feeling for the personal share which I and the Queen have taken in the labor of securing the necessary means for the establishment of [a] Hospital in Honolulu. Whilst acknowledging your courtesy, I wish to take this first public occasion to express the almost unspeakable satisfaction with which I have found my efforts successful beyond my hopes. It is due to the subscribers as a body, that I should bear witness to the readiness, not less than the liberality, with which they have met my advances. When you return to your several places, let the fact be made known, that in Honolulu the sick man has a friend in everybody. Nor do I believe that He who made us all, and to whose keeping I commend in now dismissing you, has seen with indifference how the claims of a common humanity have drawn together, in the subscription list, names representative of almost every race of men under the sun.
May 20, 1859.
Replies by His Majesty to the Felicitations of the Commissioners of France and of the United States, and to the Captain of the Honolulu Rifle Corps, on behalf of its Members, on the first Anniversary of the Birth of H. R. H. the Prince of Hawaii.