OBITUARY.
[UNDER SPECIAL AUTHORITY.]
His late Majesty, Kauikeouli Kaleiopapa Kuakamanolani, Mahinalani, Kalaninuiwaiakua, Keaweawealaokalani, whose royal style was Kamehameha III., was born on the 17th March, 1813, in Keauhou, District of Kona, Hawaii. His father was the renowned king and conqueror, Kamehameha I. His mother was Keopuolani, daughter of Kiwaloa, son of Kalaiopuu, of Kau, Hawaii. On the day before her death, while conversing with the celebrated chief Kalaimoku, respecting her children, she said, "I wish that my two children Kauikeouli, and Nahienaena (her daughter), should know God and serve him, and be instructed in Christianity. I wish you to take care of these my two children,—see that they walk in the right way, counsel them, let them not associate with bad companions." But after her death, the chief who had the immediate charge of the young Prince's person was Kaikeoewa. When he retired to Lanai, Kaahumanu placed the Prince under the immediate charge of Boki. The earliest education which the infant Prince received, was at Kailua, from the Rev. A. Thurston, and Thomas Hopu, a native who had been educated in the United States. In Honolulu the Prince became the pupil of the Rev. Hiram Bingham.
The young Prince had the misfortune to lose his father Kamehameha, on the 8th of May, 1819, and his mother Keopuolani, on the 16th of September, 1823. Towards the end of that year King Kamehameha II. (Liholiho), embarked for England, where he died in 1824. The royal remains were conveyed back to the islands in the British frigate "Blonde," commanded by Lord Byron, in 1825. Soon afterwards, say in May, 1825, the reign of Kamehameha III. commenced, but under the political guidance of a supreme ruler, or "Kuhina Nui," till March, 1833, when he declared to the chiefs his wish to take into his own hands the lands for which his father had toiled, the powers of life and death, and the undivided sovereignty,—and confirmed Kinau (Kaahumanu II.) as his "Kuhina Nui." He then took into his own hands the reins of sovereign power, in the twentieth year of his age. How he has exercised that power, during the twenty-one years that intervened between its assumption and the 15th December last, when Death released him of all royal and other earthly cares, it will be the duty of his future biographer to show. His memory is, and must ever be, dear to his subjects, for the free constitutions which he voluntarily granted to them in 1840 and in 1852; for his support of religion and patronage of education; for his conferring upon them, and upon foreigners, the right to hold lands in fee simple, and for his willing abandonment of all the arbitrary powers and right of universal seignorial land-lordship, which he had inherited. There is scarcely in history, ancient or modern, any king to whom so many public reforms and benefits can be ascribed, as the achievements of only twenty-one years of his reign. Yet what king has had to contend with so many difficulties, arising from ignorance, prejudice, scanty revenue, inexperience and ineptitude, as his late Majesty King Kamehameha III.? It was only in 1844 that His Majesty had the assistance of a responsible legal counsellor, and of a Secretary of State; only in 1845 that a proper separation of the departments of government was attempted, and a cabinet formed. The political principles then established by His Majesty were the following, viz:
"That monarchy in the Sandwich Islands is indispensable to the preservation of the King, the chiefs and the natives. That it is the duty of the Ministers, in all their measures, to have a single eye to the preservation of the King, the chiefs and the natives.
"That the existence of the King, chiefs and the natives, can only be preserved by having a government efficient for the administration of enlightened justice, both to natives and the subjects of foreign powers residing in the islands, and that chiefly through missionary efforts the natives have made such progress in education and knowledge, as to justify the belief that by further training, they may be rendered capable of conducting efficiently the affairs of government; but that they are not at present so far advanced.
"That the best means of bringing them to that desired state, are the careful study of proper books, and the practical knowledge of business, to be acquired by ascending through the different gradations of office, under foreign ministers.
"That such foreign ministers hold their commissions only by the grace of the King, and agree to surrender them at the will of His Majesty in favor of native subjects, whenever they become properly qualified.
"That the King being recognized as Sovereign by Great Britain, France, the United States and Belgium, has to maintain his position and rank as such, and that all his ministers and officers are to assist him in doing so, by deporting themselves towards him with that respect and consideration to which all sovereigns are entitled; and to discharge their duties so as to do honor to his appointment and credit to themselves.