HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. | | OT

I dine with Gen. Miller, the British consul-general for the Pacific —
_ islands, this afternoon, and may be able to pick up some information.
I now close this letter, but shall write further by the same convey- |
ance. I have written this as altogether confidential.
| With great respect, I have the © honor, etc.,

LUTHER SuvERANOH,

Mr. Webster to Mr. Rives.

No. 28.] | DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, June 19, 1851.
WILLIAM C. RIVES, Esq. + ete.: Oo

Sir: In the dispatch from this Department (No. 15) of the 5th of
July last,, you were instructed with reference to the application of
Messrs. G. P. Judd and James Jackson Jarves, special commissioners _
of the Hawaiian Government, for the mediation of the Government of
the United States for the purpose.of adjusting the differences between
that Government and the Government of France. In your dispatch
(No. 49) of the 12th of September, you stated that you would avail your-
self of the first: suitable occasion towards bringing about an amicable
adjustment of the controversy. It is believed, however, that you have
not since mentioned the subject.

It appears from the accompanying letters addressed to the Depart-
ment and to the Rev. Rufus Anderson by Mr. Judd, from Panama, that
the French Government declined to accept the mediation of the Gov-
ernment of Great Britain, and dispatched an agent to the Sandwich
Islands, whom Mr. Judd met at Panama, waiting for the arrival of
an armed force from Callao, with which he intended to proceed to the
islands for hostile purposes. The publicjournals have since announced
that hehad reached his destination and had entered upon a corr ‘espond-
ence with the Hawaiian Government. This intelligence has given the
President much pain. It has also alarmed the American Board of Mis- |
Sions, whose corresponding secretary visited this city last autumn,
brought with him the letter from Mr. Judd to the Rev. Mr. Anderson
above referred to, and made application for vessels of war of the

_ United States to be sent to the islands for the protection of the persons
and property of the missionaries there. |

Under these circumstances, if you should not already have made the
French Government acquainted with the interest we feel in the inde- »
- pendence of the islands, you will lose no time in taking that course.
The proceedings of M. Dillon and the French admiral there in 1849,
_ so far aS we are informed respecting them, seem, both in their origin
and in their nature, to have been incompatible with any just regard for
- the Hawaiian Government as an independent state. They can not,

_ according to our impressions, be accounted for upon any other hypo-
_ thesis than a determination on the part of those officers to humble and
annihilate that Government for refusing to accede to demands which,
if granted, must have been at the expense of all self-respect and sub-
stantial sovereignty. The further enforcement of those demands which, |

it appears, is the object of Mr. Perrin’s mission, would be tantamount to

_ @ subjugation of the islands to the dominion of France. A step like |

this could not fail to be viewed by the Government and people of the

United States with a dissatisfaction which would tend seriously to
F R 94—APP Il-——7