HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
 
A question arose how the claims were to be adjudicated. I advised 
Mr. Richards to offer to submit them to the decision of Lord Aberdeen 
himself. Iftthought this course would preclude delay, which there 
was some reason to fear might be desired here, and which would be 
very dangerous in the extremely anomalous condition of things. I 
doubted if the claims could be got before any tribunal independent of 
the influence of this Government; and I felt confident, that more could 
be obtained from the liberality of Lord Aberdeen when thus appealed 
to than if the British Government were made to assume the position 
of an opposing party. Mr. Richards fully concurred in this view, and 
the result, on the whole, seems to have justified it. On five out of seven

points the decision is wholly in favor of the Government of the 
islands; on the sixth substantially so; on the seventh much is left 
dependent on the discernment and good faith of Gen. Miller, the new 
consul-general; but Mr. Richards considers this point to be also settled

in their favor, and he has promptly accepted the whole decision. He 
informs me that he has been uniformly treated at the foreign office with

courtesy and respect. 
He has conferred freely with Mr. Addington, the under secretary 
of state, on the delicate point of restoring possession of the islands to

the native Government, and has been promised that it shall be done 
as soon as a satisfactory assurance is given by France; and he thinks- 
justly, in my opinion-that it is for the interest of the islands that 
Great Britain should retain her possession till this assurance is given.

There is no fear that it will be long withheld. 
I have the honor to be, with great respect, 
Your obedient servant, 
EDWARD EVERETTS 
Mr. Everett to ]Ir. Nelson. 
No. 114.]                               LONDON, April 24, 1844. 
JOHN NELSON, Esq., 
Secretary of State ad interim: 
SiR: In the course of the past year I had frequent occasion to make 
mention of the affairs of the Sandwich Islands and of the agency of 
Messrs. Richards and Haalilio, who had been sent to the United States 
and Europe as the representatives of the native Government. I have 
now the satisfaction to communicate authentic information of the con- 
clusion of a convention between the governments of Great Britain and 
Yranee, by which the independence of the Sandwich Islands is recog- 
nized, and the two powers stipulate that they will not take possession 
of them, either directly or under the name of a protectorate, Messrs. 
Richards and Haalilio have promised to give me a copy of this conven- 
tion, which I hope they will do in season to be transmitted with this 
dispatch, but as it has not been published by either Government, and 
is of course communicated unofficially to me, I would suggest the pro- 
priety of receiving it for the present in confidence. 
In their negotiations with this Government relative to the demands 
and complaints of British subjects against the native Government which 
led to the provisional occupation of the islands by Lord George Paulet, 
and with the French Government in reference to the modification of 
the treaty imposed by France on the islanders, of which treaty France 
exacts the benefits for herself while she refuses to grant them to the 
 
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