_His Majesty's Speech at the Opening of the Session of the Hawaiian
Legislature of 1858._
NOBLES AND REPRESENTATIVES:--Since the Legislature was last in
session, it has pleased Almighty God to bless me with a son. The
birth of an Heir to the Throne is an event which you, now
congregated to pass measures, not for the temporary only, but
for the permanent prosperity of the Hawaiian Islands, under a
Constitutional Monarchy, cannot but regard with solemn
interest. Not only the continuance of his life, but the
characteristics which the Prince may develop as he grows to
manhood, and the education to be imparted to him, are matters
in no small degree inseparable from the future of our
country's history--from that distant part of it in which I,
and many, if not all of you, will take no share. Gentlemen,
the child is yours as well as mine; the circumstances that
attend his birth deprive me of an undivided interest in him,
for if such be the will of Divine Providence, he will one day
be to your sons what I am to their fathers. Destined as he is
to exercise a paramount influence in years to come, I
consecrate him to my people, and with God's help, I will leave
unused no faculty with which I am indued to make him worthy of
your love and loyalty, and an ornament to the Throne of his
great Predecessor who only did battle to establish peace and
lay the foundations of order.
I have called you together according to the requirements of
the Constitution. Having thus fulfilled the duty imposed upon
me, I would suggest to you, Nobles and Representatives, the
propriety, under existing circumstances, of confining the
business of the present session to providing, by a Joint
Resolution, or otherwise, for the financial necessities of the
Government, and appointing a Joint Committee to report after
an adjournment and as soon as practicable, to their respective
Houses, upon the New Code, or such portions of it as may be
ready for presentation by the Commission appointed by the
Legislature of 1856 to prepare it.
The reasons for such a course will appear in the fact that the
Commissioners selected to revise, codify and amend the laws
now in force, partly on account of the ill health of one of
the members, now deceased, and partly from the laborious
nature of the task imposed upon persons whose time was already
occupied by the duties of office, have been unable to perfect
their work within the time, which before the undertaking was
commenced, was deemed sufficient. The Joint Committee could
only receive and proceed to review such portions of the
Revision as are already prepared, and receive more as the
Commissioners progressed. By means of a little inquiry, the
time when their report upon the whole would probably be
forthcoming might be ascertained, when the two Houses could
meet again to review the Report and proceed with the general
business of the country.
The suggestion I have made demands further consideration from
the fact that a new Treaty, negotiated between me and the
Emperor of the French, has lately been returned from Paris,
accompanied by the formal ratification of the Emperor. It now
awaits a similar concurrence, on my part, to render it
effective. In accordance with the provision of our
Constitution, this Treaty is now under consideration by me, in
my Privy Council of State. The provisional Act, therefore,
which a former Legislature passed, will become operative or
otherwise, according to the result of those deliberations I
refer to, and until that result becomes known the Minister of
Finance cannot make to you a satisfactory showing of the
probable receipts of the Government for this and the next
fiscal year; and without such data to go by you will hardly
be able to dispose of the strictly financial business of the
country.
So, too, in regard to the Civil Acts, the passage of which
draws so largely upon the time of your two Houses. It would be
nothing less than a waste of labor to alter, by separate
enactments, those laws which the Revised Code will amend, or
to sanction new provisions, in that Compendium already
provided for, and which temporary enactments would, therefore,
become valueless almost as soon as they should have been
promulgated.
Believing, gentlemen, that you will coincide with me in seeing
the necessity for a speedy adjournment, after having made the
provisions I have pointed out, I forbear to call your
attention to the general business and details to which I
should otherwise direct your notice.