. During a
residence of four months at Honolulu, the metropolis of the group, the author
was in the confidence of an Englishman who was much employed by his lordship;
and great was the author's astonishment on his arrival at Boston, in the autumn
of 1844, to read the distorted accounts and fabrications which had produced in
the United States so violent an outbreak of indignation against the English. He
deems it, therefore, a mere act of justice toward a gallant officer briefly to
state the leading circumstances connected with the event in question.
    It is needless to rehearse all the abuse that for some time previous to the
spring of 1843 had been heaped upon the British residents, especially upon
Captain Charlton, Her Britannic Majesty's consul-general, by the native
authorities of the Sandwich Islands. High in the favour of the imbecile king at
this time was one Dr. Judd, a sanctimonious apothecary-adventurer, who, with
other kindred and influential spirits, was animated by an inveterate dislike to
England. The ascendency of a junta of ignorant and designing Methodist eldera in
the councils of a half-civilised king, ruling with absolute sway over a nation
just poised between barbarism and civilisation, and exposed by the peculiarities
of its relations with foreign states to unusual difficulties, was not precisely
calculated to impart a healthy tone to the policy of the government.
    At last matters were brought to such an extremity, through the iniquitous
maladministration of affairs, that the endurance of further insults and injuries
on the part of the British consul was no longer to be borne. Captain Charlton,
insultingly forbidden to leave the islands, clandestinely withdrew, and arriving
at Valparaiso, conferred with Rear-Admiral Thomas, the English
commander-in-chief on the Pacific station. In consequence of this communication,
Lord George Paulet was dispatched by the admiral in the Carysfort frigate, to
inquire into and correct the alleged abuses. On arriving at his destination, he
sent his first-lieutenant ashore with a letter to the king, couched in terms of
the utmost courtesy, and soliciting the honour of an audience. The messenger was
denied access to his majesty, and Paulet was coolly referred to Dr. Judd, and
informed that the apothecary was invested with plenary powers to treat with him.
Rejecting this insolent proposition, his lordship again addressed the king by
letter, and renewed his previous request; but he encountered another repulse.
Justly indignant at this treatment, he penned a third epistle, enumerating the
grievances to be redressed, and demanding a compliance with his requisitions,
under penalty of immediate hostilities.
    The government was now obliged to
