NEW AND FLAGRANT OUTRAGE BY THE FRENCH IN THE PACIFIC—VIOLENT SEIZURE OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. (Concluded from our last). [From the New Zealander, Nov. 17.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 453, 5 December 1849, Page 4

NEW AND FLAGRANT OUTRAGE BY THE FRENCH IN THE PACIFIC—VIOLENT SEIZURE OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. (Concluded from our last). [From the New Zealander, Nov. 17.]

The French "definitive declaration" in answer to this dispatch is as follows: .{[Translation by Mr. Wyllie, corrected by Admiral de Troraeiin.] On board the Admiral's Frigate of the French Republic La Poursuivante, r off Honolulu, Thursday, 50th of August, 1849, at 8 a. m. Naval Station of the French Republic, in the Pacific Ocean. The undersigned, Rear Admiral, Com-mander-in-Cbief of the Naval Forces of the French Republic, in the Pacific Ocean, has received, yesterday at three o'clock, the resolution of the Hawaiian Government, taken in Council and signed by the hand of King Kamehameha 111., and relative to the differences which exist on the subject of the interpretation and execution of the Treaty of the 2'6th March, 1846. The propositions made by the Hawaiian Government not being acceptable, for the reason that it persists in wishing to submit France to the arbitration of a third power, whilst previously, in analogous circumstances, it has not persisted in such a pretension towards England, the undersigned, agreeably to the orders of the French. Government, notifies to the Hawaiian Government, that counting from this day, the thirtieth of August eighteen hundred and forty-nine, at mid-day, the Trealy of the 26th of Marcb,-1846, not being loyally executed by it, is declared null and void, and that, from this day, the two nations, French and Hawaiian, return respectively, under the empire of the Convention concluded the 22th and 17th July, 1839, between Captain Laplace and King Kamehameha 111. And considering that in consequence of the erroneous interpretation that the Hawaiian Government persists in giving to the treaty of the 26th March, 1846, it has exercised against the citizens and commerce of France exactions which have been protested against, to no effect by competent official parties, and because it persists in the same courses, the undersigned, by way of reprisals and in order to have some gaurantees of indemnity and reparation of damages occasioned to France, notifies here to the Hawaiian Government that he will cause to be seized and captured all the properties of this government which shall fall into his power, respecting always the properties of private individuals, because the undersigned does not wish to make Hawaiian subjects responsible for the faults of the counsellors of their King. It is for this reason that he confines himself, to-day, to disarm the Fort of Honolulu, and to stize definitely, the schooner, Kamehameha, the only one of the vessels actually under detention which belongs to the Hawaiian Government, The undersigned declares this government responsible, (Solidairement) and personally,

for all damages which may be occasioned to French citizens present in the Hawaiian Archipelago, whether in their persona or property : and he reserves besides to the French Government to pursue, by the means which it shall judge proper, the complete reparation of all their grievances. ' (Signed), Legoarant de Tromelin. To M. the Minister of Foreign Relations, Honolulu. Immediately on the receipt of this ultimatum, the following very important document was isssued :

Protest, By command of the King of the Hawaiian Islands. By order of his Majesty, Kamehameha 111., King of the Hawaiian Islands, given to the undersigned on Thursday, the thirtieth day of August, 1849, after receipt of a despatch, dated the same day, and addressed to the undersigned, from Rear Admiral Legoarant de Tromelin, Commander-in- Chief of the naval forces of the French Republic, in the Pacific Ocean, in which, rejecting the offer made by his Majesty's command, to refer all differences of opinion about the true meaning and interpretation of the treaty of the 26th March, 1846, jointly to France and Great Britain, who jointly framed it and proposed it to his Majesty (agreeably to the express understanding between the undersigned and the Commissioner of France, and the Consul General of her Britannic Majesty,) and rejecting the offer of indubitable security and guarantee for the full amount of all indemnity and reparation, in all cases, claims, and grievances whatsoever, that France herself might pronounce to be just, after full hearing and amicable concert with his Majesty's Special Plenipotentiary, or that of a friendly nation, of her own choice, might declare to be just, as umpire, in regard to points whereon France and his Majesty's Special Plenipotentiary might not be able to agree, he the said Admiral subjects his Majesty's weak and unresisting kingdom to the harsh law of reprisals, the undersigned Minister of Foreign Relations, in his Majesty's name, and on his Majesty's behalf, most solemnly appeals to the good faith and justice of France, under her engagement of the 28th November, 1*843, and protests against the infringement of that arrangement by the said Admiral, in landing a military force, in hostile array, and taking military possession of the. Fort^ Government offices, and Custom house of Honolulu, and of those portions of the territory of bis Majesty's Domain on which these edifices stand, on the afternoon of Saturday, the twentyfifth of August, 1849, immediately after the receipt of a despatch from the undersigned, by his Majesty's command, rendering all such hostile measures absolutely unnecessary ; the undersigned further protests against the attempt of the said Admiral to justify these proceedings upon the ground that his Majesty had violated the treaty of the 26th March, 1846, which his Majesty declares he has not violated, but which the Consul of France, in despite of its ratification by the late King of the French, did violate both in word and spirit, as was shown in his Hawaiian Majesty's protest, through the undersigned, of the 28th February 1848., in regard to Wines, and which the Admiral himself attempted again to violate, in letter end spirit, in regard to spirituous liquors, which violations, if approved by France (which his Majesty does not believe they can be) under the Law of Nations, would abrogate said treaty altogether ; — the undersigned further protests against the said Admiral for an assumption of his Majesty's Sovereignty, in printing and posting up in the streets of his Majesty's capital, on the rooming of Sunday, the 25th of August, 1849, a proclamation in contempt of his Majesty's laws and royal authority, pretending to cancel the said treaty of 26th March, 1846, and to revive the Convention of Laplace, which never was a treaty because France never ratified it, and was wholly annulled by the preamble to the said treaty of the 26th March, 1846, although his Majesty, at the Admiral's own suggestion, on the" 25th of August, 1849, had nominated special Commissioners, for the express purpose of making an amicable adjustment with the said Admiral, on principles reconciling the honour and dignity of France with the rights of his Majesty as guaranteed by herself ; the undersigned further protests against the said Admiral for the hostile and unnecessary act of beginning to throw down the guns and dismantle his Majesty's fort, on the forenoon of Tuesday, the twenty-eighth day of August, 1 849, at the very time when his Majpsiy's Commissioners were engaged on board the war steamer Gassendi, in conference wkh the Admiral, with the view stated ; the undersigned further protests against the said Admiral for the exclusion of the King's ministers from access to their offices, at the very time, when in the execution of their duty to the King, they most needed free access to all their papers fo/ the defence of his Majesty's rights ! unjustly invaded, and for the protection due to

neutral interests ; the undersigned further protests against all and every one of the demands jointly made on his Majesty's government on the twenty-second day of August, 1849, by the aforesaid Admiral, and M. Dillon, the Consul of France, as altogether unrighteous and unjust in themselves, untenable under the Law of Nations, and urged upon his Majesty by the before named, with a festination, cogency, and limitation as to time, as if his Majesty's Kingdom had been a beleaguered fortress, and not a friendly independent stale under the special protection of the joint declaration of France and Great Britain, of the 28th November, 1843, copy of which is hereto ap- \ pended ; the undersigned further protests against the rejection by the aforesaid Admiral of the security for every just reparation and indemnity offered by his Majesty, through the undersigned, on Wednesday, the 29th day of August, 1849, and against the reprisals after that offer resorted to by the said Admiral, weakening his Majesty's authority, and by the wanton destruction of his military stores, disabling his Majesty from suppressing intestine disorders, repelling pirates, and extending that protection to persons and properties of French citizens, the responsibility of which the said Admiral, nevertheless, scruples not to throw stringently upon his Majesty ; the undersigned further protests against the seizure and confiscation by the said Admiral of the King's yacht, indispensable to keep up the communications between his Majesty's Islands, and to enable his Majesty to make those progresses throughout his Islands which are necessary to their good government; the undersigned further protests against the seizure and detention by orders of the said Admiral of all other vessels under the Hawaiian or any other flag, and against the damages thereby done to his subjects and to foreign residents whom, and all foreigners within his waters, his Majesty is bound to protect as much as his own subjects; the undersigned further protests against the printed proclamation by the Admiral, posted up on the 20th day of August, 1849, for the reasons aforesaid, and because it is a flagrant outrage on his Majesty's rights, guaranteed by France herself, in the joint declaration hereinbefore mentioned, and under the treaty of the 26th March, 1846, copy of which is also hereunto appended ; the undersigned further protests against the ground taken by the Admiral in his aforesaid Proclamation and in other documents, that his Majesty's Government have made a wrong interpretaiion of either the letter or the spirit 'of any part of that Treaty, and in virtue thereof, made any unjust or unlawful exactions whatever, either of French citizens, or other foreigners, and against the right arrogated by him and by the Consul ofFrance to pronounce their own interpretation to be the correct one, and to subject his Majesty to war and reprisals on a mere difference of opinion, and because his Majesty refuses to adopt their interpretation, until after such difference shall have been clearly and fairly decided by amicable reference, as international law provides for in such cases, and as, in this case, was expressly provided for between the undersigned, as his Majesty's Plenipotentiary, and the Commissioner of France, and Consul- General of Great Britain as aforesaid ; the undersigned further protests against the pretension of said Admiral and Consul to interfere either with the religion or education of his Majesty's subjects, or with the appropriation of the funds contributed by his subjects for those purposes ; the undersigned further protests against their interference with or opposition to the laws of this kingdom, and to the jurisdiction of his Majesty's Courts of Justice as established by law, and against their extraordinary pretension to claim damages and indemnity of the Hawaiian Government on their own view of cases, before such cases have ever been before the Hawaiian Tribunals, or even been heard of by the Hawaiian Government ; the undersigned further protests against the Admiral's imputation of obstinacy to the King's Commissioners, in resisting demands which, under their duty to their God, to their King, and to their own consciences, they could not fail to resist ; the undersigned further protests against the voluntary hauling down of the French Consular flag, and ths voluntary abandonment of the said Consul's private house, and of his public office, under values enormously exaggerated, for which values he sought to make the King's Government responsible on the 25th of August, 1849 ; and the undersigned protests against, and throws the responsibility upon the said Admiral for all damages, injuries, captures, detentions, confiscations, or detri- \ ments of any kind whatsoever, to all persons j or things, that have ensued from the measures adopted by him since the twenty-second day of August, 1849, or that he may hereafter adopt, in pursuance of the unjust and unlawful demands then made. And, finally, the undersigned, in the King's name and on his Majesty's behalf, is commanded to protest that the King does not consider himself at war with France — that he j

entertains for France the utmost respect, and that notwithstanding all he had unjustly suffered from the Admiral and tbf Consul beforenamed, his Majesty has given the strictest orders that the persons and properties of all citizens of France, now on these islands, or that may hereafter arrive, be as much respected and as carefully protected as if the said Admiral had inflicted upon his Majesty and upon his subjects no injuries whatever. Done in presence of the King and Council, under my hand and the Great Seal of the Kingdom, at the Palace of Honolulu, this third day of September, in the year of our Lord 1849. R. C. Wyllie. f The Great Seal of the "1 \ Hawaiian Kingdom. / This Protest was forwarded to Admiral de Tromelin, with a letter from Mr. Wyllie, written with the ability, cogency of jeasoning^ and dignified self-possession by which that Minister's communications were eminently distinguished throughout the correspondence. We add, as not less important than any of the preceding documents, the British Consul's spirited protest against this outrageous violation of national honour and faith on the part of the French :—: — Her Britannic Majesty's Consulate General for the islands of the Pacific. Honolulu, Woahoo, Aug. 27, 1849. Sir, — The government of Great Britain and France, having, on the 28th of November, 1843, entered into a mutual agreement in the form of a declaration (a copy cf which I have the honor to enclose to you) by which they mutually pledged themselves never on any ground or pretext, or under any form, to take possession of any part of the territory of the Sandwich Islands, it is with extreme regret, that on the 25th instant, I witnessed the ! seizure, and military occupation, which is still continued, of the Fort, Custom-house, Treasury, Foreign, and other Government Offices of Honolulu, by detachments of armed sea- ! men, from two hundred to three hundred men, belonging to the French Naval Forces in the Pacific Ocean under your command : and this act, of thus taking and holding forcible possession of a part of the Territory of the Sandwich Islands, being I conceive, a violation of the mutual agreement entered into by Grrat Britain and France, I feel it to be my duty, as the Representative of her Britannic Majesty's Government at these islands, to protest, and I do hereby protest against this proceeding, and at the same time I beg to assure you that Great Britain will not see with indifference an exercise of arbitrary violence practised to the prejudice of a sovereign and country which she has taken under special protection, while she does not seek but, on the contrary, disclaims any wish for paramount influence or privileges not enjoyed by 'other nations at these islands. With sentiments of the highest consideration, I have the honor to be, &c, - (Signed) Wm, Miller. To Rear Admiral de Tromelin, Com-raander-in-Chiefofthe Naval Forces of the French Republic in the Pacific. This Piotest was accompanied by a letter to the Admiral from Mr. Miller, written in a most conciliatory and friendly tone, attempting to dissuade him from his proceedings. But all proved unavailing. The course of the French had evidently been determined on from the outset, and all the negotiations so far as they engaged in them were but the negotiations of the Wolf with the Lamb in the fable. And now the deed — the infamous deed, as we calmly and deliberately characterize it, — has been done. The results remain to be developed. At the conclusion of this, the first, act of the eventful drama, we are informed :—: — "On the forenoon of the sth September, the Admiral with M. Dillon and his family on board, took his departure for San Francisco in the frigate La Poursivante. The steamer Gassendi sailed at the same time for Valparaiso and Europe. The King's yacht Kamehameha, prize to the French naval for* ces, was despatched on the 4th, destination unknown. " In consequence of the strict orders of the King, not an angry look or word was given to any French officer, sailor, or marine, during the military operations of landing, taking possession, occupying, dismantling the fort, destruction of arms, powder, &c, posting up proclamations, and final retirement on board."