the way. The barking of hungry curs at our heels caused us no little trepidation, lest their noise might alarm the villagers; but luckily such howlings are not unusual with village dogs, and we passed on in the moonlight, the brilliancy of which had been another source of anxiety to us. An hour's ride, with my legs hanging unsupported by stirrups, tired me excessively, and, unable any longer to endure the uncomfortable seat, I took to my bare feet, which the necessity of the times had inured to such roughness, and found great relief in walking. About midnight the guide abandoned the pony, which had proved only an encumbrance, proceeding through flooded nullahs, where we had to pick our way with the aid of long bamboo staves, which also served us for clubs of defence, and, after two hours' brisk marching, arrived at an island in the midst of a wide tract of submerged country, where droves of cattle were herded for pasture. My guide, expecting that we should be challenged by the herdsmen, bade me observe strict silence while he made the replies, as it was impossible to avoid these unscrupulous characters, who, generally speaking, are led by their wild mode of life to resort to the profession of dacoits and highwaymen. Taking the footpath skirting the island, along the ridge of the swollen Ramgunga, flowing with a rapidity and roar which made itself heard a mile on either side of the river, we continued our progress, assuming as much unconcern as possible in order to elude detectionmyself well enveloped in a blanket, with nothing but my eyes exposed. Two or three men now stepped forward and stood with chins reclining on their hands, doubled one upon another, over the end of their long formidable iron-bound clubs.

"Who are you?" asked one as he approached us.

"Hurdeobuksh's sepahi," answered the guide.

"And who is this with you?" inquired another, as he deliberately walked up to scrutinize my countenance, removing the covering, as if unsatisfied with the response.

"Ha! ha ha!" laughed out the impudent fellow, half in jest and half in sarcasm, as he discovered a white face.

"Is this the individual who was with Balgobind at Terah?" rejoined he, addressing the guide.

"The same," I replied, finding it useless to maintain the disguise any longer. My promptnesse vidently pleased them and won their good-will, for the man immediately added: "Jah, butch gai" ("Go, you have escaped"), and good-naturedly tapping me on the shoulder, with sundry jocose remarks, bade us adieu.

Glad to have got clear of such suspicious friends so easily, we proceeded onward, and reached Hurdeobuksh's ghurree a little after three in the morning-the place which I had quitted two months previously with rather different feelings. It was now perfectly isolated, quite inaccessible to artillery, and consequently impregnable. Cautiously did the guide lead me through the winding footpaths to the entrance. There he left me, and entered into conversation in whispers with the watch, then conducted me

to the fort, and concealed me under the eaves of a hut while he started off to report my arrival. These precautions were deemed necessary, as many of Hurdeobuksh's retainers were untrustworthy, and he was therefore anxious to keep my presence a secret to them as far as possible. In the course of ten minutes the guide returned, accompanied by a second person, who had orders to proceed with me at once to Khussoura. Following my new guide, who communicated with me in whispers and by signs, we took a footpath, just discernible through the long grass which the late rains had thrown up, along the ridge of an embankment, which served to keep out the flood, and also as an outwork of defence, and reached the Ramgunga after narrowly escaping the fangs of a huge snake which we had disturbed on the way.

Whilst waiting for the ferry, I lay down in a boat moored by the shore, and dropped off into a sound sleep from the fatigue of the journey, and finally reached Khussoura a little after sunrise, having swam the last nullah before entering the village.

For the rest of the narrative I beg to refer the reader to Mr. Edwards's journal of his " Personal Adventures during the Indian Mutiny," wherein will be found some interesting details of our meeting, and subsequent escape to Havelock's camp at Cawnpore a month after I joined him and Mr. Probyn.

In conclusion, I may add that Bhyro, the faithful servant who behaved so nobly in striving to save my brother's wife and child, fell a captive with them. He was carried back to Futtehghur with them and two or three other ladies and children, and delivered up to the Nawab, who cast them into prison. There, after suffering the severest trials and privations, while their wounds were yet fresh, they were led out by the sepoys, in company with about thirty native Christians, and shot down like felons. Bhyro contrived to make his escape under cover of the night, when being ferried across the Ganges. Hearing of my safety, the worthy man determined to find me out, and had planned my escape to Agra in disguise, collecting a small sum from his fellow-servants to provide the necessary outfit. Unhappily, the poor man was seized with a fatal disease on the morning of his departure, and succumbed to it in a few hours. The sad tidings of his death reached me shortly before our departure for Cawnpore, and caused me great sorrow. He had served my lamented brother upwards of twenty years, and had nursed me as a child in his arms. His devotion had lately been put to the severest test, and had proved unswervingly faithful.

GAVIN S. JONES.

Politics in the Sandwich Islands.

THE history-so brief and so picturesque-of the little septinsular kingdom in the North Pacific has become latterly pretty well known, both here and on the Continent. Its king has his place among "Men of the Time," and the Gotha Almanack gives statistics of his Hawaiian dynasty and national resources. The importance of the geographical position of the islands is claiming increased attention with the Governments of this continent and of America, and the expected visit of the young and widowed Queen Emma to England next spring will no doubt draw forth our sympathies, as well as our curiosity. During the past year, treaties of friendship and commerce have been negotiated between several continental Governments and Hawaii, and others are in progress.

In November, 1863, the fourth king bearing the name of Kaméhaméha died prematurely, after an enlightened reign of nine years, yet before quite attaining the age of thirty. He was succeeded on the throne by a brother, two years his senior, who assumed, on his accession, the family name of Kaméhaméha V. With his brother, this prince had, in 1850, visited England, France, and Belgium. They spoke and wrote our language fluently; read our history; studied our laws; mingled in our society; and saw events through European spectacles. What impressions of politics, etiquette, and religion, they thus acquired were ineffaceable in their minds, and thereafter influenced all their conduct.

By the articles of the constitution given to the people in 1852 by Kaméhaméha III., it was incumbent on the successor to the vacant throne to take an oath that he would maintain the constitution of the kingdom whole and inviolate, and would govern in conformity therewith. Kaméhaméha V. abstained from taking this oath. There were features in the existing constitution which were, to his mind, objectionable, and he resolved to seize the opportunity for making reforms, and bringing the kingdom into further accordance with the most enlightened European monarchies. During his brother's reign the present ruler of Hawaii had occupied the post of minister of interior. He had shown great aptitude for business, and had had leisure and means for observing the working of a system which contained the elements of democracy and puritanism. It will be necessary to describe, in a few words, the growth of this political system.

Up to the year 1839 the Hawaiian Islands were governed by an absolute monarch, and upon strictly feudal principles. In that year the

In the vocal languago of Polynesia this name has the soft pronunciation of Ka-maia-maia.

efforts of the American missionaries and ex-missionaries, who had given much useful assistance in governing the country, worked so far on the patriotic and bon-vivant king, Kaméhaméha III., as to induce him to sign a Bill of Rights, and, the following year, to grant a constitution, by which absolute rule was yielded up, and irresponsible power exchanged for government by the three estates of king, nobles, and people.

The king had never been out of his own small dominions. He had to be guided by the teaching and advice of the active-minded men who had already volunteered to assist in holding the reins of government, and who showed that they would not be averse to take the ribbons entirely into their own hands upon occasion. But at that time the king's advisers did not prompt to greater change than the conversion of absolutism into limited monarchy.

The scheme of government thus produced was naturally a hybrid one. Its promoters were Americans; they were missionaries, or persons who, having been missionaries, had left that calling for official or officious life. The constitution was a mosaic, to which the Pentateuch, the British Government, and the American Declaration of Independence each contributed a part. Yet, in spite of manifold defects, it was a revolution in the right direction. It lasted twelve years; and under it the nation advanced in civilization and prosperity.

The administration consisted of four departments; there was a minister of interior affairs, who was also premier; a minister of foreign relations, of finance, of public instruction; and an attorney-general. In 1845 the government was joined and strengthened by Mr. Wyllie, a Scotch gentleman, who had been well known in London, and was a friend of General Miller, the English commissioner in the Sandwich Islands. Statute laws were passed, and a little tinkering of the constitution began.

It seemed the fate of all political opinion, when acclimatized in Hawaii, to "suffer a sea change." We have seen a tyrant taking up limited monarchy, democrats from the United States constituting a kingdom; and now we are to see an early and ardent member of the Reform Club converted into a staunch Conservative, and an American attorney-general writing himself in one of his letters "a rank Tory."

With the infusion of fresh blood, it came to pass that, in 1850, the king recommended a new constitution, and appointed a commission of three persons to frame a new model. It was perfected, and, in 1852, was signed by the king, who died in something less than two years afterwards. This constitution was an advance on the former one; but a good deal of the Levitical element and some revolutionary rags remained in it. Dr. Judd was one of the three commissioners, his coadjutors being the chief, Joane Ii, and the Chief Justice Lee. The two former of this triad will make their reappearance hereafter.

It happened that while much discussion was going on in Honolulu about the proposed new constitution, the Hawaiian consulate in China was represented by the senior member of the commercial house of Jardine

and Company. At the same time, Sir John Bowring was governor of Hong Kong; and a correspondence was brought about between the latter and Mr. Wyllie on the same subject, and a draft of the constitution was sent to Sir John for his opinion. The editor of Jeremy Bentham objected to the opening sentence, in which it is asserted that all men are created free and equal. Bentham had himself been the correspondent of several of the American Presidents; and in his "Critical Examination of the Declaration of Rights," exposed the pretension that "all men are born free and equal." "No man ever was, is, or will be, born free; all are born helpless children, in a state of absolute subjection to parents, and, in many countries as slaves, in vassalage to owners; and as to equality, the statement is absurd, the condition of no two men, to say nothing of all, being equal, in the many gradations which exist, of wealth and poverty, servants and masters, influence and position." Sir John, who had been Bentham's most intimate friend and executor, quoted the views of his master, which also appeared to his own mind incontestable. In spite, however, of any efforts which Mr. Wyllie could make, supported by the China correspondence, the constitution commenced with the old assertion, "God hath created all men free and equal." Article 12 pronounced that "No person who imports a slave, or slaves, into the king's dominions, shall ever enjoy any civil or political rights in this realm." Article 19 prescribed, "All elections of the people shall be by ballot; " and Article 78 established manhood-suffrage. Moreover, the king's power was checked and controlled by the strange institution of the Kuhina-Nui-an invention which, if borrowed from any other nation, must have come from Japan. This "regulator" to the government machine, who stood above ministers, and, as it were, on the uppermost step of the throne, might be a man or a woman-indeed, was generally the latter. As she was to be the king's special counsellor, and was to have powers almost equal to the king's, with whom she would necessarily require to have long closetings on State affairs, she must have been a discouragement to a queen of jealous temperament, and not a little detrimental to the progress of business, since the constitution provides that "the king and the kuhina-nui shall have a negative on each other's public acts." Among his, or her, miscellaneous offices, the kuhina-nui had charge of the great seal of the kingdom, the royal standard, and the national flag. Also, in case of the king's death or minority, this solid shadow had to perform all duties, and exercise all powers ordinarily vested in the king. Such were some of the features of the constitution which existed till August, 1864.

Kaméhaméha V. came to the throne, as we have related, in November, 1863, and commenced the exercise of his functions, but without taking the oath prescribed by, and in favour of, his then constitution. Mr. Wyllie was made minister of foreign affairs; an Englishman with whom he had been long intimate, and whose devotion to the Hawaiian nation was undoubted, received the portfolio of interior;