The German residents, as
everywhere, are cliquish too. Then, since the establishment of the
Honolulu Mission, church feeling has run rather high, and here, as
elsewhere, has a socially divisive tendency. Then there are drink
and anti-drink, pro and anti-missionary, and pro and anti-
reciprocity-treaty parties, and various other local naggings of no
interest to you.
The civilization is exotic, and owing to various circumstances, the
government and constitution are too experimental and provisional in
their nature, and possess too few elements of permanence to engross
the profound interest of the foreign residents, although for reasons
of policy they are well inclined to sustain a barbaric throne. In
spite of a king and court, and titles and officials without number,
and uniforms stiff with gold lace, and Royal dinner parties with
menus printed on white silk, Americans, Republicans in feeling,
really "run" the government, and in state affairs there is a taint
of that combination of obsequious and flippant vulgarity, which none
deplore more deeply than the best among the Americans themselves.
It is a decided misfortune to a community to be divided in its
national leanings, and to have no great fusing interests within or
without itself, such as those which knit vigorous Victoria to the
mother country, or distant Oregon to the heart of the Republic at
Washington.
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