Mr. Stevens to Mr. Blaine.

No. 10.]

Sir: In my dispatch No. 6, dated October 17, 1889, I gave the information that the persons engaged in the riotous and revolutionary movement of July 30, 1889, were being tried before the chief justice of the Kingdom, and that Loomens, the Belgian, had been convicted of treason. [Page 298] Others of the accused have been convicted of conspiracy or have pleaded guilty of that offense. But those convicted were tried before a foreign jury, for the reason that they were not native Hawaiians. Since the date of my former communication Wilcox, the half-caste Hawaiian, the leader in the revolutionary attempt, has been tried before a native jury, and after an elaborate and able prosecution by the Government, in which his guilt was conclusively proved by his own testimony, as well as by that of numerous witnesses, he has been acquitted by a jury vote of 9 to 3, a unanimous vote not being necessary for conviction nor acquittal under the Hawaiian laws. This preponderance of native opinion in favor of Wilcox, as expressed by the native jury, fairly represented the popular native sentiment throughout these islands in regard to his effort to overthrow the present ministry and to change the constitution of 1887, so as to restore to the King the power he possessed under the former constitution, which the natives believe would tend to give them more predominance in the Kingdom.

What will be the ultimate effect of this failure of the Government to convict the chief leader in the revolutionary attempt of July 30, I will not now presume to predict. The immediate consequence is certainly injurious to public order and good government, and indicates that tendency of opinion among Hawaiian natives which is likely to find strong expression in the national election which is to take place in February.

It is admitted by all of the most intelligent and best citizens here that the present Government is the wisest and most efficient which this country has ever had, and should it be defeated and thrown out by the native Hawaiian voters under their present leadership, it would afford occasion of regret to all true friends of Hawaiian independence and Hawaiian prosperity.

I have, etc.,

John L. Stevens.