ABSTRACT
Up to the year 1838 the government of the Hawaiian Islands was a despotism. The King's power was absolute; and, as is usually the case with absolutisms, his chiefs in their separate spheres were smaller despots. It depended on the prowess and personal character of the Monarch to control his chiefs and really be their king, or to maintain only a nominal headship over them, and to be simply a chief among chiefs. Of defined laws it can scarcely be said that there were any. Some common prescriptive ones must have existed, for they are found in every human society. Such are rather to be called natural and instinctive laws; and without them men would dwell together as wild beasts. From time to time the King and chiefs put forth changeable decrees; and the oppressive system of tabu made itself felt as an immemorial and inevitable condition of life. Usage was almost the only system.
