The English-speaking world has joined at HaWaii in the sesquicentennial
celebrations of the discovery of the Sandwich Islands by Captain Cook. The bicentenary of his birth will be duly celebrated in Yorkshire two months hence. We are grateful to the people of the United States for their understanding of the British feelings, in England, Australia and New Zealand, in this matter. It is thirty years since the United States annexed the Sandwich Islands, to which we laid no claim based on Captain Cook's discovery. In spite of his murder we have always had a friendly feeling for the islanders and most of us can remember that it was to England that a Hawaiian Queen came to sojourn as " the Honbie. Mrs. Cleghorn "—(We never knew who claimed the authorship of that gloriously inept name.) But Captain Cook is our own possession and one to whom the Empire must be for ever grateful. His statue by Sir T. Brock stands fittingly by the Admiralty. His por- trait by Webber, in the National Portrait Gallery, is scarcely worthy of a man who should stir all our national pride, but Sir Nathaniel Dance's picture offers a good excuse (if one is ever needed) for a visit to Greenwich Palace.
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