Polynesian., 1845-01-18

rh'" ot IN SliblhN p"l IL
upon the ground that the witnesses consider
ed the book hcterodox, that would havc been
a legitimate reason, in any court of Justice,
must be the most sacred in the opinion, not
OF the litigant party, but of the witness. OF
what avail would it be to a Catholic plaintiff
to swear a Protestant witness upon the Holy
Cross, or to swear a Catholic upon the
Protestant Evangclists, or Il M%ahomcdan up
on the Pentatcuch, or a Jew upon the Alko-
ran ? The book, or the emblem employed
signifies nothing. 1t is the concurrence of
belief with the emblem that signifies every
thing. The Patriarch Jacob swore 60 by the
hollow of his thigh" and the angel allcgori-
cally represented in the Apocalypse as stand
ing upon the sea and on the land, Gifted up
his hand and swore." To get up a religious
crusade about an occurrence of this kind,
which might possibly have innoccntly or TO-
n%orantly happened, in the court of an untech-
meal magistrate, either in Europe or Ameri-
ca, seems to me to be seeking a cause of
quarrel, which in itself is far from christian.
This disposition to quarrel, on the part of the
Reverend Able, is not unsupported by the
fact of his authoritative command, when in
the outset he went from his school-room to
the street, to stop the altcrcation-and when
before the magistrate, he struck the book
with his cane. He forgot the rebuke given
by Christ to Peter at Gethsemanc;-'' they
that take the sword shall perish by the sword"
And he was guilty, equally, of a high con-
tempt of the civil magistrate to whom he had
appealed for legal redress. Such a contempt
of court as he there manifested would, in the
United States, France, or England, have
been Immediately punished with fine and inn
prisonmcnt, without regard to whether he
was a layman or an ecclesiastic.
Neither was it necessary for him to have
treated the Magistrate with disrespect by
spurning the book, because if the Magis-
trate insisted upon swearing the witnesses
upon it. and the Judgment happened to be
adverse to the Abbe's views, he could APP
dom, and alledge for cause of appeal, that
the witnesses upon whose testimony the
Judgment had been readered against him,
were not sworn upon an emblem which they
deemed sacred. This would in any country
be a sufficient cause for setting aside the
Judgment rendered below, and the Conrt
in reversing such a judgment would have
seized the occasion to decide that in all after
cases witnesses and Jurors should be sworn
according to their conscienccs. Some such
decision from high authority is needed to do
away the erroneous misconceptions and pref
udices of the inferior native Magistracy, and
an appeal would thus prove a national benefit.
The Able appears to have been the real
aggrcssor throughout, if the testimony pre-
scented for my investigation does not belle
him,-and when he carried his natural heat
so far as to commit a contempt of Court,
the Magistrate was wrong as an officer of
the Civil Government, III not respecting his
office enough to commit him. | would ad-
wise Magistrates to compel all parties to re-
spcct their Courts, their official persons and
their official acts by the most exemplary
means; because rs such, they represent in
their several functions some attribute of His
Majesty the King, whose laws they execute.
The guaranteeing powers Of Europe, both
expect and require this, and they would not
be satisfied if the Magistracy Of this country
did not command sufficient respect to make
their decisions authoritative and binding upon
the parties against whom those decisions,
right or wrong, happened to be made.
The Able Castan, it would further seem
now comes for national redress, which he
seeks automatically. TO do this, he ought
at least to come innocent Of any wrong act
himself. He ought to have no contempt of
the civil mngistracy hanging over him, and
being a minister Of religion, he ought not to
come before his government asking redress
for an a~lledged insult ON the part of an ig-
%norant, inland, halcnaked native, while
wearing upon his brow the dark scowl of ha-
tired and revenge. He ought not to wear
the appearance of an interneddler in the pri-
vate disputes of an ignorant native and his
wife. lie ought not to show a spirit quite