Polynesian., 1845-01-18
NEW SERIES, Vol. NO. IS.

i'oio iiNc d SITlStIaH, una sci Il better eX-
ample to the heather by his own con-
duct.
Why did the Reverend Able seek re-
dress before the magistrate at Eva? For being
insultcd And in demanding reparation for
an insult offered to himself by an ignorant
native of the Hawaiian Islands F.; he, an
educated and Christian father, practised a
direct insult upon the Judge, who Innocent
ly, but ignorantly rendered what he con-
ccivcd a sacred book to the witnesses.
And what was the offence which the Able
demanded to be punished Not blows, nor
riot, nor assault upon his school house,
These would have been punishable offences
at law. He desired abusive and reproach-
full epithets to be punished, and for seven
teen years that | have been conversant with
j%uridical affairs, | nave never vet heard of
the punishment for abusive words except
when slanderously spoken to third persons.
and then only if they resulted in actual in.
Jury to the person against whom they we're
uttered. | never heard of it criminailv .'un-
less the evil speaking happened to be so
bolsterous as to disturb the neighborhood,
when it would be punished by the police as
a nuisance. The streets Of the cities of
London and Paris and the fish markets are
vocal with it and it goes there unnoticed.
Why should it be punished among an igno-
rant people and quite in the back country
where no one can be disturbed by it? Such
a punishment 1t seems to me, would be a re-
straint upon the liberty of speech, which
ought not to be tolerated in any enlighten-
ed government, and until the blue laws Of
Connecticut are here enacted, the indecor-
rus use of language ought not to be restrain.
ed. Chapter 18th. of the Hawaiian statute
provides a punishment for Profane swearing.
and this is punishable in all good govern
ments, because an offence against the reli-
gious sense as we'll Of one religious denomi-
nation as another. But it cannot and ought
not to be construed to extend to telling a
man that he has no business to interfere in
a private conjugal dispute.
This complaint canno be reasonably re-
garded as a complaint of religious ~intoIer-
ance and persecution, and it does not appear
that the Consul of France views it as such.
Religion had nothing to do with the quar-
rel between the two natives nor with tho
Abbe's exit from the school room, nor with
his rough rebuke to the disputants, nor with
their wrath and abusive retort consequent
therefrom. 1t was all as secular an affair
as ever happened in a fish market and it
will be found in the mass of instances that
the complaints preferred by the clergy are Of
this very nature, Illuminated in c%aptious dis
pleasure, and warped into accusations of in
tolerance against the government. The gov
eminent had nothing to do with the Able
Castans cause of complaint, and would in all
Likelihood never have heard of it, if the Rev.
erend Able had not resorted to the courts
of law, and if the country magistrate had
not committed a judicial error which ena-
BLEED the law-loving clergyman to protest.
The ministers of religion, no matter
of what denomition they may be, have
no more civil rights by the constitution
and laws of the Hawaiian government, than
other individuals. Their persons are not
any more protected than the persons of lay
men. Their feelings are not a whit more
cared for by the law than the feelings of 9TH
or people. The lay subject is not required
by law to show them obscquious Difference,
and ifthey wish to secure these dignifying i'm
munitics, they must observe the humble pre-
cepts Of the Gospel and follow patiently the
meek and lowly Jesus. Such a course will
never fail to inspire courtesy and respectful
consideration.
There is no national religion here. Tho
field of Christian labor is unconstrained and
open to all good men Of every denomination
who choose by their precepts, and what is
more powerful, by their example to win men
to their belief. The government does not
interfere with the moral efforts Of good men
but feels politically s gratefully the benefits
derived from their excrtions. Their success
will always depend upon the way in which
they inculcate their doctrines. There is no
connection between the church and the state
in this government, and ] can conceive Of