The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-02-18
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY ls.

The new Civil Code, which embraces the codi-
fcation of the laws of the kingdom, is the most
important matter which will be brought before
Legislature of 1858. Seventeen years ago
,be frs, hawaiian Constitution and Code of laws
80 n,;ntud a. 'ahainaluna, and since then sue
cessive Legislatures haze enacted amended and
repealed laws, until to-day t requncs a zeal Oh
study and research for even a foret,en bred l@"yer
to wade through the confused, tautollsseous ana
Heterogeneous mass of kr scripta which yeal at
ter year has inflicted upon us. In regard to legal
knowledge, it may be said that the Hawaiians of
former generations were ignorant because they
had no books; but that the present generation is
ignorant because it has too many. In this re-
spect, however, we may console ourselves with the
recollection that we have been but following the
example of other and more powerful nations.
More than two hundred years ago, Lord Bacon
pointed out to the English parliament the evils
arising from an incessant multiplication of laws,
often conflicting with each other, and offered to
digest the law of England into q code. Since
then, much of the English law has been re-
modelled, much of the cumbrous and intricate
machinery has been simplifed; but as yet, awed
by the magnitude of the work, the evil is still
allowed to exist, and it rests like a huge night
mare upon the progress of English Jurisprudence.
In 1851, the public statutes consisted of thirty
eight quarto volumes, amounting to 22l pounds
weight ayoirdupois, and containing 32,9O3 pages.
Against this state of affairs, the British press and
parliament have from time to time protested, but
as vet no Minister has been found sufficiently bold
to recommend the measure of reform. America
and France have been more fortunate, or perhaps
more laborious, in graphing with and Kidding
themselves of the evil of accommodating statutes,
and it has been overcome, though not without
some effort, in both countries. In all the older
states of the American Union, the statute laws
have been revised or codifed and reduced to per-
spicuity and clearness from the accumulation of
bysone years and obsolete usages. The French
Code is contained in 500 small and clearly printed
pages.
The first printed volume of Hawaiian Statutes
appeared in l34l. The earliest attempt of the
leaders of a people just emerging from barbarism,
surrounded by the forms and imbued with the
traditions Of feudalism, to enact a set of written
laws for the good of the nation at large, may be
considered as an interesting occasion. Assembled
at Lahaina, the king and his chiefs, with no
other guides but the Bible, their religious teachers
and their own common sense, produced a consti-
tuition and laws, which, in spite of the absurdities
and incoherencies it contained, was quite credit
able in point of intention. The great principle
in the science Of government-that of protecting
the subject against aggression-was clearly laid
down. Printed in IL mo-, 200 PIP. in English,
it has been familiarity designated as the Hawaiian
Sc blue-book." This, with the verbal lore of the
different governors of the islands, (who were a
law unto themselves) was the law of the land UNI
til IS45, when John Ricord, an eccentric and
somewhat visionary character, but withal a tall
ented man and well-read lawyer, drifted across
the Pacific, and the Hawaiian tyros in govern
ment making at once secured his services as a
law-maker. The result was the {" Act to organize
the Executive Departments" in a bulky volume
1.-THE LIST of the Statute Laws) of some 400 pages,
which, though it initiated a system that was
plain and comprehensive compared with the pre-
vious chaos of laws and unmeaning absurdities,
was far too complicated and cumbersome for the
simple wants of this mall government As a
consequence, many of its provisions have remained
q dead letter or have only been enforced to prove
the necessity of their being repealed, while one
amendment after another has been tackled on to
it, until, like a well-patehed garment, it is some
what difficult to decide what the original ground
work really was.
In the meantime, the Judiciary of the country,
in its demonstrated and unregulated condition,
was the constant source of petty broils with
foreign officials and of deep discomfort among the
people, and it became quite evident that without
. change in this department, the very indepen-
dence of the nation would be endangered. At
this opportune moment, the late Judge Lee ap-
peared at the islands, and, accepting the post of
Judge Of tie Court of Oahu, to him was commit
ted the task of drafting an act to organize the
Judiciary. This r. contained in tho seeond