The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-01-14

declared, IS it shall never consist of more than
thirty members"
Here occurs an omission, not, indeed, perccpti-
BILE to the casual observer, but which, whether
intended or not, like a single stone wanting in an
arch, renders the whole incomplete, and liable to
become a useless mass of rubbish. Note here that
nothing whatever is said of q limit below which
the number of the Mobiles shall not be allowed to
fall. They are " appointed ny the King and
hold their seats during life, or until impeached.
There is no provision whatever compelling the
filling ofvacancies occurring from tie death or re-
signation of members the vacancies may be filed
or not, at the pleasure of the Executive, which
of course, is the Ministry. The House of Mobiles
might be kept up to the standard of an intelli-
gent, thinking. independent representation of the
chiefs and wealthy men of the nation-or it may
be allowed to dwindleand degenerate, as is thecase
at present, into q mere ministerial committee, of
which the heads of the Interior and Foreign De-
partments are the Alpha and Omega, the head
and the tail.
Now let us see how this provision of the Con-
s%titution is working. On its adoption in 1852,
the Upper House consisted of seventeen members.
Since then death and other causes have ope-
rated to reduce its numbers, SO that to-day we
count but nine, exclusive of the two Cabinet Min
listers, who may be said to be bona fde members.
OF these, five are salaried officers Of the govern
ment, and four are members of the Privy Coun-
Gil.
Such is the present House of Mobiles, presided
over las was the case last SESSION. by one Minis
ter and guided by the eloquence of the other, not
to act as a bulwark of conservatism the organ
of the wealthy and higher classes-a ~salutary
check upon the popular assembly-but to play its
part in the Legislative farce by keeping upon its
attenuated benches the semblancc of a DELHI
erative body, whose duty it shall be merely to fit
and watch the Lower House and veto all measures
obnoxious to the ministry, whether called for by
the welfare of the nation or not, and whose great
aim is to fatter the representatives into the pas
sage of the appropriation bill, which they swallow,
with bogus improvements, bridges, roads and all.
The paucity of members in the Upper House,
which body we have shown is, in it's present con-
struction, but the representative of the Cabinet
renders the sway of ministerial power an easy
matter. But were this House differently consti-
tuted, were it made a real representation of the
wealth and noble interests of the kingdom-fort the
construction of which there are ample materials
among the native and foreign population-this
body might become an honor to the Legislative
branch of the government. Love of power, even
in a Hawaiian Minister, is a strong motive,
and this power once acquired is not willingly re-
linquished. 1t was o maxim with a Greek states
man, which seems to be of practical force with
our modern statesmen, that IF justice ought
ever to be violated it is to be violated for the sake
of ruling /; in other cases, cherish the love of
country" Our Hawaiian Ministry have now in
their hands the power, by suffering the House of
Mobiles to remain in its present dwarfed and ossi-
fed shape, of rendering our Legislative privileges
a nullity-our parliamentary proceedings a grand
farce, performed biennially for the amusement of
the people-or, by filling up the now vacant seats
of the House of Mobiles from that portion of the
community whose constitutional representative it
is, to carry out the system upon which our govern
ment was framed, and stamp with responsibility
the idea of a Hawaiian Legislature.