The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-05-14

To the Editor Of the Commercial Aduertiser:
The Royal Proclamation, published in last &atur-
days Advertiser, oonrcnins delegates of our people,
for the purpose of consulting on the revision Of the
Constitution would have surprised one o. your
readers if he was subject to that weakness. From
the stated thunderings that one has been obliged to
hear, weekly, from the defunct g government organ"
about { too much liberty of the subject and the at
tempts that were going to be made upon them, L was
prepared for a coup d Etat or something more dread
full. 1t is not a coup d'Etat, certainly, but a very
imbecile attempt at the initial steps to one. "He who
runs may read.' 1t has not a gossamer co@ering.
1t simply means that the present legislative members
elect are not to be convened at all, and that the new
delegates are expected to dc a great deal more than
revise the Constitution or hatch new prerogatives in
's consulting upon the public good as we'll as to pro-
vide ways and means to carry on our government
That is to say. to pass an appropriation bill for the
two coming years, or any other indefinite period, as
the revised Constitution may provide. Thea, what
use converting the Legislature
l wish to ask, Mr.. Editor, if that proclamation in
dictates correctly the mode of amending the C1nstitu-
ton as provided for in that instrument ITSELF Were
amendments to the same. pursuant to previous notice,
voted upon and passed by the last Legislature, and
were said amendments published three months pre-
vious to the last election If so, the present men,
bers elect are competent to make them a law, pro-
vided two-thirds of both Houses agree to it; if not,
whose fault is it? If the method proposed in the
proclamation is the one prescribed for amending,
then it is constitutional; if not, then it is not consti-
tutional, and no amount of thimble rigging can make
it otherwise. If the present members elect are not
convened within two years from the day of adjourn
ment of the last Legislature, then the taxpayers
and supporters of this government have no more con.
stitutional rights than what His Majesty hereafter
pleases to give them. If Kamehameha III. did
wrong in granting too many privileges to his sub
jects, the wrong of wrestling those privileges away
again by violence or any other unlawful method, will
never make it right, for q two wrongs never made
one right as logicians tell US.
| do not propose to argue the question as to the
amount of civil rights necessary to the political we'll
being of this people, but l do know pretty we'll what
foreigners will insist upon for themselves. and if dis.
eliminating statutes are to be the order OF the day
hereafter, there is a good time ahead for them, but
one flncies not quite so good for the mdoii, and it is
to be hoped His Majesty has considered that. 1t is a
we'll known principle of government among absolute
monarchs, that civil rights once granted TO the peo-
pie can never be retaken by any method except vio-
lence, much less can they be regained by the ruler
in a constitutional government except by the mode
prescribed by the Constitution itself. Any other
method is a coup d'Etat, more or less brilliant
according TO the ability engaged in it.
1 have lived in this Kingdom twenty-five years. first under
the Blue Book" which was a tremendous stride beyond the
further privileges; then under the very liberal Constitution of
1882. graciously granted by kamehameha Ill, (bl.ssed be his
menory) and each step has appeared TO me an ADVANCE upon
the former. and l have never heard any one complain that the
burden of his civil rights and privileges were gre.ter than he
could bear. To allege that eHlarging or restricting the civil
rights, will make the natives more indolent Or more industrious,
is mere bosh; their improvidence is an inherent quality Of their
race, transmitted and cherished from their Turaniaa parent ex-
isting at a period too remote TO talk about here. Necessity will
make a native just As industrious under one regime as another,
and all We require are laws compelling him TO fulfil all his civil
obligations. IL violent or coefcive measures are resorted to in
order to revise the Constitution, whether the motive be coed or
bad, il will result in no national good and may engender i'll feel
ing and jealOusies that will lead, We know not whittier.
It seems the Government have taken advantage of Judge
Aliens absence Of indeed his wihd-goose chase wts not exiged
expressly for the purpoSe) TO throw down the gage TO the old
regime. both Protestant and Catholics, who ohtatned with so
much labor our present Constitution. and see Whether they mean
to support and defend it or not against the new orler of things,
the huIahuAa and Christmas carol clique, now sn power and
favor. There is not a shadow % doubt as to The course the
faithful old friends Of king and people will adspt, and that
promptly. The veteran missionaries Of both denominations.