The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-05-21
The Constitution and its Amendments.

"Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may
be proposed in either branch of the Legislature, and if the same
shall be agreed to by a majority OF the members of each House,
such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on
red to the next Legislature; which proposed amendment or
amendments shall be published for three months previous 10
the next Legislature, such proposed amendment or amendments
House, and be approved by The King such amendment or
amendments shall become part of the Constitution of this
Kingdom "-COnstitutiOn Art. los.
Mr.. EDITOR 1t cannot be denied that the anxiety
and alarm felt by this community was partially
allayed on reading the revised edition of the Royal
Proclamation, and the explanations of the Attorney
General in the last number of your paper. All will
gladly accept it as an indication that the LegiSla-
ture DiU be conUened according to law, and that the
convention will make no attempt to violate the 10th
Article of our Constitution. which ordains that "No
subsidy, impost, duty or tax of any description, shall
be established or levied, nor any money drdaUn from
the public treasury under any pretert tchatever,
without the consent of both Houses of the Legisla-
ture.'' Still, after carefully reading the Attorney
Generals explanation, one is unable to find in it any
definite answer to the most important question that
now agitates the publi1 mind. viz Is it the inten-
ton of His yMajesty's Ministers that the proposed
convention shall alter or annuL our present ConStt-
tuition
That is the question. Now no one knows better
than the Attorney General that that convention HAS
M RlGHI ~ uLLeJ OHe VI tuC SOHStltutiOus IL
only laufuI method of doing so is that prescribed in
the Constitution itself. Any other method is unlaw-
full, revolutionary and would constitute a dangerous
precedent; for if a convention can at any time be
called together on a months notice at the instance of
the Ministry, and can change or annul the funda-
mental law of the land, the charter of all our liber-
ties, and if there is no appeal from their decision,
then the ship of state is indeed adrift on an unknown
sea, without compass or rudder.
If on the other hand the convention is merely to
discuss the new Constitution, which has been drafted
by members of the Cabinet, and to recommen to the
Legislature such amendments as may be agreed
upon, then there can be no objection to make, al
though the haste with which it has been convened,
is condemnable, as also the refusal Of the Ministry
to publish the changes which they propose. The
people have a right to demand their publication, and
we hope that they will do so in tones that cannot be
unheeded. Why should the Ministry hide their in
tentions like 80 midnight conspirators?
Such a course is unworthy of the government of a
free people. Let them publish the Constitution which
they intend TO lay before the convention, and thus
set at rest the numerous exciting rumors which are
in circulation. For instance, it is said that it pre-
scribes a high property qualification, that 1t opens
the door for the Union of Church and State, that it
unites both branches of the Legislature in one House,
thus depriving the Commons of their principal safe
guard, viz their exclusive right to originate all
money bills, and that it destroys the independence
of the judiciary by making the Chief Justice remov-
able at the pleasure of the King.
On the other hand the ignorant natives are told
that it will relieve them of the poll tax, that it is
intended to check the decrease of population, and
other stories equally absurd.
Is it strange that many of our most intelligent
people believe that the Kings Ministers, in giving
the people an interval Of only five weeks in which to
choose their delegates, (snd it will take half of that
time for the news to reach the remote Districts in
tended to get a PACKED convention; to crush
through the new Constitution, which is already cut
and dried, and substitute it for the present one, and
then to usurp the functions of the Legislature elected
last January
Let them therefore hasten to publish the altera-
tions which they propose to make in the Constitution
and give us an assurance that no such illegal and
revolutionary proceedings are intended. or we shall
be constrained to believe them to be - enemies to ouI
civil and religious rights" MAKAAINANA.