The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1867-04-06

To our duties as a journalist. lie has before this has
several opportunities 10 learn that an Independent
press is a beneficial thing in any country" but par
ticularly in Raraii nei. Ii shall continue 10 lie II
a. long Is we have the control Of one. 1t Is needed,
now and then, to give point TO the statements Of just
such writers as . Honolulu" quoted above.l
LAuuNA, Maui. March ~, 1867.
SIR i wiz venture to ask you to insert the fol-
lowing remarks, bearing upon the deceased Judge
Robertson's religious opinions, and one or two OBJ
s~crvations with reference to the funeral sermon l de-
liverei on the Sunday after his internent-
First-Nlow for the moment that The late Judge
was biased towards our ScripturaIy Catholic Church
by Royal persuasion. yet it would have been sufficient
tor his purpose to have perfunctoriously attended our
services without being more closely united with u.s.
As in fact he tcas. Had his convictions not been
thoroughly sincere, he could not have been 50 consist
ent and earnest a Churcbman-so warm and ener-
getic a supporter of all our institutions. Even. there
fore, if the crstuitous assumption could be proved
that he left the Diacomate Of the Bethel, ut the sug-
gestion OF Il King, yet was it-could it have been a
Kings word that made him so anxious and pains
taking IN inquirer respecting the sacred rite of con-
formation He uas 50. | can vouch for this from
my personal intercourse with him. Was it at a Kings
word that he sought the blessed Sacrament Of the
Body and Blood of Christ SO frequently and 50 hum
bly, ut the altar of his Cod Was it a King who
urged him to lie regular and active in all S~ynodical
Conferences, who made him offer himself a. Il teacher
in a Sunday school, who persuaded him 10 volunteer
4 double subscription this year towards the ChurchS
support? Absurd Ii would certainly be more gen
erous, As it certainly would be decorous towards the
memory of SO good and useful Il man departed, for
the advocates of other denominations to acknowledge
that our Church has suffered what the world would
call an irreparable loss in the death of such an earnest
and devoted member.
With regard TO my sermon. No attentive and
honest listener could say that the gist of my sermon
was to the effect that our dear brothers example was
especially worthy Of imitation on account of his de-
sertion of one form of faith for another; but rather
on account of his charity in speaking of other denom-
nations, and his humble attitude towards them after
that he had deliberately adopted and consistently adj
hered to what he considered to be the true faith, once
for all delivered to the Saints. Nor, in holding him
up as a bright ornament of our nation, in that he
made the judiciary of this country remarkable abroad,
did | do more than refer to what l considered a mat
ter of fact.
l was not mistaken, l presume, in asserting that
some one or two of his decisions were quoted in
American law Courts, and | myself have seen, in the
London illustrated .NewS, a decision of Judge Rob
ertson referred to as remarkable.
Not for one moment could ] have intended to en-
deavor to throw a shade over the memory of the re-
nOwned Judge Lee; and it would have been simple
presumption in me to have even alluded, on such an
occasion, to the living Chancellor of the Kingdom,
whose varied talents and indefatigable zeal will be
recorded-not in this century, l trust-by some sur
yivinC orator or writer far more able to do him ius-
tce than your humble servant. GEORGE Mason.