The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-08-28
HANALEI, August 18th, 1869

HANALEI, August 18th, 1869.
I have Just returned from the Circuit Court at
Nawiliwili, where we made jolly quick work OF con-
victing all the criminals who were arraigned for
trial before a foreign jury. The native jury had
made nearly a clean sweep of the kanaka docket be-
fore us. Whatever 1.-THE people may do in the other
islands, we are determined that vice and crime shall
be suppressed in Kauai. What are the courts or
ganized, the officers appointed and the Jurles sum-
moned for, but to try and convict criminals! why
go through the form of n trial and acquit a criminal!
That would only make our courts of justice a mere
mockery, and crime would soon put his thumb to his
nose, cock his eye, whistle and laugh at US. But it
is said we must have legal proofs before we convict,
and give the prisoner the privilege of all doubts.
This is q wrong principle to begin with in the adj
ministration of justice. Every man should be pre-
sumed guilty till he proves his innocence. If there
is no proof, there ought to be, and suspicion, espe-
cially against a Chinaman, is proof strong as holy
writ, and as for doubts, give them to the benefit Of
society. My motto is, the greatest good for the
greatest number, and surely society-community in
the aggregate-better deserves protection than one
opium-smoking Celestial. Then, too, 1 reverse the
old Common Law maxim, for it is far better that
ninety-nine innocent persons should suffer, than let
one guilty one escape.
1t is the duty Of the courts to move heaven and
earth to produce conviction. The Government must
protect itself and the people in the aggregate. What
is one man or half a dozen compared to the whole
community?
OF all the law-givers of antiquity L admire Draco
most-in fact, 1 just now informed my wife, Mrs.
Peter pumpkin. that 1 intended to have our young
est son-he is not yet baptized-christened Draco
Jefreys pumpkin. Well, to the point Of Draco's
horizontal punishment. Depravity and crime spring
from the same source. They have but one neck.
The thief deserves as much as the murderer to be
treated to a hempen cravat and made to dance in the
air to the dead-march. The guillotine comes down
perpendicularly with its horizontal blade, and laws
for the punishment Of all crime should come down
direct and cut horizontally also.
Jeffreys is my model for a judge. The greatest
judicial blemish is a shadow of humanity. \ judges
wise saws and modern instances" should be as
sharp as the axe of the executioner. Such q weak
ness as n heart he should not carry about him. He
should be as unfeeling as the cold blue steel, and as
relentless. He should be a technical lawyer and
nothing else.
L would have twelve butchers for n jury. They
are presumed TO be not troubled with the juvenile
weakness of n conscience. and would think as little
Of condemning n man to the ganows as they would
Of dragging n sheep to the shambles. All animals
are alike, and it is just as easy to hang, draw and
quarter q man, as a bovine sucking.
would have the prosecuting officer of the Crown
to be cold, calm and polite-in fact, as mild a
hammered man as ever scuttled ship or cut a throat,
without a drop of the milk of human kindness to
mollify his icy austerity. He should have basalisk
eyes that would pierce right through an abb wit
ness. and make his guilty victim shrink into his
g butes." He should betray no weakness in asking
the extreme sentence of the law in every case.
The defence of a prisoner should be a mere form
atty, only tolerated for decency's sake, and the de-
fendant's attorney should be snubbed and shifted by
court. officers and jury.
With such an administration of criminal justice,
the life of crime would be crushed out in these isl
ands in proportion to the rapid diminution of the
population.
For the administration of Civil Law, we want no
judges-no courts-no jures. Let every man pur-
sue his own individual interest, look to self, cent.
per cent, and let the world shift for itself. Why
give n thought to humanity Each man is a part of
ito himself. the most important part ; and if he
will act on the principle that charity begins at home,
he will not be much troubled with outsiders.
would prefer the Rob Roy plan,
That they may take who have the power,
And they may keep who can"
rather than depend on any court for the redress of
my grievances. A judge in civil matters is but a
legal Don Quixote, who is ever running a tilt
against the wind-mills Of a false public opinion, and
ten to one if he don't come off worsted in the con-
test. while what he magnifes to giants ore laughed
at as pigmies by the legal Sanchos.
I have n holy horror for lawyers and hate an
courts except for the trial of criminals, and probably
a vigilance Committee might dispense with them.
Our courts, judges, prosecutors and juries are too
tame. They don't come up to my idea of the adj
ministration of criminal justice. We want n severer
misunderstanding of the terrific. I have always
thought the Inquisition one of the wisest of human
institutions. Its racks and fortunes were mere
physiological experiments. Its system of espionage
and accusation exhibited the highest administrative
ability, while its executions in the publication Of
fire, were sublime.
I am a big farmer on q small scale. 1 have less
than n thousand head Of cattle grazing on less than
n thousand hills, a bakers dozen of poultry, sundry
pigs, q few acres Of rice, several patches Of taro and
some household furniture. These possessions keep
me in constant terror of thieves and robbers. I
keep IN old musket and pepper-box constantly
loaded, and sleep with a rust-eaten blade within
reach. My life is one of constant vigilance, and
were it not for my canine sentinels, 1t would be
s~leepless. So you see there is reason on my part for
the above sage conclusions 1 hope our jury will
not leave a man unconvicted on whom rests the least
shadow of suspicion.
Very respectfully,
PETER BUMPKIN, JR., ESQ.