The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-02-10
THE PACIFIC
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AObrrtistr.
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 10
The Hawaiian Legislature.

Legislative Assembly.
However much effort may have been made by
those interested, to hide the fact Of the loss to
our Legislature Of Its representative function,
such a c-oncealment has failed from the first with
many, and now, after the lessons of five sessions,
few can be found rash enough seriously to argue
the present existence Of q third independent
estate Of Mobiles and Commoners.
The fusion Of the two houses into one, in
1864, was INTENDED to destroy the existence of
the Legislature as one of the three Estates, and
to reduce the house to a kind of National Com
mittee for suggesting laws and appropriations to
the Executive. Very completely has this plan
been carried out, as was perfectly natural under
the new conditions and now we have but two
Estates in fact, the Executive and the Judicial,-
the former, in the person of the Crown Ministers,
constituting the ruling influence of the one-hOuse
legislature, and forming in this combination n
simple despotsm in principle. Laboulaye, in
his letter on n Constitutional Republic for
France, speaks of such an arrangement when
he says: "a single legislative body Is, in effect,
a permanent dictatorship. A legislative power,
in no wise moderated, is despotism. 1t does not
afford adequate guarantee for liberty"
The right Of petition is left to the people with
this burlesque Of representative power, and the
chief function of the parliamentary members, ex-
cepting the Crown Ministers, is to be a vehicle of
petitions from the people to the King. 1t is true
that the form of popular representation has been
kept up as much as has been possible with the
peculiar nature of 4 One-house Legislature. This
has been rather a necessary policy on the part of
the Executive, for the sake of hiding, as far as
possible from the people, the real character of
the change.
1t is not denied that the assembling of elective
members and mobiles with the Ministers is useful
in some respects. There are Investigations to be
made on the condition of the country and people
information is to be gathered in relation to the
public needs in matters of law practice, revenue,
encouragement to home enterprise. foreign affairs,
and other things, that require much wisdom and
honest research there is, in short, much neces-
sary work to be done. But this work would be
better, as well as less extensively done, by a
much smaller number of intelligent men, like Il
privy council, or a council of war, without its
privacy and it would not matter much whether
they should be elected by the people or appointed
by the King. This indeed is the real character
Of our present Assembly, body of councillors
who discuss measures freely enough, but when
they have finished, and given the expression of
the body by vote, the King does exactly as he
thinks best, and that is the end of the matter.
Perhaps nothing has taken place which so clearly
shows how positively both the Government and
the community take this view as in the new
hotel transactions, in which portion Of the
Ministry have not hesitated to guarantee certain
definite legislative enactments in the future as a
measure OF security to the hotel bonds. while a
number of business men have not hesitated to
invest in these bonds, 50 secured both parties
in the affair utterly ignoring the existence of any
independent representative power in the future
Legislature, or in its decisions, thus bought and
sold so long beforehand. Strange as these pro-
ceedings are, they are doubtless sound in a bust
ness point of view, and the bond holders are safe,
because the Crown can contract that the Assem-
bly,, called the Legislature, shall give certain de-
cislons,-that is, that the Crown, through that
honorable body, will approve of its own previous
engagements.
In thus giving up the third Estate in our
Government, we have entirely abandoned that
policy which both the English and American
peoples hold so firmly to, as of Fundamental i'm
portance in Government, and as an Indispensable
safeguard to liberty. We have exchanged a
symmetrical popular government for a despotism
without checks to encroachment upon the liberty
of the subject. We no longer have the people
represented in the Government as a controlling
element, and with any power over the public
treasury, and the imposition of taxes and
where these are left to the Executive, there is an
opH q, pnhIIa Iibartv iabar in his 80 Civil
Liberty and Self Government says: ssIt is
necessary that the public funds be under close
and efficient popular control, chiefly, therefore,
under the supervision of the popular branch of
the Legislature, which is likewise the most inn
pOrtant branch in granting the supplies; and the
one in which, according to the English and
American fundamental laws. all money bills must
originate. The English are so jealous of this
principle that the Commons will not even allow
the Lords to propose amendments affecting money
grants or TAXATION The war for American In
dependence was brought on by the refusal of the
Mother Country to recognize this principle in her
Treatment of the colonies. The House of Repre-
sentatives in Washington do not even allow the
Senate to suggest amendments for the purpose of
affecting the postage upon letters.
In our Legislature, ON the contrary, the COM
mons, and mobiles also, have little to say, and less
TO do, with the public treasury, and the slightest
hint on their part OF an intention of controlling
supplies, brings down upon the rash member or
members the instant and dire wrath of the execu-
tive department of the house, with threatenings
enough as a rule to restore the wavering senti-
mont of the members to a gratifying condition of
docile obedience.
Another significant fact as further revealing the
nature of our assembly, and one of the strongly
influencing causes therefore, is the grave fault of
the Government in allowing itself to influence
the elections. Quoting again from Lieber Rep
resentative bodies must be free. This implies