The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-10-06
II PACIFIC
Commercial 0berttser
r 6.

The HdIUaiidH Gazette, as we fully expected
publishes an apology for the Attorney General,
which appears indeed to have been written by a
learned lawyer, being divided with legal preci-
sion into sections First Second" and
" Third and ornamented by the Editor with a
head and tail, or, if you will, an exordium and a
peroration in which latter the attack on the
ADVERTISER is referred to their correspondent
with the signature of the 50 Three Balls like
a pawnbroker's ensign upside down. Unless the
apology in question was written by the legal
gentleman himself to whom it refers, it is a very
great want of courtesy not to style him The
Honorable" or {" His Excellency Mr.. Hart
WE'LL" But, of course, if he wrote himself
those sections s First -" : : Second ," and 81 Third
of the new Editors leader, his modesty might
have prevented him from giving himself those
distinguishing titles. In that case, the Gazete's
Editor ought to have inserted the titles Of cour-
tesy of His Excellency, at the same time that he
put on the head and tail-to bis lawyer-like
apologize save appearances.
As to the main question at issue, that is, the
course adopted by the Attorney General in the
sudden arrest of illicit cohabitators of many years
standing under an almost obsolete Law, we have
AHAN III bhN oOJSN
We still consider it a most unwarrantable ex-
pOsure OF many innocent young families. We
cannot help smiling at the naivete with which
the apology for the Attorney General, section
second, represents that legal functionary sitting
with folded arms in his Office till some " infor-
mer . comes in and denounces this or that case
of moe mau, so that then and then only does he
feel called upon to enforce the law in the case.
Tom, Dick, and Harry are to go round as detec-
tives, search out cases of law breaking, and re-
port them to His Exeellencv. We are all to
leave our own business, rush about from house
to house and report to the Attorney General the
cases of immortality which we discover in our
delicate researches. The pith of the joke is,
that - section third " admits that the law in
question has ''becOme virtually a dead letter"
This is the very thing we said at first, when we
complained of people being suddenly taken up
under an obsolete law. Far be it from us to say
one word in favor of any moral corruption what
ever. But this discussion has really nothing to
do with immortality IN Sc. We simply expressed
Dur opinion upon the manner in which our
law officer discharged has duty, in a par
ticular case. That case happened to be the
application Of an almost obsolete law to a crime
\"OS' SiiC'Ouo mOLaAy PEI SCI WHICH nau become
and of many years standing owing to
he neglect OF successive law officers of the crown
% enforce that law during SO many years past,
IS it ought to have been done. We made full
for the fact that the predecessors in
'fice of the present Attorney General did neglect
heir duty in this respect. We thought that the
egal wisdom of the Attorney General might
devised some remedy for the present illegal
ondition of many heads of families which would ,
lot have exposed their innocent children to the :
ublic stigma of b~astardy, where the very ex- .
'tence of those children was owing to the Gull .
able neglect of the law officers in not cutting 6
hort those illicit connexions in the root. We !;
ow repeat that this unnecessary exposure of q
innocent children has been unjustifable, h
nj will prove injurious in the extreme. This is q
u we have to say about His Excellency's course. q
AS for the % pawn-broker with the three balls u
pside down " of the Gazette, he is evidently a >,
ember of the Mutual Admiration Society, or
s champion. With these remarks, we trust -
lat we are done with this unsayory subject. -