The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1879-01-22
WAIIAN GAZETTE
AN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL,
DEVOTED TO HAWAIIAN PROGRESS.
PUBLISHED AND EDITED BY
!. CRAWFORD MACDOWELL.
WEDNESDAY. IAN. p. 1873.

The unexpected and somewhat sudden
change which came over their honors, the
Chancellor of the Kingdom and his Associates,
on the construction put upon the laws for the
punishment of smuggling opium, has taken
e erybody by surprise, and has occasioned no
small amount of comment. Their honors came
to the conclusion that although fines had been
imposed upon persons convicted of smuggling
opium, and that that penalty had been inflicted
in quite a number of instances, it was never
theless all wrong, as the law admits of no
other punishment for the smuggling of opium
than Imprisonment. In other words, there is
no such thing as satisfying the law for the
above offence, except by Imprisonment at hard
labor The result of this decision therefore,
is that the fines heretofore imposed as the PEN
atty for smuggling opium were all illegal,
therefore, the money so paid illegally, will
have to be refunded to the parties by the
justice, because it cannot be contended that
fine illegally imposed confers any right upon
the government to retain the money of indi-
viduals from whom it was taken without due
process of law. But how strange it is that
the magistrates, and even the learned Judges
of the Supreme Court, should have overlooked
this matter for so long This strange dis
covery reminds us of case that happened
some years ago in one of the Eastern States.
Two brothers by the name of Hartman, were
prosecuted before Judge Parsons, of Pennsyl-
vania, for obtaining goods under false pretenses
His honor was very harsh in his charge to the
jury, and bore down with unusual severity
upon the defendants. They were convicted of
course, aud the judge sentenced them to the
longest term OF Imprisonment, in the Penten-
tiary, he could find justification for doing in
the statute books. He accordingly sentenced
the defendants under certain statute which
had been repealed two years before the case
of the Hartman brothers was tried. Their
counsel took out writ of error to the Supreme
Court, and the Hartmans were set at liberty.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania at the time handled his honor,
Judge Parsons, with merited severity, and the
press Of the State took the matter up in good
earnest, 80 much so, that the unfortunate
judge was compelled to resign the woolsack
and go back to the bar. We will never forget
one article printed in Philadelphia paper al
the time. 1t was scathing of Judge P, of
whom it spoke in terms that were very severe
After speaking of the Judges vindictiveness
on the bench, the writer turned to the many
mistakes he had made while judge, and de-
plored the uncertainty of the law in such
hands. He characterized it thus
"He wires in aud wires out
Leaving the people still IN doubt,
Whether the snake that made the track
Is going South or coming back"
Judge Parsons was lawyer of mark not
withstanding this mistake He is the author
of several legal works of approved merit by
the profession. We merely relate the anecdote
to show that judges, like other men, are liza
bic to err, because they are human.
What Constitutes the Wealth of N