The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1883-12-20
POWER OF The JUDGES.

EDITOR BULLETIN After the
laughable and desperate attempt of
the p. g. Adcertiser of day before
yesterday to crawfish out of its pre-
vious discourteous remarks toward
the Supreme Court anent the bonds
ut par case, it again approaches the
vital question of the day and the sad
grievance of the present executive
!. e. that the Supreme Court should
have the power to prevent the mem
bers of the Cabinet or the whole Ca
bnet from breaking the laws enacted
by the legislature. AS the Adcer-
tiscr says, the thing is absurd, it is
worse, it is intolerable. In this des-
perate state of things the Government
deserves pity and gets it. When l
read this tale of woe out loud, my
three legged Scotch terriers eyes
became suffused with moisture and
he limped out of the room to conceal
his uncomfortable emotion, while the
stone image of Chinese deity, used
as paper-weight, inaudibly SMILED.
The proposition of the Government
organ to amend the Constitution and
the laws so that, if the Executive
find it of vital necessity to break
the laws or even the Constitution
now and then, the Judiciary may
not interfere to prevent them, is a
good one land the legislature will of
course be only too glad to make it
all right with the Executive. 1t will
be only necessary to amend one or
two articles of the Constitution and
law or two and pass few new
ones. 1t is perfectly simple mat
ter. The Kings Ministers must be
placed in the same position with him
self, above the law, and it must be
enacted beforehand, that whatever
they do is legal and right; then
things will run smoothly.
A good beginning was made last
legislature in curtailing the powers
of the Judges of the Supreme Court
by removing from them the power of
appointing District Judges. At the
next session or the extraordinary
session of next month, if that is
called, further steps will be taken to
prevent repetition of the humiliat-
ing spectacle of last week. 1t would
be bad enough to have our Executive
thwarted from doing legal act, but
to be checked in the performance of
an illegal one, it Is more than human
nature can stand. And then to
think how the Government credit
suffers under the infection. Mr..
Neumann, in his powerful argument
in the case, said the Government
credit would be annihilated if the
mandamus was issued. presume
he was right and that it is now ami
hilated, but it is very hard to tell
whether it is or not; the Govern
ment had so little credit that it's
humiliation is in itself a matter of
little consequence, but for the name
of the thing and as kind of nest
egg for the future il ought to have
been carefully nursed.
1t may comfort the members OF
the Government to know that in their
brooding darkness and distress, the
light has broken through the threat
ening storm clouds from another part
of the heavens. L refer to the inn
portant news from the South Seas,
that the Hawaiian annexation CON-
missioners have succeeded in
dazzling the eyes of the mighty CHIEF
of Observation-Disclosures by
wearing their uniforms ashore, and
he has stated that if the Hawaiian
Government will furnish him and his
tribe, numbering three hundred and
fifteen souls, with uniforms ant
tobacco, he has no objection to an.
nexation. This is military tribe
and as all the men are in the army
the alliance will materially strengthen
the Hawaiian empire in the Pacific