The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-03-03
THE DAILY PACIFIC
Commercial Aduertiser.
SATURDAY MARCH 3, 1888.
A wRIrER I'M one of the native na.

distinct pOlltlcal parties" which Is, accord
ing to his way of thinking, the reason why
things political are so much better man
aged, in England, France, the United States
and other countries" A translation of
some parts of this article is given by a
foreign contemporary who criticises the
writer's idea that the people of his country
should "work on this plan," saying that
he has not distinguished between "cause
and effect" and being evidently of opinion
that there are not two contending political
parties in the Kingdom, and that there are
not likely to be such until they shall be
created by ga natural law as a result of a
social or political demand or necessity"
This critics ideas do not seem to be in
accord with those which dictate the usual
run of articles in the paper for which he
writes, or in the other foreign papers which
range themselves in opposition to the pre-
sent Government-or rather, if the truth
should be said of them, to the whole exist
ing order of things political in this realm.
Now this native writer may be amenable
to the criticism of his foreign contem-
pOrary, inasmuch as he seems to think the
"two parties need to be created here, but
he has much more of reason in his general
idea than his would-be instructor has. In
every country, in every community of
civilized men, there "re two parties they
need no creation; they exist in accord
ance with a natural law" but of one that
does not need some special "demand or
necessity" to bring it into play it is part
Of the nature of things and is always at
work-here as much as anywhere else. In
different countries these parties have
different names, and, on the surface of
things, they seem, sometimes, to have
different objects and origin. These parties
never wholly include the whole of the
pOpulace, there is always a third or even Il
fourth party, but, taking a broad view of
things, n dividing line can be found in
every community, separating it into two
parties, each dominated by ideas which
prevail everywhere, and everywhere divide
men into two great classes. By no terms
are these two classes better designated than
by those which have in later days been
adopted in England. Everywhere there is
a party of Conservatives re-actiOnary
party a Frenchman might perhaps call it
and everywhere there is the Liberal party,
the party of progress, the party of action.
Each of these parties is liable to the
human weakness of calling the other
names, of applying opprobrious epethets.
The Conservative calls the liberal a Radical
a Communist, an Anarchist, and sees in
the tendency of his antagonists doctrines
dreadful characteristics which, if these
doctrines should prevail, will in his opinion
lead to the subversion of all social order,
and all good COVE nment. The Liberal
calls the Conservative an Obstructionist,
an Aristocrat-or a Plutocrat as the case
may be-sees in his ideas n direct tendency
to every form of tyranny, oppression and
,,,o- rm,nr ~ fha a~fropn xyiaurc ON
either side, but it is only in times of popu-
lar connection and social Reorganization
that such extreme ideas take hold of any
large number of people on either side.
Such times do not come about through the
action of either party, or through the infiu-
ence of their opinions. They arise on the
one hand from the folly or ambition of
rulers, or on the other from the misery and
want of a populace occasioned by failure of
food crops or the disastrous results of over
trading and industrial over-produc tion.
Most men are moderate in their political
views, their social and political theories,
always, however, ranging themselves
on one or other of the two sides
of that dividing line which we have
here indicated. Nations progress most
happily when each of these two great
parties keeps the other best in check.
Neither party is wholly right or wholly
wrong in its fundamental ideas. Each has
got hold of a h~alf-truth, and the absolute
supremacy of the ideas which either cher
ishes would be the signal for national dis
aster-aIways has been so.
The native writer whose words nave
melted these remarks is wholly right in his
belief that it is for the happiness of this
country that these two parties should exist
here and keep one another in check and
his foreign critic is wholly wrong in his
idea that such parties dc not exist here
and need some special emergency to bring
them into being. We live in a time when
the influence of both these parties is hap
PLY exerting itself for the benefit of the
country. The King now, as throughout
his reign, earnestly seeks to keep a bal
between the~escreme views of both
parties. How Liberalism and Conserva-
tism develop themselves amid the peculiar
circumstances of this country it would
need a separate article to .eNpound. Suffice
it to say that as with the King, so with the
Ministry we find the earnest desire to
secure n happy medium in tYhe government
of the cOuntry-a half way stage between
the ideas which are rampanf as the minds
of the enthusiasts of eitheF party. This
has ever been the way with Liberals whose
liberalism has been tempered by expert
ence. Avowedly and enthusiastically belong
ing to the Liberal party in this country,
to progress, to the cause of free
dom, and the government of the peo-
pie, by the people and for the people,"
the King and his present advisers yet
recognize and respect what is good and
wholesome in the fundamental ideas of the
Conservatives, and strive with honest pur-
pose, and much sue @ess, to rule accordingly,
WHATEVER pertains to financial credit