The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-02-02
THE VIEWS OF Mr.. DAVIES.

ments.
Now that Mr.. Davies has COL
lected his letters, edited them, sup
piled them with an introduction,
and has so to speak re-adopted and
re-fathered them, it may not be
amiss to inquire just what they
contain. Moreover, he has ap-
pended quotations from Fichte'
Schleirmacher, ETC., to give appar-
emily philosophical basis to his
code.
There is one assumption which
lies at the basis of all Mr.. Davies
writings and constitutes his entire
case against the Government. 1t
is that the momentary will of a
majority must at all times prevail,
not only over itself, but over the
minority, and that its right to pre-
vail cannot be forfeited either by
ignorance, by injustice, by folly, or
apparently by any act whatever.
Mr.. Davies assumes this extra
ordinary proposition as a political
axiom, and nowhere offers any
proof of it.
Now this pretended axiom is in
point of fact monstrous absurdity
without foundation in the system
of natural justice, unknown to the
laws of enlightened nations, and
disregarded in practice everywhere.
There is. no natural right Of the
majority to rule. The only natural
right is the right of each individual
to have his interests duly regarded.
Political development ends in de-
mocracy because it is the system
which, in the long run, most nearly
attains this end. The classes can
not be trusted to legislate for the
and so the masses take the
governing into their own hands.
Democracy rests on the highest ex-
pediency, not at all on the supersti-
ton that the voice of the people is
any more divine than the voice of
kings. 1t is singular to find an
ultra conservative and Tory like
Mr.. Davies, resting his whole case
on a principle which is too popular
for the most popular governments
of the world.
The laws of every country deny
the right of the MISUNDERSTANDING
majority in the literal numerical
sense-to rule, by excluding from
the franchise at the outset half OF
the whole population on the ground
of sex. Then follows a whole cata-
logue of exclusions on the ground
of age, alienage, criminality, want
of legal residence, and some
times illiteracy and poverty.
Mr.. Davies as a conservative may
for aught we know favor the most
rigid restrictions. Great Britain
certainly makes them.
1t seems almost superfuous to
observe that Mr.. Davies own coun-
try of England has never recog-
nized the principle he lays down,
either in its domestic or its foreign
policy. 1t governs the three hun
dred millions of India without con-
sulting them. 1t governs the three
millions of Ireland not only without
consulting them but against their
wishes. 1t invades the dark con-
tinent. and apppropriates the isles
of the sea, without saying so much
as by your leave to anybody-and
except in the case of Ireland, it is
as certain that it does these things
on the whole in the interest of hu-
man progress and the advancement
of civilization, as it is that it does
them in wanton violation of the
precepts of T. H. Davies
The principle that the moment
ary will of the majority is not al
ways entitled to prevail is recog-
nized in the American and in
every republican constitution.
The duty of the statesman is to
abide by his platform and his con-
science He Is not q mere mouth