Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 135, 23 February 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

"E Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono."

 

The Difference Between a Lion and Asses.

     What a difference there is, in an honest offer of resignation, like that of Crispi's to Humbert, King of Italy, and that of our present Ministry to Queen Liliuokalani.  The former insisted on his offer being accepted, while our four kings tendered their resignations in a timid sort of a way, and each armed with a new commission in their pockets ready for the Sovereign's signature.  Ha!  Ha!!  Ha!!!

 

The Queen and the Cabinet.

(Continued).)

     In continuation of Mr. Turston's observations on English precedent, he states that Lord Melbourne, who was the Prime Minister to William IV., retained his portfolio, and was not removed by Queen Victoria.  Historian Brialmont in his "life of Arthur, Duke of Wellington," Vol 4, page 87, says, "Her Majesty retained in office the minister whom she found at the head of affairs," which distinctly implies, that the Queen had an option in the matter.  Mr. Thurston ingeniously omits reference to the fact tha Lord Melbourne held on to his four years tenure of office, only through the young Queen's having declined to act on the advice of a cabinet minister.  The facts are briefly these:  In June, 1837, Victoria, then turned sixteen years of age, was called to the throne. The philosopher and friend of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and of the Young Queen, was Arthur, Duke of Wellington.  The government of the day, under Lord Melbourne, was whig, and the Duke, although a Tory, was so far from being a factious politician that he supported the ministy.  For the Duke to advise the young Queen on her accession to replace Lord Melbourne, would have been to incur a grave responsibility, and to assume to a large extent the reins of government herself.  But in 1839, two years after the accession of Victoria, Lord Melbourne tendered his resignation, and Sir Robert Peel was called to form a cabinet.  Her Majesty refused the usual requirement that the ladies of her court should not be those of the Prime Ministers official opponents; and the result was that after an interregnum of a week, the Queen commanded Lord Melbourne to return with his cabinet to office, although he had just sustained a signal defeat in the House of Commons, on the question of having the Constitution of Jamaica suspended.

     The above is a case in point to prove, that the English sovereign is not an automaton or mere registering official to the cabinet as Mr. Thurston, in his ignorance of English constitutional government, would have it appear.

     A further and yet stronger proof of the recognition of power in the British Sovereign is, that she can exercise a discretionary power independent of the Cabinet in the very important matter of dissolving the Parliament, and ordering a general election, and as a matter of fact this right has been several times exercised both in England and the Colonies, and especially when parties become too evenly balanced for the healthy exercise of party government.

     Mr. Thurston fortifies his position by stating that the English cabinet has come into existence by "simple custom," wheras ours exists by written law.  To which we reply, that to a large extent the whole British constitution is unwritten, and that is perhaps one of its chief merits.  It possesses a mobility and flexiblity not known to written constitutions.  There never yet was a written constitution which did not contain ambiguities and contradictions over which lawyers could differ.

     In a constitutional crisis requiring interpretation the House of Commons appoints a Committee to search its records for precedents much after the manner of judicial tribunals.  This is a matter that Mr. Tnurston entirely overlooked in quoting English practice.

     Now, as the Hawaiian constitution is silent on the question in dispute, and the custom of each of Liliuokalani's predecessors has been to change their advisors on being called to the throne it seems to us that it will accord with the practice of semi-democratic limited monarchy England, to admit the right in question.

     As to practice in the United States, no candid writer, taking the side of the argument that Mr. Thurston does can find support from that quarter.

     (To be continued.)

 

WAITING.

     Sister Anne!  Sister Anne!!  do you see anything coming?  Sister Anne, is our political tempest in a tea-pot about to (come to an issue?  No!  Sister Anne answere that she sees the sun shining, the wind blowing, greedy men sticking to office, and intriguing men plotting compromise or treason.  The official pass-word at present, seems to be "waiting;" waiting for what, nobody exactly knows, but waiting there must be by all means; what's the use of hurrying in "Paradise?"

     As the public sees it, each of the three powers of the country is waiting to spite and tire or wear out the others.  The Queen is waiting, on the just and dignified assumption of her inherent rights, for the ministers to do their duty byu surrendering their commissions; the four little kings are waiting, with the expectation that Her Majesty will grow reckless or weak and change her mind, so as to capitulate and grant them that continuance in office they love more dearly than their own honor and manhood the Supreme Court seems to be waiting for one or both the other parties to grow impatient and to take some decisive step, rendering useless a legal opinion or decision, which must certainly be embarassing to any sane lot of men who wish to keep the appearance of impartiality and to show themselves free of all partizan or sectarian passion.

     In the mean time, there is really no Government; no important decision can be taken outside of the every dau routine business, for the reason that if the present (wouldbe) ministers were to take any measure involving the future interests of the country, they might at any time hereafter, be subjected to impeachment for having acted without authority; even the appointments now made by them, might be some day declared null and void.  No beating around the Constitution @ @ away with the fact that the present Cabinet is that of a dead man.  The ministers' commissions, by which they occupy office, having expired together with the late Sovereign, the issuing of a new commission is indispensible to confirm their authority; but there is at present no law, in heaven or on earth, that can force the new Sovereign to grant a renewal of commission and give her confidence to the men who treated her so ungentlemanly, disrespectfulluy and contemptuosly during her incumbency as a Regent:  they only reap the harvest of what they have s

     On the other hand, the public are beginning to loose patience, and the present situation, if convenient for the parties whose policy is waiting 0 is disgusting to the Nation who wants and expected from the new Alii, a strong and active government, and not a congomeration of discordant elements at logger heads.  Delauy only makes the situation worse, by allowing time for intrigues and for brooding of discontent, and by her procrastination the Queen has shown that she listens to at least one bad adviser.  Therefore if a solution is not prompgly forth coming, be it what it may, the unavoidable result will be confusion, agitation and fear, out of which anarchy, and eventually bloodshed, might arise; and for all this, the present Cabinet alone will be responsible, a responsibility that none but dazed men would like to incur.

     Could iut be that history is going to repeat itself?  and that, like the supposed crank, who, for seven whole years before the fall of Jerusalem, went around heralding the coming woe, ina a similar manner the poor crazy creature who was preaching around that excavated well in the Palace yard, was really inspired in prophesying that in six months from hence, there would be no more natives, no more king or queen on these islands, but a president?  Is the present state of uncertainty in the government, is the resistence of the ministers against the Queen, to be the way of God towards the fulfillment of a "pupule" prophecy?

     We hope not, and we most sincerely wish that the prosperous future of Hawaii nei, and a peaceful reign to our Sovereign will be insured, by a just acknowledgement of the Queen's first prerogative.  But immediate action must be taken, and, if no other solution can be obtained, the plain duty of both the Queen and the Cabinet, is to refer the question to the movst interested power, the Nation.

 

PAKE PA KUHIHUHI

O

KA HUI ALAHAOIA ME AINA O OAHU.

E HOOMAKA ANA MA KA LA 25 O OKATOBA, 1890.

MANAWA HOLO:

                                                                                                                                                            a.m.     a.m.     p.m.            p.m.

                                                                        Haalele ia Honolulu                                                  *6:15            8:45            1:45     4:30+

                                                                        Hoea ma Honouliuli                                                 *7:15            9:45            2:49     5:26+

                                                                        Haalele ia Honouliuli                                                *7:45   10:51            3:51     5:50+

                                                                        Hoea i Honolulu                                                        *8:40   11:55            4:55     6:45+

                                                                                    * Lapule wale no.

                                                                                    + Poaono wale no.

                                                                        Oct. 21, 1890

                                                                        tf-d.

 

Egana a me Gunn.

(Telepona Mutuala Helu 436 - Alanui Moi, h=Honolulu H.I.)

Na mea Hookomo mai FARANI mai, ENELANI a me

AMERIKA, i na

Lako Hoonani kino o kela a me keia ano!

     KE HOIKE AKU NEI MAUA IMUA O KE AKEA, UA MAKAUKAU MAUA E HOOLAWA AKU I NA KOIIKOI A ME NA HOOU'IU'I ANA A KO KE KULANAKAUHALE NEI, ME KEIA MAU WAIWAI O NA LOLE, A ME NA LAKO HOOU'IU'I MALALO II O:

     NA LOLE SILIKA ELEELE:

     Na Kakimea, Na Merino eleele, Lole Heneriata, Na Kinamu, Na Kalakoa, Na Lipine, Na Hamaka Silika.

     NA KANAHAI ELEELE:

     Na Lole naina maikai loa, Na Lole wawae eleele, papale eleele he lehulehu, Kakini eleele o na ano a pau, Leia-i o na ano a pau, Na Paluie o na ano a pau, Na Mikilima ili me lole.

     Na Haina Lilina ka'e Kanikau.

     Na Mikilima Ilikao Eleele

     Na Kanikau maikai loa .75ct $1.00 $1.50.

     Na Kakini o na Lede me na Opio.

     A ma ka hoopokole ana ae, ua makaukau mau maua e hoolawa aka ma na ano a pau, i ko makou poe kuai i kela a me keia mea kahiko a pili ana iloko o keia manawa o ke kaumaha no ko kakou Moi i aloha nui ia.

     122  tf-d

 

Hoolaha Hou!

     Ua loaa mai nei ia makou he mau waiwai hou loa, oia hoi ma KAKIMIA, KINAMU, KEOKEO HALU'A, CHALLI, VIKOLIA KEOKEO

A ME NA

     Mikilima o na ano a pau, a me na paku puka aniani o kela a me kua ano, no na kumukuai haahaa loa.

                                    B. F. EHLERS & CO.

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