Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 160, 30 March 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

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

 

The "Leo's" Views for the P.C. Advertiser

PART SECOND

            The governmental power is liable to err, and needs corruption as much as the individual. It should be the duty of the honest journalist to point out the errors of all who commit wrongs against the good of society. No false delicacy should deter them in criticizing the acts of the sovereign in a respectable manner, if the action in any sense trenches on the rights of the people. If the acts of any person are pernicious, whether it be done in a palace or in a hovel, they are justly open to criticism without any distinction as to the social standing of the person committing them. For the Press to be otherwise would be venal, to say the least. We are as journalists entitled to speak more particularly of the doings of those whose duties and position give them a greater power and wider influence than those who are in private life. State officials above all are legitimate subjects of criticism whenever their official and private acts has an influence upon the welfare of the people. The sovereign, the highest public servant in the land, comes prominently before us, as the very first whose public and private life should be closely scanned, and so on downward to the lowest public servant.

            In order to do our duty and have our readers understand our efforts for their welfare, and for the protection and maintenance of their rights, without being misunderstood, it is necessary that the ordinary reader should be educated so that he may readily comprehend his rights and his duties, and to do so clearly he must also understand the rights and relationship of those whom by law he has placed over him.

            As there appears to be a misunderstanding in the minds of the Hawaiian ruler and only a confused idea among the people, our aim is to critise the action of the ruler, whom we presume does know his duty, and to enlighten the less favored subject by the light of the past and the progressive knowledge of the present period.

            For the edification of both the ruler and ruled, we re-state what we said from a quotation in a previous article, that all governments derive their just powers from the governed, and that their functions are to be exercised in accordance with the wishes of the people and for their good. This fundamental and universally acknowledged principle should be the motive power to lead and guide the executive and the exercise of its powers. When we see these powers, as we have lately seen them, used to the gratification of personal feelings without a proper regard for the authority from whence the executive derives it, it is nothing less than a thrust at and a violation of the principles of popular government, a continuation of which will undoubtedly lead to unpopularity and discontent, and eventual popular demonstrations that will end disastrously to the well-being of our society and of our institutions. In this light it is the part of a wise ruler to act with prudence, to gather around men as advisers whom the people trust, towards whom they have publicly shown their confidence. The age of Elizabeths and Marys with their Rienzis are past. We are living in a time when the advanced education of the masses will not sustain retrogressive actions on the part of their rulers. Old and well-established governments, who have not discarded the old sophistry that divinity doth hedge a king, and accept the more natural and more correct view, that the voice of the people is of divine inspiration, have had to submit or accept the inevitable result of persistent refusal to recognize fundamental principles. The principle is a natural one, and as such is of God, who created and overrules all, and the sooner the people of this world recognize and apply natural rights as a motor to their actions, in all their associations with one another in the sphere, the sooner they will reach that blessed period-the millenium-which we are erroneously being taught from our pulpits we are now entering.

            We believe with many that the powers that be are ordained of God, but we also believe that the people are the instruments through whom he manifests that power, in matters which pertain to the temporal well-being of man. In the construction of societies, each individual surrenders certain rights and in their stead has secured to him the enjoyment of others appertaining to his person and property, without which society cannot exist. The enjoyment of his rights does not give the individual, however, the power to personally exercise the right conceded him. To do so would be anarchy and destructive to the formation of society. In surrendering certain rights we enjoy the mutual protection of all, and in that manner we enjoy an equivalent for that which we surrender. Out of the society thus formed the people choose one or more to be at the head of affairs, and in this way governments are constructed. It is the only just and natural way a government can be formed and maintained, and the sooner the governing powers recognize the will of the people the better for all concerned.

 

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin!

The study of modern history shows that the ciose of each century has been disturbed by wars and calamities and radical changes in the affairs of the world. The records of the ancient past also tell of strife, bloodshed and revolution that prevailed in certain successive cycles of time. Astrologers and prophets have foretold events which have already happened and have predicted events for this century which give signs of being realized, till at last it has become an article of common faith that the close of the century will mark another cycle of time which will be distinguished by war and social convulsions. Nostradamus, a famous astrologer attached to one of the French Kings in the fifteenth century, predicted accurately the stiring events which were to mark the close of each succeeding century, the revolution and the career of Napoleon I were foretold by him for the close of the eighteenth century, and the nineteenth was to be marked by similar agitations. The book of Daniel in our bible contains many veiled prophecies of disaster which the Seventh-Day adventists apply to the present century. The osophists also read in the signs of the times the termination of another cycle at which, according to the wisdom of the East, agitation, violence and strife are inevitable. Nihilism is Russia, Socialism in Germany, the anarchy and the Farmer's Alliance in America, and the Trades union in both Europe and America, and the universal strife between capital and labor all over the world, would seem to be; but the beginning of those agitations which are to make a complete revolution in the social relations of the world. Certain it is that a great wave of republicanism is spreading over Europe. The revolution in Brazil and the formation of a Republic blotted out the last vestige of the monarchial principle on the American continent. Eminent men annource their belief that the socialistic power is so strong in Germany that it will not be long before the practical Germans will have self-government under a Republican form. England is republican but in name, and would be in  fact but for the wisdom of her Queen in doscording the exploded theory of divine rights and allowing the representatives of the people, and not royal favorites, to administer the government. The principle of popular government has a strong foot-hold in the minds of the Europeans; distressed Portugal is now struggling hard for the principle as the following manifesto which we will take from one of our foreign exchanges will show.

            On the 31st of January the Republica Portugueza, the organ of the Oporto insurgent, addressed an apostrophe to King Carlos, of which what follows in an extract:      TO THE KING          

            "Let us now deal with you!

            "We have ever addressed you openly. We have always told you to your face, our heads erect and our eyes looking into yours, that we hate and despise you!

            "Miserable representative of a decayed principle, you have heard of our condemnation of you, and that some time ago.

            "Abject descendant of a vile race, some time ago did we brand with a burning iron your narrow forehead.

            "You still sit on a throne. A crown still rests on your head. You drag along a mantle of ermine. Worthless vagabond that you are, your scepite still is there to remind us that you are King!

            "But it is time that you should descend from your dishonored throne. It is time for us to tear that crown from your head. It is time for us to rend that mantle with its golden embroideries.

            "King we are going to smash your sceptre!

            "We have told you that this was a duel unto death. It is a duel between your power and the strngth of your country. It is a duel between your interests and the National honor.

            "King, the point of our sword is over your hear; but, ere we drive it in, listen.

            You are a traitor. You have trampled on your country's honor; your feet have spurned the nation's suffering.

            "King, you are a criminal!"

            The foregoing will give a fair idea of the manifesto, which extends over a column.

            Perhaps the incritable conculsions which are predicted for the finale of this century will send every crown and sceptre to the museums and let the world be governed by Presidents instead of being ruled by Kings.

 

            The the full bench took in the Pinafore last Thursday evening. C.J. Absenting

 

ON DIT.

            That the Hawaiian newspaper Kuokoa has been bought by a syndicate of republicans, and negotiations are pending for the purchase of other native newspapers.

 

            That the royal nether garments fluttering in the blusterous trades of last week, in the Palace yard, are not ornamental, but are an object of general interest to a curious public

 

            That the gentleman who is trying to forge Hawaii's interest on the royal anvil, is making bad friends with the crowd of hungry office seekers.

 

            That our obligations are due to the P.C. Advertiser for the gratuitious advertisement given us in Friday morning's issue as there has been quite a demand for the forbidden newspaper, the Reformers fear so much, the KA LEO.

 

            That either the fashionable Hawaiian whir@-gig or the cares of the Custom House, and the fear of opium flooding the country and killing the Native Sons of Hawaii, has conquered his paternal love and prevented his Highness from leaving his beloved Custom House, with its very acceptable salary to visit poor perfidious Albion

 

            That when the missionaries can spare the U.S. forces from the delectable occupation of throttling the desire for self government among Hawaiians, they come in handy for the amusement of the creme de la creme of Honolulu Society, as an adjunct to the Opera Bouffe.

 

            That the age of miracle still exists. We find opium turned first into bricks, then straw, then poi, and now into shells. Somebody undoubtedly turns it into dollars and influence. Vive la Reforme.

 

            That the ex-opium catcher beside a large collection of plantation stocks, was recently caught making a collection of valuable shells, which was buried until the sknuk had lost its peculiar aroma, which mis-lead one of the numerous detectives employed by our lynx-eyed Marshal and threw him off the right track. There is nothing like a reputation.

 

            That an aristoratic and high born lady, judging from her equipage, is very often seen heavily vailed visiting an old socereress, living at Kamoiliili, whose interpretations are inspired, by an ex-reform minister, and his two assoicates, who were denounced by more than one speaker in the last session of the Legislature.

 

            That it is against etiquette for the Lord High Chamberlain, as being inconsistent with his office of Chief of the flunkies, to occupy the Royal Box at the Royal Hawaiian Opera House

 

            The Pae Aina Daily, says that the fifth wheel of the government vehicle, is the Marshal of the Kingdom. There is no doubt, the he is the most attentive to majesty and keeps her more than well posted and has a weightier influence, like all fifth wheels to vehicles in directing its movements

 

KUAI HOOPAU NUI

 

Maikeia manawa aku a hiki i ko Makou hoonee ana aku iloko o ko makou

HALEKUAI HOU

Ma ke Alanui Papu,-(NA HALE BURUA.

E hoolilo aku ana Makou i ko Makou waiwai a pau o na ano Lole:

NA LOLE NANI,

NA LOLE I HUMUIA,

KAPU A ME PAPALE

PAHU LOLE,  a pela aku

No na Uku Hooemi Loa Nae.

Egan & Gunn.

ALANUI MOI kokoke i ke ALANUI PAPU.          tf-d

 

Hoolaha Hou!

 

B.F. EHLERS & CO.,---Painapa.

Ua loaa mai nei ia makou he mau waiwai hou loa, oia hoi

KAKIMI,

KINAMU,

KEOKEO HALU'A

CHALLI,

VIKOLIA KEOKEO,

-A ME NA-

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

B.F.EHLERS & CO.

Alanui Papu, Honolulu.-26-d@