Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 267, 27 August 1891 — HEREDITARY RIGHT. [ARTICLE]

HEREDITARY RIGHT.

(Written for Ka, Lko. )

J ~ (Conclnded.) i Tne doctrine of hereditary right is, in short an elaborate system bywhieh the wor!d shūnts its ' debts and responsibilit!cs, its prejudi(ses, crimes, animosities, and everything else that is bad on to postenty. The eurse of humanity is that it ever h ad any aricestors, and the curse is intensified when it choses to cherish and nerpetuate the memory of those ancestors. Congidering the deeds and character of ancestors in general the folly of this proceeding passes description. The hereditary principle in the basis of landlordism, for «ndei* it men assnme to dispose of the right of other men yet unborii to use the soil, in defiance -of the obviotis law that every generation of humanity has an equal title to the earth,*ānd that no one ean eell the just claims of posterity any more than he ean eell Dosterity itself into personal very. It is the basis- of monopuiy, for by it āccumnlated fortunes are passed (iown from father to son, and ninety-niA(r per cent, of mahkind are born to hopeless! toil in order that one per cent may be born to afHuence. It is the cer-ner-stone of monarchy and aristo-', cracy, for & fatuous world has taken it for granted t if one man haS risen to power by conspicuous * merit or fraud or force or lying, tHat it must endure his descendants for ali time, or else get rid of them by vioience; and en the same principle it might | as reaBonably bave reso!ved that if one man be hanged, then bis descendants sbould likewrse be hanged till the family becomes extinct. Also, it is tbe ground work of patriotism—that costly and question,able virtūe, whieh consi&ts in the stronger plundering the weaker nation, and in embezzling its territory and in $nslaviDg some; 'feebie race in the sacred name of tiberty. pnneiple fotind a noble exponent in the old Gothic warrior who declined to accept the doctrines Qf Christianit«y pn tbeground that his pagan ancestors idbre already in Oehenna, and he preferred to join them. rather be solitary and among the serephim in PjiradiBe, and three-fourths of tbe world stands to-day just where that Goth did fifteen hnndred years ago. i * "* *• I . The theory of hereditary right has innumerable ransi£cations froni the divine rightof Kings to the fishy -ofivthat pirate fussil whieh has survived tbe %wck of Hawaiian feudalism; the Konohiki, and the land shark and the sea Bhark olaim the obeifeanCe of tbinkind, and alas v H must be that even grovel is hereditary, m fact neurly everything is hereditary, cept*brains, whieh are an accidental circumsftance and of infrequent oecurreuce. * * * Some dav thc world will repn-" < diate the old del>tg, the old landlords andland-title?, and the ancient lawB an4 preo©dents, the bereditarv monar;h? And arlntocratB

| and monoi olistā, &nd all the inherited lumber of antiquity m oiie eom pren si ve act, on thc groan l that it is weary lo death of the crimes and the blunders of its an 3 cestors and ean carry the burden no longer. IV will realise for the firsfc time that ali men are born free and equal—that the son of the stateman or the iniilionarie must start eīn preciseiy the Bnir<* as tlae son of the assss?in who was hanp;ed, -0r the descendant of rl.e outcast who diedin the £Utter. it | wiīl learn that the olispri"i i m j illieit auionr does not iiiiierir. .theinfamy of hi<3 parents v n:ul th;it the saint does not hand do\vn. his halo to posterity, nndit will alK>!ish | the entire law of "inheritanc? ;vn i old exploded super'stition.' Lvr>hort the world will undcrstand a t !*st that its ancestors are dead aiid fir- ; gotten and turned to grass, ;md that grass is oniv hoy at the bost, and hay is a eommon vo;etabie whieh is sokl by the ton, and cut; np into chaff aud given to the eow. Humanity will realise that the nation consists of the 1 i vmg not of the dead, and decline to be hampered by absurd conditions impcsēdby dead progenitors, for tbe. men of the nineteenth century are no more responsible f<sr the deeds .of the men of the eighteenth than they. are for those of the Hittites who reisned at Carchemish. ' * * ! As for the venerable plea that i the honor of our ancestor3 demands a sacrificc, it may be fairly urged that there same ancestors were somewhat short of honor themßeives wlien they were alive v tnd now thaf they>are dend- they have probablv gdne to a plaee where the -article would be entirely superflūous. And, moreover both nationa and governments bave been so %tudioußly regardless of posterity, that posterity may be well excused lf it returns the sentiment. And when the wor!d ceases to scream about its ancestors it will also cease | to cherish the hallowed drivel whieh those ancestors left < behind them, and it will lose its reverence for tbe ancient abnseB whieh it has heeauae they were old and ctd6ked and decrepid; and it will give up trying to pass its reBTK)nsibilitied on to posterity, heeaupe posterity will refuse to take them over. We apologise to our readers f©r onee again referring to a statement in last Saturday's BiUletin article on ourselves. After vociferating to "the party'' to repudiate us before w« do "serious damage" to it, otherwise/ 4 that ifit don't ,4unreserve<ily and unflinchingly repu- ! d ; ate us, why nothing but di3aster | and Hulktin pi >awaits it in the I gate. t Well, we are eontent towait for tho disaster } and the b6lts of the •fhiUetin J»piter whieh won*t eomo. We are admitted to be part of a | faction, we rcgret our inabUitv |o ' sav »9 mueh for our critic, as be oaanot;elaim to be tbe organ of a party oc even a faction v Frpm tbo foUowing* extract it will be secti that the is attempti»K to lead off in tho itnpendin« game. It is the deeperate yell of a game9ter who bas—unrequested —undertaken to plav a l«ne band and sees failyre ahead. As to tbe :nuendoes alx>ut l spoilsm*n" and otiier re!iections on the u faction M all we haw? U i?, ibat they are

too ilisoreetiy general to tnerit notico:— *. q the r6sult of laBt eleeiion the two contesting parties, the N-atioi:ai ReTorm iParty"has to be prou<i. of iti9 platform on that oceasrion. The pnneiple embodied in tha& platform have heen won«ierfullv recognized to most of tho legislation of the €ession of 1890. . There wa~ no-.hing in the }>ow : ever, to whieh the agit.iticn int>3injittently an,e!npted inthepaper Ka Ll\» om'i r-?c-">ncile,?. . N"oti?in£r a: al?!m favor of a rep'.iblie v?īth its hf«Jeo»n : ■ snch a mixed b«)iy pol-iio ah _our.s of South Am\rvs&n ab'»rtions of gov?ram«snt,. ..bu><{nn.-> the is to he lou nd in tbat p\aift)rza." The prinoip.es of the National Keforni Party hnve l>3en anything but •wonderfnlly reoognized in r;io.s f . o: the seßsion of 1590." But in 30 far as any matorial pzft of the nationa]i3ts .Djatform became law, it proves that 'that party were i entitled to some recognition in the j format:on of a niisistry whieh their i votes made room for s and their.po- ! licy under cOnstitutional govern- ! ment cālled for T in order that their . prineiples shouid not i>? ?et asid« [ they have heen. - ; The £, close result of last elec'tion ias Letween the two parties" waa due .■ to intimidation md fraud on' the part of the Planters and their agents, and we intend to further diegust the respectable Jiulletin by writing it up ih chapter and verse shortly givinjg names and dates. At the lagt eleelion ihe entire monied power and presa, tinder the eloaē eontrol of a few sugar barons were on one side; and tHe almost entire peopīe with ohly one s©litary newspaper (KL\ Lf.o) on the othei . ' On the other islands where the eoolie owner were allowM by an accomovlating admini3tration to stand over the_ballot bpxes, no other resuit cou!d have been looked for. But the honost untrammelled expression ofa free people were seen on thb ieland; and we consider that a« a represeStatiye of thn nobles the Hon. E. C. Macfarlane flhould s under a form of government claiming to be popular and representative, be entitled to & seat in tbe cabinet, and on the eame ground of standing hight on the poll, Hon. R. W. Wilcox should also be regarded among the chosen of the Bu& we tlnd under OWr prekent forra of non-represen-tative govertiment the espres«ion of thepeople at the ballot box ean practicallv be set aside by a cabal. whieh ean ride men into p®wer and office like mother goose on a broomBtick. As to the st&tement tbat there waa nothinc iii ihe National Platfbrm about a Kepuhlie, we reply .tbat the Platform of two years ago was i*ot intended to be.a standing monument Tbe world oMves. That Baron Jobn« who* for being deoeived bjr bis mietresB, swor« tbat n&ikm be, nor bis m oar ōx % hor anytbing ihal bek>nged to bim, would ever be eeen witbin Uie of Amenwa palaee, nor be in waiting npon ber. That tb« k<?ords sbow, however, tbe baron at the sbrine «&ying h)s devotkms to bis ready like wpenlant »on at St Pteter, to kiBB ilie big royal toe. That tbis eodd«n cbangt from gall to bomy smacks of JudaV affoction for hi» Master.