External Polict/ of his Government, 389 



a prt^liminary settlement of land was made by Mr. Raffles, accords 

 Sng to the proposed system of which we have just delineated an 

 outline. This was effected gradually, with strict attention to the 

 rights of all classes of the Javan community; and in the actual 

 execution of the plan, the existing institutions of the island were 

 wisely left essentially intact, and merely suifered a slight change 

 of form, in their adaptation to the new order of things. Most of 

 the chiefs, for example, were not only allowed an equivalent for 

 their former income ; but they were also employed in services 

 allied to their former duties; — the collection of the revenue, and 

 the superintendance of the police. The cultivator having acquired 

 rights which the chief could not violate, — holding in his possession 

 a lease stating the conditions on which he cultivated his farm, and 

 which could not be infringed with impunity,^ — no evil could result 

 from employing the chiefs in collecting the revenue of districts ; 

 whilst, from their practical knowledge of the habits and individual 

 concerns of the peasantry, of the nature of the seasons and the 

 crops, they were the fittest persons for the office. For these ser^ 

 vices it seemed most expedient to remunerate them, either by an 

 allowance of a certain per-centage on their collections, or by allots 

 ing to them portions of land rent-free. The native village con- 

 stitution, the higher estates of which consisted of the chief, his 

 assistant, another officer, and the priest, was preserved inviolate; 

 and the chiefs, in many instances elected by the free-will of the 

 villagers, were invariably continued in office as the immediate col- 

 lectors of the rents, with sufficient authority to preserve the police, 

 and adjust the p«tty disputes that might arise within the village ; 

 the government scrupulously avoiding all unnecessary interference 

 in the customs, usages, or details of these societies.* 



While this interesting and philanthropic measure of internal 

 administration was in preparation and in progress, Mr. Raffles was 

 engaged, as a principal design of foreign policy, in contemplating 

 and partially executing arrangements, the object of which was the 

 permanent retention, by the British nation, of apolitical influence 

 throughout the Eastern Archipelago. These measures also were 



* Hist, of Java, p. 157. 



