Dutch Colonial System. 107 



the chiefs, and the remainder is divided among the workmen. 

 This surplus in good years is something considerable. On 

 the whole, the people are well fed and decently clothed, and 

 have acquired habits of steady industry and the art of scientific 

 cultivation, which must be of service to them in the future. 

 It must be remembered that the Government expended capital 

 for years before any return was obtained ; and if they now 

 derive a large revenue, it is in a way which is far less bur- 

 densome, and far more beneficial to the peoj^le than any tax 

 that could be levied. 



But although the system may be a good one, and as well 

 adapted to the development of arts and industry in a half- 

 civilized people as it is to the material advantage of the 

 governing country, it is not pretended, that in practice it is 

 jjerfectly carried out. The oppressive and servile relations 

 between chiefs and people which have continued for perhaps 

 a thousand years can not be at once abolished, and some evil 

 must result from those relations till the S23read of education 

 and the gradual infusion of European blood causes it natu- 

 rally and insensibly to disappear. It is said that the Resi- 

 dents, desirous of showing a large increase in the products 

 of their districts, have sometimes pressed the people to such 

 continued labor on the jolantations that their rice crops have 

 been materially diminished, and famine has been the result. 

 If this has happened, it is certainly not a common thing, and 

 is to be set down to the abuse of the system, by the want 

 of judgment or want of humanity in the Resident. 



A tale has lately been written in Holland, and translated 

 mto English, entitled "Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auc- 

 tions of the Dutch Trading-company," and with our usual 

 one-sidedness in all relating to the Dutch Colonial System, 

 this work has been excessively praised, both for its own 

 merits, and for its supposed crushing exposure of the iniqui- 

 ties of the Dutch government of Java. Greatly to my sur- 

 2:)rise, I found it a very tedious and long-winded story, full 

 of rambling digressions, and whose only point is to show 

 that the Dutch Residents and Assistant Residents wink at the 

 extortions of the native princes ; and that in some districts 

 the natives have to do work without payment, and have 

 their goods taken away from them without compensation. 



