﻿S33 



JAVA, LITTLE. 



JAXT. 



331 



roads and rivers are infested with transit duties. The public revenue 

 in all its departments is farmed chiefly by Chinese : the revenue 

 farms are disposed of by public sale. The Dutch have assumed the 

 right of levying the revenues even in the few states that still main- 

 tain a show of independence ; but notwithstanding tliis all-grasping 

 policy the colonial government has been in financial difficulties and 

 in debt ever since 1825. The causes of these embarrassments are 

 said to be an imprudent craving on the part of the colonial govern- 

 ment to be trailers as well as rulers, the loss of cargoes by sea, the 

 occasional failure of crops and fatal diseases among the native popu- 

 lation, the expense of maintaining a colonial marine, and the erection 

 of military works. For as might be expect«d from the system just 

 sketched, the Dutch have been unpopular among their subjects : 

 insurrections of the natives have often taken place and been put down 

 by force, but expensive military and naval forces have still to be 

 maintained, the people being too numerous to be kept in subjection 

 by any trifling demonstration. Under a generous system of policy 

 which put down monopolies, abolished restrictions on trade, and gave 

 the peasant some right in the soil he tilled, it is beyond question that 

 an island like Java, teeming with fertility, would yield a great sur- 

 plus over the expenditure and enrich its cultivators : as it is, a 

 pernicious system, established to enrich a corporation of individuals, 

 oppresses with its galling load the large native population, and weighs 

 heavily also on the resources of the mother-country. All duties and 

 taxes are paid into the colonial treasury, but except the import and 

 export duties nothing is published, as far as we can find, regarding 

 either their amount or disposal. 



Hitlory. — Java was subject to Hindoo princes till 1478, when the 

 island was conquered by the Mohammedan Arabs. The Portuguese 

 reached Java in 1511, and soon after began to form small settlements. 

 The Dutch established themselves at Bantam in 1595, and in 1602 

 the English erected a factory at the same plaoe, which was the first 

 possession of the English in the East Indies. But the English as well 

 as the Portuguese were soon obliged to give way to the Dutch, who 

 built the town of Batavia, and by degrees enlarged their dominion, 

 until they succeeded, about the middle of the last century, in dividing 

 the empire of the SusuhAnan into two parts and appiopriating the 

 greater portion of it to themselves. This system of gradual encroach- 

 ment has been continued, so that the Dutch now actually possess the 

 sovereignty of the whole island. When Holland was imited to the 

 empire of Bonaparte, the British took possession of the island in 

 1811, but restored it to the Dutch after the fall of Bonaparte in 1816. 



(Stavorinus ; Raffles; Crawfurd ; Hogendorp, (7ottpdYA't/«Kr/atio, 

 ic. ! W. von Humboldt, Dber die Kawi Spracht ; Captain Keppel, 

 Indian Archipelago ; Hacgregor, Commercial Slati4tic$.) 



JAVA, LITTLE. [B.tu] 



JAVIE, LA. [Alpes, Bassib.] 



JAXT, or lAXT, one of the four circles into which the kingdom 

 of WUrtemberg is divided, is bounded N.W. by Baden, N. and E. by 

 Bavaria, S. by the circle of the Danube, and W. by the circle of the 

 Neckar. Its greatest length from the point where the Tauber enters 

 Baden on the north-west to the Brenze, a small feeder of the Danube 

 in the south-eastern angle of the circle, is 74 miles. Its greatest 

 breailth is 44 miles; but the most northern part of the province is 

 in parts not more than 20 miles broad. The area is stated to be 1974 

 square miles, and the population, according to the census of Deo. 3, 

 1852, amounted to 874,193. 



The southern and south-western part of the circle is covered with 

 oUsets of the Rauhe-Alb, or Suabian Alps, which here form the 

 watershed between the Danube and the Rhine. The rest of tlie circle 

 is pretty level. Only a small portion of the circle belongs to the basin 

 of the Danube, small feeders of which, the Eger, the Egge, and the 

 Brenze, drain the south-eastern districts. The principal rivera on the 

 Rhine slope are — the Tauber, a feeder of the Mayn, and the Juxt, the 

 Kocher, and the Rems, feeders of the Neckar. 



The Tauber rises near the eastern boundary, and runs first towards 

 the south-east into Bavaria, where, being met by a branch of the 

 Steiger-wald, it turns northward, passing Rothenburg, below which, 

 turning more to the west, it flows near the boundary, sometimes in 

 Wurtemberg, sometimes in Bavaria, until it leaves the former kingdom 

 at the most north-western point of the circle of Jait. It then enters 

 the grand-duchy of Baden, through which its course is generally 

 towards the north-west to its junction with the Hayn below Wertheim. 

 Its whole length is about 70 miles. 



The Jaxi, from which the circle is named, rises east of Ellwangen, 

 and sweeping round first to northward and then to the north-west it 

 reaohel the Baden frontier at Krautheim ; tlience it runs with a very 

 winding course, partly in Bnden partly in Wurtemberg, to its mouth 

 in the Neckar opposite Wimpfeu. The length of the Jaxt is about 

 90 miles. 



The Kocher rises in the Rauhe-Alb, a little sonth of the village of 

 Aalen, and runs north-north-west past Hall to Kunzelsau, where it 

 turns west, and enters the circle of the Neckar, and joins the river 

 Neck.ir about five miles below Heilbron, and about a mile above the 

 month of the Jaxt. Its whole length is about 70 miles. 



The fiemt rises near the source of the Kocher, and flows in a general 

 western direction through a valley celebrated for beautiful scenery 

 post Umiind and Scborndorf, below which it leaves the circle of Jaxt 



and enters that of Neckar, where it passes Waiblingen, and joins the 

 Neckar on the right bank near Ludwigsburg, after a course of about 

 50 miles. 



None of these rivera is navigable ; but some of them are available 

 for floating timber from the mountain forests. 



The soil, in parts sandy and stony in others, consists chiefly of a fertile 

 loam, and is generally well cultivated. The chief crops are the common 

 cereals, hemp, flax, colza, and other oleaginous plants, together with 

 wine, the best sorts of which are produced in the valleys of the 

 Tauber, the Jaxt, and the Kocher. Cattle, she ip, and pigs are nume- 

 rous; poultry, fish, game, aud honey are plentiful. The hills in the 

 east of the circle, and the ridges that separate the river valleys in the 

 south and west, are clothed with forest timber, or with good pastures. 

 The highlands of the circle are composed of calcai'eous rooks which 

 in many places contain caverns aud grottoes ; the muschelkalk rock 

 is very prevalent, aud contains rich brine-springs, the most productive 

 of which are found in the district between the Kocher and the Jaxt, 

 a short distance above their mouths, in the neighbourhood of Hall, 

 and at Weissbach, a village near Kunzelsau. The muschelkalk is 

 bored sometimes to the depth of tiOO feet, and the brine is raised by 

 hydraulic machinery into the evaporating houses. Iron-mines are 

 worked in the south-east of the circle on both slopes of the Rauhe-Alb. 

 The ores are smelted and manufactured into bars, &o., in the furnaces 

 and foundries of Konigsbronu and Heidenheim in the valley of the 

 Brenze, and of Wasseralfingen, on the Kocher, between Aalen and 

 Ellwangen. Other mineral products are — marble, gypsum, alum, 

 potters* -earth, and porcelain-clay. Linen, various articles of utility or 

 ornament in wood, leather, paper, &o., are among the industrial pro- 

 ducts. The chief exports are — cattle, com, salt, iron aud ironmongery, 

 wool, and timber. 



The circle is traversed by numerous common roads, but there is 

 neither a railroad nor a navii^able stream within its limits. 



Among the towns the following are noticed as they give names to 

 the 14 bailiwicks into which the circle of Jaxt is divided :— Aalen, on 

 the right bank of the Kocher, 9 miles S. from Ellwangen, stands in 

 the iron district. It is surrounded by walls flanked with high towers, 

 and pierced by two gates : the inhabitants number about 3000. 

 C'raileheim, a small place with a castle, a gunpowder factory, and only 

 800 inhabitants, stands on the right bank of the Jaxt, 13 miles N. 

 from Ellwangen. EUioangm, the chief town of the circle, is situated 

 between two hills, on the right bank of the Jaxt, 44 miles E.N.E. 

 from Stuttgardt, and has about 3000 inhabitants. It is the resilience 

 of the governor and other administrative officers of the circle, and the 

 seat of a superior court One of the hills above it is crowned by a 

 castle, the other with the church of Our Lady of Loretto. The town 

 is well built; the gothio cathedral and the former church of the 

 Jesuits, now occupied by the Lutherans, are the most noteworthy 

 buildings. There are a gymnasium, an hospital, aud several breweries 

 in the town. The Catholic gymnasium, established in Ellwangen in 

 1813, has been united to the university of Tubingen since 1817. 

 Ellwangen is famous for its horse-fairs. It was formerly the seat of 

 a celebrated priory, which was founded about A.D. 764, and secularised 

 with the consent of the Pope in 1460. The property belonging to 

 the priory extended over 120 square miles ; it conferred the title of 

 Prince Prior on its possessors. It was seized by WUrtemberg in 1796. 

 The last prior, who was a Saxon prince, died in 1812. Gaihlorf, a 

 small town on the Kocher, 14 miles W. by N. from Ellwangen, has 

 two castles, vitriol- and alum-works, and about 1500 inliabitants. 

 Gerabronn, a mere village, with a brine-spring and about 600 inhabit- 

 ants: near it ia Kirchberg, with 1600 inhabitants, and a castle, the 

 seat of a branch of the Hohenlohe family. GmUnd, 18 miles S.W. 

 from Ellwangen, on the left bank of the Rems, is an old town sur- 

 rounded by turreted walls, and has about 6000 inhabitants. It is a 

 place of considerable extent for its poi)ulation. The streets are wide. 

 The town possesses 8 churches, a handsome town-house, an hospital, 

 a normal school, an institution for deaf-mutes, and an orphan asylum. 

 The industrial products of the town are— jewellery, broadcloth, and 

 cotton-hosiery. The valley of the Rems is very beautiful and well 

 cultivated about Omiind. Hall, a picturesque old town famous for 

 its salt-works, is situated 20 miles N.W. from Ellwangen, on the right 

 bank of the Kocher, and has 6S00 inhabitants. It is surrounded by 

 a wet ditch and a thick wall flanked with towers. The most remark- 

 able building^ are the town-hall, the fine gothic church of St. Michael 

 (which contains a representation of the entombment of Christ beauti- 

 fully carved in wood), and the gymnasium; there are five other 

 churches, an hospital, and two public libraries in the town. The 

 industrial products comprise woollen and cotton stuffs, sugar, starch, 

 &c. The town is sometimes called the Suabian Hall, to di-stinguish it 

 from other- towns of the same name. Heidenheim, on the southern 

 slope of the Rauhe-Alb, has a population of 2500. Kunzelsau, N.W. 

 of Ellwangen, on the Kocher, has two castles and 2600 inhabitants. 

 Mergenlheim, a walled and well-built town of 2500 inhabitants, stands 

 on the left bank of the Tauber, 42 miles N.N.W. from Ellwangen. 

 It has an old palace, a gymnasium, a library, and some manufactures 

 of hosiery and clock-work. Neraheim, in the south-east of the circle, 

 on the Egge : population, 1100. (khriiigm, 32 miles N.W. from 

 Ellwangen, near the Oehr, a feeder of the Kocher, has a fine castle 

 belongingtoapriaceof Hohenlohe, two churches, an hospital alyeeum , 



