Heview of lifriews, l/S/OO. 



Dutch Golonial Administration. 



141 



remember that diirinf,^ their existence pure, unvnr- 

 nished slavery existed in the Colonial possessions ol 

 other Euro[)ean Powers — as a national economir 

 condition that was defended on the platform, and 

 even in the [lulpit. The practice that has been most 

 condemned m Ja\a is the "corvee," or forced-labour 

 system, liv which many tine roads and public build- 

 ings wer.' constructed. This system, however, was 

 not inaugurated by the Dutch, Init by Marshall 

 Daendels, who was appointed Governor-General by 

 Louis Napoleon in 1806, and it only continued in 

 full operation during the five years of French suzf 

 rainty. 



The succeeding lustrum is probably the most in- 

 teresting epoch to liritish peojile, because during 

 that period, at the rei]uest of William V. of Hoi 

 land. Great Britain temporarily cccupied the terri 

 tory, and appointed Sir Stamford Raffles as Lieu 

 tenant-Governor — a man of great ability, high prin 

 ciple, and immense energy, who has been righth 

 assigned a space in our scroti of Empire Builders, 

 but his record in Java is noteworthy rather for his 

 high ideals than his soundness of judgment. His 

 policy, based largely on the writings of Dirk van 

 Hogendorp and Muntingh, amounted to nothing less 

 than a revolution. The native organisation was to 

 be altogether discarded in his scheme of government, 

 and the white official brought into direct contact 

 with each individual cultivator. The economic 

 changes were even more startling than the adminis- 

 trative, and might be summed up as free trade, free 

 culture, free labour, free holdings, and freedom 

 from all fiscal obligations except a land tax. Manv 

 of these proj)osals were in themselves excellent, and 

 under altered conditions their immediate applica- 

 tion would have been beneficial, but the attempt to 



A Representation or Buddha. 



instantly alter the whole system of Oriental govern- 

 ment and administration that had been in operation 

 1500 years, and substitute Western methods, in- 

 evitalily lesulted in failure. It was an attempt to 



A Pretty Scene in Java. 



