182 ARBITRARY EDICTS. 



The Chinese are allowed to enjoy their own laws 

 with regard to marriage and succession to property. 



No European, or native, can acquire any private 

 property in land, nor is there such a thing as private 

 landed property, except in the case of an estate for- 

 merly belonging to Sir Charles Forbes, and a few 

 smaller properties, which were acquired under the 

 English rule, between 1812 and 1816, and which 

 have not been resumed. Permission to travel into 

 the country is rarely granted, and to enter the 

 native dominions an order from the Governor in 

 council is necessary. Some of the officers of the 

 Dutch navy, whom we met at Sourabaya, com- 

 plained of the difficulty they found in getting per- 

 mission to make even such an excursion as we had 

 done. 



The most arbitrary and unjust edicts are some- 

 times issued by the general government, as for in- 

 stance, that by which the Bank of Java was rendered 

 no longer liable to be compelled by law to pay in coin 

 its own promissory notes. All freedom of the press 

 is strictly prohibited. There is a Government 

 gazette published at Sourabaya, but besides the 

 Government edicts, it is only allowed to insert ad- 

 vertisements. The newspaper published at Batavia 

 inserts articles of general news, but no political 

 remarks. They have a small scientific society in 

 Batavia, but in Sourabaya there is nothing of the 

 kind, nor any public library, or reading-room, unless 

 the few magazines taken at the club called the 

 Concordia constitute such. 



