MALAY LAW IN NEGRI SEMBILAN. 307 
Raja who is independent of all the commoners of the State 
and who can control the actions of the “commoner” chiefs, 
and without the Raja, the whole constitution becomes a chaos. 
By removing this link the chain falls to pieces. I will give an 
instance of this. Ever since the Yam Tuan Muda of Rembau 
ceased to exist, the Penghulu alone has had to rule a turbu- 
lent people with whom he is connected by marriages and inter- 
marriages, and since that there has been nothing but difficulty 
in Rembau. He was being dragged in every direction, his 
decisions were disregarded and not a single decision did he 
give that was deemed right. He had no longer the support 
of the Raja, thus the chiefs of tribes, who are numerous, at- 
tacked him in every direction and would have been glad to 
get rid of him in the same way as he had got rid of the Raja. 
He used to say to the Chinese who took up land for planting 
in Rembau “ Frzkalau kris terchabut sahaya yang sarongkan”’ 
“Tf the kris is drawn I will replace it in its sheath.” This was 
a vain boast, as he could not, being a commoner, and there be- 
ing no fear of him as in the case of a Raja. 
Another case in point is that of the Yam Tuan of Sri 
Menanti. As soon as the Klana of Sungei Ujong became in- 
dependent, by our assistance, the other States of Sri Menanti 
all thought that they would like the same thing, and the dis- 
putes, the bloodshed and general chaos in these States became 
simply indescribable. Seeing the Penghulu anxious to get rid 
of the Raja, the Lembaga started fighting the Penghulu and 
the Chiefs of families fought the Chiefs of tribes. 
There are a number of cases which might be quoted, but I 
think that the above demonstrate the law of ‘ Lembaga kapa- 
da Undang, Undang kapada kaadilan.”’ 
In order to put things right here in 1884 it was necessary 
really to put everything back to what it was 20 years before. 
To put the Rajain his place, the Penghulu in his, the Lembaga 
and the chief families in a tribe in theirs. In some tribes there 
were as many as six Lembaga in Sri Menantiin 1887. There 
were also two Penghulu in two of the States. The only thing 
to do was to bring the constitution to bear and adhere strictly 
to it, and very stringent measures were taken in order to 
