THE JAVA SYSTEM 157 



Havelaar" suggested that there was much to be said on the 

 other side of the question : but then that work was a fiction, pub- 

 lished anonymously, and under circumstances in which true impar- 

 tiality was hardly to be looked for. Mr. Monet did not give, and 

 does not appear to have had before him, the text of the Regulations 

 of the Government of Netherlands India, showing the exact 

 terms of the Constitution of Government ; and, until lately, any 

 full enquiry into the actual working of this part of the system 

 could hardly have been prosecuted except in the Courts of Java 

 itself. 



But Dr. C. P. K. WinckeLj a lawyer in Samarang, has 

 removed all difficulties on this head by publishing a very careful 

 and scholarly " Essai sur les Principes regissant 1' Administration 

 " de la Justice aux Indes Orientales Hollandaises" (Samarang and 

 Amsterdam, 1880), and admirers of Mr. Monet's book will not do 

 amiss to see for themselves what is to be said on this part of the 

 subject by an old practitioner of the very Courts in question. A few 

 extracts is all that space here permits, but Dr. Winckel's account 

 of the Native Codes (pp. 65 to 85), in particular, cannot fail to 

 interest many members of our Society. 



In a short Preface, our author first refers to the essential apathy 

 of the Mother Country, notwithstanding much political discussion, 

 which he explains as follows : — 



" Affranchies du joug de parti, de genereuses natures ont senti ce 

 " qu'avait d'avilissant pour I'exploiteur le systeme d'apres lequel les 

 " grands travaux publics dont s'enorgueillit la Hollande, ont ete 

 " payes par le Javanais. * * * # * * 



" A quoi tient, actuellement, le peu de connaissances exactes 

 " quant aux colonies, qu'on trouve chez nos hommes d'etat? 



" Le fait est qu'ils se trouvent dans une position assez desagreable. 

 " La nation, habituee a voir defrayer par ses possessions d'outre- 

 " mer une partie du budget national, ne peut se faire a l'idee d'y 

 " renoncer, et recule, par consequent, devant les grandes mesures 

 " qu'on voudrait bien prendre pour le bonheur des colonies, mais 

 " qui couteraient de fortes sommes. 



