94 MALAY LAND TENURE. 



" thoroughly understood. Generally speaking, no proprietary 

 " right in the soil is vested in any between the actual cultiva- 

 u tor and the sovereign ; the intermediate classes, who may 

 i( have at any time enjoyed the revenues of villages or districts 

 " being deemed merely the executive officers of Government 

 " who received these revenues from the gift of their lord ; and 

 " who depended on his will alone for their tenure. Of this 

 " actual proprietary right, there can be no doubt that the 

 " investiture vested solely in the sovereign ; but it is equalty 

 " certain that the first clearers of the land entitled themselves, 

 " as a just reward, to such a real property in the ground they 

 " thus in a manner created, that, while a due tribute of a cer- 

 " tain share of its produce was granted to the sovereign power 

 " for the protection it extended, the government in return was 

 " equally bound not to disturb them or their heirs in its pos- 

 " session. The disposal of the government share was thus, 

 " therefore, all that could justly depend on the wall of the 

 " ruling authority ; and consequently the numerous gifts of 

 " land made in various periods by the several sovereigns have 

 " in no way affected the rights of the actual cultivators. All 

 " that Government could alienate was merely its own revenue 

 " or share of the produce. This subject has come fully under 

 " discussion, and the above result, as regarding this island, has 

 " been quite satisfactorily established " 



The following description of the mode of creating these 

 quasi-manorial rights in Java, and the nature of the rights 

 created, from which it will appear that the Dutch in their 

 Eastern possessions have simply adopted the native law of 

 tenure and have not introduced one of their own, is translated 

 from Winckel's Essai sur les Principes regissant V Administra- 

 tion tie la Justice aux Indes Orientates Hollandaises (1880), p. 

 141. It is entirely in accordance with Malay law, and the 

 principles laid down apply, to a great extent, to the private 

 rights in Malacca which Governor Ftjllerton bought up, 

 with few exceptions, in 1828 : — 



" Following in this respect the general Muhammadan law, 

 " at least in part, the ancient Javanese sovereigns'* used to 



* " This is still done in Java on the lands of the Susuhnnan of Sourakarta 

 " and the Sultan of Jokjokarta. But there the thing has been ably worked 



