MALAY LAND TENURE. 119 



" own soil, what is only the average recompense of labour 

 " expended on the estate of another."* 



In the first of the above extracts, Marsden, with his usual 

 accuracy, describes the chief incidents of the land tenure of 

 the Malays, as they exist among the people of the Peninsula as 

 well as among those of Sumatra ; and it is subsequently shewn 

 that among the Sundanese in the west of Java — a people who 

 in their customs and language bear a much nearer resemblance 

 to the Malays than do the people of any other part of Java— 

 those incidents which have relation to the alienation of land 

 are. almost identical with those which obtain among the Ma- 

 lays. I am inclined to think that the superior permanency of 

 the tenure of the Sundanese, when compared with that of the 

 Javanese, is to be accounted for by a Malay origin, and that it 

 is unnecessary to argue, with Raffles, that it is a mere survival 

 in a remote district of a more liberal system, which once pre- 

 vailed generally in the island, but which was destroyed by the 

 rapacity of Muhammadan sovereigns. Malays, too, have had 

 for centuries Muhammadan Rajas, not less given to encroach- 

 ment upon the rights of individuals than those of Java ; yet 

 the Malay peasant has retained his proprietary right, and I 

 believe that, both in Malay countries and in Sunda, this has 

 been due to a national feeling or instinct on this subject, not to 

 be found among the Javanese, who, under native rule, were serfs 

 without proprietary interest in the land which they cultivated. 



The power of alienation is one of the most important pri- 

 vileges connected with land that a land-holder can exercise, 

 but it is only the result of an advanced and liberal recognition 

 on the part of the governing power, of the rights of the sub- 

 ject. It must not be forgotten that, even in England, it was 

 not until the Statute of Quia emptor es was passed, in the reign 

 of Edward I, that tenants in fee simple obtained the right of 

 alienating their lands at their pleasure, and that the right of 

 devising lands bv will only dates from the reign of Henry 

 VIII. f 



* Raffles— History of Java, I, 140. 



f " We are too apt to forget that property in land as a transferable, mar- 

 " ketable commodity, absolutely owned and passing from hand to hand like 

 " any chattel, is not an ancient institution, but a modern development reach - 

 " ed only in a few very advanced countries. In the greater part of the world, 



