REMBAU HISTORY, ETC. 61 
Chapter II. Section 6. 
The Raja (Keadilan.) 
In his article on “the Law and Customs of the Malays 
with reference to the tenure of land,’ published in the 
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Straits Branch, for June 
1884, Sir W. EK. Maxwell states that the Raja possessed the 
following privileges : 
1. The right to share in the grain ; 
2. The right to collect taxes ; 
3. The right of disposal of waste land ; 
and proceeds— that the proportion of the padi crop which 
“the Malay Raja can claim has come to be fixed by custom at 
‘,4th of the grain and payment can be enforced by seizure 
of the crop or land.”’ 
- This view of the Raja’s right is based on the supposition 
that “‘monarchical government was introduced among the 
Malay tribes by Hindu rulers from India ” and admittedly 
presumes ‘incidents of Aryan kingly government.” [This hypo- 
thesis is sometimes discredited on historical and archeological 
grounds. | 
The sayings present a totally different conception of the 
Raja’s position and power. The pol eave the adat ‘is not 
owned by the Raja, nor can he levy a war tax but his powers 
are confined to the administration of justice.’ 
Newbold in his work on “the British Settlements in 
Malacca ’’—written in 1835, in treating of the Ménangkabau 
States follows jbhe sayings closely in his description of that 
Raja’s powers, and the history of the Raja in Negri Sembilan 
supports the oral tradition. 
The constitution of the Negri Sembilan demanded a Raja 
merely as head of the Confederacy, and it is most important, 
Raja head 
of -a 
Feder- 
in considering the position of the Raja, to remember that his ation ot cates. 
advent was subsequent to the federation of the several states. 
vuc- (1) v. Saying LX. App. I. 
(2) v. Newbold op. cit. vol. IIT pp. 80, 81. 
R: A. Soc., No. 56, 1910, 
