YEOMEN* — POLICE. 



2J3 



yeomen not being stipendiary servants of the state 

 do not take any judicial oath, and therefore have 

 no legal power. 



There is no village system amongst the Malays 

 resembling that which obtains in India. The elders 

 or yeomen possess therefore hardly any more autho- 

 rity or influence over the people than what personal 

 character and their station as landed proprietors may, 

 as in other countries, give to them. A very few years 

 more will suffice to . obliterate the slavish feeling 

 which attached the Malays to the Dattoo, or heads 

 of districts in Keddah and Patani, before (heir erat- 

 gratimi into (he British territory. There are but 

 very few families now who do not act entirely for, 

 and by, themselves — a sign that their minds are 

 nearly weaned from the abject feeling of submission 

 alluded to. 



The regular police may be rated at one and two- 

 thirds persons to rhe square mile, or one policeman to 

 every 675 souls of the population. That 47.280 souls 

 and upwards — the present population of the Province 

 — so peculiarly situated, should be coutrouled by so 

 small a body without the aid of soldiery, (for the 

 small guard of sepoys at the civil station ( is not 

 available for general or police duties) would argue 

 favorably for its real character j and may serve to 

 rebut those vague and gratuitous vituperations 

 against the Malays, as a people, in which many 

 persons unreflectingly indulge, and may afsu inspire 

 a hope that British rule will help to still further 

 soften their maimers* and give stability to their 

 morals. 



When the population did not exceed fifteen 

 thousand souls, it had usually from seventy to eighty 

 sepoys, and thirty peons, for its protection. The re- 

 duction, therefore, in the ratio of the protect ing force, 



