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Malacca. British rule in Malacca dates from 
1825, the year in which the cession 
arranged by the treaty with the Netherlands of 
1824 was carried into effect. From 1795 to 1818 
Malacca had been held by the British but this 
was more in the nature of a military occupation 
than permanent civil administration. The conditions 
of Malacca, an ancient Malay Kingdom and then 
successively a Portugese and Dutch Colony, naturally 
differed fundamentally from those of the modern 
Settlements of Penang and Singapore which had no 
population prior to their occupations by the East 
India Company, and to which therefore any law of 
land tenure might be applied without the fear of 
disturbing existing rights and customs. The land 
tenure of Malacca as the British found it in 1825 
was the native tenure of the Malays under which 
a tenth of the produce is due to the State and a 
proprietory right is created by the clearing of the 
land followed by continuous occupation. This tenure 
bad remained unchanged during the Portugese and 
Dutch occupation. The Portugese rule was little 
more than a military occupation of a fortress while 
the Dutch though fully recognising individual rights 
in land neither introduced land laws nor derived any 
public revenue from land. The Settlement of land 
affairs in Malacca under British rule was retarded 
by the war with Naning, a small Minangkabau 
Colony in the hinterland, in 1831-2 and by the in- 
troduction from time to time of unsuitable regula- 
tions introduced by officials more familiar with the 
English practice prevailing in Singapore and Penang 
than with the native tenure of Malacca. The 
difficulty of thus attempting to combine English law 
and Asiatic custom was noticed by Mr. Young, the 
£2.-4# f 
