2 l 22 OENERAE VIEW UP THE HUTCH 
most powerful maritime nations have not yet succeeded in putting an 
end to. 
The island of Java and all the other parts of this large Archipela¬ 
go have enjoyed, since 1830, a peace and tranquility which no sinister 
sign appears to threaten. A handful of Europeans dispersed in 
the principal establishments as civil agents of the government, a 
European Army far from numerous, forming scarcely the staff, and 
serving only as a frame work to the phalanxes of the natives, two or 
three frigates, a more considerable number of steamers of different 
sizes and some small sailing men of war, are means sufficiently pow¬ 
erful to maintain this order, and to ensure to the authorities the ex¬ 
ercise of their functions in the centre of an insular population of more 
than twenty millions of inhabitants* 
However weak these means may appear they are deemed sufficient 
at a time when the peace of Europe seems insured for a length of 
t ime. For the rest the insular position of our establishments in the 
centre of the great Ocean, protects them against revolutions in mass, 
and secures them from invasions to which the continental establish¬ 
ments are exposed. The last war against Dhipo Negoro shewed what 
immense use the government can derive from its native troops con¬ 
ducted by experienced European chiefs. Even in the event of a ma¬ 
ritime attack, which could be only made by a power of the first rank, 
the islands of the Archipelago would not at this day offer so easy a 
conquest. In effect since the organization established in all the 
branches of the administration, supported by the means of defence 
which the interior parts of those islands now present, and also bv 
the resistance which the towns are capable of opposing, by the or¬ 
ganization of their civic guards, the enemy, however formidable may 
be the force at his command in these seas, could not flatter himself 
with a certain conquest. 
Let us not doubt that the Javanese nation will remain subject and 
faithful to us, as long as the Government shall continue to keep it¬ 
self within the limits of the power which it has fixed according to the 
ttdat, or Javanese code. In order to maintain this tranquillity, she 
ought to abstain from introducing into this country the tormenting 
fiscal system, and it is necessary above all to preserve intact the system 
of the rural institutions. The full liberty of culture which these 
people have adopted ought to be guaranteed to t]*em. We ought to 
avoid the employment of means contrary to their prejudices: and 
which have for their purpose a hasty reform of their social and reli¬ 
gious institutions: these they will modify themselves slowlv and inr 
