household, and two in the conduct of the affairs of
state, which is as much as to say, that these two
departments are of equal importance,—perhaps, after
all, no small concession from a despot. The
minister and his assistants form a council, the deliberations
of which are, as occasion may require,
assisted by calling in those heads of departments,
whose advice may be deemed useful, as the Pang-
Iculu, or High Priest, in matters of religion and
jurisprudence ; and the governors of provinces in
such affairs as touch their respective jurisdictions.
The administration of the provinces is conducted
by the vicegerents of the prince, who execute,
each within his jurisdiction, all the authority of the
sovereign, or nearly the whole of it. They have,
as he has, their Pateh, or minister, and he his assistants.
A miniature of the same form of administration
is discovered, indeed, in the very villages,
from which, in effect, the whole institution
originally took its origin, as already pointed
out.T
he authority of the immediate deputy of the
sovereign is divided and subdivided in proportion
to the extent of his province or jurisdiction. This
department of administration, in Java, in consequence
of the groat changes brought about by the
extension of agriculture, and the increase of population,
is not so well defined as in the more stationary
state of society in Bali, to which I shall, thereGOVERNMENT.
21
fore, refer. The smallest subdivision in Bali is
into twenty families, five of which constitute the
second subdivision of the hundred, under an officer
called in that country Kliyan-tempeJc. From two
to three of these, according to the nature of the
country, constitute the third division, under an officer
called Pdrbdkal. Several of these, according to
the extent of the district, constitute a province under
the authority of the Gusti, lord or viceroy. The
imperfect relics of similar institutions are discoverable
in Java, in the division called Tatongo, or the
“ immediate neighbourhood,” Machapat, or the
four next villages, and Manchagangsal, or the
five next villages, and in the jurisdiction of the officers
called Prapat and Gugunung. These are
institutions almost exactly parallel to those of the
Hindus, Peruvians, and Anglo-Saxons. There is
no sensible reason to believe that either borrowed
from the other simple and natural contrivances,
which readily occurred to barbarians in the same
state of society.
In all these cases the deputy of the sovereign is
vested with nearly his whole authority. The authority
of the chiefs of smaller subdivisions diminish
downwards, each being amenable in his turn
to his immediate superior; the vicegerent, in his
turn, is amenable to the first minister, and the first
minister to the sovereign.
I have no doubt, that, wherever, in the Archipelago,
despotic government is now established, it