ferior birtli who should presume to arrogate the
office or titles of royalty. We have a singular and
authentic illustration of the veneration with which
the Indian islanders regard the royal blood in the
circumstances attending the elevation of the prince
called the Susunan Kuning in Java during the Chinese
war. This person was a lad of twelve or thirteen
years of age, and removed in the third degree
from the throne. The Chinese strongly objected
to his elevation, but their Javanese coadjutors insisted
that none but those of the blood royal could
by possibility ascend the throne of Java. Marta-
pura, one of the Javanese chiefs, spoke as follows to
the chief of the Chinese : “ Father, it is the immemorial
usage of Java, that none should be king save
he who is of the blood of those to whom the king©dom as of right belongs ; and the presumptuous man
would be short-lived who, without title, should intrude
himself into the throne. He would forfeit
his wretched life, and it would be his fate to be
beat to death with clubs.” *
With all this veneration for the royal family,
there is nothing attached to it that is hereditary
but the throne. The unbounded prerogative of
the crown tolerates nothing that can by implication
be considered independent of it. The title of
Pangeran, or prince, is, in Java, for example,
* Javanese manuscript.
usually conferred upon the sons, and sometimes
upon the grandsons of princes, because these honours
reflect a lustre upon the sovereign himself;
but, after this, their families are permitted to melt
unnoticed into the common mass of the people.
In the federal government, the persons who
appear at first view hereditary nobles, are, in fact,
as already explained, the little despots of their
respective principalities. A hereditary nobility
is incompatible with the unlimited authority claimed
and exercised in the absolute governments.
There all rank emanates from the sovereign, and
is held during his pleasure. * The genuine spirit of
this branch of the East Insular institutions will be
thoroughly understood from the tenor of a Javanese
writ or patent of nobility, which is literally in
the following words: “ Take notice! This the
royal letter of us the exalted monarch ( such a
one) we give in keeping to our servant the fellow
Csuch a one.) Be it known to you all our slaves,
whether high lords or inferior chiefs of our royal
city or provinces, that we have given in custody
* “ It is the nature of despotism,” says Burke, “ to abhor
power held by any means but its own momentary pleasure,
and to annihilate all intermediate situations between boundless
strength on its own part, and total debility on the part of
the people.”-•-Thoughts on the Causes o f the Present D iscontents,