dian islands. Even among the most civilized and
populous tribes, by far the greater portion of the
land is unoccupied and unclaimed, and it is the most
fertile and productive alone that yields a rent. The
first and rudest description of agriculture in these
countries consists in snatching a fugitive crop of rice
or maize from a virgin soil, the productive powers
of which are increased by the ashes afforded by
burning the stupendous forest that stood upon it.
This expensive and rude process, from its very nature,
supposes the land unappropriated ; and,
wherever it is practised, we find that no rent is
pretended to be exacted. The appropriation of
land, and the exaction of rent, in these countries,
increased with the introduction of that improved
husbandry of rice which consists in growing it by
the help of water ; a fortunate discovery, which
places, of itself, the agriculture of a rude people, in
point of productiveness, on a level with that of the
most civilized nations. The appropriation of the
most fertile lands, and those most conveniently situated
for irrigation, with the construction of water
courses and dikes, is at once the creation of a property
of the most valuable description ; and a demand
for rent must have been coeval with it.
Wherever this description of husbandry prevails,
the pretence for the sovereign’s first demand
of a share of the produce may be traced to the
necessity of vesting in the stale a general super*
intendence of the distribution of that water of
irrigation on which the whole success of the process
rests, and which could not, without loss and
inconvenience, be left in private hands. It is remarkable
that the sovereigns of Bali, as will be afterwards
pointed out, though among the most absolute,
claim the-tax on land solely on the principle
of distributing and supplying the water of irrigation.
It may, indeed, be suspected that the
early establishment of this right or prerogative has
afforded the sovereign one of the principal means
of subverting the equality of society, and of establishing
absolute power.
The legitimate impost exacted as the reward of
superintending the water of irrigation, increases
in the progress of arbitrary power, and, accordingly,
among every tribe where the right of
property in the land is established, that is, among
the whole of the civilized tribes, the sovereiog n.' in one shape or another, comes at length to be
considered as the sole proprietor, and the people
as labouring it for his benefit. The proportion
exacted as tax depends on the fertility of the
soil, the extent of improvement, and the amount
of the population. The encroachments of the sovereign
advance with the improvement of the society,
and the peasant is ultimately left with no
more than a bare subsistence. The whole, of this
subject will be more perfectly understood by fur