of royalty will tolerate no encroachment;. Wearing
■forbidden arms or garments, or using, or causing
to be used, the language of adulation appropriated
to the sovereign, are ala-m crimes of the greatest
magnitude, and often capital ones. “ The Raia’s
court,” says the Surya Alum, “ is like the sL
whose refulgent rays spread in all directions, and
penetrate through every thing,—the displeasure of
the Raja, in his court, is like the heat of the sun,
which ^causes those who are exposed to it to faint
away. • Exercise of undue authority is punished
rather as a disrespect to the king’s person
than as an offence offered to the regular administration
of justice. We have this exemplified
m the following law of the Malays: “ If a person
put a malefactor to death without the knowledge
o the king it shall be deemed contumacy, for he
has not the fear of the king before his eyes, and
his punishment shall be a fine paha” r of ten tahils and one
•m gT thoC t h“eff eancccee optfa tgio'vni nog f fathlsee iInntedlilaigne nisclea,n daecrcso, rbd,
not a great political offence, as we might imagine
but a sort of personal indignity offered to the prince’
himself directly, or Indirectly to him in the person
Aotf l}o ne oMf h. is„ o fficers. “ 1I1f aa mmaann , ” s« ay the l.aws *i.-Bali, shall say to a person of rank, there is in
such and such a place valuables, as cattle, fruit, gold,
silver, gems, or handsome Women, and it turn out
that the information is uncertain or false, such person
shall be fined in a sum of ten thousand pichis”
The law, however, appears occasionally to have
been directed against alarmists, of which we have
an example in the following one from the tract so
often quoted, Stiryo Alam: “ If a person is
found guilty of circulating false reports, or of magnifying
any piece of intelligence, so as to create a
great alarm in the country, and put all the people
in a ferment, he shall be fined four hundred and
four thousand pichis.”
Forging the royal signet, or using the royal name
for illegal ends, called, in the idiom of the Malay
language, selling the Icing's word, are capital offences.
Using the name of any of his officers
with improper views is also a. high offence. The
punishment for this last is described in the following
law of the Malays: “ If a person use
the name of a great man with improper views, he
shall either be fined one tahil and one pa ha, or receive
a kiclc before the people. If be resist he
shall be put to death, for great men sustain the
business of the king.”
Treason and rebellion are, of course, the greatest
of crimes under a despotic government. They are
construed to be not only temporal offences, but even
sacrilege. But there are no laws which describe