number of this people in the British settlement of Singapore. The small proportion
of Chinese in Java is, of course, in a good measure attributable to the nature of the
labour market, in so far as respects unskilled labour, that being already preoccupied
by the native population : but it arises, also, from the restraints imposed by the policy
of the Dutch government on their settlement. While in the British settlements, no
restriction whatever is placed on.them, in Java they pay a mulct for leave to enter,
and a larger one for permission to quit, besides a poll-tax,—all of them imposts to
which no other class of strangers is subjected. Jealousy of Chinese settlement
is, indeed, a principle of the Dutch administration of Java of long standing. In the
early part of the last century their numbers alarmed the government, and their
wealth and prosperity appears to have excited the envy of the Dutch colonists. In
1723, the local government issued a decree against Chinese immigration, which, however,
was never fully acted on. They were, however, prohibited from passing beyond
the limits of the town of Batavia without a license ; and all who could not render
an account of themselves satisfactory to the European authorities, were imprisoned
or sent back to China. These severities drove the Chinese to revolt ; and on the 26th
of September, 1710, the Chinese quarter of Batavia was attacked by a mob, consisting
of soldiers, sailors, European settlers, and natives, and in the course of two
days, 10,000 of the Chinese are stated to have been slaughtered, and their houses
pillaged and burnt. The armed Chinese who escaped the massacre, retreated into
the interior of the island ; and the result was a civil war, which, in one form or
another, lasted for fifteen years. The local government sent a letter full of excuses
to the emperor of China, to which the emperor did not vouchsafe a reply. In justice to
the Dutch nation it should be noticed, that the whole proceeding was condemned at
home ; and the weak and timorous governor, who was the cause of, or winked at the
massacre, duly punished.
The other Asiatic people settled in Java, consist of Arabs, or rather, for the most
part, of their mestizo descendants, and of natives of the other islands of the Archipelago.
All these are grouped together in the census of 1845 ; and their _ total
number, including slaves, is no more than 36,327. The number of slaves is but
5111. None of these are Javanese, but all natives of the other islands of the Archipelago,
or their descendants, chiefly of Cebebes, Sumatra, and Bali. All of them are
domestics of Europeans or Chinese ; and through the humanity of their owners, and
without any legislative enactment, they are in rapid progress towards emancipation.
In 1813, they «.mounted to no fewer than 20,452. The practice of employing free
Javanese as domestic servants, was first introduced by the English during their temporary
occupation of the island, and has been followed by the Dutch.
The class of bondsmen produced an adventurer, a kind of Javanese Spartacus, who
gave rise to one of the most remarkable incidents in the history of Java. This person
was a native of the island of Bali, from which he had been brought as a child. He became
the slave of a Dutch citizen of Batavia, misconducted himself, and was imprisoned. He
effected his escape from prison and bondage,—organised a small force,—baffled the
pursuit of the European authorities, and became one of the dangerous and too
frequent class of persons that have at all times disturbed the peace of Java, well
known in the language of the country under the name of kraman, which signifies a
rebel and pretender. Making his way to the eastern part of the island, he formed an
alliance with the Susanan, or Emperor of Java, whom he seduced to join in his insurrection.
In due time he established, and maintained for some years, an independent
principality, and was at length killed in an action which he fought with the Dutch
troops. This rebellion lasted, in all, nine years, having commenced in 1684, and not
ending until 1705. ,
Tfa.6 revenue of tlio European government of Jâvft is th&t of tne wnole islândj
including Madura ; but except as to some taxes on consumption not of the territories,
subject to the two remaining native princes, which embrace an area of 2229 square
miles, and a reputed population of 850,000. It is derived from multifarious sources,
and may be briefly described, taking the figures from the public accounts of 1843, as
given by Mr. Temminck. These are the most recent that I have seen, but sufficient
for a générai view, as no material change has since been made in the fiscal system.
During the five years’ temporary occupation of Java by the British government,
from 1811 to 1816, nearly the whole ancient system of monopolies, forced deliveries,
and corvée labour was overthrown, and free culture, open trade, and free labour substituted
for them. The merit of this great revolution in the administration of the
island belongs to the late Sir Stamford Raffles, the British Lieutenant-Governor of
Java, under the supreme government of India; and he'carried his bold and valuable
innovations into effect with a courage, industry, and perseverance entitled to the
greatest praise. The financial system which he adopted, however, was not so happy.
In so far as the land-tax was concerned, the elaborate, vexatious, scourging, and
impracticable system which proceeds on the principle of the States entering directly
into an arrangement with each individual occupant of a few acres, in the case of Java
probably not fewer than half a million, was at the time in vogue with the authorities
in England, and he attempted the establishment of this pernicious innovation. Under
this system, the tax was paid either in money or in land, at the option of the occupant;
and being generally paid in the latter, it followed that the government was
converted at once into a warehouse-keeper, and a corn-merchant. As in our own territories
on the continent of India, the new system was found mischievous and impracticable.
The land was over-assessed, and the hypothetical land-tax could not be realised.
After a two years’ trial, the Dutch commissioners who received charge of the
island, judiciously abandoned the Ryotwarrie system of 1814, and arranged with the
heads of the village corporations for the land-tax, leaving its distribution among the
occupants, to these corporations themselves. This natural and simple system, the
only one suited to such a state of society as that of Java, after being in operation for
fourteen years, was partially relinquished in 1832, and the old system of forced
deliveries of certain agricultural products, and of corvée labour in raising them, was
to some extent restored. The pretext for this was the hope of greater gain, and the
assumption that, by the immemorial usage of the country, the state was entitled to
take, at its option, its tax in money, in kind, or in corvée labour. Hindu and Mahom-
medan kings had done so three or four hundred years ago, and hence it was argued
that it was just and proper that an enlightened European nation should do, in the
19th century, what barbarous native rulers had done in the 14th and 15th. Under
this system a considerable portion of the tax on rent is remitted, and some of the
best lands with the labour of its peasantry, was appropriated to the cultivation of
products deemed peculiarly fitted for the markets of Europe, such as coffee, sugar, and
indigo, with tea, cinnamon, and cochineal, the three last expressly introduced into the
island for this special purpose. By this impolitic measure, the Dutch government has
become, once more, a cultivator, a trader, and necessarily, from its position to a certain
extent, a monopolist trader, the evil effects of which on that wealth, which is the only
source of public revenue, must be obvious to every enlightened modern statesman.
The actual amount of the tax on rent or land-tax remaining to the Dutch government,
after deducting exemptions, was, in 1843, allowing 20 pence to the florin,
835,5517 To this, however, is to be added a sum of 26,2157 for the quit rents of
land sold at various times to Europeans, with other items partaking of the nature of
a land-tax, as the rents of certain fish-ponds, or stews, amounting to 27,3027, making
the total land-tax realised 889,1287 No account is rendered of remissions on
account of land appropriated to the culture of produce for government, but a few
facts are stated which will give a tolerable notion of the extent to which this very
barbarous system is carried. The number of Javanese families from which corvée
labour was exacted for the culture of coffee, in 1841, was 453,289, and for that of sugar,
indigo, and cinnamon, 350,955, making the total number, exclusive of those employed
in the cultivation of tea and cochineal, which is not stated, 704,244 families, equivalent
to a population exceeding three millions and a-half, or 40 parts in 100 of the
entire population of the European portion of the island. The quantity of land set
aside for the cultivation of sugar, indigo, and cinnamon, amounted, in 1841, to
317,635 acres, and this consisted of the richest irrigated lands of the island, usually
yielding two yearly harvests, and equal in value to ten times that of the average of all
dry lands. The quantity of land, of an inferior description, appropriated to the
culture of coffee and tea, all peculiarly fitted for the growth of maiz, is not stated, but
some notion of it may be formed from the number of families employed, as above
given and from the number of trees, which last, in 1841, amounted to 336,922,460.
The taxes on consumption are multifarious, consisting of monopolies, excises,
customs, transit and market duties, taxes on fisheries, and on the slaughter of cattle.
The chief monopolies are those of the vend of opium and salt. In 1843, the first of
these amounted to 796,6307, and the last to 384,1597 The monopoly of opium is at
once productive and unexceptionable in principle. That on salt, is, of course, a poll-
tax, which amounts to about 4s. on each family, and is only less onerous than our own
in Bengal, from the salt of Java, the produce chiefly by solar evaporation, of its northern
coast, being better, cheaper, and more economically distributed to the consumers than
that of Bengal. Another monopoly is that exercised in certain caves producing the
esculent swallow nests, and this, as the birds are the chief manufacturers, and strangers