FOOTNOTES:
[34] Asiatic Researches, vol. v. page 219, octavo edition.
[35] See Marsden's Sumatra.
[36] The Javan mode of taking account of population is by the number of chácha, or "families," as it is usually rendered, though the word strictly means "enumeration." When the sovereign assigns lands, it is not usual for him to express the extent of land, but the number of chácha attached to it. But as the population of the land so granted varies, the original expression becomes inaccurate. In the native provinces, the number of cháchas reckoned is almost invariably less than the number actually existing, a clear proof, if the original census was correct, that in those provinces population has increased. An account of the number of cháchas was taken some few years back by the Sultan of Yúgya-kérta, with a view to a new distribution of the lands; but the measure was very unpopular, and no accurate results were obtained. The Dutch relied entirely upon this loose system of enumeration.
[37] This includes the Population of Pachítan, under the European government, amounting to about 22,000.
[38] This does not include the dependent islands, on which a considerable portion of the population is scattered.
[39] Colquhoun's Statistical Account of Great Britain.
[40] Valentyn.
[41] The grandfather of the present Prince Prang Wedóno.
[42] It is remarked in the text, that the condition of the slaves on Java is very different from that of the same class in the West Indies. The former are employed rather as administering to the luxuries than the necessities of their proprietors; and, with few exceptions, exclusively for domestic purposes. There are some who having taught their slaves when young to embroider, or exercise some useful handicraft or trade, obtain a livelihood by means of their services, and some few employ their slaves on their estates, or let them out to hire; but the general condition of the slaves is that of domestic servants.
The regulations and colonial statutes respecting slavery seem to have been framed on the principles of humanity, and with attention to the genius of the Christian religion; yet, in consequence of the supplementary force of the Roman law in the Dutch system of legislature, there appeared to be one capital defect in the code, viz. that a slave was considered as a real property, incapable of personal rights, from which consideration the ill-treatment of a master towards his slave was not so much estimated on the principle of personal injury, as that of a proprietor abusing his own property; and although a slave, under such a system, might obtain a portion of property for himself with the consent of his master, his possession was always precarious, and depended on the discretion of his proprietor (in the same manner as a peculium adventitium with the Romans), becoming only the unlimited property of the slave, if the master allowed him to keep it after his emancipation.
It was conceived, that considering the civil law only as a supplement to the positive law, continued in force on Java under the proclamation of the Earl of Minto of 11th September 1811, the code respecting slavery might, together with the other parts of legislation, be amended and established, on principles more consistent with humanity and good sense, by a declaration, that slaves in future should not be considered as objects of real property, but as objects possessing personal rights, and bound only to unlimited service; and that, in consequence thereof, slaves should never be transferred from one master to another, without their own consent given before witnesses or a notary. That a master should possess no other power over his slave, than to exact service in an equitable manner; that he should inflict no corporal chastisement on him after he had attained a certain age, nor beyond such a degree as would be given to his children or common apprentices; that all personal wrongs done to a slave, either by his master or by others, should be estimated by the common rules of personal injuries, and not by the principle of a proprietor abusing his own property; that the punishment for murder committed by a master on his slave, should be the same as that of murder committed on a free person; that every slave should have a right to acquire property of his own, by his private industry or labour, or by the bounty of others; that this property should never be removeable at the discretion of the master; that by this property the slave should always have a right to redeem his liberty, after having continued with his master for the term of seven years, and on paying the sum which, on estimation, subject to the approval of the magistrate, should at the time be thought an adequate equivalent for his personal services.
These fundamental alterations in the code were submitted by the local government to a higher authority, at a period when the principal proprietors evinced a concurrence in the measure; but the provisional tenure of the government, and the expectation of the early transfer of the island to the crown, induced a delay, until the re-establishment of Holland as a kingdom precluded the adoption of so essential a change.
The excuse offered by the colonists for the origin and continuance of slavery on Java is, that on the first establishment of the Dutch in the Eastern Islands, there did not exist, as in Western India, a class of people calculated for domestic service; that they had, in consequence, to create a class of domestic servants, in doing which they adopted the plan of rearing children in their families from other countries, in preference to those in their immediate neighbourhood, who, from their connexions and the habits of their relatives, could never be depended upon. Whether necessity dictated this system in the earlier periods of the Dutch establishment, or not, is at least doubtful; but it is certain that this necessity no longer exists, nor is there the shadow of an excuse for continuing on Java this odious traffic and condition. The Javans, during the residence of the British on Java, have been found perfectly trustworthy, faithful, and industrious; and the demand was alone wanting in this, as in most cases, to create a sufficient supply of competent domestics. The continuance of the traffic for one day longer serves but to lower the European in the eyes of the native, who, gratified with the measures adopted by the British government in its suppression, stands himself pure of the foul sin. To the credit of the Javan character, and the honour of the individual, it should be known, that when the proclamation of the British government was published, requiring the registration of all slaves, and declaring that such as were not registered by a certain day should be entitled to their emancipation, the Panámbahan of Súmenap, who had inherited in his family domestic slaves to the number of not less than fifty, proudly said, "Then I will not register my slaves—they shall be free: hitherto they have been kept such, because it was the custom, and the Dutch liked to be attended by slaves when they visited the palace; but as that is not the case with the British, they shall cease to be slaves: for long have I felt shame, and my blood has run cold, when I have reflected on what I once saw at Batavia and Semárang, where human beings were exposed for public sale, placed on a table, and examined like sheep and oxen."
The short administration of the British government on Java has fortunately given rise to another class of domestic servants. The numerous officers of the army, and others whose funds did not admit, or whose temporary residence did not require a permanent establishment of servants, for the most part usually took Javans into their service; and though these might in the first instance, not be so well acquainted with European habits, as slaves who had been brought up from their infancy in Dutch families, yet they gradually improved, and were, in the end, for the most part very generally preferred. Let not, therefore, necessity be again urged as a plea for continuing the traffic.
The measures actually adopted by the British government may be summed up in a few words. The importation was, in the first instance, restricted within a limited age, and the duty on importation doubled. An annual registry of all slaves above a certain age was taken, and slaves not registered within a certain time declared free. A fee of one Spanish dollar was demanded for the registry of each slave, the amount of which constituted a fund for the relief of widows and orphans. On the promulgation of the act of the British legislature, declaring the further traffic in slaves to be felony, that act, with all its provisions, was at once made a colonial law. Masters were precluded from sending their slaves to be confined in jail at their pleasure, as had hitherto been the case, and all committals were required to be made through the magistrates, in the same manner as in the case of other offenders.
These general regulations, with the more rigid enforcement of the prohibition of further importations, and of such parts of the code of regulations for ameliorating the condition of the slaves as had become obsolete, were all to which the local government felt itself competent; but it gave its sanction to an institution set on foot by the English, and joined in by many of the Dutch inhabitants, which took for its basis the principles of the African Institution, and directed its immediate care to a provision for the numerous slaves restored to liberty.
[43] Called by the Maláyus kain pánjang or kain lepás.
[44] Exposé Statistique du Tonquin, &c. vol. i. p. 126.
[45] Chapter IV. Manufactures.