“You are growing tiresome,” sneered van Rheijn, “you keep on harping on that one string—the Dutch Government—The fact is, my dear fellow, you are tarred with the self-same brush of discontent as all the manufacturers and merchants out here in India.”
“Why should I not be?” cried Grenits passionately. “I do not always agree with all their opinions; but yet I do form a part of that important commercial body; and when a question arises which effects the vital interests of industry and commerce—Well, yes, then you may say that I am tarred with the same brush.”
“But have these grumblers really so very much to complain of?” asked Grashuis in a bantering tone of voice.
“I should think they have,” replied Grenits. “Under our present system we are not only flayed; but we are sucked dry, in a manner which, elsewhere, would drive men to open rebellion. When the Dutch revolted against Spain, and when the Belgians rose up in arms against the Dutch, neither of them had anything like so much to complain of as we have here,—neither of them suffered anything like the extortion which the Indo-Europeans have to put up with at the hands of their present oppressors.”
“Oh, oh, oh!” cried several voices.
“We have now to pay duties and taxes compared to which the tithes at which our ancestors rebelled were the merest child’s play. And then, in return, what rights do we enjoy?—If one could, on so serious a subject, be capable of indulging in a sorry joke—I might say that we have the privilege only of having absolutely no rights at all. For, that which here in India goes by the name of law and justice, is in reality nothing more than the merest burlesque; and that is especially true in all matters which concern the revenue. Wherever there is a little money to be made, the State flings itself upon its victims as some ravenous beast leaps upon its prey, and then one may look in vain for the smallest protection—least of all in any case which concerns that imperium in imperio the terrible opium monopoly!”
“You are exaggerating, you are talking wildly!” cried van Rheijn.
“I wish I were,” continued Grenits; “but just take up that terrible book ‘Might versus Right,’ a book written by a member of the High Court of Justice at Batavia, who was formerly, for many years, Attorney General in that same court, and for half an ordinary lifetime was president of the Residential Council. A man, therefore, who ought to know, and who does know what he is talking about, and then—when you have read what he has to say—tell me if I am exaggerating.”
“Oh, the writer of that book is another grumbler!” said van Rheijn, “whose only object is to set the whole world against the functionaries of our Administration.”
“That is a very heavy accusation to bring against a man who, in my opinion, is thoroughly honest, and who has had the courage, and therefore deserves the credit, of having told the plain unvarnished truth. Such, however, is our national gratitude!”