The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

A reference to the judicial regulations in the Appendix[86] will show how desirous the British government on the island has been to protect the privileges of these societies, and in particular the right of electing their chief.

When the British authority was established on the island, it was immediately seen that something must be done to supply the deficiencies, and to correct the imperfections of the native code. All the other changes in contemplation for the encouragement of industry and for the abolition of oppressive and impolitic exactions, would have been nugatory, without such an improvement in the judicial and police regulations, as would secure, by a full and impartial administration of justice, the rights and privileges about to be conferred. It would have been in vain to define the limits of power, to issue directions for guiding the conduct of public servants in their transactions with the people, or to have abrogated the oppressive privileges of the chiefs, and to have assured the people of the intention of government to protect them against all invasion of their rights, either by open violence, by the exaction of services, or by oppressive contributions, without establishing effective means of obtaining redress when aggrieved. The system acted upon was at once barbarous and revolting. Practices prevailed under the sanction of native law, which were abhorrent to the criminal jurisdiction of any enlightened nation, without being at all necessary to the due administration of justice[87]. I allude particularly to torture and mutilation. These the Earl of Minto immediately abolished, by his proclamation of the 11th September 1811, in which, besides this beneficial and humane enactment, he laid down clearly and distinctly the liberal and enlightened principles which should guide the local government in the subsequent revision of the civil and criminal code of the colony. The result was the enactment of the code of judicial and police regulations which will be found in the Appendix to this work[88]. The outlines of these regulations, and the principles which dictated them, are contained in a Minute which I recorded on the 11th February 1814, when they were completed and promulgated; and the following quotations from that document may be sufficient to put the reader in possession of the change which was effected.

"It was essential, in conducting the revenue arrangements, that the measures taken for the establishment of a good and efficient police, and the full and impartial administration of justice throughout the island, should preserve an equal pace.

"Rights were not to be bestowed and defined, without a suitable provision for their being effectually guarded against any invasion; and it became an object of the first moment, to form such an adequate and consistent code of regulations, as should serve, in every instance, to guide the executive officers of government in the performance of their duty, and to make known, and secure to the people, the means of obtaining redress, whenever they felt themselves in any way aggrieved.

"The system found existing on our first arrival was at once complicated and confused. In the principal towns there were established courts, but these were constituted in all the troublesome formalities of the Roman law; and in the different residencies were provincial courts, styled land-raads, where the native form and law was left to take its course, with all its barbarities and tortures.

"The Dutch government, proceeding entirely on the system of commercial monopoly, paid very inferior attention to their internal administration. They had little other connexion with their best subjects, the cultivators of the soil, than in calling on them, from time to time, for arbitrary and oppressive contributions and services; and for the rest, gave them up to be vassals to the various intermediate authorities, the Regents, Demángs, and other native officers. These either at first purchased their situations, or stipulated for a certain tribute, in service or money, in consideration of which all the inferior classes of inhabitants were made over, to be dealt with by them as most pleasing to themselves. Policy, and the common attention to their own good, suggested to these a certain equity of procedure, and it was generally the custom to leave each village to its own management, with respect to police and settling the petty quarrels that occurred within its limits; but for the continuance of what was good in such a system, there was no security whatsoever, and oppression and injustice must have constantly occurred. Where the will of the lord was the paramount law, his vassals could only have depended on his natural goodness of disposition for being equitably treated. No remedy was afforded where the reverse was the case, and they possessed, in short, no security, no freedom whatsoever.

"On the propriety of the measures to be adopted by us to remedy such evils, no doubt could exist.

"The first proclamation of the enlightened founder of the present government adverted immediately to this subject. As a step that could not, consistently with British ideas, admit of a moment's delay, it instantly ordained, that torture and mutilation should no longer make part of any sentence to be pronounced against criminals; and it then proceeded to define clearly the relative situation of the English and Dutch inhabitants, laying down rules for the future guidance of government concerning them. This proclamation, dated 11th September, 1811, has long been before the world, and it would be superfluous, in this place, to dwell on that love of justice and benevolence of disposition, which is to be traced through every part of it. It forms the basis of the present respective European rights in this colony[89].

"As a continuation of the measures so ably sketched out by my predecessor, I issued the proclamation, dated the 21st January, 1812.

"In this I attempted to simplify the clumsy and unwieldy structure of the former courts, by abolishing some, lessening the number of the judges in the remaining ones, and by defining, as accurately as I could, the limits of their respective jurisdictions.