Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/27

 GOVERNMENT. 15 The history of this oflficer's usurpation of such ex- traordinary powers is not recorded, but may be readily imagined. The Bugis state of Wajo affords another singu- lar anomaly. There are forty princes in this state, who constitute the great council of the nation. This council is subdivided into three chambers, from each of which there are elected two princes, who in their turn elect the chief of the confederacy, called the Maticwa. This smaller council of seven princes, from which, by custom, women are ex- cluded, and in which the president, if necessary, has two votes, carry on the affairs of the general government, and decide upon all questions of go- vernment, those of peace and war excepted, which must be referred to the great national council of forty. I am now to furnish the reader with a picture of absolute government, as exemplified in that of the Javanese. This government is a hereditary despo- tism, exactly such as is established in all the great empires of Asia. There is no hereditary nobility with privileges to control or limit his authority. He is himself the first minister of religion, so that even religion has but trifling influence in restrict- ing his authority ; in short, the monarchs of Java may be considered as among the most absolute of eastern potentates. In every word which relates to the monarch, the sei'vile copiousness of the Ja«