Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/35

 GOVERNMENT. ^3 ing, a lord or chief. This brings us to that early- period of society, when, perhaps, no form of social contract existed, and the community listened to the advice of the aged and experienced, when they had need of their counsel. From attother^name W title of the Javanese so- vereign, a plausible inference is to be drawn respect- ing the immediate derivation of the despotic form of monarchy from the federal and aristocratic. The name of the higher order of nobility in Java, and especially of those to whom the governments of provinces is delegated, is Bopati. The title of the sovereign now alluded to is Sribopati, which means nothing more than the Jirst noble, though this more literal interpretation is of course, now- a-days, never given to it. This would make his office to have been precisely parallel to the Aruiiga or Krainga of the Bugis and Macassar forms of government, — make him, in short, the president of a federal association. A sort of oscillation between the despotic and the federal forms of political association may, I think, be traced in the history of both, but parti- cularly of the latter. In the former, the powers delegated to the chief of the confederacy must na- turally lead to abuse and usurpation. One ambi- tious and able prince would effect a great deal a- gainst the unskilful combination of a number, and a succession of such princes from the same family,