Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/38

 26 GOVERNMENT. principles of absolute government, its restoration on an extensive scale required only the success of a new line of usurpers from the ranks of the petty sovereigns, whose power was established on the downfall of the last absolute government. This oscillation may be easily traced in the history of those nations of the Archipelago, where there has been a field for the establishment of considerable states, as among the Malays and Javanese. Whatever be the form of government amon<r the civilized tribes of the Archipelago, slavery, or at least servitude, is alike the lot of the people, but their condition is invariably most easy and com- fortable, where the absolute authority of one des- pot has superseded that of the many. * They even enjoy a larger share of personal freedom under such a government ; for their immediate rulers are in some degree responsible. The government lation of the events which, in creating at the same lime a great inequality of fortune, enjoyment, and individual happi- ness, have gradually placed a part of the nation under the tu- torage and control of the otiier. We shall seek for this relation in vain in the annals of history. They transmit to us the memory of the great political revolutions, wars, con- quests, and other scourges which have afflicted humanity, but they inform us nothing of the more or less deplorable lot of the poorest and most numerous class of society." — Humboldt' % Political Essat^ on Netu Spaing Book II. chap. 6,
 * " The history of the lower classes of a peojile is the re-