Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/62

 50 PUBLIC REVENUE. determined at any numerical proportion, nor have the Balinese any regular land measure by which these dues are assessed. The tax is fixed upon the seed-corn, and not upon the produce. Observing that a given quantity of land, of a given fertility, which fertility is determined by long usage, re- quires an estimated number of sheaves of seed- corn, they assess each sheaf at a fixed amount, pay- able partly in money, but mostly in kind. Among the Sundas, or mountaineers of the west end of Java, a tithe is, as in Celebes, the por- tion of the crop claimed by the sovereign authority, by whatever name that authority is distinguished ; but, from some very good lands, we find double this proportion, or one-fifth claimed. It is among the Javanese, properly so called, that the proprietary right of the sovereign in the soil is most unequivocally established, and, perhaps, most arbitrarily exercised. The principle is open- ly avowed and proclaimed. In his patents of no- bility, the sovereign bestowing a revenue on the noble, or other chief, distinctly terms the land " our royal property," and he expressly specifies that it is le?it or given in trusty and not alienated. Such is the universality of this principle, that I do not believe, in the whole territory of the native princes, there are a hundred acres, over which, by the customs or laws of the country, any distinct proprietary right could be pointed out, independent