Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/66

 Batavia. They only know the Resident, and the officials who rule under his direction.

Such a residency—there are some which contain nearly a million souls—is divided into three, four, or five divisions or regencies, at the head of which are placed the Assistant-Residents. Under these, again, the executive officers are the Controllers, Inspectors, and a number of other officers necessary for the collection of the taxes, for the supervision of Agriculture, for the erection of buildings, for Water Supply Works, for Police and for Justice.

In each division a native Chief of high rank, with the title of Regent, assists the Assistant-Resident. Such Regent, although his relation to the Government, and his position, are entirely those of a paid officer, is always of the highest nobility of the land, and often belongs to the family of the princes who in the past ruled independently over that division or the neighbouring regions. An eminently shrewd political use, therefore, is made of their ancient feudal influence—which in Asia is generally of great importance, and with the majority of the tribes is regarded as a matter of religion—whilst, for the purpose of appointing these heads as officers, a hierarchy is created, above all of which is found the Dutch authority, exercised by the Governor-General.

There is nothing new under the sun. Were not the Landgraves, Margraves, Gau-graves and Burgraves of the German Empire similarly appointed by the Emperor, and mostly chosen from the Barons? Without wishing to digress on the subject of the origin of the nobility, which lies in nature itself, I must nevertheless here remark that in our own part of the world, and yonder in distant India, the same causes have had the same results. A country having to be governed at a long distance requires officials to represent the central authority. Under the system of arbitrary military power, the Romans, for this purpose, chose the Prefects, at first usually the commanders of the legions that had subdued the lands in question. Such lands remained, as might be expected, occupied provinces, i.e. conquered regions. But when later, in the case of