the Europeans and natives may almost be said to constitute two distinct services, working together as naval and military forces do upon a joint expedition; the senior service takes precedence of the junior, and has more gold and silver upon its umbrellas of state, but in its own department, that of native affairs, the junior is not directly responsible to the senior service, which can only appeal to an authority supreme alike over both. Now it is alleged that the central government punish or remove high native officials with extreme reluctance, and regard with disfavor those who bring charges against them, however well authenticated such charges may be. If there be truth in this accusation, and if the omnipotent authorities in Batavia are not willing to do justice strictly and impartially against their own native employes, it is upon them, and not upon the Dutch provincial officers, that the real blame and responsibility must rest. Unless the European assistant residents and kontroleurs are encouraged and supported in any efforts they may make for the protection of the helpless villagers, they will be sorely tempted to let things alone, to live on pleasant terms with their Javanese colleagues, and to report that all is as tranquil or contented in the provinces as it appears superficially to be. Even with the best intentions, and with absolute power at his back, any European in dealing with Asiatics must often find himself utterly unable to protect persons who will in no way take their own part. The first difficulty is to induce them when injured to make a complaint, and the next is to prevent them from withdrawing it when they are confronted with the oppressor against whom they have ventured to complain. This must not be forgotten in considering the present subject, seeing that the Dutch are accused, not of actively oppressing the Javanese, but of failing to protect them against their own chiefs.
It may well be that a mistake has been committed in bestowing upon native chiefs in government pay such a position of dignity and emolument as enhances the natural awe of their subjects, and overshadows that of the Europeans, their nominal superiors. If the idea has got abroad in Java that the native chiefs are regarded as indispensable to the administration, and that the government can hardly be induced to displace them whatever may be their conduct towards their subjects, it is most important that such an idea should be immediately dispelled. Regents strong in the favor of the paramount power are secure against revolt, and are in a position to oppress their people more grievously than independent chiefs could venture to do, and, therefore, for their oppressive acts the paramount power is responsible.
The accusations made by political opponents against the government of Netherlands India can scarcely fail to have a certain basis of truth, for they are founded upon the statement that men are liable to act in an indolent and selfish manner, preferring their own ease and interests to the welfare of those beneath them. Authority is concentrated in the hands of the governor-general and his ministers, who have been hitherto accustomed to govern after a secret and irresponsible fashion, free from the control of independent criticism. Under such a system it was only natural that abuses should spring up, and that internal reformers should be regarded as troublesome innovators, while reform from outside was altogether excluded. But changes have recently taken place, and many reforms have been effected; the old policy of concealment and monopoly has been modified, if not abandoned, and public opinion, as expressed in the home and colonial press, now counts for something in the administration. India attracts now so much attention in the Dutch Chambers as to create alarm in some quarters lest parliamentary pressure may become too important a factor in Indian affairs, and lest ignorant interference may do more harm than can be compensated by good intentions alone. One important advantage the Dutch appear to have gained by giving the most influential classes among the Javanese a direct interest in the maintenance of the existing régime. While the regents with their numerous grades of subordinate officers hold positions in no way inferior to those held by them under native sovereignty, and while they conduct the internal administration in the judicial and revenue departments, they have little inducement to desire the expulsion of the Dutch from Java. One of the most serious defects in our own Indian rule is that it offers no satisfactory career, civil or military, to an educated native gentleman of rank and distinction, and although it encourages the development of a cultivated class, it provides no field for their energies. Such a class cannot fail to become a source of embarrassment, if not of actual danger, unless we manage to utilize the natural leaders of the people, as the Dutch have done. We have now, however, governed British India for so long a time without native co-operation,
