elected and 4,737 nominated ex officio. But this does not fairly exhibit the advance made by the elective principle, for the nominated municipal commissioners of small towns or in backward provinces are included. It is more instructive to point out that in the 107 municipalities of the Northwestern provinces there were 1,218 elected to 317 nominated members, and that in the 145 municipalities of Bengal the proportion was 1,154 to 944. Out of the aggregate number of municipal commissioners, concerning whom information is available, 6,790 were natives and 839 Europeans. The population within municipal limits was, according to the census of 1891, no less than 15,024,308, of whom 1,580,715 resided in the three presidency towns. The larger the town and the more vigorous the municipality, the greater is the power of local administration conceded to it, and the larger the proportion of elected members. The establishment of rural self-government has been undertaken later than that of urban self-government, and presents peculiar difficulties, owing to the nature of the population and the distances to be traversed to attend meetings. Nevertheless district and rural boards have been formed in every province except Burma to administer and allot local taxation. The principle of election has been admitted as far as possible, and in the Northwestern provinces and Oudh 1,284 out of 1,564 members of the district boards were elected, and in Bengal 323 members out of 793. The greater part of the expenditure of these rural boards is devoted to local roads, but as the idea of local self-government develops they receive charge of primary education and sanitation. It is more difficult to get members to attend these boards than in municipalities, but with increased responsibility and powers it is hoped that this difficulty will lessen. * *Excluding the village watch, still maintained as a subsidiary police in many parts of the country, the regular police of all kinds in British India in 1890 consisted of a total strength of 150,591 officers and men, being an average of 1 policeman to about 63 square miles of arca and to about 1,468 of the population. The total cost of maintenance was Rx. 2,583,983, of which Rx. 2,418,973 was payable from the imperial or provincial revenues. The former figure gives an average cost of Rs. 26, 13, 8, or (at the old rate of exchange of 2s. to the rupee) of about £2 13s. 84d. per square mile of area, and of 1 ana 9 pies, or (at the old rate of exchange) about 24d. per head of population. The average pay of each constable was Rs. 7 a month, or £8 8s. a year. In 1890 the total number of places of confinement in British India, including central and district jails and lockups, was 746; the total number of prisoners admitted during the year or remaining over from the previous year was 495,820; the daily average was 88,353. The places of transportation for all British India are the Andaman and Nicobar islands, where there are two penal establishments, containing in 1890-91 a daily average of 11,804 convicts.

*

THE GOVERNMENT OF JAVA AND THE SHARE OF THE NATIVES AND EUROPEANS, RESPECTIVELY, IN ITS ADMINISTRATION.

The government in Java is administered by a small body of carefully trained officials sent from Netherlands for this duty, who, by a skillfully devised and elaborate system, obtain the cooperation of the native chiefs in carrying into execution the laws and regulations, which are made by the Dutch Government in Netherlands and Java in combination. In Netherlands the colonial department is under the direction of a member of the council of ministers, corresponding with our term cabinet, and through him are submitted to the Sovereign the more important of the laws and regulations framed by the Governor-General and his council in Java.

The Governor-General, appointed by the home Government, who is located in the island, exercises supreme control over the different branches of the general administration, issues ordinances and regulations, declares war, makes peace, and concludes treaties with the native princes; appoints civil and military employees, and watches over and protects the interests of the natives. He is aided by a council composed of five members, whose advice, however, he is not bound to follow, these officials being known as directors and subject to the control of the governor. These directors are in charge, respectively, of finance, public instruction, industries and worship, justice and public works, and the department of the interior. The commanders of the army and navy are the heads of their respective departments. Meetings of these department chiefs are called by order of the governor-general, and they form what is known as the "council of directors."

The island is divided into twenty-two provinces, at the head of which are European officers, who are as powerful in their provinces as the governor-general in the colony. These officials, or "residents," are appointed by the governor-general. Each resident, who is a European, is aided by an assistant resident and comptrollers, whose duty it is to see that the laws and regulations are carried out throughout the province. All of these European officials must have received a careful training, either in the institutions maintained for that purpose in Netherlands, or in the island, or both.

The agency through which the resident and his aids carry out the details of the government in the province, or residency, as each district is called, is the regent, or "younger brother," as he is called, who is always a native functionary belonging to one of the highest families of the country, and frequently of princely birth, and who receives a high compensation for his services in the administration of government among the natives. The families from which these "younger brothers" are selected, having been for preceding generations the rulers of the natives, their directions of the details of the government are the more readily accepted by the natives; and this is especially true by reason of the fact that the real ruler, the European resident, masks his authority under the title of "elder brother." The regent, or younger brother, is paid a larger salary than the resident himself; has the right of precedence over all European functionaries except the resident; is surrounded by princely pomp, holds court where, according to Leclercq, "all the natives, even of his own family, approach him on their knees only;" has a numerous retinue, and exercises his control over all the native chiefs of the regency and through them over the people as a whole.

THE SYSTEM DESCRIBED BY AN ENGLISH OFFICIAL OF INDIA.

"The system of administration in Java," says Henry Scott Boys, whose long service in British India renders his view of government in Java especially valuable, was, under the native sovereigns, almost identical with that of Akbar in India. The headmen of the villages were, as in India, chosen by the villagers themselves. The rulers of the subdistricts and provinces were appointed, and all held office at the pleasure of those who nominated them. With their duties as revenue collectors they combined the offices of criminal and civil judges, being assisted by the Musselman law officer and legal counselor, who was the expounder of local customs, which regulated much the dispensing of justice. The parallel between the Javan and Indian systems is curiously exact. When the Dutch made good their footing in the island they made no attempt to undertake its government. So far as the natives were concerned, they left them and their management entirely to their native rulers. They insisted on certain articles of commerce being kept close monopolies for themselves. They demanded from each district a forced contingent of rice, leaving the regents to levy it from the villages in whatever manner they pleased; compelled the regents to supply whatever labor they required, and after they had started the coffee plantations, required the regents to see that every cultivator planted, nurtured, and plucked a certain number of coffee trees. Java and Madura are now divided into twenty-five residencies, which comprise seventy-eight regencies, each of which latter divisions is 1Rx. 10 rupees: present exchange value of the rupee, about 33 cents.

*

*

*

ruled by a native regent, assisted by an 'assistant resident,' who has as his lieutenant in the work a 'comptroller.' At the headquarters of each residency is a resident, with powers of supervision over the officers in charge of the regency. The work of administration is supposed to be done by the native regent, and all orders to the people are issued through him. The actual rulers are, of course, the Dutch, but it is their settled policy to carry, if possible, the native upper classes with them in their administration, and they endeavor to secure this object, even at the risk of much inconvenience and ineffectual government, which but too often results from this dual rule. The regency is again divided into small districts, each under immediate orders of a 'wadena,' who, like the regent, is a native of high family, with 'mantries' under him. These mantries, who are officials corresponding to the petty officers of police in India, are the relations, generally, of the regent and wadenas. In each village there is a headman, who is elected by the villagers. This man collects the land tax, allots the rice fields, keeps the roster of men at work on the plantations or roads, sees to the supply of gratuitous provisions for the mantries and others, and tells off the villagers as watchmen in their turn. He settles small disputes, and, being chosen by the people, is trusted by them, and is really a protection to them. The principle upon which the courts are based is the conferment of very limited powers upon both European and native officers sitting alone, even the regent being unable to inflict a severer punishment than ten days' imprisonment, while the joint court, 'landraad,' in which the resident and regent, with one other native of high rank, sit together, can inflict the penalty of death, subject to the confirmation of the supreme court at Batavia. The landraad is the principal civil and criminal court for natives. The resident, regent, and wadena exercise petty civil jurisdiction when sitting alone. No Europeans, however, are subject to any other than purely Dutch courts.

FURTHER TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH EXPERTS.

Mr. W. Basil Worsfold, in his A Visit to Java, published in 1893, describes the system of administration as follows: "The Netherlands India, as the Dutch possessions in the East are officially styled, includes the whole of the Malay archipelago, with the exception of the Philippine Islands belonging to Spain, part of Borneo in the possession of the North Borneo Company, and the eastern half of New Guinea, which is shared by Germany and England. The total area is officially stated to be 719,674 square miles, and the total population 29,765,031. It is administered by a governor-general, a government secretary, and a council of state consisting of five members, who are appointed from among the chief Dutch residents in the island of Java. As all matters of general policy are controlled by the secretary for the colonies, who is a member of the home Government, the functions of the colonial government are mainly executive and consultative. So close is the connection that the colonial estimates for revenue and expenditure have to receive the approval of the home Government before they can be carried out. Moreover, the various government officials scattered through the archipelago are responsible to the secretary for the colonies. There are colleges established both in Holland and Batavia in which the young men intended for the colonial service can receive a suitable training.

"The physical sanction upon which the Dutch authority rests is an army of 30,000 men, composed of Dutch, German, Swiss, Italians, and native, but officered exclusively by Dutchmen, and a navy of 50 ships. Of these troops, a large proportion (amounting in 1891 to 16,537) are native. The headquarters of the army is fixed at Batavia. There are barracks at Weltevreden, and at Meester Cornelis in the capital, and additional accommodation has been recently provided at Buitenzorg. The fleet is stationed at Soerabaya, a town which possesses the best harbor in Java, and which is conveniently situated at the other end of the island. There are, however, a few ships always stationed at Batavia. The greater portion of the fleet is composed of the ships of the Netherlands Indian navy, which is permanently stationed in the archipelago; but there are among them some ships belonging to the Dutch navy, which are relieved every three years.

"At the present time (1892) the chief occupation of the colonial forces is the establishment of the Dutch authority in Sumatra. Since 1874 the natives of Achin have successfully resisted the Dutch, and the Achin war has proved so costly and so disastrous that the home Government have ordered the operations of the troops to be confined to such as are purely defensive. Acting under these instructions, the colonial forces have retired behind a chain of forts, and all attempts to advance into the interior have been abandoned. Last year (1891) Baron Makay, the secretary for the colonies, was able to assure the States-General that 'excellent results were expected from the blockade system' now adopted, and that the Achinese were already beginning to feel the inconvenience of being cut off from their supplies of necessaries, such as opium and tobacco.

"Java is by far the most important of the islands of the Malay archipelago. Its population is four times that of the remaining Dutch possessions in the East. This population is divided as follows (1890): Europeans, 48,783; Chinese, 237,577; Arabs, 13,943; other Orientals, 1,806; natives, 22,765,977; total, 23,068,086.

"With the exception of the Chinese, the great retail traders of the Malay countries, almost the entire population of the island is 'native.' This term includes various branches of the Malay race, of which the chiefs are the Javanese and Sudanese, occupying, respectively, the east and west of the island. Separate dialects are also spoken by the people of Bantam and Madura. There is little to distinguish the two chief races, except that the Javanese are more warlike and spirited than the Sudanese, who are somewhat more dull and almost entirely agricultural. Speaking generally, the native population of Java is but little inferior in intelligence to the native population of India, while in some respects-in particular in the readiness shown by the native princes to assimilate European learning and customs, and in a certain artistic sensibility manifested by the whole people-they resemble the inhabitants of Japan.

"The majority of the Javanese natives are employed in the cultivation of rice; in work on plantations, sugar, coffee, cinchona, and tea, and in various lesser industries, such as the making of mats and weaving of sarongs. They are also by no means unskillful as workers in clay, wood, and metals, and as artisans generally, and are successfully employed by the Government in working the railways and posttelegraph services. For purposes of administration the island is divided into twenty-four residencies. Each residency is further divided into districts, and finally into campongs or townships. It will be remembered that when, at the end of the eighteenth century, the Dutch Government took over the island from the East India Company they received possession of the soil, subject only to such limitations as the company had already imposed upon their ownership. Since that time the colonial government has pursued a policy in Java similar to that pursued by the British in India, by which the native princes have been gradually induced to part with their territorial rights and privileges and to accept in return proportionate monetary compensations. At the same time the services of these princes' have been utilized in the work of government. As a result of this latter, the sums paid originally as incomes equivalent to the revenues derived from the rights surrendered have now come to be of the nature of official salaries. Most of these regents, as the native princes are called, receive from 2,000 to 3,000 florins a year; but some one or two, such as the sultan of Djokja and the regent of Bandong,

receive as much as 70,000 or 80,000 florins. The Dutch have wisely employed, as much as possible, the social organization which they found in existence, and native authorities and institutions have been supplemented by European officials. In each residency there is, therefore, a double set of officials, European and native. First of all there is the resident, who resides at the chief town, and is the head of all officials, European and native. Under him there are assistant residents, controleurs, and assistant controleurs. The controleur is an official more especially connected with the Government plantations, and the regulation of the industrial relations between the planters and the peasants or coolies is an important duty which he fulfills. The regent is the head of the native officials, but, of course, inferior in authority to the resident, whom he calls his 'elder brother.' Under him is an officer called a patih, and then wadenas, assistant wadenas, and ultimately the village chiefs or loerahs. In addition to these there is a further official called a jaksa, who ranks above the wadenas, and receives information of any offenses committed. In the villages the loerahs act as policemen, but in the towns there are regular native policemen called oppas, who also attend on the wadenas. In each residency there is a court of justice consisting of a president, who is a paid legal official, a clerk of the court, and a pangoeloe or priest for administering oaths. In this court the jaksa sits as native assessor to the European judge-president. There are superior courts at the three great towns, Batavia, Samarang, and Soerabaya, and a supreme court at Batavia. Murder and crimes of violence are generally rare, but small thieving is common throughout the island."

A FRENCH VIEW OF GOVERNMENTAL METHODS IN JAVA.

M. Jules Le Clercq, in his excellent work, Un Séjour dans l'ile de Java, published in 1898, describes the Dutch system of government in Java as follows:

The administration of the colonial possessions is exercised in the King's name by the minister of colonies, and each year a detailed report is presented to the States-General on the situation in the colonies. The government of the Dutch Indies rests no more, as in the time of the famous Dutch India Company, in the hands of a commission, but is vested now in one man, a functionary of the King and responsible to him for the proper discharge of his office. This responsibility finds its sanction in the power granted to the King and the second chamber of the States-General to impeach him.

THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

This royal officer has the title of governor-general. He is the commander of the land and sea forces of the Dutch Indies; he exercises supreme control over the different branches of the general administration; he issues ordinances on all matters not regulated by law or royal decree; he declares war, makes peace, and concludes treaties with the native princes; he appoints civil and military employees; he has the right of amnesty, clemency, and no capital punishment can be executed without his sanction. One of his most important duties is the protection of the natives; he watches that no cession of land violate their rights, and issues rules and regulations relating to the "government cultures;" he fixes the kind and extent of the forced labor and sees to the proper execution of all ordinances pertaining to this matter; he has the power of expelling all foreigners who disturb the public order. In a word, the representative of the King is vested with all the powers; he is, in the Empire of the Indies, almost the King in the absolute sense of the term.

THE COUNCIL.

To be sure, by his side, or rather under him, there is an India council meeting under his chairmanship and constituted of a vicepresident and four members, but this is a mere consultative body whose opinion he takes without, however, being bound to follow it. True, in certain cases specified by law he is bound by the decision of a majority of the council, but as the council is not responsible for the conduct of the Government, the governor-general, even in such cases, has the right of appeal to the King, and, pending this appeal, he has the right, even against the advice of the council, to take such measures as he regards opportune when he thinks that the general interest of the colony would suffer from the delay which an appeal to the King involves. As a matter of fact, the governorgeneral possesses all executive and legislative powers.

NO SECRETARIES OR MINISTERS.

There are no secretaries or ministers at the head of the civil administration but officials, five in number, who hold the modest title of directors. These officials are subject to the order and supreme control of the governor, who in reality is the prime minister. There is a director of the interior, one of finance, another of public instruction, religious worship and industries, a director of justice, and one of public works. The commanders of the army and navy are the heads of their respective departments. The meetings of these different department chiefs, called by order of the governor-general, form the council of directors. To what extent the affairs of this council are almost family affairs may be best seen from the fact that sometimes the directors are chosen from among the brothers of the governor.

THE SHARE OF THE NATIVES IN ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNMENT.

The machinery of the local administration, even better than that of the central administration, reveals the ingenious scheme by means of which a very small number of functionaries rules the densest population of the world. The island of Java is divided into twenty-two provinces, at the head of which are European officials who are as powerful in their provinces as the governor-general in the colony at large; but just as the chiefs of the departments have but the title of director, these provincial governors or prefects call themselves modestly "residents," and their provinces, very often containing over a million souls, are called "residencies." The "resident" appointed by the governor-general is in his province the representative of the government, and as such the chief of the civil administration, the finances, justice, police, and he has the right to wear the payong, or gold parasol, which, in the eyes of the Javanese, is a mark of the highest rank. He is assisted by the assistant residents, who in turn have subordinates in the persons of the comptrollers, who see to the proper observation of the regulations relating to the natives, visit periodically the villages of their districts, listen to complaints, oversee the plantations of the government, and form, so to say, the link which connects the native administration to the European administration.

HOW THE NATIVES AID IN THE DETAILS OF ADMINISTRATION.

The following features of the Dutch colonial service in Java show best its skillful organization. The mechanism consists partly in concealing the true motors of the machine under the network of pure display, by leaving to the native princes the illusion of power and veiling the actions of the European rulers. Each residency comprises one or more regencies, and alongside of each resident there are one or more regents. Now, while the resident is always a European official, the regent, on the other hand, is always a native functionary belonging to the highest families of the countries and frequently of princely birth, who bears, according to the importance of his rank, the title of "Raden Adipati," or "Mas Toemenggoeng,' or even that of "Pangeran" (prince).

The natives are subject to the regent, their natural chief; the resident, although the real holder of power, does nothing except through the medium of the regent. In order to conceal his authority, he allows himself to be regarded in the eyes of the natives as the elder brother of the regent, and gives his orders to his brother in the form of recommendations. This formula, which would be

regarded meaningless with us, has quite an importance with the Javanese, since in their eyes the elder brother, in the absence of the father, is the chief of the family, respected by the younger brothers, but still regarded always as brother, and not as official chief. Being a brother merely, the regent enlightens him with his counsel. The European official is even held to take the advice of the native functionary, whenever the interests of the native population are at stake. The younger brother is the intimate counselor of the elder brother in all cases where the latter has to be enlightened on the condition of the people; but once a resident has made his decision, after having heard the opinion of the regent, the latter, as a good younger brother, has to submit whatever the decision be. In order to leave to the natives the illusion of autonomy, the Dutch not only permitted them to keep their rulers, "wedonos" (village chiefs), but even their emperor. The territory of the Vorstenlanden, the central province which occupies the fifteenth part of the area of Java, constitutes actually a small empire, the last fragment of the Kingdom of Mataram. The Vorstenlanden are divided between two princes, the soesoehoenan and the sultan, the first residing at Solo or Soerakarta and the latter at Djokjakarta. These two capitals are even now the centers of Javanese life, and it is here that one can best form an idea of what Java has been in the past. Formerly the Vorstenlanden formed but a single province under a single soesoehoenan, but during last century the Emperor Hamangkoe, despairing of quelling a Chinese insurrection, called to his aid the Dutch and ceded to them some land in return for their services. Hardly freed from the Chinese, he met with the claims of his brother, who insisted upon his right to share the throne. Hamangkoe, in order to escape new struggles, applied for arbitration to the Dutch, who put an end to the dispute by a decision quite in conformity with the policy inspired by the principle, “divide ut imperes" (divide and rule). They divided the kingdom into two provinces, which was the best means to weaken a powerful State. The greater part of the two divisions_formed the province of Soerakarta and fell to the share of soesoehoenan; the other division was turned over to the brother of the Emperor, who became sultan of Djokjakarta. The present Emperor and sultan are descendants of these two princes. The former bears the title of "soesochoenan," which means "his highness." He also has the titles of "The Nail of the World," "The Commander of the Armies," "The Servant of the Charitable, ," "The Master of Worship," "The Regulator of Religion."

THE GOVERNMENT OF FRENCH INDO-CHINA AND THE SHARE OF THE EUROPEANS AND NATIVES, RESPECTIVELY, IN ITS ADMINISTRATION.

The French colonies are, for the details of governmental methods, divided into two classes: (1) Those in which limited powers of legislation are granted to a local legislature, in a few cases wholly elected, in others partly nominated by the home government and partly elected; (2) those in which the government is conducted by decrees. These provisions do not include, however, tariff laws and other important measures, which are regulated by general legislation of the home government. In French Indo-China a large share of the government is conducted by decrees, though a local body partly appointed and partly elected chiefly by French citizens has very limited legislative powers. Under this general term of French Indo-China are included Cochin China, Tonkin, Anam, and Cambodia, whose united area is 263,000 square miles, with a population of 22,000,000. Cochin China, Anam, and Tonkin are inhabited chiefly by Anamites, who had a well-defined system of government when the French took possession. Under that system the country was divided into districts known as "communes," in which the representatives of the ruling element formed a communal council and elected one of their number as the head of the commune, and this officer, as representing the commune, carried on the government, raised taxes, and under his general management order was maintained within his province or commune. The French have, in a limited way at least, adapted the details of the native form of government in much of this great section. Under existing French law with reference to colonies, the French executive not only administers colonial affairs, but issues general decrees for their government. This system is the result of the failure to complete legislation begun in 1854, by which a system of government for the French colonies in America was framed and the Emperor empowered to legislate for the others by decrees until a plan of government for the remainder should be framed. This plan has never been completed, however, and consequently the President and head of the colonial department direct the management of French Indo-China and other French colonies of this class by decrees.

The chief official of French Indo-China is a governor-general, appointed by the Government of France usually upon the recommendation of the department of colonies. The military and naval forces are subject to his orders, and all civil officers in the colonies are his subordinates, most of them appointed either by him or upon his recommendation. In Cochin China there is a lieutenant-governor, and in Tonkin, Anam, and Cambodia each a resident superior, each of whom is subject to the general direction of the governor-general. These in turn are assisted by residents and vice-residents, who carry out the details of the work through the existing communal machinery above described, on a plan somewhat similar to that of the Dutch in Java, relying for those details largely upon the native officials. These leading officials are paid sufficient salaries to assure the Government that they will cooperate faithfully, and, through their influence and knowledge of the people, administer the government in a manner which will be accepted by the natives. The tariff laws, however, are made by the French Government, and more of the details managed at the seat of the home government than is the case in the British or Dutch coloniss, already discussed. The colony is represented in the French Chambers by a deputy elected chiefly by the Frenchmen residing in the colony, though natives may become French citizens if they desire and participate in such election. A colonial council also exists, which consists of two members named by the privy council, two by the Saigon Chamber of Commerce, six elected by Frenchmen residing in Cochin China, and six elected by a college of delegates chosen for this purpose by the nobles of each municipality. This council sits twenty days in each year, but is prohibited from debating political matters, its only duties being to issue decrees regulating private property, discuss finance and taxation, express its opinion upon tariffs and taxes already established, and send protests to the ministry in France.

DESCRIPTION BY PROF. HENRY E. BOURNE.

The French system in French Indo-China is described by Prof. Henry E. Bourne, in a copyrighted article in the Yale Review, May, 1899, reproduced by permission, as follows:

*

Indo-China is not mere territory containing a negligible quantity of inhabitants. The people, Anamites or Cambodians, have a developed civilization, with fixed customs and laws; but, unlike the Philippine situation, outside of Sulu there has been, both in Anam and Cambodia, a monarchy, through which the French leaders could organize a subjection of the people by treaties, usually negotiated at the point of the bayonet. It has not been necessary to deal with the vague multitude and to rule chaos. Still, on the whole, there is hardly a phase of the Philippine problem not already illustrated in the history of Indo-China.

Although in the sum of French possessions, Indo-China is almost an empire, like British India, it is ruled by a governor-general. It is not a unity, either in race or in institutions or in the development of the French administration. Tonkin and Cochin China, the deltas of the Red River and of the Mekong, are connected by the long and narrow Anam, of which the inhabited portion is crowded between the mountains and the sea, so that the group resembles, as the Anamites themselves say, a long pole with a bag of rice on each

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end. These three territories were united in the first years of the century under the rule of the Emperor Gia Long, and are inhabited chiefly by the Anamites. Their social order is the same, and it has been little disturbed by the partition of the empire since the coming of the French. It is essentially democratic, with self-governing communes as its basis.

This Anamite commune is important, because it is the unit of administration and the responsible agent of the government for the collection of taxes, the raising of troops, and the execution of the law. It offers the unvarying framework of society for each advance of the population into unoccupied districts. Its honors and duties belong to the notables, who are inscribed on the tax rolls. The higher notables form the communal council, and elect one of their number mayor. As soon as their choice is accepted by the government the mayor represents the commune in all questions raised by the central administration. He carries out the laws, is chief of police, and guardian of the tax rolls.

Cambodia also belongs to Indo-China, and lies on the Mekong above Cochin China. It is the feeble remainder of an ancient kingdom, and yet its people affect to despise the encroaching Anamites, claiming their own origin in an earlier, perhaps an Aryan, emigration. Their social organization also differs from that of Anam. When the French protectorate began, they did not have the commune. Instead of a lettered aristocracy reaching the higher official positions nominally through severe competitive examinations, they had a semifeudal nobility, and administrative affairs were centralized instead of being left to local authorities. * *

*

For many years after the treaty of 1863 the protectorate had remained merely nominal. If the terms of the treaty were closely adhered to, the French resident could not legally interfere in the internal administration of the country, and the men who successively occupied the position failed to gain ascendency enough in the court of King Norodom to compensate for the legal weakness of their situation. Lanessan rather savagely regards such a failure as characteristic of French colonial officers everywhere. They do not make the least effort, he says, "to work for the increase of the native authority, and at the same time to penetrate it by our influence."

When the resident, to strengthen his position, tried to take a seat in the council of ministers, the King resisted stubbornly, but all the while he was covertly using the guaranty his throne received from the protectorate to render himself absolute. His court became more luxurious, and since his revenue did not increase, his officers, the mandarins, were not paid, and were forced to pillage the people. Roads and bridges, no longer repaired, soon almost disappeared.

From this desperate situation M. Thomson, the governor of Cochin-China, attempted to rescue the country by the treaty of June 17, 1884, negotiated under the guns of French ships. The remedy was too drastic; it attempted to revolutionize Cambodian society from top to bottom. Furthermore, it was justly believed to be an ill-conceived device for annexing Cambodia to Cochin-China, dictated by officials eager to extend their jurisdiction.

It is not astonishing that Cambodia, from king to peasant, was profoundly stirred by such an attack upon traditional privileges and national susceptibilities. Insurgent bands appeared everywhere. The peaceful inhabitants, impartially afraid of the insurgents and of the French, fled to the forests. In less than two years the country looked like a desert. Finally the resident was authorized to inform King Norodom that the treaty might be considered a dead letter, though it was not to be abrogated.

Possibly the resistance of the Cambodians would not have been so obstinate had not the French Government by its hesitancy showed that it was not sure of its policy. Though the treaty was made in the spring of 1884, the law approving it was not passed until July 17, 1885, and the decree providing for its promulgation was not issued until January 9, 1886. Furthermore, it was only in 1891, when Lanessan came out as governor-general, that the treaty was thoroughly put in force.

So much, at least, of the history of Indo-China must be told in order intelligently to explain the measures by which France has sought to administer this group of possessions. But the period of conquest saw the very machinery in Paris devised to control such portions of the national domain radically reconstructed.

POWERS OF THE FRENCH EXECUTIVE.

Americans are naturally surprised to discover that the French executive is intrusted not only with the administration of colonial affairs, but also with the legislation which devises the mechanism of government in the colonies and which regulates all the details of the colonial régime. So extensive a grant of power is rather anomalous even in a country accustomed to government by decrees. It came about in this way: The constitution of 1852 delegated to the senate the organization of the colonies. Accordingly in 1854_ Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Réunion were provided for by senatus consultum. The other colonies were left for a subsequent act, and meanwhile the Emperor was empowered to legislate for them by decrees. As the expected senatus consultum never came, the prerogative remained in his hands until his overthrow. It was then held to pass provisionally to the new executive, where it still remains, because the constitutional laws of 1875 did not touch this field of legislation. In certain cases the president can issue his decrees merely upon the report of the minister charged with the management of the colonies, and at most he is obliged to consult the council of state. But if the chambers legislate upon any matters concerning the colonies the president can not traverse this legislation by subsequent decrees. Such a system has much to commend it for the effective control of distant possessions. Many a fine enterprise has been ruined in a crisis by the sort of hesitancy and dilatoriness which may be looked for in a deliberative assembly. But while promptness is made possible there is little danger of irresponsible action, for the minister must countersign each act of the president, and he does this knowing that if he blunders intolerably he will bring defeat upon his colleagues in the cabinet. There is also less likelihood that policies will be constantly changed, since the minister, though a party leader in the chambers, is surrounded in his administrative bureaus by a permanent corps of officials, familiar with what has been previously attempted. Such a system may be as effective as military rule and yet be free from the characteristic evils of barrack-room government.

LOCAL MACHINERY OF CONTROL UTILIZED.

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As French rule in Indo-China was extended and its character changed, the local machinery of control was necessarily reconstructed on a more elaborate scale. In 1879 Cochin-China passed from the hands of the admirals to a civil régime. Le Myre de Villers was the first governor. His jurisdiction covered also the protectorate of Cambodia. And upon the renewal of the trouble in Tonkin, in 1882, it was he who sent Commander Rivière to protect French interests. But, as soon as the war was ended, the new protectorate was administered seperately, as has already been explained, by a resident general, living in Hue, and responsible to the minister of foreign affairs. After three years' experience with the plan of divided responsibility, all Indo-China was united by decree, October 17, 1887, and all residential officers subordinated to a governor-general. This union revealed the tendency gradually to subject the whole territory to a single administrative system.

The decree of October 17, which created the union, was supplemented by another three days later, which hindered its effectiveness by making the appointment of the governor-general and the higher officers of the protectorates dependent upon the joint recommendation of two ministers-the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of marine. Furthermore, no military operation could be begun without the consent of the minister of foreign affairs, and to him were to be addressed copies of the regular reports required from Indo-China. To what extent this system of dual control was practically injurious it is not possible to say. At all events, the disorders that afflicted Tonkin and the unsettled condition of Cambodia were not remedied.

ADDITIONAL POWER TO THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

After four years more it was decided to try the radical expedient of placing in the hands of the governor-general the most ample powers. In the language of the decree itself, issued April 21, 1891, he was made "the depositary of the powers of the Republic in French Indo-China." He now stood forth the rival of the governor-general of British India and of the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies.

To define his powers more in detail, the military and naval forces were subject to his orders, all civil officers were his subordinates; their appointment was dependent upon his recommendation, or, in case of minor positions, was his sole prerogative, and the higher