d there is no doubt that it in some
respects merits it, and the contrast presented to our own system of
government in the adjacent mainland is worthy of examination. But it
would be out of place in a book which professes to do no more than
describe a pleasant tour, and X.'s opinion upon a question of such
gravity, even though formed after a lengthy sojourn amongst the Malays,
and no little personal experience of the life and manners of an Eastern
people, may be omitted. It may be recorded, however, that the question
made him ponder, and he wondered if the officials who knew everybody
also knew everything, and whether many matters worthy of record did not
find themselves washed on one side as the stream of reports wound its
way from one native official to another, then to the subordinate
European officials (sometimes married to native women), and then once
more on to the pigeon-holes of the central authority. As I write I have
before me a list of fifteen titles of native officials given to X. by
one of themselves. There is no need to enumerate them here, though
allusion to them may suggest the possibilities of the various stages of
the journey to the final pigeon-holes.

Natives themselves have evidently formed opinions on these matters,
since in some of the native states of the Peninsula it was always the
custom of the people to invite a raja from another country to come and
rule over them, experience having taught them that a man with interest
and relations in the country might not always be sufficiently impartial;
in the same manner the native Mahommedan priest is always selected from
another nationality. However, to return to the place where we left X.
riding along amongst the young tea plants. When the coolies were not
running away from him or crouching to avoid the shock of meeting his
imperial glance, he was bound to admit that they were apparently happy
and contented, and, seeing the circumstances under which they lived, it
would have been strange had they not been so. These people were provided
with ample work within easy reach of their homes, which lay among the
surrounding hills. It seemed an earthly labour paradise to an official,
accustomed to hear the complaints of planters lamenting losses due to
their labourers, imported coolies from India, China or Java, running
away. Not only is the lot of the coolies in Java more conducive to
content than those in the Peninsula, but the planter is also happier in
the c