enabling it to
provide for the defence of the country and the preservation of internal
order at a lower relative cost than probably any other Asiatic country
the Government of which is in the hand of Europeans. Sir JAMES BROOKE
did not marry, and died in 1868, having appointed as his successor the
present Raja CHARLES JOHNSON, who has taken the name of BROOKE, and has
proclaimed his eldest son, a youth of sixteen, heir apparent, with the
title of Raja Muda. The form of Government is that of an absolute
monarchy, but the Raja is assisted by a Supreme Council composed of two
European officials and four natives nominated by himself. There is also
a General Council of some fifty members, which is not usually convened
more frequently than once in two or three years. For administrative
purposes, the country is divided into Divisions, each under a European
Resident with European and Native Assistants. The Resident administers
justice, and is responsible for the collection of the Revenue and the
preservation of order in the district, reporting direct to the Raja.
Salaries are on an equitable scale, and the regulations for leave and
pension on retirement are conceived in a liberal spirit.

There is no published Code of Laws, but the Raja, when the occasion
arises, issues regulations and proclamations for the guidance of
officials, who, in criminal cases, follow as much as possible the Indian
Criminal Code. Much is left to the common sense of the Judicial
Officers, native customs and religious prejudices receive due
consideration, and there is a right of appeal to the Raja. Slavery was
in full force when Sir JAMES BROOKE assumed the Government, all captives
in the numerous tribal wars and piratical expeditions being kept or sold
as slaves.

Means were taken to mitigate as much as possible the condition of the
slaves, not, as a rule, a very hard one in these countries, and to
gradually abolish the system altogether, which latter object was to be
accomplished by 1888.

The principal item of revenue is the annual sum paid by the person who
secures from the Government the sole right of importing, preparing for
consumption, and retailing opium throughout the State. The holder of
this monopoly is known as the "Opium Farmer" and the monopoly is termed
the "Opium Farm." These expressions have occasionally given rise to the
notion that the opium-producing poppy is cultivated locally under
Government supervision, and I have seen it inc