Chiefs. And, as though it were not sufficient to prescribe this duty in general, an additional separate oath is demanded from the Assistant-Residents, when assuming the control of a division, that they shall consider this paternal care of the population as one of their first duties.
This, assuredly, constitutes a glorious calling. To support justice, to protect the humble against the powerful, to defend the weak against the force majeure of the strong, to demand the return of the poor man’s ewe-lamb from the pen of the princely robber . . . is not this enough to make the heart glow with joy, at the thought that one is called to so glorious a task? And if at times the official in the interior of Java should be dissatisfied with his position or reward, let him turn his gaze to the sublime duty imposed upon him, to the supreme delight that the fulfilment of such a duty carries with it, and he will desire no other reward.
But . . . that duty is not easy. First of all one has to decide definitely where use has ceased to make room for abuse. And . . . where abuse exists, where indeed robbery or tyranny has been practised, the victims themselves are but too frequently accomplices, be it from too much submissiveness, be it from fear, be it from distrust of the will or the power of the person appointed to protect them. Everyone knows that the European official may be called any moment to another position, whilst the Regent, the powerful Regent, remains. Besides, there are so many ways of appropriating the possessions of a poor simple-minded person. When a mantree[1] tells him that the Regent wishes to have his horse, with the result that the desired animal is shortly after lodged in the stables of the Regent, this does not prove by any means—oh, certainly not!—that the Regent had not the intention to pay a high price for the animal . . . sometime. When hundreds are working in the fields of a Chief without receiving payment, it by no means follows that this is being done on his behalf. May it not have been his intention to make the harvest over to them, from a purely
- ↑ Native inspector.
