ive up to the standards of a people who are six centuries in advance of
them in national progress. If a plant is made to blossom or bear fruit
three months before its time, it is regarded as a triumph of the
gardener's art; but what, then, are we to say of this huge moral-forcing
system which we call 'Protection'? Forced plants, we know, suffer in the
process; and the Malay, whose proper place is amidst the conditions of
the Thirteenth Century, is apt to become morally weak and seedy, and to
lose something of his robust self-respect, when he is forced to bear
Nineteenth-Century fruit.

Until the British Government interfered in the administration of the
Malay States in 1874, the people of the Peninsula were, to all intents
and purposes, living in the Middle Ages. Each State was ruled by its own
Sultan or _Raja_ under a complete Feudal System, which presents a
curiously close parallel to that which was in force in Mediaeval Europe.
The _Raja_ was, of course, the paramount authority, and all power
emanated from him. Technically, the whole country was his property, and
all its inhabitants his slaves; but each State was divided into
districts which were held in fief by the _Orang Besar_, or Great Chiefs.
The conditions on which these fiefs were held, were homage, and military
and other service. The Officers were hereditary, but succession was
subject to the sanction of the _Raja_, who personally invested and
ennobled each Chief, and gave him, as an ostensible sign of authority, a
warrant and a State spear, both of which were returned to the _Raja_ on
the death of the holder. As in Europe, high treason (_derhaka_) was the
only offence which warranted the _Raja_ in forfeiting a fief. Each of
the districts was sub-divided into minor baronies, which were held, on a
similar tenure, from the District Chief by a _Dato' Muda_; and the
village communes, of which these baronies were composed, were held in a
like manner, and on similar conditions, by the Headmen from the _Dato'
Muda_. When war or any other public work was toward, the _Raja_ summoned
the Great Chiefs, who transmitted the order to their _Dato' Muda_. By
the latter, the village Headmen and their able-bodied _raayat_[1] were
called together, the free-holders in each village being bound to the
local _Penghulu_[2] by ties similar to those which bound him to his
immediate Chief. In the same way, the _Raja_ made his demands for
money-grants to the Great Chiefs, and the _raayat