dahara would come down to Malacca and escort his eldest brother thither for the purpose of installing him. The Bandahara, however, appeared to wait for some more active demonstration of its views on the part of our government. A temporary allowance pending a reference to Bengal was granted by the Straits Government for the maintenance of the widow and children." children." (Pp. 51-54.)

No. 2.

Extracts from "British Malaya, an account of the Origin and Progress of British Influence in Malaya," by Sir Frank Swettenham, K. C. M. G., late Governor, &c., of the Straits Colony & High Commissioner for the Federated Malay States.

***Disappointed with these places, they [Raffles and Farquhar] sailed for Johore and, either by accident or design, landed at Singapore. Finding this place almost uninhabited and with great natural advantages, Raffles immediately determined to acquire it, and to that end made a preliminary arrangement with the local chief. This Malay chief was the Dato Temenggong of Johore, a high officer of the Sultan of Johore, who asserted that he had certain special rights over Singapore, though by his action, and by his other statements to the English officers, it was clear that any arrangement made by him must be subject to the approval and confirmation of the Sultan of Johore.

"At this time, owing to intrigues and a variety of circumstances needless to relate, the younger of two brothers had, on the death of their father and during the temporary absence of the elder and rightful heir, been persuaded to allow himself to be proclaimed Sultan of Johore. It was also known that this younger brother was under the influence of designing people with Dutch sympathies. Raffles, therefore, sent at once to Rhio for the elder brother, Tunku Husein, otherwise called Tunku Long, and on his arrival in Singapore he was duly proclaimed Sultan of Johore. His title and authority were formally recognized by Raffles, on behalf of the East India Company, and a new treaty was made on 6 February, 1819, between Raffles on the one hand and the Sultan Husein and the

Temenggong on the other, by which the Malays granted to the British Government the right to settle on the island." (Chap. 4, pp. 66, 67.)

“*** The splendid roadstead and other natural advantages once seen, there would be no further doubt, and Raffles lost no time in coming to terms with the Malay chief whom he found on the spot; though he realized at once that, to secure his title, he must have the consent of the Sultan of Johore. Tunku Husein's presence was a necessity; he was summoned from Rhio, proclaimed Sultan of Johore (a title to which he had an absolute right), and the more formal treaty of 6 February was then concluded." (Chap. 4, p. 70.)

"The reader will remember that Raffles made his first treaty with the Temenggong of Johore (a high officer of the Sultan), who, for his own reasons, happened to be on the island when Raffles arrived. The treaty was signed by the Temenggong, on his own account and on behalf of the Sultan of Johore, his master. Raffles sent to Rhio for the rightful claimant to this title, acknowledged him as Sultan, and made a new treaty with both Sultan and Temenggong, agreeing to pay certain allowances to each of them. In the course of time both these Malays died, and while the Temenggong's son immediately succeeded his father and was recognized by the Indian Government, that authority declined to recognize as Sultan of Johore the son of the man whom their own officer had, with their full approval, invested with the title. It is not a nice story, and it has never been told, yet it is necessary for the purposes of this book to give it. The East India Company is dead, but it is impossible to observe, in regard to that body, the kindly injunction, de mortuis nil nisi bonum. We have seen how that Company behaved to the Sultan of Kedah, to Mr. Light, and to Sir Stamford Raffles; their treatment of Tunku Ali was no better, though in his case there were local influences which helped to his destruction. The tale, if it were all told, is a long one; so I will spare the reader the proof of every statement, the quotation of all the authorities, and give the facts as shortly as possible, merely remarking that they are the result of weeks of incessant

work, searching for and examining long-forgotten documents in the archives of Government offices."

"Colonel Butterworth was Governor of the Straits from 1843 to 1855, and during the latter part of his rule considerable friction had arisen between the Temenggong Ibrahim and Tunku Ali, the son and heir of Sultan Husein of Johore. Colonel Butterworth went on leave to Australia in November, 1851, returning in November, 1853, and during his absence Mr. Blundell, the Resident Councilor of Pinang, an officer with great local experience, officiated for him.” (Chap. 5, pp. 84, 85.)

***On 21 October, 1846, Governor Butterworth wrote as follows to the Under-Secretary to the Government of Bengal:

'I cannot ascertain that any revenue is or ever has been derived from the territory of Johore, either by the late or present Sultan and Temenggong, beyond a trifling duty on timber-which is irregularly collected by the latter chief-but the late emigration of the Chinese to the opposite coast has induced the opium farmer to enter into an agreement with the Temenggong to extend the farm to that Settlement on payment to him of $300 per mensem, as reported in my letter under date the 14 September last, No. 138, which I think should be equally divided between the Temenggong and Sultan, and I will, if the Honourable the Deputy-Governor of Bengal approve of it, endeavour to carry this arrangement into effect.

'I have little doubt that I could bring the Temenggong and the Bendahara of Pahang to accede to the young Sultan's formal installation, but the ceremony consequent on such an event would cost a considerable sum of money for which Tunku Ali would look to the Government, as also for the means of supporting the dignity. of his new position which neither his outward bearing nor his intellectual capacity would enable him to do against the powerful influence of the Temenggong of Johore.'" (Chap. 5, pp. 86, 87.)

*

"In 1852 Mr. E. A. Blundell was officiating as Governor, and he appears to have gone very carefully into this question. On 20 July he wrote as follows to the Government of India:

'I deem it my duty to request that you will lay before the most noble the Governor-General of India in Council the subject

of our present relations with the Chiefs of the country of Johore, of which the island of Singapore was at one time a dependency. My object in so doing is to endeavour to obtain a final settlement of various conflicting rights and claims, regarding which the present disputes are causing violent family quarrels, and seem to me to tend towards disruption and bloodshed in the State.

'2. The first question calling for decision is the claim of Tunku Ali, son of the late Sultan of Johore, to be installed as Sultan of that country. The two Princes (the Sultan and Temenggong of Johore) who signed the Treaty of 2 August, 1824, with Mr. J. Crawford, are both dead. The eldest son of the Sultan was a minor at the time of the death of his father, while the eldest1 son of the Temenggong was, soon after his father's death, duly installed in the office of Temenggong. In 1846 Tunku Ali, eldest surviving son of the Sultan, applied to be acknowledged and installed as Sultan, and his application was transmitted to Government by Colonel Butterworth, with a letter dated 21 October, 1846, to which the reply of 23 January, 1847, was to the effect that unless some political advantage could be shown to accrue from the measure the Honourable the President in Council declined to adopt it.

3. I am not prepared to state that any political advantage would accrue at the present time from acknowledging Tunku Ali as the Sultan of Johore, but I certainly think it impolitic to allow such an apparently clear and undisputed claim to remain any longer in abeyance.

'The Malayan laws of hereditary succession are burdened with many restrictions and conflicting rights and interests of other parties, which render it in some measure elective. Certain high officers of the State must concur in acknowledging the claim of a successor, who of course finds it necessary to bind them to his interests by handsome presents and promises for the future. Until the sanction and approval of these State officers be obtained, no claim to the 'Musnud' is, in theory, held valid, and the natural consequence is that, in all Malayan States, when the supreme authority is weakened, the hereditary succession is attended with disputes and bloodshed. In the case of Johore, the succession to the Sultanship re

1It was the second son.

quires the sanction of the Temenggong and the Bendahara. Of these two great officers, the first, the Temenggong, is a pensioner, and is dependent on the British Government, being the son of him who signed the Treaty of 1824 with Mr. Crawford, and receiving an allowance of $350 a month for himself and his father's family. It would appear that the Governorship of Johore, under the Sultan, is, or was, an hereditary appanage of the Temenggong, and in virtue of this, the present man, while residing wholly at Singapore, has administered the Government of Johore and possessed himself of the entire revenue of the country, preventing (and in some instances forcibly) the young Sultan from exercising any of the rights of sovereignty.

*

'5. I cannot deny that it seems better for our interests that the rule over the country of Johore should remain, as at present, wholly in the hands of the Temenggong. Owing to the notice extended towards him by the Government of the Straits, and by the Mercantile community of Singapore, he has become comparatively civilized, and is undoubtedly superior to the young Sultan in the capacity to govern the country of Johore in subservience to British interests, but I am bound to state it as my opinion that if the same degree of notice had been extended towards Tunku Ali, both by the Government and the community of Singapore, that is, had he in his youth been taken by the hand, his vices discouraged and his good qualities fostered, he would have proved himself as good a ruler, and as valuable an ally, as the Temenggong. As it is, I agree with the resident Councillor at Singapore, in thinking that much confusion and trouble may ensue from recognizing him as the Sultan, but still I am impressed with the injustice of disregarding the claims of the son of the Prince from whom we obtained the island of Singapore, simply because it is less troublesome, and perhaps more advantageous to us, that the rule should continue in the hands of a subordinate officer. * * I doubt not that, at the instance of the British Government, the two great officers will do immediately what is required of them without insisting on the receipt of the customary presents.

7. * * It consists of a letter addressed to me by Tunku Ali which was transmitted to the Resident Councillor at Singapore, whose reply embodies the objections that may be urged against the