Multatuli.online

[1 april 1868
Beoordeling in The Westminster Review]

1 april 1868

The Westminster and Foreign Quaterly Review (London: Trübner & Co) publiceert een ongesigneerde bespreking van de Max-Havelaarvertaling. (M.M.)

Deze april-aflevering (blz. 299-612) bevat acht uitvoerige artikelen en als negende de rubriek Contemporary Literature met vijf onderafdelingen. De tweede daarvan (blz. 542-563) betreft Politics, Sociology, Voyages and Travels; de recensent bespreekt achtentwintig publikaties; de Max Havelaar is daarvan nr. 19 (blz. 554-556).

It is difficult to say whether ‘Max Havelaar’ [*] ‘Max Havelaar; or the Coffee Plantations of the Dutch Trading Company.’ By Multatuli. Translated from the original manuscript by Baron Alphonse Nahuys. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. 1868. is more interesting as a novel or powerful as a political pamphlet. From either point of view it is of rare and first-rate excellence. In its life-like actuality it constantly recals Defoe, while in its tender and original humour it suggests Sterne in his best moods. The subject revolves round the Dutch government of Java and its other insular possessions in the East. The peculiarities of Dutch administration have been not long since held up to England as an object of admiration, and as a model we should do well to study and imitate. In Max Havelaar they are made the object of the most burning invective, and yet even from its pages it is easy to perceive how they could still in Europe maintain the high character which has been given them. The Dutch hold their Indian empire by a complete and undisputed conquest, but administer it through the native chiefs, interfering as little as possible with the social system they found prevailing in the islands. They know perfectly well how tyrannous in many of its features that system is, and they appoint residents and sub-residents to advise and control their ‘younger brother,’ the native Regent. These European officials, however, are but poorly paid, while the native chiefs have often truly princely incomes, which are increased by a percentage on all the exportable articles which are grown in their districts. Whole regions of the country are often reduced to starvation by these chiefs, who insist upon their subjects cultivating coffee, indigo, and spices, to the neglect of the rice fields, which yield their main crop and chief sustenance. The quasi-feudal rights which these regents have always possessed of demanding personal service, and levying contributions on the property of their subjects, enable them to subdue, or drive out of their districts, all who affect any independence. It is very true that the resident is appointed to restrain these excesses within endurable limits, but he is practically helpless and powerless in the matter. The oppressed native, who has appealed to him under cover of the night, will contradict his own indictment when he is, in rare cases, brought face to face with his ‘father’ before the higher European officials, and the sub-resident who has endeavoured to do him justice acquires himself the character of a false accuser and disturber of the tranquillity of the colony. Private remonstrance is, indeed, deferentially listened to, but it is immediately disregarded by the regents. On the part of the higher officials, the settled principle is, that the exports to Europe must be kept up, and a fair face put upon matters to the home authorities. If a few natives, who have been driven by oppression to appeal to the nearest sub-resident, and in spite of the utmost precaution in approaching him for the purpose, have been discovered in doing so, are found the next morning to have been ‘drowned’ on their return to their village; too much inquiry is thought by the colonial authorities to disturb the ‘tranquillity of the colony,’ to repeat a favourite phrase of theirs. The poor and peculative sub-residents are bribed by the chiefs, the weak are intimidated, and those who are neither dishonest nor timid run the greatest risk of finding something in some solemn feast to which they are invited that prevents their ever attending any other. And the superior officials will have it so. The evils are so great, and their cure so difficult, that each man puts off the day of reformation to the times of his successor. The Governor-General is usually a person who knows nothing of the colony before his arrival in it, and is immediately surrounded by men who have long since resolved to make the best of a bad matter. The most energetic soon succumb to the combined influences of the climate and such an entourage. To arouse the Dutch people to a full inquiry into the condition of their Indian empire is the object of the author. It is needless to compare this book in its aim and purpose with ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin.’ It is far more convincing in its singularly life-like scenes and characters than that celebrated novel. Indeed, it is perfectly wonderful what an intimate feeling of insight into the whole social system of an oriental people the author succeeds in communicating to his readers. As digressive as Uncle Toby, the tale, during its progress, seems constantly to halt or wander from the point, and it is not until we arrive at the last chapters that the consummate art reveals itself by which an unwilling public is led to listen to a tale so repugnant to its prepossessions. The genuine and original humour with which the coffee broker of Amsterdam is drawn will leave Batavus Drystubble an immortal memory in the minds of all who here make his acquaintance. Many have descanted on the close alliance between humour and pathos. In the author of Max Havelaar they will find a fresh instance in support of their theory. The poetry of his oriental scenes, the sympathy he feels for the unredressed wrongs of the native Javanese, are as touching as his portraiture of Dutch self-complacency and narrow respectability is ironical and scorching. He is as true as Jan Steen in his pictures of his fellow-countrymen, while his oriental scenes affect you like some of the most beautiful of Cuyp's atmospheres. We regret greatly that our limits preclude us from extracting either Drystubble's self-portraiture or the affecting Indian idyl of Saidjah and Adinda. The publication of this book aroused a perfect storm in the author's native country. His bold and outspoken challenge to the government to contradict any of his assertions has never been replied to; but rather an effort has been made to restrict its sale. The author finding that he had unwittingly parted with the full copyright, no second edition has been allowed. He may well call himself ‘Multatuli’. But his sub-residentship in Java has enabled him to add the name of Douwes Dekker to the very first rank of European novelists and philanthropists. The English translation has been made by Baron Nahuys with remarkable ability and command of a language foreign to him.