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Proper and the frontier of the province is rented by a Chinaman of the name of Koh Boo Ann for 2,600 dollars per annum.* His term will not expire for nearly three years. I believe that he asks 5,000 dollars a-year for giving up his privilege. The terms are perhaps extortionate, but I incline to think that it would be worth the Government's while to accept them. The arrangement would include the purchase of the Gambling Farm, and of course during the remainder of Ong Boon's term, the Government having acquired his rights would be able to put a stop to legalized gambling, simply by not opening or licensing gambling houses. But the difficulty would arise again on the expiration of the terms, and I think it would be desirable to try and inake some permanent arrange- ment with the Perak Government for putting a stop to gambling within a certain distance of our frontier. At present gambling houses can be erected, and our coolies stripped of their earnings within sight of our stations, without our having the power to interfere.

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7. I now resume my narrative, and enter upon the question of the Perak succession. I left Penang on Thursday morning the 25th of April, about half-past six, and arrived in the Qualla Laroot about half-past one. Captain Bradbery took a letter from me to the Tunku Mantri, who returned with him and came on board the "Pluto" in the afternoon about half-past five. Almost at the same moment the Raja Muda came on board in company with his principal supporter the Laksamana, who, should state, is the father- in-law of the Tunku Mantri. At the time I was quite under the impression that the two parties came together: and as the. Raja Muda was announced as "Sultan Abdullah' and took his seat at the head of the table, while the Tanku Mantri seated himself in the background and behaved throughout in an extremely deferential manner, I was still more convinced that he had become an adherent of the Raja Muda's. Under this impression I spoke somewhat to the following effect:-That the Governor of the Straits Settlements had heard with much regret that there was a dispute in regard to the succession to the Sultanship of Perak, and had sent me to inquire into the circumstances; that so far as I had been able to learn the ordinary custom of the country was that when the Sultan died the Raja Muda succeeded him-but that in this case some difficulty had arisen, and that while some people asserted that the Raja Muda had become Sultan, there were others who maintained that the Raja Bandahara had been made Sultan; that for my part I thought it was best in all countries for people to follow, unless there were grave reasons to the contrary, the customs of their ancestors; and finally I asked the opinions of those present as to the case in hand.

8. The Laksamana at once declared himself in favour of the Raja Muda and said that he had nothing to do with the so-called election of the Raja Bandahara. From the Tunku Mantri-so long as the other party were present-I could get nothing beyond the most vague and hesitating expressions, and finding that there was evidently something behind the scenes that I did not understand, I let the interview come to an end, and the Raja Muda, and the Laksamana, with an Eurasian, of the name of Bacon, who had accompanied them took their leave.

9. It was after this that I learnt from Captain Bradbery that the Raja Muda had not come in company with the Tunku Mantri, but that while he was coming down the river with the Tunku Mantri, the Raja Muda had started from his vessel in which he was living, and that it was only by accident that the two parties had come on board at the same moment in the way they did.

10. The Tunku Mantri then begged to be taken to some part of the ship where he could not be overheard, and made a long statement in regard to the matter in question; but to make this intelligible, it is necessary that I should explain beforehand something of the circumstances of the country, as they stood at the time of the death of the last Sultan.

11. The constitutional body of the country, when all the offices are filled up, consists

of the following persons :-

I. The Sultan.

II. The Raja Muda.

III. Four Nobles of the 1st class, viz. —

1. The Raja Bandahara.

2. The Tumonggong.

3. The Orang Raga Basar.

4. The Tunku Mantri.

• This includes a gambling farm, and also the rent of 400 orlongs of land.

IV. Eight Nobles of the 2nd class, viz. :—

1. The Maharaja Lela.

2. The Laksamana,

3. Shabbandar.

4. The Datoh Sadika Raja.

5. The Punglima Guntar.

6. The Punglima Bukit Gantong.

7. The Datoh Shakgor or Sagah.

8. The Imaum Paduka Tuan.

V. Sixteen Nobles of the 2nd class, viz.:-

1.. The Sri Maharaja Lela.

2.1

Not ascertained.

16.

12. As regards the principles regulating the succession to the Sultanship, it appears unquestionable that, up to the time of the late Sultan Ali, no person was considered eligible for the office unless he was of royal blood by the father's side; and further, that on the death of the Sultan it was the invariable practice for the Raja Muda to succeed, the person selected to hold that office being chosen with the express view to his succeeding; and that the proceedings in regard to the Raja Muda, on the Sultan's death, amounted to nothing more than a formal investiture in the Sultanship. It further appears, that formally it was equally the practice for the Raja Bandahara to succeed to the vacant Raja Mudaship; and for the eldest son of the late Sultan, or such member of the royal house as might be thought best fitted-to be appointed to the Bandaharaship with the intention that he in his turn should become Raja Muda and subsequently Sultan.

13. This last rule was first broken through in the case of the present Raja Banda- hara (Sultan Ismail). This person is not of the royal blood, except by the mother's side. His father was a stranger from some part of Sumatra, and married the sister or daughter of the Sultan of the day. Hence it followed that, on the death of the two Sultans preceding the late Sultan Ali, Ismail, though holding the Bandaharaship, did not succeed to the Raja Mudaship that office being filled up by persons selected from descendants of the male line of some of the preceding Sultans.

14. All the Sultans who have reigned during the last fifty years have in this way been decended (I believe legitimately descended) from a Sultan named Mohamed Tajuddin, who is known to the Malays by the title of the "Murhom Bongsu." The following is, I believe, a correct list of the Sultans from the time of this person :-

Sultan Mohammed Tajuddin Shah

Sultan Mansor Shah

•

Sultan Abdullah, Ma Allum Shah

Sultan Shah Buddin Shah

Sultan Abdullah

Sultan Jaffar

Sultan Ali Almahumal Inayatshah

-

The "Murhom Bongsu," or deceased

great grandfather. Son of the above.

Signer of the Treaty of 1825.

Brother of the above?

Cousin of the above.

Cousin of the above. Nephew of the above. Brother of the above.

15. In the lifetime of the late Sultan Ali a Raja Muda was appointed in the person

of Tunku Abdullah Mahomed-a son of Sultan Jaffar, who had married a daughter of Sultan Ali named Raja Tipah. It is this man who is now the claimant to the throne in opposition to the Raja Bandahara Ismail. Now it is admitted on all sides that under ordinary circumstances the Raja Muda would have succeeded. He was appointed with the full consent of his uncle and father-in-law the late Sultan Ali, of the Raja Bandahara himself, and of the other great men of the country. That he did not succeed was owing to special circumstances, which I shall now endeavour to elucidate though as the two parties contradict each other at almost every stage of the narrative, the task is not a very easy one.

16. Sultan Ali died, at a place called Sayang, five or six days' journey up the Perak River, on the 25th May, 1871. About three months previously to his death, the Rajah Muda, who was living lower down the river, at a place called Purbayan, had divorced his wife, Raja Tipah,--for some reason which I have not heard stated,—but had not sent her

I have not been able to ascertain the full names of these two.

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