First edition of an essay concerning the administration of justice in the Dutch East Indies, including a French translation of the complete set of governmental regulations regarding the Dutch East Indies (of 1854), by Christiaan Philip Karel (von) Winckel. Winckel (1842-1884) was a lawyer, attorney and judge in Semarang, Central Java, the fifth largest city in Indonesia.
Winckel is quite critical of the Dutch government and its politicians regarding their lack of knowledge of the Dutch overseas possessions in the Malay Archipelago. The regulations were still based on the Dutch constitution and older colonial regulations, which were not adapted to the political and judicial situation in the Dutch East Indies. In order to be able to explain the judicial situation clearly and fully, Winckel supplied a somewhat simplified translation of the regulations into French - he found the original Dutch version to be almost incomprehensible for the average Dutch native speaker, let alone the non-native speakers in the Dutch East Indies.
With the bookplate of the 2nd Viscount of Pindela (Vicente Pinheiro Lobo Machado de Melo e Almada (1852-1922), a Portuguese politician, colonial administrator and diplomat) on the front paste-down, a small inscription in brown ink on the title page. The first four leaves (I-IV) slightly separated from the bookblock but still atached, some browning to the first and last flyleaves, some occasional very slight foxing, otherwise internally clean. WorldCat 906426158 & 1139003331; cf. Bibliotheca Neerlando-Indica (1883), 1713 (1881 ed.?).