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word for it,' he once prophetically said, this is by far the most important station in the East, and, as far as naval supremacy and commercial intercourse are concerned, of much higher value than a whole continent.' The correctness of his judgment was speedily proved. In two years the imports and exports rose to the sum of 2,000,000l. In 1824, five years after its foundation, the population had risen from 150 to 11,000. Singapore exhibits a remarkable proof how the sagacity of individuals often anticipates and outruns the slow action of governments. For three years Singapore was not recognised by Great Britain. The island was ultimately ceded for a pecuniary consideration by its native prince. The importance of this settlement to British trade follows from its position. Equidistant from Calcutta and Canton, voyages can be made to each with equal facility. It lies only a short distance from the Equator; but the temperature of the island is 9.90 lower than that of many other places in the same latitude; it possesses an ample roadstead and harbour; vessels having crossed the Pacific from the north coast of America meet others from the eastern side of the same continent, which have sailed round the Cape of Good Hope; and flags of all nations are intermingled with the streamers of Chinese junks and native prahus. An ordinary price-current often contains as many as forty different articles, the produce of the archipelago.

Batavia is the exclusive emporium of the Dutch trade; but Singapore is the port chosen by the independent traders of the archipelago. It appears by the Singapore Free Press that there were in the roadstead and harbour, at the same time, in January last, sixty-three ships, of burthens varying from 2600 to 150 tons. The prosperity of this small settlement has been of so rapid a growth that it resembles that of some American Western city. Much of the trade even of the Dutch dependencies is carried on here in preference to the highly-taxed ports of Java. The port is open to all, and there is no impost whatever. Attracted by these advantages, native traders flock from the continental ports of the East to Singapore, to exchange the manufactures of India and China for the valuable productions of the archipelago. The resident population is composed of fifteen different nationalities, of which the Chinese is the most numerous. In addition to the immense commerce with China, India, and the archipelago, Singapore has extensive transactions with North and South America, Arabia, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Australia, and Continental Europe. A few figures derived from the latest returns will show the extraordinary commercial progress of this small settlement. In 1852 the value of the British

exports

exports to Singapore was 637,9817.; in 1860 it had risen to 1,671,0927. The imports from Singapore amounted in value, in 1854, to 794,1057., and in 1860 to 1,054,0427. The most satisfactory feature in the returns is the marked increase in the demand for cotton goods, as it proves that the demand for British manufactures is rapidly increasing throughout the archipelago. In 1852 the exports of cotton goods to Singapore were of the value of 452,9277.; in 1860 they had risen to 1,079,0981.

The great archipelago, of which we have taken a necessarily imperfect survey, exhibits society in every phase of barbarism and civilisation, from the primitive tribes inhabiting the forests of Borneo to the polished splendour of Europe. The opulence and trading activity of Amsterdam and London are represented in Batavia and Singapore, and the commercial and religious exclusiveness of Spain in the Philippines. The future of the magnificent islands of the archipelago must be a subject of some anxiety to the power which has acquired the chief dominion over them. The native states are clearly incompetent to discharge the ordinary duties of government, and they will probably be gradually absorbed into European settlements to which they are contiguous. But can so small a state as Holland, with a very limited population from which her army can be recruited, permanently retain territories of such enormous extent and peopled by races bound to her by no ties of gratitude or interest? That Holland cannot rely upon mercenaries for the support of her colonial empire has been shown by the revolt of her Swiss troops. One of two results must follow the failure of Holland to retain the allegiance of her Eastern possessions: either these regions will be abandoned to native barbarism, or some great European power must step in to restore order, protect commerce, and carry on the work of civilisation. The Eastern Archipelago lies between Australia, India, and China; therefore any considerable naval power that should establish itself in so central a position might intercept our communications, threaten our Asiatic possessions, and cripple our trade. We earnestly hope that the Government of the Netherlands may never be involved in a struggle such as that from which we have recently emerged. We covet no territory in the archipelago; but should a reverse befall Holland in her colonial empire, there is but one nation that can safely occupy the position she will have lost. The moral power of England is already great. The character which she acquired during her short possession of Java has left a deep impression upon the native mind, and is understood and appre ciated in every island where her name is pronounced. Her flag is not merely a symbol of freedom, but a pledge of commercial

prosperity

prosperity and social progress. With the exception of the small island of Labuan she owns not a foot of territory in any portion of the archipelago, but her influence is as great as if her guns commanded every native capital and her cruisers were seen in every sea.

The future importance of Borneo can scarcely be exaggerated. One of its states now presents an example of a well-governed and progressive community. The Rajah of Sarawak has achieved one of the greatest of triumphs. He has constituted out of the most unpromising elements a native state which exhibits a model of the policy to be adopted for gradually reclaiming a people from barbarism, and giving them the blessings of order and law. He has caused them to work out their own improvement under guidance of a superintending intelligence. The enterprise was as full of genius as of humanity. The influence of Sarawak upon the future civilisation of Borneo may be important. Borneo Proper is still steeped in utter barbarism, and no healthy progress can be reasonably expected in those portions of the country which are subject to the dominion of the Dutch. The impulse which will convert this vast island into an orderly and progressive country may be communicated from Sarawak; and its future importance may even bear some proportion to its enormous dimensions. But the permanent independence of Sarawak is, we fear, not so fully assured as the friends of progress in the archipelago could desire. It is exposed to two dangers which loom not indistinctly in the distance. It may be the object of some violent outbreak of neighbouring Mahomedan fanaticism exasperated at the spectacle of a Christian Rajah governing a native state; or it may be endangered by the intrigues of a European power which has always regarded it with jealousy and makes no secret of desiring and looking forward to its subversion. Public opinion in England has been strongly expressed on the achievement of Sir James Brooke. He has publicly received the thanks of the commercial world, and one of the most esteemed honours that his Sovereign could bestow. It is impossible for England not to regard with favour and watch with interest so remarkable an application of her own principles of government in a territory which, a few years ago, was the seat of savage lawlessness and crime.* Public indignation would assuredly be strongly manifested if by any act of treachery or violence the integrity and independence of a country which had excited so strong and general an interest should be overthrown. Some interference could probably be demanded by opinion.

* The former practice of head-hunting has been completely abandoned.

The

The flag of Sarawak has, we believe, been recognised by Great Britain. We are far from thinking that as a rule protectorates are desirable arrangements or conducive to the true interests of a small community; but in such a case as Sarawak, it might be plausibly contended that a protectorate could not entail any inconvenient obligations; and that it would constitute an effectual security against hostile designs, if any such exist, and put an end to all Mahomedan conspiracies and European machinations. It might also produce a salutary influence upon independent Borneo, and prepare the way for an extension of British influence in that direction, should the course of events ever justify or require it.

This great region may be hereafter one of the most important that is occupied by the dispersed and diversified human family, and no long period may elapse before islands upon which Providence has showered some of its choicest blessings will exhibit a far higher social and political development than they at present seem to promise; Europe and America may hereafter even find rivals in countries which now occupy scarcely a moment of their thoughts; bays shaded by groves of palms may display forests of masts; and marbles hidden in the recesses of virgin woods and unexplored mountains may be wrought for the erection and adornment of temples and cities surpassing as much in their splendour any that have hitherto been erected in the archipelago as they will excel them in the religion to which they may be dedicated, and in the civilisation which they will represent.

ART. VII.-The Life of the Right Hon. William Pitt. By Earl Stanhope. Vols. III. and IV. London, 1862.

A SHORT time ago we had occasion to review the two first

volumes of this biography, and to commend their merits to our readers' notice. The two new volumes will not be found to fall behind their predecessors either in charm of style or in sterling value. Indeed their interest is greater, in that they have the advantage of dealing with a much more attractive period, and of dealing with it for the first time-since even the feeble and flickering light of Bishop Tomline's biography has not been thrown over the history of Pitt's later years. There is nothing, it is true, in our parliamentary history that can equal in interest the strange vicissitudes of the stormy contest in the midst of which Pitt rose to power. But after this opening, the first half

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of his career is monotonous and tame. It required no small literary art to throw any charm over the tedious prosperity of the years that intervened between the American and the Revolutionary wars. But the period with which the volumes before us deal offers no such difficulty. The biographer is embarrassed with the press of interesting matter, and is obliged rather to guard himself from allowing the eventful history of the time to oust his hero from the prominence which belongs to him. And we should assign to these two volumes the superiority in value as well as in interest. It appears that Lord Stanhope owes to the kindness of Mr. William Dacres Adams, Pitt's private Secretary, who still survives, the communication of many interesting particulars and important manuscripts. The documents, therefore, which he prints for the first time are numerous and valuable; perhaps more so, on the whole, than those which were contained in the two first volumes. The domestic element in the series of letters is naturally weaker. The Minister's life becomes more wholly identified with the history of his time, and his friends become more purely political. The correspondence with his mother almost entirely disappears. But, on the other hand, the Melville papers, and the correspondence with the King, yield documents of great historical value. The only episode-if we except the tragical death-scene-that is not of a public character, is the brief history of his short-lived, soon conquered attachment to Eleanor Eden, in 1796. The ground upon which he suppressed his avowed affection seems a strange one in a Prime Minister, who was also the possessor of the then lucrative sinecure of the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports. In a letter to her father, he apologises for the necessity of discontinuing his visits by expressing his regret that his circumstances do not permit him to presume to make her an offer of marriage. Lord Auckland would seem not to have been able to remove the obstacles to their union. So notorious were his embarrassments, and so overwhelming had they already become!

But it is very seldom that, even for so brief an interval as this, Pitt's biographer can travel out of the beaten political track. His life and his public career are almost coincident. The Parliamentary portion of his public life, which occupied almost the whole narrative in the two previous volumes, falls naturally into the background in these, especially at first. From the moment of the junction between the Government and the old Whigs to the year 1801, the course of Parliament was unvaried and uneventful. The ascendancy of the Minister was undisputed; the Opposition was entirely powerless and almost silenced; and Parliament met for little else than to register the Minister's decrees. It is not till the Catholic Question arises to disturb the even tenor

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