Enough is known of the harshness of this policy, and there is no need of here contrasting it with the energetic, successful, though ill-supported sway of Sir Stamford Raffles—but it is the indirect influence which it exerts that has proved so baneful to the Archipelago, under the assumed jurisdiction of this European power. Her unceasing interference in the concerns of the Malay Governments, and the watchful fomenting of their internal dissensions, have gradually and effectually destroyed all rightful authority, and given rise to a number of petty states, which thrive on piracy and fatten on the slave trade. The consequent disorganisation of society arising from these causes has placed a bar to commercial enterprise and personal adventure, and has probably acted on the interior tribes much in the same way as this fatal policy has affected the Malays. As far as can be ascertained, the financial and commercial concerns of the Dutch have not been prosperous; it is easy to conceive such to be the case, as it will be conceded that oppression and prosperity cannot coexist. In short, with the smallest possible amount of advantage, the Dutch Government has all along endeavoured to perpetuate an exclusive system, aiming more at injury to others than any advantage to themselves, or to the nations under their sway; for where an enlightened administration might have produced the most beneficial results, we are forced to deplore not only the mischief done, and the mass of good neglected, but the misery and suffering inflicted on unhappy races, capable, as has been proved, of favourable development under other circumstances. The policy of the British in the Indian Archipelago has been marked by vacillation and weakness. The East India Company, with a strong desire to rival the Dutch, aimed at doing so by indirect and underhand means, and shrunk from the liberality of views and bold line of conduct which was perhaps inconsistent with their position and tenure of authority. It was in vain that Sir Stamford Raffles urged on them a line of conduct which, had it been pursued, must eventually have ensured the ascendency of the British over the space from Borneo to New Holland, and have linked her colonies in the East by a chain of posts from the northern part of India to the southern extremity of Van Diemen’s Land. The timidity of the Company and the ignorance or indifference of the then existing Governments not only neglected to carry this bold project into execution, but sacrificed the advantages already acquired, and, without stipulation or reserve, yielded the improving Javanese to the tender mercies of their former masters. The consequences are well known; all the evils of Dutch rule have been re-established, and the British watchfully excluded, directly or indirectly, from the commerce of the islands.