Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/323

IN THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. ^79 of civilization. The most sceptical, then, may admit that it must tend to the unspeakable benefit of the governed to be of the same religious belief with their governors, — that mutual confidence must be strengthened, — -and benevolence and kindness increased, by an accordance of opinion on so mate- rial a point. It is not, indeed, possible to con- ceive that the barbarians of the Archipelago should ever adopt a material and beneficial portion of the humanity, — improvement, — and morality of Europe, v^ithout, at the same time, adopting the religion with which these concomitants of civilization are so closely interwoven. A perfect freedom of colonization and settle- ment to Europeans, an equality of rights to every denomination of inhabitants, and an unlimited and unrestricted freedom of commercial intercourse, will prove the certain, but the only means of dis- seminating civilization and Christianity^ which, in such a case, are one and the same thing, for the one cannot be supposed to make essential progress without the other. In a country, such as the In* dian Archipelago, no where peopled to within one third of its capacity to maintain a thriving popu- lation, there exists the most ample field for such improvement ; and we have only to divest ourselves of the disgraceful and sordid prejudices which ha^e for more than three centuries reduced these fine countries to misery and slavery, and suffer the or-