greedy monopolists, and, incited by their own rapacity and that of the courtiers who surround them, drain and paralyse the industry of their people.
The foreign elements at present exercising, or likely toe exercise, great influence on the condition of the Archipelago, are the dominion of the Dutch and Spanish, the commerce and settlements of the English, the educational and missionary efforts of Christendom, the growth of large Chinese communities, and the continued influx of immigrants from China. It is probable, if England does not extend her influence, that the whole Archipelago, with the exception of the Malayan Peninsula (which is always considered a member of it,) the Philippines, and a small portion of Borneo, will, in no long time, become a portion of the Dutch empire; and if the humanizing and liberal influences which, we hope, are now modifying the character of the eastern policy of that nation, receive full effect, and Netherlands India come to he really looked upon as an integral part of Holland, its inhabitants being admitted to a full reciprocity of advantages with those of the European portion of the empire, there will be little to regret, and much to welcome, in the change. England in introducing freedom of trade, and in leaving the inhabitants of Her possessions, small as they are, to the unshackled exercise of their own industry, has set an example of rational government, which, if imitated in every European possession in the Archipelago, would do something to atone for past misgovernment and neglect. It is impossible to foresee how great the influence of the Chinese may become. Large as the Chinese population already is, and numerous as the annual immigrants from China are, they must, in the progress of the change which is working in China itself, greatly increase, and there can be little hazard in looking to the pressure of population in China, as one of the most momentous elements in the future history of the Archipelago.
Broken down as the more civilized and once powerful states are, till their governments, with hardly an exception, have lost all the energy and ambition to be useful, and retain only the power to be hurtful; divided as the greater proportion of the population of the Archipelago is, into separate tribes and communities too small to resist the domineering and exacting spirit of the more covetous,
