86 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



threw the Eastern possessions of the Dutch as fruits of conquest 

 into the hands of the English.* 



Raffles encouraged missionary work, and in 1821 endeavored 

 to suppress slavery in the island of Pulo Nias. The circum- 

 stances attending this traffic were no less revolting than those 

 that marked it on the coast of Africa. But the East India Com- 

 pany was an association of traders, and prudently repressed what- 

 ever sentiments its members may have held on the subject of 

 slavery. The Court of Directors disapproved of Raffles's acts, and 

 went so far as to assert officially that his proceedings were deserv- 

 ing of their reprehension. He always insisted that it was folly to 

 assume that the exposure of the evils of the slave-system in any 

 way affected the Company. However, he came near being dis- 

 missed from the service, and in a little while after the transfer of 

 the islands to the Dutch the slave trade was resumed with greater 

 vigor than ever. I mention this circumstance in order to show 

 how differently Raffles interpreted his duties from those of a mere 

 agent of a trading company. He held science, literature, and 

 practical benevolence as primary motives to action. 



But, by the redistribution of lands agreed on at the Congress 

 of Vienna in 1815, Java ("another India!" cries a despairing 

 critic) was returned to the Dutch ; and the Raffles administration 

 (and to a great extent the reforms he established), after a brilliant 

 term of five years, came to an end. 



After his recall from Java, he visited England. The Prince 

 Regent showed his appreciation as opposed to that of the East 

 India Company by knighting Raffles, and in a short time there- 

 after appointing him Lieutenant-Governor of Sumatra. 



Any sketch of Raffles would be incomplete that did not include 

 an account of his domestic life. He married in 1805, but lost his 

 wife in 1815. He remarried in 1816. Lady Raffles, in 1830, wrote 

 a life of her husband in the form of a large quarto of exactly 

 eight hundred and twenty-three pages. f Judged by the stand- 

 ard of the taste of to-day, such an achievement defeats in great 

 measure its own object, though it must be said in behalf of the 

 author that she intended the volume to be a defense of her hus- 

 band's services, and the records of his private life are subordi- 

 nated. 



* A study of the influences of the Raffles administration over Philadelphia would be 

 found interesting. The founding of Penang and Singapore gave increased security to our 

 vessels trading in the China seas. The Raffles and, later on, the Brookes policy tended to 

 suppress piracy. The large trade of Philadelphia with the East in the early part of this 

 century, that built up the fortunes of a Girard and a Wagner, has been of incalculable 

 advantage to Philadelphia. 



f Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, F. R. S. 

 London, John Murray, 1830. 



