422 Bibliographical Notices. 



raedan civilization, we see in the man of the Archipelago more that 

 is akin than the reverse to the unpolished man of Europe. 



When we turn to the present political condition of the Archipe- 

 lago, we are struck by the contrast which it presents to that which 

 characterized it three or four centuries ago. The mass of the people, 

 it is true, in all their private relations, remain in nearly the same 

 state in which they were found by the earliest European voyagers, 

 and in which they had existed for many centuries previously. But, 

 as nations, they have withered in the presence of the uncongenial, 

 greedy and relentless spirit of European policy. They have been 

 subdued by the hard and determined will of Europeans, who in ge- 

 neral have pursued the purposes for which they have come into the 

 Archipelago without giving any sympathy to the inhabitants. The 

 nomadic spirit, never extinguished during all the changes which they 

 underwent, had made them adventurous and warlike when they 

 rose into nations. But now, long overawed and restrained by the 

 power of Europeans, the national habits of action have, in most parts 

 of the Archipelago, been lost, or are only faintly maintained in the 

 piratical expeditions of some. Their pride has fallen. Their living 

 literature is gone, with the power, the wars, and the glory which in- 

 spired it. The day has departed when Singapore could be invaded 

 by Javanese, — when Johore could extend its dominion to Borneo on 

 the one side and Sumatra on the other, — when the fleets of Acheen 

 and Malacca could encounter each other in the Straits to dispute 

 the dominion of the Eastern Seas, — when the warrants of the Sultan 

 of Menangkabaii were as potent over the Malayan nations as the 

 bulls of Rome ever were over those of Christendom, — when a cham- 

 pion of Malacca could make his name be known all over the Archi- 

 pelago, — and when the kings of the Peninsula sent their sons, 

 escorted by celebrated warriors, to demand the daughters of the 

 emperors of Majapahit in marriage. The Malayan princes of the 

 present day, retaining all the feudal attachment and homage of their 

 subjects, and finding no more honourable vent for the assertion of 

 their freedom from restraint and the gratification of their self-will, 

 have almost everywhere sunk into indolent debauchees and greedy 

 monopolists, and, incited by their own rapacity and that of the 

 courtiers who surround them, drain and paralyse the industry of 

 their people. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia. — Singapore. 



We have received from the Editor with much satisfaction the first 

 and second numbers of a publication which promises to be of great 

 interest and value, " the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and East- 

 ern Asia." The contents of these numbers, and the design of the 

 publication, are such as to excite our cordial wishes for its success, 

 in which we doubt not our readers will fully participate. We have 

 transferred to our own pages a considerable portion of an interesting 

 article from the first number ; and we subjoin some extracts from 



