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moreover, the proposed changes will probably suggest a very material 

 reduction in their numbers. 



" Article 62 provides that land leases may be granted for periods 

 not exceeding 75 years. It invites, in fact, to the immigration and 

 colonization which for so long have been studiously discouraged. It 

 assures extreme hxity of tenure, and offers every facility for con- 

 verting occupation into permanent property. It admits and confirms 

 the strange principle of native ownership, and permits, under certain 

 restrictions, that land shall vest in foreigners, or be rented by them. 

 Holland, in short, throws open to all the world the ricli garden she has 

 hitherto made a close monopoly of, and renounces the right of the crown 

 — a right at once shadowy and substantial — to all the lands cultivated 

 by the natives. There can be no doubt the conservatives are right in 

 saying it will annihilate the present system of cultivation, and it will be 

 hopeless to think of maintaining the Government monopoly of markets. 

 No European colonist would dream of farming, subject to the condition 

 that some three- fourths of his fair profits should become legally the 

 property of the State — that he should have to sell for half a dollar in . 

 Java what the telegraph informed him was selling for foiu' in Holland. 

 And although the natives have hitherto been treated and have regarded 

 themselves as an inferior caste, it would be impossible to attempt to 

 make distinctions on a point on which they are sure to be so sensitive 

 as the pocket. The Government system must go, and with it the 

 Government profits. How far land leases and taxation may replace 

 them is another question, and one that, when we contrast results from 

 the British and the Dutch Indies, cannot be answered \ery hopefully 

 for the Dutch treasury. We are told the Dutch conservatives are 

 uneasy as to the advent of English adventurers and its consequences. 

 We have no doubt the restrictions referred to have been naturally 

 arranged so as to impose some check on that. It would be contrary to 

 human nature, and to. Dutch nature especially, to suppose that all of a 

 sudden they should push free-trade and self-aWegation to sentimental 

 lengths. But, in any case, of all the climates in the East, the climate 

 of Java is among the most trying to Europeans ; and that consideration 

 alonp, we should fancy, would operate against any such influx as the 

 Dutch affect to apprehend. That the bill will endanger their hold on 

 their colonies we do not believe. On the contrary a weak State always 

 does wisely to shelter itself behind ' the principles of eternal justice ;' 

 and daring filibusterers, or even acquisitive Governments, have lost an 

 excellent chance of having public opinion in their favour in a crusade 

 against the task-master of tlie Malay race. And "for Malays, when the 

 islands have ceased to be closed colonies, the Dutch may venture to 

 turn their tardy attention to raising their Eastern subjects in the social 

 scale. Hitherto they have not merely been neglected, but degraded as 

 a matter of policy ; for an enlightenment among the population was 

 absolutely incompatible with the system of serfdom and corvee on 

 which they were governed. It is impossible to deny that Holland may 

 have legislated away her splendid colonies' income ; but we have every 

 reason to believe she has strengthened her hold on her colonies. Better 

 perpetuate a connection that must always be profitable than continue a 

 scandal of civilization, and gains as insecure and uncertain as great 

 speculative profits generally are. [The truth seems to be that the 



