APPENDIX. 313 



autliority is supreme and undisturbed, and the 26,000,000 of 

 natives are controlled by probably less than the same number of 

 thousands of white residents. Holland has a much more feeble 

 hold upon her colonies than England has upon hers, and sup- 

 presses distm-bances with so feeble and faltering a hand as to 

 promise anything but permanency for her possessions in the East. 

 The present war in Acheen, Sumatra, is a striking example of this. 

 Here, a handful of natives, with no discipline or resources, have suc- 

 cessfully defied the power of Holland for several years, and it pre- 

 sents a striking contrast with the manner in which England chas- 

 tised the Abyssinians and suppressed the great rebellion in India. 



Whatever may be said of Englishmen, it cannot be said that 

 they are not good colonizers. In every English colony one finds 

 good roads and good judicial and police regulations, insuring the 

 safety of life and property, and descending into the minutest de- 

 tails of regulation upon which depend the comfort and conveni- 

 ence of Europeans. I could not but notice this in Hong-Kong, 

 which was the first English colony I visited. Here was a large 

 and sufficient force of native police ; every chair or other public 

 conveyance had its number, and the maximum scale of charges 

 was prominently posted so that travellers need not be imposed 

 upon. Each one of the vast number of boats in the harbor was 

 also registered, licensed and numbered, and at night there stood 

 at every landing-place an official who made a note of the number 

 of every boat leaving the shore, together with the number of 

 passengei's carried and their destination, for it is said in by-gone 

 times passengers would sometimes take a boat for a ship in the 

 harbor, and never reach their destination. I also found the 

 same regulations cm-rent at Siugapore, where there are miles of 

 macadamized roads so smooth that the small mountain ponies, 

 which are chiefly used there, can easily draw a good-sized carriage, 

 containing four persons, at a good rate of speed. 



English policy in the East has been both aggressive and tena- 

 cious : first obtaining a hold, no matter how slender, and then hold- 

 ing on to it with a death-like grip, British dominion in the East 

 has been greatly extended by enterprising Englishmen striking 

 out for and exploring unknown regions, settling and perhaps 

 planting there, and then claiming the protection of the British 



