184 LOW STANDARD OF PUBLIC MORALS. 



isolated Government officers, each confined to his 

 allotted station, and each employed in constantly 

 reporting to Government the actions of others. Such 

 a state can be anything but favourable for the per- 

 sons placed in it, and truth compels me to add, that 

 I was creditably informed that its results were such 

 as might be expected ; that with some high and 

 honourable exceptions, the whole frame of Govern- 

 ment, from the lowest to the highest, was based on 

 a system of espionage, and mingled with all the arts 

 of petty intrigue and corruption. I was told that 

 men who, under one administration had been de- 

 graded and declared infamous, had, by a turn of the 

 wheel, been again admitted, and raised to high and 

 responsible offices. I was informed that even the 

 late manager of the branch bank in Sourabaya, 

 although convicted of peculation and fraud, and 

 sentenced to imprisonment for several years, was still 

 visited in gaol by former equals and associates, and 

 was living there in luxury on the fruits of his 

 knavery, and that when freed from imprisonment he 

 would probably be again admitted into society. 

 High honour and strict faith can be by no means an 

 invariable characteristic of the Government itself, if 

 the commonly received and publicly reported ac- 

 count be true, that the last war was brought to a 

 conclusion in 1830, by an act of gross treachery on 

 the part of the Dutch Commander-in-Chief, acting 

 under government orders. He, under pretence of a 

 conference, and after safe-conduct given, got posses- 



