FREEDOM FltOM CRIME. 219 



a larger scale than has yet been tried. The total 

 population is 58,000, but living is so cheap, that it 

 is difficult to induce the people to labour with suffi- 

 cient regularity to justify large undertakings. Mr. 

 Salmond said he could rarely get the same man to 

 work in his garden two days together, for one day's 

 wages of 11 cents, or 5^d. would keep him from four 

 to six days. Having gained that accordingly, he 

 passes the remainder of his time in cock fighting 

 and other amusements. And why should a man 

 work more than is necessary to support himself 

 comfortably and happily ?* 



According to the account of the same high 

 authority, whose real office is that of Deputy 

 Governor of the district, no part of the world is 

 freer from crime than the district of Malacca. The 

 native chiefs have been deprived of their feudal 

 authority and reduced to the condition of private 

 gentlemen. There are a few European Magistrates 

 by whom a Court of Session is held occasionally in 

 Malacca, and there is a small body of police. 

 Serious crimes, such as murder or robbery, are 

 almost unknown ; a few petty cases of assault, or 



* It must be borne in mind, that what is comfort and happi- 

 ness to the present generation, will probably be looked on by 

 their descendants as squalidness and misery. It requires but a 

 little taste for the luxuries or the elegancies of life, good furni- 

 ture, or handsome clothing, to induce these people to work 

 regularly for a few hours a day, which is as much as human 

 beings ought to do in tropical countries. 



