230 ROOM FOR BOTH NATIONS. 



please, or until they see fit to alter it, in those places 

 in which they already exercise territorial dominion. 

 There is abundance of room for another and mu- 

 tually co-operative system to be tried without touch- 

 ing on those dominions. Let them join with us in 

 assuming the police of the seas, and encouraging 

 the civilization and commerce of the natives. Let 

 certain places, conveniently situated for posts and 

 stations, either be assigned to each, or held in com- 

 mon, or occupied merely under the native govern- 

 ments. Why, I again ask, should we quarrel when 

 our friendship and co-operation would be so mutually 

 beneficial ? The old national prejudices are now fast 

 wearing out of all our hearts, why not look forward 

 to a time when they shall be altogether effaced ?* 



Whether, however, we act jointly with others, or 

 alone, the time is surely now come when so large, 

 so fair, and so accessible a portion of the earth 

 should no longer be carelessly or ignorantly aban- 

 doned to barbarism ; when it is almost our duty, if it 

 were not our interest, to spread through it what we 

 can, whether of physical comfort or of moral and 

 intellectual enlightenment. Happy, perhaps, is it 



* If it were not trespassing too closely on the confines of party 

 politics, I might speculate here on the effects of a change in the 

 government of Holland. There is no doubt that an enlarged and 

 liberal commercial policy in the East would be an estimable benefit 

 and advantage to the great mass of the people of Holland, 

 although the maintenance of the present exclusive and restrictive 

 system is vitally necessary to the existing monarchical and aris- 

 tocratical interests of that country. 



