248 



ON THE GOVERNMENT 



of the ground on which they stand ; for while collectively affecting to 

 despise the Malayan character in every respect, they yet as individuals 

 behold them with a dread which is quite ludicrous. This feeling may have 

 arisen from their experience of the determination generally evinced by 

 seafaring and piratical Malays, for the agricultural Malays are generally a 

 quiet set of people. If combination, destitute of patriotism, or true military 

 spirit, can give to Siam the power to controul those possessing perhaps more 

 personal courage though less organized means of defence, to what a distance 

 may w^e suppose they would be cast behind European troops, should they 

 ever be so unfortunate as to lead themselves into a war where these may 

 be encountered. 



It were vain to indulge in the belief that the Malays will ever firmly 

 join to repel their invaders. They have never been united and have never 

 constituted a nation since they sent off colonies from the original body, 

 whatever transitory power insulated States may have at different periods 

 of history possessed. 



Were Siam to relax her system of rule, and to admit of her outer pro- 

 vinces being governed by irresponsible chiefs, instead of controlling each 

 by a council of two officers specially nominated at court ; and were she 

 to permit foreigners freely to resort to all her ports, we should soon witness 

 the result of such policy in the dismemberment of her Empire. We must 

 believe that those chiefs would speedily imbibe from their European visit- 

 ors, new ideas on every subject, and principally on commerce, and that 

 having once leaped the barrier to improvement they would hasten to join 

 with those, or to employ the knowledge they had gained, in asserting inde- 

 pendence. Such considerations however do not perhaps weigh so much 

 at the court, as the dread of losing revenue by fairly opening the trade of 

 inferior ports. 



Unless Siam unalterably adheres to her present scheme of policy, 

 extension must weaken her, for she is not in the condition of a State borne 

 down by a superabundant population to which emigration is a relief; a fact 



