b 



corn • — Colo niza Hon. I '-20 



be himself only states it as a conditional one, the cheek 

 to ifsoperationliere would be sufficiently consolatory to 

 the miml of any person disposed to hold that principle 

 iii au absolute sense. As no condition could be sup* 

 p:>«e;l more desperate and hopeless for man than an 

 increase in his numbers until he had over-peopled 

 tlie whole habitable globe, so baa nature wisely ren- 

 il ped such an event impossibly ; and it behoves man 

 ti strive to spread himself over the earth so that his 

 numbers may not be diminished. 



The case as regards I lie Malacca Peninsula might 

 not, indeed, hi- deemed quite hopeless were it likely, 

 which at present it is not, that European protection 

 will ever be extended to its inhabitants in the mass. 

 European; colonization, in tlie strict sense of the term, 

 would, it is imagiped, he hardly contemplated under 

 any eireumstumvs, ^ hen it is considered that the clu 

 jiutlc . although salubrious, would not admit of Euro, 

 peans labouring in I he fields. But in a confined and 

 local sense, it exists already. Capitalists, whether 

 ;s_: i -(cultural or mercantile, are the proper Straits' colo- 

 nists. Europeans, in any considerable number, with- 

 out capital, would be an evil. Emigrants from the 

 hottest parts of America might ppSftiblj be able to 

 en- 1 ore the climate better, but it is tr>o well knou u, 

 mat in the sonlhei u states the existence of slavery 

 testifies that tlie present race of whites yet retain 

 some of the blood of their northern ancestors, and are 

 unfit for labor under the rays of a tropical sun. Sla- 

 very, when it did exist in the Straits, was of little 

 or no advantage to cop/falists^ although free labour 

 was higb ; the latter being generally preferred ; aud 

 it won Irl have certainly been no boon now, bad it not 

 even been abolished, since labor has fallen to about 

 two-thirds of its former price. 



It may here l>e as well to remark that, with refer. 



ence to the above respective dates of cession of rfr 



Q 



