466 
THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURIST. 
[January i, 1892 . 
as I have already pointed out, we had gradually reeigced 
to the Dutch. During the occupation of theNetherlacda 
by the French, the Dutch Oolonies in the East ludian 
Archipelago fell into our hands ; an expedition, fitti d 
out in India, under the command of the Governor- 
Ooueral, Lord Miuto, having taken Java and ita de- 
pendenoicB in 1811. We did not keep Java. With 
the fall of Napoleon, Holland waa again made inde- 
pendent and Java waa restored to her, no doubt in 
conaeituenoe of a wiee and atateruianlike recognition 
of the fact that the retention by Holland of the principal 
of her Eastern ooloi.ics is esfential to her vitality as 
a European Power, The creation of an important 
commercial emporium at Singapore was, however, the 
natural outcome of the iiirrender of Batavia, and the 
position of Great Britain in the Far East has ainco been 
further atrengthened by the aequiaition of Hong-Kong, 
and by the wonderful development of our Ooloniea in 
Australasia, to which I may add our raoently-eslah- 
lished protectorate over Sarawak and ^orth Borneo. 
Since 1824, when a treaty was made between Great 
Britain and Holland defining the sphere of action of 
each in Malayan waters, we have of neoesEity confined 
ourselves to the peninsula of Malacca, the islands of 
Penang and Singsporo, and the parts of Borneo just 
mentioned. 
My object in addressing you this evening, at the 
invitation of the Cucocil of the Royal Oolonial In- 
itilute, is to attempt a brief description of what ia 
being done towards opening up the Malay Peninsula, 
the field which we reserved to ourselves when we 
volnnttrily retired from all farther political connection 
with Java and Sumatra. The period of active British 
Interference in the Malay States of the Peninsula 
dates from 1874 only. For fifty years after the ces- 
sion to the Dutch of Benooolen, in Bumatia, in ex- 
change for Malacca, we confined ourselves to the 
t«o Indian Oolonies (Penang and Singapore) which I 
have doBotihad as having been planted in the Straits 
of Malacca by the Englieh in Benga', and to the old 
Portuguese and Dutch Colony of Malacca, which had 
become ours by cession. The Government of India 
called their remote dependencies by the collective 
title of ‘‘ the Straits Bettlemeut ” (in the singultr), 
and supported them for years at the expense of the 
Indian tax-payer. Little was known of them In 
Calcutta, where, however, difficult questiona connected 
with their administration cuuaud infinite trouble from 
time to time. " Tfaeao details msy appear to your 
Lordship to bo petty,” wrote an Indian ofiioial npolo- 
getioslly to Lord Auckland in 1887, disousa'og some 
project relating to Straits finance, “ but then every 
thing connected with there Settlements ia petty, 
except their snnusl surplus cost to the Government 
of India”! It is amusing to recall an oilicial remark 
of this kind now in 1891, when the Colony of the 
Straits Settlements, with a history of twenty-four 
years of independent existence as a Crown Colony, 
may, in spite of recent temporary reverses, fairly 
claim to be the most prosperous and successful of all 
the Crown Coloniea, having a revenue of four and a 
half million dollars, surplus aiscts (at the beginning 
of 1891) of two and a half million dollars, and nu 
£ ublia debt. 
ater on, ho referred to the transfer of Iho Settle- 
ment from the Indian to the Oolonial Ollioo 
authorities : — 
During the time that the Government of Indio go- 
verned the Straits Settlements their relations with the 
Malay Rajas of the Peninsula were always friendly; 
hut the native States were rarely visited by British 
oflfioials, and their internal affairs were scarcely in 
any way inlluenced by our advise or counsel. Treaties 
of alliance and friendship were made from time to 
time with all the Rajas on the west coast, Kedoh, 
Perak, Selangor, and Johor. When, in 1858, the 
Queen's sovereignty over India was proclaimed, each 
Kaja found in the proclsmation (which wat translated 
into Malay and sent to each native court) a Magna 
Oharta of his rights in the following mcmoriible 
words : — 
“We hereby announce to the native princes of India 
that all tieaties and engsgemeots made with then 
by or under the authority of the Houourable East 
India Company, are by us aooepted, and will be scru- 
pulonsiy maintained ; and we look for the like obser- 
vance on their part. 
“We desire no exteuaion of our present territorial 
poasessioiis ; and while we will permit no eggresaiou 
upon our dominions or our rights to be attempted 
with impunity, we ahail sanolion no cncroochmeiit on 
thoae of others. We shall respect the rights, dignity 
and honour of native prinoes as our owu, snd wo 
desire that tbe},aa well as our own subjects, should 
enjoy that prosperity and that social advancement 
which can only be secured by internal peace and good 
government.” 
I do not think that I need enter into any detailed 
description of the circumstancos wliich have led to 
the appointment of British Residents in certain States 
of the Malay I’eninsula, to exercise a control which 
should secure “the rights, dignity, and honour” of 
the native princes whom they are iustractod to advise. 
It will be snffioient to say generally that the chief, 
or, at any rate, the proximate cause baa been the pre- 
sence in Urge numbers of Chinese in the Peninsula, 
snd the pcwcrleesneia of the Malays to control them. 
Then oame the. ora of Residents for the native 
states : — i 
The Sultana of Perak and SeIangor,tho two Stales which 
are the centres of the tiii-miuing industry, asked in 
1874 that British Residents might be iiesuoiatcd with 
them in the government of their respective Slates. 
Sungei Ujeng, a fmall State to the south of SeUugor, 
which also possessed a somewhat intractable Chinese 
mining population, accepted u Resident in 1876. 
Later, in 1888, Governor Sir Frederick Weld induced 
the group of small States lyiug between Sungei Ujong, 
Pahang, Malsccs, and Joher (called the Negri Som- 
bilan, or the Nine States) to ooufederate and to oon- 
duot their government nndcr tue advice and with Iho 
asBislsnoe of a resident British offioer. Lastly, in 1888, 
in pursuance of an agreement between Sir Cecil 
Clement! Smith, the pciseot Governor of the Straita 
Settlements, and the Sultan, Pahang, a Urge State on 
the East Coast of the Peuin.suls, was added to the 
number of Iho Protioted Stales, and ita administration 
on an improved footing waa mado impossible by the 
appointment of a British Resident. 
The names of the hlalay States in which British 
rfficers ate staticned do not by any meaus exhanst the 
list of the States on the Peninsula. To the North of 
Proviuee Wellesley (a dependency of Penang) there 
is the sraient kingdom of Kedah, shorn of three of its 
provinces, Porlia, Situl, and Trang, which now form 
seuii-independcnt Stales, These are, in a seueo, subject 
to the BDzersinty of Slam. Further noilb, again, there 
are numerous small previnccs or governorships under 
the direct control of Siam. The indigenous population 
here is Siameto and not Malay, and these little States 
aro ohioBy intcroating to us, beoauao the aeltlera there 
include many (Chinese) British subjects. Indeed the 
Ooveruora of two of there provincia ore Penang 
Chinese, and in many plaoiis the authority of the 
Siamese aconia to be overshadowed by that of a power- 
ful Chiueae Booret society (the Obi-Uiu), They are 
visited annually by the Resident Councillor of Penang, 
who is British Consul for this region. 
On the East Ocast, the purely Malay Stales ore 
Patsni, which had a long history as an independent 
State, end whore Iho factors of the East India Com- 
pany had an “ lionourablo rcoeptiuu from the queen 
and country people ” in 1012. It waa laid waste by 
the SUmeae in 1818, accl is now subdivided into seven 
proyinoea under separate petty chiefs. To tho south, 
Bgain, are KeUntan and Tronggaiiu, virtually iudepeu- 
deut. At tho extreme south oi tho Peninsula is tho 
protected State of Johor, the government of which ia 
oouduoted by ita euergetio and enlightened ruler with 
the aid of adviaera chosen by himself. 
Rospeoting tho result, pasaiug over a good deal, 1 
quote as follows : — 
'The progresa of States like Perak and Selargor can 
be illustrated in a atriking manner by statistics, 
bowing the extraordinary growth of the revenue 
inoo 1876, But statistics pt this kind are, in my 
