465 
MALAY AMOKS AND PIRACIES. 
can no longer carry with them the privacy which at present 
renders their visits more unexpected than a thunder storm, 
and which prevents the chain of their cperations from being 
detected. 
There would be no difficulty in finding a naval Sleeman. 
What is wanted is that government be *made practically 
conversant with the nature and operation of the evil, and with 
the necessity for a combination of all the governments exer¬ 
cising power in the Archipelago, to suppress this enormous 
crime. When they have made up]their minds to this, there 
will be no difficulty in finding agents to procure the combina¬ 
tion, and organize and direct its power. 
It may be said that the position of Great Britain in the 
Archipelago is not such as to require or even admit of her 
taking a part in any work of such wide extent. We assert 
that her position is such as to place her under the most positive 
and solemn obligation to undertake this work, to enable 
her to give the most effectual co-operation in it, and to render 
that co-operation indispensible. The police of every sea 
belongs to those nations whose vessels traverse it, and who 
from their proximity to it have the power of organising a 
police. We may lay down the proposition still more broadly 
by saying that every nation whose vessels use a sea are 
charged to aid in its police in proportion to their means, and 
the advantages they derive from its use. The obligation to 
exertion increases with the means, and the means increase with 
proximity to the sea. It increases also with the advantages 
enjoyed, although this increase may be counterbalanced by 
the increase ot difficulties arising from distance of position. 
Now Eng'and derives more benefit from the use of the seas 
of the Archipelago than any other nation, the proximity of 
her territories to the field of action is as great as those of 
Holland and Spain, her means of action far superior to those 
ot the latter, and, in some respects, even to those of the former. 
Her obligations therefore to destroy the marauders who infest 
these seas are paramount Is she justified in waiting till she 
is satisfied that other powers have performed their duty ? 
On the contrary, that superiority in intelligence, liberality, 
energy and power which Providence has conferred upon her, 
demand that in this work she shall take the lead, not inter¬ 
mitting her strongest endeavors to excite her neighbours to 
do their duty, but going about her own in an earnest and 
determined manner, whether they prove zealous, lukewarm 
or hostile. 
But England has certain peculiar advantages for the work. 
The Malay Peninsula is entirely under her control. She ha* 
