IS TllE present condition Of* 
greedy monopolists, and, incited by their own rapacity and that of 
the courtiers who surround them, drain and paralyse the industry 
of their people. 
The foreign elements at present exercising, or likely to exer¬ 
cise, great influence on the condition of the Archipelago, are the 
dominion of the Dutch and Spanish, the commerce anil settlements 
of the English, the educational and missionary efforts of Christen¬ 
dom, the growth of large Chinese communities, and the continued 
influx of immigrants from China. It is probable, if England does 
not extend her influence, that the whole Archipelago, with the 
exception of the Malayan Peninsula (which is always considered 
a member of it,) the Philippines, and a small portion of Bor¬ 
neo, will, in no long time, become a portion of the Dutch em¬ 
pire ; and if the humanizing and liberal influences which, we hope, 
are now modifying the character of the eastern policy of that na¬ 
tion, receive full effect, and Netherlands India come to be really 
looked upon as an integral part of Holland, its inhabitants being ad¬ 
mitted to a full reciprocity of advantages with those of the European 
portion of the empire, there will be little to regret, and much 
to welcome, in the change. England in introducing freedom of 
trade, and in leaving the inhabitants of her possessions, small as 
they are, to the unshackled exercise of their own industry, has 
set an example of rational government, which, if imitated in every 
European possession in the Archipelago, would do something to 
atone for past misgovernment and neglect. It is impossible to 
foresee how great the influence of the Chinese may become. Large 
as the Chinese population already is, and numerous as the an¬ 
nual immigrants from China are, they must, in the progress of 
the change which is working in China itself, greatly increase, and 
there can be little hazard in looking to the pressure of population 
in China, as one of the most momentous elements in the future 
history of the Archipelago. 
Broken down as the more civilized and once powerful states are, 
till their governments, with hardly an exception, have lost all the 
energy and ambition to he useful, and retain only the power to 
be hurtful; divided as the greater proportion of the population of 
the Archipelago is, into separate tribes and communities too small to 
resist the domineering and exacting spirit of the more covetous. 
