AND EASTERN ASIA. 
325 
countenance such usages. It is not at all prohahle that, within any 
period of time the prospective changes in which would be considered 
by a legislature, Europeans will form an acclimated and considerable 
class. On the contrary, every one who is conversant with the recent 
history and present condition of the Eastern Archipelago, must be 
convinced that, as in many more temperate regions of the globe the 
European race has prevailed, or wall ultimately prevail, over the ori¬ 
ginal occupants, so in these countries, where the Malays at one time 
predominated in power and influence as they still do in numbers, the 
Chinese wall ere long, “ possess the land,” and most of the local races 
be gradually, not so much assimilated to, as absorbed by them. As 
China is so near to these countries, and annually pours a fresh infusion 
of immigrants into every Chinese society in the Archipelago, and the 
colonists maintain a constant intercourse with their native country, it is 
not likely that the habits of a people in whom national vanity is highly 
developed will largely deviate from those which prevail there to ap¬ 
proach those of Europeans—the only race equal to themselves in in¬ 
telligence and social refinement, and superior in force of character, 
with which they are brought in contact. It is therefore the Chinese in 
particular, the most numerous and important class of the population 
of Singapore, and thus likely long to maintain their social identity, 
for whom a modification of some parts of our law is most urgently 
required. 
It is not however for the sake of our own population alone, that the 
investigation of Asiatic laws and customs recommends itself as a work 
of direct practical utility. So extensive is our commercial intercourse 
with every people of note in. the Archipelago, and so prolonged are 
the periods during which native traders remain here on their perio¬ 
dical visits, that, in the ordinary administration of justice, it must of¬ 
ten be necessary to ascertain the laws and usages prevailing in their 
countries. We may instance the case of contracts entered into in 
other parts of the Archipelago, which, when they come to be discus¬ 
sed in the Courts of Singapore, must receive a construction accord¬ 
ing to the laws of the place where they were made. A considerable 
number of the Asiatics who reside in Singapore have not adopted it 
