THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF MALACCA. 741 
each estate, ami offers made to the proprietors accordingly. There is 
no doubt that the calculations were ill founded and the offers too li¬ 
beral in the then condition of the estates, and the whole transaction 
has been greatly blamed as ill advised, premature and extravagant, 
but Mr. Fullarton was not actuated by mere considerations of tem¬ 
porary profit and loss to the Treasury. He looked far higher. He 
viewed Malacca with a statesman’s eye, and saw at a glance all the 
advantages she enjoys from position, ancient name and fertility of 
soil. He looked forward to the time when by good management, 
by the judicious exercise of oor natural influence over surrounding 
states, by the liberal encouragement of agriculture, and the remov¬ 
al of all impediments in the intercourse with her neighbours, Malac¬ 
ca might regain some portion of her pristine splendour,—not as for¬ 
merly as a commercial emporium, that had quitted her for ever, va¬ 
nished with the establishment of Singapore,—but the less brilliant 
though far more solid splendour of the capital of an agricultural 
country. He would have made her the seat of government of the 
Straits settlements, and in a few years would no doubt have realized 
his expectations of rendering her the granary of the Straits. The 
subsequent history of the lands will shew how very partially these 
view r s were carried out, and how cruelly the subject has been ne¬ 
glected and mismanaged. 
The transfer of the several estates to the government having been 
duly effected, the next step was to endeavour to realize from them 
an amount of revenue equal to that engaged to be paid to the late 
proprietors, but it w'as soon found that of this there was little or no 
chance. Toll houses were erected in different parts of the country 
to intercept all produce as it was carried to market, and a large es¬ 
tablishment was entertained for the collection of the tenths, but the 
result was always far below the sum required to made good the pay¬ 
ment to the proprietors. In 1835-6 according to Newbold, the re¬ 
ceipts were 10,983 Rs. collected at an expense of 4,257, and he far¬ 
ther shcu r s that up to that period the ceded lands had occasioned on 
an average a dead loss to the state of upwards of 10,000 Rs. annually. 
About this time Mr. Young of the Bengal civil service was ap¬ 
pointed a commissioner to examine into and report on the subject 
of the lands generally throughout the Straits Settlements. He seems 
to have brought to notice the very objectionable system of levying a 
revenue in kind on the produce of the lands, and to have induced 
the resort to a commutation of the tenths into a money payment, but 
