ments were withdrawn, and long before the conquest of Java, and, indeed, before the last war, the English had already possessed themselves of the largest portion of this trade.
When we consider the extent of this unparalleled Archipelago; the vanity and peculiar character of its people ; the infinity of its resources ; its contiguity to China and Japan, the most populous regions of the earth; and the extraordinary facilities it affords to commerce, from the smoothness of its seas, the number and excellence of its harbours, and the regularity of its monsoons; it would be vain to assign limits, or to say how far and wide the tide of commerce might not have flowed, or how great the progress of civilization might not have been, had they been allowed to pursue their free and uninterrupted course, protected and encouraged by a more enlightened and liberal government. Had the commerce been properly conducted, the advantages must have been reciprocal; if it enriched the one party, it must have raised the other in the scale of civilization; by creating new wants, it must have opened
