a few degrees south of the equator, Ceylon about as far to the north; in neither island does the temperature vary much throughout the year; in both the rainfall is very copious, especially on the western coasts; but the seasons are reversed, the rains terminating in one island just when they commence in the other. Java and Ceylon were both taken by the British from the Dutch; Java was restored, while Ceylon was retained; both islands are financially prosperous, and both owe their prosperity in a great measure to coffee; but Java has progressed far more rapidly than Ceylon has done under similar natural conditions, and it seems fair to give some credit for this to political administration. The superficial area of Ceylon is just three-quarters of that of Ireland, and nearly one-half that of Java, but the population of Java was in 1871 just seven times that of Ceylon, having increased with steady rapidity since 1816, when it had nearly the same density of population as Ceylon has at present. In Ceylon great tracts of fertile land have relapsed into jungle, tanks constructed under former dynasties have fallen into ruins, large imports of rice are necessary to feed the scanty population, many of whom are not permanent residents, but emigrants from the mainland, working as coolies on the coffee plantations. Java, although three or four times as densely peopled, is able to export rice, the staple food of the inhabitants, as well as the coffee, sugar, indigo, and tobacco from which its European masters derive their wealth. In estimating the merits and demerits of the so-called "culture system" of Java, this comparison with Ceylon is not without significance, nor is it to the disadvantage of the former island.
Englishmen are disposed to believe that no other race except their own understands the management of colonies or the administration of a subject country, and in support of this belief they contrast their own colossal empire with the fragments now alone remaining to those nations who were once their rivals in maritime and colonial enterprise. The truth appears to be that our colonial success is due mainly to our maritime supremacy, which has gradually given us possession of all the most desirable territory, either by conquest or colonization, while other nations are obliged to content themselves with what has been left. In the Eastern seas the flags of France, Spain, and Portugal are still kept flying over possessions, the intrinsic value of which to the mother country is comparatively small, and which attract little attention or interest in the outside world. But the possessions of the Dutch in these seas are on a very different scale. Twice in their short history that indomitable people have established a colonial empire: the first was due to their maritime power, and passed into the hands of the English, their successful maritime rivals; while the existing Netherlands India has been created within the last sixty years, almost unnoticed by the great powers of Europe, among which Holland once held so proud a place. By far the most important and valuable part of Netherlands India is Java (of which the small adjacent island of Madura, incorporated with it for all administrative purposes, may be regarded as a portion), slightly exceeding in superficial area England without Wales, and containing at the last census a population of nearly eighteen millions, four time as great as it had in 1816, when it was restored by the British to the Netherlanders. Many persons regard the surrender of this magnificent island as a piece of reckless folly or quixotic generosity, but it was truly nothing more than an act of simple justice, and one which Englishmen may remember with unmixed satisfaction. We then restored to Holland, our ally at Waterloo, a colony which had formerly been hers, and which we had recovered from the common foe. While the French armies overran the Netherlands, the British fleets took possession of the Dutch colonies in Asia, Africa, and America, until it could be said that the Dutch flag remained flying nowhere on the globe, save over the factory of Desima in Japan. But the restoration of Java provided the nucleus of a new colonial empire, which has since spread gradually over the whole Malay archipelago, and although the outlying possessions are now governed as mere dependencies of
