may best suit their purposes. We do not, of course, apply this dilemma to Sir Stamford Raffles, who went to work on simpler and more tenable principles, when he dethroned the ruffian who had licensed the deep tragedy of which the British cut short the catastrophe; but we are certainly reminded by this act of poetical as well as of natural justice, of other deeds, similar in ostensible character, though altogether dissimilar in spirit. The Holy Alliance have used almost as little ceremony with principalities in Europe, as The Company' have done with Musnuds in the East. But this is high matter, and not to be episodically touched. We go on, then, to state, that a brother of the Sultan was invested with royalty; and that, when the 'direful sacrifices of Lord Castlereagh' had severed Java from the British possessions in India, the monster was re-enthroned by the very Dutch whose countrymen he had massacred. In a subsequent affair with the Sultan of Djocjocarta, Mr. Raffles was himself present; and the business terminated much in the same way, by the substitution of the hereditary prince for his dethroned father.

The Governor of Java was placed in embarrassing circumstances by the state of the currency, almost wholly consisting of depreciated paper, which had, to a certain extent', been guaranteed by Lord Minto. Consequent difficulties met Mr. Raffles at every turn; and independently of the obstacles which it threw in the way of commerce, it pressed upon the energies of the local authorities, in the shape of a positive debt, due from Government to the public. The claim, having been admitted, did not honourably admit of evasion; and the only question which presented itself to Mr. Raffles, concerned the means of its reduction. Had he taken it up in the usual way, and employed British capital in its liquidation, he must, of course, have saddled the East-India Company with its amount, 325,000l.; he preferred, therefore, a mode of extinction less onerous to his employers, and met colonial demands with colonial property. He disposed of so much of the land which belonged to Government, as enabled him to suppress one-fourth of the depreciated medium, and substituted for the other portion a kind of Exchequer bills, bearing interest, and Bank notes issued on the security of real property. Wise, however, and cautious, and urged on by extreme circumstances as were these measures, they were strongly disapproved by the Court of Leadenhall Street; a disapprobation anticipated by Lord Minto, while he conveyed to Mr. Raffles his own unqualified approval of the plan, as an able expedient in a case of great emergency. His Lordship's decision will, we believe, be supported by the assent of every impartial individual. Another unpleasant affair occurred at about the same time, and while

Mr. Raffles was overwhelmed with business of the most difficult and urgent kind, in the preferment, by General Gillespie, of charges injurious to his moral character' as an officer of government, and, had they been susceptible of proof, ruinous to his future prospects in life'. The matter was immediately taken up by the Bengal Government, and ended in the entire and most honourable acquittal of Mr. Raffles. Even the Court of Directors, as the ultimate referee, expressed their opinion, that the accusations had not only not been made 'good', but that they had been disproved, to an extent sel'dom practicable in a case of defence'; and, while they intimated doubts respecting the expediency of some of his public measures, stated their strong conviction, that the administration of Mr. Raffles stood not only exempt from any sordid or ' selfish taint', but that it had been guided by 'motives per'fectly correct and laudable'. Gillespie, we believe, was a strange creature, brave, to the very edge of rashness, but, to use Lord Minto's phrase, full of civil defects', and an awkward person to act with in civil life.

We regret the impossibility of giving in detail the history of that wise and beneficent administration which has made the name of Raffles indelible in the grateful memory of the Javanese. Deeply must it ever be lamented, that the same policy which committed the interests of England and the world, at a most critical period, to a most inadequate negotiator, cut short the execution of plans, and the extension of a system of government, which would not only have made Java entirely and permanently British, but would have rendered the influence of England over the native states of the Indian Archipelago, more efficient to all purposes of interest and authority, than could have been the result of positive subjugation.

Notwithstanding the decided approbation and support of Lord Minto, (which the death of that nobleman rendered, indeed, of little avail,) Mr. Raffles still remained under a cloud. The charges to which we have alluded, though promptly and victoriously met, were not as yet disposed of; and the feeling of the Court of Directors was so decidedly in opposition to the policy which he had adopted, that they determined on superseding him, while, as an attestation to his integrity, they offered him the Residency of Bencoolen. Domestic calamity, however, the loss of his wife, and the death of friends, with the effects of climate, and the anxieties consequent on the circumstances in which he was placed, had so far impaired his health, as to make his return to Europe absolutely necessary; and he only waited for the arrival of his successor, to set him at liberty for the voyage. His departure was accompanied by the strongly expressed regret both of Europeans and natives; and the

may best suit their purposes. We do not, of course, apply this dilemma to Sir Stamford Raffles, who went to work on simpler and more tenable principles, when he dethroned the ruffian who had licensed the deep tragedy of which the British cut short the catastrophe; but we are certainly reminded by this act of poetical as well as of natural justice, of other deeds, similar in ostensible character, though altogether dissimilar in spirit. The Holy Alliance have used almost as little ceremony with principalities in Europe, as The Company' have done with Musnuds in the East. But this is high matter, and not to be episodically touched. We go on, then, to state, that a brother of the Sultan was invested with royalty; and that, when the 'direful sacrifices of Lord Castlereagh' had severed Java from the British possessions in India, the monster was re-enthroned by the very Dutch whose countrymen he had massacred. In a subsequent affair with the Sultan of Djocjocarta, Mr. Raffles was himself present; and the business terminated much in the same way, by the substitution of the hereditary prince for his dethroned father.

The Governor of Java was placed in embarrassing circumstances by the state of the currency, almost wholly consisting of depreciated paper, which had, to a certain extent', been guaranteed by Lord Minto. Consequent difficulties met Mr. Raffles at every turn; and independently of the obstacles which it threw in the way of commerce, it pressed upon the energies of the local authorities, in the shape of a positive debt, due from Government to the public. The claim, having been admitted, did not honourably admit of evasion; and the only question which presented itself to Mr. Raffles, concerned the means of its reduction. Had he taken it up in the usual way, and employed British capital in its liquidation, he must, of course, have saddled the East-India Company with its amount, 325,000l.; he preferred, therefore, a mode of extinction less onerous to his employers, and met colonial demands with colonial property. He disposed of so much of the land which belonged to Government, as enabled him to suppress one-fourth of the depreciated medium, and substituted for the other portion a kind of Exchequer bills, bearing interest, and Bank notes issued on the security of real property. Wise, however, and cautious, and urged on by extreme circumstances as were these measures, they were strongly disapproved by the Court of Leadenhall Street; a disapprobation anticipated by Lord Minto, while he conveyed to Mr. Raffles his own unqualified approval of the plan, as an able expedient in a case of great emergency. His Lordship's decision will, we believe, be supported by the assent of every impartial individual. Another unpleasant affair occurred at about the same time, and while

Mr. Raffles was overwhelmed with business of the most difficult and urgent kind, in the preferment, by General Gillespie, of charges injurious to his moral character' as an officer of government, and, had they been susceptible of proof, ruinous to his future prospects in life'. The matter was immediately taken up by the Bengal Government, and ended in the entire and most honourable acquittal of Mr. Raffles. Even the Court of Directors, as the ultimate referee, expressed their opinion, that the accusations had not only not been made good', but that they had been disproved, to an extent seldom practicable in a case of defence'; and, while they intimated doubts respecting the expediency of some of his public measures, stated their strong conviction, that the administration of Mr. Raffles stood not only exempt from any sordid or ' selfish taint', but that it had been guided by 'motives per'fectly correct and laudable'. Gillespie, we believe, was a strange creature, brave, to the very edge of rashness, but, to use Lord Minto's phrase, full of civil defects', and an awkward person to act with in civil life.

We regret the impossibility of giving in detail the history of that wise and beneficent administration which has made the name of Raffles indelible in the grateful memory of the Javanese. Deeply must it ever be lamented, that the same policy which committed the interests of England and the world, at a most critical period, to a most inadequate negotiator, cut short the execution of plans, and the extension of a system of government, which would not only have made Java entirely and permanently British, but would have rendered the influence of England over the native states of the Indian Archipelago, more efficient to all purposes of interest and authority, than could have been the result of positive subjugation.

Notwithstanding the decided approbation and support of Lord Minto, (which the death of that nobleman rendered, indeed, of little avail,) Mr. Raffles still remained under a cloud. The charges to which we have alluded, though promptly and victoriously met, were not as yet disposed of; and the feeling of the Court of Directors was so decidedly in opposition to the policy which he had adopted, that they determined on superseding him, while, as an attestation to his integrity, they offered him the Residency of Bencoolen. Domestic calamity, however, the loss of his wife, and the death of friends, with the effects of climate, and the anxieties consequent on the circumstances in which he was placed, had so far impaired his health, as to make his return to Europe absolutely necessary; and he only waited for the arrival of his successor, to set him at liberty for the voyage. His departure was accompanied by the strongly expressed regret both of Europeans and natives; and the

present of a magnificent service of plate marked their sense of his merits. The officers of his immediate staff gave testimony of their attachment in the same way. The delay connected with the preparations for embarkation, having given Mr. Fendall, the new governor, an opportunity of inspecting the records of administration, he not only avowed his approbation of all the principal acts of his predecessor, but, without one alteration, continued Mr. Raffles's personal staff in their former situ'ations, and expressed his determination to attend to all Mr. 'Raffles's wishes.' When the ex-governor actually embarked, the roads of Batavia were crowded with boats, and the deck of the vessel was covered with offerings of fruit, flowers, and poultry. On the way home, the ship touched at St. Helena, and Mr. Raffles had an interview with Napoleon, gratifying, of course, to himself, as a matter of curiosity, but unattended by any particular circumstances to make it worth citing in its details. He landed at Falmouth, in July 1816, reached London on the 16th, and the next day, presented himself at the India House.

His situation at this time would have been depressing enough to a man less happily constituted; but the firmness of his character, the elasticity of his mind, and his lofty confidence, not merely in his innocence, but in the sound and superior policy of his public acts, bore him up against all adverse circumstances. Nor was his equanimity in the least shaken, though his views were condemned, not only by the Directors, but by the Marquis of Hastings, the new Governor-general of India. The presence of Mr. Raffles in England, his high literary character, and the attractions of his society, wakened an interest in England, concerning the Island of Java, which had never before been felt; and amid the urgency of business, and the routine of social and literary engagements, he wrote his history of that important region. That work, voluminous and profound as it is, was completed in about six months; and, although in some degree exhibiting signs of its rapid composition, it remains a conspicuous monument of learning, ability, and industry.

In the beginning of 1817, Mr. Raffles formed a new matrimonial engagement, and in the same year, visited the Continent, having been previously presented to the Prince Regent, from whose hand he received the honour of knighthood. During his tour, he sought and obtained an interview with the King of Holland; but his benevolent representations in behalf of the natives of Java, were unsuccessful in preventing that course of grinding and ruinous policy which has worse than undone all that Sir Stamford Raffles had succeeded in accomplishing. In England, he was a frequent guest at Claremont; and when he