institutions and laws for its future_constitution-a pleasant duty enough in England, where you have books, hard heads, and lawyers to refer to; but here by no means easy, where all must depend on my own judgment and foresight. Nevertheless, I hope that though Sincapore may not be the first capital established in the nineteenth century, it will not disgrace the brightest period of it." The noble feeling which influenced him in all this is thus expressed by himself. "I should have but ill fulfilled the high trust reposed in me, if, after having congregated so large a portion of my fellow-creatures, I had left them without something like law and regulation for their security and comfort."

It is impossible within our narrow limits to describe even briefly the constitution which Sir Stamford gave to the important city which he had founded-a constitution which was the most perfect production of his mind, the condensation, as it were, of all his past experience. The constitution breathed a spirit of liberality throughout. It was expressly provided that Sincapore should now and for ever be a free port to all nations; that all races, all religions, all colours, should be equal in the eye of the law; and that such a thing as slavery should have no existence there. But Sir Stamford descended to the minutest details; the establishment, for instance, of standard weights and measures, and local as well as general matters of police. The benevolent will not peruse without feelings of delight the following extract from the "Laws and Regulations" laid down by Sir Stamford for the administration of Sincapore:

"By the constitution of England, the absolute rights of the subject are defined as follows:-1st, The right of personal security, which consists in a person's legal uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his health, and his reputation. 2d, The right of personal liberty, which consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, or removing one's person to whatever place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course of law. 3d, The right of property, which consists in the use, enjoyment, and disposal of all acquisitions, without any control or diminution, save only by the laws of the land.

There seems no reason for denying corresponding rights to all classes of people residing under the protection of the British flag at Sincapore, the laws of the land being such as are or may be enacted under the provisions of Regulation No. III. of 1823, dated the 20th of January last, with such others of a more general nature as may be directed by a higher authority, or which may necessarily accrue under the provisions of the legislature, and the political circumstances of the settlement, as a dependency on great Britain. Admitting these rights to exist, it follows that all acts by which they are invaded are wrongs; that is to say, crimes or injuries.

In the enactment of laws for securing these rights, legal obliga tion must never supersede or take the place of, or be inconsistent with, or more or less onerous than, moral obligation. The English practice of teaching prisoners to plead not guilty, that they may thus have a chance of escaping from punishment, is inconsistent with this, and consequently objectionable. It is indeed right and proper that the court should inform itself of all the circumstances of a crime from witnesses, as well as from the declaration of the prisoner himself. Denial is, in fact, an aggravation of a crime, according to every idea of common sense; disarms punishment of one of its most beneficial objects, by casting a shade of doubt over its justice.

The sanctity of oaths should also be more upheld than in English courts. This may be done by never administering them except as a last resort. If they are not frequently administered, not only will their sanctity be more regarded, and in this way their breach be less proportionately frequent, but of necessity much more absolutely uncommon, and consequently much more certainly visited with due punishment. Truth, however, must be required, under pain of punishment, in all cases of evidence given before a court of justice.

The imprisonment of an unfortunate debtor at the pleasure of his creditor, by which the services of the individual are lost to all parties, seems objectionable in this settlement; and it is considered that the rights of property may be sufficiently protected by giving to the creditor a right to the value of the debtor's services for a limited period, in no case exceeding five years, and that the debtor should only be liable to imprisonment in case of fraud, and as far as may be necessary for the security of his person, in the event of his not being able to find bail during the process of the court, and for the performance of the decree after judgment may be passed.

It is well known that the Malay race are sensibly alive to shame, and that in many cases they would prefer death to ignominy. This is a high and honourable feeling, and ought to be cherished. Let great care be taken to avoid all punishments which are unnecessarily degrading. Both the Malays and Chinese are a reasoning people, and though each may reason in a way peculiar to itself, and different in some respects from our own way of reasoning, this germ of civilisation should not be checked. Let no man be punished without a reason assigned. Let the principles of British law be applied not only with mildness, and a patriarchal kindness and indulgent consideration for prejudices of each tribe, as far as substantial justice will allow, but also with reference to their reasoning powers, however weak, and that moral principle which, however often disregarded, still exists in the consciences of men.

Let native institutions, as far as regards religious observances, marriage, and inheritance, be respected when the same

may not be inconsistent with justice and humanity, or injurious to the peace and morals of society.

Let all men be considered equal in the eye of the law. Let no man be banished the country without a trial by his peers, or by due course of law.

Let no man be deprived of his liberty without a cause, and no man be detained in confinement beyond forty-eight hours, without a right to demand a hearing and trial according to due course of law.

Let the public have a voice through the magistracy, by which their sentiments may at all times be freely expressed."

It was not without considerable opposition that Sir Stamford succeeded in establishing Sincapore on such a liberal basis. "I have been opposed throughout," he writes, "in establishing the freedom of the port, and anything like a liberal mode of management, and not only by the Penang government, but also in Bengal. The Bengal merchants, or rather one or two of them whom I could name, would have preferred the old system, by which they might have monopolised the early resources of the place, and thus checked its progress to importance."

Returning to Bencoolen in the middle of the year 1823, Sir Stamford set sail for England on the 2d of February 1824. On the evening after leaving the harbour, and when the ship was about fifty miles from land, the crew were roused by the cry of fire. They had just time to lower the boats and escape-Sir Stamford half-dressed, Lady Raffles and the children taken out of bed with neither shoes nor stockings, and only a blanket round them—when the ship burst out into one mass of flame. After a hard night's rowing they reached Bencoolen, and were once more in the home they had left but a few hours before. Almost the only loser by this calamity was Sir Stamford; but to him the loss was beyond all repair. The whole of his drawings, all his collections in botany and zoology, all his written descriptions and papers, every document and memorandum he possessed, fell a prey to the flames. Yet such was his perseverance, that on the morning after his loss he set about doing all he could to lessen it, recommencing an elaborate map of Sumatra, and despatching men into the forests for specimens of plants and animals.

On the 8th of April Sir Stamford again set sail, and in a few months he landed at Plymouth. For nearly two years his time was occupied in furthering at home those objects to which he had devoted himself abroad. It was only indirectly, indeed, that he could exert any influence over the island of Sumatra; for in 1824 Bencoolen was given up to the Dutch in exchange for Malacca, so that the whole island of Sumatra, as well as Java and the smaller Spice Islands, was now in their possession. In the progress of Sincapore, however, he took especial interest; and to the last, his scheme of a great educational institution for all the Malays of the Archipelago was near his heart. His health,

however, had suffered severely from his long and arduous services in the East, and being taken suddenly ill, he died on the 5th of July 1826, in the forty-fifth year of his age.

CONCLUSION.

Thus died at a comparatively early age one of the greatest modern statesmen, a man not more remarkable for his benevolence of disposition, than his comprehensive abilities and sound practical views. Hampered in all his magnificent designs by events over which he could exercise no control, prevented from adding a new and flourishing empire to Britain, we have yet seen how much he accomplished with the means at his disposal, what tyrannic barbarisms he quelled, what a measure of civilisation and human happiness he achieved. His successful institution of new and vigorous states of society in Java, Bencoolen, and Sincapore, with the whole apparatus of enlightened laws and municipal establishments, must ever be considered one of the grandest facts in British colonial history-grand from its very contrast with the narrow-minded policy usually pursued with relation to our distant possessions and settlements-and marks alike the profoundness of his judgment, and the dauntless integrity of his character.

While lamenting that so many of the arrangements of this great man were subsequently and remorselessly overthrown, their success for a period of five years was of considerable value, in showing how social disorders consequent on a long period of misrule may be safely and satisfactorily remedied. His uncom promising abolition of slavery in Java alone was an act of signal triumph, suggestive of what might elsewhere be effected, if undertaken with a right good will and in a right way. Unlike men pledged by their prophetic fears and declamations to prove that emancipation would be a forerunner of universal ruin, Sir Stamford Raffles approached the subject with an all-abounding faith in the power of justice, kindness, and conciliation; and the result-joy, peace, industry, in place of misery, discontent, and idleness-evinced the truthfulness of his calculations. With the like soundness of conception did he sweep away the barren monopolies of centuries, liberate commerce, and establish, by indisputable evidence, that freedom of trade is not only the most just and rational, but that it is also the most expedient for all parties-blessing not less the receivers than the givers. Whether, therefore, as the governor of a colony, a law-giver, a financier, and a man of taste and science, Sir Stamford Raffles may be said to have been rarely surpassed, and as rarely equalled. How incomparably more glorious his achievements than those which the proudest warrior can boast-how much more worthy will his name be held in remembrance than that of the destroyer of nations, surrounded by all the honours which kings and courts can bestow!

Ta short distance from Leyden, on the banks of the Rhine, between the towns of Leyendorp and Koukerk, there was, in 1616, a hamlet composed of eight or ten houses. Among them was one of a higher class than the others: four stone steps conducted to a door which was almost always open, on which were engraved rude sculptures. Small windows were placed at each side of the door: the first storey, a rare luxury on the banks of the Rhine, extended out for two or three feet above the door-sill, so that it offered to the visitor a shelter from the rain or heat. Above was inscribed, among the Gothic ornaments, these words "Jacques Gerretz, Flour Merchant."

In the outer chamber of the house, seated before a counter of white wood, which was covered with scales and weights, might be seen a woman of about thirty-five years of age. When young, her features might not have been devoid of grace, but they now bore the withering traces of fatigue, sickness, and grief. Dark circles were marked on her faded cheeks; her eyes sparkled with a strange light; her shoulders were bent and cramped over her chest; a dry painful cough shook her at frequent intervals. In