something considerable. On the whole, the people are well fed and
decently clothed, and have acquired habits of steady industry and
the art of scientific cultivation, which must be of service to
them in the future. It must be remembered, that the Government
expended capital for years before any return was obtained; and if
they now derive a large revenue, it is in a way which is far less
burthensome, and far more beneficial to the people, than any tax
that could be levied.

But although the system may be a good one, and as well adapted to
the development of arts and industry in a half civilized people
as it is to the material advantage of the governing country, it
is not pretended that in practice it is perfectly carried out.
The oppressive and servile relations between chiefs and people,
which have continued for perhaps a thousand years, cannot be at
once abolished; and some evil must result from those relations,
until the spread of education and the gradual infusion of
European blood causes it naturally and insensibly to disappear.
It is said that the Residents, desirous of showing a large
increase in the products of their districts, have sometimes
pressed the people to such continued labour on the plantations
that their rice crops have been materially diminished, and famine
has been the result. If this has happened, it is certainly not a
common thing, and is to be set down to the abuse of the system,
by the want of judgment, or want of humanity in the Resident.

A tale has lately been written in Holland, and translated into
English, entitled "Max Havelaar; or, the "Coffee Auctions of the
Dutch Trading Company," and with our usual one-sidedness in all
relating to the Dutch Colonial System, this work has been