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all the country between Diamond point and Siack inclusive, 'for the purpose,' as Mr. Anderson expresses himself, of anticipating the Netherlands, and keeping the chiefs of that coast faithful to their relations with the island of Pinang,'-in fact, to open a communication with the several petty states on that coast and in the interior, and so to establish, if possible, a friendly and commercial intercourse with a country, rich in the choicest productions of nature, and abounding with a numerous and highly interesting population, with whose character, pursuits and habits, we had but little acquaintance.'

In the east, however, we have now nothing to apprehend from the exclusive and oppressive policy pursued by the Dutch; that has at length incited the natives to rebel against their authority, and to assert their rights. The consequence will probably be, that their oriental possessions will speedily be wrested from their grasp; whilst a more liberal system is rapidly drawing the whole trade of the ultra-Gangetic nations and the Archipelago to our few remaining ports in that quarter, more especially to Singapore. A very general view of the result of Mr. Anderson's Mission' is what we now propose to take, not altogether from any great interest or importance we attach to the work, but because we would not wish at this time to omit noticing any authentic information, however scanty, that may be gathered from any of the numerous nooks and corners of the eastern world.

Mr. Anderson, among other necessaries, took care to be wellprovided with interpreters; for we find in his train a motley group of twenty distinct kindreds and tongues, unknown, and, for the most part unintelligible to each other; Siamese, Burmahs, Aboynese, Malays, Buggese, Chooliahs, Chinese, Chittagong, Hindoo, Portugueze, Manilla, Caffree, Malabar, Javanese, Padang, Batta, West India Creole, Danes and Germans. The Company's brig Jessy conveyed him to the mouths of the several rivers and as far up them as they were safely navigable. To follow him up these rivers, and to the several residences of the petty sultans and rajahs, would be an endless and useless task. Their names and genealogies-their quarrels with each other-their traffic and manufactures, may all be very proper objects of study for the government of Pinang, but could hardly be considered as matters of much interest by the European reader; and on that account our description must be as brief and general as possible.

It appears that this eastern coast of Sumatra, which forms the western side of the strait of Malacca, and extends upwards of 600 geographical miles from Pedro point in latitude 5° 35′ N. to Lucepara point in latitude 3° 15' S. is in general low, swampy,

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and fringed with a continuous line of mangrove trees, growing so close to the water's edge as to throw their roots into the sea. This almost level country stretches from 50 miles in some places to 140 in others into the interior, till it meets with the great range of primitive mountains, which runs down the middle of the island almost the whole of its length. From these mountains issue innumerable streams, which, after intersecting in all directions the flat country, are poured into the Strait of Malacca through various channels, some of which, as the Reccan and the Siack, are of very considerable magnitude. Immense quantities of sand and mud, the debris of the mountains, are brought down by these rivers and deposited along the coast, where they are constantly forming sandbanks and shoals, which in some places extend as far as ten miles into the strait, rendering the navigation of it extremely dangerous, even to vessels of a small size. It is stated indeed that the land, in certain places, has gained upon the sea from 15 to 30 miles, within the last two hundred years. If this be so, what with the immense quantity of alluvion carried down, and the incessant labours of the coral-making insects, the strait of Malacca stands a chance of becoming unnavigable in an assignable number of years.

It may easily be imagined, that a country situated immediately under the equinoctial line, and covered with a deep alluvial soil, must be luxuriously fertile; but the enormous size to which many of its productions arrive is almost incredible to us who inhabit a more temperate climate. Some of our ancient oaks and yews might, it is true, compete with the grandest trees of a Sumatran forest; but we should look in vain in extra-tropical climates for any single flower measuring three feet in diameter, like that of the parasitical Rafflesia; or for a tuberous edible root weighing four hundred pounds; or for melons, pumpkins, and other species or varieties of the cucurbitaceous family, equal to half that weight; or for a shell fish equal to the Dutchman's cockle (chama gigas), on one of which four-and-twenty men make a hearty supper; or for one of the sponge species (Alcyonium?) as large and regular, and nearly as elegant, in shape, as the Barbarini vase.

Man alone seems here to degenerate, while other animals obtain the largest size. The elephants are equal in magnitude to those of Ceylon; the tiger, the rhinoceros, the buffalo, are superior to those of the continent. These animals infest the plantations and commit great ravages, more especially the herds of elephants, who are particularly fond of bananas and sugar-canes. The natives seem not to know the method of taking them by pit-falls, nor do they venture to make a direct attack upon them with their matchlocks

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hours, or about 10,000 times as great. Neither would it be unfair to deduce from this single fact, that the general power of the two monarchies, including that which is the source of power, knowledge, was, if not exactly in this ratio, at least in a proportion which could not widely differ from it-let us, with great moderation, say one fourth as great; that is, it is more than probable that the power of England is, at this moment, 2500 times as great as was that of Egypt, at the period when this pyramid was constructed. When we consider the reach of intellect which is necessary to devise the steam-engine, in its present state; together with its general influence upon civilization, and the part it acts in national prosperity, it would be impossible for a nation which it has made many times as powerful as another by its direct effect, to be less than one fourth as great in every branch where its action is only indirect.

By the power of steam every machine to which it is applied receives, not an addition, but a multiplication of force. The power thus produced in 1820 was computed to be equal to 320,000 horses, or about 2,240,000 men. At this moment steam, on account of its many new applications, and the improvements made in the manner of employing it, may perform the work of near three millions of men, in the united kingdom.

Let us now see the effect of this power in the manufacture of cotton. We have already shown the rapidity with which the consumption of this vegetable wool increased, between the years 1767 and 1787. The various machinery now used in manufacturing it has enabled one man to perform the work of one hundred and fifty. Now the lowest computation supposes 280,000 men-some say 350,000 men-to be employed in it. Hence the work now performed in this single branch would -half a century ago-have required 42,000,000 of men-according to some 53,000,000; that is to say, at the lowest computation, more than twice as many men, women, or children, as now people the British islands. Now supposing the labour of each of these men to cost, at this hour, the very moderate sum of one shilling per day, or £18 per annum, the pay of 42,000,000 of labourers would be £756,000,000 per annum, or a little more than thirteen times the annual revenue of England. Deducting from this sum the pay of the labourers now really employed at the above annual rate, (280,000×£18=£5,040,000) and allowing the enormous sum of £50,000,000 sterling for the wear and tear of machinery, buildings, and incidental expenses; the result is, that the machinery employed in the cotton manufactories saves £700,000,000 sterling to the British nation; or, in other words, that, without machinery and steam, the prodigy of British

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industry and civilization would still have been wanting to honour mankind.

But still further-The power employed in the cotton manufactures alone, of England, exceeds the manufacturing powers of all the rest of Europe collectively. The population of this continent does not amount to 200,000,000, or to five times forty. Now one-fifth of this population certainly is not employed in manufacturing; and all Europe, supposing it be as industrious as England, and wholly occupied by cotton, could not, unassisted by machinery, spin and weave as much of that material as England now does. But the most industrious country of Europe is not half so much engaged in manufacturing as England is, and many of them are ten times inferior; in so much that the average hardly stands as high as one-fourth in industry; hence, then, four Europes could not, at this moment, spin and weave as much cotton as England does. But the manufacturing industry of England may be fairly computed as four times greater than that of all the other continents taken collectively; and sixteen such continents as Europe, in the average state of industry of the whole world, and exclusively occupied by cotton, could not manufacturé so much of it as England now does. Again, the cotton manufacture of England may be said to be one-fourth of her total industry; and her total industry could not be performed by sixtytwo such continents as Europe in the average condition of the world. But this ratio must be multiplied by the entire population of the world, divided by that of England; and the superiority of our eighteen or twenty millions of subjects will thus be at least as one thousand to one, over the average power and condition of mankind at large.

Such are the means which a rude approximation gives as those that England now possesses, to pour out the blessings of civilization on the rest of the world. But, lest this estimate should be thought too high, we are ready to reduce it to one-fifth, and to say that the productive power of Britons is only 200 times as great as that of an equal number of men taken in the average population of the earth. We know not what portion of this 200 M. Dupin means to allow as the present superiority of England, and to claim as the past superiority of France, and we shall leave him to settle the account as he pleases.

From this vast career of industry, now opened to the world, the French have taken the alarm, and their thoughts begin to turn toward that rising continent which promises so wide a market for all that men can manufacture. We must expect to find them as active rivals there as they have been elsewhere; and employing the same means as ever to vie with us. Not that we

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see any real danger to be apprehended to our commerce from their exertions; unless indeed some miraculous progress has been made since the last public act by which a judgment might be formed upon the state of their manufactures; we mean the last exhibition of the products of French industry. In 1823 another of those childish shows took place, so inadequate to give a just idea of the real condition of a people, or to answer any purpose but that of non-consuming idleness and non-productive vanity. This exhibition was, if possible, more meagre than any which had preceded; for in what estimation must we hold the national labours of which periwigs and perfumes were so large a part? Yet they figured in the Palace of the Louvre amidst cases of artificial teeth, sweetmeats, confitures, and bonbons; reminding us, in the midst of what frivolity held most solemn, of the ingenuity of a Parisian new year's day, when sugar and flower are disguised, à s'y tromper,' in the shape of sucking pigs, hams, boots, and birch rods. British industry certainly is not of such stuff as this. It is not for parade and pageantry. Where is the palace that could contain a just specimen of what steam can perform on general civilization? or who could conceive the influence of an iron railway upon human happiness, from all that could be crammed into the longest gallery of Paris? The mind which projects such wonders as these is not coercible under roofs and colonnades; neither could any show-board utter what it is. If the French can thus be vain of useless gilding and luxurious dyes, what would not their boasting be if they possessed a Soho or a Birmingham? But no; where boasting is, Watt could not be.

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Notwithstanding this, however, the French board of trade and of colonies has addressed the third of the works which stand at the head of this Article to the principal chambers of commerce in the kingdom-documents relating to the trade which it may be advisable for the merchants of France to carry on with the new states of America. They are official, and are curious in more points of view than as relating merely to trade.

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This little volume is preceded by a letter signed Saint-Cricq, president of the French board of trade. The tenth page says, that the English owe their superiority entirely to their capitals; but that the predilection of the natives is decidedly in favour of the French. The English,' it is said, ' are only useful, but they are not loved.' In the fifteenth page we find, On le répète, les Anglais ne sont pas aimés au Mexique; ils n'y sont qu'utiles.' Now let us suppose the French to be the delightful people that they say they are, ‘aimable, séduisant, gallant;' every thing they please; yet we think it a very general principle in human nature to be more attached to those who are useful to us, than to those who

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