Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/235

 EUROPEAN NATIONS. 219 of the abuses which were the very source of their power and privileges. The possession of political power and patronage made them cling to these at all hazards, and many honourable men have pertinaciously defended a system of malversation, which they believed to be right, because it was their interest to think it so. Their possession of patronage naturally connected the monopoly companies with the respective govern- ments where they existed ; and thus, but for the convulsions which have agitated the European world for the last forty years, the great political changes favourable to freedom, which have been the result of the diffusion of useful knowledge, and the force of public opinion, the abuses which for three centuries have excluded the two most wealthy and populous quarters of the globe from all useful connection with each other, might have long continued, or been perpetuated. When the Dutch and English first appeared in the East Indies, they appeared in the simple cha- racter of traders, committing occasional acts of pi- racy, but, upon the whole, maintaining a tolerably fair reputation with the natives, who contrasted their peaceful demeanour, and still more peaceful professions, with the violence and persecution of the Portuguese and Spaniards. In a very few years, and as soon as they had superseded their European rivals, they lost this reputation, and