Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/193

Rh Lord Hastings, judging that the question of opposing a European power was one which required reference to England, annulled Raffles' first measures, but he approved of the policy of counteracting the exclusion which was sought to be brought about, and expressed the following opinion — 'that the proceedings of the Netherlands authorities since the arrival of the Commissioners-General to receive charge of the Dutch colonies, had been actuated by a spirit of ambition, by views of boundless aggrandisement and rapacity, and by a desire to obtain the power of monopolising the commerce of the eastern archipelago, and excluding the English from these advantages which they had long enjoyed, and which they only wished to share in common with the other nations of the earth.' He considered it necessary, therefore, to strengthen British possessions in the far East, and thus to secure a safe trade-route to China, which otherwise would have been closed. With this object, he approved of a proposition to occupy Singapore, which was then an almost desert island, inhabited only by a few fishermen. Raffles promptly put the plan into execution (1819), despite the protests of the Dutch, who did not contemplate any such operation. Considerable friction between the two powers was the result, until 1824, when a treaty was signed with Holland, by which certain territory was exchanged and the respective spheres of influence of the two countries were defined, giving England a secure passage for her merchandise, and leaving the legitimate