re have been several changes of government, and in the mode of
raising revenue. The inhabitants have been so recently under the rule
of their native princes, that it is not easy at once to destroy the
excessive reverence they feel for their old masters, or to diminish the
oppressive exactions which the latter have always been accustomed to
make. There is, however, one grand test of the prosperity, and even
of the happiness, of a community, which we can apply here--the rate of
increase of the population.

It is universally admitted that when a country increases rapidly in
population, the people cannot be very greatly oppressed or very badly
governed. The present system of raising a revenue by the cultivation of
coffee and sugar, sold to Government at a fixed price, began in 1832.
Just before this, in 1826, the population by census was 5,500,000, while
at the beginning of the century it was estimated at 3,500,000. In 1850,
when the cultivation system had been in operation eighteen years, the
population by census was over 9,500,000, or an increase of 73 per
cent in twenty-four years. At the last census, in 1865, it amounted to
14,168,416, an increase of very nearly 50 per cent in fifteen years--a
rate which would double the population in about twenty-six years. As
Java (with Madura) contains about 38,500 geographical square miles, this
will give an average of 368 persons to the square mile, just double that
of the populous and fertile Bengal Presidency as given in Thornton's
Gazetteer of India, and fully one-third more than that of Great Britain
and Ireland at the last Census. If, as I believe, this vast population
is on the whole contented and happy, the Dutch Government should
consider well before abruptly changing a system which has led to such
great results.

Taking it as a whole, and surveying it front every point of view, Java
is probably the very finest and most interesting tropical island in the
world. It is not first in size, but it is more than 600 miles long, and
from 60 to 120 miles wide, and in area is nearly equal to England; and
it is undoubtedly the most fertile, the most productive, and the most
populous island within the tropics. Its whole surface is magnificently
varied with mountain and forest scenery. It possesses thirty-eight
volcanic mountains, several of which rise to ten or twelve thousand feet
high. Some of these are in constant activity, and one or other of them
displays almost every phenomenon