ystem of society has in itself the seeds of
dissolution, and is rapidly verging to an inherent decay and general
oblivion, which it will doubtless meet, unless some beneficent power
arrest its baneful impetus, and direct its feverish energies through
channels calculated to promote the happiness and to consolidate the
welfare of the inhabitants of these scattered regions.

Should so fortunate an occurrence ever fall to the lot of
Borneo--should a strong and a wise government ever be established on
her shores--a government that will religiously respect property and
secure to industry the fruits of her labor--that will, by a wise system
of laws, protect the peaceable and punish the violator of the laws of
a well-organized society--that will direct their industry to useful
purposes, and check their propensities to violence and plunder--such
a government, in a short series of years, would behold, as if by
magic, a paradise burst from her wilds, see cultivation smile upon
her jungles, and hail a vast and increasing population, blessing the
hand that awoke them to life, to happiness, and to prosperity. That so
felicitous a change is not the mere reverie of a glowing imagination,
or the sheer effusion of benevolence alone, is easily demonstrable.

Whoever has seen the Egyptian fertility of the soil, from the
moistness of the climate, the numberless rivers meandering around and
intersecting the country in all directions, with the mild temperature
of the climate, from similar causes--whoever considers the vast extent
and inexhaustible wealth of her innumerable mines of pure native gold,
her block-tin, her copper, her iron, her diamonds, &c., her various
valuable fisheries of pearl and tripan--whoever views her ports,
her harbors, and her productive shores, at the threshold of the
over-teeming population of China, and at the same moment recollects
that the country abounds in various valuable products in the highest
possible estimation, and of increasing demand in the empire of China,
must easily conceive what a tempting field and rich harvest this
land of promise holds out to their industry and cupidity under such
a system of laws and government as we have deemed a _sine qua non_.

If, under the present codes of tyranny, oppression, and general
ferocity, where nothing is permanent but violence and desolation--if,
under such a system of barbarism, a hundred thousand Chinese (which
is the fact) have found inducements sufficiently