The Express.
London, England, 1858-04-14 00:00:00

ARMY RETURNS.

In mayor to Mr. B►awau, - ---
General PEEL stated that the army Mums Moved for
on the lath of March would be laid on the table on Friday.

THE STRAITS OF MALACCA.
Vhoonst BURY rem sussed to nodes, to cell the
attentien of as hoer ie the rendition of the midementa in
the Bereft of Malmee—vin, P Singapore, and Ma-
had pat his motion in thia form se the mbject might form
part of the ',solution which the government had intimated
their intention to submit to the house with regard to India.
The position of these settlements at the and of the Miley=
peninsula, In the great highway of rendered the
of surpassing national importance. Prom the embed time,
before the Europeans had any trade In them men
the Arabs had settlements there. The Dutch held
them when the English powei was gtomng op ;
the repressive policy established by them in the Straits
was found very injurious to English interests. Towards the
close of the eighteenth century the first British settlement
was established at Penang. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles,
perceiving the greet importance of the position, founded the
colony at Bingapore. He had some trouble. He succeeded
in getting It recopied. The trade was soon diverted thither
from Pensag, and it has since increased to an enormous ex-
tent. The led return for 1867 showed that it amounted to
15,000.0001. Mr Stamford Raffles was a servant of the Ewa
India Cowpony ; and after they were deprived of their mo-
nopoly of the trade with China, the settlement became of lees
importance to them and to India general. But in the
same proportion Hs national importance to Great Britain in-
creased. These settlements were in the strictest sense of the
word colonies. They were composed of those who were drawn
together by the desire to live under British rule and British
law. They were not a conquered people, like those of India.
Since the East India Company had ceased to trade with
China the settlement had only been regarded by them as a
convict settlement ; and this brought him to one of the prin.
cipel complainta made in the Singapore petition. The pett
tioners complained that the island me made the receptacle
for the scum of the Madras and Bombay presidencies, and
not only were they made to pay all the =penes of tin con-
vict establishments, but aW of the military forces who
guarded the convicts. Another complaint against the Indian
r eLernment was, that they bad attempted to replace the
by the rapperes system of currency, and had thereby
created great aoedosioa in the trade of the settlement. Hi-
therto Singapore bad been a free port; but the Indian go-
vernment recently made an attempt to impose tonnage
doss upon the shipping of Singapore, and it was
only by means of energetic remonstrances at home
that the attempt was defeated. Upon all these grounds,
then, the petitioners claimed to have the settlement taken
oat of the heads of the East India Company and placed
ender the immediate control of the crown.

Mr. H. BAILLIB ;I; free tocoeges that the subject
had not yet occupied the attention of government; nor, in-
deed, did they ousider it necessity to entertain it until the
Oovercor-Oeneral had been written to upon it. It was quite
impossible that the government could proceed to deal with
the question at home before they bad entered into communi-
cation with the Indian government upon it.
Mr. HORSMAN observed that the bon. gentleman had
treated this question as a matter of grievance ; but from in-
formation that had reached him within the last two or
three days, he thought it deserved to be treated as a
question of public policy. Forty years ego Singapore
wet a haunt of pirates ; but since thin it had so risen as to
have a tracts of ten millions steeling annum, while dub(
the last six years its commerce had increased no less than 75
per oent. There wee good ground then for complaining that
this commercial depot should be made a receptacle for con-
victs. Not only was there ground for complaint on the score
of expense, but the colonise had a right te find fault with the
nature of the form by whom the convicts were guarded. By
whom were the convicts guarded ? Why, by Sepoy regi-
ments, and if thee._ Sepoy regiments hsd recently been in
sympathy with their brethren in Bengal, what would have
been the elbot of such a state of things P But the
real question wee, what had Singapore to do
with India P Ceylon was eighty miles from the
Indian coast, bat that settlement was not under the con-
trol of the Indian government ; and why should Singapore,
which was nearer to China than India, any more than Gy-
bes, Hong Kong, Australia, or the Cape of Ord Hope P It
was for the interest of this country that Singapore, the Liver-
pool of the Bast, should be fostered and 'mourned by the
imperial government, instead of being abandoned to the
mercies of the But India Company.
Sir J. ELPHINSTONE bad never beard before to-day
that there was an idea of placing Si pore under the con-
trol of the Colonial c ce, and he had therein* not had time
to make up his mind upon the question. He wee at Singa-
pore in 1820, when the settlement was first established, and
had visited it many times since. At the time he Ste Imew
it Singapore was an island inhabited by • her Malay
fishermen ; but being advantageously placed to intercept the
trade of the Eastern Archipelago, Sir Stamford Renee
advised that it should be erected into a colonial settlement.
The eland wee so singularly well adapted for catching all the
trade of the Eastern Archipelago, from every direction, that
it had rapidly risen to its present petition. It was necessary
in the first Instance to send convicts to the island to carry out
the public works, and while the settlement wu in its lnfsaoy
an it were only a small body of troops was required to min-
tato order; but as the settlement rose in importune the
elements of disorder increased in a similar proportion. The
populations that resorted to Singapore catered of the
most lawless and savage nations to be famed in
the Eastern Archipelago, men, in far, who were
habituated to robbery and murder from their Infancy.
The most lawless and depraved people flocked to the Nettle-
meet, and these were augmented by the Chinese immigrants,
who had largely intermerried with Malay women and who
were now known as • class or • race nods the name of
Clings. There were the persons who were the most feared
In Singapore, Malacca, and Penang. He had never heard
ae7 complaint made of the convict population : on the con-
trary, the residents selected their domestic servants from the
markt cleat. (A laugh.) A few years ago, while on a visit to
the esttisuitat, he said to the wife of • distinguished civilian,
them reddest there but since decreed, who always selected
bar servants from convicts, Pray tell me, madam, which do
you select, thieves or murderers?" (A laugh.) Her reply was
that she invariably selected murderere—(laughter)—brostuis
they were itsnwally persons who had committed crime from
motives of jealousy ; but the cause of their jealousy being
removed, they became the most industrious and faithful
domestics. (A laugh.) He had sever heard, then, that any
objection was made to the settlement on amount of Its being
• convict station. The great objection to it was the tigers.
(Laughter.) Singapore was separated from the main land
by • river, and the tigers found no diMoalty 1a swimming
across from the opposite jingle mad carrying oft some one or
other. Scarcely a day pared without erne such an occur-
ran taking place, as the tigers of the neighbouring jangle
were the most ferocious in the world, aid the consequence
was that many plantation. had bees abandoned, from the
piece berg infested by such salmis. (Hear.)
Mr. MANGLES said it was only right the hour should
be lallermad that the military charges of the settlement were
pat out of the Who tetanus, while the name fond had to
her the met of the gsalesets built and being built for the
=liceselleg abe Straits from piracy. The serious
to ossolissiat did not arise out of the mum
silted II the peals% hut frau the large Chine e population
selleslid IS the Mink and unless strong ummares IMO
takes %vitae selismst efaicret seal/ties, It would be placed
I. antremejeoperiy. Eneept fur the purposes of • convict
Maths the settleumets of Simplot% Ealotesi lad Penang
van of me vales to the art India Company ; hut at the
mune Iran =kW prilmarif sat the rinursoomsto=ol
as. la Ms wake all Os *pinion of t
Mil ism %km spas IL If h• saw no °ldeation to the sante-
meat frig horded wet to the crown, the East India go-
IR= it Wad ter reaps would make no objection to
the
isbjelt this eippl.
TRU STADE DUES.

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