It is very extraordinary! It puts strange thoughts into one's head about the mountain-load of government under which people exist in Europe, and suggests the idea that we may be over-governed.
Think of the hundred Acts of Parliament annually enacted to prevent us, the people of England, from cutting each other's throats, or from doing to our neighbour as we would not be done by.

Think of the thousands of lawyers and barristers whose whole lives are spent in telling us what the hundred Acts of Parliament mean, and one would be led to infer that if Dobbo has too little law England has too much.
Here we may behold in its simplest form the genius of Commerce at the work of Civilization.

Trade is the magic that keeps all at peace, and unites these discordant elements into a well-behaved community.

All are traders, and know that peace and order are essential to successful trade, and thus a public opinion is created which puts down all lawlessness.

Often in former year, when strolling along the Campong Glam in Singapore, I have thought how wild and ferocious the Bugis sailors looked, and how little should like to trust myself among them.