Raffles and the Reprieve of Malacca, by William Cross

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NO other place had any traditions of past glory. Malays, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and now the British had all built civilisations there. But this had seemed nothing in the eyes of the traders in the northern Settlement. All they saw in Malacca was a contemptible trade rival.

You cannot force trade, said Raffles. Trade must be free if it would flourish. Associations, native customs, historic memories, provided you have the natural facilities, all act as magnets for trade. You may drive trade out of a place, but in doing so lose it altogether. The upshot was that the young secretary went clean past his Penang masters, and wrote such a letter to Lord Minto, the chief of the Bengal Government, that the whole policy was reversed, and the discreditable destruction was never carried through.*

Not bad that, for a young fellow’s first effort at statesmanship. The small fry who flourished in Penang did not like him for it.

by William Cross 1919

abridged

From ‘Stamford Raffles, the Man’ by the Revd William Cross, minister of the Presbyterian Church in Singapore 1915-1919, in ‘One Hundred Years of Singapore’, Vol. 1 edited by Makepeace, Brooke and Braddell (1919), abridged.

Raffles did actually send his report to the Penang authorities and to the East India Company in London, but he also sent a copy to Lord Minto through his friend John Leyden, and Minto had the evacuation immediately suspended: his verdict on the razing of Malacca was that it was “a most useless piece of gratuitous mischief”. Raffles dated his report October 31st, 1808; the East India Company replied with their official reprieve on November 1st, 1809. For generous extracts, see ‘The Life of Sir Stamford Raffles’ (1897) by Demetrius Charles Boulger (1853-1928).

Précis

After discovering that the Company planned to shut down Malacca, Raffles wrote an outspoken report and sent it, over the heads of his superiors, to Calcutta. His picture of the potential of Malacca, and especially its rich native and colonial history, prompted a change of policy for which his colleagues in Penang were not grateful.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

In what way did Raffles think closing Malacca down would harm Penang?

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Raffles knew a lot about the history of Malacca. He wrote a report to Lord Minto in Bengal. Raffles’s knowledge impressed him.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Sevens

Jigsaws

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