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prerogative on his part ; , never referring to him for the sanction of administrative measures , raising forces and employing them according to his own uncontrolled discretion . The Sultan is more under obligation to him than he to the Sultan . " When the British Commissioners inquired into the precise nature of the Eajah ' tenure , they did not , and could not . condemn .. his occasional resort to
• arms in support of his authority ; they merely held that t he British Government had no relations with him and Sarawak . Supposing , however , that the Commissioners had been disposed to censure Sir James Bbooke for defending bis government against invasion and insurrection—which would have been tantamount to a manifesto in favour of piracy and assassiuation — what would have followed ?
The Rajah having disencumbered himself of all official responsibility , would have very properly denied the right of the British Government to intercept him in his Sarawak career , or to de p rive him of the privilege enjoyed by the merest traveller — that of carrying arms , and using them in defence of lives and
his life and property , and the property of those under his jurisdiction . Regarded simply as the owner of a foreign estate , held by legal gr-ant from an independent sovereign , he would be at liberty to train a police by land and water , and to preserve the tranquillity of the country by employing force wherever and whenever necessary .
The next point raised against him is one which illustrates the perversity of such individuals as , having no solid ground of attack , resolve to create one . Sir James Brookeascribes the recent outbreak , in part , to the agents of a conspiracy for cutting off the Europeans in the East . He is accused of real ori
substituting a myth for the gin of the outbreak . Such conspiracies , however , have , from time to time , broken out in the Indian Archipelago . There were two in the Philippines a century ago , and there was one in Java . Moreover , the fact is stated , and not denied , that an emissary from Singapore , the member of a secret association , had been
at work in the Kungsi ; several banished criminals had returned by stealth ; there was obvious concert and preparation . Still more conclusive is the fact that this conspiracy , though not believed in , has long been talked of in the East , as many officers and merchants familiar with those regions will attest . It is quite true that Sir James Bbooke did not find four or five thousand
Chinese within the limits of his principality when he originally settled in Borneo , but he certainly found a Chinese population in some of the districts . Among the forces employed under his command in repressing the insurrection against the native prince , Muda . Hassim , were a number of Chinese . Their boats frequently visited tlio river ; many of that people fled to him for protection after an unsuccessful contest with the Dutch
of Sambas , and Pontianak , neighbouring territories ; but quite as many were tempted by the encouragement he held out to industrial operations , and the immunity secured under his rule from freebooting and piracy , the ancient scourges of the island . Instead of evincing any gratitude for those advantages , they have always formed the most
turbulent , vicious , and ungovernable class of the population . Every European who has visited Sarawak testifies to their insolence and depravity . It may , indeed , suit some purpose of Mr . Oiia-Wpurd ' s to talk , as ho talked at a recent meeting of the Geographical Society , about their general good conduct in the Indian Archipelago ; but Mr . Ouawfurd may bo considered as all bufc expunged from the list of Indian Archipelago
authorities He knows little or nothing of Borneo-His experience was principally confined to Java . It is forty years since he published his work , which embraced little more than an account of two or three islands . The Chinese , at that period , were not bo densely disseminated through the Indian islands as at present . We prefer , therefore , the testimony of Sir James Bbooke , who knows more of the Archipelago than any man living , and of the numerous Englishmen who have corroborated his accounts , to the pretentious generalities of Mr . John Cbaweitbd .
The outbreak at Sarawak was an insurrection of from four to five thousand Chinesenot a couple of hundreds—who were leagued in one conspiracy , but who did not attain their object , and subvert the government of Sir James Bbooke in a single night . The government was not subverted at all . The houses of the European residents were burnt , and their property destroyed ; several persons were murdered , and others wounded ; but the Government remained so firm that ,
within a few hours , it rallied the native population , and cut the insurgents to pieces . ISTor is it correct to identify the British Rajah's system of rule with that of the Dutch and Spaniards . The Chinese fled into his territories to escape Dutch severities and restrictions . He has followed the humane and cautious maxims of Sir Stamford Rafjfles , to whom in all things he is equal , and whom in original genius and in daring he immeasurably surpasses . That his authority is unpopular l
among the Chinese means , simpy , that while he constrains the Malays and Dyaks to live under a common law , he will not suffer these cunning immigrants to enjoy a total exemption from taxes , from social responsibility , and from punishment for crime . He determined to govern them , of course , as he governed the Dyaks and Malays , who contribute their share to the expenses of the administration—in which his own private fortune was sunk , long ago—who are not
permitted to smuggle ; but who do not therefore congregate by night to avenge themselves by assassinating their Rajah , his colleagues , and a number of helpless women and children . The Rajah simply levies a light tax on the produce of the gold mines , checks the immigration of lawless adventurers by a poll-tax considerably more lenient than that of the Dutch , and prohibits opium
smuggling , which , if permitted , would speedily demoralize the community . " Were he a cruel ruler , the Malay iind Dyak tribes would not celebrate his praises in their river and forest songs ; were he a weak ruler , he would not have suppressed the Chinese revolt in . two or three days , instead of struggling with it for years , as the Dutch did in Pontianak and Sambas . Again , it is a mistake to suppose that the whole of the Chinese in Sarawak are
miners ; a largo proportion of them are engaged in trade ; they do not inhabit one cluster of villages several miles from the capital of the principality : one of their chief quarters is close to the capital itself . Although Sir James Brooke has no official relations with the British Government , he has a right , if again attacked , to the cooperation of our ships of war in the Eastern his
seas ; ho is an Englishman ; o devoting his life to the service of true civilization ; ho has sacrificed every worldly prospect to the one noble and generous purpose of his heart . The public will expect , moreover , that , when terms of peace are negotiated with the Government of China , he shall bo indemnified for his losses at the hands of Chinese subjects , whoso violence ) was no loss unprovoked than brutal . Wo anticipated a sort of half-stifled outcxy against tho British Rajah , knowing that some
of his old detractors were still in pursuit of their congenial calling : but it is too partial and hollow to affect the general bias of public opinion , which is cordially and unequivocally in favour of Sir James Bbooke , whose Sarawak government has been a model of vi gorous , wise , and humane administration .
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OUR STEAM TROOP-SHIPS . Last week we expressed our belief that there was only one decent steam troop-ship in the service , to wit , the Himalaya . It is just possible that we may have generalized a little too sweepingly , and may have overlooked a creditable tub or two . But we wrote with a whole host of deplorable failures in our mind ' s eye . And at this moment , such is our ignorance , we don't know the names of the steam troop-ships which can be pronounced eitherswift or sure , much less swift and sure . On the other hand , we have abundance of slow and not sure , of the Transit order .
Our nautical contemporary , the ' Examiner , whose opinions on sea subjects are generally edifying , sets up what we must call a weak defence for the Transit . With an infinite contempt for landsmen , it ridicules the letter from Corunna as the wail of a soldier , probably not the be 3 t judge of a ship ' s behaviour at sea . Even supposing a landsman to have written the letter
( which remains to be proved ) , we think even a landsman may be a very fair judge of a dry hammock , if not of heavy rolling . The best apology our most unlubberly contemporary can make for the Transit is to suggest that , ' probably , ' she met with very heavy weather in the Bay . To which we reply : possibly not , since it is a mere superstition to imagine it is always heavy weather in the Bay ; and in any case there were , ' probably , ' many smaller craft
making much better weather of it across the Bay than the Transit . Our contemporary takes the wet hammock very comfortably , and pleasantly assures us that it is quite a common case for topsides to require caulking , and that rigging will be slack before it is stretched—two propositions we arc not inclined to dispute . But , having a care to the comfort of our fellow-countrymen on board troop-ships , we ignorantly but obstithat troo
nately persist in believing p-snips may get their topsides tight and their rigging stretched before they proceed to their destination . A trial trip at sea is all that is required . There is something ludicrous in a monstrous huge steam-ship , bound with troops to the war in China , putting into Corunna to caulk her topsides , and to take what our contemporary jauntily calls ' a pull upon her rigging . ' " We do not approve ot our friends in the service being subjected to
experiments in corpore vili . When a troopship sails for her destination , she ought to bo in thorough sea-going trim . Is this mere landsman ' s ignorance ? Be it so , we stick to it . Wo woro well aware that the Transit was not built by Government ; and wo took the precaution to say that' great commercial companies are not in the habit of employing unscaworthy ships . ' Whether the Transit be one ot tho finest modola afloat , we know not , although , from the testimony of tho eyewe should
, doubt it . It may be that the whole lot o our steam troop-ships are over-sparred and ovor-lumborcd , and tinkered into a stato ot dangerous inefficiency . Perhaps they arc tho victims of an epidemic . This week wo have a letter from the Urgout , describing her recent voyagd to Jinrbadoes . Judfi us " has boon said ' of walking , that it is a penes of falls adroitly intercepted , so wo may » jO of tho Urgent , that her way of walking tlio waters ia a scries of sinkings adroitly pi ' "
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jlajl THE LEA BE R . |_ No » 372 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 9, 1857, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2192/page/12/
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