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    44j4j T he LEADER. [No, 372, Saturday ^

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    OUR STEAM TROOP-SHIPS. Last week we expr...

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    Sir James Brooke And His Critics. Former...

    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 Bajah ' s tenure , they did not , and could not , condemn his occasional resort to

    arms * in support of his authority ; they merely held that the British G overnment bad no relations with him and Sarawak . Supposing , however , that the Commissioners had been disposed to censure Sir James Bbooke for defending his government against invasion and insurrection—which would have been tantamount to a manifesto m favour of piracy and assassination — 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 deprive him of the privilege enjoyed by the merest traveller — that of carryino- 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 grant 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 Bbooke ascribes the recent outbreak , in part , to the agents of a conspiracy for cutting off the Europeans in the East . He is accused of substituting a myth for the real origin 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 thoso regions will attest . It ia quite true that Sir James Beookjb 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 tho native prince , Muda Hassim , were a number of Chinese . Their boats frequently visited tho river ; many of that people fled to him for protection after an unsuccessful contest with tho Dutch

    of Sambas , and Pontianak , neighbouring territories ; but quite as many were tempted by the encouragement he hold out to industrial operations , and the immunity secured under his rule from freebooting and piracy , the ancient scourges of tho island . Instead of evincing any gratitude for those advantages , they have always formed tho most

    turbulent , vicious , and ungovernable class of the population . Every European who lias visited Sarawak testifies to tneir insolence and depravity . It may , indeed , suit some purpose of Mr . Ohawfuiid ' 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 . Okawircnn > may bo considered as all but expunged from tho list of Indian Archipelago

    authorities . He knows little or nothing of Borneo-His ex perience 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 so densely disseminated through the Indian islands as at present . We prefer , therefore , the testimony of Sir James Bkooke , 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 Cbawjfuiid .

    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 Brooke 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 G-overnment remained so firm that ,

    within a few hours , it rallied the native population , and cut the insurgents to pieces . Nor 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 Ra : ff : les , to whom in all things he is equal , and whom in original genius and in daring he immeasurably surpasses . That his authority is unpopular

    among the Chinese means , simply , 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 and Dyak tribes would not celebrate his praises in their river and forest songs ; were ho a weak ruler , he would not have suppressed the Chinese revolt in two or three days , instead of struggling with it for years , as tho Dutch did in Pontianak and Sambas . Again , it is a mistake to suppose that the whole of the Chinese in Sarawak are

    minors ; a large proportion of them are engaged in , trade ; they do not inhabit one cluster of villages several miles from tho capital of the principality : one of their chief quarters is close to tho capital itself . Although Sir Jam iss Brooke has no official relations with the British Government , he has a right , if again attacked , to tho cooperation of our ships . of war in the Eastern seas ; ho is an Englishman ; ho is devoting his life to tho service of true civilization ; he has sacrificed every worldly prospect to tho

    ono noble and gonoroua purpose of his heart . The public will expect , moreover , that , when terms of pence are negotiated with tho Government of China , ho shall bo indemnified for his loaaoa at tho hands of Chincao subjects , whoso violonco was no less unprovoked than brutal . ' Wo anticipated a sort of lmlf-atiflod outcry against tho British Rajah , knowing that aomo

    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 .

    44j4j T He Leader. [No, 372, Saturday ^

    44 j 4 j T he LEADER . [ No , 372 , Saturday ^

    Our Steam Troop-Ships. Last Week We Expr...

    OUR STEAM TROOP-SHIPS . Last week we expressed our belief that there was only one decent steam troop-sliip 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 either swift or sure , much less swift and sure . On the other hand , we hare 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 best 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 ia to suggest that , ' probably , ' slie met with very heavy weather iu th ~ e 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 are 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-ships may get their topsides tight and their riggin * stretched before they proceed to their destination . A trial trip at sea ia all that is required . There is something ludicrous m 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 . ' Wo do not approve ol our friends in the service being subjected to

    experiments in corpora vili . When a troopship sails for her destination , she ought to bo in thorough sea-going trim . Is this more landsman ' s ignorance ? Bo it so , we stick Wo woro well awaro that tho Transit wns not built by Government ; and wo took the precaution to say that' great commercial companies are not in tho habit of employing unsenworthy ships . ' Whether the Transit be one ot the finest models afloat , we know not , althoug > , from tho testimony of tho eye wo shoiua doubt it . It may bo that the whole lot o our steam troop-ships are over-sparred ana ovor-lumbored , and tinkered into a stuto m dangerous inefficiency . Perhaps they arc tho victims of an epidemic . This week o have a letter from tho Urgent , describing her recent voyage to Bnrbadoea , . 1 ust ns » haa boon aajd of walking , that it is a seritfl of falls adroitly iutoreopted , so yvo mn ) » J of tho Urgent , that her way of walking tn « - waters is a series of sinkings adroitly F "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 9, 1857, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09051857/page/12/