The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—Scarcely six months have elapsed since the
Imperial Parliament was occupied with a grave discus-
sion as to the existence or non-existence of piracy on the
coast of Borneo. It will not be forgotten how resolutely
the fact was denied by the small but determined party
of " peacenaekors" and
~ecconomists. Sir 'hence Brooke
was denounced as an unscrupulous despot, who, for the
purposes of private Inuit, had employed the
terrible arms of scientific warfare
and defenceless natives, and thweaadsreestarguacitniosnt ourafffliTedtiljof prahus surprised in open sea stigmatised,he as a fero-
cious and sanguinary massacre. question, of
course, hinged on the ascertainable
d character', of the
maintainingßri
savages who had been thus chastised,
an
the innocence of these reputed victims. Alnr
his friends relied, with considerable plausibility,ght and
and on the
evidence
e
evidence of Mr. Robert Burns, a
namesake
de-
scendant of the celebrated poet, and a trader in these
parts. Mr. Burns was nut on good terms with Sir James
Brooke; unpleasant communications had passed between
them, and as the particular question of piracy was one on
which their views especially differed, it was highly na-
tural that strong testimony should be forthcoming in
favour of Mr. Bright's assumptions. Parliament, how-
ever, decided the other way, with reason too, for Mr.
Burns has unhappily furnished in person a fatal refuta-
tion of his own evidence. By the latest intelligence
from these quarters we learn that this unfortunate
gentleman has been barbarously murdered by pirates in
his own ship, and on the very waters which he strenu-
ously persisted in believing free from piracy. The Dolphin,
a vessel of which Mr. Burns was supercargo, had been
trading in Maludu Bay, a gulf situated at the north-
eastern angle of Borneo, some leagues above Labuan, the
seat of Raja Brooke's government. As she was pre-
paring to leave she was hailed by two prahus offering
goods for sale, and she accordingly dropped her anchor
again till the next morning. Pursuant to their intima-
tion, the natives came on deck and produced their com-
modities, wFch Mr. Burns proceeded to examine. While
he was thus engaged the chief of the prahus suddenly
drew a concealed kreeso and struck his head from his
body. The captain, who was pacing the quarter-deck,
received at the same time a blow in the cheek, which
wounded but did not disable him. He scrambled to
the bowsprit and begged hard for life, but the
crew of the prahu under the vessel's bows drove
their spears through his back, and ho fell
dead into the water. The pirates—for so, with-
out offence, we may surely now term them—after
butchering four more of the ship's crew, including a
woman, carried off their prize and anchored off Beng-
gaya in Labook Bay, not far distant. As it happened,
however, they were disappointed in the selection of their
anchorage ; for the sheriff or chief of Benggaya, Yassin
by name, on recognising Mr. Burns' schooner, took pos-
session of her and carried her up the river. Shortly
afterwards the Hon. Company's steamer Pluto, on a
cruise after pirates, called in at Maludu Bay. and, on
hearing the intelligence, departed at once for Bewrgaya,
where she received the Dolphin from the hands of Sheriff
Yassin, with her decks still dyed with blood. That Mr.
Burns' incredulity was sincere there can be no question,
for though he had been repeatedly warned of the danger
he persisted in his voyage, without even the precaution
of getting up the ship's arms from the hold, where they
were stowed; but this temerity is the more remarkable
from the vividness of the apprehensions displayed by one
whose means of information were at least equal to those
of an English trader. Sheriff Yassin earnestly be-
sought the commander of the Pluto to furnish
him with protection against the return of the
pirates, who, as they had plainly threatened,
would, he said, most certainly reappear with a
powerful force and avenge themselves for the loss of
their prize. Neither was there any doubt about the race
or country of these sanguinary marauders. They were
Borneans, from a district well known and within easy
reach, and the Pluto, in fact, was actually in quest of
some such prey when she received the intelligence which
dispatched her to Benggaya. Wo trust this melancholy
catastrophe may at least proJuce the good effect of
making certain Manchester politicians a little more
cautious iu denying facts which happen to coeflict with
their favourite theories. The whole outcry against Sir
James Brooke was suggested, we really believe, by no
motive more direct than a general feeling of annoyance
at the practical employment of instruments of war. It
had been ruled as sinful, and what was worse, as expen-
sive, to kill one's kind, and the information that men
existed of such a character as irresistibly to provoke the
use of sword and cannon was highly disagreeable to
the advocates of human perfectibility. We see no
other way of accounting for the obstinacy of their
anger. All the probabilities were incontestably
against them. The coasts, not only of Borneo,
but of other islands in this Archipelago, had been
the reputed haunts of pirates from time immemorial.
We had entered into formal engagements for their sup-
pression with the other European Powers having pos-
session in these seas, and had established a combination
of cruisers not unlike that of French and English on the
coast of Africa. When Mr. Brook first sailed for Borneo
with the good wishes and auspices of all the philanthro-
pists and economist in the kingdom, ho stated over and
over again that the one great obstacle to civilization in
these parts was piracy, and that to extirpate piracy must
be the very bo-all and end-all of his mission. Yet no
sooner is information received of his destroying a pi-
ratical fleet than a terrible outcry is commenced, and all
the resources of ingenuity and special pleading aro ex-
erted to make it appear that the particular savages in
the particular boats overtaken by the British Governor
were not at all at that particular moment engaged in
such acts of piracy, legally definable, as would justify
summary execution. No one denied that they were bar-
barians whose daily habits were those of bloodshed and
pillage. No one attempted to specify what might be the
nature, if not piratical, of the expedition on which they
were surprised. It was even proved that the fellows
of these very men had been tried and convicted as
pirates in a court of law; but all would not do. Mr.
Bright and Mr. Hume tenaciously argued that there was
no warrant for the execution, and by way of adding
strength to their case they boldly Galled in
question the
main facts of the case against them, alleging not only
that the Sarebbas wore not pirates, but that it remained
to be proved whether piracy on the coast of Borneo had
any existence at all. They can have little doubt about
the matter now. It is a dangerous practice to distort all
manifest probabilities to the purposes of a momentary
agitation, and yet the case of the Bornean pirates is but
one, unfortunately, out of several in which these
" tactics" have been tried. Because it was very natur-
ally desired to reduce the estimates, •it was resolutely
maintained that there was no danger of war, and to show
that there was no danger of war it was argued that the
appeal to arms would never again be sounded in civilized
States. Messrs. Hume and his friends would admit no
evidence, however incontestable, which went to prove
that soldiers might be wanted, just as they would admit
no evidence, in behalf of Sir James Brooke, which went
to show that cannon might be warrantably discharged.
In one case they stand convicted, in the other wo trust
they may be satisfied with something short of actual
experiment, and of this improvement we think we see
some signs.
DAILY NEWS.—It is now understood that the Go-
vernment are going to ask Parliament to authorise an
increase of our military force. This intention was first
discoverable in the tune assumed by the Times, and
afterwards followed up by the ministerial Globe. Wo
are to be frightened well first, and are then to be asked
to put our hands into our pockets to pay for more
soldiers. Wo can only repeat what wo said in reply
to the first article of the Times on the same subject,
which is—that the people of England are entitled to ask
for the proper expenditure of the money already voted
before they aro required to submit to the sum total being
increased. We want Army Reform before we are asked
to pay for Army Extension. To fortify London, as
Louis-Philippe fortified Paris, would be a monstrous
absurdity; and yet we already have Government organs
preaching about the defenceless condition of the metro-
polis, and hinting that armed posts should be established
between it and the coast. Our real defences are beyond

—... ..
the coast. s They are ships in the channel. Ourpre-
sent regular military and naval force is ample, if pro-
perly disposed and thoroughly reformed. And if this
be done, enough will have been accomplished. Unless,
indeed, any real danger should arise, and then
Englishmen will ba ready enough again
as they over have been ready—to risk wealth
and life in the righteous cause of national defence. If
our ships, especially steam ships, of war were brought
from foreign stations—such as the Tagus, where they
are useless—and were kept in ports along the coast, or
cruising in the channel, we should have little need of
more force for our protection than the urgency of any
impending danger would instantly secure. England
must be made safe from invasion, but do not let design-
ing and interested men, under a feats plea, make our
military system simply more cumbrous and more costly
when the pretend only to be making it more efficient.
The exaggerated fears of invasion, and the still more
exaggerated ideas of the precautions necessary for
meeting these anticipated invasions, have ever hitherto
ended by turning the whole question into ridicule.
One class of alarmists have talked of enormous armies,
with whole parks of artillery, making a descent at some
comfortable watering place, and after a pleasant march
through Kent, taking up their summer quarters in Lon-
don. These ideas and fears have arisen doubtless from
the fact that this matter has been more than once can-
vassed by our neighbours on the other side of the chan-
nel, and though it might be thought that Napoleon's
failure would have taught them a lesson not hastily
to be forgotten, yet Bonaparte and Boulogne aro
Pamphlet
over-
looked. It is but the other day that a
on the
subject was published by a Captain de &lion
, of the
Engineers, in which he quietly invades
England
with
s, and
some hundred thousand men and five hundred guns,
of course drives the unfortunate natives into the Irish
Channel. But though such works are very we
tary studies, yet to reduce their contents to n plsl aanstimmilii;
quite another affair. The expense of such a
expedition
would be enormous, and the chances enormously
it; in fact, such an operation is more full of peril to those
against
on the offensive than to those on the
not a great invasion of England that defensive. It is
The only point of doubt is whether the timid may fear.
I as-
sailable. That it maybe vulnerablebeth since
this country is '
of steam seems probable, but only to such attacks as
our existing forces, if properly
to impress on the handled, are amply suffi-
cient to meet. The Duke
of Wellington endeavoured
Government his opinion. "We