The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-11 00:00:00

eq)nting

LONDON, FRIDLY, JULY 11, 1851.

In the House of Lords,
Lord BROUGHAM withdrew his two Bills relating to
the County Courts.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH, in moving for certain
returns, attacked the provisions of the Merchant Sea-
men's Fund Bill. The measure was defended by Earl
GRANVILLE, and the returns were ordered.
The Bilis on the table were forwarded a stage, and
their Lordships adjourned.
In the House of Commons,
At the morning sitting, the Merchant Seamen's Fund
Bill was considered in Committee,
as were several
clauses of the Lands Clauses Consolidation (Ireland) Bill.
At the evening sitting, the Inhabded House Duty
Bill, and the Chief Justices Salaries Bill, were respec-
tively read a third time and passed.
Mr. Hum; moved an address, praying " That her
Majesty would appoint a commission to inquire into the
proceedings of Sir James Brooke on the north-western
coast of Borneo, since his appointment
the Sultan and
as her Majesty's
Commissioner and Consul-General to
Independent Chiefs of Borneo;' and, especially, into the
attack made by her Majesty's and the East India Com-
pany's naval forces under his advice and direction, on
•n wild tribes of that island, called the Sakarran
at cnr:''dSierehas Dyaks, on the night of the 31st July, 1849.
'And further, that her Majesty would command that
the opinion of the Judges be taken and laid before
the House, touching the legality or otherwise of the
holding by Sir James Brocke, at one and the same time,
of several apparently incompatible offices."
Mr. URQUHART seconded the motion.
Mr. UEADLAM opposed the motion, and contended
tiiat the destruction of these piratical Dyaks was re-
quired by the interests of justice and humanity.
Mr. URQUHART denied that the Dyaks were pirates.
Mr. M. 'IILNES passed a high eulogium on Sir JAMES
BROOKE, to whom the civilized world was under great
obligations for having destroyed this horde of pirates.
Mr. HENRY DRUMMOND defended Sir JAMES BROOKE
—the attack upon him had been instigated by private
parties from personal motives. •
Mr. MACGREGOR defended the parties to whom Mr. H.
DRUMMOND had alluded.
Mr. BAILLIE COCHRANE quoted the authority of Sir
THOMAS COCHRANE as evidence of the existence of
piracy. among the Dyaks of Borneo.
Mr. GLADSTONE was convinced that Sir JAMES
BROOKE, when environed by most difficult circum-
stances, had behaved as became a wise and a humane
man. Personal motives were at the bottom of the hostile
agitation of this question. Formal inquiry at Singapore
had justified Sir J. BROOKE, and although he thought
the pirates ought not to be slaughtered except caught
in the act of piracy, yet the responsibility of these pro-
ceedings rested not with Sir J. BROoKE, but with the
Commander of the forces of her MAJESTY and of the
East India Company, and with the Government.
Lord PALMERSTuN said, in reply to Mr. GLADSTONE,
that his assertion as to our rignt to (1011 with pirates
applied only to the mode of dealing with them after
they had been made prisoners. These Dyaks had b: en
destroyed in the attempt to capture them, and had been
treated in perrect accordance with the laws of war.
There could be no doubt of these persons having been
pirates; the Bornean seas had been rendered unsafe for
merchants, and great, losses had been sustained by them.
The Dyak nation lived by piracy, and bad, indeed, no
other visible means of subsistence. Arguing, therefore,
first, that the parties had been piratea and secondly,
that their destruction had been conriucted according to
the laws recognised by Rations in such cases, he con-
tended there was no charge made out, and he appealed
to the House to give au honourable acquittal to the
eminent man who had been so unfairly assailed.
Mr. COBDEN asserted that there was no proof that the
Dyaks were pirates, which assertion was met by
Sir F. THESIGER, who declared there could be no
doubt as to the piratical nature of the proceedings of the
parties who bad been killed in resisting their lawful
capture.

Colonel THOMPSON disbelieved that any piracy ex-
isted in the seas in question.; in reply to whom,
Mr. FORSTER real from Lloyd's List accounts of be•
ween thirty and forty British vessels which had since
'1839 been attacked by pirates in theca very seas.
Mr. 'Tulin replied, and the House divided, when there
appeared—

--
For Mr. liume.'s motion ...
Against it
Majority against it .. -211
The remaining business was then disposed of, and tho
House adjourned.

... 19
... 230

Yesterday we demonstrated by a few simple hut
unanswerable facts the glaring injustice of the accu-
sations directed against the Raja of Sauxwax. Sub-
sequently, the discussion on those charges, provoked
by the motion of the Honourable Gentleman the
Member for Montrose, came on in the House of
Commons, and was conducted, as the reports suffi-
ciently indicate, with a tolerable degree of animation.
A glance at the division, by which the debate upon
Sir JAMES BROOKE and his policy towards the na-
tions of the Oriental Archipelago was brought
to a conclusion, will evidence clearly enough,
ws imagine, the frivolity of the attack
made by a petty section of enthusiasts upon
the character of one of the most disinterested and dis-
tinguished among the representatives of our beloved
SOVEREIGN. A miserable minority of 19 was counted
out into one lobby, while no lees than 230 declared
themselves resolutely in favour of the Governor of
Labuau, Consul-General of Borneo, and Raja of
Sarawak. After this triumehant declaration
of the sentiments ' with which the British
Legislature regards the proceedings of Sir JAMES
BROOKE towards the pirates of the Oriental Archi-
pelago, we presume that no further calumnies will
be permitted to be directed against a servant of the
Crown se eminent for his efforts for the advancement
of civilization. Henceforth, in spite of the sinister
aspersions of a few infatuated and disappointed mal-
contents, the remarkable perscraege here exonerated
from all blame in regard to the manner of his ad-
ministration will be remembered in the history of our
Eastern possessions as one of the most meritorious
labourers in the improvement of the Asiatic popu-
lation. While Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES will be cele-
brated by the annalist of those islands as the origi-
nator of their commercial prosperity, Sir JAMES
BROOKE will be admired as the originator of their
political advancement. Such will be the award of
posterity to those illustrious benefactors of their spe-
cies when the traducers of the latter are nearly all of
them obliterated from public recollection.
It cannot be forgotten that when comment-
ing, in our last impression, on the probable
re,ults of the vituperation directed against
Sir JAMES BROOKE, we remarked, with a
certain degree of emphasis, that so far from
militating against his popularity they would prove in
the end eminently calculated to enhance the lustre
and magnitude of his reputation. As a fact almost
immediately corroborative of that assurance, we may
direct attention to the splendid panegyric pronounced
last evening upon his Excellency by a statesman no
less illustrious than her INleaesee's Principal Secre-
tary for the Foreign Department. That, of itself, we
are satisfied, must be looked upon by Sir 'hams
BROOKE as an ample compensation for the annoyances
he must of course have endured from the malig-
nity with which his name has been assailed, and for
the pertina city with which his government has been
misrepresented. More particulary must this have
been the case when it is remembered that the dis-
cussion, in which Lord PALMERSTON thus brilliantly
and admirably participated, was completed soon
afterwards by the rejection of the motion by a ma-
jority of 211. The remembrance of yesterday's debate
in 'the Rouse of Commons will tend more-
over to sustain the Raja of SARAWAK hence-
forth is the midst of all the difficulties
of his position, his past conduct having thereby
received the emphatic commendation of the House of
Commons and the eulogiums of the greatest states-
man in her MAJESTY'S Government. As a most ear-
nest expression of those feelings of profound indigna-
tion with which the long-continued attacks upon Sir
JAMES BROOKE are regarded by the nation at large,
we refer with especial satisfaction to the peroration of
the speech delivered last evening by Lord PALMERB_
TON. After refuting with extraordinary terseness
and facility the charges directed against his
Excellency, the noble orator exclaimed with
some warmth,
" I say, then, there is nothing to in.
quire into, unless it be an inquiry which I do not
wish to pursue, as to who could have been the source
from whence came that unremitting, persevering,
and malignant—tliere the Noble Lord was inter-
had subsided]--I do not referl to anything in this
rupted by load cheers, cantina'
g as soon as they
House, hut I bay that malignant and
persecution of an honourable man, Sir,
con-
vinced that this House will, by
an overwhelming
am erilig
niajoritY, not only negative the motion of my
Honourable Friend, but by so d
omg proclaim to
l:ersl v