The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-14 00:00:00

Slit JAMES BROOKE.

Two years ago Miss Msrtitieau completed a " History
of Ergl Asd during the Thiity Years' Peace." In that
most original production our Eastern policy receives, as
might be conjectured, no very complimentary review.
Our Indian doings are equivocal; our Chinese wars de-
testable. One little spot of light redeems alone the
darkness of the page, and this salutary brightness glim-
mers from the coast of Borneo. Unlike conquerors or
traders, with no view but the improvement ot his kind,
and little aid but from his own resources, an English
gentleman, Brooke by name, bad proceeded to Sarawak,
and was there successfully engaged in extirpating
piracy, reclaiming savages from barbarism, and in-
troducing the ideas of civilised life among the roving
tribes of the Archipelago. What Miss Martineau be-
haved it is natural to suppose the rest of the world
would believe too; and they did so. Mr. Brooke won
the good opinions ot his countrymen and the patronage
of Government. He was made Knight, Governor, and
Consul; was held up to universal admiration, and ho-
noured with general esteem; when suddenly a cloud
appeared on the boric in, whispers got abroad, dark
looks were exchanged, charges gradually took a definite
shape, and on Thursday t vening this popular hero was
virtually arraigned betore the Commons of England
as a ruthless exterminator of his race for the sake of
gain. The House, to be sure, decided by a majority of
230 against 19 that the accusation was malignant and
false, and in so tar, therefore, us fair trial is concerned,
the case has been conclusively removed from the region
of discussion But there undoubtedly exists an " opinion
out of doors," though not t xactly ot the kind presumed
by Mr. Cobden, and to this opinion the question may be
once more brig fly carried, both out 01 respect to the
tribunal, and in consideration of the singular character
of the story.
The charges against Sir James Brooke, after being
several times shifted and disguist d according to conve-
nience, were at length substantially reduced by Mr.
Hume to the allegation that Sir James bad, on the night
ot the 31st of July, 1849, attacked and destroyed cer-
tain boats carrying Dynk crews on the assumption that
they were piretee, such assumption being unwarranted
by facts. The question, therefore, turned on the pi-
ratical or nou-piratical charac:er of the vessels attacked,
and a very strange question it was. In point of fact,
if we set aside presumptioe, and discard for the occa-
sion the information drawn from the very parties im-
' peached, the evidence before us, both on one aide and the
oth. r, is of the scantiest description. Of the island of
Borneo we know about as much as of the great planet

we inhabit. Certain points of its coast and —surface have
been exscuined, but its interior remains a mystery. Only
ibis wick the British Aseociation has been engaged
in will) log an additional fact or two respecting its
north-eastern confieuration, and in speculating on
the chances of discovering within it communities

unknown to our geographers. An inquiry, tt:ere-
tore, into the cogniz,ble hAbits of certain at its tribes

must proceed upon slender testian my, and to assert a
negative upon the point is obviously almost impossible.
Accordingly, we find that Mr. Elurne'a evidence, even
viewed in the most favourable light, amounts to nothing,
more than the cumulative assertions of fur or five in-
dividuals that they have never personally known any
piratical doings of the communities in question—tho‘e
of Sarebss and Sakarran. One man only could plead a
competent experience of their habits, and that man was
Sir J..mes Brooke himself.
Passing to what is within •our knowledge, we can

put together the following facts:—Beyond all question
the coasts of Borneo swarm with pirates—either na-
tives or rovers. The whole Archipelago has been
infested with them time out of mind ; treaties
have been arranged between powerful states for their
destruction, and the suppression of this inveterate
pursuit was the principal and most overt duty
assumed by Sir J. Brooke in his mission. He

consranrly declared that the one great impediment
to civiliz Aim) in these parts was the practice of piracy.

-
and tbat the extirpation of piracy must be the one grew

object of any European establishment. Nothing of
this is denied; but it is alleged that the people in
nuth
t questione piratesw ere
of previous
not
shtaotr
y. at any
A German rate they
once were
wrote a book to prove that Homer was not Homer,
or that, if he were Homer, he was some other Homer,
and not the Homer generally understood. In like
manner it is argued that Sir James Brooke's
pirates were only pirates, if pirates at all, of some ano-
=loos and inoff, naive description, and undoubtedly
not the genuine pirates of the Archipelago Consigned by
common consent to destruction. As we have already
remarked, the question is somewhat intricate. Touch-
ing the difference or identity, ethnologically speaking,
of Malays and Dyaks, we have Mr. Monckten Milnes
on one side, and Mr. Cobden on the other; but, even if
llyeks be riot Malaye, we have the deposition of a real
Malay (valeat quantum) that the Dyaks were every
bit as piratical us himself. It is not denied, however,
of these "communities of Sarebas and Sskarran,"—the
veritable individuals attacked,—that their habits are, to
say the least, disagreeable and peculiar. Whatever
they may do at sea, they are perpetually at war upon
land. Whatever weapons they may want, they have
enough, at any rate, to cut off the heads withal of any
neighbours they can catch, and these abscinded members
they have an ugly fashion of smoking and curing. More-
over, they must certainly take to their boats sometimes,
fur it was in their boats that they were overtaken; but
we are assured that there is no evidence to connect
their water ex;.editions with any but unexceptionable
objects. That they are pure savages and practical can-
nibals every body allows, but they were not "pirates;"
nothing so respectable,—not up to any such mark, as
Mr. Urquhart very naively put it. Why, then, should
they be aealt with so summarily 1
The areumeta of Sir James Brooke's accusers, either
expressed or implied, avers that he treated these people
as pirates in or b:r to rid aineself of troublesome neigh-
bours. They disturbed • his settlement, thwarted his
Government, and plundered his subj,cts. In a regular
war after Bernean fashion they might have eluded his
pursuit, if not overmastered his forces; so he made them
pirates for the nonce, enlisted on his side the terrible
rt soutees of steam and powder, caught then in their
prahus, pounded them ire° carrion with grapeshot, are
thus settled the affair out of hand. This is the head
and front tel his alleged offending, and, as none kettles
do well as he whether they were pirates or not, so no-
where but in his own conscience can he find a conclusive
acquittal. For out selves, we are left to grope for evi•
canoe in comparative dat knees. The two coati cting
memorials from birgspore residents show that the
question, even there, was made wholly one of part)
reeling. The eeeative testimonies on one side we may
allow for argument'. sake to be set against the positive
testimonies on the ocher, but we do not see how it is to be
dented that the entire force of presumption is in Sir
James's favour. It is somewhat singular that no one
thought of asking for what pacific purpose these people
were assumed to be at sea in a body ? Whether" pirates"
or not, they were confessedly bloody-minded savages;
whether or not they would have boarded a vessel,
they would unquestionably have lust no chance of a
sale massacre; whether or not they would stand against
a musket, they would notoriously have cut any throat
brought within reach of their knives. With a hat views,
therefore, did they put to sea by thousands? and on what
presumption is it argued that those whose whole life on
land is one of war and butchery, according to their small
means, should be metamorphosed into harmless innccents
when they set out on a cruise?
With something more than probability has this whole
agitation been traced to what may be either the con-
scientious outspeekiay have our
ng orther
own opinionsivatemalign on the
alternative otfat.
alternative suggested, but this is not the question with
which the public are concerned. The charge against Sir
James Brooke has been overtly made, and it is upon the
evidence adduced that a judgment is to be tormed.
We cannot doubt that the conclusion of every
unbiassed mind will concur with the decision
of the House. If there is insufficient evidence to de-
monstrate that the expedition attacked had been pira-
ticslly engaged, the absence of such proof is no more than
natural under the circumstances. and the probabilities
are wholly in favour of the assumption. Piracy is no-
toriously the breath of these islanders' lives, nor is any
exemption claimed for these particular " commu-
nities," except on the ground of their incapacity to
systematize their undoubted propensities to kill and
steal. They could not, we are told, carry out murder
to such pelf, ction; they might do a little killing and
curing in a neighbourly way, but they were unequal to
the tactics of Chinamen and Sooloos. Such is toe de-
licete discrimination of butchery on the strength of
which Sir James Brooke's well-earned renown was to be
commuted for perpetual disgrace. The attempt, as we
have said, admits of known explanation, nor need
the support it experienced be any matter of surprise.
We verily believe that if ISishop Heber were
now living, aid a discarded servant accused him of cruel
tying Hieduo children for his daily amusement, the
charge would find backers in England, and perhaps nine-
teen votes in the House of Commons. This peculiarity
ut sentiment has its advantages in the attention it se-
cures
to every possible grievance of the countless
myriads under our rule, but we need go no further than
yes el ci.y's retort to discover the extravagance into
which it may be hurried by concerted agitation and secret
spite.— Times.

2110111131ENTAL FOUNTAIN ON THE
ESPLANADE OF IVIMES.
The city of Nun. s is the place where the genius of
Rome hag lilt the finest moeuments existing throughout
the whole of France. Thus, it is plausible to aarume
hat such recollectiens may, at times, stimulate to simi-
lar art-exertions, and the new fountain lately inaugurated
iiebervpa to be cited beside these graceful works of an-
tiquity. The plan jrint work of the architect M.
Q oxted, and the sculptor M. Fradier, both known as
distingmbed artists. Sall it has taken four years to
bhap,, the five principal figures out of the fine marble of
Carrara. The principal basin is octagonal and made of
gray marble, out of which rises the socle, which sustains
the whole werk. Atoubd this socle are four monolith
basins (vasques), each adorned with three lions' heads,
out of which the water fhws in curved streams into the
inferior (principal) basin. The top'of the monument is
formed by a colossal statue representing the city of
Nimes. Under this figure, at the four angles of the
monument, are four statues of equal proportions, repro-
tenting the Gard, the Rhone, and the fountains of the
Eure, and Nitres. The whole presents an exceedingly
graceful and well-turned assembly of figures and orna-
mental sculpture, doubly serene under the sky of
southern France. The principal basin has a diameter
of 14 metres 35 centimetres. The height of the pe-
d.eos7tasl
metresis fi. 0
high, 7 Bhimetres; the statue representing Nimes is
3
logrmnmes.The, and its woefigthhteam.huuolne nt i
amounts to
10.052 metres. The basins are of granite of a yellowish
rose colour, from the quarries of Cruseal, iu the Aroiche;
end the water alio:meting this vast fountain bas been
conducted hither by canals extending to the loot of
Mont d'Haetsta, near the place where rises the spring
which,____ the Romans have used for their baths. whose
•
rilm an seen tlearly ihtsut up to this day.—Builder.