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

2V.‘t'24* Ant
LONDON, FRIDAY, 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 Bills 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 Inhabited House Duty
Bill, and the Chief Justices Salaries Bill, were respec-
tivelyzelladumaEthmirodvetid an meandpassed'
address,
praying
Majesty would appoint a commission to inquire into the
proceedings of Sir James Brooke on the north-western
her
Mr.
coast of Borneo, since his aointment as her Majesty's
Commissioner and Consul-General to the Sultan and
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
certain wild tribes of that island, called the Sakarran
and Serebas 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 Brooke, at one and the same time,
of several apparently incompitiblo offices."
Mr. lingurtsler seconded the motion.
Mr. HEADLAM opposed the motion, and contended
that the destruction of these piratical Dyalcs was re-
quired by the interests of justice and humanity.
Mr. URQUHART denied that the flyaks were pirates.
Mr. M. Muases 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
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
agttation of this question. Formal inquiry at Singapore
had justified Sir J. BROOKE, and although he thought
the pirates ought not to be slanghtered except caught
in the act of piracy, yet the respoosieility 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 PALMERSTJN said, in reply to Mr. GLADSTONE,
that his a-sertion as to our right to deal with pirates
applied only to the mode of dealing with them after
they had been made prisoners. These Dyaks had been
destroyed in the attempt to capture them, and had been
treated in perfect 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 had, indeed, no
other visible means of subsistence. Arguing, therefore,
first, that the parties had been pirates, and secondly,
that their destruction had been conducted according to
the laws recognised by nations in such cases, he c-11-
tended there was no charge made out, and he appealed
to the House to give an 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 tha proceedings of the
parties who had 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 read from Lloyd's List accounts of be•
tween thirty and forty British vessels which had since
1839 been attacked by pirates in these very seas.
Mr. HUME replied, and the House divided, when there
appeared—
For Mr. Hume's motion ... 19
Against it ... 230
Majority against it ... —2ll
The remaining business was then disposed of, and the
House adjourned.

Yesterday we demonstrated by a few simple hut
unanswerable facts the glaring injustice of the accu-
sations directed against the Raja of SLRAWAX. 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,
we 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
SOVERKIIIN. A miserable minority of 19 was counted
out into one lobby, while no less than 230 declared
themselves resolutely in favour of the Governor of
Labuan, Consul- General of Borneo, and Raja of
Sarawak. After this triumphant declaration
of the sentiments with which the British
Legisheture regards the proceedings of Sir JAMES
BaooLa 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 so eminent for his efforts for the advancement
of civilization. Henceforth, in spite of the sinister
aspersi:ms of a few infatuated and disappointed mal-
conteats, the remarkable personage 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
laboure',rs 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 o f their commercial prosperity, Sir JAMES
Batooxii I 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 whim the traducers of the latter are nearly all of
them obliterated from public recollection.
IGt es nnot be forgotten that when comment-
ing, in our last impression, on the probable
results of the vituperation directed against
Sir J4eates BROOKE, we remarked, with a
certain degree of emphasis, that so far from
militatieg against his popularity they would prove in
the end eminently calculated to enhance the lustre
and mad; nitude of his reputation. As a fact almost
immediactely corroborative of that assurance, we may
direct attention to the splendid panegyric pronounced
last eve t iing upon his Excellency by a statesman no
less illustrious than her MA/ESTICS Principal Secre-
tary for the Foreign Department. That, of itself, we
are satisfied, must be looked upon .by Sir JAMEs
Baooxß' as an ample compensation for the annoyances
he must have course have endured from the malig-
nity wit I i which his name has been assailed, and for
the pertinacity with which his government has been
misrepreeiented. More particulary must this have
been the case when it is remembered that the dis-
cussion, ii n which Lord PALMERSTON thus brilliantly
and adr.: drably participated, was completed soon
afterwar.!ts by the rejection of the motion by a ma-
jority
of I:11. The remembrance of yesterday's debate
in the House of Commons will tend more-
over to sustain the Raja of SARAWAK hence-
forth i n
the midst of all the difficulties
of his position, his
past
received t be emphatic commendation
t ofhavingthe
Ht
ohne ra
oe boyf
Commons and the eulbgiums of the greatest states-
man in be r MAJESTY'S Government. As a most ear-
nest exprc asion of those feelings of profound indigna-
tionwhich the long-continued attacks upon Sir
BOOZE are regarded by the nation at large,
jAmEwsit.ah
we refer vith especial satisfaction to the peroration of
the speech delivered last evening by Lord PALYERS-
Ton, Afi er refuting with extraordinary terseness
and facility the charges directed against his
Excellene y, the noble orator exclaimed with
some war t nth, ;' I say,
quire intc%, unless it be an
then, there nothing to in.
inquiry which I do not
wish to p Time, as to who could have been the source
from whence came that unremitting, persevering,
and maliK cant—[Here
the Noble Lord was inter-
rupted by, loud cheer." centinuing as soon as they
had subsiti do not refer to anything in this
House, lat it I ray that malignant
persecution:l of an honourable man. Sir,
an overwhelming
am con-
vinced thit this House will, by
majority, not only negative the •of
motion y
lionourabie Friend, ;but by BO d •
Olng proclain to